The Fan Early Morning Show
Are the Pirates ever going to break out this season?
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Talk to me on X at Kallis_33 that's C-A-L-L-A-S underscore 33. I need a little bit of help yesterday. I want to thank you all by the way first. I got to 2000 followers on X never thought I'd see the day and then a couple people must have dropped off or Twitter or X forgot to acknowledge followers correctly. I need a couple more to get there exactly but I'm close to there but I just wanted to thank everybody too. I did on X yesterday but I also wanted to thank you all on the radio for your support. Y'all are very kind to be interested in my thoughts on sports on a daily basis. So thank you very kind. But you could talk to me on there at Kallis_33 hit that follow button too if you wouldn't mind. Just for one day I only ask for followers for one day. I don't like to ask too much but you can follow if you want to hear my thoughts on sports. And if you want another way to talk to me that isn't a phone call that's how you do it at Kallis_33. C-A-L-L-A-S underscore 33. Then the phone number one more time 412928 9370. So I'll be taking calls all morning as usual. I'll be reading your comments. Some of them you know as usual I don't read them all. Some of them are a little nasty but usually when they're productive I'll respond and we'll do the thing. You know how this works. It's early in the morning. Ease in your way into sport stuck in the morning. That's what we're doing. And we've got a couple of stories. Camp Sutton and we'll go we'll get to him. Eight games. Eight games. Sped it. You know for his misconduct off the field. Eight games. So we'll talk about that. I've got some got some thoughts. We'll start with this. The Pirates Pirates won. Pirates beat the Mets and the Pirates split the series which maybe two months ago I would have been happy about. But today I sit here and I say well what is it? What does it mean? You had a team in crosshairs and that's we're in your crosshairs. You had opportunities and all four games to win. But you split. You win two you lose two. And the games that they won were in convincing fashion. The games that they won were there was a large margin of victory for the Pirates. They won on Friday 14 to 2 and they won 8 to 2 yesterday. Despite that though by finishing 500 in the series by finishing two and two. Guess where the Pirates are. Yeah they're still in the same place. There's still four games out. And how about the Mets? Do the Mets suffer at all? No. Mets are still among the leaders in the Wild Card standings that don't already have a spot. Mets are two and a half games out of the third Wild Card spot. And so the refrain that I've been sang and so many here have been sang and so many fans have been sang. They're in the same place. They need to go on a streak. And they're not. And I can't say it enough. They've got to go on a streak. It's time to break through. Now I've heard and I've been reading you know on X and I've been listening to the station. Noah Hiles who writes for the Pittsburgh Post because that doesn't think that additions would matter at this point based on the way that they're built. And there's some other opinions out there that maybe you know adding would still make sense. You can't really trade with anybody in the National League but the Marlins and the Rockies they're both out of it. And the American League is almost as competitive not quite as competitive. Teams aren't as close but there are a lot of teams that are still in it. I mean if you count seven games back as being in it you know you got the Rangers, Tigers, Rays, Astros, Royals, Red Sox, Twins and Yankees. Yeah the Yankees lost the A at least by the way they've lost 15 to the last 20. They're really struggling. Now the Orioles lead the division there. But either way they've got a lot of competitive teams. There are two that I'd say are still in it that still think that they're in it. They can still go on a run and do some good things. The Tigers and the Rangers the bottom two teams are on four game winning streaks. So they're they're still in it. But I mentioned that to say you know who are they gonna trade with that. There's a lot of teams that I think feel like they're close and don't want to give up. They don't want to be sellers. There aren't too many teams that are sellers. Now then you got the Blue Jays Angels, Athletics and White Sox down below. So it's really it's just it seems like a six team sample size right now. Unless the Rangers and Tigers eventually decide to give up. I still a few weeks away from the trade deadline. So they decide to sell off and phone it in for this year. That's that's fine. None of the National League teams that aren't the Marlon's Iraqi seem like they're gonna phone it in. Everybody's still kind of there. And so on one hand I would think in a perfect world in a in a regular season I would say yeah you know trade with some people. The Pirates are still in it. They're still hanging around. The only problem is is that every team is hanging around. This isn't a new problem. We've been identifying this for weeks. But then I get frustrated too because I mean I tell you I'm frustrated because I watch and I see what this team is capable of. I see what happens when O'Neal Cruz hits the ball out of the ballpark. He was two for three in yesterday's game. Droven two runs had a homer. To me you know I mean we've been saying this for a while when O'Neal Cruz is on. You know when he's the big threat he's supposed to be. The Pirates seem to do better. They seem to do well. Andrew McCutchen is still kind of doing his job at the top of the order. He walked in three at bats. So you know that's not terrible same with Brian Reynolds. It was a solid offensive display in yesterday's game. Roddy Tiles even drove in a run. Nick Gonzalez said two hits. Palacios is the man he got a hit in yesterday's game driven to run. So it's a homerun to that's right. And but my point is that when these guys are on like it feels like it feels like they're they're almost good enough if not good enough. I don't get why