MLB Predictions

It is one of the most anticipated days of the year. Opening day is finally here. It is time for our MLB predictions:
Opening day MLB picks: Division Winners: Red Sox Twins Rangers Braves Reds Giants. Wild cards: Rays, Mets. World Series: Red Sox over Giants
Teams that will be much better than people think: Rays, A's, Mets, Padres.
Teams that will much worse than people think: Yankees, Phillies
MVP: Adrian Gonzales, Albert Pujols.
Cy Young: Jon Lester, RA Dickey (just kidding) Tim Lincecum
Feel free to post your predictions in the comments
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

New Rules for Kickoffs

NFL owners voted today to move the kickoffs up 5 yards. While in the past the ball was kicked off from the 30 yard line, from now on it will be kicked from the 35 yard line. The idea is that there will be more touchbacks and less kickoff returns. The hope is that this will reduce injuries as there have been some serious injuries that have occurred on kickoffs.
Of course, this is a terrible idea. Football is a physical sport. People get hurt playing football. That should not cause the game to be changed (and basically eliminating kickoffs changes the game). We are not talking about eliminating dangerous hits and harmful types of tackles. We are talking about eliminating kickoff returns. We are talking about eliminating part of the game. We are all for player safety, but not the expense of the game we all love.
If player safety is more important than the game, we should just computerize the sport. Have accuscore or Madden do a random sim (or on Madden have a whole game played out by the computer that can be televised) instead of games. This way nobody will get hurt (and also we won't need a new CBA either). The only injury we will have to be concerned about is carpal tunnel syndrome. But if you are in the mood for some real football that we all love, we cannot sacrifice any part of the game even for something as important as player safety.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Stupidity out of Mets Camp

It is truly amazing how many bogus reports come out of Spring Training about the Mets. It seems like reporters are just bored (like there isn't enough action going on with the Wilpons).
Yesterday we had the Bergen Record's report on Johan Santana's rehab, stating the obvious (in the name of a Mets source) that if he has a setback he may have to be shut down (duh) and that there is a chance that he will miss the season (which we knew since the surgery). They wrote the article (which didn't have anything new in it) with a twist in typical low-class newspaper style (ie. The Post style), trying to scare Mets fans as if some new information came out or that he had a setback, and of course everyone fell for it. The actual story that Santana has been throwing and feeling good and that the 4.5-5 month recovery process until he returns to the Mets has begun of course went unreported even though it happened over a week ago. Then again, that wouldn't scare Mets fans (those like me who haven't given up yet) so who needs to report it?
Then we got 2 more "gems" today:
#1- There was a "report" this morning that the Mets decided Luis Hernandez will be starting 2B (yeah that's why he has only played 3 innings at 2B all ST and has 15 at bats). Later was refuted (duh). This report wasn't so far off. After all, he has the 6th best chance of winning the job.
#2- Jon Heyman says that Jason Isringhauson will be setup man if he keeps up what he has done (laugh out loud here). Yeah if he continues 1 k every 6 innings he should win the closer's job even! Hello! Omar doesn't run this team any more so Mr. Heyman is very unlikely to be able to guess what the Mets will decide to do. That is why Omar got canned and that is why nobody would think of having Heyman run their team. His guesses and predictions are always awful.
The moral of the story is not to pay too much attention to stories that come out of Spring Training. And just by my count, at least 5 guys reported to be "in the best shape of their lives and down 30 pounds" got hurt the next week. So enjoy the offseason and get ready for the season by doing something productive like reading the Amazin Avenue Annual (buy on Amazon; you won't regret it) instead of following what happens in Spring Training and the stories that come out of it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

My friend Dave H predicts Mets will be bought by Jerry Seinfeld. Documented 1/29/11

Carmelo to NY??? -ESPN New York

Carmelo Anthony has told the Denver Nuggets he will not sign the nearly $65 million contract extension he has been offered unless he is traded to the New York Knicks, a source told ESPN.com on Sunday.

The source, using the most definitive language possible, confirmed what has been widely speculated around the NBA over the past two months as Anthony has been at the center of trade talks involving numerous teams.

And while other franchises might be able to make better offers, Anthony will not agree to sign anywhere long-term unless he is dealt to New York, according to the source, who has been privy to private discussions between Anthony, his representatives and the Nuggets organization.

The source spoke to ESPN.com after Denver's 129-125 loss to New York on Sunday afternoon as the Knicks won their eighth straight game.

Anthony was again coy in discussing his future, but he did move the needle somewhat in making a prediction that the Nuggets will not trade him to a destination that is not on his wish list.

"I don't think so. I don't think that will happen," Anthony said.

Asked why he would make such a definitive statement, Anthony demurred "I don't want to answer that. I don't want to talk about that."

Anthony received a standing ovation from Knicks fans during player introductions after hearing their pleadings on the streets ever since the Nuggets arrived in Manhattan late Friday night.

"Everybody's yelling out the windows: 'Melo we need you in New York.' Of course that feels good when you know someone out there wants you to come and represent their team and represent their city. That's what I took from that," Anthony said.

The New Jersey Nets have been holding out hope that their offer of Derrick Favors, Troy Murphy and two No. 1 draft picks would be the best offer available to the Nuggets, but the news that Anthony will not agree to sign with them long-term effectively knocks them out of the bidding.

Anthony is under contract for the 2010-11 season at a salary of $17.14 million and holds a player option for $18.52 million in 2011-12. If he remains with Denver until the end of the season and exercises his early termination option, he would become an unrestricted free agent. Anthony has not publicly ruled out the possibility of staying with the Nuggets long term, acknowledging only that he is weighing all his options.

Signing the extension would put him under contract through the 2014-15 season, and if the Knicks were to acquire him they'd pair him alongside Amar'e Stoudemire and fulfill the goal they've worked toward for more than two years:

Having two max-salary players as the cornerstones of their team.

"Whatever decision I make, that is going to be the first thing that gets done," Anthony said of signing the extension.

So the question now becomes more of a "when" than an "if."

The Knicks and Nuggets have discussed several variations of trades that would include Eddy Curry's expiring contract, Danilo Gallinari and other pieces, including a No. 1 pick the Knicks are confident they can acquire from a third team through a trade.

Denver also would have interest in Knicks rookie Landry Fields, who has started at shooting guard in all 25 games for the surging Knicks (16-9). New York also is known to have held trade discussions with several teams involving Wilson Chandler and Anthony Randolph, and some combination of the above-mentioned players would have to be agreed upon by the Knicks and Nuggets to make the deal happen sometime between now and the NBA trade deadline of Feb. 24.

"In my gut right now, I can't say. I don't know. With these things you ever know," Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri said. "I'm still assessing the situation, still figuring out a lot of stuff. He's still here, and I'm sure everybody thought he was going to be gone in training camp. So it's promising that he's still here."

