Steelers' Le'Veon Bell has absurd demands

By Mark Madden

http://triblive.com/sports/

March 6, 2018

Le'Veon Bell isn't going to get $14.5 million per year on a long-term contract from the Steelers and likely wouldn't from any NFL team.

He's also not going to win the PR battle that accompanies his quest.

Bell's crusade is a flawed one. Glitches poke through freely.

Last year, Bell reportedly turned down a contract that would have paid him $13.3 million per and $42 million over the pact's first three years. That average annual value would have paid Bell more than $5 million more than Atlanta's Devonta Freeman makes. Freeman has the NFL's second-biggest paycheck among running backs.

Bell lowered the per-year demand he rapped about from $15 million to $14.5 million. That's an almost insulting piece of “negotiating.”

Antonio Brown's contract pays $17 million per. Houston's DeAndre Hopkins is the next highest-paid wide receiver at $16.2 million per. Bell's demand of $14.5 million per is the equivalent of Brown wanting $28 million per.

Bell considers himself a No. 1 running back and a No. 2 receiver and wants paid the combined salaries of both positions.

Unless Bell splits into two and literally plays both positions, that's absurd thinking. Catching passes is part of his job as a running back and why he's the highest-paid at the position.

Then there's the notion that running back is undervalued, and Bell is campaigning for his brethren at the position.

What a crock. Bell just wants his.

Running back isn't undervalued. The NFL is a passing league. Both Super Bowl teams handled the running back position via budget-conscious platoons. The six running backs who played for Philadelphia and New England in the Super Bowl earned $7.17 million between them.

No running back is worth what Bell wants.

Bell is making the predictable noise about sitting out: “I just have to decide if I'm going to play when the time comes.”

Last season, Bell finally signed his franchise tender after missing OTAs, mini-camp and most of training camp. (That's his right. Without a contract, Bell had no obligation.) Will Bell go one step further this year and sit out games?

Bell might. He's just principled/dumb enough. (Circle one.) If Bell reports by Week 10, he gets a pro-rated portion of $14.5 million and fulfills his franchise tag obligation. Then it's on to 2019 and more high jinks.

Despite kissing the posterior of Yinzer Nation via Twitter by way of trying to rally the citizens behind him, Bell is not a sympathetic figure. He comes off as a greedy jerk. That's truth in packaging, from this vantage point.

Bell is a great back. He is one of the NFL's best, perhaps the very best.

But he's got cons as well as pros.

Bell's raw numbers from 2017 speak for themselves: Third in rushing yards, fourth in receiving among running backs, second in all-purpose yards. Bell led the NFL in rushing attempts and only missed one game.

Bell's career per-game average of 128.9 yards from scrimmage is the NFL's best mark since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

He's a top talent. Bell is an exceptional pass blocker. He runs precise routes.

But Bell's per-carry average of 4.0 yards was second-worst of his five-year career and ranked just 23rd in the NFL. His per-catch average of 7.7 yards was also second-worst of his career and ranked only 17th among backs.

Bell had eight plays that gained 20 yards or more. Compare that to 27 by Brown and 20 by Los Angeles Rams back Todd Gurley. Bell is more of a workhorse than a game-breaker, at least this past season.

Bell is exceptional. But he's been paid exceptionally. And he's hardly perfect, especially given his me-first attitude and two pot suspensions.

Bell should tread lightly. If he doesn't sign his franchise tender, the Steelers could rescind it in the summer, leaving Bell looking for a job when big-time free-agent money has already been spent. But that won't happen unless the Steelers can quickly and effectively figure out a Plan B.

What is Bell's Plan B?

Worst-case scenario, he raps full-time. If you've heard Bell rap, you know exactly what's meant by “worst-case scenario.”

Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).

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Le'Veon Bell making it impossible to stay with Steelers long term

By Tim Benz

http://triblive.com/sports/

March 6, 2018

(Gail Burton/AP)

For a guy who claims he doesn't want to play on the franchise tag, Le'Veon Bell is making it impossible for his team to give him a long term contract.

For a guy who claims that he wants to be a Steeler his entire career, Le'Veon Bell is making it impossible to stay here beyond 2018.

The Steelers told Bell that he will be getting a one-year $14.5 million franchise tag contract before the NFL deadline Tuesday afternoon, unless the sides reach a long-term deal before then.

Bell let the media know such a compromise won't be happening anytime soon.

The Steelers All Pro running back told ESPN.com, "We're not coming to a number we both agree on — they are too low, or I guess they feel I'm too high," Bell said. "I'm playing for strictly my value to the team. That's what I'm asking. I don't think I should settle for anything less than what I'm valued at."

