All last week long Odell Beckham Jr. was gushing about Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Beckham even revealed that one of his dreams was to play alongside Brady because he respected the QBs work ethic. After the Patriots beat down the Browns yesterday, Beckham presented Brady with a pair of custom “GOAT” hair Nike cleats. Baker Mayfield could be seen lurking in the background as Odell gave Brady the cleats and he looked salty as hell. How long do you think it will be before Mayfield and OBJ’s relationship starts to splinter? Another 2 or 3 more losses? I don’t think anyone was expecting much from any New York area hockey team not named the Islanders. Both the Devils and Rangers are so called “rebuilding”. As a Ranger fan, It’s not the losses that bother me, it’s the way the Rangers are totally being dominated, save for a couple of periods this year. Even the opening game, we were dominated but still able to win. Houston, we have a problem. Yes, it wasn’t the starting pitching that led to the ALCS loss to the Astros, it was lack of timely hitting with men in scoring position. With that said, we know the Yanks still need another front line pitcher. To get that, Cashman will have to make some trades. Were I to place a bet who is still on the roster come spring training, I'd go with Judge, Hicks, Gardner, Tauchman and Stanton, because they couldn't move Giancarlo. Maybin will fly away. Frazier will get traded for that pitcher we desperately need.
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Now that I recovered from last week’s devastating boot from the ALCS, I can finally talk about the Bombers and what happened this past season and what should or could happen in 2020.
So let’s get started on my biggest pet peeve. The way the Yankees perceive Gary Sanchez. While he has power, and a cannon for an arm, I think he is the most over rated catcher in MLB. There, I said it! After Sanchez’s injury-plagued inconsistent regular season was followed by a wildly unproductive postseason at the plate, general manager Brian Cashman praised the catcher’s defensive skills in yesterday’s press conference. Cashman praised Sanchez’s handling of the pitching staff, as well as his ability to limit Houston’s base-stealing in the ALCS. He also said: “On the offensive side, you know, he didn’t swing the bat as much as he’s capable of,’’ “But he’s one of the biggest difference-makers at that position in the game. And so, Gary’s been a big plus for us and one of the reasons why we’ve been able to excel.” Nice spin Cash! He never mentioned about all the strike outs, his .232 season batting average, and his sloppy defensive play. October struggles are now part of his résumé: 1-for-13 with six whiffs in this ALCS, 2-for-25 with 12 strikeouts and no extra-base hits in these playoffs and 16-for-92 with 34 strikeouts in his postseason totality. Still, Boone would not sit Sanchez for Austin Romine, and Cashman has nothing to say but wonderful things about his prized catcher. Are we watching the same Gary Sanchez?? The Yankees, known as one of the most analytical teams in MLB, have seen quite a few decisions backfire in falling behind, 3-1, to the Houston Astros in the ALCS. Coming on the heels of last year’s ALDS defeat that featured some questionable decisions, the Yankees have not had much go their way while being outclassed by Houston. As good as Boone has been in the regular season, his post season decisions have pretty much blown-up. Here’s a look at some of the decisions that have backfired on the Yankees. Adam Ottavino had been terrible in his previous postseason outings against the Minnesota Twins despite not allowing a run, but the Yankees liked the match-up with righty Georgie Springer at the plate. Springer homered to tie the game, a series-changing hit. Two days later in Game 3, Boone again went to Ottavino in a key moment, this time with the Yankees trailing 2-0 in the seventh. When Ottavino departed after failing to record an out, the Yankees trailed 4-0. Boone again tried Ottavino last night with the Yankees in a 6-3 hole, and Ottavino allowed a run while not recording an out, all but ending the Yankees’ chances. While a 6-3 hole is not a high-leverage spot, the Yankees were still within striking distance. Then there is the line-up. On Tuesday, with bases loaded, Gleyber Torres is 5th in the line-up. Brett Gardner, not a typical three-hole hitter, then hit a shallow fly out to center. Slumping designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion followed with a pop-out. Cole then pitched around