Stoudemire has scored at least 30 points in eight straight games, a team record, and New York has won 13 of 14 since losing at Denver in mid-November.

"When we played them in Denver the first time, they looked like a totally different team than right now," Anthony said. "They've got a lot of rhythm going out there, it seems like everyone's on the same page, and they're rolling right now."

Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN.com and ESPNNewYork.com

How much will Jim Leonhard's injury hurt the Jets?

Jets S Jim Leonhard suffered a season ending broken leg in practice Friday going for a jump ball. A defensive captain, Leonhard was an important part of the Jets' defense. His leadership will be missed on and off the field. But how much will the Jets miss him on the field?
I believe that the Jets will not miss Leonhard too much on the field. He was good against the run but struggled in coverage and was demolished by TEs (partially because he is 5"8). The Jets will not drop off too much with Pool and Smith and perhaps will be better in coverage. Also we should see more time for James Ihedigbo who I am really high on and who is a great blitzer. Jets fans should not be discouraged by this injury. The Jets' defense will excel despite this loss.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

New Series: Mets Games of Doom!

Here at The Depressed New Yorker Sports Blog, we have been getting complaints that we are being too optimistic about our New York teams. This is devastating to our reputation. To resolve this, I will be launching a new series called Mets Games of Doom. In this serious, I will relay over some of my most painful experiences following some of the most frustrating Mets games of my 15+ year career. Look for the "Beltran strike 3 looking game" and the "5 runs no outs playoff game vs the Braves" coming soon, but first I will start with a special selection: The "Ryan Church missed 3rd base at 2:30 in the morning!" game. Look for this first entry in our exciting new series coming soon!

Ideas to Improve the Jets Pass Rush

The Jets are having major issues getting to the QB. Whether they blitz or they don't, they are taking way too long to get there. It is time to explore a couple of ideas to improve the pass rush:
*Time to mix up the blitzes:
The Jets are sending too many blitzes up the middle. These blitzes are taking too long to get to the QB (due to traffic by the opposing line who are expecting it and also some holding that hasn't been called). Also these blitzes allow the QB to slip out of the pocket and buy extra time or run. It is time to send some outside blitzes, especially by Drew Coleman who flies and backup Safety James Ihedigbo who is a great blitzer.
*Speaking of Ihedigbo, it is time to put him at outside LB for blitz plays. He is a great blitzer. Our guys aren't executing. It's time to get him in there.
It cannot be stated how important it is to get pressure. Our zone coverage will suddenly not have holes and our man coverage will last long enough.
Please leave your ideas in the comments.

Adam Rubin reports that Terry Collins is new Mets manager. Go to http://es.pn/ai98lG

Check out this article from Gang Green Nation: Why is the Jets Defense Not-So-Dominant Anymore? http://t.co/bnajK15

Pictures of Rex Ryan dressed like Rob Ryan

Is it Time for the Mets to Clean House and Rebuild?

For about two or three years, Mets fans have been entertaining the idea of "trading the rotten core." It is impossible to turn on talk radio for too long without hearing some fan call up and demand that the Mets get rid of their best players. Now obviously it would not be such a smart idea to dumb our most talented players and replace them with "gritty clutch players" who are not talented. Just look at the 2009 team which won only 70 games after the stars were hurt. The gritty clutch Alex Cora playing with two torn thumbs could not propel the Mets to be anywhere near competitive.
The "trading the core" to get rid of them idea is just a reaction to pain from excruciating seasons in which the Mets collapsed with these players. It is not a logical idea. However, the real question that Mets fans should be asking themselves is whether the team should be sellers this offseason to try to build a team that will be competitive in a couple of years (not to get Alex Coras at every position andwin the World Series in 2011). This is a very interesting question as the Mets have some intriguing talented players that could be of use to another team and could fetch back some prospects. We probably would not want to trade good young players who are under club control for a while like Ike Davis and David Wright. We would only want to trade players who are not under club control for too much longer, such as Jose Reyes and RA Dickey. The idea is that if we will be unable to compete in 2011 anyway or if our odds are not so good, and we are not sure that we want to re-sign them especially for the money they will command, we can capitalize on these assets and get some good prospects in return. Unfortunately, this would only work with players who do not have bad contracts. The Mets have a bunch of talented players (Beltran, K-rod) and somewhat talented players (Jason Bay) who
unfortunately have bad contracts. Trading these players would likelynot yield any prospects unless the Mets would be willing to eat a lot of their money (which they won't be as all Mets fans know). Therefore, the point of dealing these players would be to dump money. Now I don't know about you, but I don't care if Fred Wilpon saves some money. It seems that he has a fixed budget of money for the team to spend each season and saving money this year will not lead him to increase that next year. And the players will long term bad contracts (Bay, Johan Santana) will be very hard to get rid of. So a "rebuilding" move is pretty much pointless unless it yields us prospects that we can use.
That being said, the Mets do not have too many options to trade. They can trade Reyes, but will they really get value for him? He is making $11 million and has only one year left on his contract. His value is not too high right now. I'm not sure how much we'd get for dumping him. RA Dickey is coming off one good season. I'm not sure whichteam would give up too many good prospects for him. If Beltran plays well and is healthy, he can be moved at the deadline, but by then we should know if we are in it or should be dumping players.
In short, I think that it would not be smart for the Mets to "rebuild" at the expense of 2011. As I've discussed earlier on this site and as I will show further in my upcoming Mets 2010-2011 offseason plan, I think the Mets can have some sort of shot to compete in 2011. The possible gains are not enough to warrant giving that up. Instead, the Mets should look to rebuild by actually spending money in the draft and in international signings (something Sandy Alderson has promised to do). That is the way to rebuild. Then each year you phase out an old player or two or three and replace them with rookies who are actually talented and are ready having played a year in AAA and at least close to a full year in AA. (The mistakes of rushing and destroying prospects and not spending in the draftwere key errors of the Omar era that left our farm system in the shape it is in.)
I must make one final point. The Mets success in 2006 was largely due to their incredible production at CF and SS. These positions are usually black holes for teams offensively. The Mets had top offensive and defensive players at these positions. A team cannot just get rid of good players at the four spots where it is hard to replace them (Catcher, CF, SS, 2B). A star at these positions is much rarer than anything else (even an "ace"). The Mets cannot dump Reyes unless they have a plan to replace him at SS (which they don't). Even if they would get a top pitching prospect and a top 1B prospect, they would lose out dramatically at SS and they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. That is why it is key to keep stars at these rare positions, and that is why I think they should sign Reyes to a contract extension rather than dealing him.

Adjustments the Jets Must Make for Sunday Against the Browns

While the Jets have won two of their last three games, they have played very poorly in them. It is time for Rex to stop being complacent with his team's effort. It should be inexcusable for the Jets to come out flat again, even if they pull it out in the end. We should be whipping these teams. We should not get up there and say that we hung in there and won and that's what good teams do. We should be looking to cream our opponents and we should not be satisfied if there was any chance at all that we could have lost, even when we eke out a victory. We should plan to dominate and should not be happy unless we do.

