DK’s Double Shot of Pirates: Top takeaways!

0:00Hey, guys, welcome to Double Shot of Pirates. I'm Dan Kovach, which he's Chris Hallock. We're from DK Pittsburgh Sports. I am having a better day than Chris is because my morning started in Boston. I got about three total hours of sleep after covering the hockey game last night. Today was Fire alarm day where I live here downtown. So I couldn't even catch up on any of the sleep. But I'm still having a better day than Chris. Why is that? My son called me. That's always good. Yeah, my son called me. You know what he called me? Why do you call you? No reason. The best cause didn't need anything. What do you hear is father's voice. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. The bosses. The boss is a little

1:03jealous. We'll see a little jealous. Well, don't think this is happening. We're nothing here. This is the parental duel happening. That's funny. You guys. Yeah. We're supposed to talk about baseball, baseball. But guess what? There was none. Oh, this is the first off day of spring. Someone who's covered many, many, many, many of these things is known as the blessed off day. All capital letters. It's hard to describe the routineness of the routine that takes place in Florida. Unless you've experienced it for any significant amount of time, these guys go at it morning after morning after morning after morning after morning. The morning is the key. You only pay attention to the stuff that happens in the afternoon, especially now that the games are around. They're getting up at 7 a.m. They're getting up even early. They're getting up early in that cases. And they're showing up, but they've

2:06got to impress people. They've got to show their energy and everything. What are they doing on a day like this? They're looking at the wallpaper, Ben. Yeah. That's what this whole episode should just be us looking at wallpaper. That's what they're doing. Yeah, just like that. That's that's our baseball analysis for the day. They're hell. Hey, I mean, listen, it's it's a good time. The players need the good time. I want to say, listen, when you're going, like, like, I say it like that, like tongue and cheek, but really sometimes whenever you just do nothing, like some, there's something about when you become an adult of a certain age where you like get, you know, go through the weekend and then like you come up, come up on Monday and someone's like, Hey, what'd you do this weekend? You just, your face lights up where you're like, yeah, I didn't do anything. That was cool. It's awesome. It's the best. No, no, no, the best is when you're doing nothing and your son calls. You just got

3:10the biggest eye roll, like I might have actually heard them rolling. So we have a question for you guys today in the live chat as we did promise that we're going to get on to this actually is way more of a baseball subject than you think. You're going to have to take our word for you. We're going to talk about the world baseball class. It can large part because why is it a thing? What's the point of it? Who benefits? How much money is made? Yeah. And why can't they just skip all this BS? Get the players into the Olympics? Well, that's the other part of it is how do they figure out how to get baseball players into the Olympics? Well, the first thing that you needed, Chris, is you needed the will. And as we've seen in the National Hockey League, and we've seen before that in the NBA, the NBA was the first to do this, of course, with a dream team concept back in 92. And they were able to do it in a way that the league, the commissioner,

4:15they would start at the time, understood the benefits in the NHL, Gary Bettman, just listening to his owners, and they would complain about one injury here or there. Johnson Varis getting hurt and so she rushed out and I was the end of that. Players wanted it. In the NBA, the players all wanted to be dream teams as they followed because they saw that first one. There's Jordan and Ferdin and Magic. Well, that's what baseball needs. This thing here, I'm sorry. It's a substitute. That's what it is right now, until it can actually the Olympics. Is it even that though? Who watches it? Do any of you guys watch it? Let us know here. Don't feel like you need to be swayed by my opinion on this, whatever. You watch this thing and you think it's great. Let us know. I don't recall watching a blessed inning of this thing ever.

