I know it’s only week one and we still have two games to play but…
Saw all these social media posts about Eli and Jones. Eli Wasn’t the problem, the defense was! The Giant's defense stinks. Cowboys gained 495 total yards. New season, same Jameis Winston for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Richard Sherman's first interception with the 49ers was a pick 6. He didn’t have one all last season. A day after the acquiring former Steelers malcontent/diva Antonio Brown, the reigning Super Bowl champions showed they might not even need him, getting 341 yards and three touchdown passes from 42-year-old Tom Brady to beat Pittsburgh 33-3. Saquon Barkley finished with 120 rushing yards on 11 carries and caught 4 passes for 19 yards. But 15 touches in a game from the team’s best player is not a winning formula for the Giants. Odell Beckham Jr.’s debut with Cleveland was an utter disaster for his new team, as Cleveland committed 18 penalties and got pummeled, 43-13, at home Sunday by Tennessee in the Browns opener. He had 7 catches. He made sure he got some attention wearing a $300,000 dollar watch during the game. Hey, Look at me! Nick Foles’ first start for his new team didn’t last long, and his next one could be at least two months away. The former Eagles quarterback departed his Jacksonville debut in the first quarter with what the team disclosed as a fractured collarbone that will require surgery. The Jags just can’t catch a break. In the third quarter with the Giants trailing 28-10 and with a third-and-2 from the Dallas 8-yard line. Manning handed the ball off to Eli Penny, who entered the game with 149 career rushing yards, and he gained 1 yard. Say What!? Well, that was some bad Jets football, outside of Bell and Mosely. Barf! Did you know on this day in 1960, the first ever AFL game saw the Denver Broncos, defeat the Boston Patriots 14-10? The Giant's defense stinks.
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I have been remiss with my blog due to some minor surgery and a hurricane. I’m walking again and Dorian gave us only a glancing blow, so all is well in this part of the planet. I am however back, just in time for the kickoff of the 2019 NFL season. With so many marquee teams operating with legitimate hope for success, and with a handful of star players beginning fresh eras with new franchises, the 2019 NFL season is ripe for the kind of drama and excitement that's worthy of the league's celebration of its 100th year. There are 256 games in the NFL season, so strap yourself in and get ready for a wild ride. Here are my predictions… AFC North 1.Cleveland Browns(11-5) 2.Pittsburgh Steelers(9-7) 3.Baltimore Ravens(8-8) 4.Cincinnati Bengals(5-11) There is no question Cleveland has been the hype team of this offseason. I struggled with 11 wins, not sure they are THAT good, but the Steelers aren’t that good either, the schedule-makers didn't do them a favor. AFC South 1.Indianapolis Colts(10-6) 2.Tennessee Titans(8-8) 3.Houston Texans(5-11) 4.Jacksonville Jaguars(4-12) With Luck gone, not so sure the Colts are as good as many say they are. Mediocre division for sure. But on paper, the Colts still look like the class of this division. Even with Foles over center, the Jags still stink. AFC East 1.New England Patriots(13-3) 2.New York Jets(9-7) 3.Buffalo Bills(5-11) 4.Miami Dolphins(3-13) BREAKING NEWS…The New England Patriots are going to win the AFC East. Again. Still rebuilding, the Jets play five games against 2018 playoff teams and four against clubs with double-digit wins. Nine wins might be a stretch. AFC West 1.Kansas City Chiefs(14-2) 2.Los Angeles Chargers(11-5) 3.Oakland Raiders(5-11) 4.Denver Broncos(4- 12) The Kansas City Chiefs were fun to watch in 2018—a wildly prolific offensive team led by a magical young MVP quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. But as good as the Chiefs were offensively, they were equally awful on defense, and that defense cost them the AFC Championship Game. The Chargers could be the upset pick to win the division…Maybe. NFC North 1.Green Bay Packers(12-4) 2.Chicago Bears(11-5) 3.Minnesota Vikings(9-7) 4.Detroit Lions(5-11) Another tough pick. This division race is even more intriguing than usual. Will Rogers bounce back with a new head coach? Are the Bears for real? Are the Vikings cable of winning 9 games with the 10th toughest schedule in the league? NFC South 1.New Orleans Saints(13-3) 2.Carolina Panthers(8-8) 3.Atlanta Falcons(8-8) 4.Tampa Bay Buccaneers(4-12) Even with the Bucs, this might be the best division in the NFL. Defending-champion New Orleans is the favorite to win. On paper, the Saints are one of the league's more complete teams, and they have a chip on their shoulder (think-playoff non-call). NFC East 1.Dallas Cowboys(12-4) 2.Philadelphia Eagles(11-5) 3.New York Giants(5-11) 4.Washington Redskins(4-12) Dallas faces a number of legitimate Super Bowl contenders during the latter portion of the regular season—the Rams at home in Week 15, the Bears on the road in Week 14 and the Patriots on the road in Week 12. Yeah I know- Elliot is back. I really want to believe the Giants are better than last year. But, I can’t. Manning is on his last legs and the defense is a hot mess. How many games till Jones starts? (I hope none) NFC West 1.Los Angeles Rams(11-5) 2.Seattle Seahawks(8-8) 3.San Francisco 49ers(8-8) 4.Arizona Cardinals(3-13) The Rams won 13 games and the NFC Championship Game last year, but all is not sunny in La La Land this offseason. There are several questions marks-Todd Gurley's balky knee being the biggest concern for the team. The 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and tailback Jerick McKinnon are healthy now (or getting there), and general manager John Lynch was aggressive again this offseason in adding talent like linebacker Kwon Alexander. Ok, that’s it…don’t hate me. Next time, play off predictions. 