A Very Little Bit of Uncertainty

I have to admit to being somewhat confused this Friday. What’s interesting? Certainly not the upcoming Giants and Jets games on Sunday. The G-Men will most likely romp while the Jets play another Jeff Fisher version of an NFL team, the Titans, all defense (but not this year so much) and absolutely no passing game.

The G-Men go against the Tampa Bay Bucs, who have shown nothing in the way of pass defense in their first two games, so Eli should just eat them up whenever he gets the notion. Now that they’ve found Mario Manningham, things should go very smoothly. He and Steve Smith are among the leaders in the NFC receiving categories and they may approach stratospheric numbers after this week. The Bucs toughened their run defense while absolutely killing their historically tough cover-2 pass defense.

The Jets play the Titans from Tennessee and, although the Titans played Houston very tough in their last game, they still managed to lose, even with an unbelievable performance from their fleet running back, Chris Johnson.

The Titans also lost to Pittsburgh 13-10 in the opener, and, well, they may put up a good fight against Ryan’s warriors but I get the feeling that they’ll manage to lose again, but not before they bore us all to death. The Jets will smother the run and then pick-off Kerry Collins ad infinitum.

The Mets are dead. And have been dead, lo these many months of this sorriest of sorry baseball seasons. I refuse to even discuss Beltran and Reyes and Delgado and Maine and Wright’s power slump. I mean, really, how excited can I get about Jeff Francoeur and Angel Pagan? Oh, and Luis Castillo too. And K-Rod and Santana, I guess. Let’s face it, the Mets are in purgatory.

The Yanks face the Red Sox with a five game lead in the loss column, so a lot of the potential drama was drained from this series last week when the Bombers held on to take two of three from the Angels. I had been looking forward to the Angels kicking their butts, but it just didn’t happen. The Yanks pitchers held on in those last two games to make it clear that this isn’t the Yankees of the last few years.

Of course, Joba goes in the Yanks opener and that will undoubtedly have some tongues wagging again, no matter how he does. If he wins against Lester, the story will be his inconsistency. If he loses, it’ll be about his stupid innings-limit (again). Really, the Yanks may have bought the pennant (again), but the general management stinks (again), and the broadcast team is laughable (again).

The NJ Nets are in the news but not in any good way. What a surprise, huh? They sold the team to a Russian nickel and financial magnate whose only other claim to fame is his way with the ladies. And David Stern loves the deal. How nice for him. How sad for the locals.

The poor Knicks haven’t been in the news at all and that situation is an upgrade over where they’ve been the last few years. They did sign David Lee for about 8.5 million and that move bodes well for this year, I suppose. All signs though point to another year of holding steady until they can pick up a top free agent in 2010.

I almost never watch hockey so I won’t bore you any comments in that direction.

Given these circumstances, to me there are only a couple of things that could capture my attention. One is the remarkable comeback of the Twins and the other, strangely enough for a Mets fan, is the almost unreal performance of the Braves under a soon-retiring Bobby Cox.

The Braves could very well steal the wildcard from the Rockies. They play the hapless Washington Nationals in 7 of their last 10 games. The Rockies have a much harder schedule, playing the Central Division-leading Cards, then the hard-hitting Brewers and then the Western Division-leading Dodgers. If the Braves go 8 and 2 while the Rocks can manage only 4 and 5, a distinct possibility, they’ll wind up in a flat-out tie for the NL wildcard.

The SF Giants are still there, of course, and the Marlins have been hanging around, but the hottest team is the Braves, and the niftiest schedule imaginable plays right into their hands. How cool it would be for Atlanta to once again rise to baseball prominence under a beloved but retiring manager? For a city buried in water after a 21-inch pounding of rain, I can think of nothing better; it does my heart good.

And then there’s the upcoming NFL blackouts. What a shame ! Detroit is dying and now they won’t even get to watch their Lions play on Sunday. The same goes for Jacksonville and maybe even some other lower-profile NFL entities but my heart really goes out to Detroit.

A friend pointed out that fans will still see other games on cable but that’s really not making me feel better if I’m a Lions fan. With something approaching 40% unemployment in Motor City, another hit below the belt is not what’s needed. While it’s nice that the Tigers are probably making the playoffs, chances are they’ll be buried in the first round.

So, not being a Yanks fan, and as I foresee Jets and Giants easy wins, I guess I’ll just have to immerse myself in my fantasy team this weekend. That team is at least exciting, with Drew Brees leading the exciting Saints and Marques Colston too. But this will be one of those nail-biter weeks, as my opponent’s got the Baltimore defense and Tony Gonzalez, who keeps getting better and better.

But who really knows in football? The G-Men surely didn’t impress vs. the run against the Boyz and the Bucs have shown they can run the ball with Cadillac and former Giant Derrick Ward. And maybe the Titans will surprise us all.

CC and JJ WooHoo!!