Well, that's a tough thing for the Steelers to accomplish when it's Bell himself who is setting his own value.

ESPN.com reporter Jeremy Fowler later explained (in a video portion of his report) that Bell meant if the franchise tag is $14.5 million, then that should be the floor of his contract — that he should never have to play for less than that.

Someone should explain to Bell — and/or his agents — that's not what the franchise tag is supposed to represent. That's particularly true for the second year tag the Steelers are apparently willing to pay.

The franchise tag isn't crafted to be a true representation of player value. It's meant to be an inflated poison pill. It's meant to be a deterrent, or a "break glass in case of emergency" tool.

More or less, the collective bargaining agreement is saying: "You don't want to pay your star player long term? OK. Then you are going to make it burdensome against your cap to keep him. Plus, he's getting a big chunk of cash in one year."

If Bell doesn't know that by now, he should.

If Bell doesn't get why the Steelers aren't going to pay him the franchise tag fee every year of an extended deal, someone should explain why they won't.

And if Bell doesn't grasp why the average annual value really doesn't matter, then negotiations aren't worth having any further.

I've long said general manager Kevin Colbert should keep Bell on the tag. Months of media and fan fretting over how that would cripple the Steelers salary cap is misinformation.

What would be crippling for the team, though, is paying $14.5 million in cash, every year, minimum, non-negotiable, to a player who is going have declining skills as he gets older.

Bell and his agents are suddenly approaching these negotiations like he's a hockey player, as if the average annual value (AAV) amount against the cap is important.

It isn't. Or at least it shouldn't be. The reason why the Steelers want Bell on that long-term deal is so they can move the money around year to year to keep his cap figure manageable. They'd want to pay him more cash up front and prorate the pinch on the cap at a lower number over the life of the contract.

Bell shouldn't care what his yearly number is against the cap. That's just an ego figure. What should matter is the guaranteed dollars up front. That, allegedly, was the case last year when Bell said no to $42 million, because he wasn't sure how much of that he'd actually see.

According to offseason speculation, Bell was going to see roughly $30 million of that for sure.

Jeremy Fowler

✔@JFowlerESPN

Bell confirmed he turned down a 2017 deal worth $42M over the first 3 and $13.3 M apy. The Steelers have since come up from those numbers, Bell said. http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/22657079 …

6:57 PM - Mar 5, 2018

Bell: Steelers to tag me for 2nd year in row

Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell tells ESPN he is again getting franchise tagged and won't play for "less than $14.5 [million per year]."

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So, greedy? Maybe. But at least I understood where he was coming from.

However, this latest layer to Bell's contract demand is nothing more than him rapping about wanting $15 million per year again, like he did before 2016 ended.

With Bell, one week it's AAV. The next week, it's cash up front. Then next it's guaranteed dollars over the life of the deal. Now, it's AAV again because he's hung up on the franchise tag.

No one wonder Colbert can't get this contract done. He has no idea what the guy on the other side of the table is asking for.

Bell said to ESPN the Steelers have come up from their $13 million per-year offer of last summer. Well, if he started at $15 million and has come down less than $500,000 in two years, then this isn't a negotiation, it's a take-it-or-leave-it stick up.

I'm in favor of the Steelers keeping Bell for at least 2018. But if it's going to be beyond that, Bell needs to close the rest of the gap himself.

Tim Benz hosts the Steelers pregame show on WDVE and ESPN Pittsburgh. He is a regular host/contributor on KDKA-TV and 105.9 FM.

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David Schoenfield

http://www.espn.com/mlb/

March 2, 2018

Clint Hurdle and Neal Huntington

Spring training got off to a tumultuous start for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays. Following an offseason in which the Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, David Freese and Josh Harrison came to camp and lamented about the state of the franchise. The Rays traded Evan Longoria in December and then kicked off spring training by trading Jake Odorizzi and designating Corey Dickerson for assignment, moves met with fast and furious criticism across the baseball landscape.

Freese’s comments were the most pointed, saying the culture in Pittsburgh hasn’t been conducive to winning. “The last two years, we haven’t done as well as we could have because of our environment. That’s what I think. I walk in every day, and it’s not in the air. The demand to win just hasn’t been in the air,” he told reporters. In January, Harrison released a statement that he’d rather not play for a rebuilding team. He doubled down when he reported to camp. “I want to win,” he said. “If that’s not what they want to do here, trade me.”

