Riddle me this: What do you call it when the same city's franchise quarterback and starting pitching ace both undergo elbow surgery in the same summer?
Answer: Just wait. The hockey team's iconic captain's about to undergo core surgery ... a week before a fellow forward undergoes the same surgery.
No, that's not funny. But then, none of it's been funny. Not for the Steelers, Pirates and now the Penguins, too. Not for the people running those teams. Not for their respective fan bases. Certainly not for Ben Roethlisberger, Jameson Taillon, Sidney Crosby and everybody else who's done the actual suffering through this seemingly endless wave of injuries within city limits.
But allow me, please, to cite a couple blessings to have come from all this.
(I know, I know, easy for me to say, since my best shot at being hurt on the job is to stub a pinky on the paragraph key, right?)
The Steelers' positives have been the plainest to see, primarily because they're 7-5 after starting 0-3, then 1-4. Everyone suddenly loves them as the cuddly underdog each Sunday, no matter how dramatic the role reversal, since the circumstances have been not only accepted but also embraced. It's felt like "playing with house money," as David DeCastro told me after beating the Browns.
There's more, though, and I'll start with this: If Sean Davis doesn't get hurt, the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade never gets made.
Uh-huh. Got your attention now?
It's true, and it's confirmed right from Mike Tomlin that Davis going onto IR was the main motive for Kevin Colbert to send his 2020 first-round draft pick to Miami for the top secondary talent seen in these parts since Troy Polamalu's prime.
And what's the fair value in finding out, through Roethlisberger's absence, about the short-term and long-term implications of his departure, whenever that might occur? Is Mason Rudolph the guy? We might not know for sure, but we know way more than we did. Same goes for finding out what's really there at several other offensive spots, not least of which is that JuJu Smith-Schuster might not be a true No. 1 wide receiver, that James Conner might not even get a contract next year, that the offensive line is in need of young blood sooner than we'd thought, and much more.
If Ben stays healthy, there'd never be the capability to expose all of that to this level. So, regardless of how 2019 winds up, the bank of knowledge toward 2020 and beyond is that much greater.
Oh, and this, too, as worded magnificently by Jeff Capel, Pitt's basketball coach, just yesterday regarding Mike Tomlin:
I'll underscore that finish: "Year in and year out, he's been one of the best coaches in the NFL. And it's unfortunate that they had to lose everyone for people to maybe appreciate that. Sometimes you can take really good things for granted."
Yeah, that, too. Talk about a valuable lesson that otherwise couldn't have been learned by far too many.
The Penguins are either approaching the Steelers' level of injury damage or have surpassed it, though I'd lean toward the former since I don't see a position in professional sports more singularly pivotal than an NFL quarterback. Either way, it's been so bad on the ice that nary a day passes without another skater being branded with upper-body this, lower-body that. This past weekend alone, Bryan Rust and Patric Hornqvist were both lost in bleeping practices.
Mike Sullivan told our Dave Molinari the other night in St. Louis he's never experienced anything like it in a lifetime of hockey.
But positives can be rattled off here, as well, chief among them that Evgeni Malkin looks reborn. I'd written that nothing mattered more to the franchise this winter than his immediate future, and he's obliterating all doubts. No one can know if that occurs in Crosby's shadow, given how each always raises his game in the absence of the other. This was the time for Malkin to find himself anew.
There's a bunch more: Rust had been seen by some as trade bait this past summer, but he's dazzled in first-line duty that might not have been available. Newcomers Alex Galchenyuk and Dominik Kahun couldn't be assessed without significant time in the top six, as well, and Kahun, at least, is making the most of it. If Galchenyuk doesn't, it at least makes the call to cast him off into free agency next summer an easy one. John Marino merits inclusion here, too, since he's gone top-four on the blue line without blinking when Kris Letang and Justin Schultz went down. And if that holds -- I'd be stunned if it doesn't -- that could put Schultz in the same circumstance as Galchenyuk. If both go, that's a huge chunk of cap space for 2020-21.
I'll throw this in: Sullivan, like Tomlin, has already acknowledged -- to me up in Winnipeg a few weeks back -- that it's easier to get players to buy in to a system in times of trouble. That's become evident. The outcomes haven't always been there, but we've seen some of the smoother systematic showings in years.