That being said, I would like to see some adjustments on Sunday. First of all, Shonn Greene has got to become the starter at RB. Opposing defenses are sending eight guys in the box to stop the run. If we are going to be successful running the ball early on, we are going to need to have Greene and his tackle-breaking ability in there. We will have to live without the ability to do dumpoffs and screen passes at times. We need Greene in there.

Also, look for Kyle Wilson to be in there instead of Drew Coleman (according to Rex). Coleman was torched Sunday by #3 receiver Nate Burleson for 7 catches for 113 yards and a TD. Wilson has looked lost at times especially on deep passes but he is much better at the short and mid-ranged stuff that we usually see out of slot receivers. Use some safety help on his side for deep passes and the Browns will not be able to complete a pass to a WR.

We better see some gameplan adjustments as well. This Browns defense is a very dangerous bunch. They employ a lot of different looks with odd packages. These coverages baffled Tom Brady and Drew Brees. It is very dangerous for a rookie to be throwing against this team. The Jets have to open things up, but they have to do it while aiming for the sideline a little more and trying to keep out of the middle of the field whenever possible, except when coming off play action. This will save Mark Sanchez from making mistakes and being picked off by the Browns' deceptive LBs. Pick on the Browns' weak secondary instead. It is much safer.

The Most Valuable Defensive Season in NFL History

Our New York Jets led the league in total defense in 2009. The biggest reason for this was star CB Darrelle Revis. Revis shut down receiver after receiver in '09, yielding very few catches. What made Revis's production truly amazing is the way he was utilized by Rex Ryan. Revis moved around the field to take the #1 receiver the whole game. The Jets played a ton of man coverage, and Revis made sure that the #1 receiver didn't just line up against a bad corner. He took care of the top receiver on every play, and he shut them all down.
There is a concept in the NFL of an elite CB shutting down one side of the field. What that means is that the opposing QB is afraid to throw to that side and instead throws to the other side. What that really means is that the opposing team just puts their top two receivers on the other side of the field and lets them pick on the inferior members of the secondary who play there. This doesn't help the team nearly as much as football announcers and analysts claim it does.

Brilliantly, the Jets avoided this problem with Revis by having him shade and shut down the top receiver every play. QBs were not able to rely on their top weapon, because Revis shut his man down on every play. But QBs couldn't altogether stop throwing to their top guy, and as a result Revis was thrown on much more than any other good CB. But in the end, it did not yield good results for opposing QBs, as they threw numerous incompletions and some interceptions and their top receiver was unable to provide any production.
This unique strategy makes Revis's 2009 season the most valuable defensive season EVER IN NFL HISTORY. Never before had a player impacted as many plays as Revis did. No pass rusher or linebacker ever affected the game as much as Revis who affected every throwing play. Perhaps Lawrence Taylor was more talented. Perhaps Ray Lewis is more popular. Perhaps Deion Sanders was a more talented, faster CB than Revis and perhaps he was better at interceptingthe opposing QB. But there was nobody on defense who provided as much value as Revis did last season. Ever.
This means a lot for the rest of 2010. For whatever reason, Rex has not employed the same strategy this season that he used last year. There was Revis's holdout and injury, and also it seems that Rex felt that with another Pro Bowl CB in Cromartie, there was no need to put Revis on the top receiver. But Rex saw the light at halftime of Sunday's loss against the Packers. In the first half. In the first half of the game, Rex put Revis on the outside on the right side of the field and Cromartie on the outside on the left side of the field. The Packers countered by putting their inferior receivers on the outside and using their top receiver Greg Jennings in the slot to be covered by Drew Coleman and Dwight Lowery. He made some big catches including a 31 yard catch that set up the field goal (when Lowery played zonewhile everyone else was playing man). At halftime, Rex put Revis on Jennings and he was pretty much handled from there. With Revis showing that he is 100%, we can expect him to be covering the top receiver from now on (with Cromartie on #2). In fact, Rex said in today's press conference that Revis will "generally" be on Calvin Johnson during this Sunday's game in Detroit. This will allow Revis to go back to being the most valuable player in NFL history, and will allow Cromartie to take lesser receivers where he will be less prone to giving up the couple of catches he gives up each game and more likely to make some interceptions. From here on out, expect the Jets defense to round into form and be the best defense in the NFL (even better than the Giants!) as we all expect them to be.
J! E! T! S! JETS! JETS! JETS!

My 1st Post: State of the Yankees

With another season gone in disappointment the Yankees are looking at a very steady pace downhill if they dont act. The core 4 should probably renamed the 4corpses by now... Jeter never had any range in the field and definitely doesnt have anymore. posada looks like he may need some more oil for his knees because every time he gets behind the plate he has to sit out another 2 games- although good ol' MO is still the BEST CLOSER in baseball u gotta wonder how many more cut fastballs and splitters he really has left in the tank.Pettite is done so why waste time... however probably the biggest prob right now on this team has gotta be A-rod. without his steroids he just cant seem to stay healthy or productive. if 272 million can buy u a 30 homerun hitter who is at his best when it only comes to saving his stats, then id say to the Steinbrenners and $man get a new proffession. maybe the mlb should decide that u can have 3 dh's in the AL instead of 1 because if any1 can find another way of getting posada and a-rod into that lineup should become the new gm- now about braces man- its nice to see that he wanted to stay in NY and not bolt for the Cubbies, but do we really care if he did? if id sum him up in 1 word it would be questionable. just about every move he has made since getting here has been controversial. plus he blew this past post season: with men in scoring position he decides to walk david murphy to pitch against molina with burnett! what was he expecting? molina 1.has killed the yankees throughout his career 2.in the same situation the night before he had a big hit 3. aj burnett was pitching! aj can only get the ball over the plate if he gets lucky why would u let him pitch in the biggest at bat of the season?

right now the yankees must begin to build a new core around Cano. Sabathia and Texeira are nice pieces along with Hughes gardner and granderson but there is a lot of work to do. now as any good yankees fan ought to be i got my wish list for santa steinbrenner this yankees: i want cliff lee and jason werth and maybe carl crawford-also give kerry woods a new 3 year deal and sponsor the marlins pay roll for this year in exchange for hanley ramirez- is that too much 2 ask 4?