1 Why can’t Odell stop talking about the Giants? Now with the Browns, Beckham talks more about the Giant’s that any other subject. Beckham’s history suggests it will be a little bit of time before we know how things will play out in Cleveland, but my guess is, the moment he feels he’s not getting the ball enough or simply not getting the attention he thinks he deserves, he’ll become a distraction, and he’ll be giving this exact same interviews about how the Browns held him back. With Odell, it’s never the fault of the man in the mirror. I’m thrilled he’s gone from New York. 2 If the postseason began today, would J.A. Happ have any standing on a Yankees postseason roster? Happ’s yearlong trouble with the long ball continued Wednesday night, as he yielded two more home runs and failed to record an out in the fifth inning - this time against a potential October opponent. I’d say 50-50. And if he was included, it would be as emergency Bull-pen help. 3 Speaking of NFL Diva’s…During the very public divorce between Antonio Brown and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Steelers fans were like the children in the relationship, choosing sides between player or organization figuring out who did the other wrong. Now that Brown has been traded to the Raiders, people in Pittsburgh may be experiencing great pleasure and giddiness (is that a word?) because they are watching Brown’s train wreck offseason unfold in Oakland. The theoretical glee from Steelers fans is also a boon for HBO: the network announced that this week’s episode of Hard Knocks drew a local rating in Pittsburgh three times the national average for the episode. Nationally, it’s a different story. Ratings have been down slightly. Guess most viewers are like me: Tired of the drama that unfolds around these needy prima donnas. Maybe they preferred reruns of Dog The Bounty Hunter. The calling of balls and strikes this year by Home plate umpires has been nothing short of atrocious. This past Saturday another ump who obviously missed numerous balls and strike calls made a circus of the game between the Yankees and the Indians with more unwarranted ejections.
Apparently, the Yankees continue to be “savages” at both the plate…and the dugout, as Manager Aaron Boone was the first to go, while centerfielder Brett Gardner and pitcher CC Sabathia were exiled shortly after. The ejections occurred with the Yanks up 6-4 in the home half of the sixth when Cameron Maybin stuck out looking at a pitch that must have been 5 or 6 inches off the plate. Boone barked at Home plate umpire Ben May, leading to the umpire sending him away. Gardner, emulating an elderly neighbor living below a rowdy group of friends, began to pound the top of the New York dugout with his bat, a common sight from the veteran when expressing frustration. That drew the attention of first base umpire Phil Cuzzi, who threw out a raging Gardner. The outfielder and umpire engaged in a frantic shouting match, as Cuzzi made it clear he ejected Gardner for his ceiling display. Both umpires were clearly the aggressors. May,after Boon’s initial comments stared at the dugout as if he was waiting for confrontation. He got what he wanted (comments from Boone) and responded with the ejection. A moment later Phil Cuzzi rushed toward the Yankee dugout and made his ejections. All of this could have been avoided if May had had some clue of the strike zone. Each season, MLB home plate umpires make tens of thousands of incorrect calls, many that lead to similar disputes, and yet, MLB assigns the same guys out there game after game to do the same. MLB claims they want to improve the pace of the game. How about improving the quality of umpires which will improve the pace of the games? The duty of an umpire is complex: get the split-second call right. It is a mentally and physically demanding job. But, why are Major leaguer's at their mercy when they continue to make an abundance of sometimes game changing mistake calls, and then seemingly eject players and managers for even questioning those calls? In any other job, you’d be fired if you continually don’t perform up to standards. Why do the likes of Joe West, Angel Hernandez, C. B. Bucknor, and Laz Diaz, continue to under perform, (and often have a quick trigger).go unpunished by MLB? Given how MLB is heavily dependent on performance statistics when evaluating players, it is surprising the league has been sluggish to apply similar rigor to umpire hiring, promotion, and retention. The human element of the game adds color but it comes at a high cost: too many mistakes. I’m an old school baseball fan, who has disagreed with the potential of balls and strikes being called by a computer. But lately, I’ve had second thoughts. Rookie Daniel Jones wowed the New York Giants and their fans in his short debut . It’s seemingly only a matter of time before people call for the kid to replace two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning at quarterback. Oh wait. They are ALREADY anointing him the Starter!
