A Good Draft, a Bad Irene

Imagine if you never had to see Mike Pelfrey pitch again……in your entire lifetime….Pelfrey-free….aahh.

But this won’t be about the Mets. After all, what can anybody really say? Just, please God, don’t make me watch any more Mets wheel-plays. And the latest highlight of the Mets fortunes was Jason Bay’s arm-less lunge for home plate with his arms pinned to the ground under his body.

The Mets won that one so Jason gets a pass, but it was the most ridiculous slide I’ve ever seen.

Enough said about the Mets. Even if David Wright had a really nice night and Tejada made the tough play he had to make to close the game out. It was like old times. Reyes was back smiling and Wright was playin’ energized and Duda came through with a nicely- measured swing to win it. I could really get used to watching baseball like that.

I just watched a replay of the Jets-Giants exhibition game from Monday night. I thought it was bad the first time around. It was worse in Round 2. The Giants, who lost 17-3 to their Green rivals, looked ordinary at best. The Jets were just a little more impressive.

If it seemed to you that Eli Manning had no clue as to where his receivers might be going, join the club. If it seemed to you as if nobody ever came open for him, you’re not alone.

The Jets actually looked better defensively to me than they were last year. The offense needs a little work right now but that could be said of a number of teams. They can still run the ball, especially if Shonn Green stays healthy. Once again, their only fly in the ointment might be New England. The Pats will be a huge fly to swallow.

But most people here are just getting over the wrath of Irene, the raging waters, the dump from the sky. Trees down, power lines down, rivers swelling, politicians swaggering, and Weather-Channel scaring the life out of you every step of the way, but especially before the event . Irene was a big fat girl wagging her fatt butt all the way up the Jersey coast.

But I stood ready for her, pump ready for the onslaught. Around 2 PM on Saturday, the pumping began. But its little 1/6 HP heart couldn’t keep the waters below the 18” retaining wall between the garage and house proper, could it? Well, it pumped its little brains out for about 27 hours straight and saved our butts from a watery ending.

The power held up for me. There’ll be a generator in my future. The worst wind I got was as Irene was dragging her disgusting ass out of here. She was worn out by then, all that torrential rain for all that time having dragged the venom out of her. Her home invasion was finally over by mid-afternoon Sunday.

I’m thinking about giving my pump a name.

But right before the deluge, that would be Saturday morning, we had our fantasy draft. That was fun. Once again, I tested my QB-first strategy with a guy everybody seems to have forgotten about, Drew Brees. He had no running game last year at all and still managed to have himself a nice year.

But it’s all about risk. The first pick should offer the highest risk-reward. If running backs get hurt waaay more often than QB’s, how can you pick a RB first? There were four who loomed over the rest of the ball-carriers, Arian Foster, Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson and, arguably, Rrrray Rrrrrice. In our new world of two-back systems, you could throw a blanket around many of the rest.

I should point out too that passing TD’s count as much as running TD’s in our league and QB’s fantasy scores vs. RB scores are always a lot higher overall.

Then there is the matter of variability, week to week adherence to a standard. Drew Brees is like a machine. The opponent doesn’t matter that much, he’ll score against Green Bay and Buffalo too. He won’t be a target like Vick or slide around a lot like Rodgers or have a Manning neck or a Brady benching in Week 13.

He’ll just be cruisin’ this year, handin’ the rock to Mark Ingram, making the play-action go. And there’ll be the same guys on the other end, Colston and Meachem and Henderson and Mohr. His line is good, his coach is smart and they like to score points….every week.

I could have had RB Jamaal Charles, as things turned out. He was one of the four leading the pack and perhaps my favorite among those. But will all of those four guys finish the season? Would Jamaal Charles have been the odd man out?

Anyway, my second pick was 21 overall and I still didn’t particularly like any of the running backs there so why not grab a top wideout? And if you could get yourself a Giant at the same time, why wouldn’t Hakeem Nicks be the logical choice? Then at 28 overall, there was Jersey-boy Miles Austin edging out DeSean Jackson and the possibly resurgent JET Shonn Greene. I see lots of catches in my future.

A lot of nice players disappeared from the board before my next pick. Fearing a run on tight ends, I jumped on Jermichael Finley, Rodgers’s favorite target most Green Bay days. I could finally select a running back so I jumped on Knowshon Moreno of the Broncos, who does a little bit of everything pretty much all by himself in Denver.

I may have actually taken a risk with Julio Jones, Atlanta’s multi-pick alleged wonder, but I still wasn’t sold on any particular RB. I did get a nice reliable guy in Fred Jackson of Buffalo, who got them his thousand yards last year and seems to be the star in lowly Buffalo. And, um, circle the wagons.

And Detroit will be my defense. Good Luck.

Those Special Players

Every good team has one or more special players, players who aren’t only terrific players by themselves at their position, but whose talent and effort inspire greater play from all the players around them. If one of these players is hurt, you wonder how his team can win without him. If he’s on the field, you spend a week trying to figure out how to take him out of the action.