The Odorizzi trade to the Twins was hardly a shocker, although many questioned the light return of unheralded prospect Jermaine Palacios. Dickerson was never better than the moment he was designated for assignment, as his mediocre .310 OBP the past two seasons with the Rays was ignored in favor of reminders that he started in last year’s All-Star Game. In a curious twist, the Rays ended up trading Dickerson to the Pirates for reliever Daniel Hudson.

Anyway, for some reason, everyone seemed surprised that two penny-pinching franchises were again pinching pennies. These moves were registered as further proof that the Pirates and Rays simply aren’t trying to win, or don’t care enough. Pirates fans blame the spending of owner Bob Nutting for the team’s fall from three straight playoff appearances from 2013 to 2015 to two straight losing seasons. After finishing 75-87 in 2017, the Rays have had four consecutive losing seasons since making the playoffs four times in six seasons from 2008 to 2013.

I’m not going to defend the frugality of Nutting or Stuart Sternberg, although some reports haven’t been completely fair. One of the major criticisms of the Pirates is that they didn’t add enough in-season pieces during their playoff runs. That ignores the 2015 team that won 98 games and added J.A. Happ, Joakim Soria, Aramis Ramirez and Joe Blanton at the trade deadline. Unfortunately, that team still fell two games short of the division title and lost to a red-hot Jake Arrieta in the wild-card game. Reports have indicated the Rays have cut their payroll from $100 million in 2017 to $73 million. As Sternberg pointed out when he met with reporters Tuesday, Tampa Bay’s estimated Opening Day payroll will be higher than last year’s ($70 million).

The bigger issue is that both teams have done a lousy job lately of producing major league talent. According to thebaseballgauge.com, the Pirates produced the least amount of talent in the major leagues in 2017: Just 12.3 WAR came from players originally signed or drafted by the Pirates. The Cubs led the majors with 58.1 WAR. That disparity explains the 17-win difference between the Cubs and Pirates a lot more than Nutting’s unwillingness to increase the club’s payroll. It’s a minor miracle the Pirates won 75 games with such little homegrown talent.

What happened? After the Pirates drafted Neil Walker in the first round in 2004 and McCutchen in 2005, they had eight picks in the top 10 of the draft from 2006 to 2013, but those players have combined for just 23.0 career WAR. Only Jameson Taillon remains in the organization after the Cole trade.

Neal Huntington became general manager at the end of 2007 and has presided over 10 drafts. He and his lieutenants simply haven’t drafted well.

Consider:

2008: Pedro Alvarez, second overall (6.0 WAR). Alvarez did contribute to the playoff teams and led the National League in home runs in 2013, but he was taken ahead of Eric Hosmer and Buster Posey.

2009: Tony Sanchez, fourth overall (0.4 WAR). This was a weak first round aside from Stephen Strasburg, Mike Trout and A.J. Pollock, but Sanchez accumulated just 144 at-bats in the majors.

2010: Jameson Taillon, second overall (3.6 WAR). He could still break out, but the Pirates took the high school right-hander one pick ahead of Manny Machado.

2011: Gerrit Cole, first overall (12.2 WAR). He’s been solid, but five other first-round picks have produced more WAR, including Francisco Lindor, the eighth overall pick.

2012: Mark Appel, eighth overall (0.0 WAR). Appel didn’t sign with the Pirates, who passed on high school shortstops Addison Russell and Corey Seager, both taken a few picks later.

2013: Austin Meadows, ninth overall, and Reese McGuire, 14th overall. The Pirates took Meadows with a compensation pick for not signing Appel and then a high school catcher in McGuire. Neither has reached the majors and McGuire is now with the Blue Jays. They passed twice on college bat Aaron Judge.

OK, what I just did is a little unfair. You could do a similar “what if” scenario for any team. But you get the idea. On top of that, the Pirates have fared poorly in Latin America. Gregory Polanco, who had a terrible 2017 (0.0 WAR), is the only significant Latin player to come up since Starling Marte in 2012.

The Rays produced more overall value in 2017 than the Pirates with 32.0 WAR, but only 14.2 of that was earned with the Rays. Pirates reliever Felipe Rivero (2.7 WAR) and Rockies starter German Marquez (3.0 WAR) were original Rays farmhands traded away -- Marquez was actually part of the Dickerson trade, along with Jake McGee.

Like the Pirates, the Rays struggled in the draft after plucking Longoria in 2006 and David Price in 2007. They have a little better excuse, as their on-field success meant they weren’t drafting high -- their highest pick between 2009 and 2014 was 17th, wasted on high school outfielder Josh Sale.