Jones hit all five of his passes and capped his only series with a pinpoint 12-yard touchdown pass to Bennie Fowler in leading the Giants to a 31-22 victory over the Jets on last Thursday night in a preseason game suspended for 59 minutes in the first quarter when lightning and heavy rain rolled into the Meadowlands area. Mind you, this was the FIRST preseason game, and he only played 1 set of downs. While I believe Jones is the future at QB for the Giants, let’s not proclaim him the game one starter because of 5 plays. Oh by the way, the Jets 2nd team D was on the field. Giants coach Pat Shurmur said in a press conference when asked about the possibility of Jones starting against the Cowboys. "Slow your roll," "This is just his first go-around." I couldn’t agree more. Tonight brings us the start of 65 games of meaningless NFL football. It also may(once again) bring commentary from the Commissioner about the possibility of shrinking the amount of meaningless football played in August to 3 games instead of 4. So why hasn’t the league done it? Despite what Goodell has said, the people who employ and pay him don’t want it. And they don’t want it because they don’t want to give up the easy revenue that comes with much lower expense than what they pay players during the regular season. I’ll save my rant about this for another time. I have never been a fan of watching Pre-season football. Usually I will take in some of the Jet – Giant game figuring by the 3rd week we might actually see the starters play more than 2 or 3 series. This year they play each other on the first week…tonight. I’m not expecting to see Barkley, Eli, or any one’s name that seems familiar for more than a series, if any at all. Here is what usually happens… 1st game - Most starters tend to play one or two series, some, none. The rest of the game features mostly guys with little chance of making the roster. Occasionally it’s fun when some camp no name goes wild and makes a dozen tackles or catches 8 passes. This is where you start going: "Oh, that Paul Perkins guy might finally be developing into something." 2nd game - Starters play a series or two. QB competition teams have a lot of fun here as they usually bounce between them on series. Lots of rookies and tertiary players looking to snatch the apple, play the whole game and get you hyped up for how they're going to explode out this year. 3rd game - Starters play most of first half, sometimes into early 3rd. The dress rehearsal game. Odds are the guys that are going to bust out are all over this one. 4th game - Few starters play for a few series, if at all. Rest of the game is a slog of guys desperate to get tape out there to get them onto other teams or practice squads. The second half is usually just depressing because you're watching 25+ guys careers get killed in real time. So basically boring and sloppy football. Now if you’re a gambler… Enjoy tonight’s thrilling match-ups (tongue in cheek). Aaron Boone says there is no bad blood between the Yankees and Frazier so why does Frazier remain at AAA? Maybe there isn'tany bad blood, but since the Yankees demoted Frazier they have called up Mike Tauchman, Mike Ford, Breyvic Valera and Tyler Wade instead. Boone says these holes were filled based on positional need and the roles those players cold fill rather than choosing them over Frazier. Frazier struggled at the plate immediately after being demoted, but he's now recovered, slashing .288/.344/.559 with four homers and four doubles since July 15. While his name was mentioned in almost trade scenario, he remains at Scranton. The above mentioned “Next Up” guys have certainly done the job, and in fact have been the best display of “Next man up!” we’ve seen in professional sports. Perhaps that’s why the Yanks are in no hurry to bring Frazier back. Or perhaps, there’s another reason. We need to give the Mets the credit due…they are on a roll, climbing above .500 at 58-56 after being 11 games below .500 on July 12. The Mets have won 12 of their past 13 games. In addition to stockpiling wins against presumably inferior competition like the Marlins, the Met's appear to be fine-tuning their game and building momentum in preparation for an upcoming stretch against Washington and Atlanta. I wanna believe, but somehow I don’t. The Yankees officially own the Orioles. One night after hitting 5 home runs, the Yankees went one better last night against the Orioles' beleaguered pitching staff, knocking 6 long balls in a 9-4 victory that extended their winning streak at Camden Yards to 14. The Bombers have hit 38 home runs at Camden Yards, extending their major league single-season record for most by a visiting team in one ballpark. Yep, I’d say that “own” is about right. You want the good news or the bad news first? Ok, let’s go with the good…a makeshift Yankees lineup pounded David Price in a 7-4 victory Sunday night that sent the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox to their eighth consecutive defeat. Bring out the brooms; it was a 4 game stadium sweep, basically ending any hope the Red Sox might have had to catch the Yankees in the A.L.East race. The lefty Price gave up a season-high 7 runs and 7 hits before walking slowly to the dugout in the third inning. He is 0-3 with a 10.59 ERA in just 17 innings