The Pomp And Joe Show
Our projected Pirates lineup with Konnor Griffin, thoughts on Three Rivers
11 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the initial thoughts on the Pirates' lineup for the upcoming season?
Gourmet the Owl can't find a little five minutes for us today, Limits? That hurts.
You can reach out to Mr. Owl, but it's one of those very busy days where everyone talks. Paul Skeens is going to talk. That hurts.
But I understand. He's a busy man. Today is a big day out there. I know how it is in the mornings. We'll talk to him tomorrow. When I went to spring training, what was it now? Eight years ago? Something like that. Malzi made us grilled cheese sandwiches in the morning. Malzi went? Yeah, Malzi went. Oh, it was you and Malzi. The show went. The show went. Okay. Starkey and Muller. Colony was there.
He was still working, obviously, at the time. We had a wonderful time going out to eat every night. And as I said, Malzi took care of the breakfast in the morning. Why don't we get to go anymore? it's above my pay grade. Why don't you go ask the boss? Our show could have went. We still could if you pay. If I pay? Yes. Here's my lineup.
Oh, first let me tell you this, that I am never drinking orange Gatorade again as long as I walk this planet. In order to prepare for yesterday's colonoscopy, I drank... An entire, you know, if you have a party, you have one of those, a coffee pot where you press, well, you could see it in a coffee shop too. A giant canister of coffee that you press the top and the coffee comes out.
I drank all of that with Miralax and orange Gatorade. It was probably eight giant glasses of, Filled with Miralax and orange Gatorade, which of course, as you might expect, led to more blowouts than the 07 Patriots. But that was the point. Exactly. Yes. And it was cleansing. It was okay. But by the last one, I told my wife, I hope I never see a glass of orange Gatorade again. I like Gatorade.
I'll drink lemon. I'll drink red or purple. Never orange. Never, ever, ever again.
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Chapter 2: Who is Connor Griffin and why is he significant to the Pirates?
Mm-hmm. That or orange Jell-O will never, ever be ingested by me. Thank you for sharing right around lunchtime. You're welcome. All right. Memories of Three River Stadium imploded 25 years ago today and also mixing the past with the future. There is actually legit hope, not just.
The Bradenton flu type hope where you go down to Bradenton and spend 10 minutes watching the Pirates or covering them and you come away thinking they're at least going to win the World Series. This year, they might have a winning team. This year, they actually do have a potentially good lineup. Here's my lineup for opening day against Freddy Peralta, I'm assuming, for the Mets.
Like I said, a righty who's pretty much equal against righties and lefties. I'm leading off with Connor Griffin, the number one prospect in baseball. Who are you leading off with, Lemons?
I am leading off with Spencer Horwitz playing at first base.
Funny you should mention him. He's batting second for me at first base. Top 20 players. in on-base percentage in the National League last year, if he had had enough at-bats. I think it was .353, if I'm not mistaken. That would have qualified him for 17th in the National League. I like him behind Griffin. I like putting the pressure on Griffin early. This guy's used to dealing with pressure.
Come on, he's the number one prospect. If he's not able to deal with that, then move him down. I think he will be. Who's batting second for you?
I have Brian Reynolds in the two hole. He's consistently been there for a large portion of his Pirates career, and he stays there, which I think will be a bounce back year for him.
I hope so. I don't necessarily want to hand him back a high spot in the lineup. I think he has to earn that and prove that he's ready to bounce back to the norm. Last year was a disaster. Batting third, Brandon Lau, 31 home runs last season, as you all know. He's also missed big portions of seasons, but who cares? It's opening day. He's batting third with 31 home runs.
He might be the best hitter on the team. Limits, who's batting third for you?
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Chapter 3: What is the projected batting order for the Pirates this season?
Brian Reynolds, I was disagreeing with you having Reynolds, too. Reynolds batting sixth. It's up to him to prove he can bounce back. Batting... Did you say you're sixth place hitter? I have not. Please do.
Connor Griffin. playing shortstop, batting six, take a little bit of pressure on him. Don't put too much on the 19-year-old, but still a pretty solid spot in the order for a guy that could end up being one of the best players in the game in the future.
Batting seventh and hopefully cleaning up whatever's left over from time to time, the Cruz missile, O'Neal Cruz, I think less pressure for him could equal bigger numbers. Just bat him seventh. He wants to make this his, you know, personal home run derby. Let him. He's batting seventh. I love him in that spot. Limits?
I love Ryan O'Hearn batting seventh because he's someone who drove in 60 runs a year ago as a 280 hitter. You give him opportunities with runners on base, that can lengthen the lineup, and the Pirates haven't had a lengthened lineup in over a decade.
Well, this is where the lineup lengthen ends is with the eight and nine. I still want them to get a third baseman. And I will say I'm very, very open. I don't think we talk about this enough to Rafael Flores winning the number one catcher job. But I'll go with Henry Davis. You know, Skeens will want him to catch the opener, of course.
I'll go with Henry Davis, eight, and Jared Triolo, nine, if they don't find a better option. So Davis and Triolo, who you have in the eight and nine spots?
Oh, you have the tree. Izzy, Z, Peggy, tree. Izzy, Z, Peggy, tree. The last man standing up the ball, Joe, is tree. And I have Jared Triolo. I also would rather see Parades or Vientos.
