Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 41 (7/13 All-Star Game)

Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft met with the media at Citizens Bank Park, but what was missing from their experience? Also, those two showcased their lighter side with some of their answers. Jason Mackey shares some anecdotes from covering media day and details what this day meant for Skenes and Ashcraft.

Transcript

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All right, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Pirates Insider Podcast. I am Jason Mackey talking to you from Philadelphia after Media Day today in the home run derby, of course. Congrats to Jordan Walker for winning it, but not going to spend a whole lot of time, actually any time, talking about the home run derby. Going to talk more about Media Day and conversations with Paul Skins and Braxton Ashcraft today at Citizens Bank Park. Very cool. Great to see them in that setting. A lot of interesting answers, a lot of great stuff coming from those two. Fun and serious. And I I thought the biggest thing or the most intriguing to me was to hear those guys talking about groups that aren't there. And what I mean by that is the offense, of course, the Pirates offense. And I I'm not gonna lie, I I thought the Pirates would still get some sort of late ad. It's kind of unbelievable to me that the Pirates offense did what it did in the first half of the season, and they didn't have a single representative here in Philadelphia. Again, for the numbers, if you're not completely aware, you probably are at this point. Tied for first and run scored. They have the most hits of any MLB team, 886, and they're second in OPS. It's one of the best offenses in the league, maybe the best offense in the league, depending on how you want to look at it. And the Pirates are represented here by two pitchers. And that's taking nothing away from Paul Skeens, but we're doing this wrong. Those guys should have somebody from the offense there. And they brought this up a couple times when asked about it today. I mean, Brandon Lau, a second baseman with 21 home runs. Why aren't you in that discussion? I understand O'Neal Cruz, Spencer Horowitz, you're injured, not going to get to the All-Star game. Ryan O'Hearn missed a couple weeks with what that was a hamstring or a quad, leg injury. His numbers are still very good. I I understand that, you know, maybe O'Hearn doesn't make it because if I'm going to take an outfielder from the Pirates, it's Brian Reynolds. Either way, it's just it we talked a lot today with those guys about who's not there. And I'm going to read you a quote from Paul Skeen. Someone should be here. We've scored the most runs in the league. You don't do that without having really good offensive players. I know one through nine were very good. I know we don't have an Otani, Harper, or Schwarber who's like the guy, but we have a lot of guys who are really good. I think that should be recognized. He's right. He's absolutely right. It was a major misstep. One of the things I've always thought was really cool about Major League Baseball's All-Star game, and any All-Star game really, it becomes a forum to talk about great first half storylines. What we've seen so far, Braxton Ashcraft is a perfect example. He deserves to go. We should be talking about him. We should be talking about what a great first half he's had. You know, even things like, you know, who's starting the game now. Like, yeah, let's talk about Christopher Sanchez. He's been awesome. Let's talk about Dylan Sees. He's been awesome. Um, you know, or Sal Stewart in Cincinnati or something like that. Jacob Mizaroski, I know he's not pitching, but we should obviously talk about him. Um the Pirates' offense is worth talking about. And it's really unfortunate that they don't have a representative here because it doesn't really beget talking about it. Um so I understand why. Um that's something Ashcraft brought up a little bit, and it's sort of like the cold reality of where the pirates are right now, what they need to change. It's actually something that I go through a lot when we talk about the pirates signing free agents. Like they still have a lot of work to do with changing the perception of themselves, and they get it. I was actually encouraged to hear Ashcraft talk about it a little bit. He said, I don't know if it's respect as much as it is att is attention. The pirates haven't lived up to expectations that we've had for ourselves in the clubhouse in years past. I still think we're not quite there yet in terms of playing our best baseball. I would wholeheartedly agree with that comment by Ashcraft. They have not played their best baseball, at least not consistently enough. They are getting there. This current stretch has been really good, and I can see the makings for this team being able to make a run in the second half. But if you step back and think, why do we believe that this team is capable of making a run in the second half? It's the offense. It's the offense. Why isn't that group here? That's something that I think is just it's it's an oversight. I don't care how you have to work to get somebody in there, they should be in there. It's just uh I I I don't understand it. I don't understand it. And this stretch, by the way, I looked this up. I've been I've been hammering this because I do think it's important. The Pirates are in the middle of a stretch, 22 games against teams 500 or better. Right now they've played 13 of those and they've won eight. It's pretty darn good. A tough road trip coming up after the break at Cleveland, at New York, and then home against the Cubs. That's how they'll finish that stretch. But that's gonna take the Pirates darn close to the trading deadline. And at that point, they're gonna have to add some reinforcements, obviously. But things are going right for the Pirates. Talked about that with the guys today, too. Paul Skeens has won his past two starts. And by the way, just to tease that Skeens thing a little bit, uh I wrote a story for pirates.com. It's up there now, those two guys talking about the offense. I have something going actually today when you read