over his last four outings. He has a lifetime ERA of 9.61 against the Bombers. Hey David, who’s your Daddy? Now the bad… Aaron Hicks went on the 10-day injured list with a flexor strain in his right elbow. Hicks won't throw for a week to 10 days, but Aaron Boone is optimistic he'll return this season. Brett Gardner becomes the primary center fielder (again). ... Didi Gregorius returned to the lineup for the first time since rolling over his left wrist fielding a ball Wednesday. ... Gary Sanchez likely will begin a minor league rehab assignment this week and is expected to rejoin the Yankees sometime this week in Toronto. ... Ford played first base, with DJ LeMahieu getting a rest after returning Friday from a sore groin. Edwin Encarnacion (broken right wrist) and Luke Voit (sports hernia) are still sidelined. LeMahieu entered at second base for Gleyber Torres in the eighth who might have escaped the injury epidemic when he suffered what manager Aaron Boone called a “core issue” and underwent tests at a hospital. But his father, tweeted his son was fine and was headed to Baltimore with the team. Thank you God. Yankee pitching has seemed to right the ship just a bit, but J.A. Happ’s latest mediocre outing again hinted at the potential disaster looming from Brian Cashman’s reluctance to upgrade the rotation before the trade deadline. Happ couldn’t make it out of the 5th. In a 10 day stretch, the Yankee pitching gets beat up, including losing 3 of 4 routs in Fenway, 4 more key players go down with injury (Hicks, Voit, Encarnacion and LeMahieu), and yet the Yanks keep their collective chins up How much character, how much adversity overcome, does one sports team need? The Yankees seem determined to find out. The deadline came and went and the Yankees didn’t make one significant trade. Why you ask?
Just look at the Minnesota and Boston series’. The Yankee starting pitching was exposed. Every other team saw this and knew the Yankees were in desperate need, so the price escalated to the point the Yankees wouldn’t or couldn’t pay. They were in serious talks with Diamondbacks who wanted Frazier plus three high prospects. Apparently Arizona was asking for the moon for Ray. Apparently EVERY team asked for the moon (see above). The Astros by the way acquired 3 players including Zack Greinke. Right now I think that makes the Astros the favorite to represent the American league in the world series. I only hope I’m wrong. Now some of you will say, by proclaiming the Astros as the favorite, that I’m not a true Yankee fan. My response would be you’re a Blind fan…one who can’t accept reality and is blinded by their loyalty, regardless of their team’s obvious weaknesses. I am a Lifelong Yankee fan, and will root for them game after game regardless how successful or unsuccessful they are., regardless where they rank in the standings. So unless there is a sudden turn around with our starting staff or Sevy and/or Montgomery surprise us all on their reported returns. I have to hope our offense can again pick up the slack, which may be tough considering the caliber of pitching they will see in the playoffs. The Yankees are now fully hitching their World Series expectations to the roster they had Wednesday morning. With the deadline passed, and no more August waivers, there is no outside help coming. Time will prove if this gamble on themselves really will pay off. Ok so, yeah, I changed the look. A newish design...A work in progress. No need to dissect the weekend series between the Yanks and Red Sox. It's pretty obvious the Yanks desperately need a quality arm as well as fixing the ones they already have. Look at the numbers in the last week...Horrific. Finally one of our starters did pitch like a starter on a World Series contender. Domingo German, at 26 the youngest active member of the Yankees’ said rotation, allowed three runs over 5⅓ innings, easily the best showing by this unit since J.A. Happ gave up two runs to the Rockies over five innings back on July 19. That led to a MUCH needed win. Hey Cash, Make Something Happen! Landon Collins was a terrific player for the Giants. Let’s give him that. Personally, though, I have nothing else nice to say about Collins after this indefensible comments about Dave Gettleman: “I would try to tell one of my defensive back coaches to throw the ball in that direction and give a nice little thud, a nice little run-over, a quick little ‘Uuhh,’ something like that. I’m going to make it real subtle, you know?” “I don’t think he’s got the skill level to stay on his feet.” He’s actually talking about intentionally running into, and knocking down, a 68-year-old man who nearly died from lymphoma a year ago. Collins may think he was being funny. He wasn’t. He was being classless. Hey, I’m not a huge fan of Gettleman either, but Collins needs to grow up! Can someone explain to me what the Mets are doing? My take…The Mets finished Sunday in fourth place, 6 games out of a wild card, yet desperate to believe they were in it and to convince their fan base to keep coming to games, they make a win-now move and sacrificed their best lefty pitching prospect. I know it sounds crazy, but you have a better take? |
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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 |