Is either team tanking? Predictably, both owners rejected that notion. In his session with reporters, Sternberg said the team will win “more [games] than you think. Whatever it is anybody in this group here is thinking, it’s more. I’m a high man.”

Nutting met with reporters last week and insisted his team’s moves were about building a better team for 2019 and 2020 while remaining competitive in 2018. “Other clubs have taken [the approach], 'We’re going to embrace the cycle. We’re going to build for a few years, and we're going to tank for a few years,'" he said. "We believe that we have the better approach. We believe that we can have a more steady window of performance. That's why this year is not a rebuild year. It's younger players, but it's not a three-year tank."

The Rays appear to have the edge in young talent. Aside from young starters Blake Snell and Jake Faria, who have already reached the majors (unfortunately Brent Honeywell, the team’s top pitching prospect, underwent Tommy John surgery a few days ago), they have some high-ceiling prospects in shortstop Willy Adames, pitcher/first baseman Brendan McKay and outfielder Jesus Sanchez. Others such as first baseman Jake Bauers, infielder Christian Arroyo and outfielder Justin Williams could contribute this season. Keith Law rated the Rays’ system seventh overall (although that was before the Honeywell injury), and their list of 25-and-younger talent is impressive.

The Rays could even be getting a new, more lucrative TV deal in 2019. Sports Business Daily reported that the Rays are close to signing a new TV contract with the Fox Sports Florida regional network that would increase their payment from $35 million in 2018 to an average of $82 million over 15 years (starting at $50 million in 2019). The Rays haven’t commented on that, and even details of their current contract have been secretive.

The Pirates’ system, meanwhile, dropped from fourth to 15th in Law’s rankings. The Latin American pipeline remains thin. They desperately need Marte and Polanco to bounce back and a couple of the young starters to take a big leap forward.

One thing we know: Don’t expect either team to play in the free-agent market in the future. It’s not in the genes of either franchise. Unless the young talent develops, it won’t matter if you label them rebuilders or penny-pinchers because they’re not going to win without the next Andrew McCutchen or the next Evan Longoria.

Fitting Penguins' pieces together after Derick Brassard trade

By Mark Madden

http://triblive.com/sports/

March 3, 2018

Derick Brassard #19 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates during warmups before the game against the New Jersey Devils at PPG Paints Arena on February 27, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)

Last year, Kris Letang missed the playoffs. No problem.

This year, Ian Cole got traded. Big problem.

Such panicky sentiment got batted about by the hoi polloi in the wake of three consecutive Penguins losses that saw 17 goals surrendered. Buyer's remorse pervades discussion of the trade that fetched Derick Brassard from Ottawa but sacrificed Cole's penalty-killing and shot-blocking, qualities that have marked him as a bottom-pair defenseman, yes, but one that can't possibly be replaced.

Not by Matt Hunwick, anyway.

Trading for Brassard involved a degree of calculated risk, to be sure.

Cole was a clear-cut No. 5 on the defensive depth chart, but his aforementioned assets were needed.

Hunwick is faster of skate, thought and hands, which is why Coach Mike Sullivan often preferred him to Cole when both were available.

But with Cole gone, the Penguins lack a defenseman to do what Cole does. In context of the blue-line corps, Hunwick is more of the same, but worse.

That's not a condemnation of the trade. In a 31-team league that employs a salary cap, each team will have soft spots. Third-line center was the Penguins'; GM Jim Rutherford strengthened that at the expense of his defense.

That's not to be criticized. After goaltender, center is the most important position in hockey. If Sullivan is to realize his ambition of using Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel on different lines, the center on Kessel's line had to be better than Riley Sheahan.

That balance is ground zero of Sullivan's plan. Having Brassard facilitates.

It also seems more likely Hunwick will close the gap on Cole's level of play than it did Sheahan would provide proper service for Kessel.

The Brassard trade solidifies a few realities: The Penguins are a three-line team now. Sullivan talks about rolling four lines, but why do that? The fourth line will see limited use — as it did before the trade — and will be primarily used to store penalty-killers like Carter Rowney and Tom Kuhnhackl.

Certain situations will dictate greater use for the fourth line: routs and meaningless late-season games. But mostly, the Penguins will use three lines.

The Penguins will primarily use four defensemen come playoff time: Letang, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta and Justin Schultz. Many teams use that philosophy in the postseason, notably Nashville last spring.

Injuries on defense could give the Penguins trouble, but that applies to all teams at all positions.

The Penguins survived Letang's absence in last year's playoffs thanks to late acquisition Ron Hainsey playing above expectations. If it's necessary, maybe Hunwick can do the same. Hunwick averaged almost 26 minutes for Toronto in the 2017 postseason. He's proven capable before.