they couldn't have done this for for at least three games in the series. Now the Pirates had a win that they squandered away because Roldis Chapman is not good at saving games anymore it seems but overall it's still just a frustration from my perspective. It's still just a you know they're there. They're there. This is the most exciting season I think we've had in a little while. Maybe since 2018 I'd argue where they're within striking distance of a playoff spot but they're not you know this season they're just they're not doing they're not doing the streak thing they're not going on any streaks they're not going on a winning streak and they're not breaking away from their competition. There are a lot of good teams in the National League this year. Some might argue there are a lot of not good teams in the National League this year whatever perspective you hold still they're in a tough spot and I do understand now just seeing this and looking at the at the gravity of the situation looking at the reality of the situation which is why my perspective is changing a bit my opinion on this is changing a bit because I look at this team and I say well yeah in a perfect world the Blue Jays may trade Vladiguro Jr. over for a not expensive price of the Pirates. You know there are several other players on the on the trade block it seems several other players that you want to be available to the Pirates but it just aren't. There are there are all but six teams from both leagues that aren't within striking distance of a wild card spot in their league and so what do you do in that situation because none of these teams right now seem like they're budging nobody's phoning it in. We don't want the Pirates to give up either so imagine other fan bases feel. Imagine other teams are operating. No team is sitting there right now and saying yeah you know we're just gonna not we're gonna decide to not win. We're gonna change our team up. We're gonna get some prospects. We're gonna we're gonna give up on the season. Nobody's doing that so there aren't too many other teams within the league within the National League for certain that I think are going to be willing trade partners and there are many American League teams. There really aren't going to be sellers and my perspective is changing a little bit too on the Reese Roberts speaking of American League teams at the White Sox. He's not having a great year and there are some low lights that have been posted about him that just make me not so excited for him to be on the Pirates anymore. You know not throwing the ball home against the Cleveland Guardians last week. His average is not I mean not like this is such a weird season where statistics you know the average stats are way below where they should be but everybody's around the average this season it seems they lowered averages like everybody is not hitting well it seems if we talk about that standard you know we want guys to 300 that bar has been lowered significantly this season it's kind of been on a trajectory for a few years but you've got less offense got teams with a lot of strong pitchers teams that are in it have at least one solid pitcher two solid pitchers the offenses are struggling and every team is in it as a result it's such a weird year and I don't want to believe it's false open that's why I'm starting to yell because I'm the part of me doesn't want to face the reality of the situation which may be that the Pirates even though they're they're around the loud card here are not good enough to break away from every other team and I don't want to believe that but sometimes you got to face the reality of it sometimes you got a you got to assess it's very unrealistic I think that that any team is going to be willing to trade with the pirates and not because it's the pirates and not because the pirates don't have enough collateral not enough assets but it's because every team is so darn close it seems every team is there every team is one streak away from taking a spot the only team that seems super comfortable right now is the Braves but they're only three and a half games up for the first wild card spot Cardinals are only a game up for the second I don't think the Padres are very comfortable either I mean they're you know they've got a two and a half game lead on the Diamondbacks Mets everybody else is coming for them so you certainly may not get too many big moves from or selling moves I should say I think any team would be willing to buy at this point but you're not going to get too many selling moves from the Padres because they want to they want to stick to that spot and they don't want to give up any prospects to or any legitimate talent to any of the teams down below to come catch them it just wouldn't make sense oh I've just depressed myself but that's why we have these conversations I mean sometimes you got to come to the reality not that they didn't try and it's been a valiant effort but I'm starting to turn my my hopes around to a little bit of pessimism here and not for the not for the future not for next season or anything like that either I mean and I'm gonna be optimistic with every season that comes and it seems like they're getting more and more exciting with every year that passes but for this season I'm just looking at where they're at they started out strong not as strong as 2023 but strong let's kept them in it but I mean that that's seven game losing streak early around in the year it hurt them put them just slightly behind everybody else and they have not made up that ground yet and we're moving through July it's not impossible for them to go on a streak I'd say but like with every series that passes I'm just watching and I'm seeing the same thing they lose games they could win they blow out some games Paul schemes is great but he's not even been enough in every start that he's had and then the pirates you know they lose half they win half they're right around 500 just below it and they're on the outside looking in right now enjoy Paul schemes I would hope that they put him in the all-star game in Texas that's a we're about a week way now exactly a