The Mets are off to an inauspicious start this spring,
dropping both ends of split-squad action against the Miami Marlins (by a score
of 5-3) and St. Louis Cardinals (by a score of 2-0) on Saturday to start the
preseason at 0-2.
Yes, it is preseason; there is only so much one can pull from
these games where the likes of Stephen Gonsalves and Quinn Brodey are getting
extended looks by the big league club, but let’s give it a shot. Here is what
we learned from the pre-season opener for the Metropolitans.
Starting Pitching
struggled: It’s only day one, but it was a fairly tough day on the mound
today for both Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello.
Of the two, Stroman probably pitched the best down in
Jupiter against the Cardinals. He worked around a Matt Carpenter single to left
by striking out both Paul Goldschmidt and Yadier Molina on sliders to get
through the bottom of the first.
The Mets tried to push Stroman into the second inning, but
the righty surrendered a solo shot to 24-year old Tyler O’Neill to give the
Cardinals a 1-0 lead.Later in the
inning, Stroman walked Rangel Rovelo before being removed. His final line of
the day, 1.2 innings pitched, two hits, a run, walk and two strikeouts.
Not bad, but, certainly not what neither he nor the Mets
hoped when they pushed Stroman into the second inning in his first start of the
spring.
Up I-95 in Port St. Luice, Porcello had a difficult time
against the Marlins. He gave up two singles in the top of the first, including
an RBI base hit by Garrett Cooper that put Miami on top 1-0. Porcello would not
return after the first inning, although he did strikeout a batter.
Bats Were Alive in
Port St. Luice: Offensively the Mets were flexing their muscle against the
Marlins. The Mets scratched out three runs in the bottom of the first inning to
take a 3-1 lead. It would be the only inning by which the Mets scored on
Saturday in either game.
Jeff McNeil led off the inning singled to left, and Pete
Alonso reached on an error. After Michael Conforto singled to load the bases,
Wilson Ramos slapped a pitch down the right field line for a
two-run-ground-rule double to give the Mets lead.
Conforto would score the final run of the day offensively
for the Mets on a sac fly by former Nationals first baseman Matt Adams.
Bullpen issues?
There wasn’t much to write home about with regards to the Mets bullpen on
Saturday. Corey Oswalt and Daniel Zamora both pitched well on Saturday. The one
reliever who is expected to be on the Opening Day roster that did not pitch
well at all was Chasen Shreve.
Shreve served up a solo homer to Hanley Ramirez and a
run-scoring sac fly to Chad Wallach that tied the game against Miami at three a
piece.
The Mets play the Cardinals again on Sunday, this time from
Port St. Lucie. The Mets have only one more split-squad double-header left this
spring on March 1 against Miami and Washington.
So NFL free agent frenzy is just weeks away, and the latest hot rumor has nothing to do with anyone hitting the market.
Instead troubled wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. could be on the move for the second straight off-season, and rumors are he wants to come back to New York. No, not with the Giants, but with the Jets.
According to Sports Illustrated, the Jets would be a "ideal landing spot" for Beckham should the Cleveland Browns decide to trade the walking, talking headache.
Whoever that source is that thinks the Jets would be "ideal" for Beckham must be either Beckham's agent, close friend, or a complete and total fool. There is no way that a Beckham-Jets union could ever work. Ever!
First of all the biggest obstacle would be head coach Adam Gase, who has a history of rubbing players with large egos the wrong way. Just look at the Jets poor handling of LeVeon Bell this past season as an example. There were rumors that Gase never wanted Bell, and proceeded to relegate him to sparse carries as Bell had statistically the worst season of his career.
And leave it to Gase and the Jets to allow rumors that Bell's weight was a concern for the team to leak out to the media.
Not enough of an example? How about the Jets poor handling of Jamal Adams, who felt double-crossed by Gase and General Manager Joe Douglas when the Jets shopped Adams before the trade deadline. Both sides were said to have repaired a fractured relationship, but we'll see that relationship tested again when and if Adams gets a contract extension.
Oh, and don't forget the Quincy Enunwa situation where the Jets fined the injured wide receiver for missing treatment. His days in New York are numbered.
So considering recent history, and Gase's history, why would the a selfish 'me-first' wide receiver who has worn out his welcome with not just one, but two organizations be a fit for the Jets? He wouldn't.
Odell Beckham Jr. for as talented as he is, is not the wide out the Jets need, and certainly not the one they deserve. The Jets need help at the position, but they should definitely look elsewhere.
If you could explain the NFL's sudden desire to expand the playoff field to an odd seven teams per conference, and expand the regular season to an odder 17-game schedule, the word would likely be: greed.
Because the NFL owners look at the $15 billion behemoth that is the NFL, and they hear the catcalls from fans across the league: they want more football. They want to get rid of preseason games. They want to see football played until President's Day.
