Yeah, they’re worried…bigtime. CC getting beat, Arod slumping, Teixeira showing nothing at all and Jeter striking out 3 times yesterday. But, even after watching Burnett throw a gem last night, they still don’t trust him to throw another. Life is good for a Mets fan and Yankee-hater.
I love seeing Yankees fans torture themselves. Is there anything better than watching them agonize? Unfortunately, they survived Game 2. The joy I had anticipated of witnessing their total unraveling as they went down 2-zip to Pedro can’t happen now. I’ll have to live with them still thinking their Bronx bumblers have a chance against the World Champion Phillies. They’ll be a little less frantic now. Too bad.
What a melodrama! First it was CC this and CC that and how the big guy was unhittable. Nine innings later, it was their anxiety over A.J. Burnett, how inconsistent he’s been, how big his contract was. It went something like this, “He got the big money to win in the post-season. He’d better show that he’s the pitcher the Yanks thought they were getting when they plunked down the 82 million.”
Those crazed fans were actually starting to turn back the clock, to turn back to the times when Joba was dominant out there, before Cashman and Girardi started playing with his innings. Joba would save them, Joba would show that fight and determination he displayed in his early outings, Joba would mow down the Phillies and take his rightful place amongst all those great Yankee arms of yesteryear.
Imagine if they had lost again and Arod’s 3 strikeouts had been staring them in the face. Not to mention Teixeira’s lackluster performance so far. And let’s not even talk about middle-relief! Do you want to give them a heart attack? They’ve totally dumped on Hughes and Joba as a middle reliever. They are now actually thinking that Damaso Marte will somehow save them.
But A.J. really was magnificent last night. Too bad! Looking at the bright side though, their agony will be more prolonged this way. If they had been 2-zip down, Yankee fans may have just given up early and waited for the sweep. Now they can feel they’re still in it.
They can look forward to their hero Pettitte somehow regaining his old late-Nineties form. And, even though their hero-worship of CC seems done (there was talk of giving Sabathia his 4 days rest), they can still hope for a reincarnation from the big man and a less masterful performance from Yankee-killer Cliff Lee.
But, to be honest, it’s hard for me to root against some of these Yankees. This team reminds me of those Nineties Yankees of Tino and Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams and Scottie Brosius, all hustlers, all team guys, and yes, even Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada too. And of course Mariano, who saved their butts last night with his six-out save. And Girardi, who managed a perfect game last night but had been Posada’s backup then.
How can you root against Mark Teixeira? I still recall his winning that infamous Mets-Yanks Castillo-drop game. Yes, Luis lost the game but Teixeira won it too, by running out that apparent routine fly ball, all the way from first to home so that when Castillo picked the ball up, there was no chance to get Teixeira. And just last week he covered second base because that’s what he was supposed to do.
How can you root against Godzilla? So tough in the clutch, seemingly always, and once again last night. Or Swisher, who’s been castigated far and wide in Yankee-Land for his recent troubles at the plate. Or Johnny Damon, who may be playing his last World Series in New York, but so ably led the Red Sox over the Yanks in that fateful 2004 ALCS.
So it’s not the individuals a Yankee-hater hates. It’s just the fact that the Yankees have all these great players at all. But, even with all the furious buying activity over the years, they’ve not been past an ALCS since 2004, watching other teams take the AL crown, the Tigers or the Red Sox or even the Tampa Bay Rays.
So I wouldn’t be heartbroken if the Yanks won this Series because they have a great team. Great teams should win the World Series. And they should have to beat another great team to be able to call themselves champions.
And the Phillies are a great team. As fearsome as the Yanks lineup is, the Phillies can match them overall, both in the lineup, on the field, on the mound and in the bullpen. Before last night, the Phillies seemed to think the Series would be a walk-over, a 5-game affair as per Jimmy Rollins, their mercurially-mouthed shortstop.
We can all look forward to Game 3 now as each game seems to have its own little storyline. Game 1 will be memorable for CC and Lee, for Game 2 it will be Burnett emerging as a bigtime playoffs and Series pitcher besting crafty old Pedro Martinez, who was gallant for a full six and even went out there for a 7th.
Yeah, the story has been pitching so far but you know that with the sheer numbers of hitters on both these worthy Series opponents, the bats won’t be so silent much longer. Game 3 goes deeper into those pitching rotations, pitting what has this year been a very hittable Hamel against another old Nineties Yankee in Andy Pettitte.
The younger fellow, Burnett, outpitched his older counterpart last night and I suspect that that scenario will repeat itself tomorrow night. But then it’ll be CC-Lee II and one wonders whether the replay will yield quite different results. And how things will go from there.
That’s all you could want in a Series really. This is the Series I wanted and it’s playing out as I had imagined. Pay attention, baseball fans, because you may not be seeing a Series like this again for quite some time.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A Disappointing NFL
Disappointing. That’s what this year’s NFL season has been thus far. There are just too many bad teams, very bad teams, to be honest.
Let’s take this past week’s slate of games. The Jets beat Oakland 38-0. The Chargers beat the Chiefs 37-7. The Colts took the Rams 42-6. The Pack killed the Browns 31-3. The Pats trounced the Bucs in London, of all places, 35-7. The Bengals walked all over the Bears 45-10, but it was somewhat of an anomaly, the Bears just having a very bad game. The Skins only lost by 10 to the Eagles but they were never really in the game.
So… of 13 games on the schedule (6 teams had byes), there were 7 totally boring games. The losers were never in it, not for one moment. There wasn’t even any anticipation of the game being close. Worse still, of the 6 teams on byes, 3 of them are awful, Detroit, Tennessee and Jacksonville. If they had played, it would have been a bleak Sunday indeed.
Why is the disparity so bad this year between the haves and have nots? It’s ownership in most cases, and not in a financial sense so much as in an intellectual sense. The bad teams have made bad decisions, on players, especially quarterbacks, and also, and maybe even more importantly, on managers and coaches, and thus on game plans. They’re bad, and they don’t have good prospects for ever being good, not soon anyway. Maybe in the next life.
Take the Skins, please. Dan Snyder’s been the owner for quite some time. His tenure has been marked by frequent changes, in head coaches, in players, and their quarterback is awful. Jason Campbell’s only gift is height.
The Raiders are next in line for some bashing. Al Davis is behind the times. He’ll never catch up. Every year, he drafts the fastest player he can and hopes for the best. His head coach just beat up one of his assistants. His quarterback is the worst in the league, Jamarcus Russell. He too is tall and beefy…..and that’s about it.
The Tampa Bay contingent let their good head coach go and elevated a fellow who turned a good pass defense into a sieve. The QB they’re playing now, Josh Johnson, runs around a lot, and yes, pretty much like the proverbial chicken with his head cut off.
Detroit is perhaps the poster-boy for horrible ownership and management year after year. There may be hope for the Chiefs, who will slowly recover after years of Herman Edwards’s tutelage. Tennessee will come back too, but will Vince Young really be their savior at that all-important quarterback spot?
There may be hope for the Jaguars but their long-time head coach, Jack Del Rio, will never win any contests for coaching acumen. The Rams too can have hope for the future; it’s just the immediate present that will be extremely challenging. Even the Bills may eventually right themselves, but I don’t know precisely why I feel that way, maybe because they always wind up being at least mediocre.
You hear a lot that any team can beat any other on any given day. That point is proven too, but only every once in a while, most recently by the Eagles losing to the Raiders. Every once in a blue moon, even a good head coach seems to lose his mind in the heat of a losing battle. In that particular game, Andy Reid forgot he had a running game (once again) even though he was facing a team with no run defense. Color him hard-headed.
What’s most upsetting to me are those franchises who spend big money on bad quarterbacks, or those who year after year will draft a wide receiver with their number one pick. Other franchises will ignore their obvious problems. Some teams never field a decent pass defense; others can never stop the run, year after year. It’s friggin’ inexplicable. But troubling.
The Giants fix their problems right away. So do the Jets. They’ve been right on their big acquisitions at quarterback, and at most other places too. Both Coughlin and Ryan are good coaches with good staffs. Every week, New York fans of either the Green or the Blue can feel that their respective teams will be in the hunt. Problems that develop, such as the Giants pass defense or the Jets offensive headaches of the moment will be addressed.
Football is unique, of course, with respect to the number of injuries that occur every week, and some are very serious injuries to key players. The Jets, for example, just lost Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington for the season. Those two can’t really be replaced. Their effects will be reflected in the final standings.
Oakland couldn’t take advantage of the Jenkins loss but other teams almost surely will. The Jets were also smart enough to protect their young quarterback and rely on their running game. They were also quick to pick up another defensive lineman; not all teams would have been so quick to assess their reserves and react. It’s a very good sign of their commitment to winning.
The Giants’ pass defense problem is more problematical. Injuries in the secondary are playing a part but their linebackers don’t really seem to have the speed or coverage ability that will be needed against the better passing teams. Their last two losses to the Saints and Cards were entirely predictable but they’ll still prevail against lesser squads.
The Jets have to face Miami again next week while the Giants have the Eagles on tap. Neither game will be a gimme by any means. The Jets were victimized by the Fish not too long ago while the Eagles are one of those strong passing teams, one of those teams quite capable of ringing the G-Men up for a few to several touchdowns.
How both teams react to these challenges will be quite telling, I think, both to guage their intellect and character.
Let’s take this past week’s slate of games. The Jets beat Oakland 38-0. The Chargers beat the Chiefs 37-7. The Colts took the Rams 42-6. The Pack killed the Browns 31-3. The Pats trounced the Bucs in London, of all places, 35-7. The Bengals walked all over the Bears 45-10, but it was somewhat of an anomaly, the Bears just having a very bad game. The Skins only lost by 10 to the Eagles but they were never really in the game.
So… of 13 games on the schedule (6 teams had byes), there were 7 totally boring games. The losers were never in it, not for one moment. There wasn’t even any anticipation of the game being close. Worse still, of the 6 teams on byes, 3 of them are awful, Detroit, Tennessee and Jacksonville. If they had played, it would have been a bleak Sunday indeed.
Why is the disparity so bad this year between the haves and have nots? It’s ownership in most cases, and not in a financial sense so much as in an intellectual sense. The bad teams have made bad decisions, on players, especially quarterbacks, and also, and maybe even more importantly, on managers and coaches, and thus on game plans. They’re bad, and they don’t have good prospects for ever being good, not soon anyway. Maybe in the next life.
Take the Skins, please. Dan Snyder’s been the owner for quite some time. His tenure has been marked by frequent changes, in head coaches, in players, and their quarterback is awful. Jason Campbell’s only gift is height.
The Raiders are next in line for some bashing. Al Davis is behind the times. He’ll never catch up. Every year, he drafts the fastest player he can and hopes for the best. His head coach just beat up one of his assistants. His quarterback is the worst in the league, Jamarcus Russell. He too is tall and beefy…..and that’s about it.
The Tampa Bay contingent let their good head coach go and elevated a fellow who turned a good pass defense into a sieve. The QB they’re playing now, Josh Johnson, runs around a lot, and yes, pretty much like the proverbial chicken with his head cut off.
Detroit is perhaps the poster-boy for horrible ownership and management year after year. There may be hope for the Chiefs, who will slowly recover after years of Herman Edwards’s tutelage. Tennessee will come back too, but will Vince Young really be their savior at that all-important quarterback spot?
There may be hope for the Jaguars but their long-time head coach, Jack Del Rio, will never win any contests for coaching acumen. The Rams too can have hope for the future; it’s just the immediate present that will be extremely challenging. Even the Bills may eventually right themselves, but I don’t know precisely why I feel that way, maybe because they always wind up being at least mediocre.
You hear a lot that any team can beat any other on any given day. That point is proven too, but only every once in a while, most recently by the Eagles losing to the Raiders. Every once in a blue moon, even a good head coach seems to lose his mind in the heat of a losing battle. In that particular game, Andy Reid forgot he had a running game (once again) even though he was facing a team with no run defense. Color him hard-headed.
What’s most upsetting to me are those franchises who spend big money on bad quarterbacks, or those who year after year will draft a wide receiver with their number one pick. Other franchises will ignore their obvious problems. Some teams never field a decent pass defense; others can never stop the run, year after year. It’s friggin’ inexplicable. But troubling.