week way next Tuesday the all-star game will take place I'm on derbies before that enjoy that enjoy whatever Paul schemes provides with whatever opportunity he gets maybe Brian Reynolds will see some playing time as well enjoy the all-star break have some anticipation toward the trade deadline I would say but I don't know anymore to see them it's tough I mean they're right there but every team's right there and that's the problem seems like whatever the pirates are competitive there's several other teams that are competitive where there's one team better than them that's been the Cardinals and they're bugaboo I like that phrase I've heard it on the station now bugaboo they're bugaboo the Cardinals have been there they're big a struggle though when they've been good and now you know the one year that they're starting to rise to be good and they've got you know perhaps the best picture of this generation or may become that of all time I don't know that's too far to think about but they've got a great picture in Paul schemes they've got some other great pictures to and Keller and and Jared Jones whatever he's healthy we'll get there they've got all this great talent they're not quite there yet it seems and I'm starting to that thought is starting to creep into my mind and is starting to settle there I hope I'm wrong I hope all of you that may have always been pessimistic become wrong because I want to see this team do well I think some people are pessimistic too because they just want to see this team do well so I understand we're in it together we're fans together of the pirates well we'll see how the season unfolds though they still got to play the games they still got to play their games so we'll see how this season starts to starts to take official shape with the with the playoff picture maybe some teams will start to fall off maybe they won't and it'll be an exciting finish we'll see we'll see what happens here my name is Nicholas Harry Kalis feel free to join the conversation at any time 4 1 2 9 2 9 2 8 9 3 7 0 that's the phone number you can reach me at this morning you can also talk to me through my X account at Kalis underscore 3 3 that's CA LLAS underscore 3 3 and we can talk talk about the pirates if you want to camp Sutton I'm gonna address him next because he's been suspended and now now I'm curious talk about it next my name is Nicholas Harry Kalis is the fan of the morning show on sports radio 937 the America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim located at circa resort and casino in Las Vegas catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen plenty of seating options from cozy daybeds to private temperature controlled cabanas stadium swim book your spot today at circle Las Vegas calm we all belong outside we're drawn to nature whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes nature makes all of our lives well better despite all this we often go about our busy lives removed from it but the outdoors is closer than we realize with all trails you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails this season Instacart has your back to school as in they've got your back to school 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bit but you have peaks and valleys in the high temperature this week and when it's hot it's going to be hot in Pittsburgh fan weather brought to you by sun Chevrolet okay talk about the pirates talked about how I'm becoming more sad about them and how they're doing and it seems less and less realistic that they're gonna be able to figure it out in time to make a playoff push but you never know if they're in it they're in it and that's you know that's some saving grace but they've got to push through they want a spot then this news came out yesterday cam Sutton suspended violating the NFL's personal conduct policy and so he will not play in eight games with the Steelers to start the season one person tweeted at me and said hey you know that's kind of all right because you know he'll be there for the for the brutal stretch of games in the second half of the year but also which another Twitter points out actually the same one points out Pete on Twitter says well they don't have a number two receiver or a number two cornerback now which you know cam Sutton could have played around there and he was their guy now now they're gonna be for the beginning of the season they're gonna be a bit stripped of of experienced guys which that's you know never helpful I tried to trust the Steelers too and I wanted to trust them you know I said that before I wouldn't think that they would sign him if they didn't think that you know he was going to be suspended or if they didn't you know trust him to you know to be on the right path here and they seem to still trust him but it's just it's getting a little testing out the waters are getting a little uneasy for me because I think that not having him for half the season is is a bit scary there so I think that they might not have the experience and on paper they seem alright but it's like you know these these guys got to be on the field and you know for him not to be on the field for half the season now that's that's just it frustrates me a little bit you know so that's kind of where I stand on it with Sutton and I wanted to believe that the Steelers I maybe I mean maybe they do still trust and maybe they think that the investments worth it for the second half of the season I don't know but it is it's a little frustrating it's a little upsetting and that's all I'll say about it because that's all I have to say America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim located at circa resort and casino in Las Vegas catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen plenty of seating options from cozy day beds to private temperature controlled cabanas stadium swim book your spot today at circle Las Vegas calm step up to the plate with Xfinity Internet get the fastest speeds and low lag screaming for an incredible viewing experience that knocks it out of the park and you'll have the consistent 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