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?
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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! Things couldn’t be lining up any better for wunderkind Daniel Jones after his dazzling debut. After all he was named NFL offensive player of the week. Even without Saquon Barkley the Giants should take advantage of the league’s worst statistical defense. After turning it over five times against the Bears’ outstanding defense (not to be confused with the Giants), Case Keenum will be looking over his shoulder at rookie Dwayne Haskins. With all the debate about whether the Giants should have picked him 6th instead of Jones, I’m hoping he gets in the game. Giants can win this one. The Yankees have yet to make an announcement on who will get the start to open up their quest for #28 next Friday in the Bronx. If tonight’s start by Paxton goes as the last 10 outings have, he’s their guy. He’s won each of those starts pitching to a 2.25 ERA. He had a 4.72 ERA through July 27th, but after his latest win on Saturday, he’s lowered that all the way down to 3.73 by allowing only 15 runs over his last 60 innings pitched. For the first time this season, I have confidence in the Big Maple, pitching in the Big Apple. Believe it or not, there are some positives that can be drawn from the 2019 Met season: Pete Alonso‘s record-breaking year, Amed Rosario‘s breakout, and Jacob deGrom‘s second straight dominant campaign, and the emergence of Jeff McNeil among others. With that said there were plenty of negatives: Overall talent level of offense is insufficient to beat playoff caliber teams, terrible bullpen, and lousy defense. Again, no playoff berth (in 3 years) for the Amazins. Isn’t that amazing? Week 3 in the 2019 NFL season gave us more young quarterbacks under center, and saw the NFL debuts of Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and Kyle Allen of the Panthers as well as Josh Rosen's first start with the Dolphins and Mason Rudolph's first start for the Steelers. A whopping 11 first or second-year quarterbacks have played considerable snaps, and we aren't even to October, which is music to my ears. I like the new look (and sound)of the NFL.
The over-hyped Browns had no answer for Aaron Donald on Sunday. And, I might add, this Mayfield kid is Very overrated. All talk, no action. Carson Wentz made his share of mistakes in the Eagles' 27-24 loss to the Detroit Lions, but his pass-catchers let him down in historic fashion. Seven, I said 7 dropped passes. Wow, is the Bears defense, not the best?? And who is Taylor Gabriel? Gabriel finished with six catches for 75 yards and the three scores on seven targets. Now we know who he is. Hey, I feel bad for Eli, but after Sundays last minute win (no thanks to the defense), I’m rooting for Daniel Jones. The New England Patriots have been rolling along this season with no one putting up much of a fight in the first three weeks of the season. Can the Buffalo Bills offer the Patriots some tough competition in Week 4? According to recent history, the Bills have little to no chance of pulling off the upset. However, lost among the Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs of the world, the Bills also sit at 3-0 on the season. Just ask the Jets how good the Bills are. A win is a win and the Saints got one on the road against the Seahawks in Week 3. Now some bad news: The Giants are facing anywhere from four to eight weeks without Saquon Barkley, their top playmaker on offense. The offense has lost its jaguar, but it has gained an eagle. The temptation will be to let him fly. Air it out Danny boy! The Jets still had a puncher’s chance in the third quarter of their game against the Patriots. Sure, they trailed 20-0, but Falk, making his first NFL start, still had the chance to instill hope in an otherwise miserable season in New York. Ummmm, Sammy, where are you!? The Bronco defense had to learn the hard way to never give Rodgers a free play. A hard count lured the Broncos offside. On the next play the Packers scored. Tampa had the ball left with 13 seconds to go against the Giants. The Bucs were in field goal range after Jameis Winston connected with Mike Evans for a terrific 44-yard pass play. Where was Janoris Jenkis? Burned again, that’s where. Thank goodness the Bucs’ kicking game which has been cursed for years, failed. Giants win! The Giants WIN!! The Yankees are once again the cream of the American League East crop. With the Bombers 9-1 win over the Angels on Thursday, the Yankees won their first AL East title since 2012. No wild on field celebration, not this year. Loftier goals ahead. They have bigger fish to fry, but this is the first step along the way. The Yankees, led by Judge, Sanchez, Torres and Gardner will be making their 21st postseason appearance in 25 years and 55th overall — 22 more than any other team. And they will head to October following their 21st 100-win season, their first in back-to-back years since 2002-04. And let’s not forget -- Aaron Boone becomes the first skipper in MLB history to win at least 100 games in each of his first two managerial seasons. Yeah, I know... I’m bragging. This was a season of low, rather than high, drama. It was a season of overcoming unending adversity in which a major league record number of injuries struck down starters, their reinforcements and the reinforcements of the reinforcements. You couldn’t make this story up. This organization, those in and out of uniform, has every right to be proud. This is just the beginning. There are still goals to be attained. Best record, ALDS, ALCS, and the World Series. It won’t be easy. Winning the East guarantees the Yankees nothing in the first round. If they do end up with the best record, they