OverDrive - Hiles on Pham’s antics, Skenes' stardom, and Pirates roster management and lack of spending

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Pirates writer with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette joins us on OverDrive to discuss Tommy Phan’s antics during Monday’s game. Hiles discusses Paul Skenes’ stardom and the Pirates' roster management, as well as their lack of spending.

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I made it to my tournament and lost in the first round. But you got there on time. Intact Insurance. Your auto service ace. Certain conditions apply. from tariffs to trade deals the markets are changing is your portfolio ready for what comes next for all your questions you need a money guy calvin the money guy will help you develop a financial plan that includes the right levels of diversity the best way to navigate uncertain times with strategic advice from kelvin you can not only protect your investments you can grow them don't wait call four one six 457 plan or visit ask kelvin dot A guy who gets to watch him on a daily basis pretty well is Noah Howes, our guests right now, Pittsburgh Pirates, Beat Reporter, and a of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. How's going, Noah?

Guys, thanks for having me on. Everything's going well. How's it for you guys? We're doing well. We're just reacting to the situation from last night. Tommy Pham, not quite sure what happened there. He ends up doing a little bat flip. after a four-pitch walk, goes back to speak to Tyler Heideman, bench is clear.

There were some comments post-game that were puzzling, some tweets. I mean, what's the deal with this Tommy fam guy? I don't know. I mean, I feel like if anyone could answer that question in baseball, it would have been answered by now. I'll say this. If someone who's covered him this whole season, he seems like a good teammate. Like, the players on the Pirates roster in the clubhouse,

seemed to like the guy. He just seems to have one of these episodes every year, at least one of them. And he's had multiple here in Pittsburgh with the altercation with the Angels fan earlier this year. There was something that happened in Detroit as well, where he got three fans ejected in the middle of a game once. It's interesting. It just seems like he does not have a high tolerance for things that upset him. like you obviously cover the pirates and you see players come and go and you know we we know the story with the pirates there's not much of a payroll and the team can only be so good like do you kind of get the sense every year that you know around this time of year middle of august there's some frustration setting setting in with some of the players i think so i mean i don't know if this is frustration related i think there's just tommy fan being tommy fan he could have been having a great day and this could have still happened but and if tom Tommy's listening. I'm not saying that as a flight.

I just, you know, going off of a historic pattern here. But overall, yeah, I think it's been a very frustrating season for the Pirates, and they're just trying to find anything right now to get them up and, you know, get a little bit of motivation, extra motivation to play. But I don't think this was a product of the dog days of summer and ready for the season to be over type of thing. I just think this was, like I said, Tommy fan being Tommy fans. In conversation with Noah Hiles, Pittsburgh beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

and we're also kind of admiring Paul Skeens and the fact that you get to watch him pitch every five days. Last night gave up a couple runs, but eight strikeouts against a team that doesn't strike out often in the Toronto Blue Jays. I mean, how great is it to get to watch this guy on a daily basis? I mean, these are the guys when you get into sports journalism that you hope to cover, right? Like, I was lucky enough I started covering this team last year. My first assignment after starting on the beat was driving to Louisville to watch him make his first AAA start. And I remember watching him pitch three innings in his first AAA start and texting my dad

saying, this is the best pitcher I've ever seen in person. And that, you know, when he gets up here, people are going to think, oh, you know, he could be okay, he could be good. And I was like, I don't think people understand how nasty this guy is on the mound. And I think people learn pretty quickly. It's a show every single time. I really like watching him pitch the most when he goes up against teams with a good lineup. Teams like the Blue Jays who are in first place right now, it feels like he finds an extra gear in those games.

He always seems to pitch well against teams like the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets, the Phillies, and, you know, the Blue Jays who are in first place, you know, you're going to get an A-game start from him. Well, I think it's also a conversation that happens a lot outside of Pittsburgh is get Paul Skeen's out of Pittsburgh. And, you know, there's a long history of the pirates not paying their players and opting to move them elsewhere, recoup some prospects, and try and rebuild again. What's the fear that the Paul Skeen's tenure in Pittsburgh won't be very long? Oh, I mean, that's the main fear right now.