Torres to retire Didi Gregorious and end the threat. I love Gardy, but he’s No 3 hole guy, Torres is. The Yankees tried to rectify their error in Game 4 by moving Torres into the four-hole, in front of Encarnacion and Gardner, but that did not work either. Torres went 0-for-5 and failed in two critical situations, including when he struck out in a bases-loaded, one-out spot in the fifth inning with the Yankees trailing, 3-1. The Yankees ultimately failed to score that inning. Maybe the change effected Torres. And finally, there’s the most over rated catcher in baseball, Garry Sanchez who has started every game and looks completely over matched at the plate (except for one at bat) and sluggish on defense. Yet he is “their guy”. Austine Romine may not hit home runs, but he puts the ball in play and plays a superior level of defense. The bottom line is Cashman and Boone have managed this post-season poorly, and Cashman continues to believe that hitters that hit homers against back end of the rotation pitchers and do little but strike out against good pitchers, will for some unknown reason hit the best pitchers in baseball come the post season. Good pitching almost always wins over good hitting. The Astros have really Good, no, Great pitching. So far things have backfired for the Yanks and unless we stop striking out and put some hits together we won’t score enough runs to out- score the runs our pitchers are giving up, this series will end tonight. The decisions for tonight’s game should be full of risk regardless of what Cashman’s numbers say. Anyone and everyone should be available for the game. Pull out all the stops. It’s Do or Die! Last night wasn’t a great night in Yankeeland. Hardly anything went right as the Yanks were outplayed by the Astros in every phase of the game. We need a blow.
Where to start…Gerrit Cole was not at his best last night, yet he shut down the Bombers. The offense could not come up with a knock in a big spot to save their lives. They really did a fine job keeping traffic on the bases against the nightmare that is Cole, but they just came up short time and again whenever they manufactured an opportunity to score. Four times in the first five innings did they put multiple runners on against Cole, but he slipped away en route to seven shutout innings. The Yankees’ ALCS offense. LeMahieu, Judge and Torres are 14-for-38 with three homers, eight RBIs and five walks — Torres’ eighth-inning homer off Joe Smith accounting for the Yanks’ lone Game 3 run. Everyone else is 10-for-71 with two homers, two RBIs and six walks. Gary Sanchez is 1-for-13 with six whiffs in this ALCS, 2-for-25 with 12 strikeouts and no extra-base hits in these playoffs and 16-for-92 with 34 strikeouts in his postseason totality. Still, Boone said he would not sit Sanchez for Austin Romine. Say What? I’m still trying to understand Boones decision to not have Gardy bunt. Then there is his decision to keep using Adam Ottivino in high stress situations. Ottavino has appeared in all six postseason games and has an 11.59 ERA. Why Aaron? Outside of the currently-erratic right-handed setup man, the Yankees’ bullpen continued to earn their money. Both Tommy Kahnle and Chad Green looked excellent covering the middle innings, and even Luis Cessa got in on the fun with two scoreless innings. It didn't help. The Yankees need a breather. They need a blow. Mostly, they could use the break to being able to hand the ball to Masahiro Tanaka on full rest. Our manager needs a blow…time to reconsider his “patience” with certain players. Time for Kahnle, Green, Britton and the rest of the bullpen, to get some rest. It’s supposed to rain tonight due to a Nor’easter. If it doesn’t rain maybe we can organize a few buddies to sneak into Yankee Stadium when no one’s looking and turn on the sprinkler system. We all need a blow. Even I need a blow from all the negative social media comments from so called Yankee fans who were ready to give up and declare the Astros series winners in the second inning of last night’s game. They forgot you need to win 4 to take home the big trophy. We Don’t want to play tonight. We need a blow. I really like the job that Aaron Boone has done these past two seasons, but I have to question his decisions which I assume are based on some analytic numbers. Saturday, Tanaka was under 70 pitches and cruising along. Last night Green is just cruising along, pitching less than three innings, yet he brings in Ottivino who has been undependable since the All-Star break and there went the lead. And then there was J.A. Happ.