Oh, yeah, I would reconfigure my order. You bring me one of those guys.
And maybe it's because I just haven't fully given up on them. And I think Bob is in the same boat as me. I still think that there could be something in Henry Davis.
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Chapter 4: How do the hosts feel about the potential of the Pirates' roster?
And had a major hip issue last year. I mentioned Lau tends to miss games. Horwitz came in last year with that chronic wrist problem. Reynolds is getting up there a little bit. Cruz has had some injuries. He could absolutely, if he's open to it,
If McCutcheon is open to it, and I think that's a fair question right now because he doesn't seem like he's really enjoyed this offseason interacting with the Pirates, but if he's still open to it, if the hurt wears off and we're getting toward July, August, and injuries start cropping up, especially if there's a major one,
I wouldn't write the end to that story just yet, and Charrington left that door open, didn't he?
Yeah, and the other part of that is, too, does he really want to go to another team and sit on the bench?
I don't think he's going to have that option, at least not at the start of the year. Anywho. How about you out there at 928-9370, mixing past and future, really the present, if you look at these pirates, and also the 25-year implosion of Three Rivers Stadium. I know we have a backlog of those calls limits. Let's get to them, shall we?
Yeah, let's start with Corey. He wants to talk about Three Rivers.
What's up, Corey?
Hi. Hey, Joe. I want to tell you, I was at the last sporting event at Three Rivers, and it was a Steeler game, and they honored one of the Super Bowl teams,
bad game i think the steelers lost but the thing that was great was not a fan left that stadium despite sleet and frozen rainfall it was a terrific honoring them guys but i'll also tell you i was the last games double-headed with the cubs at forrest field i was nine years old i got to see that so i watched him close two of them down and uh That was a good thing.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges facing the Pirates' lineup this year?
With my friend Hal, he brought me there with his son, and it was against Dan Marino. And Mike Tomczak played for the Steelers, and I think they won that game against Marino. And that place absolutely rocked, didn't it?
Yes, it was a great place for a football game. Baseball, not so much, but we had some really good teams there, especially in the 90s. That was a great place.
I appreciate the call, man. Last touchdown at three reverse stadium limits. You have a guess? I'm going to say your guy, Poteet. Wrong. Richard Huntley had a 30-yard touchdown run long before. Didn't he get in a fight in the locker room? It was Richard Huntley, and who was the linebacker? That's another trivia question.
Whoever it was, Josh Miller later told me that when the fight broke out and they were throwing chairs around, that he played dead in the locker room. He just went down on the floor.
I remember Richard Huntley from your spiel about Najee Harris and the lack of long runs that he had.
Yes, even Richard Huntley had.
Frank Pollard. That one was practically longer. Walter Abercrombie.
Right. And there were some who thought that getting rid of Najee would really harm the Steelers' run game. How are you going to replace that?
Well, Garrett Blount, Noel Day-Moore, Isaac Redman. Jonathan Dwyer. Did you say Davenport? No, I've not gotten Najee Davenport.
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Chapter 6: Why is the discussion of Three Rivers Stadium relevant today?
He's been roaming around the building for the last 10 minutes.
Let's talk Steelers. Let's talk Joey Porter Sr. taking big shots at Ben. What does the big boy think of that? Listen to the Pomp and Joe show every Wednesday to hear about Starkey's Card of the Week from the Baseball Card Castle in Cranberry. Contests run every Wednesday through Friday at noon at the 937thefan.com contesting page.
Partly cloudy today, high of Braxton Ashcraft in his new number 35. A low of 26, Adam Frazier. Fan weather brought to you by Secure Money Advisors, helping you get your retirement on the right track. Joe Potocnik will get your roofing and siding on the right track, and so will his mustache. I've known this guy for a while now.
They've been to my house a couple different times to fix things with roofing and siding. They identified it immediately. They fixed it immediately. I never worried about it again. It's an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Company, not an easy designation to get. He's earned it, Joe has, through decades of customer satisfaction. $500 off right now.
Any roofing or siding installation at JP Roofing and Siding. Give them a call. 412-829-7711. That's 829-7711. And now we go to the general. General, I'm sorry to bring up the horrible Sid Bream memory. Let's guess the card. It is what it is. I know, and it was what it was.
Limits, the card of the week is, I'm going to say, Paul Skeens, who will be speaking today as sort of a kickoff to spring training.
You? To be different, in a way, at least I'm going baseball. General, I'm curious if there's a Connor Griffin minor league card out there. Maybe I'll tune a curve or maybe braid into Marauders. What do you got, General?
I got to tell you, I appreciate you guys having me. This is the biggest day of the year in baseball cards. 2026 Tops Baseball comes out today, so we're going to spice it up for the Pump and Joe listeners. I'm throwing in a box of 2026 cards. They literally just hit the shelves half an hour ago. Already had a bunch of people in here looking for them. We're going to give a box of those away.
We're going to throw in a Connor Griffin card because that's the guy that most people, believe it or not, That's the card we've sold the most of non-football in the last two months is Connor Griffin. Wow. And then the card of the day, we've got to have a Marcelo Zuna autographed jersey card. We're going outside the organization for 100 RBIs. We've got to commemorate that.
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