this, um, that'll be Tuesday, but about them, some of the fun anecdotes, and I'll share those a little bit later in the podcast. But saving something for Wednesday on Paul Skeens and his feelings on his four-seamer, his velocity, his first half, relationship with Bill Murphy, that sort of thing. It's all kind of been in the crosshairs. But anyway, that's gone much, much better over the past two starts. It actually reminds me of, you know, in that Philadelphia start where things went so wrong for Paul Skins, I was called an idiot for not thinking that everything was screwed with him. Well, it's not. He seems to be okay, seems to have a step forward. Ashcraft has pitched well, they have to figure out Mitch Keller, Bubba Chandler outside of his last start or two has been really good. Jared Jones is perfect his last time out. The key to the Pirates in the second half is pitching. I guess the key to the Pirates this whole season was pitching, but to me it only ramps up that expectation that much more. There's a lot of pressure on this group. There's a lot of pressure on Skeens, Ashcraft, Murphy, a lot of the guys I named, not to mention in the bullpen. You know, can Dennis Santana figure it out? Is Isaac Matson somebody they can count on in the later innings? Is Brandon Isert a meaningful, you know, arm to throw in there in that Evan Sisk role? When does Sisk get back? Gregory Soto, Mason Montgomery, can they can they continue doing things? Do the Pirates add at the trade deadline? There's a whole bunch of that stuff, and I do think they will add, by the way, but a lot hinges on the bullpen here in the second half. Um I want to talk a little bit about Ashcraft too. Um just seeing him experience everything that he experienced was a lot of fun today. Um, almost like seeing it through a kid's eyes. You know, Skeens has been here, he's done that a little bit, Ashcraft has not. Um, and so uh getting to see a little bit of his personality on this stage was a lot of fun. And that's the subject of the story that I was referencing. He was asked a bunch of funny questions. Um, and he was one of them was who would you rather if you could face any player at any time in Major League Baseball history, who would you want to face? Um and he said it would either be Josh Hamilton, that was the first jersey he ever owned, or Barry Bonds. And they said, How would you attack Bonds? He said, Well, I'd try to throw him something to swing at out of the zone. The best pitch is my curveball. I try to lean on that as hard as I could. If not, hopefully first base is open. He's got this quiet Texas demeanor to him. And at one point, somebody came up to him and was asking him about, you know, are you who's gonna have the best fit uh for the red carpet? And he said, Well, it's not gonna be me. You know, I'm a pretty simple guy. Like just yeah, the Ashcraft, there's a lot going on upstairs with him, but he he does he he makes complex simple. He's not a flashy personality, but he's thoughtful. Um and just you could tell being around him today at Citizens Bank Park that he just really liked it. He liked getting to experience everything that he did. Um and he was just he was like sneaky funny. Um somebody asked him a question. Um, if you hear the the words West Philadelphia, born and raised, what comes next? And he said, on a playground is where I spent most of my days, and everybody starts busting out laughing. Uh makes me feel old. I mean, for you know, anybody listening for me, of course, you've watched The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, you know what that theme song is. You don't expect somebody who's like, you know, 23, 24, 25 to answer that. But Ashcraft nailed it, and it was funny. Someone also asked him about the uh the 999 challenge of hot dogs, beer, nine hot dogs, nine beers in nine innings of baseball. He said I'd have no problem with the beers. But the hot dogs, I think I'd I'd need some slow innings there to put those all down. I'd probably tap out around five. But it was just make sure you check that out later today. Just a fun exchange uh with the answers. Skeens, Ashcraft, those guys having a good time with Media Day. But overall, it's a very healthy relationship. It's something that I will say being around this team every day maybe did not appreciate as much until today, getting to see Paul and Braxton interact. And um just Paul joking around, you know, Ashcraft was filming something for Sportsnet Pittsburgh, and I wrote about this, but he was up on this like stage in the press conference room, and Paul comes in and said, Oh, there he is, center of attention as always, Braxton Ashcraft, and Ashcraft's laughing. Uh, but at the same time, Paul has kind of you know welcomed Ashcraft into this group of pitchers who were here a lot, and uh, you know, introduced them to Pat McAfee, and it was just a cool, healthy uh camaraderie with those two here at an event. So that's gonna about do it for my podcast. I know I went over time yesterday. This one will probably be a little bit shorter, but just wanted to give some insight into what it was like around Media Day with those two guys and hearing from them, hearing them talk about the pirates in the first half, how encouraged they are at how they finish the first half, what they're looking forward to in the second half. Again, check that story out at pirates.com. Um I'll be back for more tomorrow. Uh, I think I'll probably end up doing a mailbag edition uh for this podcast. Want to take some of your questions as we fill in the days until the pirates go to Cleveland for that series. Uh, this is always, at least for me, I don't know about for you, but for you know, it makes you miss baseball even more not having it for a couple of days. But hopefully you're enjoying some time away. I know these guys will enjoy the all-star game tomorrow and then try to squeeze in a little bit of rest. We'll see how they decide to line up their rotation coming out of the break. Make sure you like and subscribe and download and do all that fun stuff to listen to these podcasts. Appreciate you. Appreciate you checking them out. This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey, and talk to you tomorrow.