have to play either the Rays or the Indians or the A’s, who swept the Yankees in Oakland the last time the two teams played. And please know that the Yankees were 3-4 against the A’s this season, 3-4 against the Astros, 3-4 against the Indians, 4-2 against the Twins. The best they have done against any possible playoff team is the Rays, against whom they are 12-5. If they are going to win the 11 games in October, they have to step it up a notch. Might make all the difference in the world as in, World Series. In an “ideal world,” it never would have come to this. Not after two weeks. But this is not a perfect world. Eli Manning is no longer the face of the Giants franchise. “We are making a change,” Giants coach Pat Shurmur said, “and going with Daniel as the starter.” And that was it. And now the Giants are on the hook for $17 million for only eight quarters of work. And I don’t feel bad for them. With two starting receivers out, Eli manning wasn’t the problem with the sluggish offense. But Giants management saw what they perceived as “the writing on the wall”, and decided to move toward the future. It was assumed that if the Giants switched quarterbacks this year, it would come under circumstances similar to when Manning replaced Kurt Warner 15 years ago, when the team determined it wasn’t in a title hunt (despite being 5-4 at the time) and opted to fully embrace the future. Not this time around. GM Dave Gettleman threw up the white flag. He wants “his Guy” in there. Yet, not a word about the horrible defense that continually misses tackles, blows coverages, lacks execution, has no pass rush and looks lost. Broken, putrid and embarrassing. There are better college defenses. Yet Eli pays the price. Whatever happens next for Eli Manning, Giants fans should be grateful how he carried himself through the entirety of his career. Class and dignity all the way: 16 seasons, two Super Bowls. Thank you Eli. Josh Allen and the Bills are officially the kings of New York—and New Jersey. Week 2 and they are already calling for Eli’s head. The Bills were clearly the better team.
The Bears finally have a kicker--Eddy Pineiro, who scored every single one of Chicago’s points Sunday. Sunday brought a pair of spectacular game-winning plays that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The first was from the Houston Texans’ 13-12 win over the Jaguars. The other was the Falcons and Eagles (24-20). Two fun games to watch. Same old tune for the wandering G-Men: Reminding us of last week's start against Dallas. Embarrassing defense and other then Saquon Barkley , a lackluster offense. And please stop with the Eli stuff. When the Giants are 1-5 (if we’re lucky to get one win) then you give a look at Mr. Jones. The Cowboys (2-0) topped the 30-point mark for the second straight week (uggh). Prescott has 7 touchdown passes through the first two weeks of the season. It’s only Week 2, but Ben Roethlisberger is out for the season, Nick Foles of the Jaguars and Drew Brees of the Saints are out long-term. All need surgery. Fantasy guys shouldn’t be left alone. New England (an outrageous 18.5-point favorites) demolished the Dolphins in Miami, 43-0. As assumed, all eyes were on AB. He did score a touchdown. Good advice is sometimes bad. The consensus was that Lamar Jackson should become a wide receiver and Kyler Murray should play baseball. Luckily, both players ignored the chorus of detractors and, as a result, the N.F.L. appears to have two more potential superstars. The crowd at Met Life grew less and less amenable to Eli and the Giants’ offense, which opened the game with a five-play, 75-yard drive for a touchdown, then feebly ended the next four drives with punts and a first-half-ending interception. It was pretty much the same in the second half. Would be nice to have Sheppard and Tate back. Patrick Mahomes threw four touchdown passes in a near perfect second period that led the Kansas City Chiefs to a 28-10 victory over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday. Future HOFer in the making? Ok, so the Browns win big 23-3. Is it me or did Baker Mayfield and the offense feel “off”? The Jets better hope that Sam Darnold returns quicker than expected, because their offense is completely helpless without out him. It just never ends with Odell.
Beckham Jr. drew plenty of attention during his Browns debut on Sunday for wearing a watch in an actual NFL game. Just the way he wanted it. I mean, why should Antonio get all the attention?? Well, it wasn’t just a regular watch — it was a Richard Mille (never heard of him) watch that is currently being priced north of $189,500. This begs a couple questions: Why would Beckham ever want to expose such a valuable watch to potential damage in a contact sport? And … was he even allowed to wear the watch? To answer those questions.. the NFL does have a rule against Beckham’s watch, but the Browns wide receiver plans to wear it in future games anyway. The second answer is easier (see above). Beckham told reporters that people are only making a big deal about the watch because it was him wearing an expensive watch. He added that he will wear it for Week 2’s game against the Jets. The NFL had addressed the rule violation with Beckham and the Browns on Monday, but I guess he’s willing to take whatever potential fine the NFL has in store. It’s a nice watch, but you’d think he’d rather not wear it during a football game. I peeked in on the first few minutes of the Brown’s game on Sunday and the cameras were clearly focused on Beckham. Just the way he wanted it. Maybe this is a good thing. Hopefully Odell will be on time for the much needed Brown’s practices this week. |
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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 |