The eight teams playing this weekend have their own special players. Some of them are hurt, allegedly at least….you can never really tell with the scarceness of information available to the public. You thus can’t gauge how effective that player will be in the game, how long he’ll play and whether he’ll become just a normal player in terms of effectiveness. It’s usually a question mark whether his replacement is any good.

Take Kevin Mawae, for example. He’s “just” the center for the Titans, but on a team as run-oriented they are, it’s a big hit on them if they lose Mawae, especially if his replacement can’t play. As it turns out, Mawae’s just been officially listed as “out”, very bad news for the Titans.

Tennessee wasn’t able to run on 12/28 against the Colts, losing 23-0. They had a bye for the first week of the playoffs. Against a Ravens defense that stuffs the run, you have to like the Ravens chances for an upset. The Ravens have at least two special players on defense, LB Ray Lewis and S Ed Reed, and they’re healthy.

Of course Tennessee also has a big-time defense, featuring linemen Albert Haynesworth and Kyle Vandenbosch. But they’re coming off recent injuries and their performance on Saturday is thus open to question. All in all, I’d say it’ll be bye-bye Titans in a relatively low-scoring affair. The Ravens will pound the ball and dominate time of possession, which ordinarily would be the Titans type of game. But not tomorrow. Ravens 16-13.

The 4:30 game tomorrow pits the surprising Arizona Cards against the tough Carolina Panthers at Carolina. Special players abound for the Panthers and they’re all healthy. Those two tough running backs, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, and Steve Smith, wide receiver extraordinaire, are all ready to go. On defense, they have Julius Peppers ready for bear, or, um, bird.

The Cards looked special last week against the Falcons but they could be without Anquan Boldin, or he’ll play somewhat nicked-up. That’s a huge hit, the Panthers will just concentrate on stopping Fitzgerald. The Cards have Breaston too but he’s not Boldin. And Edgerrin James won’t make the difference either. Look for the Panthers to score a lot and the Cards to try keeping up all game, unsuccessfully. It’ll be Panthers 30-20. Pray that Kurt Warner lasts the entire game.

Sunday’s first game has our G-Men facing the Eagles at Giants Stadium. The most special Giants players are gone for one reason or another. The real superstar, Osi Umenyiora, is the guy who made Eagles tackle Winston Justice look so bad last year. He may not look so bad against a nicked-up Justin Tuck.

The Eagles have their own special guys, McNabb and Westbrook, of course, but you might add DeSean Jackson to that list. They’re all healthy and coming off some very big wins, one of which was against the Giants. The Eagles also sport some very nice secondary people, big-hitter Brian Dawkins and a guy named Asante Samuel.

The Giants only special feature is their running game. As impressive as it can be, I don’t think it will be on Sunday. The Eagles will put eight in the box all afternoon. They’ll force Manning to pass to those workmanlike receivers, Toomer and Smith and Hixon.

Although you could make a case for Brandon Jacobs and that offensive line being very special, it won’t be enough against a team playing run. I don’t see anybody stretching the field for the Giants. Sunday will make the loss of Plaxico very apparent indeed.

The Giants inability to exert any pressure on McNabb will create more than a few opportunities for long (and usually boring) Eagles drives. The Eagles should be able to take the lead and then probably force some turnovers from Eli and those wide-outs in the second half. The Eagles inability to score in the red zone will continue though, thus depressing the score somewhat, but it’ll still be Eagles 26-20.

The Chargers face the Steelers in Sunday’s late game. The Chargers have some special players in their quarterback, Philip Rivers, and their tight end, Antonio Gates. They’ll be without LaDainian though, and Darren Sproles may find the Steelers a harder bunch to hide from than were the Falcons.

The Steelers have Troy Polamalu who has been just unbelievable all year. He stops everything, the run, the pass, you name it. Then there’s that Defensive MVP James Harrison and a fella named Farrior who’s usually quite good, especially against the pass.

I just can’t imagine the Chargers winning this one. Rivers has been great this year, but he’ll have less time than he’s used to getting, and his receivers will be covered. Sproles will be stopped. The Steelers behind Roethlisberger will display some long, boring drives of their own. The Chargers won’t be able to stop it, despite having a couple of good corners. Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward will catch their share of short ones and that should set up the running game.

Especially considering that the weather will be horrible, cold and windy in Pittsburgh, it’s all over but the shouting, except for Steelers fans, of course, who should be raising quite a ruckus most of the day. This one could even get ugly, depending upon how much poise the Chargers can muster late in the game. All things considered, I’d think it’ll be about 35-20 in the Steelers favor, the 35 to include a couple of defensive TD’s off Chargers fumbles and interceptions.

Then it’ll be Eagles-Panthers and Ravens-Steelers. Those will be wars.