Ottavino hung a slider to George Springer on a solo homer in the fifth to tie the game at 2-2, and Happ gave up the game-winning homer to Carlos Correa to start the bottom of the 11th. Why Aaron, why? Ottavino who, in five playoff games this year, has given up five hits, one run and two walks to go along with three strikeouts. In Saturday’s win, when Ottavino pitched a scoreless inning, he still gave up a pair of singles and needed a double play to escape without giving up a run. Why Aaron? If front office analytics tell you take Green out with 1 out in the fifth, why would you go to Ottivinio (see above)? And to make matters worse, the game went extra innings. And the Yanks never found the hit they desperately needed, and ultimately their bullpen magic disappeared when Carlos Correa homered off Happ the Yankees’ ninth pitcher, on the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th inning. Ottavino continues to be the weakest link of Boone’s high-leverage relievers during the playoffs. Happ shouldn’t have even been in the game,but, well, you ran out of pitchers. Yeah, we didn’t hit much and Correa makes a perfect throw to home, but we lost this one because of Mr. Boone’s mishandling of the bullpen. Why Aaron? So tonight the Giants visit the unfriendly confines in Foxborough. The Giants are huge (17.5) underdogs against the undefeated New England Patriots at Gillette, limping in without four of their top offensive players against the best defense in the NFL. An already weak offense gets weaker. Danny Dime would have to have a spectacular night. OBTW…The Pats have yet to give up a passing touchdown. I sense it will get ugly early. Yep, I’ll be watching the Rays and Astros. I need to see a competitive game. In a shocker, the Nats dismissed the Dodgers from the 2019 playoffs.The fans remaining at Dodger Stadium, the ones loyal enough to stick around to witness the stunning conclusion to the Dodgers’ season, booed Dave Roberts when he finally emerged from the dugout in the 10th inning on Wednesday night. They loudly echoed their anger during his walk back after the manager finally took the ball from Joe Kelly and gave it to Kenley Jansen. After plowing through the National League West for their seventh straight division title and a franchise-record 106 wins, no World Series win. Something tells me, that Dave Roberts will be out of a job soon. The Yankees swept the best-of-five series from the Twins and await the winner of the Astros vs. Rays ALDS. The ALCS begins Saturday. Where it starts depends on the outcome of tonight’s game. Let’s go Rays. If the Astros win, It's possible the Yankees could win the ALCS in five games while only seeing Verlander and Cole once each. That's the dream scenario for New York. The less rest Verlander and Cole get, and the less you see them, the better. And…if the Rays were to win, Home advantage Yankees. Tonight, I’m a Rays fan. And so it ends not with thunder and lightning, but with a dull thud and a whimper. In the final game of the regular season, the Yankees fell to the Rangers 6-1 in the final game at Globe Life Park in Arlington last Sunday. They did clinched the division and overall played a remarkable regular season, one that saw them overcome a ton of injuries to key players to put up more than 100 wins. Yet, the die hard fan in me can’t help but ask, “What about the postseason?” Sure, the Yankees are a great team. But the teams they’ll be meeting in the playoffs are all scary, and anything can happen in a short series. There are no shortages of pitfalls that might jeopardize the Yankees path to their 28th World Series title.
It all starts tonight. I have said for most of the second half that the Yankee rotation was pretty bad. I will admit that the apparent successful comeback of Luis Severino goes a long way towards alleviating such worries. A Sevy-Paxton-Tanaka top three, especially with Tanaka in his usual playoff form (not what we saw last Sunday), would be one of the best among this year’s postseason contenders., Lets face it, the offense has carried them all year, but when you get into the playoffs your facing only the top pitchers on a playoff opponent. You can’t expect to score 5-6 runes against the likes of Verlander, Scherzer, Berrios, Kershaw, Morton and others, so we need those 3 pitching at their best or our Word Series run will be over quickly. Our defense isn’t one of our strong points. Their collective Def rating is 22nd in MLB, with only the Twins below them among playoff-bound teams. Individually, some Yankees have had great defensive years - Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner, and Didi Gregorius come to mind. However, taken as a whole, the Yankees come out to be a fairly unimpressive defensive unit. Urshela has show brilliant flashes at times, but over all he’s no better than average at the hot corner. As great as Gleyber Torres has been, at best, has a average glove. Our first base D isn’t impressive. The Yankees’ recent offensive performance against the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers has left a bad taste in my mouth. To be fair, it isn’t exactly easy to have good at-bats against Charlie Morton when all of his secondaries have wipeout movement and he’s locating his heater on the black. Against the Rangers, Lance Lynn just shut them down. Way to many strikeouts by Judge, Encarnaction and now Stanton. The Bombers have to practice selective aggression perfectly; that is, they have to be ready to put good swings on hittable pitches at all times, while refraining from expanding the zone, or becoming trigger happy and thus falling prey to pitches that look good at first and end up in the opposite batter’s box. And please, with two strikes, don’t guess. think fast ball and react. Not look. Protect the plate (see Don Mattingly). The bullpen had it’s ups and downs ,but overall they are as solid as any playoff team, maybe better. They finished second among contenders in innings pitched. We all know about the bench. Those “next man up” guys other than Urchela (who will probably start), are as good as any in baseball. The question remains…who will be on the post season roster? LeMahieu, Gregorius, Urshela, Torres,Stanton, Judge, Gardner, Romine, Sanchez, Encarnacion, are obvious.(should I include Voit?). Ford and Wade deserve to be there as well, but that depends on how many pitchers they carry. With so many days off during the post season, I would guess 12 pitchers should be enough. which leaves room for those two. Well find out later today.So…Who wins the ALDS match-up with the Twins? The Yankees of course! The Twins have power and a first-rate bullpen. Twins fans wouldn't be wrong in wishing there were another starter here. Michael Pineda's suspension was a killer. It looks as though both Ehire Adrianza and Max Kepler could return from injuries in time for this series. That could make a difference. The chase for 28 starts tonight. Yankees in 4. Week 4 is complete, and we’re a quarter of the way there. Already?
From the believe it or not department: the Giants who won 24 – 3, are tied for second place with the Eagles in the NFC East and they are now just one game out of first place in the division with the Cowboys suffering their first loss in New Orleans against the Breesless Saints Sunday night. You can thank (I can’t believe I’m saying this), the defense. The Charger’s Philip Rivers threw for 310 yards and two scores to help Los Angeles win in Miami for the first time in 38 years, 30-10. Hey Miami kept it within 20. Baker Mayfield passed for 342 yards and a touchdown and an interception in Cleveland's 40-25 victory at Baltimore. Odell Beckham, trash talked, who threw a punch and then was held in a choke hold, had 2 catches for 20 yards. I wonder how many more games like yesterday, will it take him to claim he’s being disrespected because they aren’t targeting him enough. Christian McCaffrey keeps doing it…he had 93 yards rushing and a touchdown and led Carolina with 86 yards receiving on 10 receptions in a 16-10 win at Houston. The Giants may not be contenders just yet, but they are alive and kicking, and carrying with them some momentum, considering they picked up their 2nd victory two months earlier than they had in each of the last two seasons (Nov. 12, 2018 at 49ers; Nov. 19, 2017 vs. Chiefs). 2 and 2 feels pretty good, right about now. Jets and 49ers had the weekend off. Is it me, or doesn’t it seem kinda early to have a bye in week 4? Tennessee Titans 24, Atlanta Falcons 10. What happened to the Falcons? Starting quarterback Jameis Winston finally had a big day, he was 28-for-41 for 385 passing yards, four touchdowns and an interception. The 55 points scored by the Buccaneers were the most scored in franchise history. Daniel Jones handed off the ball a lot to Wayne Gallman who finished with 118 total yards and two touchdowns (one receiving). Danny Duke was 23 of 31 for 225 yards with 2 interceptions. The winless Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers went at it last night. No contest, 27 – 3 Steelers. Glad that Vontaze Burfict got a season long suspension. Tenth time he has been been suspended, 6 for illegal dirty hits. Asshole should never be allowed to play in the NFL again! |
WhatWhatever strikes you as interesting, absurd, ridiculous, funny or serious about all sports, then this is the place to hear my slant on it. My focus will be mainly on the New York area, but anything going on in sports anywhere is fair game. If you are interested in sausage race results, basket weaving, or politics, you may wish to click elsewhere. Your comments are always welcomed and encouraged. Archives
December 2019
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NHL 12/5/19 1 Bruins 2 Capitals 3 Islanders 4 Blues 5 Oilers 6 Flyers 7 Hurricanes 8 Avalanche 9 Jets 10 Coyotes NFL 12/5/19 1 Ravens 2 49ers 3 Seahawks 4 Patriots 5 Saints 6 Cheifs 7 Vikings 8 Packers 9 Bills 10 Texans |