The Giants fix their problems right away. So do the Jets. They’ve been right on their big acquisitions at quarterback, and at most other places too. Both Coughlin and Ryan are good coaches with good staffs. Every week, New York fans of either the Green or the Blue can feel that their respective teams will be in the hunt. Problems that develop, such as the Giants pass defense or the Jets offensive headaches of the moment will be addressed.
Football is unique, of course, with respect to the number of injuries that occur every week, and some are very serious injuries to key players. The Jets, for example, just lost Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington for the season. Those two can’t really be replaced. Their effects will be reflected in the final standings.
Oakland couldn’t take advantage of the Jenkins loss but other teams almost surely will. The Jets were also smart enough to protect their young quarterback and rely on their running game. They were also quick to pick up another defensive lineman; not all teams would have been so quick to assess their reserves and react. It’s a very good sign of their commitment to winning.
The Giants’ pass defense problem is more problematical. Injuries in the secondary are playing a part but their linebackers don’t really seem to have the speed or coverage ability that will be needed against the better passing teams. Their last two losses to the Saints and Cards were entirely predictable but they’ll still prevail against lesser squads.
The Jets have to face Miami again next week while the Giants have the Eagles on tap. Neither game will be a gimme by any means. The Jets were victimized by the Fish not too long ago while the Eagles are one of those strong passing teams, one of those teams quite capable of ringing the G-Men up for a few to several touchdowns.
How both teams react to these challenges will be quite telling, I think, both to guage their intellect and character.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Over-Managing, Bad Umpiring and Week 7 NFL Picks
The Angels won despite themselves and their over-managing manager, Mike Scioscia. Taking out John Lackey in the 7th was one of the most dreadful moves I have ever seen in ANY baseball game, never mind a playoff game. And, although they wound up winning anyway, largely due to some very questionable Yankee relief pitching, the bitter taste in my mouth for over-managing in general and for Mike Scioscia in particular remained.
The Angels may have taken this series back to New York but they will never win it. They don’t deserve to win it with a manager as stupid as theirs is. The only way they can win it is if Joe Girardi, who has done some serious over-managing of his own in this series, loses it for the Yanks.
I have to admit that, prior to last night, Girardi’s moves have amused rather than upset me. As a serious Mets fan (whatever that is) and avowed Yankee-hater, I’d say, “go ahead, Joe, put in Joba, ha-ha.” But, as I now am actually rooting hard for a Yanks-Phillies World Series, if only to see those pinstriped posers get their heads handed to them, these imprints the managers of both teams are leaving on the games is beginning to get me down. It’s not as if they couldn’t affect the result.
I can see it now in my mind’s eye, the Yankees clinging to a one run lead, Pettitte cruising in the 6th or 7th, when oops, he’s thrown 100 pitches, time to bring in Joba, or let’s bring in Hughes or Aceves or whatever mediocre relief guy comes to his mind, if mind is the best word for it. Next thing you know, it’s not “Yankees win, thuhhhh Yankees WIN.” Instead, it’s “Angels win.” I refer, of course, to John Sterling’s call.
Did Baba Booey really pinch-run for Arod? See….point made. The only thing I can think of is that he didn’t want to see Arod get hurt running the bases. And I don’t think you can manage against the possibility of injury, not in baseball anyway, not unless you think the man doesn’t know how to slide. (A lot of ball players have hurt themselves sliding but I don’t think Arod has been one of them).
So, anyway, it’ll be Pettitte versus Saunders on Saturday, and God forbid, the Angels could very well win that one too. Joe Saunders is a really good pitcher. Then it’ll be Sabathia in a Game 7 and, who knows, if there is a rainout on Saturday, if Game 6 is played on Sunday, then CC will have to go Monday, and not even the big guy can go on just two days rest for the start of the World Series on Wednesday.
Not that I’m worried about the Yankees but I had been keenly anticipating a Lee vs Sabathia opener in the World Series. If they have to start with Burnett, it just won’t be the same.
Okay, enough about baseball, except for the umpiring, that is. I’ll just say this, “If an umpire is caught red-handed both not looking at the play and not asking for help, then that umpire should be removed from the umpiring ranks.” It’s just too arrogant for me. And the umpiring in MLB this entire year has been lousy. It’s almost as if they’re begging for instant replay. (As instant replay adds significantly to the length of games, allowing that much more time for commercial interruptions in highly-rated affairs, this last musing is not entirely out of line).
Okay, on to the Week 7 NFL matchups. Last week, I went 10-4 against the spread, not too shabby, after my first two weeks of going 6-8. (I only started making picks in Week 5). The ridiculous Eagles loss to the usually horrible Raiders ruined my four best bets and, once again, I lost my $10. This isn’t a game for the faint of heart, or um, wallet.
Without further ado (and there has been considerable ado thus far, I know), here’s my prognostications (no, that’s not a nasal condition) for Week 7:
Favorite Underdog Spread 4 Best My Pick Reason
GIANTS Cards 7 * Cards Cards could very well win outright
Jets RAIDERS 6 Raiders Unpredictable things happen on West Coast
SnDiego KC 4 ½ * SnDiego SD coming off tough loss to Broncos
Ind STL 13 Ind Colts are not Jaguars and coming off bye too
CIN Chi 1 ½ * Chi Bengals lost best defensive end
GrnBay CLE 7 GrnBay Home field not so hot for Browns and Mangini
PIT Min 4 PIT Polamalu’s back in time for Favre
NE TB 14 ½ NE London game and who cares?
HOU SanFran 3 SanFran 49ers off bye week and bad loss
CAR Buf 7 * CAR Bills can’t get wagons across Mason-Dixon line
NwOrlns MIA 6 ½ NwOrlns What? I should take Miami?
DAL Atl 4 Atl Boyz just haven’t shown enough
Phi WAS 7 Phi Campbell, Skins just pathetic
SD Den 6 Den Div battle will be much clos er
The G-Men will be lucky to escape with a win after demonstrating how bad their pass defense really is. Yeah, they’ll rush the passer this time (what a concept, too bad Sheridan didn’t think of it sooner). Geez, where’s Steve Spagnuolo ?
The Chargers looked good against a really tough Broncos defense. I can’t imagine how they would lose to the Chiefs, not even in Kansas City, not even with Norv Turner, not even if he never plays LaDainian. Look for Rivers to Gates quite often.
The Bengals looked flat against Houston last week. You’d look flat too if you lost your meanest guy in a fight and that’s what happened to the Bengals early on. The Bears faced Atlanta last week and lost. Cinci should be easy by comparison.
The Bills are a mess and even Delhomme will look better than did Sanchez. Home cookin’ won’t hurt the running game.
The Angels may have taken this series back to New York but they will never win it. They don’t deserve to win it with a manager as stupid as theirs is. The only way they can win it is if Joe Girardi, who has done some serious over-managing of his own in this series, loses it for the Yanks.
I have to admit that, prior to last night, Girardi’s moves have amused rather than upset me. As a serious Mets fan (whatever that is) and avowed Yankee-hater, I’d say, “go ahead, Joe, put in Joba, ha-ha.” But, as I now am actually rooting hard for a Yanks-Phillies World Series, if only to see those pinstriped posers get their heads handed to them, these imprints the managers of both teams are leaving on the games is beginning to get me down. It’s not as if they couldn’t affect the result.
I can see it now in my mind’s eye, the Yankees clinging to a one run lead, Pettitte cruising in the 6th or 7th, when oops, he’s thrown 100 pitches, time to bring in Joba, or let’s bring in Hughes or Aceves or whatever mediocre relief guy comes to his mind, if mind is the best word for it. Next thing you know, it’s not “Yankees win, thuhhhh Yankees WIN.” Instead, it’s “Angels win.” I refer, of course, to John Sterling’s call.
Did Baba Booey really pinch-run for Arod? See….point made. The only thing I can think of is that he didn’t want to see Arod get hurt running the bases. And I don’t think you can manage against the possibility of injury, not in baseball anyway, not unless you think the man doesn’t know how to slide. (A lot of ball players have hurt themselves sliding but I don’t think Arod has been one of them).
So, anyway, it’ll be Pettitte versus Saunders on Saturday, and God forbid, the Angels could very well win that one too. Joe Saunders is a really good pitcher. Then it’ll be Sabathia in a Game 7 and, who knows, if there is a rainout on Saturday, if Game 6 is played on Sunday, then CC will have to go Monday, and not even the big guy can go on just two days rest for the start of the World Series on Wednesday.
Not that I’m worried about the Yankees but I had been keenly anticipating a Lee vs Sabathia opener in the World Series. If they have to start with Burnett, it just won’t be the same.
Okay, enough about baseball, except for the umpiring, that is. I’ll just say this, “If an umpire is caught red-handed both not looking at the play and not asking for help, then that umpire should be removed from the umpiring ranks.” It’s just too arrogant for me. And the umpiring in MLB this entire year has been lousy. It’s almost as if they’re begging for instant replay. (As instant replay adds significantly to the length of games, allowing that much more time for commercial interruptions in highly-rated affairs, this last musing is not entirely out of line).
Okay, on to the Week 7 NFL matchups. Last week, I went 10-4 against the spread, not too shabby, after my first two weeks of going 6-8. (I only started making picks in Week 5). The ridiculous Eagles loss to the usually horrible Raiders ruined my four best bets and, once again, I lost my $10. This isn’t a game for the faint of heart, or um, wallet.
Without further ado (and there has been considerable ado thus far, I know), here’s my prognostications (no, that’s not a nasal condition) for Week 7:
Favorite Underdog Spread 4 Best My Pick Reason
GIANTS Cards 7 * Cards Cards could very well win outright
Jets RAIDERS 6 Raiders Unpredictable things happen on West Coast
SnDiego KC 4 ½ * SnDiego SD coming off tough loss to Broncos
Ind STL 13 Ind Colts are not Jaguars and coming off bye too
CIN Chi 1 ½ * Chi Bengals lost best defensive end
GrnBay CLE 7 GrnBay Home field not so hot for Browns and Mangini
PIT Min 4 PIT Polamalu’s back in time for Favre
NE TB 14 ½ NE London game and who cares?
HOU SanFran 3 SanFran 49ers off bye week and bad loss
CAR Buf 7 * CAR Bills can’t get wagons across Mason-Dixon line
NwOrlns MIA 6 ½ NwOrlns What? I should take Miami?
DAL Atl 4 Atl Boyz just haven’t shown enough
Phi WAS 7 Phi Campbell, Skins just pathetic
SD Den 6 Den Div battle will be much clos er
The G-Men will be lucky to escape with a win after demonstrating how bad their pass defense really is. Yeah, they’ll rush the passer this time (what a concept, too bad Sheridan didn’t think of it sooner). Geez, where’s Steve Spagnuolo ?
The Chargers looked good against a really tough Broncos defense. I can’t imagine how they would lose to the Chiefs, not even in Kansas City, not even with Norv Turner, not even if he never plays LaDainian. Look for Rivers to Gates quite often.
The Bengals looked flat against Houston last week. You’d look flat too if you lost your meanest guy in a fight and that’s what happened to the Bengals early on. The Bears faced Atlanta last week and lost. Cinci should be easy by comparison.
The Bills are a mess and even Delhomme will look better than did Sanchez. Home cookin’ won’t hurt the running game.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Just Too Much
Well, what can you say? The Phillies were just too much for the Dodgers. Too much pitching and especially too much hitting, too much confidence, too much ability, too much faith, in one another and spiritually too for some.
That lineup is pretty awesome. In fact, it was awesome last year before they added Ibanez and then Werth got that much better with more opportunities to play. But adding SP Cliff Lee was probably the clincher.
If any team matches up with the Yankees, who will probably clinch tonight against the Angels, who looked thoroughly beaten in Game 4 of their series, it’s these Phillies.
So far, two position players have dominated. Arod and Ryan Howard. Two pitchers have dominated as well. That would be Sabathia and Lee. You could say the Yanks have the better relievers, I suppose, but the Phils’ Lidge has looked much better lately while the middle relief Yankees pitchers have let down somewhat. Neither Joba nor Phil Hughes have been very good lately.
If there’s an edge, it’s in the home Stadium. Because the American League won the All-Star game, the Yankees will have the home field edge. But with two cities just about 90 miles apart, I’d be surprised if every player didn’t just sleep in their own beds for the entire Series. (Whether that would help whatsoever is another question, but it’d be pretty impossible to answer).
