CHICAGO -- Back in the early weeks of the season, the Pirates showed a video on the scoreboard before every game at PNC Park which depicted their current players watching a tape of Willie Stargell’s Hall of Fame induction speech in 1988. That video is no longer being played at the ballpark, though the Pirates continue to use it in their television ads.
It turns out a group of players approached management and asked that the video be dropped because they felt it showed the organization thinks more about the past than the present.
“They always talk about the Pirates’ tradition but they ain’t won nothing in 40 years," one player told me. "No one on this team was even alive back then. That’s ancient history. It’s time to quit living in the past. That’s a big part of the problem here."
The Pirates last appeared in and won the World Series in 1979.
• Francisco Cervelli told DK last Sunday that he no longer considers himself a catcher after a string of concussions. Neal Huntington mentioned first base, third base and right field as possible position options for Cervelli. However, there is a sense the Pirates might release Cervelli and eat the remainder of his $11.5-million salary. First base is clearly the domain of Josh Bell, and Colin Moran has seized the third base job, plus the Pirates have top prospects in Will Craig and Ke'Bryan Hayes behind Bell and Moran, respectively. And the Pirates already have a glut of outfielders that will grow when Gregory Polanco returns from the injured list. Quite simply, there doesn’t appear to be room on the roster for Cervelli if he can no longer be a catcher. -- Perrotto
• Chris Archer starts for the Pirates on Friday afternoon against the Cubs at Chicago and vows to use his slider more as he tries to turn around his season. Archer is 3-6 with a 5.49 ERA in 15 starts, including 0-3 with a 7.89 ERA in six road games. He has thrown his slider 35 percent of the time compared to going with 50 percent fastballs, 13 percent changeups and two percent curveballs. Many scouts rate the slider as Archer’s best pitch and have questioned why he hasn’t thrown more since arriving from the Rays in a trade last July 31. – Perrotto
• Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler is one of the best young pitchers in the major leagues and appeared in his first All-Star Game Tuesday night in Cleveland. He would look good atop the Pirates’ rotation, and it could have happened. The Pirates picked Buehler in the 14th round of the 2012 amateur draft from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Ky. However, the sides could not agree to terms and Buehler went on to play collegiately at Vanderbilt, where he won a college World Series title. “We just couldn’t work something out,” Buehler told me this week in Cleveland. “I think it was for the best that I went to Vandy. I was much more ready for professional baseball after that experience.” -- Perrotto
• Speaking of Vanderbilt, Buehler was teammates there with Bryan Reynolds. While Reynolds’ outstanding rookie season with the Pirates has come as a surprise to many, Buehler is not in that group. “He’s a really good player, very sound in all aspects of the game,” Buehler said. “He just knows how to play the game. I think everyone at Vandy knew he would be a successful big-league player. I know I sound like a coach here, but he has a slow heartbeat. Nothing bothers him.” Did Buehler ever see the stoic Reynolds smile? "Once or twice," Buehler said, laughing. -- Perrotto
PENGUINS
• Pittsburgh has proven to be a good training ground for NHL general managers, as two guys who served as assistant and/or associate GMs here are running teams in other places now. They are Chuck Fletcher, who was GM in Minnesota and now holds that job in Philadelphia, and Jason Botterill, GM in Buffalo. Don't be surprised if, someday in the not-terribly-distant future, Bill Guerin gets an offer to become a GM. There are no openings with established clubs at the moment, although the expansion club in Seattle has yet to fill that role, but Guerin already has attracted interest for GM jobs that ultimately went to other guys. The Penguins made a smooth transition from Fletcher to Botterill to Guerin in the No. 2 position, and word from inside the front office is that there's a plan of succession in place if Guerin moves on, too. And if he still is on the payroll when Jim Rutherford decides it's time to retire -- something there's no reason to anticipate happening anytime soon -- Guerin certainly will be the early favorite to take over. -- Dave Molinari
• Barring a last-minute change of heart by either party, the chances of recently retired Matt Cullen remaining with the Penguins in an off-ice capacity look very good. What isn't so clear is precisely what kind of role he will fill, a decision that might be influenced by how much time Cullen is interested in devoting to the job. While his ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an individual's game would serve him well as a scout, Cullen might be even better-suited to work in a coaching/player development role because he not only understands the finer points of the game so well, but possesses the communication skills to effectively pass along what he knows. And those three Stanley Cup rings he earned as a player would give him instant credibility to any player under his charge. -- Molinari
• Mike Sullivan plans to keep his staff intact during the coming season, but won't rule out the possibility that some responsibilities might be tweaked before training camp begins in September. "When we sit down as a group, we'll talk about roles and responsibilities, but I believe I have a great coaching staff," he said. "These guys are really smart guys and they do a terrific job in their own domains. They certainly make me a better coach every day." -- Molinari
• Sullivan's stance that his dustups with Phil Kessel have been “overblown,” as he told our site this week, can be corroborated from all quarters. But that's in part because a strong-willed coach will have those with strong-willed championship players in almost any setting. And Kessel's hardly been alone on that count. He's had them with Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and many others. Probably everyone at various points. Again, it comes with the territory. There's nothing uncommon about it. Even so, it's encouraging in that context that Sullivan took the time recently to fly to Miami and meet with Malkin about his imminent future. I haven't yet heard exactly what occurred, but it can't be coincidence that almost all of the rhetoric about a possible trade faded within the past three weeks. -- Dejan Kovacevic
STEELERS
• When Matt Feiler slid into the starting lineup at right tackle last season, it was viewed as a temporary thing, with Feiler holding down the spot until Marcus Gilbert was healthy and then Chuks Okorafor had enough seasoning to take over the job himself. But Feiler will open training camp in two weeks as the incumbent starter at right tackle, having made 10 starts there last season. Gilbert is now with the Cardinals, while Okorafor remains behind Feiler on the team's depth chart. One thing is certain: Feiler, a former undrafted free agent, isn't taking anything for granted. "It sounds good, but there’s still a lot of work to be done," he told me of being a returning starter. -- Lolley at Rooney Complex
• Backup quarterback Josh Dobbs took advantage of his celebrity status and aerospace engineering degree from the University of Tennessee during the offseason to fly with the United States Air Force's Thunderbirds. I asked him what it was like to go up in the high-powered F-16, especially since he had interned at aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney while in college. "You can’t go over the speed of sound over land. So we were going 450 miles per hour. Those things go over Mach 1 or Mach 2, so they go four times faster than what we were even going at that time. You feel the jolt when those things take off. Being at Pratt and Whitney, I got to see them ground testing (the engines), so that was my first time actually flying in one. It was pretty cool seeing the comparison." -- Lolley
• There's excitement about what Benny Snell could bring to the Steelers' backfield, and that's as it should be. On the inside, though, it's infinitely more tempered. For one reason alone. As he told me himself a month ago, "If you can't block, you can't play running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I know, I know." That's been pushed since Dick Hoak was the positional coach for several decades, and there haven't been any exceptions. Snell's scouting reports from Kentucky strongly indicate he's capable. He's crazy-strong, and he's got a low center of gravity at 5 feet 10. In particular, he was effective at pass blocking. But everyone with whom I've spoken at the NFL level is holding off any praise until he proves he can do so in Latrobe and beyond. -- DK