Get the picture?
Good, because the Pirates' positives for losing Taillon, most of their starting rotation and a slew of others ... um, that came with one blessing above all: Everyone was fired.
There's no question in my mind the injuries set the stage for the post-All-Star collapse. Just as there's no question in my mind that, without the post-All-Star collapse and all the corresponding public pressure that followed the season, Bob Nutting wouldn't have taken action on any one of Frank Coonelly, Neal Huntington, Kyle Stark or Clint Hurdle, never mind sweeping out all of them.
Front offices can get healthier, too.
Hang in there. It'll all get better. Law of averages 'n' at.
• All else being equal, Diontae Johnson would've earned himself a benching for this indefensible sequence Sunday:
Ran the wrong route, then simply watched the pass sail into the waiting arms of the Browns' Terrance Mitchell, then softly allowed himself to be blocked, then went half-hearted in his retreat before finally trying -- in vain -- to swat the ball out.
Youth comes with some pluses, but one very real concern entering this season was the lack of a veteran leader among the wide receivers. Roll your eyes at this type of talk, if you will, but it means everything to the actual participants, so I take it seriously. Darrius Heyward-Bey had been that leader for years, and it was supposed to be Donte Moncrief this year, and now ... who, JuJu?
Something to watch moving forward.
• James Washington's breakout Sunday might've been the single most uplifting offensive occurrence all season.
He'd told me Friday after practice, "Just throw me the ball. Give me a chance. I'll make a play on it."
Do that.
• Freddie Kitchens' press conference yesterday in Cleveland included this post-film-study observation about the Steelers: "The biggest difference between the first time we played them and the second time we played them is on all of those 50/50 balls, they were about 100 percent."
If by 'they,' he meant Washington, that's dead-on. Washington fought for that football.
• Everyone does realize this'll come down to Steelers vs. Titans, right?
At least that's how it shapes up with essentially one AFC wild-card spot in play, both the Steelers and Titans being 7-5, the Steelers holding the head-to-head tiebreaker against the 6-6 Colts, and the 6-6 Raiders facing the Titans this Sunday in Oakland, a game I'd think Tennessee would take. But here's the catch: Even if the Titans improve to 8-5, their final three games are brutal: Two with the Texans wrapped around a visit from the Saints.
This is the fun part.
• If I had a vote for the NFL's coach of the year -- and I don't -- it wouldn't be Tomlin. It'd be John Harbaugh. That position accounts for so much of what a football team does, and the braintrust in Baltimore approached the 2019 season more boldly than anyone. That ought to be rewarded, too.
• Pay up for Bud Dupree. Look hard at the contracts of James Conner and Ramon Foster, consider cutting as needed, but pay up to keep this special defense intact. Running backs aren't expensive, and there are left guard replacements already in house.
• Man, that one hurt to type. My respect for Conner and Foster knows no limits. Part of the job, but it's a part I don't welcome.
• Not to get anyone prematurely pumped for the next one, but the Cardinals' defense is a hellacious brand of horrible, having just been plucked apart for 549 yards by the Rams and dropping into the bottom two in the NFL for yards allowed per game, points allowed per game and third-down percentage. And by bottom two, of course, I mean right there with the Bengals.
Juuso Riikola. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS• Assuming anyone could remember all of the Penguins' injuries to rank them in importance, Brian Dumoulin's would be right up there.
A wholly healthy depth chart would be beyond loaded on the right side with Letang, Schultz and Marino, but the left after Dumoulin and Marcus Pettersson -- whose performance wavers a little too much based on his partner -- brings Jack Johnson, Juuso Riikola and ... hello, Jim Rutherford! It's encouraging that Schultz is back on the ice, and it'll be a boost to have him back. All that'll achieve, though, is bumping Chad Ruhwedel or Zach Trotman, and it won't solve the left side.
The current corps could be worth a try, and Riikola deserves more than the odd game or two, but the clock's ticking. The Penguins currently sit in the East's last playoff spot, and points will be precious between now and when Crosby and Dumoulin come back. More ominous, in that same span, they'll make both of their long Western trips, always a struggle even at full-strength.