All we’ve heard lately from the Yankee media is Arod, Arod ad nauseum, of course, but at least he finally deserves it. What is it now, 5 homers and 11 or 12 rbi’s? Sabathia’s been unhittable. Rest? He don’t need no STINKING rest.
The Phillies don’t get as much press but Ryan Howard is a beast. He’s one of those rare animals who actually love getting up in those pressure situations, confident that he can end the proceedings with one swing of the bat. Arod has been Howard-like in this post-season but there is only one Howard.
Anyway, an outstanding Series it promises to be. Can ANYBODY hit Sabathia? Can ANYBODY hit Lee? The most likely scenario will be that the two or three games between those two aces will be decided in the late innings by relievers, another impossible situation to really predict. I’m assuming they’ll face each other but that may not be the case, given Girardi’s strangeness. Or is it Cashman’s nonsense? It’s hard to tell with the Yankees.
Then there’s Burnett and Hamels, Blanton and Pettite, and maybe even Joba and Pedro. How great would that be? All I know for sure is that it’ll be a World Series I’ll enjoy thoroughly, and probably a seven-game affair. (If it ends in four, I’ll be inconsolable).
This is all premature, right? The Angels can still come back? I don’t think so.
That lineup is pretty awesome. In fact, it was awesome last year before they added Ibanez and then Werth got that much better with more opportunities to play. But adding SP Cliff Lee was probably the clincher.
If any team matches up with the Yankees, who will probably clinch tonight against the Angels, who looked thoroughly beaten in Game 4 of their series, it’s these Phillies.
So far, two position players have dominated. Arod and Ryan Howard. Two pitchers have dominated as well. That would be Sabathia and Lee. You could say the Yanks have the better relievers, I suppose, but the Phils’ Lidge has looked much better lately while the middle relief Yankees pitchers have let down somewhat. Neither Joba nor Phil Hughes have been very good lately.
If there’s an edge, it’s in the home Stadium. Because the American League won the All-Star game, the Yankees will have the home field edge. But with two cities just about 90 miles apart, I’d be surprised if every player didn’t just sleep in their own beds for the entire Series. (Whether that would help whatsoever is another question, but it’d be pretty impossible to answer).
All we’ve heard lately from the Yankee media is Arod, Arod ad nauseum, of course, but at least he finally deserves it. What is it now, 5 homers and 11 or 12 rbi’s? Sabathia’s been unhittable. Rest? He don’t need no STINKING rest.
The Phillies don’t get as much press but Ryan Howard is a beast. He’s one of those rare animals who actually love getting up in those pressure situations, confident that he can end the proceedings with one swing of the bat. Arod has been Howard-like in this post-season but there is only one Howard.
Anyway, an outstanding Series it promises to be. Can ANYBODY hit Sabathia? Can ANYBODY hit Lee? The most likely scenario will be that the two or three games between those two aces will be decided in the late innings by relievers, another impossible situation to really predict. I’m assuming they’ll face each other but that may not be the case, given Girardi’s strangeness. Or is it Cashman’s nonsense? It’s hard to tell with the Yankees.
Then there’s Burnett and Hamels, Blanton and Pettite, and maybe even Joba and Pedro. How great would that be? All I know for sure is that it’ll be a World Series I’ll enjoy thoroughly, and probably a seven-game affair. (If it ends in four, I’ll be inconsolable).
This is all premature, right? The Angels can still come back? I don’t think so.
Monday, October 19, 2009
A Lost Sunday
It was a lost Sunday. For the Giants and Jets, that is, and anybody silly enough to root for them. I knew the Giants would be in trouble, facing Drew Brees & Company with somebody named C.C. Brown at safety and, well, I never put much faith in Dockery. The Jets were a surprise flop though, losing in miserable fashion to one of the worst football teams in the league.
Mark Sanchez has regressed a lot from the quarterback he was against New England. It’s a shame really. He’s aiming the ball. He’s doing almost everything required of a quarterback badly. He even made Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills horrible quarterback, look good, a feat I would have thought was impossible before yesterday.
For the Jets, the game wasn’t the only bad news. They also lost Kris Jenkins, their huge defensive tackle, to a fairly serious knee injury. So there goes the run defense for the rest of the season too.
And it’s easy to second-guess but I would have got Sanchez out of there. He was clearly dazed and shaken, and not likely to come out of it, which he didn’t. He seems to have lost any confidence he may have had, and clearly, it’s time for a change. At the very least, it’s time to institute some rules, like Joba rules, in a way. Three picks and he’s out.
Not that it even makes a difference anymore. Any team that could lose so easily to one of the worst teams in the league cannot be expected to win many more. Forget the playoffs, forget even mediocrity, this team is bad, bad, bad. Of course, any team with a bad quarterback will be bad. We can only hope that the regression of Sanchez isn’t a reflection of the coach’s ability. Most people like Ryan, and I do too, but maybe he shows too much confidence in people? It’s optimism gone amok.
I have to admit that, while the Giants clock was being cleaned, I was enjoying every bit of it as my fantasy team roster includes Brees, Colston and Shockey. They all had their way with the Giants, especially Colston, who seemed to just outduel anybody covering him for the ball. I knew he was good but I didn’t realize he was great.
The Giants made every Saint look great though, so it’s hard to tell how really good Colston may be from yesterday’s game. I have to think the result would have been much different if there had been any kind of coverage at all. All I saw was guys in blue running with guys in gold, but when the ball was in the air, the guy in gold went up and got it. The blue guy stayed cemented to the ground.
Just about everybody who could have caught a pass caught one. Not just Colston and Shockey, but Meacham, Moore….Well, seven different players scored touchdowns for the Saints. It was pretty much a massacre.
It was sad to see Eli do so badly in his hometown. Equally as sad was to see him lose his cool with running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who zigged when he should’ve zagged on one play, resulting in horrific pressure on Manning and ultimately, an interception.
There is hope for the Giants though. The Saints may be the best team in the league, and they had an extra week to prepare for this game. They exposed every Giants weakness, quite often actually. But the Saints offensive line did its job pretty well too, keeping what had been a fierce defensive front in check all day. Even a hint of defensive pressure up front could have made a big difference.
I’ll try to take solace in the fact that, as bad as the locals were, there were some other teams that looked just as bad or worse. The first team that comes to mind is the Eagles, who lost to the awful Raiders, but the Titans were absolutely humiliated by the Patriots and the hapless Redskins lost to the previously winless Kansas City Chiefs.
The most revealing statistic of them all might be the fact that the Redskins had faced a winless team in each and every game they’d played this season but had only won two of them. Harried Skins head coach Jim Zorn was relieved of his play-calling responsibility yesterday and quarterback Jason Campbell was finally relieved at halftime in favor of Todd Collins, who at least led the Skins to some field goals.
What happened to the Eagles at Oakland is beyond me. I knew Oakland was capable of fielding a very decent pass defense, what with the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL residing in their secondary (Asomugha got hurt), but I didn’t realize they could stop the run. Evidently, it was not a big part of their game plan.
The Eagles did lose their offensive tackle, Jason Peters, in the first quarter, which probably doused any Eagle thoughts of running. But McNabb was sacked six times, indicating some really big problems up front. And Akers missed two field goals, McNabb called a timeout he didn’t have, and they still should have won that game.
The Cowboys had their bye week and got to watch everybody else lose. Not too shabby. They’re coming off two fairly good weeks of play, having lost a close one to the undefeated (for now) Broncos and having beat the Chiefs by six in Kansas City. They get an extra week to prepare for the very tough Atlanta Falcons next week, and they seem to have found a wide receiver they didn’t know they had.
The Yanks had the day off after beating the suddenly sorry Angels and seem a 50-50 chance of winning still another at 4PM today, Pettite vs. Saunders. Arod’s been great; he saved the game Saturday.
The Phils killed LA behind Lee to go up 2-1. They’ll face Wolf tonight behind big Joe Blanton. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers tie the series.
Mark Sanchez has regressed a lot from the quarterback he was against New England. It’s a shame really. He’s aiming the ball. He’s doing almost everything required of a quarterback badly. He even made Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills horrible quarterback, look good, a feat I would have thought was impossible before yesterday.
For the Jets, the game wasn’t the only bad news. They also lost Kris Jenkins, their huge defensive tackle, to a fairly serious knee injury. So there goes the run defense for the rest of the season too.
And it’s easy to second-guess but I would have got Sanchez out of there. He was clearly dazed and shaken, and not likely to come out of it, which he didn’t. He seems to have lost any confidence he may have had, and clearly, it’s time for a change. At the very least, it’s time to institute some rules, like Joba rules, in a way. Three picks and he’s out.
Not that it even makes a difference anymore. Any team that could lose so easily to one of the worst teams in the league cannot be expected to win many more. Forget the playoffs, forget even mediocrity, this team is bad, bad, bad. Of course, any team with a bad quarterback will be bad. We can only hope that the regression of Sanchez isn’t a reflection of the coach’s ability. Most people like Ryan, and I do too, but maybe he shows too much confidence in people? It’s optimism gone amok.
I have to admit that, while the Giants clock was being cleaned, I was enjoying every bit of it as my fantasy team roster includes Brees, Colston and Shockey. They all had their way with the Giants, especially Colston, who seemed to just outduel anybody covering him for the ball. I knew he was good but I didn’t realize he was great.
The Giants made every Saint look great though, so it’s hard to tell how really good Colston may be from yesterday’s game. I have to think the result would have been much different if there had been any kind of coverage at all. All I saw was guys in blue running with guys in gold, but when the ball was in the air, the guy in gold went up and got it. The blue guy stayed cemented to the ground.
Just about everybody who could have caught a pass caught one. Not just Colston and Shockey, but Meacham, Moore….Well, seven different players scored touchdowns for the Saints. It was pretty much a massacre.
It was sad to see Eli do so badly in his hometown. Equally as sad was to see him lose his cool with running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who zigged when he should’ve zagged on one play, resulting in horrific pressure on Manning and ultimately, an interception.
There is hope for the Giants though. The Saints may be the best team in the league, and they had an extra week to prepare for this game. They exposed every Giants weakness, quite often actually. But the Saints offensive line did its job pretty well too, keeping what had been a fierce defensive front in check all day. Even a hint of defensive pressure up front could have made a big difference.
I’ll try to take solace in the fact that, as bad as the locals were, there were some other teams that looked just as bad or worse. The first team that comes to mind is the Eagles, who lost to the awful Raiders, but the Titans were absolutely humiliated by the Patriots and the hapless Redskins lost to the previously winless Kansas City Chiefs.
The most revealing statistic of them all might be the fact that the Redskins had faced a winless team in each and every game they’d played this season but had only won two of them. Harried Skins head coach Jim Zorn was relieved of his play-calling responsibility yesterday and quarterback Jason Campbell was finally relieved at halftime in favor of Todd Collins, who at least led the Skins to some field goals.
What happened to the Eagles at Oakland is beyond me. I knew Oakland was capable of fielding a very decent pass defense, what with the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL residing in their secondary (Asomugha got hurt), but I didn’t realize they could stop the run. Evidently, it was not a big part of their game plan.
The Eagles did lose their offensive tackle, Jason Peters, in the first quarter, which probably doused any Eagle thoughts of running. But McNabb was sacked six times, indicating some really big problems up front. And Akers missed two field goals, McNabb called a timeout he didn’t have, and they still should have won that game.
The Cowboys had their bye week and got to watch everybody else lose. Not too shabby. They’re coming off two fairly good weeks of play, having lost a close one to the undefeated (for now) Broncos and having beat the Chiefs by six in Kansas City. They get an extra week to prepare for the very tough Atlanta Falcons next week, and they seem to have found a wide receiver they didn’t know they had.
The Yanks had the day off after beating the suddenly sorry Angels and seem a 50-50 chance of winning still another at 4PM today, Pettite vs. Saunders. Arod’s been great; he saved the game Saturday.
The Phils killed LA behind Lee to go up 2-1. They’ll face Wolf tonight behind big Joe Blanton. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers tie the series.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Week 6 NFL Picks
No big story today, just the picks for the week. In Week 5, I went 3 of 4 on my best bets, having been victimized by the thoroughly chastened Jets against the Fish. I foolishly thought the Jets could stop the run. Just as silly, I thought the Jets could stop Drew Henne. Instead I got Land Shark Stadium frenzy and Jay Lo and inspired performances from anybody wearing friggin’ teal.