My Thoughts on the Miami Heat

Many people had predicted a 70+ win season for the Heat. I don't think they'll even be close. My view on having 3 ball hogs on the team is that every night only one of them is going to be hoisting up 30+ shots and getting the 30+ points.
Only one of the three guys can take 30+ shots in a single game; therefore, one guy will have 30+ points and the other 2 guys will have between 10-15 points. This was quite evident in the Heat's 1st game of the year. LeBron had 31 while Wade had only 13, and Bosh had only 8.
To further prove my point, in games 2 & 3 Wade had around 30 points each while LeBron and Bosh each had only around 15 each.
This is how it's going to be for the Miami Heat every game. These 3 players have too big of an ego to dial it down a bit to help out the other players. If they would, each guy would have 25 points a game and they'd be blowing people out. They'd need to take fewer shots, but make them more quality by passing to the open star player enabling him to have an easy basket. Then teams would have to be wary of each star on the floor.
No team has 3 shut down defenders to stop these guys if they play with half a brain.
Unfortunately for Miami fans, these players are just selfish and will never try to spread it around.
Instead they all are going for the wrong award. They're going for the points award instead of the NBA Finals award.

New Blogger!

We are very excited to announce that we have added a new blogger to our staff here and The Depressed New Yorker. Our new addition, Jerome From Manhattan, is a perfect complement to me (The Depressed New Yorker) and my right hand man A New Yorker. Jerome From Manhattan is a big Yankees and Giants fan and he likes to complain a lot, which makes him a perfect fit for our blog. He's the type of guy who calls up complaining after the Yankees win the World Series, a "true Yankee fan who wants to win so much that he is a model person." We are truly glad to have him here at The Depressed New Yorker, and we look forward to lots of good work from him.

Sandy's Got a Brain

There are many reasons for Mets fans to be excited about having Sandy Alderson as our new GM. Though some will start labeling him with labels such as "he's a numbers guy" (whether that makes you happy or not) and "he is not afraid to go against the grain," his main asset is that for the first time in my life (and probably yours too) the Mets have a GM with a brain! The problem we had with the last few GMs is that they did things that were clearly dumb! It is so frustrating as a fan to see your GM throw out money to Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and Jason Bay and then not have money left for players who are actually good. It is so frustrating to see your GM dump quality bullpen arms (Heath Bell, Matt Lidstrom) for nothing just because he can. It is so painful when he rushes prospects (especially Latinos) who are clearly not ready through the minors so that they will be able to join the Mets when they can't yet hit. This also destroys their ability to be patient and have good pitch selection, and as a result their batting average and walks are unacceptable. It is so painful when your leader puts your top pitching prospect into the bullpen which stunts his development and gets him to free agency two years earlier. It is painful when he demands that his mistakes and washed up bench veterans play over players who are clearly better than them. This frustration is now gone with the hiring of Sandy Alderson as our new GM. Over the next few seasons we will see how his wonderful philosophies build a championship team, but right now, we will first begin to appreciate a departure from stupidity.

Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman is reporting that the Mets have hired Sandy Alderson to be the new GM.

NBA Predictions

With the season about to tip off, it is time for some predictions for this season. While basketball is not my area of expertise, I will make some predictions for this season.
NBA Finals: Lakers over Heat- Everyone is all excited about the Heat but they will have no answer for the Lakers' big men, especially if Bynum is healthy. Look for Kobe to show everyone once and for all who the best player in the NBA is.
Knicks: The Knicks will make the playoffs for the first time since 2004! And they will actually win a game! They will finish in one of the last 3 playoff spots. If they land Carmelo however...
Nets: While the Nets will improve on last year's disastrous reason, they will miss the playoffs once again and it probably won't even be close.

Please post your predictions in the comments section of this post.

To comment on a post, go to the end of the post and click "comments." Then you will be prompted to sign in with gmail. Sign in and then comment.

Is there hope for the Mets in 2011?

The last four seasons have been very hard ones for us Mets fans. We have suffered through heartbreaking collapses, numerous injuries, and inept decision making by the front office and manager. This is typical for the Mets fan. We are used to pain. We always are waiting for things to fall apart. We know to expect that things will not work out, and this at times helps limit the pain. The pessimism that most Mets fans exhibit is a necessary defense mechanism to limit the pain the the Mets inevitably bring upon their fans each year.
At times, a new regime in the front office of the organization can bring new hope to the fanbase. The list of candidates being interviewed for the Mets' GM job definitely contains some impressive names and offers us hope that the stupidity and incompetence will end and that at some point things will turn around. But Mets fans are not interested in waiting another three years to make a run. Perhaps the biggest in the Minaya regime has committed is wasting the prime years of our core superstars as well as perhaps even more importantly our prime years as fans. When a team has superstars in their prime, it cannot afford to waste those years because of stupidity in filling out the roster. Those years are wasted World Series opportunities that cannot be brought back, and it is a cardinal sin to be silly and cheap to gamble with these opportunities and take a chance of wasting these years. Also, as fans, these years are supposed to be spent following an exciting and good team with World Series aspirations rather than having to say "Wait 'till next year" far too often. That being said, we have to make a run in 2011 instead of wasting more prime and key years. The question is if that can be done: Is there hope for the Mets in 2011?I believe that the answer to this question is yes. While I doubt that the Mets can do enough to give themselves overwhelming odds to make the playoffs, there are many areas of the team with potential for significant improvement. If the Mets make the right moves, they can be in the running for the playoffs and even have a pretty good shot to make them. The Mets need to improve about 10-11 wins from 2010 (79 wins) to get up to about 90 wins. This would give them a pretty good chance to make the playoffs.
Some of the improvement that the Mets need to make have already been done. By firing the awful Jerry Manuel and ridding themselves of his horrible decisions, the Mets can pick up 3-4 games. Of course, this is dependent on the team hiring a competent and normal manager with some intelligence (not Wally Backman). Usually, a manager can only make a difference of about 2-3 wins because even playing the wrong percentages every night only lowers the team's chances of winning slightly each game. However, Jerry Manuel's moves were so idiotic and unorthodox that a 5 win improvement is definitely a possibility. (Jerry did everything wrong from playing washed up .200 hitters every day, poor bullpen management, and many other stupid moves.) As an added bonus, the manager who is known to play injured players until they further aggravate their injuries (Carlos Beltran's knee, Jose Reyes's oblique) and overwork pitchers until they get injuries that are a result of overuse (Johan Santana) is now gone! Assuming a conservative improvement of 3 wins, we are now up to 82 wins.

There are some other improvements in place for the upcoming season. Jeff Francoeur was terrible in 2010, posting an OBP UNDER .300! Although most fans think he has power, he actually has below average pop for a corner OF. His fielding is another part of his game that is overrated. He has a tremendous throwing arm, but unfortunately for him, fielding is mostly about range and throwing does not make as much of a difference as range. Frenchy's range was terrible, and negated the bonuses provided by his arm and then some. Francoeur is a terrible player who is at fault for the Mets getting the worst production out of RF in the league.
Additionally, Carlos Beltran missed about 90 games in 2010 and when he returned was awful for about 2 months before heating up. His poor offense likely was a result of poor timing after basically missing a season. While we should not expect his offensive production to be like it was in his peak years, David Wright has taken a bit of a step back since 2006-2007. In the last 2 years he has been striking out at crazy rates, which lower his batting average and power a bit. His fielding has gotten worse as well. Some people think that he is the problem with this team, but we are not going to be able to replace his production so it would be stupid to deal him. I don't think anyone can know what to expect from him in 2011, but it doesn't make sense to assume that he would be worse than he was this season unless he gets injured. Therefore, we will not assume any improvement at 3B.

