Piscotty is playing, not up to his standards, under the weight of a contract extension that comes with high expectations. He's battled injuries, first a strained right hamstring that lingered, followed by a right groin strain. On top of everything else, and more important, too, is that the 26-year-old is playing while dealing with the unthinkable. He announced in May that his mother has been diagnosed with ALS. We can crunch all the numbers we want, but to ignore the weight of that news when dissecting Piscotty's play would be both callous and irresponsible. And perhaps this even had something to do with the discussion that dissolved between the Athletics and the Cardinals. Piscotty is a California kid. Playing there would mean he is closer to his family.