tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5118030970253736112024-02-08T08:17:22.474-08:00Getting Inside My Head... So Ace! A Pauly Kwestel ProductionPaulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-85595588741521929712010-08-15T17:56:00.000-07:002010-08-15T17:59:13.036-07:00Omar Minaya Actually Doing A Good Job This SeasonI don’t wan to defend Omar Minaya. I don’t want to defend anything about the Mets front office. I think they are all terrible and the Mets won’t win anything until the entire organization is overthrown and that starts with the Wilpons selling the team. However I am going to make one daring statement. Is it possible that Omar Minaya has actually been doing a good job this season?<br /> <br />The 2010 Mets have been consistently inconsistent. Odds are they will finish somewhere right around 81-81. During the last offseason the fans cried for the Mets to either trade for or sign a premier starting pitcher. Everyone who follows the Mets knew that pitching was going to be the Mets biggest weakness in 2010. What did Omar Minaya do, he decided not to acquire a pitcher and instead spent his money on OF Jason Bay. <br /> <br />Fast forward to this season; the Mets are playing very well at home and awful on the road. As the trade deadline approaches both Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee are available. Mets fans are begging the Mets to spend the money and acquire one of the two. After all, both Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana are pitching like aces, and R.A. Dickey is proving to be a very pleasant surprise. Everyone believed the Mets were just one starter away from being a legitimate playoff contender. The trade deadline came and went and the Mets remained quiet, not making any moves. <br /> <br />When the Mets did nothing at the trade deadline many fans had had it with management. Many fans were calling for Omar Minaya’s head, claiming both he and manager Jerry Manuel needed to be fired. Many began to think that Minaya was only employed because he was keeping his mouth shut on the amount of cash the Wilpons were allowing him to work with, a number that many people believe is much smaller then the Wilpons are letting on. But perhaps maybe Omar knew exactly what he was doing?<br /> <br />While the fans have believed all season long that pitching is the Mets problem the truth is that hasn’t been the case at all. While the Mets did start the season with both John Maine and Oliver Perez in the rotation, they are both now gone, and have been replaced by a very good R.A. Dickey and occasionally the solid Japanese rookie Hisanori Takahashi. Mets pitching has a 7th best E.R.A. of 3.72. Furthermore the Mets also have pitched a league high 18 shutouts this season. The problem the Mets face is their manager gets matchup happy and often goes to the bullpen too soon, causing the relief pitchers to become overworked and therefore they are unable to hold onto leads. <br /> <br />The biggest problem the Mets face right now is with their bats, a problem that Omar tried to address during the offseason by signing Bay. Mets pitching has been unbelievable this season, the hitters however seem to be unable to get a hit even if the other team was only playing with six guys. During the offseason Minaya tried to address this by signing Jason Bay, who just hasn’t been hitting. While third baseman David Wright is 7th in the league with 77 RBI, his 126 strikeouts is not only staggeringly high, but often cost him RBI’s which cost the Mets runs. <br /> <br />The Mets simply are not getting offense from any parts of their lineup. While they have pitched 18 shutouts, the Mets have also been shutout too many times for a fans liking, as well as losing several games by a 2-1 score. The Mets pitchers are putting the team in a position to win, it’s the hitters who have been unable to come through for this team. <br /> <br />While I do think that Omar Minaya has made several mistakes during his tenure as Mets GM, his move of not panicking at the deadline and giving up prospects for unneeded starting pitching should be met with cheers, rather then the boos that it has been getting.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-11137441838497183612010-06-04T22:49:00.000-07:002010-08-15T14:02:10.675-07:00US Will Win World Cup Before It Wins WBC“The Disease of More,” a term that according to Bill Simmons was used by Pat Riley to describe why it is much harder to defend a championship then it is to win one. Riley’s point was that when a team wins a championship, the following season the players are infected with the disease of more. They want more money, more minutes, and more shots, throwing away the tight team concept that had originally won them the championship. Teams not only have to beat the all the other teams to defend their championship, they also have to beat the disease of more. <br /> <br />I thought of the disease of more when I was reading ESPN the magazine’s World Cup preview. In the magazine was an excerpt from “ESPN’s World Cup Companion” where two writers, one American and one British, were discussing whether the United States would ever be able to win the World Cup. The article ended with Roger Bennett, the British writer, stating that the US would win the World Cup before it wins the World Baseball Classic. <br /> <br />My first thought was “wow! That’s a bold prediction.” About 10 seconds later I thought, that’s a really far-fetched position. However after thinking this over for a few more minutes I quickly realized something else. Roger Bennett’s prediction is not far-fetched at all; in fact, Roger Bennett is going to be right. <br /> <br />And that is where the disease of more comes in. The disease of more has evolved from not just basketball, but to American society as a whole. We constantly need more things to do; we live in a society where there is just so much else going on. <br /> <br />Look no further to prove this point then American television. All you hear about in sports is how ratings are down, how the World Series needs to be played at 8:30 at night because this way they could draw higher ratings at the expense of not allowing kids to stay up late enough to watch. The NBA finals starts late at night in an effort to draw better ratings as well. All you hear about during the playoffs is it would be a ratings disaster if the small market teams make the finals. Well you know what the real issue is, there is just so much more to watch. <br /> <br />With DIRECTV, satellite companies, cable, digital cable, all fighting for customers, prices are so low that practically everyone has access to at least basic cable nowadays, while many people have satellite or digital cable, which provides hundreds of channels on your TV. The result of this is obvious, there is much more choice with what we want to watch. The reason ratings are low isn’t because people care less, people today care just as little as people 20 years ago, the difference is 20 years ago there was nothing else to watch. <br /> <br />The influx of television channels has more effects on society. Kids can now sit in front of a TV and be entertained all day with the surplus of channels and video games. The consequence is kids are no longer outside playing sports. Their sports consists of the 3 hours a week of organized sports, no pick up ball or sandlot baseball. We are no longer getting kids with street talent, rather only kids with organized sports and structured within a system talent. That is where our national teams will begin to suffer. <br /><br />This helps to answer the question of how could we expect to win on the world stage in soccer before baseball when baseball is our national past time? The answer is simple, there is just so much else to do. Kids would rather sit and play video games then go out and play baseball. Most kids’ sports are restricted to organized sports only, and right now, more kids in America play soccer then any other sport. <br /> <br />Though baseball may have been invented in America and be America’s past time that doesn’t necessarily translate to global dominance. After all, America’s global dominance is almost becoming non-existent in the entire sports world. We were proved to be human when we lost the gold medal in basketball in 2004, and we only won it in 2008 after putting together a team and saying, in order to play in the Olympics you guys need to play together for a full 3 years, and actually take the Olympics seriously. Same goes with the game of baseball. Baseball in America is now played by kids who can afford equipment, play in little league, and move up the ranks. Kids that cannot afford equipment, well, many of them gravitate to basketball. <br /> <br />Now compare this to Latin American countries where many people are impoverished. Kids make baseball gloves out of whatever material they could find, and spend every moment they can on dirt fields playing the game. It’s no wonder many of Major League Baseballs stars are from Latin American decent, the kids are playing baseball with every second of their free time. <br /> <br />The real reason Roger Bennett’s prediction will stand is because the United States will never actually win the World Baseball Classic, ever. There is too much else for American kids to do these days, and nothing else to do for kids in Latin America. More importantly look at the reason this tournament even exists, because of the disease of more; the tournament was created so MLB could make more money. And that’s really all this tournament is for the Americans. The players speak of the pride of representing their country, but who in this country actually cares. Compare that to the Dominican Republic, or Cuba, or the team that has won both classics, Japan. The tournament means everything to those players, fans, and countries, while in America it just means a way for MLB to make more money. America will never take this tournament seriously and therefore will never actually win the World Baseball Classic. And that is why Mr. Bennett is correct; the United States will win the World Cup before it wins the World Baseball Classic.<br /><br /><div id="bleacher_report"></div>Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-19699189265416633312010-06-04T16:53:00.000-07:002010-06-04T22:01:02.521-07:00My Tipping Point With The MetsDespite no longer having any papers to put off writing, or any tests to put off studying for, I’ve still been re-reading Now I Can Die In Peace by Bill Simmons. The book was a collection of Red Sox related columns written by Simmons from around 1998 until after they won the World Series in 2004. Last night I opened it up to where I left off and found that I was reading emails that were sent to Simmons by fans after Aaron Boone’s home run in Game Seven of the 2003 ALCS. When I first read the book at the end of 2005 these emails had no affect on me, but now, they make me think; they make me think of Game Seven in the 2006 NLCS when the Mets lost to the Cardinals. <br /> <br />Obviously the magnitude of these games was significantly different. The long-suffering Red Sox, finally thinking they would overcome the Yankees, only to have their manager ruin it for them. What really caught my attention was in his next column, when he talked about how there was a weird vibe of optimism in Boston that winter, coming after their worst heartbreak yet. He described the optimism coming after the team acquired Curt Schilling, and thinking, this team is coming back next year, we should have beaten the Yankees, we can beat the Yankees, next year we will actually beat the Yankees. Then I saw another email from a reader, talking about how after Game Seven he saw a group of 17 year olds totally in shock, with a “this was our year, how could this happen” look on their face. That email seemed way to have too many personal connections with me.<br /> <br />Those 17 year olds were me in 2006. I was 17 years old in October of 2006; I watched that team all season long, that team took over life to the point that one of my Mets fan teachers re-scheduled a test because it would have been the night after Game Two of the World Series. You know, because there was no reason not to expect the Mets in the World Series. We were the best, we dominated every team we played against. This was our year. We were by far the best team in the National League, the Yankees were having a down year (though somehow managed to finish with the same record as us), the World Series representative for the American League were the used to be awful Detroit Tigers. How could we not win the World Series? <br /> <br />It was literally a state of shock that fell over me after Game Seven. How could we lose? But later, I felt that same sense of optimism come over me though, we were the best this year, and were going to be even better next year. We would be back to win it next year. <br /> <br />Fast-forward to 2010, where we can look back on back to back September collapses, followed by a disastrous season in 2009, and then to now, where my tipping point has finally been reached. They say in Baseball that when you lay the foundation for a team that team has five years to win a championship. Well the foundation was laid in 2005, which is why in 2010 it is time for the Mets to blow this thing up and start over. The problem is they in no way can build another contender like that 2006 team. <br /> <br />2006 was the coming of a perfect storm for the Mets. They had Jose Reyes who was finally healthy, ready to be healthy for a full season. They had David Wright, about to enter his third season in the big leagues and was ready to make “the leap.” Furthermore they put the other pieces in place, a great center fielder in Carlos Beltran ready to prove something, and a new power hitting first baseman. We keep entering a new season thinking this year we’ll get back to the way we were in 2006, but really Reyes, Wright, and Pedro Feliciano are the only people who are playing now that played for the Mets in 2006. (There are two others that pitched for that team that are still with the Mets now, John Maine and Oliver Perez. Look at how that has turned out for the Mets).Gone are the ever important role players, guys like Cliff Floyd, who took David Wright under his wing as a rookie, and Jose Valentine who mentored Jose Reyes. <br /> <br />The 2006 Mets were made up of a core group of players as well as veteran role players who you knew what you were going to get from them. Paul Lo Duca behind the plate, you knew he would work the count and let Reyes steal bases and get into scoring position, something that was incredibly