feels almost reflexive anymore to just blanketly state that the rotation in 2026 is going to be excellent

let's look into it let's see if that's accurate. Good morning to you. Good.

Tuesday morning. I'm Dan Kavachewitch of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates presented by our friends over at the North Shore Tavern. Comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or hockey, I also offer daily shots. Steelers and Penguins in the same place that you found

there's obvious starting point of excellence, actual excellence versus more excellence,

is that Paul Skeens is part of this rotation. I don't need to tell anybody who he is or what

he's done. And why, if all five guys were just like him,

it'd be the greatest rotation that ever existed.

So let's progress from there,

and let's presume within that that Mitch Keller doesn't get traded.

Every day that goes by, incidentally,

without a hitter or hitters being signed, is one day closer to not having any

reason whatsoever to trade Mitch, which, as I've been saying for months, is a good thing for the

pirates. You don't just want someone like him to be part of a successful rotation. You need someone like him.

You can say what you want about Mitch's second halfs. You can look at the 4.19 ERA. You can say,

yeah, but he hasn't been whatever. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. There is very real, very tangible value in getting 32

starts out of a guy year after year after year. And to do that consistently in this setting

where the team stinks, where there's no offense, there's no support, there's no relaxing,

there's something to be spoken for that additionally. So we're at two, I'm still looking at someone

to be a three, not based on natural skill, not based on potential or anything like that, but on this, on reliability,

on being a real part of this. And as such, the guy I'm looking at next isn't.

Bubba Chandler isn't Braxton Ashcraft. It's actually Mike Burroughs.

Burroughs made 19 starts this past season.

...