Welcome to the all-new Point Park University Friday Insider ... which really won't be new at all.
For those who go way back with this venture, when Insider was born in 2014, it was rapid-fire information, observations and other stuff culled from the extensive time that gets spent around the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and in short order this became our franchise feature. What's below is my attempt to resurrect that approach with a 21-bullet barrage, and our full staff will follow suit next week:
1. Bob Nutting would take zero issue with a salary floor in Major League Baseball.
Communications regarding the ongoing lockout from 115 Federal are at absolute zero. But I can share with confidence that the Pirates' stance on any system that applies a ceiling/floor in any form -- such as the one in the owners' original proposal to the players in August that offered a $180 million tax threshold, a $100 million floor and additional revenue sharing -- would be embraced here.
That said, this concept apparently hasn't seen the light of day since then.
2. Rob Manfred ascended to become MLB commissioner but, when he and Frank Coonelly both worked in Bud Selig's office, it was Coonelly who was seen as the heavyweight of the two. Imagine what that says about Manfred.
3. In a lifetime around baseball press boxes, I can't count on a single finger a reporter who spoke a single ill syllable about Barry Bonds' behavior. And I'm talking casual conversation. Doesn't mean such reporters don't exist, just that I never encountered even one. In fact, those who were around him the most in San Francisco still swear by having enjoyed working with him.
4. The Pirates have six prospects on Baseball America's new top-100 list, and 6-foot-3, 217-pound outfielder Matt Fraizer's nowhere close to that crop, ranking 23rd even within the organization. But ever since a group of veteran players told me many years ago that Jose Bautista would be a power-hitting star -- while he was still in Pittsburgh -- I've learned to listen to players, too. And those on the current team who've competed alongside Fraizer swear he's going to be a stud here someday. After he slashed .306/.388/.552 with 23 home runs in 2021, spanning three levels and finishing with Class AA Altoona, it's hard to argue.
5. A 6-foot-7 shortstop would seem oxymoronic, but one American League scout told me Oneil Cruz passed his own personal test by illustrating repeatedly while with Class AAA Indianapolis that he "can get under" ground balls. Meaning he has an easy, natural-looking approach to getting low despite his extraordinary length. With an untrained eye, I can confirm this from my own sightings in Bradenton.
STEELERS
6. Ben Roethlisberger didn't exactly accept Maurkice Pouncey's retirement with that sad scene they shared a year ago on that sideline bench. Kept asking, asking, asking for months. (But not into the season.)
7. Never in my time covering this team have I heard more internal griping about a gifted player -- not even Antonio Brown -- than I have regarding Devin Bush. And not about his talent. The general belief is that there's a lot more there than what he's shown. And while there's genuine admiration in his recovery from knee surgery, that's seen by no one as an excuse.
8. A Pitt football coach and I were watching drills in the Steelers' most recent training camp together. He was able to identify with precision every single play, even the unusual ones, before the ball was snapped. It'd been five years since Matt Canada coached the Panthers.
9. No one associated with the Steelers has given up on reuniting their formidable defensive line from 2020, especially now that Tyson Alualu's committed to coming back. Stephon Tuitt's the super-sized variable, of course, but no one's given up on him, either. And if the D-line can be reset, that'll further ensure that the offensive line's what gets addressed early in the NFL Draft.
10. For anyone advocating that the Steelers invest a first-rounder into quarterback, it might be helpful to know that they, internally, already see themselves as having two first-rounders: Dwayne Haskins was an actual first-rounder, 15th overall to Washington in 2019, and the Steelers had hung a first-round grade on Mason Rudolph the previous year, even though he lasted until the third. That's why they took Rudolph even though the glaring need was inside linebacker. These two will get a chance.
11. Watching Joe Burrow in the AFC Championship Game this weekend won't be any fun for the Steelers, but neither will it be a surprise. It's been neat, over the past couple years, to pick up on the begrudging respect they have for the Bengals' quarterback while hardly ever offering that for the other two guys in the division, Baker Mayfield or even Lamar Jackson. They're confident they've got ways to beat those two, but they've acknowledged all along that Burrow's a different beast.