At 1B, the Mets started off with "amazing" production from the great cleanup hitters Mike Jacobs and Frank Catalanatto, just as Omar expected. Then, for some reason, they were released by the end of April. Ike Davis took over to the delight of Mets fans. His stellar play in the field and his average (for a 1B) bat was a welcome improvement on the field for the Mets. Since he barely even played in AA before 2010, it is reasonable to expect a slight improvement in 2011. Also, replacing the at bats of the automatic outs that the cleanup boys were in April should help too. I anticipate a 1 win improvement in 2011, which gets us to 93 wins.
For some reason, SS is the most controversial position on the Mets. Many Mets fans want to see Jose Reyes traded to get rid of the "rotten core" that caused the collapses of 2007 and 2008. (That is why when he was injured in 2009, the Mets won the World Series.) We have to remember that we are not finding a SS better than Reyes to replace him, no matter how much you may not like him. Therefore, it would be dumb to trade him, unless you like the idea of an Alex Cora caliber player playing every day at SS. Which is okay if you want to win 70 games. You won't need to worry about any collapses. But if you actually want to compete, we are going to have to rely on Reyes to be the guy at SS.In 2010, when Jose Reyes was on the field, he performed worse than he usually has in his career. Of course, this may be due to the nagging oblique injury he played with, after obtaining the expert advice of medical expert Jerry Manuel. Besides sapping his skills, this injury caused him to miss games throughout the rest of the season. In addition, in the beginning of the season, he missed some time after thyroid problems and then suffered through an awful month because he skipped spring training. And of course, lest we forget, when he was injured he was replaced by horribly incompetent backups (this is becoming a theme here). So I think it is reasonable to project a 1 win improvement here, which would get us to 94 wins.

Now we are ready for the pitching staff:

Our #1 starter in 2010 was (officially) Johan Santana. Unfortunately, he suffered a severe shoulder injury that was due to overuse according to an expert surgeon interviewed by Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork. (I wonder whose fault that was, but if you want a hint, it might have been the guy who pitched his arm off right when he came back from offseason elbow surgery and clearly wasn't 100%. For good measure, he hit the DL not too long after 3 complete game performances.) As a pessimistic Mets fan trying to be realistic, let's assume he misses 3 months and then pitches moderately worse than last year after returning (let's guess around 3.50 ERA). This would cause a loss of about 3 wins (before factoring in who would replace him for the 3 months). That takes us down to 91 wins.
Our #2 starter was R.A. Dickey. He pitched to an ERA of under 3 in 2010. While he probably will notpitch as well in 2011 (we can expect his ERA to be around 3.25-3.50), he did not come up until mid May, so that would give us an extra month and a half of Dickey (without figuring out who he is replacing just yet). All in all, this should give us about the same number of wins as last year.

Our #3 starter in 2010 was Jonathon Niese. He pitched pretty well in 2010, and we should expect the same in 2011 but hope for a little improvement.

Our #4 starter in 2010 was Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey had a good ERA but that due to good luck in the first 2 months. While there is always a chance that his pitches come together in 2011, it would be more reasonable to expect some decline. Expect his ERA to be around 4.25-4.50, for a 1 win downgrade from 2010. We are down to 90 wins.
The #5 spot was a disaster for the Mets in 2010. Oliver Perez, John Maine and other terrible pitchers were so bad that replacing them with anyone competent in 2011 will yield a 2 win improvement. With the injury to Santana, the Mets are going to have to pick up a starter (hopefully only for a 1 year or 2 year contract), and they will have someone like Gee or Mejia in the rotation to fill in as well. These 2 wins get us up to 92 wins.
The bullpen was an issue for the 2010.
Jerry Manuel loved to bring in the worst relievers in big spots, with disasterous results. K-rod missed over a month, and the bullpen could have used some other quality arms. Really fixing the bullpen would take a lot of work, but by just having a full season of K-rod in 2011, adding an arm for the 8th inning, having a full season of Parnell and getting rid of stinkers like Every Day Nieve and Ryota Igarashi, the Mets would definitely improve by at least 1 win to get to 93 wins. Of course, this is only if they re-sign Feliciano and Takahashi.
The Mets are a team that we can be hopeful about. Without investing too much money, this team can win about 90 games. They can even withstand a minor injury or bad break. However, anything major going wrong (or a bunch of minor problems) would result in the Mets missing the playoffs yet again. This is just the way it is supposed to be for Mets fans. It is not painful enough to justhave the team stink and we can just forget about them. This team always has to tease us by giving us hope and then letting us watch as it all comes crashing down. There is hope for 2011, but we must be wary of putting too much hope in this team, or else we risk being let down yet again.

Mets Disastrous Season Nearing a Close... Finally

As I write this post there're thankfully only a handful of games left that the Mutts, er um I mean the Mets have left to play this season. It has been a really long season with most of the veteran leaders out for most of it with injury.
The addition of Jason Bay can't even be considered as an addition because the guy was barely on the field!!!

Once again Jerry has destroyed another star player. This time Johan Santana. When you let this guy pitch 1 complete game, he's going to have arm problems. LET ALONE LET HIM PITCH 3 IN A ROW!!! Well the great Jerry Manuel let him do just that. No wonder he's been shut down for the year and maybe much longer!

Hey don't look now, but Beltran seems to be heating up. Look out for him in the MVP race. Oh wait, there's only 5 games left. Just a tad too late for Beltran.

One dim bright spot for the Mets I suppose is that David Wright's home run total was more than 10 this season! Yay!

Looking forward to Mets 2011!!!

Annual NFL Predictions

With the NFL season about to start it is time for some NFL predictions:
AFC Division winners: Jets Colts Steelers Chargers. Wild Cards: Patriots Ravens. NFC Division Winners: Giants Vikings Falcons 49ers. Wild cards: Saints Packers. Super Bowl: Jets over Giants.
That's right, no Cowboys in the playoffs. And a subway (NJ) Super Bowl.
Please send me your predictions or post them in the comments, and we will see who is right in February.

Krod tore thumb ligaments in his fight with his father-in-law. He is probably out for the season. :-)

The Ravens and Dolphins had "great offseasons." The Jets "are just like the Redskins." I just don't get it. It doesn't make sense.

Chase Utley will reportedly be out for 8 weeks after thumb surgery. This is great news for the Mets as Utley is one of the best players in baseball.

After all the suffering us Knicks fans have been through over the last 10 years, couldn't Knicks make us happy by drafting Lance Stephenson?

Parnell will come up to replace Mejia.

Mejia sent down to AA to become a starter.

