First Call: Steelers Pat Freiermuth deemed 'underappreciated'; Patriots punished; Lamar Jackson on Ravens' new offense

Thursday’s “First Call” shines a spotlight on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ most “underappreciated” player. The sleepy Pirates bats have a difficult wake-up call out west. The New England Patriots are in trouble with the NFL again.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is discussing his new offense. And America’s red-hot hockey team looks to advance in the medal round of the World Championships behind some Penguins power.

‘Muuth’ worth his money

NFL.com analytics expert Cynthia Freelund devised a list of the most “underappreciated” players per team.

Her “underappreciated metric” is a value built via each player’s per snap contribution to his team’s overall win total, combined with each player’s salary by position.

Freelund lists Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth as Pittsburgh’s most underappreciated player. Here is her explanation.

“The offense is likely to improve, due to the Steelers’ great 2023 draft class as well as forecast improvements in production by the offensive line and second-year pro Kenny Pickett having a year of play under his belt at quarterback. When aligned in the slot last season, Freiermuth earned 100 receiving yards over expected and 73 yards after the catch over expected, ranking fourth at the position in both categories, per NGS. The third-year pro has the potential to ascend to the ranks of the top pass-catching tight ends in the NFL in 2023.”

WHAT A CATCH. @pat_fry5 #HereWeGo

????: #PITvsCLE on CBS
????: NFL app pic.twitter.com/tfJ3YYEvuq

— NFL (@NFL) October 31, 2021

As far as the second layer of her analysis goes, Freiermuth’s $1.51 million third-year entry-level contract is 47th among tight ends.

‘Walk’less in Seattle

The Pirates are taking their putrid May record into Seattle for a three-game Series. The Bucs are 5-15 this month and 25-24 overall.

The Mariners haven’t been great either. They are in fourth place of the American League West at just 25-24 (same as the Pirates) after a 6-1 win over the Oakland A’s on Wednesday.

One thing the Mariners can do, though, is pitch. Scott Servais’ team has a miniscule 3.48 team earned run average. That is the third best in Major League Baseball. Their pitching staff has given up just 123 walks, the fewest in MLB. It has also allowed just 33 homers. Seattle’s team WHIP of 1.16 is also the best in baseball.

Friday night’s series opener should be a great pitching showdown. Mitch Keller throws for the Pirates against George Kirby of Seattle. Keller’s 2.44 ERA is fourth in the National League, eighth overall. His 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings are also fourth/eighth, and his 77 total strikeouts are second behind Atlanta’s Spencer Strider (97). His eight quality starts are second best in all of baseball, behind only Marcus Stroman’s nine for the Chicago Cubs.

Kirby is 5-3 with an ERA of 2.62. He has eight quality starts in nine outings. His strikeout to walk ratio is a head-scratching 47:5. His 1.01 WHIP is eighth in the American League, just .01 behind teammate Logan Gilbert who is seventh.

George Kirby, Disgusting 83mph Curveball. ???? pic.twitter.com/Yr0G3eVxQU

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 16, 2023

Another Mariner, Luis Castillo, is 10th at 1.04. He’s slated to pitch Saturday versus Roansy Contreras.

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Straight forward

So what will the 2023 Baltimore Ravens offense look like under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken?

“Less running and more throwing.”

That’s the simplified response from quarterback Lamar Jackson, who was at an organized team practice Wednesday for the first time since he became the NFL’s highest-paid player at $52 million per season.

“Running can only take you so far,” Jackson said via ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley. “And I feel like with this new era of teams and offenses in the league, I feel like we need that. Coach Todd Monken, what I’m seeing in his offense so far, is looking tremendous.”

As Hensley points out, Baltimore is 16-1 when Jackson runs for 90 or more yards, but the quarterback has also taken an NFL-high 877 hits over the past five seasons. Jackson’s 4,437 career rushing yards are the most by any quarterback in their first five seasons. Yet he seemed happy with the notion of running less this year.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” Jackson said. “Especially with the receivers we have.”

The Ravens have added the likes of Odell Beckham Jr., Zay Flowers and Nelson Agholor to their receivers depth chart.

At it again

It’s not Deflategate or Spygate, but the Patriots have done something else to incur discipline from the NFL.

The league erased two of New England’s 10 organized team activities from their schedule because of a violation of offseason rules. That’s according to NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport.

The specifics of the violation have not been released yet.

According to a team release, the club will no longer conduct practice May 25 or May 30 and will instead resume its offseason schedule next Wednesday.

New England had undergone two practices before the punishment was handed down. Head coach Bill Belichick and his staff will now have just six more practices to work on the field together before they open up a three-day mandatory minicamp on June 12.

Belichick isn’t scheduled to speak with the media until May 31. In 2022, two teams — the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears — were docked practices for violation of non-contact rules.

At OTAs live contact is not permitted. Clubs are allowed to run 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills, but without live contact.

Czech-mates

Elimination play is getting underway at the IIHF World Championships in Finland.

After a 7-0 jaunt through group play, the U.S. Men’s National Team will face Czechia in the quarterfinals at 9:20 a.m. EST Thursday morning. It’ll be broadcast on the NHL Network.

An unreal final prelim game yesterday. Time to dial into the quarters! #MensWorlds pic.twitter.com/hRZIPp9c1L

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) May 24, 2023

The teams last faced off in the bronze medal game of last year’s world championship with the Czechs earning an 8-4 victory.

Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith is 4-0 so far in the tournament, with a save percentage of .941 and a goals against average of 1.49. Fellow Penguins Nick Bonino and Drew O’Connor have three goals each so far.