Wow! Bang! In comes K-Rod
Whoosh! In comes J.J. Putz, out goes Heilman.

Sitting here listening to Darryl Strawberry talking on the FAN with Francesa about his years with the ’86 World Champions New York Mets, and still basking in the knowledge that we’ll have some real relievers next year, what could be better?

Uh-oh, now he’s re-living his Yankees Days. Geez, even that’s OK now. Now that Omar and the Mets have done such a sterling job of operationalizing their priorities. The Yanks pay 61 mill for C.C and we get K-Rod for beans, relatively speaking, of course.

Then we get JJ Putz from Seattle, one of the premier relievers in the league for at least a few years now for Aaron Heilman and Endy Chavez. Some minor league players were also involved, but the crux of the deal is Putz for Chavez, Heilman and Joe Smith, who actually will wind up with the Indians. A lefthanded pitcher named Jason Vargas, who was hurt for all of last year, was also included in the deal.

The Mets also get a pretty fair right-handed middle-inning reliever named Sean Green, who may be better than anyone the Mets now have in that role. A utility outfielder named Jeremy Reed completes the 12-player mass juggle. The Mets are probably ten to 15 games better than they were last year, and that may be conservative if everyone stays healthy.

I don’t like some aspects of the huge trade, such as letting Joe Smith go. He was a tough pitcher in certain spots last year, and you had an overall good feeling about him. Sure, he may have messed up some, they all did, but not in the spots that Heilman did. Oh God, don’t make me re-live that all over again!

I understand they’ll be talking to Pedro again. While I don’t think they’ll work anything out with Mr. Martinez, I do relish the thought, just for fun rather than effectiveness necessarily.

And I hope they’ll get the crazy left-hander back too, Oliver Perez. If they can retain him for less than they can get for a free agent starter of the same quality, why not keep him? He’s at his best in big games, and more than ever, it looks as if the Mets may have some of those in 2009.

Just accomplishing this much would yield a starting rotation of Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Pedro Martinez. Another lefthander with possibilities named Jonathon Niese makes for a pretty fair rotation. Compare it to that of the World Champ Phillies.

Maine and Pelfrey should be better than last year. So should Pedro, for that matter. If Santana can hold his form, what a year it could be. I’m sure crazy Ollie would provide some unwanted adventure, and Pedro usually provides just five or six good innings at this stage of his career, but three of five starters would be pretty consistent, providing mostly routine quality starts.

So there’d be quite a few instances of a need for good relief pitching with that rotation. But now the Mets have it. If they can just get to the eighth inning, they now have the best finishing tandem in either league, JJ Putz in the eighth and Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth.

With a finishing tandem such as that, the Mets really don’t need to do more in the pitching area than to just keep Perez and Pedro. They’d keep some of that crazy chemistry too. The lineup they have is strong enough to score runs, and that’s just by keeping the other Reyes (Argenis) at 2nd base and the Murphy/Evans combo in left field.

Keeping Damien Easley would be fine, and Fernando Tatis was no slouch either last year. Otherwise, I’d be happy with Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Church, Murphy or Evans and Schneider/Castro.

The Yanks are talking with a lot of guys. They need a lot of guys. And maybe they’ll watch Teixeira go to Boston. Oh man! How good does it get? Imagine the joy of watching Teixeira hit 30 and 100 and lead the Sawx to one more title. Meanwhile, we Mets fans got what we needed all year.

The Yankees are figuring, I guess, they can throw just anybody into the first base position. Giambi, Damon, whatever…and I suppose they’re not that crazy about Bobby Abreu, which is hard to believe really, given that he hits .300 every year.

If I were a Yankee fan, I’d be worried big-time. Sabathia has always been one of my favorite fantasy-league pitchers and he’s been great, but he tends to start the season slowly and that just won’t do in the big town. He’ll be vilified on the rags’ back pages at least a few times before the beginning of June. How will that affect an easy-going guy?

Does trading Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera really accomplish that much? For all anyone knows, Melky could come back from his down season, and he was never bad in that centerfield spot. It was his lack of presence in the lineup that was frustrating. Cameron has more power but he strikes out……a lot.

Maybe they’ll have some bulletins during the football game tonight letting us know what other moves the Yanks may be making. God knows they still need some pitching. C.C. may be able to pitch with three days rest but not even the big guy can pitch every day.

The Yanks too are allegedly bidding against the Phils for Derek Lowe. That would be just fine for Mets fans, robbing the Phillies of still another weapon that would soon turn on our boys in blue. Go get ‘em, Cash….

Anything can happen in baseball, of course. As Yogi was supposed to have said one day, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over” but Mets fans are a lot further along than they were a couple of days ago. That’s for sure. The beginning of the beginning is looking very good indeed.