12. Adrian Klemm's unhappy with how his exit was handled and, even moreso, how it might've been perceived as bailing on his offensive linemen in mid-season. His preference would've been to finish out the year, then take off for the University of Oregon.
13. Purposely putting this one last in this section, so it's not taken for more than it's worth: One individual had whispered to me last summer that 2021 might've been Mike Tomlin's last season before retiring. But there's been nothing, nothing, nothing in that vein since then, which is why I'm sharing. He'll turn only 50 in March, he's signed through the 2024 season, and every indication strongly suggests he'll honor the full contract.
PENGUINS
14. Sidney Crosby's contract, a seeming afterthought ever since he signed for 12 years at $8.7 million per -- what else for the planet's most superstitious athlete -- but it won't be for too much longer. If/when Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang get extended, as I'm still expecting both will, his status will be the next to rise up. The term's up after the 2024-25 season. That's three-plus seasons away, at which point he'll be 37, same age as Jeff Carter fresh off his extension this week. No one should ever anticipate any friction between this franchise and this franchise icon, so the only reason I'm mentioning this is to additionally share that I was told by one way-higher-up in hockey ops on a recent trip that everything being planned is perceived as being through that window. Those three years. Because of Sid.
15. From that same way-higher-up on that same trip: No one at any level of the organization, top to bottom, ever flinched on Tristan Jarry last summer. Not for a split-second. And that's in part because Jarry's teammates had his back immediately and made that known.
16. Letang will be the toughest signing of all, as has been known for months. He's 34, he's playing maybe the best hockey of his life, and he fairly sees himself as being worth more than his current $7.25 million salary. That complicates matters on multiple fronts for Ron Hextall, not least of which is what'd be an obvious wish for Malkin to come down from his own current $9.5 million salary. But now also add this: Kent Hughes, Letang's longtime agent, just became the Canadiens' GM. In Letang's hometown, maybe the one place he'd feel comfortable moving his family.
17. Todd Reirden's being praised up, down and sideways on the inside for his work with both Letang and Mike Matheson, two career-long mercurial types who've suddenly found ways to stay within the Mike Sullivan system and still put up points. But make no mistake: Reirden's very much got his eye on getting back into the head coaching ranks, and he's a virtual lock to do so, with how that fraternity rolls.
18. There's growing momentum on social media to portray Carter as some sort of folk hero. It's all in good fun, and he's eminently deserving. But it'd only be accurate to the extent it doesn't involve being one of those extra-vocal leader types. He isn't that. Wasn't in L.A., and won't be here. What he is, and what his coaches and teammates love, is a guy who's having legit fun playing a child's game and yet still takes the game itself as seriously as anyone. That rubs off on everyone, young and old. He's a lot more Matt Cullen in that regard than Paul Bunyan.
19. Ran into Jeff Jimerson, the Penguins' forever anthem singer, before the game at PPG Paints Arena last night, asked him how he was doing, and he replied, "Great!" This will qualify as news to some, based on lots of public concern being expressed about his health, but he really is doing great. Zero issues. Lost some weight.
20. For a guy who's the chairman of the Red Sox and Liverpool FC, not to mention having made the short list to become Major League Baseball's commissioner, Tom Werner's about as casual and folksy as any big-league exec I've encountered. Within minutes of meeting him, it felt like nothing would be out of line in our exchange. Not sure what that'll mean toward his or the Fenway Sports Group's stewardship of the Penguins, but Pittsburghers value that sort of thing. It won't hurt.
21. There are few things in this line of work that make me happier than entering the PPG Paints Arena press box before faceoff and finding Eddie Johnston and Craig Patrick seated side by side to watch that game as team advisers ... and forever friends. There are a ton of new ways to dissect this beautiful game, more being created every day, but imagine the clout these gentlemen carry with Hextall and Brian Burke when either speaks so much as a syllable about what they'd just watched. Every franchise should be half that fortunate.