valuable for those Mets. Now we have Luis Castillo bunting Reyes over to second. Steve Trachsel was our #3 starter, you knew he would take forever to pitch and would give up a lot of runs, but knowing this, he got run support, and led the team in wins that year. The Mets were lead by a young core who in their early years were being mentioned in the same sentence as the words “Hall of Fame.” Now the Mets are lead by a core that people question if they will ever be good enough, surrounded by a bunch of question marks. The moment has passed this team. There is no more “we’ll be back next year” feeling like the 2003 Red Sox had, there is no “wait till next year” cry that was made famous with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the late 40’s and early 50’s. The team needs to be completely rebuilt. <br /> <br />This is not an easy task; there is no Jose Reyes or David Wright waiting in the wings. There is no third year potential superstar ready to make the “leap.” Look at where the team is where this team is now, and lets look ahead by two years. Ike Davis will be a third year player ready to make “the leap,” but who will be around him. Reyes and Wright will be at the tail end of their prime, there will be no more Beltran, Johan Santana will be near the end of his contract and that’s working on the assumption that he doesn’t kill himself for never getting any run support or killing the Mets bullpen for being unable to hold a lead for him. Jason Bay will be old and not able to hit the ball out of CitiField as opposed to the Jason Bay of today who can’t hit the ball out of CitiField. <br /> <br />When I read the Red Sox fan reaction after 2003 I compared it to my reaction after 2006. However I then came to realize that those fans were rewarded with a World Series win the following year, but for me, I realized it would be much worse. There was no next year for the Mets, or the year after, and now it will be a long time. The Mets are battling mediocrity this year in a very mediocre National League, but they are unable to pull away. Furthermore in the years coming there is really nothing bright to look foreword too. The Mets will continue to float around mediocrity for years to come, and that chance to win the World Series has come and gone for the foreseeable future.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-88378712926749227082010-05-14T10:20:00.000-07:002010-05-14T10:21:29.291-07:00Misreading the MarketAccording to Maury Brown and “The Biz of Baseball,” the Mets are down 15 percent in attendance at this point in the season compared to last season, which is good for 6th worst in Baseball. <br /> <br />The Mets have blamed this on poor April weather; the teams bad play last year, and the economic downturn. <br /> <br />Meanwhile over at Jets camp, the Jets still have plenty of PSL’s they have yet to sell. The team is not lowering the prices for these unsold PSL’s and they are confident the team will sell their remaining seats. <br /> <br />Both the Jets and the Mets have people that are hired to look at the market and the way the market is moving, and set their prices accordingly. But in the last two years, we have seen the Jets, Giants, Mets, and Yankees, all grossly misread the market. The Mets blame empty seats on bad play last season, while the Yankees won the World Series last season and are still struggling to fill up their stadium during the regular season. <br /> <br />How did four teams in the New York Market all misread the market so egregiously? Do they not realize in the land of HDTV, the quality of the home team commentators, it is just much simpler and more relaxing to stay home and watch the game at home. Furthermore, one of the things Citifield got rid of was the prestigious $5 upper deck ticket. My senior year I was woken up by a phone call one day in May that said “I’m picking you up in 15 minutes, were going to Shea, its 5 dollar tickets.” That was it, a completely spur of the moment decision. Now, getting to Citifield is a process. Spend money on tickets, spend an additional $20 dollars on parking, spend two hours getting there because of NYC traffic, and spend two hours coming home because of never-ending construction on the RFK/Triboro bridge.<br /> <br />Going to a Mets game now is a 5-11:30 pm process. The same thing could be said about going to the Meadowlands. You need to get there at around 12 for a 1:00 game, and even though it’s only 10 minutes away, there is two hours of traffic waiting for you after the game. A simple three hour football game becomes an all day affair. <br /> <br />Watching the Mets on TV on the other hand, you don’t have to get there until 7:00 and the moment that game is over your already home; not to mention the much shorter bathroom lines. With the quality of HDTV and the prices of tickets, the market is really saying that staying home for games is just that much more convenient and cheaper.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-47632218378476220522010-05-09T18:16:00.001-07:002010-05-09T18:16:46.990-07:00United Didn't Have a ClueWell it finally happened. Last summer, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez both left Manchester United, the three time champions were always being written off as a title contender for the 2009-2010 season. They lost two important stars and all they added was an aging Michael Owen, and replaced Ronaldo with Antonio Valencia who had no hope of filling Ronaldo’s boots. The big United fans kept hope however, the rest of the league was a bit weaker, Rooney was going to play down the middle this year and score more goals and we would be ok. <br /> <br />What then happened was Rooney played down the middle and scored 34 goals in all competitions. With Rooney firing away, United were back on top of the league, with Rooney going, United were going. Still, it soon became obvious United were too dependant on Rooney, and questions arose as to whether they would be able to hold on and win the title again. Soon it became obvious they wouldn’t, and at the end they came up 1 point short of Chelsea. <br /> <br />So United just missed the title by one small point this year and now I will ask, did they even have a plan for this season? <br /> <br />While it may seem hard to question a team that finished one point behind the champions the question of whether United had a plan needs to be asked. Last season, many of United’s younger players earned the chance to shine throughout the Carling Cup competition and ended up winning the cup for United. The future looked bright with these young players coming through the ranks. When Tevez and Ronaldo left last summer, many fans saw this upcoming season as a rebuilding this year. The team had only made one new signing, bringing in the young Antonio Valencia, but we had many young guys that we figured would start to get more playing time and experience this coming season. <br /> <br />But then the season started and the young guys weren’t playing. United, who have a lot of players who are beginning to get up there with age seemed to be throwing their chips in for one last hurrah with the older players. One more shot at the title. But then the older players weren’t getting it done, and it was clear that we just weren’t going to win with this team. Fergie started sprinkling some young players in here and there to mixed results. The end result was not winning the title.<br /> <br />It is very easy to look back in hindsight and second guess, but I was ready to write this post back in December. When things were just lackluster for United I decided, this team needed to make a choice. Throw all your chips into the pot for one more title this year, blow it up next season and start again, or start getting ready for next year now. Truthfully I thought they should have taken the latter. <br /> <br />While the performances of guys like Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Ji-Sung Park, and John O’ Shea were very good towards the end of the season, would it have been better for the team if they didn’t play as much as they did. United have bright young stars that were not seeing the field this year. Fergie spoke of how much he liked the games of guys like Federico Macheda, Darren Gibson, and the Da Silva twins. When it came down to it, with the exception of Gibson, these players barely saw the field this season. I know they all battled injuries but they still should have played more. Gibson went through a fantastic run of form at the end of December, but after United’s youngsters lost their FA Cup match against Leeds at the beginning of January, Gibson took an extended spell on the bench. Macheda started the season healthy, but only played a half hour in the first Carling Cup match when he was the one who was subbed off after Fabio had been given a red card. He wasn’t heard from again until coming on to score a goal against Chelsea in April. Fergie then said he’d be an important player for the rest of the season, but even though Fergie had already lost faith in Dimitar Berbatov, he still chose the Bulgarian over taking a gamble and giving the young Italian even a chance. <br /> <br />While United got hot towards the end of the season, and during March it looked like they had legitimate chances to win both the Premier League and the Champions League, I was still indifferent. At this point, we had almost killed our chances for next season. Our young players weren’t gaining experience, and it was clear that we would bring in one or two new big names, but we would still be relying on our older players to turn in stellar performances again next season. <br /> <br />Fergie claims that part of the reason United have been so good late in games and in close games is because when his older players were young, they played in those games, and lost those games. They gained the experience by losing. But somehow that didn’t transfer to this current crop of youngsters. After the FA Cup loss to Leeds, many of them didn’t see the field again for a while, even Gibson who had been playing well. Gibson then got a chance to impress again in the home leg of the Champions League, he played well and even scored the first goal of the game for United, he was rewarded by not starting another game all season. Young defender Rafael, who for a time had won the starting right back job last season, got the call at the San Siro against AC Milan. His task was to contain Ronaldinho. At first it looked like it would be a disaster, but after 10 minutes Rafael settled down and played beautifully the rest of the game. After the game Fergie said Rafael had played very well in a big game and had gained valuable big game experience. His reward, for the home leg Fergie picked Gary Neville at right back, citing reasons as “experience” for why Neville was chosen. Rafael did get a chance against Munich, where he was sent off, possibly causing United to bow out of the Champions League. He only made one more appearance for the rest of the season after that. <br /> <br />It’s easy to say I’m wrong right now and that United still came very close to winning the title. It’s easy to quote reasons like, “if the referees would just enforce the offside rule on Didier Drogba then United would have won the title by 5 points,” or “if Michael Carrick doesn’t miss a penalty against Burnley on the second day of the season then we win the title,” or even “there was a point in the season where we only played with a back three, and two of them were midfielders.” <br /> <br />While all those reasons are true, back in December I decided that I would rather have been watching the young players more often. While I enjoyed the ride all season, and dreamed of what could have been, that thought was always in the back of my head, we still should have and should be playing the young guys. Rafael should have been playing over O’ Shea and Neville. Gibson should have been getting many more starts then he was. Macheda should have been getting many more appearances. When the young guys impressed in their Carling Cup outings Fergie would glow about them and talk about how more first team appearances would come. But when 9 first team defenders were injured and Fergie decided to play with a back three of Fletcher-Carrick-Evra instead of giving a young guy a chance I grew more and more confused. <br /> <br />So at the end, when United came up short, the question must be asked, did United have plan? At the beginning of the season they were mixing in the young guys, talking about getting them big game experience, but when it all came down to what matter, Fergie turned towards his older players time and time again. Now I worry that we may have set ourselves back for next year, and may be going through more of the same next season.