On overall picks against the spread, I was 6 and 8 for the second week in a row. My best bets were much better and I was THIS close to winning ten bucks.
<>Maybe I’m no good at this? Nah, you’ll see.
Carolina is just too good for the Bucs. Josh Johnson, the new starting qb, is learning about life in the NFL as is much of the Bucs team. Carolina is coming off a come-from-behind win and should be re-energized. Their horrible pass defense shows no signs of getting better. I suspect bad coaching all over the place in Tampa.
Philadelphia has Number 5 back (McNabb of course) and still another wideout named Maclin to add to a bevy of fine hands. Oakland is just playing out the string and who could blame them with the quarterback they have? Jamarcus Russell is the worst QB I've seen in many years. Once again, is there any coaching happening in Oakland?
Atlanta is coming off a big win against the Niners in a game that was supposed to be close. Who could have guessed the Niners would be all full of themselves, as personified by Dre Bly, their ridiculous corner. My guess is da Bears will be da Bears and kick some Falcon butt.
For a Charger team that looked awful against the Steelers, and that showed no defense at all, it's hard to imagine them beating a Bronco team by 6 or more, no matter how good their offense. Broncs playing tough and disciplined, like its quarterback.
Favorite Underdog Spread 4 Best My Pick Reason
MIN Bal 3 ½ Bal Favre and Vikings meet a real opponent
WAS KCy 6 ½ KCy Chiefs good enough to stay close if not win
CIN Hou 5 ½ Hou Cinci a little too comfortable
PIT Cle 13 ½ PIT Steelers will pour it on late, Polamalu return?
JAC StLo 13 StLo Rams will surprise, stop run
NO Nyg 3 NO Giants pass defense will be exposed
CAR TmpBy 3 * CAR Tampa can’t stop pass, new QB not the answer
GB Det 10 ½ GB Big spread but GB gets its OL back
PHI Oak 13 ½ * PHI Hard to imagine a spread too high
SEA Ari 2 ½ Ari Cards still AFC Super Bowl representative
NYJ Buf 9 NYJ Ryan stirred them up
NE Ten 9 NE Tennessee’s a mess, Pats aren’t
ATL Chi 4 ½ * Chi Atlanta won’t be facing Dre Bly this week
SD Den 6 * Den Div battle will be much closer
On overall picks against the spread, I was 6 and 8 for the second week in a row. My best bets were much better and I was THIS close to winning ten bucks.
<>Maybe I’m no good at this? Nah, you’ll see.
Carolina is just too good for the Bucs. Josh Johnson, the new starting qb, is learning about life in the NFL as is much of the Bucs team. Carolina is coming off a come-from-behind win and should be re-energized. Their horrible pass defense shows no signs of getting better. I suspect bad coaching all over the place in Tampa.
Philadelphia has Number 5 back (McNabb of course) and still another wideout named Maclin to add to a bevy of fine hands. Oakland is just playing out the string and who could blame them with the quarterback they have? Jamarcus Russell is the worst QB I've seen in many years. Once again, is there any coaching happening in Oakland?
Atlanta is coming off a big win against the Niners in a game that was supposed to be close. Who could have guessed the Niners would be all full of themselves, as personified by Dre Bly, their ridiculous corner. My guess is da Bears will be da Bears and kick some Falcon butt.
For a Charger team that looked awful against the Steelers, and that showed no defense at all, it's hard to imagine them beating a Bronco team by 6 or more, no matter how good their offense. Broncs playing tough and disciplined, like its quarterback.
Favorite Underdog Spread 4 Best My Pick Reason
MIN Bal 3 ½ Bal Favre and Vikings meet a real opponent
WAS KCy 6 ½ KCy Chiefs good enough to stay close if not win
CIN Hou 5 ½ Hou Cinci a little too comfortable
PIT Cle 13 ½ PIT Steelers will pour it on late, Polamalu return?
JAC StLo 13 StLo Rams will surprise, stop run
NO Nyg 3 NO Giants pass defense will be exposed
CAR TmpBy 3 * CAR Tampa can’t stop pass, new QB not the answer
GB Det 10 ½ GB Big spread but GB gets its OL back
PHI Oak 13 ½ * PHI Hard to imagine a spread too high
SEA Ari 2 ½ Ari Cards still AFC Super Bowl representative
NYJ Buf 9 NYJ Ryan stirred them up
NE Ten 9 NE Tennessee’s a mess, Pats aren’t
ATL Chi 4 ½ * Chi Atlanta won’t be facing Dre Bly this week
SD Den 6 * Den Div battle will be much closer
Thursday, October 15, 2009
All About Expectations
What a gigantic lull in the sports schedule! It’s almost unprecedented. No baseball, no football since Monday, basketball a distant event on the horizon. If you’re not a soccer enthusiast or fanatic enough to enjoy “NFL Replay” past games, you could go absolutely bonkers.
Or maybe you’re one of those held spellbound by the side stories, Rush Limbaugh assigned to NFL limbo and Jon Gruden being considered for a couple of NFL head coaching spots. And then, of course, there’re all the side stories associated with the MLB Playoffs, the cold weather, the rain, the pitching assignments, and Mariano, Mariano, Mariano….makes a Mets fan sick!
Wasn’t it Mariano who blew the series with Boston back in 2004, a date that marked the resurgence of the Red Sox? He’s not infallible, Yankee fans. And maybe we’ll find out in this Angels series. We might find out a couple of other things too, like how stupid it was to get rid of Bobby Abreu. (A Mets fan can only hope).
The prospect of the first Yankee game Friday night seems to be casting a large shadow over the Phils-Dodgers series in the National League. There the story is, as you might expect, mostly about Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre, although you could make a case for the failures of Brad Lidge. The media loves failure, especially after a skein of successes.
So there’s really nothing happening but expectations. I had expected the Dodgers to be gone already, blown away by the Cards pitchers, Wainwright and Carpenter. That didn’t happen. Then the Phils dispatched the Rockies pretty handily, easier than I had expected given the Rockies newfound prowess in the starting pitching and relief categories.
It looked bad for the Phils in Colorado in that top of the ninth inning. Huston Street was just rolling along, striking out one batter and then getting a fielders choice grounder after a Jimmy Rollins infield base hit. He and the Rockies then just needed one more out to send the series back to Philadelphia.
Street just needed to deal with Chase Utley. Yeah, it was righty vs. lefty but still….and my recollection is that the count went to 3-2, but, in any event, Street walked Utley and then you knew he had to face big Ryan Howard, another lefty, and you started to feel a little nervous, and then, before you knew it, Howard put a big swing on a ball left out over the plate and the game was tied.
And then, just to put a punctuation point on the proceedings, Jayson Werth knocked in the winning run. Those Phillies were still the reigning World Champions, not the Yankees, not the Dodgers, but those tough guys from Philadelphia, and there were no tougher Philly batters than the ones Street faced in that fateful 9th inning.
But you don’t hear much about the Phillies. Expectations again. I guess the thinking goes, “well, the Yanks picked up Teixeira and Sabathia and Burnett and they still had Arod and Jeter and Damon and Posada and yada yada.yanka”. And for the Dodgers, it would be “their young guys like Kemp and Ethier and Loney have all picked it up in Manny’s absence and they’ve got all that relief pitching.”
Yeah, I guess so, but those Phillies sure looked pretty tough to me in that ninth inning in Denver. So I’ve changed my expectations. Until somebody knocks them out, my money (if I had any money) would be on the defending champions.
Yankee fans are probably saying that their team did the same thing against the Twins. Yeah, they did, and it was very impressive, Arod tying it up and Teixeira delivering the clincher. And they’d be right, but…..
Well, I know if I were a Yankee fan, I’d be getting just a little bit nervous about all this conjecture about the starting rotation for the next series. I mean, can they make it any more obvious that they only trust three of their starters? I guess that means they may have only three playoff-ready starters.
That’s Sabathia, Burnett and Pettite, of course. With Joba now a reliever, that leaves them with Chad Gaudin as the fourth starter. He’s been really pretty good this year too, with a respectable ERA and strong overall outings. But that brain trust is working overtime trying to figure out what the rain will do.
The rain may push back the opener but that will probably be the extent of it. The Yanks will still have to deal with using Sabathia on three days rest. Only the most optimistic Yankee forecast could expect better. You’re still left with facts. The Yanks only have three starters they trust, which means they only have three starters.
Hmm. The Angels have at least four. I say at least four, because a fella named Ervin Santana is listed at five, and he’s probably better than Chad Gaudin. The others are very respectable, John Lackey, Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders and Scott Kazmir. And those last two are lefties, just to change things up a little. Oh, and Brian Fuentes, their closer, is a lefty too.
Even knowing that the Yanks have right-handed batters, and guys who can be turned around, like Teixeira and Posada, it will still be helpful to throw a different look at your opponent. And Posada may not be catching all the time either. That’s another vaguely troubling thing for a Yankee fan, I would imagine. (even though I can’t really imagine the sheer horror of being one myself).
Another net difference from last year to this year is in the Yankee right field. And it’s a net loss, from Bobby Abreu to Nick Swisher. Bobby was one of those perennial .300 hitters with a hundred each year in both runs and ribbies. One thing he didn’t do in the Bronx was run into the outfield wall. Nick loves doing that, but that’s his only baseball advantage over Abreu.
You can expect a hell of a series, folks.
Or maybe you’re one of those held spellbound by the side stories, Rush Limbaugh assigned to NFL limbo and Jon Gruden being considered for a couple of NFL head coaching spots. And then, of course, there’re all the side stories associated with the MLB Playoffs, the cold weather, the rain, the pitching assignments, and Mariano, Mariano, Mariano….makes a Mets fan sick!
Wasn’t it Mariano who blew the series with Boston back in 2004, a date that marked the resurgence of the Red Sox? He’s not infallible, Yankee fans. And maybe we’ll find out in this Angels series. We might find out a couple of other things too, like how stupid it was to get rid of Bobby Abreu. (A Mets fan can only hope).
The prospect of the first Yankee game Friday night seems to be casting a large shadow over the Phils-Dodgers series in the National League. There the story is, as you might expect, mostly about Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre, although you could make a case for the failures of Brad Lidge. The media loves failure, especially after a skein of successes.
So there’s really nothing happening but expectations. I had expected the Dodgers to be gone already, blown away by the Cards pitchers, Wainwright and Carpenter. That didn’t happen. Then the Phils dispatched the Rockies pretty handily, easier than I had expected given the Rockies newfound prowess in the starting pitching and relief categories.
It looked bad for the Phils in Colorado in that top of the ninth inning. Huston Street was just rolling along, striking out one batter and then getting a fielders choice grounder after a Jimmy Rollins infield base hit. He and the Rockies then just needed one more out to send the series back to Philadelphia.
Street just needed to deal with Chase Utley. Yeah, it was righty vs. lefty but still….and my recollection is that the count went to 3-2, but, in any event, Street walked Utley and then you knew he had to face big Ryan Howard, another lefty, and you started to feel a little nervous, and then, before you knew it, Howard put a big swing on a ball left out over the plate and the game was tied.
And then, just to put a punctuation point on the proceedings, Jayson Werth knocked in the winning run. Those Phillies were still the reigning World Champions, not the Yankees, not the Dodgers, but those tough guys from Philadelphia, and there were no tougher Philly batters than the ones Street faced in that fateful 9th inning.
But you don’t hear much about the Phillies. Expectations again. I guess the thinking goes, “well, the Yanks picked up Teixeira and Sabathia and Burnett and they still had Arod and Jeter and Damon and Posada and yada yada.yanka”. And for the Dodgers, it would be “their young guys like Kemp and Ethier and Loney have all picked it up in Manny’s absence and they’ve got all that relief pitching.”
Yeah, I guess so, but those Phillies sure looked pretty tough to me in that ninth inning in Denver. So I’ve changed my expectations. Until somebody knocks them out, my money (if I had any money) would be on the defending champions.
Yankee fans are probably saying that their team did the same thing against the Twins. Yeah, they did, and it was very impressive, Arod tying it up and Teixeira delivering the clincher. And they’d be right, but…..