That's why you're seeing so much frustration expressed throughout. the fan base is because people are worried that, you know, like, this is the time to add money to the payroll. They've had a payroll over $100 million before. They've had it up to $120, which still is not very high. But for here, I mean, that's all the fans are asking for. And the fact that they, their biggest free agent signing this past off season was Andrew Heaney in late February, and it was a $5.25 million deal. They haven't spent a ton of money in free agency over the last, I don't know, really ever. And if you're not going to do that,

then you would at least like to see them invested in other areas, maybe extend some guys. And they haven't really come close on that front since extending Mitch Keller a couple years ago either. So there's just a real question by the fans. So what's the commitment here? You have probably the best pitcher on the planet, and you have them at a very premium price.

He's pre-arbitration for another year, and he's not the only good young pitcher in this organization. They have a lot of talented young arms, and that's the toughest thing to find in baseball, is affordable, productive, reliable pitching. And they have that box check, but they refuse to seemingly invest on the other side of the game, and it cost them a season.

This season was over before it even began, and knowing that you only have six at most seasons with Paul Steens, probably less if you're going to trade them, you'd like to see them make the most of that opportunity because if you can get into the, if you can get this guy into the playoffs, he's someone, no one wants to face in a seven-game series,

especially if it lines up where he gets to pitch two or three times. So fans are frustrated. I think players are frustrated. They're, I mean, he's set on record. He hopes to see the team do more this off-season. Andrew McCutcheon expressed a similar thing. They've just got to go out and do it because they, like I said,

no other team in baseball has this type of weapon. Well, I guess if you looked here in the ALE East, you would look at a team like the Rays and say, well, that's a team that doesn't spend a ton of money, but they draft well, and they produce good talent, and they're a competitive team. And every once in a while, it just kind of pops off with not having to spend the way the Dodgers or the Mets spend,

like not even really coming close to that. And that's something that I think would be very attainable for the pirates. And if you showed, like, you know the fan base, if you showed the fan base that, you'll see people, you know, go out to PNC Park, which is one of the most unbelievable stadiums in the majors. And all of a sudden, it's like, you know, that little investment in the grand scheme of things

can do so much more for your organization, but I don't even think they get, like fans don't even see that happening, like Tampa Bay Ray's level of investment. Yeah, I mean, they haven't signed a multi-year free agent since 2017. You're not going to be a winning organization when that's a true sentence. I mean, they're general managers entering, you're six, and he still hasn't achieved that.

He signed three big extensions, but, I mean, they're just so far behind on the financial side of it. And like you said, it doesn't take a ton to win. The best team in baseball right now, the Milwaukee Brewers, they're not doing this with a huge payroll. What's their payroll? Like 115, 120, something like that. And, yeah, the raise have found ways to do it. Cleveland is always competitive. I mean, you could go down the list.

Milwaukee, Oakland, a lot of small market teams. They find a way to compete. You can have poor success as a front office, and you can be cheap. You can't be both. And that's kind of what's the problem for the pirates right now. With Noah Hiles, I'm always intrigued to get an outsider's perspective on the 2025 season that the Blue Jays have had. Do you view this team as serious contenders this year, Noah? I think so.

I think any time a team comes out of the ALEs, you have to take them seriously. I mean, that's because you're going up against two teams that are always seemingly in the mix with Boston and New York. And then, you know, Baltimore, that was my pick to win the World Series this year. Well, shows what I know. I don't know why you guys are having me on the show after I said that. But, yeah, I'm impressed with Toronto. I think the investment they made in Guerrero, I think, might have provided a little bit of a spark just to show. And, I mean, you're getting a lot out of some guys that you probably didn't expect to get this much out of this year.

And they're a fun team. I was worried a little bit that when they got hot in July, that they might be peaking too early. But it seems like something they're able to sustain. And I'm excited to watch them in October. I have one of my really close friends is actually a big Blue Jays fan. So I would like to see them win for him. We'd like to see him win as well. We'd definitely provide a lot more content for us on this program.

Noah really appreciate taking time to join today. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious, this week in gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games from basics to beyond. The hottest gaming news, insight and industry leaders and more weekly. Join me, Naomi Kyle, and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates. Even if you're a total newbie. Stream this weekend gaming on the free IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.