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-54944845973107294322010-04-26T09:35:00.000-07:002010-04-26T09:36:21.289-07:00Jerry Manuel Is Clueless On How To Use A BullpenApril 19th 2010. It was a day that sparked a renewed optimism for the Mets, and gave new hope for their fans. After last season, fan confidence was low; it grew a little bit during spring training, and then was once again shattered during the teams 4-8 start. In a move that was clearly scheduled to happen right from day one, on April 19th the Mets called up first base prospect Ike Davis whom all the fans had been waiting for. The move has looked great so far; Davis is hitting .318 with a Home Run and 2 RBI’s in his first week in the big leagues. More importantly the Mets are 6-1 since calling him up. April 19th could be looked at as the day that saved the Mets season, but it wasn’t. April 19th 2010 is the day that ruined the 2010 Mets season, and has possibly caused more long-term damage. <br /> <br />Lets be fair, this is not an “Ike Davis is not ready for the majors and should still be developing in the minors” article. This is an “Ike Davis may be saving Jerry Manuel’s job article,” and that is a problem. The Mets might be playing great baseball right now, and Manuel may look like a genius for moving Jose Reyes to the #3 spot in the order but there is no way the Mets can make the playoffs with Jerry Manuel running the show. <br /> <br />When Jerry took over in June of 2008 he immediately steadied a sinking ship and put the Mets right back at the top of the division. The Mets started pitching, Carlos Delgado started hitting, and the Mets were winning again. They looked like they were going to move past the collapse of 2007. What happened next was almost an exact repeat of 2007, only this time it was different culprit, the bullpen simply could not close out a game. <br /> <br />By the time September of 2008 came around the Mets bullpen was exhausted. It became a struggle to hold onto a four run lead over two innings. At the time it looked like the Mets bullpen just lacked talent, but really there was a bigger reason for the bullpen collapse, Jerry had no idea how to use them, and now were heading for more of the same. <br /> <br />I know its only April and it is still early but there is no way the Mets can go to the playoffs if they continue to be managed like this. Coming out of spring training, confidence was high about the Mets lineup, however many questions were raised about the starting rotation and the bullpen. Through almost one month of the season, the lineup has been pretty bad, until Ike arrived, the rotation has been amazing and the bullpen has been amazing. The problem is our bullpen has been usage is among the highest in the league. There is no reason I should be reading that going into Sunday’s game Fernando Nieve had pitched in 12 of 18 games. There is no reason that Pedro Feliciano, who has set appearance records for the Mets in each of the last two seasons, has at least warmed up in 14 of 18 games. There is no reason that K-Rod should have thrown 100 warmup pitches in the bullpen before entering the 20-inning marathon game against the Cardinals in 19th inning. Actually there is a reason; when it comes to the bullpen, Jerry Manuel has no idea what he is doing. <br /> <br />Jerry said at the beginning of the year he didn’t have roles for any of his relievers yet, but we all know Jerry favors certain guys. He said on opening day that 20 year old phenom Jenrry Mejia would not pitch the 8th inning. So for some reason Mejia never pitches the 8th inning even though he’s been stellar this season, as Jerry opts to use Nieve and Feliciano instead, even if they are tired. Jerry will always call to his “comfort pitchers.” Right now they are doing great, and even better, were learning Feliciano can get right handed batter out too, but how will this end?<br /> <br />There is history behind the situation unfolding, very recent history actually. In fact every year in April we become shocked to learn that Pedro Feliciano can get right handed hitters out as well as left handed ones. But then every year in May when we start playing the Phillies Feliciano moves back into the left-handers only role, with Jerry refusing to let him pitch to anyone else. By the time mid-summer comes along, Feliciano is already tired and overworked, and can’t get those lefties out anymore, thus turning him into a guy who warms up pitches to one batter and leaves the game. <br /> <br />Question marks were also raised this season about the Mets rotation. With the exception of some shaky John Maine starts the rotation has been awesome. The one problem has been, they’ve barely been pitching. I’m not a big fan of pitch counts but I do understand their merit. However Jerry is living way too strictly by them, especially since he doesn’t change it depending on the pitcher. They say the number of pitches a pitcher throws should be around 100, but that number is too low. Pitchers really can throw up to 125 pitches a game before completely losing effectiveness, but they should not be hitting the 125 mark every outing. In reality pitchers should be looking at 110-115 pitches a start. Jerry has the bar very set at 100. Even when pitchers are doing well, even if the pitcher is Johan Santana, too often Jerry has removed pitchers after 6 innings and 103 pitches. Over the last week he removed Oliver Perez and Jon Niese before they completed the 6th inning despite good outings. He used lines like “I want Olli’s confidence to remain high so I took him out after a good outing.” This can’t keep happening, at a certain point you need to let your starters, even your young ones go out there and work and get through tough times, or you need to say to Johan, we need another inning out of you go get it. I know its early, but at this rate this bullpen is going to be exhausted by June. <br /> <br />When Jerry took over the Mets in 2008 it took him just 2 and a half months to tire out the bullpen. He has no idea how to use it. Mets games used to last 2 hours 50 minutes. Now I’ll turn on a game in the 7th inning and still be watching 90 minutes later because Jerry needs to make a pitching change every batter, at a point your just overdoing it. The Mets need a manager who understands you don’t need to use your bullpen 3 innings every single night, and you can’t have every pitcher warm up every night. My anger culminated last night when the Mets played a rain shortened 5-inning game. The game was called 1 pitch into the 6th inning. Even though our starting pitcher did not give up a single run, Jerry still managed to find a way to warm up TWO different pitchers on the night. It may only be April, and we may be winning right now, but very soon these pitchers are going to be exhausted from throwing every day, and the Mets will be unable to turn over a 4 run lead to their bullpen, and all the positives will be wiped away. Mets fans may be happy now, but at this rate, they will be very angry, very soon.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-77435447813525889682010-03-08T11:10:00.000-08:002010-03-08T11:14:07.628-08:00ROONEY FINALLY GETTING THE CREDIT HE ALWAYS DESERVEDI’ve had about 9 million different ideas for entries over the course of this year about Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit from Manchester United to greener pastures of Real Madrid. However every time I thought of one, I would forget to write it, and usually that weekend United would either win big, or get killed and prove whatever point I was going to make wrong. But now as the season is winding down and the title race is incredibly tight I’m ready to bang this out. <br /> <br />The media have begun to fall in love with a certain idea about this post-Ronaldo season for United. There seems to be an overwhelming number of people who are writing about how since Ronaldo left Wayne Rooney has emerged as United’s most valuable player. While yes this is true, that Rooney is having his best season ever and is absolutely incredible, he is not JUST emerging as United’s most valuable player. The truth is, Rooney always has been the heart and soul of that team. <br /> <br />I could swear that I wrote about this topic a few years ago, but looking through my disappointingly small archives I discovered apparently I haven’t. Wayne Rooney is the ultimate team player, they say he doesn’t care what position he has to play, but that he’ll be happy if he just gets to go on the pitch and kick a ball around for 90 minutes. This became evident when Critiano Ronaldo emerged as the worlds best player, often moving to the center of the field, and exiling Rooney down the left flank. <br /> <br />When Ronaldo left this year it was announced Rooney would go back to his central role. Many pundits wondered how United would cope without Ronaldo, but United fans knew that putting Rooney back in the middle was almost like bringing in a whole new player. We were going to see a completely new Wayne Rooney this year. I’ve always known how potent Rooney was in the middle; I never understood why they exiled him down the left side. In United’s 2008 European Champions League away match with AS Roma, Rooney played down the left side. For 10 minutes Sir Alex Ferguson moved him back to the middle. It took Rooney just two minutes to score after that switch, and moving him back out to the left, perplexing, followed it. <br /> <br />In the first post-Ronaldo year at Old Trafford, many people believe United are TOO dependent on Rooney. There defiantly is some truth to the statement. In the Champions League and Premier League this season Rooney has only not started in 3 matches. Once because of a knee injury, once because he just had a child, and once just to give him rest. In two of those matches United played with only 1 striker, Dimitar Berbatov, who excelled at showing the world that we overpaid for him, and that he cannot function as the only striker on the pitch. We did manage to win both games 1-0. The other match, a home tie against CSKA Moscow, Fergie was forced to bring on Rooney with 30 minutes to play, and Rooney helped ignite a comeback earning a 3-3 draw. Most recently, Rooney was rested against Aston Villa in the Carling Cup final. That rest lasted 30 minutes before Rooney had to replace injured Michael Owen, and of course save the day by scoring the winner. <br /> <br />This all of course comes in light just after witnessing this weekend’s match, where Rooney was forced to miss the match due to an injury. United played with only Berbatov up front. The result was a fail of epic proportions. It took United a long time to learn how to play with Rooney as the only striker, they finally have gotten the hang of it, but in truth only Rooney can make it work. The team mounted relatively no attack from their wingers and Berbatov, who are essential in this formation. Deploying this formation just helps to show how we wasted our money on Berbatov, and how because of this we lost Carlos Tevez. <br />What many people fail to see is that Rooney was just as valuable with Ronaldo on the team as he is now. In 2008 Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions. United just kept winning and winning, most of the time with Ronaldo being the only goal scorer of the game. That season Rooney hit a good run of form in October, and again in February, but both times that great run in form was halted by an injury. Furthermore, he also went down injured in the first game of the season. While many said that with his 42 goals Ronaldo was easily the most valuable person United had in the team, there was someone else who made his motor go. Rooney got injured 4 times that season, not once did United ever win the first game that Rooney missed. Rooney was hurt in the first half of the first game of the season. United drew 0-0. He missed the next few games; United would follow the first match with a 1-1 draw, then a 1-0 loss. While they would win the next four games, they would only score 4 goals, all 1-0 wins. As soon as Rooney came back the goals started pouring in. The next time Rooney went down it was followed by a 1-0 loss to Bolton. He would go down again and United followed that with a loss to West Ham. <br /> <br />Rooney has always been the heart and soul of United. While Ronaldo scored the goals, Rooney was the engine that got Ronaldo going. So please, Rooney being United’s most valuable player is nothing new. He always has been.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-70424414186027714472010-01-25T17:06:00.000-08:002010-01-25T17:07:07.309-08:00Rex Ryan Turns His Swag OnI’m upset. I’m not upset because the Jets lost, they played well and lost to a better team. You could not ask for more from a 9-7 team with a rookie quarterback. I’m upset because it’s over. <br /> <br />The term “same-old-Jets” gets thrown around this team so often. For the fans, it has come to mean the Jets will get your hopes up and then just when you think everything is going well they will stab you and lose. You hear it so often. After the 2004 playoff loss to Pittsburgh there were cries of “same-old-Jets.” We heard them in 2008 when the team started out 8-3 and finished 1-4 and missed the playoffs. The reality for Jets fans was quickly becoming the belief that this team would always let us down. But that would all change in January 2009. <br /> <br />Rex Ryan came in as the new Jets Head Coach with swagger and a plan. Ryan came in talking, saying the Jets won’t back down from anyone, saying the Jets were the team to beat, and that the Jets would win a Super Bowl during his tenure as Head Coach. YEA RIGHT!<br /> <br />The first step was getting the players to buy into his system, it didn’t happen overnight, but it happened. The hard part was getting the fans to buy into Rex’s swagger. He said the term “same-old-Jets” didn’t apply anymore, that this was a new team with a new attitude. Why should the fans believe him? We had no reason to believe him, but then the season started. <br /> <br />The Jets were 3-0. More importantly the Jets were fun to watch. Specifically their defense was fun to watch. When was the last time the Jets had a defense that was fun to watch? We had a rookie coach and a rookie quarterback walking around with a swagger; really, the two of them were a match made in heaven. <br /> <br />The Jets started the season 3-0, now all of a sudden they’re 4-6. Sanchez had a hot start, then he started playing like a rookie, and now he was REALLY playing like a rookie. Well it was fun while it lasted but these are the same-old-Jets. <br /> <br />But that’s where Rex Ryan brought his swagger, he didn’t give up, he took a larger role in the offense and the development in his rookie quarterback. More importantly he didn’t let his team stop believing. At this point the Jets were playing ugly football, and watching the games was, well it was like the way watching a Jet game used to be, ugly football and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then the Jets lost an ugly game to Atlanta, they were all but eliminated. <br /> <br />Just when we thought the Jets were eliminated from the playoffs something crazy happened. If four (it actually might have been more I don’t remember) teams lost their games in week 16 the Jets would control their own playoff destiny. Win the last two games, and they’d be in. Miraculously every team the Jets needed to lose lost, now we just had to beat the unbeaten Colts. When we first looked at our schedule back in April we knew there was a chance the Colts would have nothing to play for and may rest their starters, as a nice holiday gift for the Jets, the Colts gave us Curtis Painter who gave us really bad play and a win. <br /> <br />Following the win against the Colts it suddenly started happening. The players had now fully bought into Rex Ryan, and now the fans were too. We believed we would make the playoffs, and then we believed we could make a run in the playoffs. Rex was still running his mouth and saying things that we thought were a little too far fetched, but then he was turning out to be right. Suddenly we all believed what he was saying; the swagger Rex carried was rubbing off on the fans. Suddenly not even Jets fans were throwing around the “same-old-Jets” phrase anymore, we truly believed times were finally changing. <br /> <br />So I’m upset that the run is over. Rex Ryan has made watching Jets games fun again. The games are exciting, the defense is once again fun to watch, not only that but the fans carry the swagger that even though no one believes in us we knew we would win. Rex Ryan has changed the whole outlook of the franchise, there is optimism floating around the Jets for the first time in god only knows how long. It’s upsetting because we can no longer watch this team week in week out. <br /> <br />It’s fitting that we lost to Peyton Manning and the Colts. After the game I got a text from a friend saying “AP Coach of the Year Peyton Manning?” I almost believe Manning should get the award. I honestly believe that of the four teams in conference championship games the Jets were the second best team. I really believe they would beat both the Saints and Vikings. I do not think any coach could have figured a way to beat our defense; therefore we would shut down both the Vikings and Saints. On the other hand, I never doubted that Peyton Manning would be able to figure out our defense. I think he is the only person on the planet that could figure it out. So it’s not so much the sting of losing, we lost to who I believe is the only person who could have beaten us. Peyton Manning, not his coach, not any other coach in the league. <br /> <br />The unfortunate part is that this run is over, but for the first time in a long time Jets fans feel that this run is just going to start right back up again in week 1 next season. We have some improvements to make, but we have the perfect piece at the center of the table. A man who is not only a great football mind, but a man who had the power to bring a swagger to a franchise hasn’t had any in 41 years, and a fan base who thought they were doomed for a lifetime of failure.