Hey guys, welcome to double shot of pirates. I'm Dan Kovachovich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

And the pirates are playing tonight against the Padres with all skeins on the mound.

That means that there's a very, very, very good chance that the club will at least be

competitive and tight and in the game and all that other stuff.

So I'm going to seize the opportunity here, if you'll forgive me, to tackle a couple of,

eh, a little bit more uncomfortable subjects, shall we say.

Things that are kind of, they're under the surface for the pirates, but not really, not all that much.

And there's something that could make a difference in the long run if they aren't addressed.

And of course, they're offensive related. And I know everybody's been all happy and everything with the offense to date.

And that's great. Okay. There have been, and I'll go over them here, so I don't look like I'm being

like negative on purpose here. There's Brandon Lau and Ryan O'Hern have been everything anybody

could have wanted to this stage. Again, it's just, it's 10 games into the season,

but they've hit for power, they've hit for production. O'Hern looks like an MVP candidate

through about a week. O'Neill Cruz had a rough series in New York, and since then has just been

dynamite offensively, especially against lefties.

These are good.

These are positives.

Brian Reynolds kind of okay somewhere in there.

He has a couple of home runs, which is always encouraging from him.

Because his production tends to follow his power, if that makes any sense.

That's been true for a long time.

And Nick Gonzalez, despite being the forgotten guy, if you think about it,

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