Well, I know if I were a Yankee fan, I’d be getting just a little bit nervous about all this conjecture about the starting rotation for the next series. I mean, can they make it any more obvious that they only trust three of their starters? I guess that means they may have only three playoff-ready starters.
That’s Sabathia, Burnett and Pettite, of course. With Joba now a reliever, that leaves them with Chad Gaudin as the fourth starter. He’s been really pretty good this year too, with a respectable ERA and strong overall outings. But that brain trust is working overtime trying to figure out what the rain will do.
The rain may push back the opener but that will probably be the extent of it. The Yanks will still have to deal with using Sabathia on three days rest. Only the most optimistic Yankee forecast could expect better. You’re still left with facts. The Yanks only have three starters they trust, which means they only have three starters.
Hmm. The Angels have at least four. I say at least four, because a fella named Ervin Santana is listed at five, and he’s probably better than Chad Gaudin. The others are very respectable, John Lackey, Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders and Scott Kazmir. And those last two are lefties, just to change things up a little. Oh, and Brian Fuentes, their closer, is a lefty too.
Even knowing that the Yanks have right-handed batters, and guys who can be turned around, like Teixeira and Posada, it will still be helpful to throw a different look at your opponent. And Posada may not be catching all the time either. That’s another vaguely troubling thing for a Yankee fan, I would imagine. (even though I can’t really imagine the sheer horror of being one myself).
Another net difference from last year to this year is in the Yankee right field. And it’s a net loss, from Bobby Abreu to Nick Swisher. Bobby was one of those perennial .300 hitters with a hundred each year in both runs and ribbies. One thing he didn’t do in the Bronx was run into the outfield wall. Nick loves doing that, but that’s his only baseball advantage over Abreu.
You can expect a hell of a series, folks.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Two Guys from Jersey Head NFL Action
Guys from Jersey were sure in the news this weekend, for good and bad. One guy from Garfield broke the single-game receiving record for the Cowboys, another guy has become the leading running back for the Ravens, catching passes from still another Jersey guy from Audobon.
Miles Austin, the wide receiver, in addition to setting the Boyz receiving record, also won the game for them and kept Tony Romo from looking like a monkey. The Cowboys had played poorly all game against the Chiefs from Kansas City and our Mr. Austin was a part of the problem in the early going, dropping a couple of balls that looked catchable.
He sure made up for it later, catching a 59 yarder for the score that finally put the Cowboys ahead after about 50 minutes of hard-nosed football on both sides, only to see KC tie the score on a fourth down pass from Matt Cassell. Then, in overtime, Austin caught still another, this one going for 60 yards, to win the game for Dallas. Quite an afternoon of football.
Then there’s good ol’ Ray Rice from Rutgers. In his second year now, Ray is making Willis McGahee, the erstwhile top running back for the Ravens, just an afterthought. Mr. Rice just refuses to go down. He’ll hit the ground eventually but not before his hand without the ball holds him up for a while.
The Bengals had the misfortune of dealing with Rice yesterday, and, if not for a last-ditch effort by Carson Palmer, he would have had his Ravens team in the winners column once again. He does everything too, not just run. He caught 7 balls for 74 yards, one for a TD, and rushed 14 times for another 70.
Most interesting to me though was the similarity in style between Austin and Rice on their touchdown catches. They both appeared to be going down but they never quite made it there. Their opponents will no doubt be watching a lot of film this week with their positional coaches. I wish I could be there. I’d bring the popcorn.
You can’t speak of Jersey without mentioning the Giants, of course, and they just methodically beat up the Raiders. The final score was 44-7 but it looked as if it could have been anything they wished it to be. Everybody wearing a blue uniform looked terrific. And vice-versa for the silver and black.
I won’t make too big a thing of it though, if only because they’ve had things really easy thus far. They’ve beaten Washington, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland. Except for Dallas, which has been struggling all year, that’s the bottom of the barrel. Washington has a bad QB and a bad coach, KC has Matt Cassel, a well-meaning coach but not much else, and Oakland has nothing.
Things will start to get interesting for the G-Men next Sunday night. They have to visit New Orleans, who will have had an extra week of preparation to ready themselves for our men in blue. You might recall the Jets had some huge problems during their trip to Louisiana last week.
The Giants are not the Jets, of course, and the two teams really don’t have much in common with each other, from the management to the coaches to the quarterbacks to the players on the field. And that’s not to cast dispersions on either squad, just to point out that they are very different.
In general terms, I’d say the Jets have a better defense and a worse offense. The Saints only scored ten points off the Jets defense. The rest was attributable to the trials and tribulations of a rookie quarterback, a good rookie but still a rookie. Eli is anything but a rookie. But the Saints will find the end zone, I’m afraid, with a little more regularity than they did against the Jets. It will be the season’s first real test for the Giants.
Things don’t get any easier either for the G-Men after that. Kurt Warner will be visiting, along with his merry cast of receivers, and then it’s off to Philadelphia to see Donovan McNabb. Then they’ll be hosting what might be a very aggravated Charger squad before their bye week.
Hopefully they’ll enjoy the week off because they’ll get Atlanta and Denver after that, then Dallas again, Philly again, and Minnesota in the final week. If you could call it a respite, they get to face Carolina and the Redskins again before having to face the Vikings. Five and oh is nice but they could be about 6-6 going into those last four weeks of the season, and at least two of those will be very tough contests.
The Jets are favored by two over the Fish tonight and I think you’ll see a more conservative approach from them and Sanchez, a game plan that will feature the running game, and a Jets pass defense that will be tested after the Jets stop the run. I think they’ll be quite up to the task.
They were one of my four best bets for the week. The other three were Minnesota, Cincinnati and Arizona. They all worked out so I’m looking forward to the game immensely. The Fish are better than their 1-3 record though, having lost to the likes of Atlanta, the Colts and the Chargers. It should be a real battle and the Jets may even have to resort to passing, maybe even phasing in their newest acquisition, Braylon Edwards.
The Yankees were fairly awesome in their sweep of the Twins. The Twins played badly in spots, a little out of character for them, but it seems the Yankees bring out the worst in them, a sure sign of a superior team. They’ll find things a lot tougher against the Angels, but the Bombers, 2009 edition, compare favorably with any team on the planet.
So, fear not, Yankee fans, the best may be yet to come. And maybe Mister Torre.
Miles Austin, the wide receiver, in addition to setting the Boyz receiving record, also won the game for them and kept Tony Romo from looking like a monkey. The Cowboys had played poorly all game against the Chiefs from Kansas City and our Mr. Austin was a part of the problem in the early going, dropping a couple of balls that looked catchable.
He sure made up for it later, catching a 59 yarder for the score that finally put the Cowboys ahead after about 50 minutes of hard-nosed football on both sides, only to see KC tie the score on a fourth down pass from Matt Cassell. Then, in overtime, Austin caught still another, this one going for 60 yards, to win the game for Dallas. Quite an afternoon of football.
Then there’s good ol’ Ray Rice from Rutgers. In his second year now, Ray is making Willis McGahee, the erstwhile top running back for the Ravens, just an afterthought. Mr. Rice just refuses to go down. He’ll hit the ground eventually but not before his hand without the ball holds him up for a while.
The Bengals had the misfortune of dealing with Rice yesterday, and, if not for a last-ditch effort by Carson Palmer, he would have had his Ravens team in the winners column once again. He does everything too, not just run. He caught 7 balls for 74 yards, one for a TD, and rushed 14 times for another 70.
Most interesting to me though was the similarity in style between Austin and Rice on their touchdown catches. They both appeared to be going down but they never quite made it there. Their opponents will no doubt be watching a lot of film this week with their positional coaches. I wish I could be there. I’d bring the popcorn.
You can’t speak of Jersey without mentioning the Giants, of course, and they just methodically beat up the Raiders. The final score was 44-7 but it looked as if it could have been anything they wished it to be. Everybody wearing a blue uniform looked terrific. And vice-versa for the silver and black.
I won’t make too big a thing of it though, if only because they’ve had things really easy thus far. They’ve beaten Washington, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland. Except for Dallas, which has been struggling all year, that’s the bottom of the barrel. Washington has a bad QB and a bad coach, KC has Matt Cassel, a well-meaning coach but not much else, and Oakland has nothing.
Things will start to get interesting for the G-Men next Sunday night. They have to visit New Orleans, who will have had an extra week of preparation to ready themselves for our men in blue. You might recall the Jets had some huge problems during their trip to Louisiana last week.
The Giants are not the Jets, of course, and the two teams really don’t have much in common with each other, from the management to the coaches to the quarterbacks to the players on the field. And that’s not to cast dispersions on either squad, just to point out that they are very different.
In general terms, I’d say the Jets have a better defense and a worse offense. The Saints only scored ten points off the Jets defense. The rest was attributable to the trials and tribulations of a rookie quarterback, a good rookie but still a rookie. Eli is anything but a rookie. But the Saints will find the end zone, I’m afraid, with a little more regularity than they did against the Jets. It will be the season’s first real test for the Giants.
Things don’t get any easier either for the G-Men after that. Kurt Warner will be visiting, along with his merry cast of receivers, and then it’s off to Philadelphia to see Donovan McNabb. Then they’ll be hosting what might be a very aggravated Charger squad before their bye week.
Hopefully they’ll enjoy the week off because they’ll get Atlanta and Denver after that, then Dallas again, Philly again, and Minnesota in the final week. If you could call it a respite, they get to face Carolina and the Redskins again before having to face the Vikings. Five and oh is nice but they could be about 6-6 going into those last four weeks of the season, and at least two of those will be very tough contests.
The Jets are favored by two over the Fish tonight and I think you’ll see a more conservative approach from them and Sanchez, a game plan that will feature the running game, and a Jets pass defense that will be tested after the Jets stop the run. I think they’ll be quite up to the task.
They were one of my four best bets for the week. The other three were Minnesota, Cincinnati and Arizona. They all worked out so I’m looking forward to the game immensely. The Fish are better than their 1-3 record though, having lost to the likes of Atlanta, the Colts and the Chargers. It should be a real battle and the Jets may even have to resort to passing, maybe even phasing in their newest acquisition, Braylon Edwards.
The Yankees were fairly awesome in their sweep of the Twins. The Twins played badly in spots, a little out of character for them, but it seems the Yankees bring out the worst in them, a sure sign of a superior team. They’ll find things a lot tougher against the Angels, but the Bombers, 2009 edition, compare favorably with any team on the planet.
So, fear not, Yankee fans, the best may be yet to come. And maybe Mister Torre.
Friday, October 9, 2009
It's A New Week, Isn't It?
Okay, I’m trying to look at the bright side. Sure, the Mets have had nothing all season. It’s raining. It’s soggy. No, not saggy, that would be Posada’s face. Talk about pouting, come on, Jorge, suck it up. And Holliday makes a 2-out friggin’ drop to just kill the Cardinals. Made his homer look really inconsequential.
In football, I went 6 and 8 against the spread, just awful. I’m embarrassed. And Francesa’s broadcasting from Yankee Stadium. How depressing is that? Mike really lines up a great Friday show though, and he’s got college and NFL football, Troy Aikman, who isn’t a total fool, and various assorted (and sordid) guests of questionable renown….better than Manny from Brooklyn?
I tried an outline for this piece, first line was “Posada is a ____. I can’t even tell you how bad that is. I mean, let’s look at Posada’s good points. There are many. For example, Jorge can hit. Um, let’s see, what else, what else….hmm..he’s a leader in the clubhouse, how friggin vague is that?
Surely there’s more, um, can he throw people out? Well, 30% of the time, that’s not horrible, I guess. Is he good with pitchers? Hmmm. I hated him with Chamberlain and he doesn’t match Burnett that well….at all. He’s ok with CC and Pettite, so the theory goes…Molina doesn’t throw out a ton of runners either but he’s probably not obnoxious would be my guess. Heh-heh.
Did I mention Posada can hit? Oh yeah, that. I’d play Molina every day of the week. But that’s me, hitting isn’t everything, or haven’t I made that clear yet?
I was extremely ready for the Cards to hold on in Game 2. Wainwright was awesome for eight, and Holliday’s solo homer helped build a 2-1 lead. Then I worried that Franklin wouldn’t hold them, them being the Dodgers. It didn’t look as if he would hold them but then he got a liner to left. I said, “whew” when I saw Holliday would get there. Then there was his muff…..oh man.
