PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – A month ago, after some signings and re-signings by the Steelers in free agency, talk was all football. Even as the Pirates went through Spring Training games, thoughts were on the 2023 football season and the upcoming NFL Draft. On Monday, day of the Steelers pre-draft news conference, we were taking baseball calls on 93.7 The Fan.
Not just Chuck in Uniontown, the preeminent Pirates postgame caller, but regular fans excited about the Bucs start. Those who otherwise would be parsing over the arm length of a Northwestern student or the vertical jump of Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. No, the conversation was about the team Jaxon's brother plays for, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
It's deserved praise, no team in the National League currently has more wins than the Pirates. The team where even the most optimistic had them finishing with a losing record. The Pirates, winners of seven consecutive games and the third best ERA in the NL. This despite losing one starter already for the season, another is 43-years-old, a third is a righty who was mostly a reliever last season.
"Our starting pitchers have done a terrific job," said Pirates GM Ben Cherington on his radio show on 93.7 The Fan and the Pirates Radio Network. "Credit to them and our pitching group. The timing is particularly important because we had circled this stretch in the offseason as a potentially challenging one, a long stretch of consecutive games (17)."
It's a time where often over the last seven years the Bucs had buried themselves in the background. Last season at this time, half as many wins and little attention.
Cherington said his players are staying in the moment. He said they approach it one pitch at a time, one swing at a time and one game at a time. As he put it, as it gets deeper in the calendar they will have more true information on how good this team is. The challenge right in front of them is daunting, the $227.497 million payroll of the LA Dodgers. That compares to the Bucs $75.945 million.
Will this last, not at this .696 winning percentage pace. Will they still be relevant by the time of Steelers mini-camp in June? I don't know. Will they be a factor or a seller when Steelers training camp begins in late July? I don't know.
What I do know is if nothing else it's stopped us, if only for short spurts of time, from glazing our eyes over another mock draft. A process so flawed meteorologists puff out their chests and laugh at their inaccuracies. By now there have been so many of these fake drafts posted you could fill a football team of players experts guess will be the Steelers first round picks. Yet someone will claim they got it right, even though they missed on 15 of their other attempts.
The NFL will own the weekend, but thanks to the Pirates hot start they won't own every hour leading up to Thursday night.