5:16And I'm not out of some protest or anything like that. There have been players in there. I've known like no personally. Yeah, the event doesn't like what are they doing? Do you watch it? Have you seen it? I've seen it. I've watched it now. I can probably count on one hand. How many times I've watched an entire game from the time the first pitch is thrown. So when that's all out, it's a certain baseball matchups. I can watch. I can watch. If I know it's a really... I think I watched every inning of the O4 ALCS. Between the Red Sox and the Yankees where the Red Sox ended up. At least while I say every inning, once the Red Sox started to come back, I was really interested. Are they actually going to pull it off? Are they actually going to pull it off? I remember watching that. That was just great theater, like baseball theater. Understood. But no, I get it. I don't find myself catching a lot

6:17of first pitch to final out no interruptions, especially not anymore being a sports reporter. It's hard to do that unless you're covering the game itself. Yeah, I hear that. I hear that too. I feel like there's a lot that has to happen, obviously, between now and 2028. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So the first thing that everybody should know is that in 2028, A, that the Olympics are in LA. I believe so. And Chris is checking on this vital thing for us here. Yeah, they see our LA. And I should have known that part before this, but I know for a fact that those Olympics do include what the IOC, the International Olympic Committee is referring to as the temporary or one-time reintroduction of both baseball and softball. Softball was unjustly thrown out.

7:25Yeah, they should have just found a way to keep softball. The problem with softball and take, I covered a gold medal game is that these is that with softball, one team was so overwhelmingly dominant. Yeah. Okay. And they knew that they went as the United States, of course. Right, and the games were just such a farce. And they determined the IOC did that the whole thing was a farce. And actually, it was. Yeah. It's incumbent on those teams that are really great at these words to lift up the rest. We've seen it in women's soccer. We have not seen it in women's hockey. No, it's US and Canada and hockey and then it's everybody else. We have not seen it in women's hoops. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, they bring back softball. They're going to have they're going to have baseball, whether it's going to be some kind of double-aid tournaments or what like they've done in the past. It's a waste of everybody's time. Yeah. They had it in Japan.

8:29Oh. Yeah. Baseball. Yeah. Yeah. You can actually make a really good men's tournament in baseball. Yeah. A really good one. Yeah, you can. And I think, you know, when you see NHL players represent their countries in the winter Olympics and then you see NBA players be able to represent in the summer Olympics basketball. Getting to see baseball players, major league players represent their countries in a tournament that is more widely recognized beyond the baseball world. Yeah, which is nobody. Right. Well, it's as I'm saying, because, you know, coming in off the street, hey, you guys checking out the world baseball classic. Yeah. Yeah. But like, okay, like I'll put it in this perspective. You know, these past winter Olympics that just wrapped up in Norway ended up with the most number of medals. And, you know, the casual watcher of the Olympics who

9:33don't know much about what other countries are really great at or like on the head, did Norway get so many medals? That's because they ski better than everybody else. Well, it's not just that they ski. Yeah. They ski right through downtown Oslo and shoot people. But that's like, that's my point, though, is that like, then you end up finding out like, oh, wow, I just learned something about Norway that I didn't know before. Even if it's something, yeah, I'm all that bad. But you know, but then because it's the Olympics, you watch. That's what it is. Yeah, exactly. The boss and I watch things at the Olympics and we would never have a million years if they said here is the international curling, curling championship, the international, even the ice skating that we watched, we watched it. But it's not on any time. And if it is on any time, you don't go out of your way to find it. Why did we all go out of our way to find it and to download and sign up for a month of

10:36peacock and everything else? That's why we did that. Yep. Because it's the Olympics. And if you do that with baseball, and get these players to be legitimately invested, I think there would be. Do you? Well, there are some stories already. Well, that are out there. I think about it. Baseball players are different than all other players, though. I think it's that Paul Schienz is different than other baseball players. It's the appropriate way to look at this. That's true, too. Paul is ready to throw himself in front of a moving locomotive. Well, he also served like he went to the air. He went to air. Paul is different than most point made. But when they have to go and they have to spend six months begging Tark Scooball to transfer one spring start out of Lakeland, Florida to go represent his country. If they don't care, why should you? Whereas you see, you know, with with with the NHL guys, you know, they showed up at four nations ready to rip each other's balls off. Oh gosh.