Do the Mets Need a Starting Pitcher?

Everywhere I turn I keep hearing that the Mets need to trade for another starting pitcher to make the playoffs. The Phillies and Braves supposedly do not need one, but the Mets do. I think that this is based on a huge misconception. Whenever you hear this fallacy, the people who say it explain that the Braves and Phillies have a very good rotation while the Mets do not. Whether this is true or not is a matter of debate, but it is quite irrelevant when we are figuring out who needs a pitcher. What we have to figure out is which pitcher will be replaced by the new pitcher. What matters is who is the #5 starter. For the Mets that is Hisanori Takahashi who has pitched pretty well since coming over from Japan. For the Braves this is Kenshin Kawakami who is 0-10. I think a replacement might be in order. It doesn't matter if the other 4 starters are in the running for the Cy Young Award. They

need a starter. Same with the Phillies and Kyle Kendrick. (36 k's in 75 innings with 23 walks. Watchhim implode in the 2nd half.) But the Mets should not be looking for a starting pitcher. Johan Santana is pitching the worst in the rotation now, but he is not going anywhere. Hopefully he can pick it up soon. But that has nothing to do with the Mets picking up a starter. The Mets need another bat (hopefully that will be Beltran soon), but they do not need another starting pitcher. A reliever, on the other hand...

Giants WR-KR Domenik Hixon will miss 2010 season (torn ACL); injured on New Meadowlands Stadium turf (ESPN). Ouch!

If Maine can go on the DL for "shoulder soreness" because of diminished velocity, Santana should too.

Tom Izzo to remain coach at Michigan State, rejects offer from Cleveland Cavaliers. Means LeBron most likely is leaving Cleveland.

Just a coincidence: Since Jerry Manuel took over, 3/4 SPs have seen a drop of over 5 mph in velocity.

123 pitches on surgically repaired arm last start for Santana. This start his fastball is topping out at 87-88 mph & 1 K through 5 innings. Jerry = genius

Gary Matthews finally released, Omir Santos called up from AA.

Castillo goes on 15 day DL. Ruben Tejada recalled (.294/.341/.359 in AAA this season).

Daniel Murphy out 4-6 months with right MCL tear. No surgery. Was injured on dirty slide at 2nd base.

I hope all morons who want "the human element" in baseball are happy after last night. "Human Element" = mistakes! Don't we want the calls to be what actually happened instead of some mistake that some person made whenever possible?

Strasburg's last minor league start tomorrow vs Mets minor league AAA affiliate Buffalo Bisons will air live on SNY at 1 pm & again at 7 pm.

Mets 40-61 in games decided by 2 runs or less in 2009 & 2010. Evidence of a brilliant manager :-S

It's about time. Mejia is moving to the minors to start. It's Mejia time!

Check this out. Great analysis on David Wright's rising strikeouts.
http://www.amazinavenue.com/2010/5/10/1466245/an-analysis-of-david-wrights-pitch

Get rid of Frenchy! He stinks!

Jeff Francoeur 2010: 119 AB .235 BA .301 OBP .403 SLG 4 HR 19 RBI 10 BB
But he's so gritty! And friendly to the media!

The LeBron James Knicks era has begun!

The LeBron James Knicks era has begun!

LeBron James trounced at home by 32 by Celtics and booed by the fans. One step closer to joining the Knicks

New official term for when Jerry has Krod warm up in every inning in an extra inning game in case Mets get a lead:
Krod throws simulated game in bullpen.

Looks like someone's been reading my blog!

Adam_Schefter: Saints G Jahri Evans will make $19million in first year of his new deal, then $25.7 million over first 3 years of his deal.
An extremely front-loaded deal, with lots of money on this uncapped season. Mike T, I hope you're paying attention.

Adam Rubin reports that Kelvim Escobar will have surgery to repair torn capsule in shoulder (same injury Chad Pennington had this year). Likely out for season.

Before we kill Jerry for bringing in Accosta (don't worry, we will), we have to blame Omar for bringing up this stinker instead of Kiko Calero. One was cut by the Braves; the other had a 1.95 ERA last year for the Marlins. (Don't trust me. Check it up.) Which one do you want up?

Why is Jerry having Krod warm up each inning in case Mets get a lead? Just let him pitch now for 6 innings instead of doing it in the pen! :-S (sarcastic smile)

Another Mets Disaster

For the 2nd straight game, the Mets got blown out by the Phils, tonight thanks to a 9 run 4th inning. Santana lasted just 3.2 innings and was yanked after giving up his 10th run of the short night. The previous game vs the Phils, the 10-0 disaster, you can sweep under the rug cuz they played arguably the best pitcher in the game, but tonight! The opposing pitcher was the old man with the creaking bones, 5amie Moyer! You'd think the Mets would knock him out of the game very quickly.
Hopefully the Mets can bounce back, but maybe they've been knocked back down to earth and are going to go back to what we had anticipated in the beginning of the season.

Defending My Position on Konerko

Some of my buddies want to know why I included Konerko in the list of large first basemen who broke down or did not live up to their contracts. After all, he leads MLB with 10 home runs so far this season (dumb argument; one month does not make a 5 year contract worth it unless the player gets lucky and it's in the playoffs). Also, he only weighs 215 lb (less than Teixeira) and is only 34 (better argument).
Let's review some history. Paul Konerko hit 40+ homers in back to back years. At age 30 he received a 5 year contract for I believe about $75 million (doesn't sound like so much now, I know). He hit 35 home runs that year. But starting the next year, at age 31, his batting average dropped big time and he has averaged 26 homers, which is not terrible obviously but a little low for what is supposed to be a slugging 1B. He has been limited/ hindered somewhat by nagging injuries which have limited his playing time a little (has missed over 10 games each year of his contract and has been on the DL) and are the likely cause for some of his lost power. When healthy he is still a productive player but the odds of that happening for a full season, forget about multiple seasons, is not too high. He is only 34. We can only imagine how things will progress in the coming years. However, his contract was not a complete bust and waste of money like the others. (Good move by the White Sox to only give him five years which is through his age 34 season.)
The reason Konerko is on the list is because he was the best example of someone who has not been a complete bust yet has not lived up to his contract due to nagging problems. We must consider the fact that Ryan Howard will not completely break down but will have nagging injuries and sapped power to the point that though he is mostly on the field, he will homer in the the mid-20s. I think that even if he would perform like that, his contract of $1 million per home run would not nearly be worth it.More likely, considering the fact that a "slim and in shape" Ryan Howard still weighs more than 40 lb more than Konerko, is that Howard busts. But maybe he will perform decently with just minor nagging problems and above average performance. Either way, the odds of Howard living up to his contract and being worth it from age 32-37 is not too high.

What do you think? Feel free to disagree. Just post it in comments (we could use some).

Ryan Howard's Contract Extension

This week, Ryan Howard signed a massive extension onto his contract. This 5 year $125 million contract ensures that he does not become a free agent until 2017 when he is 37 years old.