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-74664629037129498432010-01-20T15:26:00.000-08:002010-01-20T15:27:26.143-08:00Kaeding Didn't Choke: It Was Written.I spent this past Monday morning driving from Boston back home to New Jersey. One of the perks of this road trip was that for the first time I got to experience the much talked about WEEI Sports Radio in Boston. Those guys can only be described as “special.”<br /> <br />When I got in the car they were debating who Patriots fans should be rooting for in the AFC Championship game. Should it be the division rival Jets, or should it be the team they’ve been battling this past decade the Colts. The guy on the air finally settled on the Jets for three ridiculous reasons. The first was that if Peyton Manning loses to the Jets who were a number 5 seed in the playoffs it would settle the Manning vs. Brady argument and Brady would be better (That is the worst logic I’ve ever heard. There is no argument there, Manning is better, who cares what Brady has done in the playoffs, you want proof just watch film of the two of them). The second reason for rooting for the Jets was this way the Colts will not win the Super Bowl and then in everyone in Boston could have fun watching either the Saints or Vikings destroy the Jets in the Super Bowl. (That’s right because obviously if the Jets defense is good enough to stop the Chargers and Peyton Manning on the road in back to back weeks they obviously are not good enough to stop either the Saints or Vikings on a neutral field.) Yes this guy gets paid to think like that, there is hope for me yet. <br /> <br />He then moved on to talk about how the Jets should not even be here and that they are only here because Nate Kaeding choked last week. I’m not totally buying into that. Was it really Kaeding’s fault for missing three field goals on Sunday?<br /> <br />Lets first look at the numbers. Yes Kaeding was the most accurate kicker in football during the regular season, but going into the game against the Jets he was 3 for 6 in his career in the playoffs. That’s right; Kaeding was only a 50% field goal kicker in the playoffs. Even Shaun Suisham hits more then half his field goals. This was not as much of a joke job as just the norm with Kaeding, when the big moment comes he shrinks. You could have said the same thing about Peyton Manning until 2005 when he won the Super Bowl. <br /> <br />Getting away from the numbers let’s look at the situation Kaeding was put in. Did you see the field on Sunday? It looked nice didn’t it? Well did you also see how many people were slipping and losing their footing in the first half? Forget about Jim Nantz working the announcer’s jinx to perfection on that first kick (though a very big thank you to you Jim). The whole first half people were slipping when trying to make cuts on almost every play. When it’s hard to plant your feet it is not exactly easy to set your feet for a field goal. This was not an easy field to kick on, yes, Jay Feely hit all three of his kicks but his first extra point came dangerously close to missing. This was not an easy field to kick on. <br /> <br />I don’t think anyone is holding the second field goal against Kaeding. It was a last second 57-yard field goal that would have tied his career long. It was defiantly not a sure thing. <br /> <br />Now lets get to perhaps what was the most important (and perhaps his worst miss) kick of the game; Kaeding’s last field goal. Kicking in the NFL is more mental then anything. It’s all about confidence. Nate Kaeding was the most accurate kicker in the NFL, he defiantly had confidence. That is until he got rattled. When Kaeding came marching onto the field for his third kick his face looked like he was thinking, “I know I can do this, I’ve done it before, I SHOULD be able to do this.” Anyone who has played sports knows that there is no room for “I think,” “I can,” or “I’ll try,” there is only room for “I will.” Nate Kaeding did not have the “I will make this kick” look on his face. Already, even before the kick he had lost the battle. Even after his third miss he had a chance to make an extra point, he came out with an “I will make this extra point” look on his face, and he put it right down the middle. It was all about confidence with Kaeding and after 2 misses he had a moment of doubt, and when kicking field goals is a mental game, a moment of doubt is all it takes to screw up. <br /> <br />The Chargers were going to miss that kick as soon as Kaeding trotted out on the field without the swagger a kicker needs. Head Coach Norv Turner should have seen the lack of confidence his kicker had and sent the offense back out to go for the first down. The look on Kaeding’s face said it all “I should be able to do this,” not “I will do this” and when you saw that look, you knew he was going to miss. <br /> <br />With all that being said opposing kickers are 0-5 on field goals in the playoffs against the Jets. Maybe Indy should be thinking there just might be a higher power here and that they shouldn’t even tempt fate by using their kicker. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut before I give them an idea and see the Colts score a touchdown on a 4th down play.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-46695603412552614732010-01-14T09:29:00.000-08:002010-01-14T09:30:24.549-08:00Mets Have Terrible Medical TeamCarlos Beltran getting surgery on his knee is perhaps the least shocking story I’ve heard in a while. All I could ask is why not get it sooner?<br /> <br />The Mets are upset about Beltran’s surgery remained adamant that he did not need surgery. I’m pretty sure the Mets have already lost all their credibility when it comes to injuries. The Mets have easily the worst medical team in the major leagues. This is a team that had a concussed Ryan Church fly on an airplane, then pinch-hit in a game, only to sit him down 6 days after the injury. This is a team that made Carlos Delgado fly from New York to San Francisco just to have his knee evaluated, and then they made him fly back to New York. <br /> <br />The funny thing is the Mets still don’t think Beltran needed surgery. Hello! His knee has been bothering him since he hurt it midway through last season when he said he needed surgery! <br /> <br />I will always refuse to trust the Mets medical staff as they have mishandled many injuries over the years. The Mets are a poorly run organization and until they clean house of the entire front office and put in some sort of structure this franchise will stay in a spiral of mediocrity.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-11708470345327839102010-01-04T21:00:00.001-08:002010-01-04T21:03:41.789-08:00This Needs To Be Brought To Everyones Attentionhttp://www.independent.com/news/2009/dec/30/exonerating-eric-frimpong/<br /><br />I couldn't really figure out why the link wasn't actually working, and I'm tired so just paste that into your browser.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-16297846419382486572009-12-27T22:07:00.000-08:002009-12-27T22:08:50.679-08:00If We Had Free Balled Last WeekLook, you have to believe me. It’s very easy to write this in hindsight and the answer is no; if the Jets would have lost to the Colts I would not be writing this now. If we had Free Ballin’ last Monday I would have came out with my crazy predictions that turn out to be right, (Were going to forget that just a few weeks ago I said the Dolphins were going to win the AFC East, were going to remember last season when I said the Jets would beat the Patriots and Titans on back to back weeks.) and I would have said the Jets were going to defeat the Colts this week. <br /> <br />Now lets be honest, I would have used two arguments. The first one, and probably my strongest one would be the ridiculous, it’s what the Jets do argument. They rope us in and make us think they have a chance. They make us believe were going to the playoffs, then they stab us later. They have their playoff destiny in their own hands, they’ll win the hard game against the Colts we’ll be very happy, and then they will blow the opportunity the following week. That’s just what the Jets do. A few weeks ago before the Jets played Tampa, I said the Jets would beat Indy and lose to someone else that they shouldn’t. It’s what the Jets do; we’ve seen this movie before.<br /> <br />The other argument I would have used would have some football background to it. The Jets matchup very well with the Colts, they have the #1 defense in the league, they could stop Peyton Manning. I said this game was going to come down to what Mark Sanchez does. Would he win it for the Jets? Would he lose it for the Jets? Would he do just enough? The answer of course was C, he would do just enough. I would have made you think way back to week 4, when the Jets faced the very high powered Saints offense and held them to 10 points, Sanchez gave them the rest. <br /> <br />The truth is the Jets got very lucky against the Colts. The defense did a remarkable job against Manning, holding him to 15 points, but they were also bailed out by some timely drops by Dallas Clark, and some poor throws from Manning that made it look like his timing was off for some reason. The Jets defense kept the game very close the entire time, it was 9-3 at halftime; the Jets were very much in it. The problem was the Jets offense could not do anything until the Colts starters came out, which handed the Jets the game.<br /> <br />The Jets play next week for a chance to go the playoffs, which realistically is for resume purposes only. The team has a defense, but need a better passing game to have a shot at doing anything in the playoffs. The running game continues to be an enigma. It is one of the topped ranked rushing attacks in the league, but most weeks it seems that when they absolutely need yards on the ground, they can’t get them. Often times it’s the big runs at the end of the games that pad the stats and make the rushing yards look either big or respectable. <br /> <br />The playoffs would be a nice thing to have on the resume; it would show us what we would need to be work on. Sanchez will get better with experience. When Rex Ryan came to New York I said, “don’t write off the Jets just yet. He’ll bring that Ravens defense which has taken quarterbacks like Kyle Boller and Anthony Wright to the playoffs, it could take a rookie quarterback to the playoffs too.”<br /> <br />So if we had free balled last week I would have said the Jets would win in Indy. Now that you’re here, you would probably like to know what I would say if we were Free Ballin’ this week. So here it is, I don’t know! <br /> <br />There is nothing the Jets can do next Sunday night that would shock me. The final game at Giants Stadium, the fans will be going nuts. They could go out there and play like they did week 17 in 2002 against Green Bay (a 42-14 win) or the following week against Indy in the playoffs (a 41-0 win), an absolute blowout would come as no surprise to me. They could also go out there and play like the Giants did today, and get blown out of their own stadium. It all depends on which Jets team shows up next week, and frankly we’ve seen about 7 different Jets teams this year and any one of them can show up next week. Nothing they could do against Cincinnati will surprise me, and though I knew which Jets team would show up in Indy, I have no idea which Jets team will show up next week.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-5695260773409280702009-12-10T08:53:00.000-08:002009-12-27T22:07:51.106-08:00Thought: Could Scholes Be Part of the Reason Ronaldo Left?Right now Manutd.com is on a quest to pick Manchester United’s best goal in the last decade. Their criteria are simple, which is actually the best goal, not necessarily the most meaningful goal, but which goal makes you say WOW! They narrowed it down to 20 goals in the past decade. <br /> <br />In the last three years Manchester United received 91 goals from one man alone, Cristiano Ronaldo. Lets put that into perspective, in three seasons Ronaldo scored 39% of all of Manchester United’s goals. Ronaldo also routinely dominated the shortlist for goal of the week. But when Manutd.com came out with their list of top 20 Ronaldo had just three goals in the top 20. The man who had the most, goals on the list? Paul Scholes with five. <br /> <br /> While I may vote for Ronaldo’s 42-yard shot against Porto in the Champions League last year as the top goal of the decade, I can easily make an argument that Scholes five goals should finish numbers 2-6. Could this be a slight reason why Ronaldo left town for Real Madrid?