Can't fall too far behind and, thus, can't necessarily wait for the trade deadline to be busy.
• No one on the Penguins takes more unfair -- and I dare say uneducated -- abuse from the fans than Dominik Simon. He does so many things so well, even if most aren't easily quantifiable.
I'll add this, though: Two goals in 27 games doesn't cut it. He's registered 50 shots on goal, and he's had 22 attempts from high-danger areas, sixth-most on the team -- but only twice has made them count.
If he were part of the PK, that'd be somewhat acceptable because then he'd slot more easily on a third or fourth line. Teddy Blueger, for example, has the same number of goals in the same number of games, and no one complains about him. But Simon's seldom on the PK -- five minutes of short-handed ice all season -- and he's not a checking-line fixture, either.
I'm not changing my tune on him, and I'm not coming around to the common criticisms on Simon, so don't attach that to this stance. I'm simply saying that this part of his game needs to progress, and it's at least a little scary that it hasn't. He's 25. Not a kid anymore.
• Phil Kessel's got four goals in 28 games for the Coyotes, as well as a minus-14 rating that's worst on his team and seventh-worst in the NHL even though Arizona's off to a fine 15-9-4 start. Maybe this was just one of those classic trades that hurts both teams.
• If Matt Murray doesn't reset himself soon, everything else I'm sharing here is a waste of time. There's no way to survive what's ahead with Murray beating himself up, no matter what Tristan Jarry can conjure up for a week or two.
• Potentially unpopular stance: Bill Peters' admitted use of a racial slur was heinous, and he deserved to be fired by the Flames. His hitting/kicking players while with the Hurricanes was boorish. If he's never back in the NHL again, that'd be just about right. But I really, really hope hockey people aren't equating every time a coach was ever mean to a player to what Peters did, and some of that's already occurring. Coach/player relationships can be confrontational by nature. Context is critical.
Elias Diaz. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS• Elias Diaz, cut loose by the Pirates last night, will bounce back somewhere else. In the same breath, it's understandable that Ben Cherington couldn't count on him for 2020.
Diaz had a rough 2019, going way back to the virus that KO'd him for much of spring training. He never complained about it or blamed it for his big offensive dip -- .241/.296/.307 with two whole home runs -- but his teammates always had his back on the matter. They felt that, if he'd had a typical March and didn't have to regain weight and strength, he'd have been himself.
But what choice did Cherington have?
Risk another year like the one Diaz just had while paying as much as $2 million through arbitration?
Entering Bradenton with Diaz and Jacob Stallings as his catching tandem?
The latter was a pleasant surprise, but he's got backup written all over him.
The Winter Meetings open next Monday in San Diego, and this'll represent Cherington's first real challenge. Catchers aren't the most common commodity on the market, but he'll need to find one whether he's rebuilding or not. Actually, that position's even more of a must with a younger pitching staff.
• Cherington's first real external move, however, already happened earlier yesterday with the hiring of Steve Sanders, the Blue Jays' former scouting director, to become his assistant GM. I've got no basis on which to fairly judge Sanders, but I do know that external will be preferable to virtually any holdover from Neal Huntington's baseball operations, particularly in drafting and development.
• Remember when I'd mentioned here the Reds would be active this winter?
Well, there went Mike Moustakas from Milwaukee to Cincinnati via free agency, at four years and $64 million. And with the Reds having opened 2019 with a franchise-record $126 million payroll and management showing that'll increase in 2020, they could spend as much as double where the Pirates are projected to be.
This will mean next to nothing to me, mind you. Cherington's got far bigger worries within the organization, and no one should be pretending the Pirates can contend right away. But you'd better believe it'll be all the buzz once baseball's back. Because everyone in the Central will be in the Reds' range or higher.
• Only wondering: If Major League Baseball can prove conclusively that the Astros, collectively and institutionally, cheated to win the 2017 World Series -- and concrete evidence of that is appearing all over -- why shouldn't that be vacated?
Rob Manfred's made known that his office is investigating Houston's actions over the past three years, not just 2017, and that's swell. But fining the team or docking draft picks or something else in that vein, that won't serve as any deterrent at all.
• Have the Yankees signed everyone yet?
• Better question: Any professional athletes around here step on a rake yet today?