Hope Springs Eternal

Maybe the Giants really started something that Super Bowl Sunday in February. Those incredible men in blue and their nasty defensive linemen, and most heartening of all, a host of new guys to lay low the "greatest team of all time" Patriots, guys making their bones, if you will.

I'll never forget Steve Smith, a big name at USC but new to the NFL, finding still another hole in a Pats zone and dancing down the sideline to make sure his team got that critical first down. That was immediately preceding that beautiful Eli floater to a wide-open Plaxico versus another ill-fated Belichick blitz.

But Smith certainly wasn't the only new face to shake the halls of the great this past football year. There was a seventh round draft choice named Ahmad Bradshaw who dragged a huge Pats defensive lineman for a few more yards that day, and a big kid from East Orange who did his best to see if Tom Brady's navel could touch his spine. And what about that huge tight end out of Western Oregon, of all places, getting open and deftly turning upfield for a 45-yard gain.

Yes, there were six rookies who made that Giants team , all of whom made their presence felt in the playoffs, and even that wasn’t the end of it. Those G-Men also made some key pickups outside of the draft, most notably a fullback named Hedgecock and a kick-returner named Hixon, whose efforts couldn’t be missed in that run of runs.

And we had a new and totally unlikely Super Bowl Champion.

Of course, none of that had been expected. And if it had been expected, it couldn’t have been so incredible of course, all of which brings me around to some new heroes on the baseball diamonds of the Major Leagues, and the hard courts of the NBA, still other new faces or names you never heard to shake the countenances of the powerful.

Looking at today’s standings in the American League this morning, I see Baltimore and Tampa Bay leading the American League East, the Rays having just swept the World Series Champion Red Sox. Their winning streak couldn’t have been accomplished without Evan Longoria, fresh out of the minors. He hits for average and power, plays a nifty third base, and can steal a base if there’s a need. But he joins a team that already had developed B.J. Upton and the hard-throwing right-hander James Shields.

In the AL Central, the “Pale Hose”, those Chicago White Sox are surprising the Indians and in the West, those Billy Bean Oakland A’s are tied for first with the Angels. The White Sox are doing it with re-treads who seem to have re-discovered their games, names like Crede and Pierzynski. The A’s are doing it with guys like pitcher Dana Eveland, a 25-year old southpaw, and still another over-achieving re-tread named Emil Brown. Emil presently leads the A’s with 25 rbi’s, a figure that is second only to still another new face, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers.

On the senior circuit, the National League, the Florida Marlins lead the East, 1 ½ games over the Mets and Phillies. Hanley Ramirez is once again tearing it up with 8 home runs, 22 runs scored and 18 rbi’s from the LEADOFF position. He also sports 8 stolen bases, and despite having shown this fearsome production for over two years now, he is still not exactly a household name. The Fish also can boast of Josh Willingham, a former Met batting .341 and two pitchers doing very well, Mark Hendrickson with 4 wins already and Scott Olsen, who leads the team in ERA at 2.06.

In the NL Central, there are the Cubbies, finally, in first place with a 16-9 record. And, although old names such as Derrek Lee and Carlos Zambrano are leading the team in batting and pitching, they wouldn’t be there without Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol finishing games for them.

While Wood had been a household name as a starter before his injury, his closer role is new and one he seems quite comfortable filling. Marmol sets him up and, in only his second year, mystifies batters with his combination of heat and breaking balls, not unlike the more ballyhooed Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees.

In the West, the Diamondbacks of Arizona lead the way, and, although some “woulda thunk it”, what with pitchers like Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Randy Johnson, who really expected a fella named Micah Owings to start out 4-0 with 28 strikeout’s and only 9 walks. And only the baseball-savvy could’ve foreseen still another Upton named Justin to sport a .323 BA along with five dingers.

In NBA basketball, how good was it to watch a kid like Josh Smith tear up the mighty Celtics twice in a row? Smith was a human wrecking ball, with 28 points and 7 blocks in their latest game. The 6’9” 235 pound Smith seems unstoppable in closing out his fourth year in the league. In Saturday night’s Hawks win, he was even more dominating, hitting 11-17 from the field while grabbing 9 rebounds, dishing off 6 assists and pilfering the ball twice.

Meanwhile, seasoned but unheralded veteran Joe Johnson, originally drafted by the Celtics back in 2001, grabbed the spotlight last night. Joe hit for 35 points, going 14-24. The Celtics seem to be reeling after their two relatively easy wins in Beantown and will undoubtedly welcome a return to their home court after suffering two rather decisive beatings in Atlanta.

In every sport, the beat goes on. We watch the great either hang on or tumble, but it’s always intriguing, and most of us root for that new blood to have their day. And yet, if the veterans still hold sway, we recognize and appreciate their dominance, be it either in teamwork or defense, pitching or long home runs. It’s the good fight that’s appreciated.

<>As I gaze out my window, I see the snow has stopped falling. Ah yes, hope springs eternal.<>