It was one of those balls that hit you in the middle of things, glove up, glove down… and he was coming in hard and …… well, he missed it. And then you knew things were seriously downhill already. So the Dodgers are in real good shape, not an outcome I was personally looking forward to.
Then there was Week 4 that fooled me in a lot of spots. Who would’ve believed the Chargers had such a bunch of pushovers on defense? Not me. And I thought the Giants would have a down week for sure. But the Chiefs made mistakes early. It wasn’t a game after that. And I’m afraid I may have under-rated those Browns. If those three went as expected, my overall picks record would’ve looked ok. Anyway, here’s my week 5 picks. (I feel a 10-4 coming on).
Week 5 Picks
Favorite Underdog Spread 4 Best My Pick Reason
Min STL 10 * Min Favre will pad lead to run up his stats
Dal KC 8 ½ Dal After loss to Den, Dallas will run up score
CAR Was 3 ½ CAR Campbell is awful
PHI TamBay 15 PHI Tampa can’t stop pass, #5 is back
NYG Oak 15 Oak Giants don’t run up score, Oak pass defense good
BUF Cle 6 Cle Buffalo can’t stop run
BAL Cin 8 ½ * Cin Cinci Defense will surprise
Pit DET 10 ½ Pit Lost momentum w/o Stafford
SF Atl 2 ½ SF Niners may win it all
NewEng DEN 3 NewEng Pats make a point –master beats apprentice
ARZ Hou 5 ½ * ARZ Cards had plenty of prep time after bye week
Jac SEA NL Jac Seattle’s a mess, Jags aren’t
Ind TEN 4 Ind Hard to tell when Titans will stop anybody
Jets MIA 2 * Jets Jets will stop Miami run, Sanchez bounceback
My best bets (which I didn’t bother with last week, thank Jupiter) are the Vikings, Bengals, Cards and Jets. I’m going to pretend my best bets are one of those betting slips and I’ve got to pick all four to win.
“So what”? you ask. Let’s look closer at these contests.
Okay, the Vikings. They just rolled over the Packers. It was very sad indeed, especially if you happen to hate Favre. Green Bay did stop the run pretty well and Peterson didn’t do much. But maybe that wasn’t the way to go with defense as things turned out. And the Rams just were annihilated vs. the Niners last week. The Niners didn’t really even have much of an offense. The Vikings apparently do. It would take an enormous Viking flop for them not to just win but cover at just ten points.
I’ve liked Cincinnati all year. Cleveland was playing way above their heads last week, I was really impressed. But the Bengals didn’t fold. They hung on. How much better will Flacco and the Colts be than were Derek Anderson and the Browns in the Battle of Ohio? C’mon man, it was the Battle of friggin’ Ohio.
Kurt Warner with a week off along with his Arizona team should wipe up the Texans. They had a week to work on their running game and get receivers well. They did go to the Super Bowl last year. The Texans had horrible defensive performances for three weeks before holding the Raiders down last week. That’s Al Davis’s Raiders, folks. The Cards will romp.
Aah, and then there’s the Jets at Miami and a spread of two. I think the Jets are better than that. I think they can stop the run, they won’t be fooled by a wildcat, and they’re coming off a week of stopping New Orleans, one of the best offensive teams in the league. (I would have said THE best two weeks ago). Then there’s a relatively new quarterback in Miami. Another Chad named Henne. He didn’t do badly last week but it’s a new week, isn’t it.?
In football, I went 6 and 8 against the spread, just awful. I’m embarrassed. And Francesa’s broadcasting from Yankee Stadium. How depressing is that? Mike really lines up a great Friday show though, and he’s got college and NFL football, Troy Aikman, who isn’t a total fool, and various assorted (and sordid) guests of questionable renown….better than Manny from Brooklyn?
I tried an outline for this piece, first line was “Posada is a ____. I can’t even tell you how bad that is. I mean, let’s look at Posada’s good points. There are many. For example, Jorge can hit. Um, let’s see, what else, what else….hmm..he’s a leader in the clubhouse, how friggin vague is that?
Surely there’s more, um, can he throw people out? Well, 30% of the time, that’s not horrible, I guess. Is he good with pitchers? Hmmm. I hated him with Chamberlain and he doesn’t match Burnett that well….at all. He’s ok with CC and Pettite, so the theory goes…Molina doesn’t throw out a ton of runners either but he’s probably not obnoxious would be my guess. Heh-heh.
Did I mention Posada can hit? Oh yeah, that. I’d play Molina every day of the week. But that’s me, hitting isn’t everything, or haven’t I made that clear yet?
I was extremely ready for the Cards to hold on in Game 2. Wainwright was awesome for eight, and Holliday’s solo homer helped build a 2-1 lead. Then I worried that Franklin wouldn’t hold them, them being the Dodgers. It didn’t look as if he would hold them but then he got a liner to left. I said, “whew” when I saw Holliday would get there. Then there was his muff…..oh man.
It was one of those balls that hit you in the middle of things, glove up, glove down… and he was coming in hard and …… well, he missed it. And then you knew things were seriously downhill already. So the Dodgers are in real good shape, not an outcome I was personally looking forward to.
Then there was Week 4 that fooled me in a lot of spots. Who would’ve believed the Chargers had such a bunch of pushovers on defense? Not me. And I thought the Giants would have a down week for sure. But the Chiefs made mistakes early. It wasn’t a game after that. And I’m afraid I may have under-rated those Browns. If those three went as expected, my overall picks record would’ve looked ok. Anyway, here’s my week 5 picks. (I feel a 10-4 coming on).
Week 5 Picks
Favorite Underdog Spread 4 Best My Pick Reason
Min STL 10 * Min Favre will pad lead to run up his stats
Dal KC 8 ½ Dal After loss to Den, Dallas will run up score
CAR Was 3 ½ CAR Campbell is awful
PHI TamBay 15 PHI Tampa can’t stop pass, #5 is back
NYG Oak 15 Oak Giants don’t run up score, Oak pass defense good
BUF Cle 6 Cle Buffalo can’t stop run
BAL Cin 8 ½ * Cin Cinci Defense will surprise
Pit DET 10 ½ Pit Lost momentum w/o Stafford
SF Atl 2 ½ SF Niners may win it all
NewEng DEN 3 NewEng Pats make a point –master beats apprentice
ARZ Hou 5 ½ * ARZ Cards had plenty of prep time after bye week
Jac SEA NL Jac Seattle’s a mess, Jags aren’t
Ind TEN 4 Ind Hard to tell when Titans will stop anybody
Jets MIA 2 * Jets Jets will stop Miami run, Sanchez bounceback
My best bets (which I didn’t bother with last week, thank Jupiter) are the Vikings, Bengals, Cards and Jets. I’m going to pretend my best bets are one of those betting slips and I’ve got to pick all four to win.
“So what”? you ask. Let’s look closer at these contests.
Okay, the Vikings. They just rolled over the Packers. It was very sad indeed, especially if you happen to hate Favre. Green Bay did stop the run pretty well and Peterson didn’t do much. But maybe that wasn’t the way to go with defense as things turned out. And the Rams just were annihilated vs. the Niners last week. The Niners didn’t really even have much of an offense. The Vikings apparently do. It would take an enormous Viking flop for them not to just win but cover at just ten points.
I’ve liked Cincinnati all year. Cleveland was playing way above their heads last week, I was really impressed. But the Bengals didn’t fold. They hung on. How much better will Flacco and the Colts be than were Derek Anderson and the Browns in the Battle of Ohio? C’mon man, it was the Battle of friggin’ Ohio.
Kurt Warner with a week off along with his Arizona team should wipe up the Texans. They had a week to work on their running game and get receivers well. They did go to the Super Bowl last year. The Texans had horrible defensive performances for three weeks before holding the Raiders down last week. That’s Al Davis’s Raiders, folks. The Cards will romp.
Aah, and then there’s the Jets at Miami and a spread of two. I think the Jets are better than that. I think they can stop the run, they won’t be fooled by a wildcat, and they’re coming off a week of stopping New Orleans, one of the best offensive teams in the league. (I would have said THE best two weeks ago). Then there’s a relatively new quarterback in Miami. Another Chad named Henne. He didn’t do badly last week but it’s a new week, isn’t it.?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
On Playoffs and Bad Football
The playoffs in both leagues start today without the Mets. Groan. I can’t help but wonder whether they could have taken the measure of the Phils or the Dodgers, Cards or Rockies, if they had remained healthy. Maybe, who knows, who’ll ever know?
These NL teams are really stacked though. It would have been tough. I think the Cards are the strongest overall with a powerful lineup and pitching to die for, especially in a five-game series with Carpenter and Wainwright sporting ERA’s of 2.24 and 2.76 respectively. L.A.’s Wolf was just 11-7 with a 3.23 ERA. Kershaw had a great 2.79 ERA but was just 8-8.
Then there’s Pujols and Holliday and a bunch of .300 hitters facing a nice lineup but not an exceptional one, not unless Manny Ramirez should suddenly catch fire. And that’s just not that likely.
In the other series, the Phillies against the Rockies, I know everybody likes the defending champion Phillies, but not me. Even if you forget about the Brad Lidge closer failures, their lineup just hasn’t performed as they did last year, when magic seemed to bloom out of their butts. They may wind up prevailing, with Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels providing a powerful 1-2 punch, but I just don’t think it’s their year.
The Rockies aren’t that impressive either really but were hotter for sure down the stretch and I like their Tulowitzki, Helton and Hawpe in the middle. The Rocks have Ubaldo Jiminez and Jorge De La Rosa too, and possess a better closer in Huston Street. Although it’s tough to pick against the World Champs, they just haven’t clicked as has that hot Denver team. Besides, my nephew likes them and he’s pretty lucky.
Over in the American League, the Yanks are just loaded. It seems almost ridiculous to even go through any analysis. They kill the Twins all the time too. So kiss it goodbye, Minnesota, maybe you should have picked up Favre. They’ll be lucky to take one game.
The other AL matchup should be a classic and I don’t even want to pick a winner as I like both teams. The Red Sox have dominated in their matchups in the past. But it’ll be a new series and, if Lester and Beckett should falter, the Angels have a shot. I love their lineup with real battlers like Figgins and Abreu at the top.
The Yanks can take everybody in either league except for maybe the Angels. So naturally I’m hoping the Angels can make it through Boston. If Figgins and the rest of the speed they’ve got can get on base, they’ll be murderous on either Varitek or Victor Martinez to stop.
So I’m hoping for Rockies-Cards and Angels-Yanks. I have to think the Cards can take the Rockies and hope for a miracle that the Angels will take the Yanks. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it would be pretty neat for the Yanks to get by. Then I can root against them in the World Series once again.
The Cards would have a shot against anybody.
Okay, that’s enough baseball for now. It’s high time to pick on the Jets. No, not really. It’s hard not to like Sanchez and he had a rough, rough day in New Orleans. The offensive line of the Jets took some hits this week and then the Jets picked up Braylon Edwards for Chansi Stuckey and some picks.
I sure hope it’ll be one of those trades that benefit both parties but Edwards can’t catch, a sure-fire weakness in a wideout. I see lots of dropped balls in their future. He sure does get open though.
Then Eli getting hurt in the Chiefs game was decidedly inconvenient. That injury sounds as if it’ll be hanging around for some time too. We have to hope it doesn’t affect Eli’s accuracy. He was having one of his better years in that respect, or is it just that his receivers are better at finding spaces and understanding the offense?
It’d be tough to get on Coughlin’s charges for anything. They didn’t miss a beat against the Chiefs, a game I expected them to win but not cover the spread. I thought they’d let down. They didn’t. With Steve Smith and Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks to throw to, you have to wonder if they just might run the table.
They seem as loaded as the Yankees are in baseball. There just aren’t any weaknesses. Of course, I said that about the Mets early this year before every Met of any consequence got hurt. I can only hope it won’t happen to the Giants. Eli’s going down, even for a little time, is not a good sign.
One vaguely upsetting thing in the NFL going forward is the weakness, especially defensively, in at least ten teams. The Chargers are one of those teams for sure after seeing their Sunday night exhibition against the Steelers, who became a great running team seemingly overnight. Then we got to witness a Packers team on Monday that couldn’t block and couldn’t rush the passer. That the passer was my least favorite person in the entire world did not make for a pleasant night, I assure you.