This contract is crazy. There is no reason for the Phillies to sign Howard now. If they would have waited, it is pretty much guaranteed that if they would make the same offer he'd take it. Why sign him now. What if he starts breaking down by then? Furthermore, the Phillies gave Howard a ton of money (which has Albert Pujols and Boras I mean Prince Fielder drooling). There is no way he is worth that money. There is no way he would have seen that money on an open market, which again wouldn't be until after next season anyway.

Yet, the main reason why this move is dumb is none of those. Ryan Howard is a large slugging first baseman. Pretty much every one in the oversized 1B group has broken down from the age of 31-34. This group includes the likes of Thome, Giambi, Konerko, Mo Vaughn, and many others.

THE METS ARE IN FIRST PLACE! AMAZIN!
NL East
1.NYM(12-9)
2.PHI(11-9)
3.FLA(11-10)
3.WAS(11-10)
5.ATL(8-12)

Joe McKnight

One thing to wonder about the ability of Joe McKnight is why did his former college coach Pete Carroll pass on McKnight in the 4th round if McKnight was so talented. Just a thought.

Reacting to the Jets Trade of Leon Washington

This move seems like a poor move at first. The Jets were only able to get a 5th rounder (which turned into blocking FB John Conner) for Leon and a 7th rounder. However, according to Jets' beat reporter Manish Mehta, the Jets feel that it will take 2 years for Leon to fully recover from his leg injury. He is not ready now and it seems pretty clear that he will not be performing like his old self this season. This likely is why the team dealt him.
The question is why the team was unable to get better than a 5th rounder for him. I would have assumed that they could have done better, but i trust Tannenbaum that no better offer was out there. He does his "due diligence" as he likes to call it and if he accepted this deal there must not have been anything better. I would have considered keeping Leon for another season and then putting a 2nd round tender on him to see if anyone bites. But that would only work if the new bargaining agreement would still with 2010 rules(that until 6th year in the league, a player becomes a restricted free agent instead of unrestricted) instead of the rules that the NFL likely will go back to (only restricted for 4 years). This would explain why Tannenbaum made the move. All in all, the Jets are definitely safer and likely better at running back than they were 2 weeks ago.

Reaction to the Jets Releasing Faneca

Many were shocked and upset when the Jets released Pro Bowl LG Alan Faneca on Saturday. Faneca has been known to be one of the top guards in the NFL. At first glance, it would seem like a dumb move to replace him with unproven players.
Before we can give accurate analysis of this move, we must first figure out why the Jets made this move. The first reason appears to be that Faneca is a shell of his former self. Though he still remains an above average run blocker, his pass blocking has become terrible to the point that some call him the worst pass blocking guard in the NFL. Even if that is overstating things, he is definitely a declining pass blocker and is clearly the worst pass blocker on the Jets' offensive line. The Jets feel that they can get almost as good if not better production from the young players while setting themselves up long term. (As fans, we should be happy that Tannenbaum is trying to set the team up for long term success besides just the moves he has made toimprove the team for 2010.) There is little reason to argue with the team's assumption. (One area where Faneca will be missed, however, is in his pulling ability as a guard to open up big runs. It remains to be seen if the replacements will be able to pull effectively.)
Obviously, cap considerations played heavily in the decision to release Faneca. Most (uneducated) fans think that "all the Jets saved is $2 million because the rest of his base salary is guaranteed." It is very offensive that people accuse our GM of making this move to save our billionaire owner Woody Johnson $2 million. There is no cap this season. Obviously, the reason Faneca was released was to save money on next year's cap (which there most likely will be if there is a season). It is beyond the scope of this post to discuss all the rules of the NFL cap. However, one important rule is that when a player is released, all guaranteed money left on the deal goes on that year's cap. By cutting Faneca now, the Jets saveda cap hit of all the guaranteed money on next year's cap (or if they wouldn't be able to cut him, his $10 million salary would be on next year's cap). This is a significant amount of money which will enable the Jets to re-sign an extra player from this team. Many players are free agents including Holmes, Edwards, Harris, and Cromartie. Surely the Jets are better off with those players long term than 1 extra season of an aging Faneca.

Jets 2010 Draft

Drafting Kyle Wilson was a great pick by the Jets. They are lucky that Wilson fell to them. Wilson clearly is the best cover corner in the draft. How he fell to #29 and how 3 corners were taken before him is very hard to understand. His only issues are that he is only 5"10 and that he is somewhat of a poor tackler currently. His height should not pose a problem as long as he learns good jump-ball technique (from Revis). The team will have to teach him proper tackling technique but I'm sure that can be handled over the next season. Some are complaining that they wanted a defensive lineman or a pass rusher in the 1st round. The Jets are currently stacked at those positions (with Gholston moving to line they have him, Jenkins, Pouha, Ellis and Devito for 3 spots, and at outside LB they have Bryan Thomas, Pace, and Taylor) and there is no guy available at #29 who would likely be an upgrade this season. Corner is a need as good passing teams take advantage of the 1 bad corner on the field.

In the 2nd round, the Jets got a steal with G/T Ducassse. He is a mauler and a beast. He will be a very good player who will either win Faneca's vacated left guard spot or eventually take over for Damien Woody at right tackle.

In the 4th round, the Jets drafted Joe McKnight. McKnight will replace Leon Washington as the speedy back. Look for a few explosive plays and some catches out of the backfield. Though he's not a starter at running back, this guy can be a star.

In the 5th round, the Jets drafted FB John Conner. The Jets traded Leon and their 7th rounder to move up into the 5th round to get Conner. Conner is a tremendous blocking FB and can handle the ball very well. He will take over for T-Rich after Richardson retires.

Undrafted Free Agent Signings:
The Jets signed cornerback Donavan Warren who is a bit of a project. However, he is talented and hopefully Rex can turn him into a talented player. Most people thought he'd be drafted around the 3rd round. He's definitly an improvement over Drew Coleman.

Stay Tuned for Reaction to the losses of Faneca and Leon Washington

Jets restructured Gholston's contract & all money is on this year besides league minimum 2 seasons after & bonuses. Mike T= (cap) genius.

The Mets Disaster

I was at last night's Mets disaster. Everyone who saw the "game" knows that the bats were asleep and the bullpen stunk, especially Manny Accosta who doesn't belong anywhere near a major league team. But one thing that perhaps nobody complained or worried about yet is the performance of our starter, Oliver Perez. Everyone can remember the good old days of "Good Ollie or bad Ollie tonight?" The days of mostly good Ollie turned to always bad Ollie very fast. Bad Ollie would flash some talent but then would fall asleep on the mound and walk 12 people in a row with some wild pitches sprinkled in. This year, however, we have not even merited "Bad Ollie" (except for a brief showing yesterday in the 5th when he walked the pitcher). Ollie's fastball is now topping out at 84 MPH. He is getting hit around and hard. This is not something we are used to seeing, and this is very worrisome. Ollie was
supposed to get in shape in the offseason, but still the velocity just isn't there. He's not even
giving himself a chance to blow the game all by himself. "Good Ollie" and "Bad Ollie" has given way to "Too Many Tacos Ollie." At least there's only 2 years and $24 million bucks left on the $36 million Oliver Perez Ponzi Scheme.