<br /> <br />While 91 goals is an absolute ton of goals, I could only think of about 3 off the top of my head where Ronaldo created the goal himself and finished it himself. The rest were when teammates created and Ronaldo finished, or a free kick or a penalty kick, and lets not forget many times someone else won the penalty and Ronaldo stepped up to take the spot kick. <br /> <br />During his United career Ronaldo developed a reputation as being a diver. Eventually even the most passionate United fan would not be able to deny there were several times that he went down when he didn’t have to. For those that have come to know Ronaldo the reason why he would do this became clear over the years. <br /> <br />Cristiano Ronaldo always wanted to be the best. Furthermore wanted his goals to be prettier then everyone else’s goals. To Ronaldo, taking a free kick is the prime time to score the goal that everyone will be talking about. To Ronaldo breaking through on a breakaway and simply chipping the ball past the keeper would not be nearly as nice as taking a 30-yard free kick. Therefore if he were lightly touched, he would fall to ground, give up the breakaway, and take the free kick. <br /> <br />People who pay the most attention to Manchester United would always tell you, Ronaldo is the best player on the team, but when Scholes scores, its always special. This was confirmed when Scholes accounted for 25% of the top 20 goals. <br /> <br />Manutd.com has long been conducting player interviews. Most of the questions are usually the same and the answers vary among the different players. However two questions always yield the same answers. Ronaldo is the best-dressed player on the team, and when asked who scores the best goals in training, the answer is always Paul Scholes. <br /> <br />For a player that wants to be the prime alpha dog, the best at everything, you don’t think that the fact that EVERY one of his teammates agreed that he was not scoring the best goals it would get to him eventually. No matter what he did on the field, he could never change people’s minds that Scholes scores the most magical goals. Ronaldo wants to play where he is the center of attention for every category. <br /> <br />Look, I know there are many reasons for Ronaldo joining Real Madrid. They were his favorite team growing up, and of course they offered him a ton of money. Furthermore he’s a selfish player, he’s won in England, and unlike United greats such as Scholes and Ryan Giggs who want to keep winning in England, Ronaldo does not. Ronaldo wants to win new things. I’m not saying that Ronaldo left because Scholes scores nicer goals, I’m just throwing the idea that for a player that wants the focus always on him, sharing it with someone who people agree is past his prime, could that have possibly just been in the back of his mind when making his decision?Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-89851784680112911482009-12-03T14:04:00.001-08:002009-12-03T14:04:50.613-08:00Follow Up: Crosby Not Even MVP of His Own TeamSince I’m a week behind in my Sports Illustrated reading I actually did not see Michael Farber’s Crosby or Malkin article until just now, which is two days after I wrote the previous post. I just found a couple of things interesting which also highlighted my point from the last post. <br /> <br />The debate that asks who is the best player in the league, Crosby or Ovechkin? How could that be the question when we don’t even know if Crosby is the best on his own team? <br /> <br />Earlier this year Evgeni Malkin missed seven games for the Penguins. The Penguins won just two of those games. Since Malkin returned 9 games ago, the Penguins have won 7 of those 9. During Malkin’s seven game absence Sidney Crosby had 0 goals and 3 assists. <br /> <br />Last season Crosby was sidelined for 29 games. During that 29 game stretch Malkin recorded 20 goals, 26 assists and 14 multi-point games. The Penguins went 16-9-4 during that stretch. <br /> <br />So based on those above facts could one really even think to question who is more valuable to the Penguins. Without Malkin, the Penguins don’t win; without Crosby, they still can. So why is the question Crosby or Ovechkin and not Malkin or Ovechkin?<br /> <br />Furthermore, after writing a whole article talking that provides the numbers on how Malkin can carry the load without Crosby, but Crosby cannot carry the load without Malkin, Farber ends his article by saying he chooses Crosby as the Penguins MVP. I’m sorry but it doesn’t come any more ridiculous than that. Um Michael, did you read anything that you just wrote?Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-65047375017961734762009-12-01T21:19:00.000-08:002009-12-01T21:20:28.463-08:00Ovechkin or Crosby?There has been an age-old question going on around the NHL for the past 4 years. Ovechkin or Crosby? Many pundits have thrown their opinions around basing it around skill and what each does best. Last year the two met in the playoffs and Crosby’s Penguins prevailed in 7 games on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. Apparently that settled the debate and people just agreed Crosby is better, but that couldn’t be more wrong. <br /> <br />Instead of going inside the numbers to figure why don’t we look at the simplest way a fan can tell if a player is good or not. Fear. The Rangers just lost two straight games to the Penguins by a combined score of 13-5. In those two games Sidney Crosby scored 4 goals. Yet at no point during those two games did I ever say to myself “oh no Sidney Crosby is on the ice we better watch him.” Crosby dominates within the flow of the game, but Crosby has one HUGE advantage. What we clearly know is Crosby and Ovechkin are the top two players in the NHL, what we also know is that there is a good chance that Evgeni Malkin is #3. Well guess what, Crosby gets to play with Malkin. It’s pretty easy to get open when the defense has to concentrate on Malkin, and it’s pretty easy to rack up assists when the defense is concentrating on you and you have one of the best finishers to pass the puck too. <br /> <br />Crosby has a great team around him, with one of the best players in the game playing on his line. He also has role players who have been successful with previous teams. Take Crosby off the Penguins and their still a playoff team. <br /> <br />Ovechkin has never had that luxury. It took the Caps a few years to complement him with players that could make them a playoff team. But really that’s all they are, players that complement Ovechkin. Most of the players on the Caps would not have the success that they are currently having if they were playing on some other team. Take Ovechkin off the Caps and that team has no identity and is in a lot trouble. Without Ovechkin the Caps have virtually no shot at the playoffs. <br /> <br />Ovechkin is much more valuable to his team, but lets go back to the thought that would strike you if you were sitting in the stands watching either of these guys play. Fear. Like I said before, at no point was I afraid when Sidney Crosby was on the ice. In the last two years I’ve attended 4 Rangers-Caps games. Whenever Ovechkin steps on the ice it is like the Caps are a different team. I’m always sitting there watching Ovechkin, the way he lurks, the way he stays quiet just waiting to pounce, waiting for you to forget about him. Ovechkin changes the game when he’s out there; he needs to be accounted for at all times. When Ovechkin steps on the ice I say “oh no” every single time. <br /> <br />You can look past the numbers; look past how valuable each one is to his team. When it comes down to it Crosby doesn’t make you fear for your life when he’s on the ice, Ovechkin does, and in my book that is the final decision maker.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-35960895475259666742009-11-05T13:19:00.000-08:002009-11-05T15:13:44.835-08:009 YEARS IS AN ETERNITY?!?! SINCE WHEN?I was rooting for the Phillies. Plain and simple, I’m a Mets fan and I was rooting for the Phillies. <br /> <br />Before all you Mets fan go up and arms about this lets explain a little something. Since when did the Mets actually hate the Phillies? Here is the answer: 2007. That’s when the Mets collapsed and the Phillies won the division. Did the Phillies beat the Mets? Well they had some battles along the way but ultimately it was the Mets who beat themselves, then the Phillies running their mouths about it. Same thing happened in 2008, and the Phillies fans made sure to let us know. <br /> <br />Before 2007 the Mets and Phillies never had anything to do with each other. In the late90’s we fought with the Braves. Mets fans hated the Braves. The Phillies were not good; they sat there with the Marlins and Expos at the bottom of the division. Prior to the Mets-Braves battles of the late 90’s it would play out in one of three ways. The Mets were good and the Phillies were awful therefore there was no rivalry, The Mets were awful and the Phillies were good therefore there was no rivalry, or the final scenario, The Mets were awful and the Phillies were awful therefore not only was there no rivalry but who even cared? <br /> <br />So this whole Mets hating the Phillies thing is a little overblown. Yes in 2007, 2008, and even the first six months of 2009 before the Mets decided to be the worst team ever Mets fans hated the Phillies. By June though this just turned into scenario B, the Mets were awful and the Phillies were good.<br /> <br />A little off topic but my favorite the Mets and Phillies don’t really hate each other moment came this summer. One of my 15-year-old kids who I was a counselor for at summer camp, (I won’t say his name but he’s allergic to nuts and has been known to eat a cookie with nuts in it) is what most people would call a front runner. He is a Yankees fan, he is a Giants fan, and he is a Florida Gators fan. Lets remember he’s 15 so by the time he was at an age to start clearly remembering sports (you have to say that age is around 12) the Gators were becoming a power house in football and basketball. His excuse that he wasn’t a front runner with the Gators, “there was one year they had Tebow and they only finished ranked #6 at the end of the season.” 6 out of 119 teams, your right, that’s pretty awful. The story manifests when we took a trip to Philadelphia and he bought a Phillies hat (which he wore for the rest of the summer), when I asked (rather obnoxiously) if he was becoming a Phillies fan because they actually won his response was, “I’ve always been partially a Phillies fan ever since they’ve hated the Mets which has been forever.” Wrong. Pretty much you just confirmed everything and you became a Phillies fan when they became good, so this World Series was win-win for you, congratulations. I’m sure that two years ago you were a Celtics fan in the NBA and now you’re a Lakers fan. <br /> <br />I know that was very off topic but it had to come off my chest. The point is I hate the Yankees much more then I hate the Phillies so it was a no brainer for me to root for the Phillies. Then the Phillies lost and everything started to get annoying. The moment the Yankees won facebook was littered with Yankee fans statuses saying, “Yankees win!” “27 CHAMPIONSHIPS.”<br /> <br />There were many annoying things going here. One of which is the amount of casual Yankee fans that were doing this. Somewhere around October 10th the amount of Yankee fans quintupled, it was actually so bad that some true Yankee fans that I know were starting to question, “Since when the hell were you a Yankee fan.” I kid you not when I say that one-day when we had friends over at my apartment and the Yankee game was on, one of my friends who has been a Yankee fan since “forever” turned and asked “who is Brett Gardner?” I rest my case there. <br /> <br />The thing that always bothers me is the Yankee fans screaming 27 championships! Here’s the truth, since you and I were born and we started following baseball the Yankees have won 5 championships. No one cares right now what the Yankees did in the 20’s and 50’s when there were fewer teams, no black players in the league, and how much competition was there, they played the same two teams in the World Series every year. The fact that they have 27 total championships doesn’t give them any more advantage heading into next season. You’ve been around for 5 of these championships, not 27. <br /><br />The most annoying part about last night, Yankee fans, what were you doing by your computers the moment the Yankees won? The big response from Yankee fans was “shut up if this were the Mets you would be doing the exact same thing.” <br /> <br />Well I hate to say it but those Yankee fans are right, I would be doing the exact same thing, WHEN I GOT HOME! There is no way in hell I would have been caught dead sitting on my couch watching this game with my computer. I would have been in one of two places, down the street at the sports bar celebrating with other fans. Or back in New York celebrating with many other fans. <br /> <br />This brings me to the most annoying status around, “FINALLY AFTER 9 YEARS THE YANKEES ARE BACK ON TOP!” AFTER 9 YEARS?! 9 YEARS HAS ALL OF A SUDDEN BECOME AN ETERNITY? I have several issues with this. First of all here is the reason you Yankee fans were at home with your computers, BECAUSE ITS ONLY BEEN 9 YEARS! It’s still been there done that with Yankee fans that winning the World Series isn’t special enough that you have to ruin your daily routine. <br /> <br />When Yankee fans were interviewed they commented how this one was special, it was for all the fans that stuck with the team after all the hard times. Hard times! What hard times? Between 2000 and 2009 the Yankees went to the World Series twice, the ALCS three times, and made the postseason every year but one. It was a hard time because the fans said if we do not win the World Series this year it’s a failure. They would say we’ve built the perfect team, were going to win this year. It was a hard time because Yankee fans are delusional and one sided and somehow decided that signing Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano was a good idea; it was because Giambi is the best first baseman out there. It was the delusion that the Yankee fans put themselves into that made these years a hard time. <br /> <br />I feel bad for Yankee fans now. You made the playoffs for 13 straight seasons and the past 9 are perceived as failures. Is it even fun rooting for them? It is more of a relief that they won rather then a celebration that they won. That’s why the Yankee fans were at home, it wasn’t an event that their team was in the World Series, it was just relief that they were there. <br /> <br />See the beauty of sports is there are ups and downs, some teams have longer ups then others, and some teams can’t get out of their downs. So yes, there are times, and it does feel like most of the time that your team just is not good and is not worth watching. But when the time for the “ups” comes, the whole season just becomes one long memorable ride. The Mets were good in 2007, they collapsed at the end of the season, I don’t remember much about that season. The Mets first recent up was in 2006, when they led a charge all the way to the NLCS. Every Mets fan knew something special was going on that year, and I remember every game of that season. Yankee fans don’t get that, they just get this ride of we need to win, we just need to, and then relief. <br /> <br />So 9 years is now an eternity. Lets not forget that most (not all) Yankee fans are Giants fans, the Giants won the Super Bowl two years ago. Why don’t you look at cities that have not had any teams win in recent memory. Before the Phillies won the World Series two years ago it had been over 25 years since the last time a team from Philadelphia won a championship. How about those fans in Cleveland, what about Seattle? <br /> <br />So Yankee fans, go along, talk and scream about how it has been an eternal 9 years since your last World Series. Go tell a Cubs fan about how happy you are that you finally won. <br /> <br />I hope that Cubs fan punches you in the face.