11:38Because they knew it was a precursor to the Olympics. Yeah. And they could get away with stuff they couldn't do with the Olympics. They could do all kinds of stuff. It's suspended from international play and not care less. It's like getting it's like getting a, you know, a speeding ticket in other states. Yeah, for real one that does not have the sharing thing with Pennsylvania. Oh my god. No. Okay. You're hurting a lot of trouble today. I really, really am. He needs to go back a bit. Let's let's take a let's take a look at some of the responses that have come in from you guys. First off, just a reminder that we'd love to have you as a member on this channel on our Pirates channel. It's our baseball only channel. The way to become that is to go to dkps.net slash lowercase all lowercase join pirates dkps.net slash join pirates. Let's see what you guys have

12:40here from Chad Moore. A member says the all star break to play in the Olympics. So the owners and the players would all have to be on board seat Chad. That's the 2028 part where we're working conveniently omitting the 2027 was ever skipped. Yeah. So there's a lot of dreamland factor. There's even a in this one. But yes, the answer to your question is yes. Well, I was going to say like if this lockout that's going to that's going to happen gets this ugly as it possibly can. I wouldn't even like fully bet that there's 166 to be completely honest. One one one one missed season at one subject at the time. Harvey says I don't watch the world baseball classic but from somewhat following it, it seems like the possible bigger deal outside the US. It certainly is in Japan. It is in the Dominican. There's not any money to be made. I say that respectfully in the Dominican

13:42units, he writes and stuff like that. There's a pride that comes in the Dominican actually of the way they make up, I believe it's 14, 15% of major league baseball. It's a the Dominican is a factory. Oh gosh baseball. It is exploded over the past couple of decades. So they take a lot of pride in their national team. But bigger deal outside the US is a great way of saying with everything in life other than soccer, tennis and a couple other things, you're not making any money. Yeah. And you kind of have to hear AJ says I tried yesterday to watch the classic because Paul Schien's pitched and I ended up with a nice 45 minute nap. You can get a REM cycle in 45 minutes. That's a good one. Yeah. Those are good ones. Yeah. You wake up like actually feeling legit. Yeah. This past week in Indianapolis, I had a I had a time where we had done doing the shows.

14:47And then before I went out later, like I did, I did like one of those 45 minute hour cat naps. Yeah. Sometimes it's all all that you need. It's not as good as watching Paul pitch but your point is not. No, it's not. Two more of these before a message from our sponsor here. John says no, I'm a Pirates fan. I want the Pirates to win the World Series way more than I care about the US winning the World Baseball Classic. I mean, I can't even imagine it's in the same soul. Oh, it's not the same soul. We're kind of getting into World Baseball Classic versus a big snout versus your own team. But I hear you, John. P and C 21 says baseball is not built for a single game elimination tournament because of starting pitching. The best team can lose early because they face the one good pitcher bad team as that's why the wild card changed. That's correct. You'd never have a tournament of this kind with anybody participating, including the general managers to the 30 general

15:49managers would be like no. Yeah, of course not. These are glorified dressed up national uniform wearing grapefruit league and cactus league games. Can you see skiing's pitch for the United States of America and for the you're going to see three innings, four innings max. That's what this is. They're trying to dress up spring training. Yeah, exactly. And if you got into the Olympics where you if it's a situation where you have major league players in the Olympics, it's in the middle of the summer. It's in the middle of the season. You have a you have a legitimate opportunity to actually have players go out as they need. But yeah, you can't have a Jake area of a situation where it's the 2015 wild card game and the pirates are clearly the name was banned from this show. Oh, sorry. You didn't give me the no. I didn't know. No, man. That was one of the first principles when we when we

16:50touched in stone our doctrines for this program. Area that it would not. I will I will part of it, but that I might know it's right now. The boss has something to share with you guys. This episode is brought to you by IQ bar IQ bar protein bars IQ mix hydration mixes and IQ Joe mushroom coffees are the delicious low sugar brain and body fuel that you need to win your day. All IQ bar products are clean label certified and entirely free and gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs and other artificial ingredients IQ mix is a zero sugar drink mix that hydrates with electrolytes it proves mood and boosts clarity IQ Joe is a mushroom coffee design for mental clarity and pack the 200 milligrams of natural caffeine. Right now they're offering our listeners 20% off all IQ bar products including the ultimate sampler pack plus free shipping to get your 20% off text MLB to 64,000. That's MLB to 64,000 to be a text message