It was good to see that Favre is still a hot dog though, and still looks out for his interests more so than for his team’s. His stupid long pass attempt down the sideline kept Green Bay in the game, and a better team may have been able to capitalize on the opportunity.
Tampa Bay and Washington are both horrible though, Tampa on the defense and the Skins on offense. The Bills once again seem pathetic. The Rams got slaughtered by the 49ers. The Raiders are horrible under a fat and lousy Jamarcus Russell. There’s hope for the Browns as they showed against the tough Bengals but can Mangini really be expected to turn that club around?
Well, it’s just Week Five and hopefully, things only get better.
These NL teams are really stacked though. It would have been tough. I think the Cards are the strongest overall with a powerful lineup and pitching to die for, especially in a five-game series with Carpenter and Wainwright sporting ERA’s of 2.24 and 2.76 respectively. L.A.’s Wolf was just 11-7 with a 3.23 ERA. Kershaw had a great 2.79 ERA but was just 8-8.
Then there’s Pujols and Holliday and a bunch of .300 hitters facing a nice lineup but not an exceptional one, not unless Manny Ramirez should suddenly catch fire. And that’s just not that likely.
In the other series, the Phillies against the Rockies, I know everybody likes the defending champion Phillies, but not me. Even if you forget about the Brad Lidge closer failures, their lineup just hasn’t performed as they did last year, when magic seemed to bloom out of their butts. They may wind up prevailing, with Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels providing a powerful 1-2 punch, but I just don’t think it’s their year.
The Rockies aren’t that impressive either really but were hotter for sure down the stretch and I like their Tulowitzki, Helton and Hawpe in the middle. The Rocks have Ubaldo Jiminez and Jorge De La Rosa too, and possess a better closer in Huston Street. Although it’s tough to pick against the World Champs, they just haven’t clicked as has that hot Denver team. Besides, my nephew likes them and he’s pretty lucky.
Over in the American League, the Yanks are just loaded. It seems almost ridiculous to even go through any analysis. They kill the Twins all the time too. So kiss it goodbye, Minnesota, maybe you should have picked up Favre. They’ll be lucky to take one game.
The other AL matchup should be a classic and I don’t even want to pick a winner as I like both teams. The Red Sox have dominated in their matchups in the past. But it’ll be a new series and, if Lester and Beckett should falter, the Angels have a shot. I love their lineup with real battlers like Figgins and Abreu at the top.
The Yanks can take everybody in either league except for maybe the Angels. So naturally I’m hoping the Angels can make it through Boston. If Figgins and the rest of the speed they’ve got can get on base, they’ll be murderous on either Varitek or Victor Martinez to stop.
So I’m hoping for Rockies-Cards and Angels-Yanks. I have to think the Cards can take the Rockies and hope for a miracle that the Angels will take the Yanks. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it would be pretty neat for the Yanks to get by. Then I can root against them in the World Series once again.
The Cards would have a shot against anybody.
Okay, that’s enough baseball for now. It’s high time to pick on the Jets. No, not really. It’s hard not to like Sanchez and he had a rough, rough day in New Orleans. The offensive line of the Jets took some hits this week and then the Jets picked up Braylon Edwards for Chansi Stuckey and some picks.
I sure hope it’ll be one of those trades that benefit both parties but Edwards can’t catch, a sure-fire weakness in a wideout. I see lots of dropped balls in their future. He sure does get open though.
Then Eli getting hurt in the Chiefs game was decidedly inconvenient. That injury sounds as if it’ll be hanging around for some time too. We have to hope it doesn’t affect Eli’s accuracy. He was having one of his better years in that respect, or is it just that his receivers are better at finding spaces and understanding the offense?
It’d be tough to get on Coughlin’s charges for anything. They didn’t miss a beat against the Chiefs, a game I expected them to win but not cover the spread. I thought they’d let down. They didn’t. With Steve Smith and Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks to throw to, you have to wonder if they just might run the table.
They seem as loaded as the Yankees are in baseball. There just aren’t any weaknesses. Of course, I said that about the Mets early this year before every Met of any consequence got hurt. I can only hope it won’t happen to the Giants. Eli’s going down, even for a little time, is not a good sign.
One vaguely upsetting thing in the NFL going forward is the weakness, especially defensively, in at least ten teams. The Chargers are one of those teams for sure after seeing their Sunday night exhibition against the Steelers, who became a great running team seemingly overnight. Then we got to witness a Packers team on Monday that couldn’t block and couldn’t rush the passer. That the passer was my least favorite person in the entire world did not make for a pleasant night, I assure you.
It was good to see that Favre is still a hot dog though, and still looks out for his interests more so than for his team’s. His stupid long pass attempt down the sideline kept Green Bay in the game, and a better team may have been able to capitalize on the opportunity.
Tampa Bay and Washington are both horrible though, Tampa on the defense and the Skins on offense. The Bills once again seem pathetic. The Rams got slaughtered by the 49ers. The Raiders are horrible under a fat and lousy Jamarcus Russell. There’s hope for the Browns as they showed against the tough Bengals but can Mangini really be expected to turn that club around?
Well, it’s just Week Five and hopefully, things only get better.
Monday, October 5, 2009
And Back to Baseball.....
After a decidedly mediocre week of picks in Week 4 of the NFL action (6-7 against the spread thus far), it’s an easy matter to turn my head back to baseball. The Mets finally get to think about next year. The Twins and Tigers battle for the final playoff spot tonight. The Yanks are all set to play somebody. And Arod incredibly reached 30 homers and 100 rbi’s on his very last at-bat of the regular season.
That last fact is the most amazing stat of all. I’m not crazy about Arod but it is almost magical that he managed to attain still another baseball record in such a fashion. He had 28 homers and only 93 rbi’s entering the contest. Going into the sixth inning, he still needed two dingers and 7 rbi’s for his record 13th 30-homer and 100 ribbie season!
No problem for Arod. He hit a 3-run homer early in the sixth and, after the Rays walked Teixeira with two men on, for the sole reason of guaranteeing their man Pena would stay tied with Teixeira for the AL lead in home runs, Arod had his chance. He made the most of it too. I have to give him a lot of credit. Finally. Even if it could have happened to a nicer guy. He missed 28 games! Unbelievable!
Getting back to the Mets though, we’ll be seeing some changes very soon, and probably first with the coaching staff. It’s pretty much assured that their pitching coach Warthen will be replaced, a move that can’t really be faulted as the Mets staff led the league in walks. They may get a new third base coach as well, and the two moves taken together set a strong precedent for rewarding success and punishing failure. A good thing.
If the Mets do stay the course with their core players, they’ll only need a left fielder. I’ve read over and over that they need a first baseman, a left fielder and a catcher but that’s not necessarily the case.
Omir Santos showed a lot of promise as a clutch rbi guy for a good portion of the season, at least while I was still paying attention. Schneider really had a horrible year at the plate but he’ll be leaving. Yeah, they need a catcher but not a great catcher, not somebody who’ll break the bank.
At first base, who knows? They could re-sign Delgado if he’ll go for a limited number of years, say one or two. And Daniel Murphy, though not possessed of the power numbers required for a first baseman, certainly qualifies as a reserve at first. He did lead the team in home runs even if the number was only 12. He’s a young guy who can only get better.
That leaves left field and one proven pitcher. Left field should be easy. I’d love for the Mets to get Matt Holliday. I don’t think they will but they should. He’s a legitimate star and he only gets better when everything’s on the line. The Cards will probably try to keep him, but the pockets in St Loo aren’t that deep. If Holliday doesn’t become the World Series MVP, he may be available. After all, the Cards already have Pujols. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
Holliday batted .313 this year with 24 homers and 109 rbi’s. After being traded to St. Louis, his numbers on the year improved dramatically. He smacked 13 hr’s for the Cards in just 2/3 of the at-bats he had in Oakland. His career numbers are .318 and, well, he’s basically your everyday run-of-the-mill 30 homer 100 rbi guy. He’ll be 30 years old in January.
Assuming the Mets can’t get Holliday, or if they’re just not interested, a more likely explanation although I have no idea why any team wouldn’t want one of the premiere players in both leagues, there are also some other nice players out there.
There’s Jason Bay, who was even more productive for the Red Sox, but he batted just .267 and he strikes out a LOT, with 162 K’s to Holliday’s 101. Another intriguing possibility is getting Hideki Matsui, who, despite garnering just 456 at-bats, hit 28 homers and knocked in 90 runs. He’s also the definition of “clutch”. Plus, how nice would it be to keep the Godzilla in New York?
There’re also some other possibly good choices but to my eyes riskier propositions. Rick Ankiel will be available and so will Andruw Jones. Then there’re Bobby Abreu, Vladimir Guerrero and former Met Xavier Nady, to take a bit of a step down. Most of these are either centerfielders or right-fielders but I’m sure Beltran may be ready to move to another outfield position that may be easier on his legs.
At first base, all things considered, I’d stay with Delgado, assuming he can be had reasonably. Available are Hank Blalock, Russ Branyan, Ross Gload, Nick Johnson and Adam LaRoche. While any of them could supply some power, it would be impossible for any of them to provide the leadership and continuity that Delgado would.
Then there’s the starting pitching situation. The possibilities there are almost too numerous to mention. But there are some big names, Bedard and Hudson, Lackey and Lee, Myers and Penny, Piniero and Prior, Sheets and Wolf, Washburn and Brandon Webb, who’d be one of my favorites if healthy.
For comic relief, Carl Pavano will be a free agent once again, currently serving his one-year contract out with the Twins after putting together a pretty nice year. Overall, he’s 14-12 with a 5.10 ERA with 147 strikeouts and just 39 walks.
The Mets situation is fixable. Easily fixable. Things would have to fall their way but don’t they always? I just heard that Jose Reyes will have surgery after so long dismissing the possibility. Beltran is still hurting a bit apparently. Wright can’t hit for power anymore. Delgado is old.
That’s the core. But can the Mets luck stay bad?
That last fact is the most amazing stat of all. I’m not crazy about Arod but it is almost magical that he managed to attain still another baseball record in such a fashion. He had 28 homers and only 93 rbi’s entering the contest. Going into the sixth inning, he still needed two dingers and 7 rbi’s for his record 13th 30-homer and 100 ribbie season!
No problem for Arod. He hit a 3-run homer early in the sixth and, after the Rays walked Teixeira with two men on, for the sole reason of guaranteeing their man Pena would stay tied with Teixeira for the AL lead in home runs, Arod had his chance. He made the most of it too. I have to give him a lot of credit. Finally. Even if it could have happened to a nicer guy. He missed 28 games! Unbelievable!
Getting back to the Mets though, we’ll be seeing some changes very soon, and probably first with the coaching staff. It’s pretty much assured that their pitching coach Warthen will be replaced, a move that can’t really be faulted as the Mets staff led the league in walks. They may get a new third base coach as well, and the two moves taken together set a strong precedent for rewarding success and punishing failure. A good thing.
If the Mets do stay the course with their core players, they’ll only need a left fielder. I’ve read over and over that they need a first baseman, a left fielder and a catcher but that’s not necessarily the case.
Omir Santos showed a lot of promise as a clutch rbi guy for a good portion of the season, at least while I was still paying attention. Schneider really had a horrible year at the plate but he’ll be leaving. Yeah, they need a catcher but not a great catcher, not somebody who’ll break the bank.
At first base, who knows? They could re-sign Delgado if he’ll go for a limited number of years, say one or two. And Daniel Murphy, though not possessed of the power numbers required for a first baseman, certainly qualifies as a reserve at first. He did lead the team in home runs even if the number was only 12. He’s a young guy who can only get better.
That leaves left field and one proven pitcher. Left field should be easy. I’d love for the Mets to get Matt Holliday. I don’t think they will but they should. He’s a legitimate star and he only gets better when everything’s on the line. The Cards will probably try to keep him, but the pockets in St Loo aren’t that deep. If Holliday doesn’t become the World Series MVP, he may be available. After all, the Cards already have Pujols. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
Holliday batted .313 this year with 24 homers and 109 rbi’s. After being traded to St. Louis, his numbers on the year improved dramatically. He smacked 13 hr’s for the Cards in just 2/3 of the at-bats he had in Oakland. His career numbers are .318 and, well, he’s basically your everyday run-of-the-mill 30 homer 100 rbi guy. He’ll be 30 years old in January.