Jets 2010 Schedule

BAL@NYJ 9/13 7p
NE@NYJ 9/19 415p
NYJ@MIA 9/26 820p
NYJ@BUF 10/3 1p
MIN@NYJ 10/11 830p
NYJ@DEN 10/17 405p
GB@NYJ 10/31 1p
NYJ@DET 11/7 1p
NYJ@CLE 11/14 1p
HOU@NYJ 11/21 1p
CIN@NYJ 11/25 820p
NYJ@NE 12/6 830p
MIA@NYJ 12/12 415p
NYJ@PIT 12/19 415p
NYJ@CHI 12/26 1p
BUF@NYJ 1/2 1p

Keep in mind that the last couple of game times can be switched due to the NFL's flex schedule.

Jerry Manuel's 'Brilliance'

Lost in all the excitement over Jerry Manuel "outmanaging" Tony LaRussa (who obviously didn't care too much about winning) is the boneheaded way he handled Krod last night. He made him warm up in basically every inning. The guy threw more pitches than the starters! No doubt this had a negative effect on Krod's performance when he finally got in the game. Why not just bring him in in the 10th inning and have him pitch 2 innings? Isn't 2 innings from your best pitcher right away better than a chance at one inning of him for a save? And now he is unavailable for tonight's game! Jerry's stupidity costs this team every day! He has to go! Now!

Mets Win in 20!

Congrats to the Mets for pulling out the win in 20 innings. But, before u start feeling all excited for them, look at the game a little deeper. 1) Jason Bay, the newest big acquisition was 0-7. 2) The Cards pretty much layed down & gave the Mets the game starting in the 18th inning by putting in Felipe Lopez to pitch, yet the Mets continued their porous hitting and couldn't hit against their shortstop! Tony La Russa saw that the Mets couldnt hit Lopez, so he put it a different position player hoping the Mets could hit him so everyone could just go home. Lo and behold, the Mets were able to break through & get 1 run on a sacrifice fly. Yay! Every1 go home. NAIN! (NOT!) Frankie blows the game! The Mets got lucky by a bad call at 2nd base, so after 19 it was only 1-1. La Russa, after seeing that the Mets could hit Mather, left him in to pitch the 20th, again hoping the Mets would score. Once again they got 1 run on a sac fly and Big Pelf was able to shut the door and the Mets won!

Be sure to download the Amazin Avenue Annual free PDF from amazinavenueannual.com. All about the Mets. It is trully Amazin'!

Finally! Good News for Knicks Fans

The NBA cap has been set at about $56 million. This is great news for Knicks fans as it means that the Knicks can sign 2 max contracts (though I doubt they will because they would need to renounce rights to all free agents from the team; it's a little complicated though and not for now) and still have a little money left over. Whatever happens, it is good to have the extra cap room. Let the LeBron era begin!

Indeed, here at depressednewyorker, we stand for pessimism in the New York sports world. This perspective is due to the fact of us being longtime Mets, Jets, Knicks, & Ranger fans. We are fully familiar of the depressednewyorker's mindset.

The Jets and the Uncapped Offseason

Everyone is very excited about the Jets. From last year's dominating defense and running game, to the great playoff run, to the impressive offseason pickups, Jets fans are hopeful that this upcoming season will bring a Super Bowl victory. We are in unfamiliar territory. We are starting to no longer believe (somewhat) that this team will fall flat on its face at the worst possible time.
However, here at depressednewyorker, we don't get optimistic that easily. We are always looking out for a perspective that perhaps isn't as rosy; a perspective that is being ignored by typical fans.
That being said, I don't mean to rain on the parade (and hopefully the Super Bowl Parade will be very nice), but the Jets face some serious long term problems. The are far too many players on this team that become free agents in the near future. WR Braylon Edwards, WR Santonio Holmes, RB Leon Washington, CB Antonio Cromartie, LB David Harris, WR Brad Smith S Eric Smith and S Brodney Poole become free agents after the 2010 season. With the probable return of the salary cap, the Jets are going to have some issues keeping these players. This will especially be the case if the Jets have a strong season, as other teams will be making strong bids for these players. This is a very serious issue, especially when the Jets will have to replace some aging veterans as well. They will also have to give monster contracts to budding superstars like Darelle Revis. This is why it is hard for good teams to stay successful for many years in a row. It is very difficult to keep the whole team together.
Fortunately, this year there is a solution to this problem. Here at depressednewyorker, one of our specialties is offering radical yet practical solutions that you will not find anywhere else. The solution to the Jets' problem is to sign each player that they would like to keep long term to new long term contracts that are extremely frontloaded. With most of the money being paid this year which is uncapped, the Jets will have these players making little money on the cap when the cap returns. It may not be so cost-effective, but Woody Johnson has a lot of money, and by adopting this plan the Jets will be good for five or six years. The Jets will even have some cap flexibility to sign free agents. Hopefully, with this strategy, our Jets team can stay intact and go on to become one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history.

Jerry Manuel's dumb move of the night:
I can't decide between pinch hitting Cora while having Tatis to pinch run instead of the opposite or bringing in Mejia.

Nets Lose. Again

The Nets surprised no one losing again. The only half surprise: THEY PLAYED THE HEAT'S BACKUPS! Wade, O'neal, & Haslem were all healthy scratches. They finally realized that you don't have to have your starters playing to beat the Nets.

Final Score: Miami Heat 94 New Jersey Nets 86.

Congrats on the Nets finishing 12-70 on the year. Hey, look at the bright side, you won 12 more than 0!

This is how bad the Nets are. Only backups play them
Fwd: ESPN NBA - Heat will sit G Dwyane Wade, C Jermaine O'Neal, F Udonis Haslem for regular season finale vs. Nets

While Mike Jacobs and Catalanatto struggle to hit, Ike Davis is raking in AAA. Can't we get him or Cris Carter up here to play 1B? We need someone who can hit!

With the latest acquisition by the Dolphins of Brandon Marshall, it's my opinion that the Dolphins are clearly the 2nd best team in the AFC East. Obviously they're behind the Jets though! Now we know why Mike T went out to get Cromartie. We need to cover Marshall and Ginn. The Dolphins already signed Karlos Dansby this off season as well. Oh boy, this is going to be a tough & close game.

The Mets right now are brutal to watch. Usually I go to sleep late, but last nights game put me to sleep very early. It seems that right now, all of New York is waiting for Manuel to get fired, so we can bring in Bobby V.