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-60759493956806919892009-11-01T13:55:00.000-08:002009-11-01T13:59:29.194-08:00DON'T LISTEN ROONEY!That’s right, I have opened up my drawer found this baby, dusted it off, and began to write in this again. I have decided I am going to try to write in this a bit more, though it defiantly helps that the alternative is writing a paper that I have been putting off for days now. <br /> <br />On Halloween 2009 something very scary happened. It did not happen in College Park Md. or in my hometown in New Jersey, it did not even happen on this continent. This event took place on the other side of the pond in Spain where Real Madrid midfielder/striker/foreword and resident best player in world Cristiano Ronaldo publicly urged former teammate and current Manchester United star Wayne Rooney to jump ship and join him at Real Madrid. Ronaldo’s logic; he should do it because he should follow the footsteps of former Manchester United greats David Beckham, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and the latest Cristino Ronaldo and join Real Madrid.<br /> <br />I laughed this news off, for one that is the worst logic ever, for two when did Manchester United just become a stepping stone to going to Real Madrid, and for three, why would Rooney ever want to do that? Furthermore what is wrong with the players flanking Ronaldo now? Real went on a spending spree this summer brining in Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, and Xabi Alonso, adding them to Raul and Van Nistelrooy who they already had. Do they really need Rooney? Does Ronaldo even need Rooney to be there?<br /> <br />Lets examine this from another angle. Who is to say that these two players even like each other? Yes they were able to co-exist as teammates, but that is because Rooney is a team first guy, Ronaldo on the other hand, is not. They say if you let Rooney just run on the field and kick a ball around for 90 minutes he’d be happy regardless of what position he’s in, you defiantly cannot say the same about Ronaldo. Lets go all the way back to the World Cup of ’06 in Germany, where in a match between Rooney’s England and Ronaldo’s Portugal Rooney received a red card for stomping on Ronaldo, starting a whole summers worth of talks questioning whether the two will be able to play on the same team again or not. They answered that question by winning the Premier League title. <br /><br />However what would happen over the next couple of seasons was the emergence of Ronaldo, who became a tremendous goal scoring threat, and would start to move towards the middle of the field. This often caused Rooney to be exiled onto the left side of the field to make room for Ronaldo. Though Rooney did it happily for his team he has always said he prefers a more central role. The exit of Ronaldo allowed United to place Rooney back in the middle of the field and he responded by scoring 6 goals in the teams first 6 games, starting up talks that he was the best striker in the world, talks that had been killed in recent seasons. <br /> <br />So the question becomes, do these two players really like each other? If Rooney had to play with Ronaldo again he’d face further exile onto the left flank. He would be playing with a selfish person again, and he would also have to share time with the vast amount of strikers at Real's dispense; unlike at United where he only has to compete with the Bulgarian Bitch Dimitar Berbatov. Does Rooney even have a reason to want to go play with Ronaldo? He could remain in Manchester and continue to win titles as the face of the club, also playing in his home country remaining the poster boy for the English national team.<br /> <br />So there is pretty much no controversy here, provided Rooney actually thinks logically about it. It was the mere two seconds of thought about Rooney leaving that had Ronaldo scaring me, until I thought about it for about .34 seconds and realized how dumb Ronaldo could be sometimes.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-18490475909282374522009-06-13T18:59:00.000-07:002009-06-13T19:02:30.299-07:00The Stanley Cup that No One WonI hate the Penguins, with a passion. There are four teams that I would never like to see win the Stanley Cup, ever! The Devils, Islanders, Flyers, and Penguins. Everyone else I could live with, and that includes the Detroit Red Wings. <br /> <br />That is, until the Red Wings played the Penguins in the finals this year. <br /> <br />Around this time of the year last year I wrote about how sometimes we root for guys who switch teams to win championships and sometimes we hate them for it. I rooted for Garnett, Allen, and Pierce to win a championship with the Celtics last season. I rooted for Ray Bourque to win a Stanley Cup with Colorado. I mega-loath A-Roid and Randy Moss for signing huge free agent deals and then forcing trades to contenders to win championships. I hate the Penguins, more importantly the diving Sidney Crosby, so what caused me to all of a sudden want them to beat the wings and win the cup?<br /> <br />The answer is simple, Marian Hossa. I wrote about how the Red Wings did not need to add Hossa to their roster last off-season. I also said they were hurting the team more then they were helping the team. Turns out I was nearly wrong. “Nearly!” You could ask my radio partner Jonathan “JB” Berenson, (co-host of Free Ballin’ with JB and Pauly which could be heard at its new time this September on Mondays at 4:00 pm live on www.wmucsports.com.) could attest to the fact that I’m never wrong about these things. Hossa was traded to the Penguins at the deadline last season, and took them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to Detroit in 6 games. In the offseason Hossa took less money to sign a one-year contract with the Wings. <br /> <br />A lot of my friends love that Hossa took less money to win a cup. I on the other hand, am not so much a fan. There was just something that set me off about what Hossa did and again I started thinking about when is it ok to root for someone to win a championship when he left his team and why do we root for some and root against some? Marian Hossa helped me reach more of an answer. Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Ray Bourque are my prime examples. All three of them played for teams, were the heart and sole of those teams and experienced moderate success with those teams. Each of them made the playoffs with their teams and came close to winning titles, but eventually they ended their runs and before they knew it they were playing for bad teams. When the time came to move on, their teams knew they wouldn’t be able to win a championship during the remainder of the players’ career so the player went elsewhere. On the other side, there were guys like A-Rod and Moss who signed mega deals with bad teams and then realized they were playing for bad teams, and wanted to go elsewhere. For them it wasn’t about the game, it was about the money.<br /> <br />So why is Hossa different from those guys? He wasn’t about the money, he took less money to play for a good team and win. What bothers me here is that Hossa is in the prime of his career. Garnett Allen and Bourque were all either at the end or towards the end of their careers when they left. Hossa also left the #2 team in the league to join the #1 team. In essence Hossa said, even though we just made it to the finals, I don’t think were good enough to win so I’m gonna jump ship. Hossa played for a good Ottawa team, a good Atlanta team, and then a very good Penguins team. Hossa was a centerpiece, he was the key to getting the Penguins to the finals. Then eventually he just said I don’t want to go and win a championship myself, I want someone to win it for me. Therefore I found it very odd that though I wasn’t rooting for the Penguins, I was hoping they would win, and make a statement to Hossa saying “you thought we weren’t good enough, but were better without you.”Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-75165765244618632672009-04-01T14:46:00.000-07:002009-04-01T14:47:21.866-07:00WAIT....WHAT?!?!?!?!?!"Enough is enough. He's embarrassed himself, he's embarrassed the organization, and he’s embarrassed the league and he's embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. Send him home. He doesn't belong in the NHL." <br /> <br />Those were the comments made by TSN analyst John Tortorella about Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery back in December. <br /> <br />On February 24th the Rangers hired Tortorella to replace fired head coach Tom Renney. A week later, on March 3rd, the Rangers claimed Sean Avery off of re-entry waivers from the Stars. Tortorella was now going to have to coach Sean Avery. Being in New York it was impossible to not hear everyone in the media bringing up the comments made by Tortorella and questioning how this relationship is going to turn out. So how has John Tortorella now flip flopped and has come and said, "I don't think Sean is being treated fairly," (by the league). What has happened to make Tortorella change his mind about a man that just a few months ago he said should be out of the league?<br /> <br />The answer is actually very simple; Tortorella did something that none of the rest of the media has decided to do. He watched Sean play! Tortorella knew that when he was hired to coach the Rangers that the Rangers would be acquiring Avery, and that he would have to be played. Tortorella simply said, he’ll earn every minute he gets, if he’s not playing the team’s game, he won’t play. Avery saw limited time in his first couple games, but guess what, Tortorella saw him for what he really is, a pretty good hockey player. Avery has been moved up the Rangers top line and has re-energized the team. So Tortorella is right when he now calls out the league for treating Avery unfairly. <br /> <br />A big example of this was in last Monday nights game against the Devils. The Rangers had a 3-0 lead and Avery got into a little push and shove match with David Clarkson. Clarkson dropped his gloves and grabbed Avery. Avery said he didn’t want to fight and even told the referee to break up the fight because he didn’t want to fight. The ref did nothing, finally Avery dropped his right glove, and although there were many clear chances for him to punch Clarkson in the head, he never did, he never threw any punch at all. Clarkson then threw Avery onto the ice, Avery went down head first, the whistles blew and the linesman moved in to separate the two but Clarkson picked Avery back up and threw him head first back onto the ice again. This was outrageous and incredibly dangerous. When they got back from commercial break we discovered that Avery received a 2 minute roughing penalty for dropping his glove, and Clarkson got two double minors and a 10 minute misconduct. This was ridiculous. I personally believe that no one else would have gotten the two minutes for dropping one glove but I can understand it. What Clarkson did was stupid and dangerous. Had he thrown any other player in the NHL onto the ice twice when the player was not fighting back, not only would he be thrown out of the game, he would have been suspended too. That is treating Avery unfairly. <br /> <br />Sean Avery is not a dirty player, he gets treated like a dirty player but something that never gets mentioned is he plays within the rules. Many people like to bring up the Sean Avery rule where during last seasons playoffs he faced Martin Broduer and waved his stick at him, they use that as their example on how Avery is a dirty player. Two things about that, one: it’s now called the “Sean Avery rule” because they put it in place for what he did, meaning it wasn’t there when he did it. He didn’t do anything wrong, he just did something different. Two: He was told by the ref, and by Chris Drury to cut it out, so what did he do? The Devils cleared the puck and when the Rangers brought it back into the zone Avery went right back to where he was standing, only this time he faced the action and about 4 seconds later he scored a goal. He had completely taken Broduers head out of the game.<br />Many people look at him like he’s terrible for the game; the truth is the guy just plays at an extreme level. He skates hard, he hits people, he never backs away from getting hit and he does what he can to help his team win. Avery has 10 points in his first 13 games with the Rangers this year; you don’t get that unless you’re a good hockey player. So it’s not crazy that John Tortorella has flipped his opinions of Avery and now has him on his top line. Watch Avery play, you’ll see he’s a tremendous difference maker on the ice and a hell of a hockey player. Unfortunately the only things you’ll hear about him from the media are all the shenanigans that he’s pulling.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-53746864496504785082009-02-23T13:37:00.000-08:002009-02-23T13:40:30.557-08:00I Hate Being Wrong, Except When I'm WrongSo they actually went through with it. Earlier today the Rangers fired head coach Tom Renney and assistant coach Perry Pearn. Maybe I’m just cursed, I have four teams that I follow intensely; in the past 7 months three of those teams fired the man in charge. Fittingly it is my only team that doesn’t play in America, Manchester United that is the exact opposite, showing stability and having a manager who has been in charge for just slightly longer then Gary Williams has been the basketball coach here at Maryland. <br /> <br />I can’t say anything about Eric Mangini, but I know I was against the firing of Willie Randolph, but Jerry Manuel seemed to light a fire under the Mets last year and initial reports out of spring training are filled with optimism. I recently made my case for Tom Renney, and Jim Kelly’s sports illustrated article seemed to fall right in line. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jim_kelley/02/19/rangers.mess/index.html?eref=T1). Kelly compares the management between the Rangers and the Devils, which ultimately has turned the Rangers into a joke. <br /> <br />Renney was 164-121-42 in 5 seasons with the Rangers. That’s a pretty good record for a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in 8 seasons. He was unfairly fired this year, as Kelly points out, “When your forwards are ineffective, your defense is incapable, your special teams are incompetent and your goaltender is inundated with shots, that's not bad coaching. That's an inept hockey team.” The fault here doesn’t fall onto Renney, you could make an argument that Perry Pearn, the man in charge of the Rangers terrible power play deserves to go, but not Renny, the fault here falls on the man who built the team. That team was put together by Sather, the man who fired Renney. Again the only person with the power to fire Sather is the inept James Dolan, whoever comes into New York should send Wade Redden down to the minors, and just wait until Dolan realizes how much he’s paying for a minor league player. That might be the only way for him to realize how bad the Rangers management was. <br /> <br />Unfortunately I don’t see the Rangers responding to this the way the Mets responded when their manager was fired. The Mets were a much better team then Willie was getting out of them. The Rangers on the other hand are a terrible team, and sometimes don’t even look like they know how to play hockey. The Rangers will likely miss the playoffs this year and we could probably start counting how many years their going to miss the playoffs again. <br /> <br />I just hope I’m wrong.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-2766973479568126292009-02-18T11:46:00.000-08:002009-02-18T11:47:58.899-08:00THE FINAL PIECE OF SHEA FALLS TO THE GROUND<object data="http://service.twistage.com/plugins/player.swf?v=1bf64d81d1454&p=link" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="263" id="embedded_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"/><param name="base" value="http://service.twistage.com"/><param name="movie" value="http://service.twistage.com/plugins/player.swf?v=1bf64d81d1454&p=link"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/></object>Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-87391824671400469832009-02-16T19:29:00.001-08:002009-02-16T19:29:55.206-08:00FIRE SATHER! SAVE RENNEY!This was supposed to be written Sunday, after the Rangers dreadful showing against the Flyers. I decided to hold off on that, when I wasn’t sure whether I was more bothered by the fact that the NBC commentators noticed how bad the Rangers were after watching just one game, or whether it was because everything they said was justified. I also wanted to wait a night and see whether the commentators on Versus would be able to pick up on anything. Turns out not only does nobody watch Hockey on Versus, but the Versus commentators showed that they themselves don’t really watch any hockey other then what’s on Versus.<br /> <br />I just watched the Rangers show off their dreadfulness, again. Many people in New York are now calling for Tom Renney’s head, citing that his team is playing unmotivated undisciplined hockey. The problem here is, Renney isn’t to blame. Yes right now he is not doing his job well, but this year he was put into a situation where it’s almost impossible for him to succeed. The problem falls onto the shoulders of perhaps one of the least competent people in all of New York, James Dolan. You may remember when Dolan took over control of his fathers entities which include Cablevision, the Knicks, and the Rangers. Now Cablevision is by far the worst TV distributor in the New York area, and is terribly run, he was a hands on owner with the Knicks and ran them down the drain, he ran a great talent evaluator in Dave Checketts out of Madison Square Garden and as bad as he is as a hands on owner of the Knicks he’s been awful as a hands off owner of the Rangers.<br /> <br />The Rangers biggest problem right now seems to be that Dolan has no idea what is going on with his team. If he did he would realize that its general manager Glen Sather that needs to go and not Tom Renney. Unfortunately for the Rangers Dolan probably has no idea about this and Renney is likely to be the one to go. Now I don’t agree with everything that Renney has done, in fact he’s butchered a few situations, namely Petr Prucha who never plays anymore, when he really should. But coaching aside Renney is in a position where he can’t win, and it’s his general manager that put him there.<br /> <br />Glen Sather has a history of terrible free-agent signings. Just look at the teams put together from when he first came to the Rangers until the year after the lockout. In fact you can argue that Sather shouldn’t even get credit for the post lockout years because for the first year the “new” NHL couldn’t stop Jaromir Jagr. All the trades he made in the rebuilding process before the lockout to get the Rangers their post lockout team, only Michael Rozsival, Blair Betts Henrik Lundqvist, and Petr Prucha, who rarely plays, are left on the team. Renney’s problem is that Sather has again crippled him with crazy contracts. Bringing in defenseman Wade Redden and re-signing Michael Rozsival is absolutely going to cripple the Rangers. The worst of these signings though is when Sather drove away Jagr, and then threw $8 million a year at Markus Naslund, who really looks like he doesn’t know how to play hockey. Renney has players on the team who will go all out for him, the only problem is those are the guys making no money, and there the ones he could bench if they don’t play well. However his hands are tied with guys like Naslund and Redden, two players making crazy amounts of money and absolutely killing the team.<br /> <br />Sather’s moves are not only hurting the Rangers this season but are locking them into a cap problem for the next few years as well. Meaning these guys are tied down to the team which will make it very hard for the Rangers to improve, let alone make any changes. Yes right now Tom Renney is not doing a good coaching job, but part of motivation also falls onto the players on the team. The Rangers have been crippled by a bad GM; they need a new one who will have the very tough task of trying to re-make this team despite the absurd unmovable contracts. The biggest problem, I highly doubt James Dolan knows that there’s a problem and that he needs to fire Sather, if he doesn’t, Sather will feel the pressure and unfairly fire Renney.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-54247290233845574932009-02-09T14:41:00.000-08:002009-02-09T14:43:21.521-08:00The Mets lineup isn't strong enough to compete with the Phillies....REALLY?!?!You can argue that George Steinbrenner has ruined baseball in different ways. You can blame him for starting the free spending craze that has pushed the free agent market to ridiculous highs, and has broadened the gap between the big market teams and the small market teams. But I’m here to blame him for something else; because of George Steinbrenner it is all of a sudden a problem in New York, if your lineup doesn’t have 9 all stars in it day in and day out.<br /><br /><br />The Mets defiantly have their problems with their team, but it’s starting to get ridiculous how many “holes” they have in their lineup. A few years ago George decided his lineup wasn’t good enough because he didn’t have all stars all over the field. Eventually he fielded a team that had a guy who was batting over .300 batting 9th! Somehow that team, which didn’t win the World Series, has become the standard through not just New York but all of baseball. This whole off-season I’ve heard a lot about how the Mets lineup has holes and the team isn’t addressing these issues. It’s true the Mets don’t have 9 all stars in their every day lineup, but their lineup isn’t flawed either; the standard is now being set too high.<br /><br /><br />The Mets issues this off-season was their bullpen, not their lineup. They addressed the issue that was their bullpen but now all of a sudden everything thinks their lineup is too weak to compete with the Phillies. Where are these weaknesses coming from? The Mets lineup is relatively the same as last years, but so is the Phillies, shouldn’t that make their lineup stronger then the Phillies? The Mets blew around 30 saves last year. Had games ended after 6 innings the Mets would have won the division by almost 16 games! Had games ended after the 8th inning the Mets still would have won the division by more then 5 games. Last year the Phillies pulled off something remarkable and rare, every time they had a lead after 8 innings they won the game; meaning their closer came into the game and did what he was supposed to do, close out the game. The Phillies had a 65-9 record when leading after 7 innings last year, and their first loss in that category came in late August against the Mets.<br /><br /><br />The point here is, the Phillies won the division by a mere 3 games. New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana won 16 games last year. What is crazier is that 9 times last year he left the game with a lead and watched the bullpen give it up. Had the Mets held onto just 4 of those games, still blowing 5 saves, Santana would have won 20 games and the Mets would have taken the division by a game. This just emphasizes how the Mets lost the division last year because they couldn’t pitch late in games, the Phillies were able to finish the job and close out the games. The thing is, in order to give up a late inning lead; you have to have a late inning lead. The Mets lineup got them far more late inning leads then the Phillies did, it was simply the pitching that couldn’t hold onto it. The bottom line there was games that the Mets lost, and there were games that the bullpen blew. The Phillies only had games that they lost, every game that they gave a lead off to their bullpen ended up being a win for them.<br /><br /><br />Both teams are brining back relatively the same lineups as last year. The core of the Mets lineup last year, Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and Delgado were the only people who really played the entire year last season. The team had multiple catchers, multiple second basemen, and multiple corner outfielders all year and still put the team in position to win far more games then the Phillies did. The non all stars that helped them do this, like Fernando Tatis, Daniel Murphy, and Ryan Church are now being called “holes” in the teams lineup. In truth the only hole the Mets have in their lineup is the dead carcass that is 2nd baseman Luis Castillo.<br />Last year this lineup was mostly unknowns filling in for injured players, this season we know what the Mets lineup is going to look like, and it’s the same lineup that put them into a great position to win the division. The problem that was needed was a bullpen overhaul, and that’s the problem that was addressed. The Mets didn’t address their lineup because they didn’t need to; their lineup is just as strong, if not better then the Phillies.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-49645284223774616742008-11-17T08:44:00.000-08:002008-12-05T09:30:43.923-08:00Am I the only one tired about hearing how good the Eagles are? Maybe its because their not!The best division in football all season long has been the east. However it is now time to shift that talk from the NFC East to the AFC East. The AFC East has 4 teams that all have a shot at the top right now, whether all 4 are great teams, or it’s a division of mediocrity is a topic for another time. The Giants have taken control of the NFC East and look to run away with it, but the real reason we have to stop talking about the dominant NFC East is because we have to finally accept what I’ve have been saying all year long (on Free Ballin’ with JB and Pauly, Thursday nights from 6-7 on WMUCsports.com); the Eagles are not only not that good, but their not a top team at all. The Eagles were predicted to do very well this year in the east because of the return of Donovan Mcnabb, that’s it!<br /><br /><br />The whole concept of pre-season predictions has gone too far, all our talk is based off them when in reality we don’t know anything about the upcoming season. The Giants and Redskins were predicted to finish 3rd and 4th in the NFC East respectively. In week 6 with a record of 3-3 the Eagles were being called the best 3-3 team in the league…why???? Because in the pre-season they were predicted to do well. More importantly this past team just tied the previously 1-9 Cincinnati Bengals! The Eagles went into Cincinnati and couldn’t beat an atrocious Bengals team, and it was the Eagles fault. The Bengals didn’t go in there and play unbelievably, they played like the Bengals! They made mistakes, turned the ball over and were completely ineffective on offence, and even missing a game winning field goal with 7 seconds left in overtime. The Eagles offense, more to the point Donovan Mcnabb lost them this game. The Eagles defense showed up, sacking Ryan Fitzpatrick 8 times, (the second time they’ve gotten that many in one game), which puts them back into the league lead in sacks as their tied with the Steelers with 36. The defense did their part not allowing the Bengals to get anything done, but Mcnabb and company didn’t show up to this one at all. Mcnabb threw 3 interceptions, and lost a fumble, that’s something that should earn him consideration as a top quarterback in this league? To top it all off Mcnabb showed his ridiculous football IQ after the game by telling the world he had no idea the NFL had ties. Do you really not know that Donovan? Have you ever looked at the standings in the newspaper and seen that there is a T column, for ties? Yes that column is usually filled with 0’s but its there for a reason? At the rate this game was going this game could have gone into 5 overtimes before someone scored which would have meant that the two teams would have played over 2 games in one day; which if the Eagles had any shot of anything would effectively end that. The best was yet to come when Mcnabb said I just wonder what would happen in the Super Bowl or playoffs. Really Donovan, you don’t think the NFL would keep playing and end the tie, you know just like the 2003 playoffs when the Panthers beat the Rams in DOUBLE OVERTIME? Just for good measure Donovan, those Panthers won that game and went on to beat your team in the NFC championship game the following week. Does Donovan Mcnabb watch any sports at all, look at every other sport that has ties, especially soccer in which many games end in ties, and its premier tournament the World Cup final is viewed by more people then the Super Bowl; hey Donovan has that game ever ended in a tie? Of course not, because like any logical event, any playoff game in any sport keeps going until there’s a winner.