18:02and data rates might apply see terms for details. Stuff looks awesome. That's man. My wife would love those for real. Yeah. My wife's like like you need to snack you but you don't want it to be you don't want it to be like like take out like unhealthy. That's that's yeah that's my wife. I felt like I was getting healthier with every word that guy spoke to that guy. You're out of here today man. Interview Q has a question for you. He wants to if if Chris do you think the password makes the opening day roster that of course is Joe Stinson Garcia who's picked it up a little bit of late. He has I still think he'll be on the outside looking in because I think Mangum's probably higher up. How many outfielders do you take though? Or that's the problem. Yeah. If you take five he's he's warm in your bench. Yeah exactly so you need him to play. Yeah you do because I mean you're going to have what 13 position players

19:05I don't know man. I don't know. He's right on that on that on that cusp right now but I would have man if you only have four outfielders like and you include a herner that I would have Mangum head of Garcia. I think they have enough numbers without without Garcia but at the same time Garcia can put himself into an excellent spot. Great problem. Both by performing well this spring which he has largely and then and then doing well in Indianapolis. Something happens. How that goes. Good question. Yeah. It was a good one. Michael Bobrick a member comes in and asks get back to the pirates. Actually I come across as an order. It really does. Get back to the pirates. Well anything be done to improve third base. Yeah one thing will be done to improve third base. They'll ask Jer Trillo nicely to hit the way he did over the final couple of months of 2025.

20:08They like Trillo. They really don't see just here. Baseball remains in some ways really old-fashioned. The culture of respect and baseball for when you pitch is about here. When you hit well it's about here. When you catch the ball it's up here. That's just that's just baseball. You are seen as a ball or you're the nose to the dirt guy who lives and dies with this sport. I have been hearing people inside the pirates including his own teammates. Glow about Trillo since before anybody in Pittsburgh ever even heard of and what he did this again to his credit. He brought that glove to Pittsburgh. He won a gold glove as a reserve which is a new thing that I love that baseball has. I agree.

21:14I agree. Those are very very valuable players. He had a terrible start to his season last year offensively. Yeah. Once the miners came back he hit as well as he can hit. He's not going to put the ball over to fence very often. Nobody has enough pop where it's... Yeah, ball didn't die off no no no and then when you add in the fact that he plays elite defense that helps a lot and plus I don't think the left side of the infield looks nearly as bad just for lack of a better word. I can't think of one offensively. Yeah, once Conner Griffin emerges. Well that's what I'm saying because then you have him in shortstop. If Jared Triollo is one of your three worst hitters in the lineup but he also provides... Yeah, you've got to watch all the exceptions that you're happy to make. I mean you're already... Another subject for another day

22:16here but none of the catchers are hitting. Well that's true. Andy Rodriguez is three for ten and he's it. Henry doesn't have a hit yet. Yeah. What's his name they got from the Yankees in the David Bednar case. Yeah. Raphael Flores not hitting. Yeah. Joey Bart one for twelve. Didn't need a room for him on the roster and you can't trade somebody who can't hit. Yeah. So he's now you're talking about a catcher and you're possibly talking about a third base and look I know everybody does this with O'Neal Cruz. You know they wait for the clouds to open and then all the angels are playing their harps and stuff and here comes Cruz and he had two hundred. Yeah. Last year. So you can't just keep making exceptions. I agree with that in general. They need Triollo to hit. They need their catchers to hit. They need Cruzy to hit. Simple as that. Guys we appreciate you. The pyres are back

23:19in action tomorrow against the Cardinals in Braydenton, Florida and we'll be here to talk about it and we're about to do some hockey now.