Somebody can kill (and is killing) penalties in Cole's place. Shot-blocking is more organic. Better puck management will put a dent in all problems. Bad puck management has been, by far, the Penguins' biggest recent shortcoming.

Sullivan's Plan A is a good one. Three lines scoring won the Stanley Cup in 2016. H-B-K! H-B-K! Do you still have your T-shirt?

But a solid plan B is available.

The Penguins could put Malkin and Kessel on the same line. That helped win the Stanley Cup in 2017.

Sullivan could then assemble a third line of Brassard, Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist. Hagelin's speed, Hornqvist's nastiness and Brassard's all-around quality would make that a tough line to play against. Sullivan could match that trio against the opposition's first line and give it fits.

Don't do it now. Hagelin and Hornqvist have helped make Malkin into the league's hottest goal-scorer.

But it's a good arrow for Sullivan's quiver. A lot can (and will) happen between now and a third straight Stanley Cup.

Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).

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Corey Dickerson was an All Star last July, not seven years ago

By Mike Wysocki

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/

February 28, 2018

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

This Pirates offseason was one of the worst in recent memory. The franchise’s single best player in a quarter-century was off to San Francisco, and all we got was a lousy Kyle Crick jersey. Andrew McCutchen’s departure was taken personally, as thousands of Bucco fans directed their ire toward the ownership and front office responsible for this unspeakable travesty. If that wasn’t enough, also sent packing was Gerrit Cole, the Bucs’ best starting pitcher since Doug Drabek and his sweet mullet.

Cole joined the defending world-champion Houston Astros, who were so good that Cole is their fourth starter. In return, the Pirates received the usual cadre of non-household names, who might be good in a few years if everything somehow works out perfectly. Cole was supposed to be the Pirates’ future, but is now, inexplicably, part of their past after just a few seasons.

Division rivals (I hate them so much) the Cubs, Brewers and Cardinals upgraded their rosters, leaving the Pirates and the Reds to presumably battle each other for fourth place. But on Feb. 22, the dynamic shifted. The Pirates made a deal that sounded a lot like Pirates deals of the past. An All-Star player in his prime was being dealt in exchange for another team’s sixth-best reliever and a pitching prospect named Tristan Gray (a name that sounds more like a dime-store romance novelist than a feared big-league hurler). But there was a twist to this transaction. The Pirates weren’t the ones getting crap in return for the All Star: This time, they were getting the All Star.

And unlike deals of the past when a big-name free agent came to town, Corey Dickerson was an All Star last July, not seven years ago. Bucs fans had to check the news through multiple sources to make sure it wasn’t some kind of left-wing, fake-news trap. Once the info was verified, we started asking the normal questions. Did he just undergo some kind of surgery? Is he a clubhouse pariah that the Tampa Bay Rays needed to get rid of? Was he blind in one eye, missing some fingers or suffering from a flesh-eating bacteria? 

But it turns out the answer is: none of the above. The Rays were just pulling a Pittsburgh Pirates and trading their good players to shed payroll for very little return on investment.

As a result, talk of the upcoming 2018 Pirates season turned from boycotts and impending doom to a possible Wild Card run. The outfield was two-thirds of the way set, with Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco. The last spot was going to be a Battle Royale with contenders named Adam Frazier, Sean Rodriguez, Jose Osuna, Daniel Nava, Michael Saunders, Austin Meadows, Bryce Brentz, Jordan Luplow and Christopher Bostick. Now those guys will all be competing to ride the pine in the majors. 

Fans quickly searched for Dickerson’s stats, and they liked what they found. A player who is three years Cutch’s junior who hit .282 in Tampa with 27 dingers. During his five seasons, he’s knocked 90 baseballs over the fence. Some even claim he’s better than McCutchen was at this point in his career. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Cutch is still better defensively, but when it comes to offense, there’s at least a case to be made.

With this one move, the Pirates now have an unfamiliar ally named “depth” on their roster. With all the outfield spots secured, the bench is looking sharp. There are only five roster spots for bench players. The backup catcher gets one, and right now, it looks as if the pinch hitters and role players Clint Hurdle has to choose from all have significant big-league experience. Sean Rodriguez, Adam Frazier and David Freese will be in three of those spots, and it’s likely that the newly acquired Daniel Nava (who hit over .300 with the Phillies last season) will get the last spot. 

Now, of course, the lack of quality starting pitching is still an issue. But let’s forget about that for awhile, and just enjoy this moment.