<br /><br /><br />The Eagles are not a good team by any means, they’re good on reputation, and that reputation is that they had a solid team which took advantage of a weak NFC and went to 4 strait NFC championship games. The problem being they lost 3 of them! Deshaun Jackson has a lot of talent, but I don’t know if we can call him a star in this league yet, other then that could you name one star this team has added since they played in the Super Bowl? They had a powerful defense where they have since lost star players and Steve Spagnuolo who has proven to have overtaken his former mentor as a defensive coordinator. There’s talk that this is Mcnabb’s most talented receiver group ever; but he has never had a great receiver group to begin with. This season the eagles have 8 players with over 200 yards receiving, but of those 8 only two of them have over 250 yards recieving, doesn’t sound like there’s any real receiving threat in Philly, just whoever has the hot hand. Most importantly like we’ve said all year Donovan Mcnabb is not the guy to get it done in Philly, I’ve said it all year (on Free Ballin’ with JB and Pauly, Thursday nights from 6-7 on WMUCsports.com) and its time that the Eagles realize that so they can move in the right direction, and its time that the media realized this so they can stop the propaganda that the Eagles are a good team and actually can do something this season.<br /><br /><br />Despite the fact that Giants have the most difficult remaining schedule in the NFL it is looking more and more likely that they will run away with this division. Not just because they're better then every other team they still have to play, but their division is actually surprisingly week. The Cowboys are looking lost, even though they just got back Tony Romo, but at the same time they're also only being talked about because of pre-season rankings. The team that most people thought could hold up with the Giants, the Redskins seem to have lost their magic. They’ve lost their last two games knocking them off the pace for the division, but the big problem here is their past two games were lost at home and at night. The Steelers are a top team in the AFC, an important statement game for the Redskins and the Cowboys; their top rival is always an important game to win. The Redskins dropped both games in front of their home fans. Being at the University of Maryland I’m around a lot of Redskins fans, and they are good fans who get very fired up and are very passionate about their Redskins. As fired up as they get for a Sunday afternoon game they are about 10 times more fired up for a night game, and they have that stadium rocking. If the Redskins couldn’t feed off their fans tremendous energy for night games this team is in trouble especially since this team has to play 4 of its last 6 on the road. The silver lining to that is that 3 of the Redskins 4 losses have come at home, so maybe it’s a good thing to be playing more road games.<br /><br /><br />Meanwhile in the AFC East, the Jets have jumped to the top with a big win over the hated Patriots; the Dolphins are shocking the world with their 6-4 record, the Patriots are still the Patriots and can’t be overlooked, and Buffalo, at 5-4 has cooled a bit but still has a winning record. Though the Jets are in first place the Pats are still a force in that division. I said when Matt Cassel took over for Brady he would be successful because the Patriots run such a simple offense. The fact that it took Cassel this long to break out is because the coaches had him playing an ultra-conservative offense when he first stepped in. The fact that the coaches had him playing that ultra conservative offense, only furthers my belief that the reason Tom Brady become Tom Brady is because the Pats didn’t put him into this conservative offense because they knew the opposing teams defensive signals and knew what defense they would be facing, therefore they knew where Brady could and couldn’t throw the ball. But Cassel has now stepped into this offense and is proving he could throw the ball in the NFL, which keeps the Patriots as a top force in the AFC East. The Jets have seemed to have found their stride led by not Brett Favre but their defense, even beating the Patriots for just the second time in god only knows how many games, I lost count several years ago. I don’t know if the Dolphins are a playoff team, but they sure are making a statement, and they have a weak remaining schedule so they could crash that party. Buffalo’s hot start seems to have cooled down and its looking like they’ll finish out the season in the cellar of the division, but their not a team that could be overlooked, and with matchups against each team in the division still remaining Buffalo could still jump over each one of these teams. Hell this entire division is so close that it could finish in a whole variety of ways. That’s what makes a competitive division, and the fact that these teams beat teams outside their division, makes it the best division in football.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511803097025373611.post-1753804357745164862008-11-06T16:12:00.000-08:002008-11-06T16:14:19.116-08:00"You didn't do anything at all. Ya gotta do more then that." (just barely)Is Paul Rudd (Chuck, “Cunu”) teaching Jason Segel (Peter) how to surf or be an NFL head coach in this great scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshall? When Peter turns to “Cunu” for surfing lessons, Cunu tells Peter that when trying to stand up on the board you should do the least possible movement. When Peter simply gets up, Cunu tells him “your doing to much, do less.” He constantly tells him to do less until Peter simply doesn’t get up at all to which Cunu replies, “nah there you didn’t do anything at all, you gotta do more then that.” Cunu then says ah screw it you’ll just learn when we get out there. Was that a lesson in surfing or how to be a head coach in the NFL where it seems that in order to be a successful head coach it needs to appear to the average fan that you’re not doing anything?<br /> <br /><br /> Giants head coach Tom Coughlin is a great example. What exactly does he do? We all know him as the disciplinarian who is always angry and yelling. He lays down the law and gives out the suspensions to Plaxico Burress. But to the average fan he doesn’t do much more then that; and that could be the best key to success. The Giants defense is always attributed to Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnolo. When Eli Manning takes strides in his playing, who gets the credit? That goes to Giants Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach Kevin Gilbride. In fact when Burress was recently benched for the beginning of the Steelers game he was asked if he was fighting with Coughlin, to which Burress responded that during the week he spends his time with the Offensive Coordinator Gilbride and the Giants Wide Receivers coach and that he rarely even sees’s Coughlin during the week. If Coughlin isn’t the genius behind the Giants offense or defense then what exactly is his job with this team? Coughlin is simply the manager so to speak of the team. He lays down the law, makes sure everyone is staying in check and gets very angry on the sideline which seems to make for good TV. So the Giants coach isn’t required to be heading a high powered offense or a crazy good defense, and guess what, they won a super bowl last year and Coughlin is in his 5th season with the team and it looks like he’ll be here for at least another 2, which is pretty good job stability in this days NFL.<br /> <br /><br /> The current trend in the NFL is to hire big time coordinators to become head coaches and solve all your issues. The only problem is that a defensive coordinators job is to handle the defense, he game plans the defense, draws up coverages and blitzes, that’s all he does. When a coordinator becomes a head coach in the NFL, he’s now in charge of everything, not just the defense but the offense, special teams, drafting, scouting, and every other function of the team. A head coach simply doesn’t have time to concentrate only on his specialty. Brian Billick was labeled an “offensive genius,” the mastermind behind the 1998 Vikings offense that set a record for point in a season. When he became head coach of the Ravens he was already joining a team with a great defense, his job was to get that offense up to par. Yes he won a super bowl there, but he did that behind one of the greatest defenses of all time, and he had Marvin Lewis leading that defense. His offense simply had a game manager (Trent Dilfer) at quarterback and rode the defense to the Super Bowl. The credit for that great defense went to defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, who turned that into a head coaching job in Cincinnati. Lewis was able to squeeze one 13-3 season out of that Bengals team, but only after Carson Palmer started playing and Rudi Johnson established himself. Where did Lewis great defense go? Defiantly not to Cincinnati as the Bengals haven’t had good defenses since he got there. Billick’s offensive mind never created a respectable offense whatsoever in Baltimore as the team has always been identified by their defense, this would finally lead to Billick being fired after last season.<br /> <br /><br /><br /> An NFL head coach is really nothing without his coordinators. Bill Belichick the “football mastermind.” He has been called one of the best coaches ever in football. But why don’t you look back at what he did in Cleveland, his record there was not good at all. He found success with New England while flanked by Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel. Both of whom have moved on to take head coaching jobs, Weis at Notre Dame which is now currently experiencing some of the lowest time in Notre Dame football including last years loss to Navy ending a 41 game winning Streak. While Crennel has become the head coach of the Browns and is always mentioned in the worst coaches in the NFL discussion. Meanwhile back in New England the Patriots, who won three Super Bowls with those three men in power, have won zero since Weis and Crennel left. This also asks the question, if Belichick and his coaching staff turned unheard of 6th round draft pick Tom Brady into a superstar, why isn’t Matt Cassel experiencing the same success. Not only does Cassel get the same coaching but he also gets mentored by one of the best quarterbacks ever in Tom Brady. When Brady first came into the league he wasn’t surrounded by the talent that Cassel has today, but Brady played the same way his whole career, while right now the Patriots have Cassel in a very conservative offense. Could it be that Belichick is not some “super coach” but rather Brady was able to throw the ball downfield because it was relatively low risk because the Patriots had filmed everyone’s defensive signals and knew what defense they were playing against? If you know the defense then playing aggressive becomes less of a risk, allowing Brady to be aggressive and therefore become a better quarterback, however now the Patriots are not stealing signs and don’t know the defense that’s coming against them, forcing Cassel to play in a very low risk offense. Maybe Belichick really is that same guy who had an awful tenure with the Browns and is just winning now because of the talent his team already has.<br /> <br /><br /> The end of the scene brings us to another awful trend in the NFL. When Cunu tells Peter to screw it, you’ll learn when you get out there. There is a huge rise in coaches with no head coaching experience. Time and time again teams are turning to coordinators who have specialized in either offense or defense exclusively and are now in charge of the entire team. These coaches usually end up either failing or not getting enough time to succeed. Even more mind boggling is even with the absolute incompetency of coaching in the NFL nowadays, Marty Schottenheimer is still available. Schottenheimer available because he was ridiculously fired after a 14-2 season! Schottenheimer had the games best player on his team and simply did the smart thing and gave that man the ball. When the playoffs rolled around he decided to change that style and put the ball into his quarterback’s hands. After the loss he was fired, and since then he’s been overlooked for every NFL job. <br /> <br /><br /> The competence of an NFL head coach can almost be measured by how much credit your head coach doesn’t receive and how much your coordinators do. When Eric Mangini took over the Jets in 2006 he took the team to the playoffs. Mangini was given a lot of credit for that, but this team also played a very interesting offense, they didn’t have a premier running back so they ran a lot of different unique plays to try to make up for that and gain back those yards. The credit for this all went to offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Since 2006 though Schottenheimer has received no credit for anything, he’s still with the team, but when you hear anything about the Jets all that is ever spoken about is Eric Mangini. However the Jets also have one of the best special teams units in the league, its not just because of Leon Washington that its this good, it was good before he got there. The reason that the special teams are so good is because of Special Teams Coordinator Mike Westhoff. Mangini is never given credit for special teams, but whenever you talk about either the offense or defense all the talk focuses on Mangini. Compare that and the struggling Jets with the other New York team, as the Giants keep winning, Coughlin keeps everything under control, and the offensive and defensive coordinators are the ones getting credit for on field performance.Paulyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16169574331093155458noreply@blogger.com0