Assuming the Mets can’t get Holliday, or if they’re just not interested, a more likely explanation although I have no idea why any team wouldn’t want one of the premiere players in both leagues, there are also some other nice players out there.
There’s Jason Bay, who was even more productive for the Red Sox, but he batted just .267 and he strikes out a LOT, with 162 K’s to Holliday’s 101. Another intriguing possibility is getting Hideki Matsui, who, despite garnering just 456 at-bats, hit 28 homers and knocked in 90 runs. He’s also the definition of “clutch”. Plus, how nice would it be to keep the Godzilla in New York?
There’re also some other possibly good choices but to my eyes riskier propositions. Rick Ankiel will be available and so will Andruw Jones. Then there’re Bobby Abreu, Vladimir Guerrero and former Met Xavier Nady, to take a bit of a step down. Most of these are either centerfielders or right-fielders but I’m sure Beltran may be ready to move to another outfield position that may be easier on his legs.
At first base, all things considered, I’d stay with Delgado, assuming he can be had reasonably. Available are Hank Blalock, Russ Branyan, Ross Gload, Nick Johnson and Adam LaRoche. While any of them could supply some power, it would be impossible for any of them to provide the leadership and continuity that Delgado would.
Then there’s the starting pitching situation. The possibilities there are almost too numerous to mention. But there are some big names, Bedard and Hudson, Lackey and Lee, Myers and Penny, Piniero and Prior, Sheets and Wolf, Washburn and Brandon Webb, who’d be one of my favorites if healthy.
For comic relief, Carl Pavano will be a free agent once again, currently serving his one-year contract out with the Twins after putting together a pretty nice year. Overall, he’s 14-12 with a 5.10 ERA with 147 strikeouts and just 39 walks.
The Mets situation is fixable. Easily fixable. Things would have to fall their way but don’t they always? I just heard that Jose Reyes will have surgery after so long dismissing the possibility. Beltran is still hurting a bit apparently. Wright can’t hit for power anymore. Delgado is old.
That’s the core. But can the Mets luck stay bad?
Friday, October 2, 2009
A Week for Comeuppances
NFL Picks is something I don’t ordinarily do but after checking out the Friday NFL coverage in the local newspapers, I’m going to start. Pathetic coverage really, and it’s Friday, when you’d ordinarily expect to read some good articles, or at least the odds and the picks.
But no, once again, nothing good is happening in print media. So you’ll find my picks below, but I will have some things to say about the Jets especially and the rapidly-concluding baseball season following my picks.
NFL Matchups
Giants -9 @ KC Hard to imagine the G-Men not letting down after the easy win vs. TB. Are the Bucs better than Kansas City? Not bloody likely…but still, Giants by 9 is the spread – the home crowd should put KC in contention at least……………… KC
Jets @ New Orleans – 7 – The Jets just keep coming…they’ll shut down the Saints running game but will get victimized by a short passing game, I see Reggie Bush having a big game and a Jets come-uppance is in the offing……. Saints
Bengals -6 @ Cleveland – I like the Bengals big here, Cincinnati defense will dominate…..Mangini struggles will continue….Browns just out of it… Bengals
Lions @ Bears -9 ½ – Lions looked really passable vs Skins, they’ll be close vs Bears
That’s the effect a real QB can have……………………………… Lions
Oakland @ Houston -9 – The silver and black are just awful, they’ll continue being awful, that big lunk of a quarterback just can’t throw ……………………… ..Houston
Seattle @ Colts -10 ½ - Seattle will surprise here, they’re just not that bad overall, neither is Seneca Wallace………………………………………………………………. .Seattle
TB @ Skins -7 ½ - Skins will be fortunate to win never mind cover….. TB
Titans -3 @ Jags – this will be a war….Titans will win the war in a game nobody watches, a shame really but there it is…………………………………………… Titans
Ravens @ Pats -2 – another come-uppance game, Pats at home and feeling kinda insulted, can’t blame them really…… PATS
Bills -1 ½ @ Miami – I like Bills big here….Lynch back, Fish without Pennington, T.O. may catch a few balls or more……………………………………………………… .Bills
Rams @ Niners -10 – I like the Niners but not by ten, come on, this is a Mike Singletary team……………………………………………………………………………… …Rams
Cowboys -3 @ Broncos – things happen for a reason, Broncos record no mistake,can the Boyz stop anyone – Wade Phillips just not coming across here…. Broncos
Chargers @ Steelers -6 – Steelers minus anything is a joke lately…………. Chargers
Packers @ Vikings -3 – Packers haven’t shown much yet…………………… Vikings
First Bye week – Arizona, Eagles, Atlanta, Carolina
Despite the paltry width of the local Sports section, I’m psyched for the weekend. I might for the first time this season be able to sit back, have some chips or popcorn, maybe even drink some beer, and just enjoy the games at home. Thank God for the Redzone…TV commercials will not dominate my Sunday, not anymore.
Of course the Jets game is definitely the bigger New York game. The Giants play the year after year bad Kansas City Chiefs while the Jets have to butt heads with a real live team, the best team in the NFL right now, lowly Aints no more.
The biggest difference between this year’s version of the Chiefs is the coach….no Herm Edwards. Then there’s a new quarterback and a bit of a better defense too. Taking those advantages and a rabid KC crowd too, the G-Men could definitely have some troubles.
Eli is due for a clunker, Jacobs just isn’t that scary and Ahmad Bradshaw is hurt. They may ultimately prevail but it won’t be easy. They’ll be missing that safety Phillips for sure. And I think the Giants linebackers can be had.
As scary as the Jets can be for opposing offenses, the Saints ain’t just anybody. Drew Brees just doesn’t make that many mistakes, he’s got some formidable weapons in Reggie Bush, Colston and Jeremy Shockey, there’s a running game too, and they just seem to be able to win any way they want to.
In Buffalo last week, for example, they won easily, using just their running game for the most part. Before last week, they were ripping defenses with their awesome passing game. It was almost as if they were just practicing against the Bills, who, by the way, have a pretty good run defense.
The Jets will blitz and Brees will find Bush again and again. You’ll likely see a lot of screens and draw plays, anything to neutralize that fearsome rush. The Jets will get Pace back too but it may not help that much. Brees will be anxious to minimize that pressure right away and we saw what the Titans were able to do through the air when the Jets just rush three or four.
Not that Ryan’s bullies won’t be partially successful but they won’t be able to stop all of the weapons that that black and gold team brings to the table. The Jets’ve been running at the mouth too, especially that obnoxious Scott. His “How dare you?” speech left me particularly cold. I know I’d go out of my way to punch him in the mouth and my guess is that the Saints will too.
In baseball, it’s all about the Twins, two full games behind the Tigers with just three games left to play. And they can’t control the Tigers who close out vs the White Sox. A lot of things have to go their way. They won’t. But that doesn’t mean Joe Mauer may not win the AL MVP. He surely deserves it.
I know the Yanks fans will say it should be Teixeira but they’d be wrong. He’s good but only one player in the American League brought a mediocre team to the last week of the season still in contention for the playoffs. The Yanks would win without Teixeira, the Yanks are loaded.
The NL MVP is less clear-cut but Pujols will probably get it. I can only lament that it won’t be a guy named Beltran.
But no, once again, nothing good is happening in print media. So you’ll find my picks below, but I will have some things to say about the Jets especially and the rapidly-concluding baseball season following my picks.
NFL Matchups
Giants -9 @ KC Hard to imagine the G-Men not letting down after the easy win vs. TB. Are the Bucs better than Kansas City? Not bloody likely…but still, Giants by 9 is the spread – the home crowd should put KC in contention at least……………… KC
Jets @ New Orleans – 7 – The Jets just keep coming…they’ll shut down the Saints running game but will get victimized by a short passing game, I see Reggie Bush having a big game and a Jets come-uppance is in the offing……. Saints
Bengals -6 @ Cleveland – I like the Bengals big here, Cincinnati defense will dominate…..Mangini struggles will continue….Browns just out of it… Bengals
Lions @ Bears -9 ½ – Lions looked really passable vs Skins, they’ll be close vs Bears
That’s the effect a real QB can have……………………………… Lions
Oakland @ Houston -9 – The silver and black are just awful, they’ll continue being awful, that big lunk of a quarterback just can’t throw ……………………… ..Houston
Seattle @ Colts -10 ½ - Seattle will surprise here, they’re just not that bad overall, neither is Seneca Wallace………………………………………………………………. .Seattle
TB @ Skins -7 ½ - Skins will be fortunate to win never mind cover….. TB
Titans -3 @ Jags – this will be a war….Titans will win the war in a game nobody watches, a shame really but there it is…………………………………………… Titans
Ravens @ Pats -2 – another come-uppance game, Pats at home and feeling kinda insulted, can’t blame them really…… PATS
Bills -1 ½ @ Miami – I like Bills big here….Lynch back, Fish without Pennington, T.O. may catch a few balls or more……………………………………………………… .Bills
Rams @ Niners -10 – I like the Niners but not by ten, come on, this is a Mike Singletary team……………………………………………………………………………… …Rams
Cowboys -3 @ Broncos – things happen for a reason, Broncos record no mistake,can the Boyz stop anyone – Wade Phillips just not coming across here…. Broncos
Chargers @ Steelers -6 – Steelers minus anything is a joke lately…………. Chargers
Packers @ Vikings -3 – Packers haven’t shown much yet…………………… Vikings
First Bye week – Arizona, Eagles, Atlanta, Carolina
Despite the paltry width of the local Sports section, I’m psyched for the weekend. I might for the first time this season be able to sit back, have some chips or popcorn, maybe even drink some beer, and just enjoy the games at home. Thank God for the Redzone…TV commercials will not dominate my Sunday, not anymore.
Of course the Jets game is definitely the bigger New York game. The Giants play the year after year bad Kansas City Chiefs while the Jets have to butt heads with a real live team, the best team in the NFL right now, lowly Aints no more.
The biggest difference between this year’s version of the Chiefs is the coach….no Herm Edwards. Then there’s a new quarterback and a bit of a better defense too. Taking those advantages and a rabid KC crowd too, the G-Men could definitely have some troubles.
Eli is due for a clunker, Jacobs just isn’t that scary and Ahmad Bradshaw is hurt. They may ultimately prevail but it won’t be easy. They’ll be missing that safety Phillips for sure. And I think the Giants linebackers can be had.
As scary as the Jets can be for opposing offenses, the Saints ain’t just anybody. Drew Brees just doesn’t make that many mistakes, he’s got some formidable weapons in Reggie Bush, Colston and Jeremy Shockey, there’s a running game too, and they just seem to be able to win any way they want to.
In Buffalo last week, for example, they won easily, using just their running game for the most part. Before last week, they were ripping defenses with their awesome passing game. It was almost as if they were just practicing against the Bills, who, by the way, have a pretty good run defense.
The Jets will blitz and Brees will find Bush again and again. You’ll likely see a lot of screens and draw plays, anything to neutralize that fearsome rush. The Jets will get Pace back too but it may not help that much. Brees will be anxious to minimize that pressure right away and we saw what the Titans were able to do through the air when the Jets just rush three or four.
Not that Ryan’s bullies won’t be partially successful but they won’t be able to stop all of the weapons that that black and gold team brings to the table. The Jets’ve been running at the mouth too, especially that obnoxious Scott. His “How dare you?” speech left me particularly cold. I know I’d go out of my way to punch him in the mouth and my guess is that the Saints will too.
In baseball, it’s all about the Twins, two full games behind the Tigers with just three games left to play. And they can’t control the Tigers who close out vs the White Sox. A lot of things have to go their way. They won’t. But that doesn’t mean Joe Mauer may not win the AL MVP. He surely deserves it.
I know the Yanks fans will say it should be Teixeira but they’d be wrong. He’s good but only one player in the American League brought a mediocre team to the last week of the season still in contention for the playoffs. The Yanks would win without Teixeira, the Yanks are loaded.
The NL MVP is less clear-cut but Pujols will probably get it. I can only lament that it won’t be a guy named Beltran.
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