What was once fodder for sports talk radio among fans is now, slowly, and possibly, becoming reality in the NFL.
With the League speeding through the process to strike on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, almost a whole year before the current deal runs out, the owners are dead-set on expanding the playoff field from 12 teams to 14 teams (seven teams per conference) for the 2020 season.
Under the new playoff format only one team from each conference would receive a bye week, and would be paid by the league to sit the wild card round out.
The number two seed would suddenly be required to play on Wild Card weekend against the number 7 seed. In case you are wondering, had such a playoff format existed this past season, the Steelers and Rams would have been in the playoffs.
The owners would also like to expand the regular season to 17 games with an additional bye week, and get rid of the fourth preseason game. Such a change requires approval by the Players Union. If the union agrees the expanded regular season won't happen until 2021 at the earliest.
Part of the agreement would be an increase in player revenue, up from 47 percent to 48.5 percent under a 17-game regular season.
While there is plenty of money to be made on more games that count in the regular season, and definitely more money to be made on two extra playoff games, it is hard to believe that the players union is going to dive headfirst into this idea.
The biggest issue facing the NFL is player safety. The league has been its own hypocrite in that regard, enforcing new rules to prevent serious head injuries, while failing to care for its former players who have suffered mental and physical repercussions from the sport.
The last thing most players want is to play more games and risk greater injury. Just this past season Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly retired at the age of 28. Kuechly had a career of injuries that prevented him from getting on the field.
According to Reuters most NFL players are against expansion of the regular season because of their own health.
"The Union has said players don't want to expand the regular season, particularly without getting significant increase in the percentage of revenue generated by the games," Reuters quotes NFL insider Adam Schefter.
In a sports world where the NBA and NHL playoffs are too long and too oversaturated with too many teams, and Major League baseball is devaluing in a truly ridiculous plan to expand its playoff field to seven teams while protecting a 162-game schedule, the NFL has it perfect right now.
The 16-game schedule is just right, and the 12-team playoff field only puts the most qualified teams into the tournament while not devaluing the regular season. There is no reason for expansion. If the NFL expands to 7 playoff teams per conference and a 17-game regular season, it almost certainly will eventually expand to 8 playoff teams per conference and an 18-game schedule. It would be inevitable.
Sometimes leaving well enough alone is the best idea of all.
Aside from the fact that Judge is starting Spring Training on the mend with a shoulder ailment that has kept the Yankees slugger from hitting the baseball in camp, Judge joined a long list of players around Major League Baseball who have lashed out against the Houston Astros and the Sign Stealing Scandal.
Judge said the Astros should be stripped of their World Series title in 2017, and players should be punished for their involvement in the scandal.
Last month Major League Baseball came down hard on the Astros, suspending manager A.J. Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow, finning the 'Stros and stripping them of first round picks for several years.
The Astros took it a step further firing Hinch and Luhnow. Soon thereafter word came down that Alex Cora, then a bench coach with the Astros, and Carlos Beltran, a bench player for Houston in 2017, were the key cogs in orchestrating the scandal. Both Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox and Beltran, the manager of the Mets, were fired by their respective teams before Spring Training began. Baseball is expected to punish the Red Sox for their "cheating"during the 2018 season.
Still a lot of players feel MLB commissioner Rob Manfred didn't do enough. Remember, Manfred granted the players on the Astros immunity through the Player Association. Yet, a lot people feel that Manfred dropped the ball in not targeting players like Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman who clearly benefited from the Astros sign-stealing ways of the past three seasons.
"To hear you got cheated out of that opportunity, that's tough to kind of let go," Judge told reporters. "I really didn't like the punishment. I thought it was a little weak for a player-driven scheme, that no players involved got any punishments."
All true. The Astros' players should have been punished. But let's just say for the sake of argument that Manfred did indeed punish players, would these same players around Major League Baseball chastise the commish for not having their backs because he didn't grant immunity? Keep in mind such a move would not have had the support of the Players Union. And then there are the rumors and reports that there were other teams who were conducting similar sign-stealing tactics like the Astros.
The Red Sox, we know are going to get punished, but keep in mind the Yankees twice employed the man who was considered the "Godfather" of the scheme: Carlos Beltran. At some point in Beltran's career he had to develop and fine-tune the skills to cheat. Before joining the Astros in 2017, Beltran played for the Yankees for three years. Did he learn that skill in the Bronx? How about St. Louis or San Francisco? Or even the Mets?
And remember the Yankees hired Beltran as an assistant to the General Manager in 2018, a position he held for two years. So to say the Yankees aren't culpable in this matter is being disingenuous.
Bottom line is this, like the steroid era, the Astros were the ones who were caught. And just because they were caught doesn't exonerate the entire sport for similar culpability.
Players throught they could gain an upper hand with HgH and steroids. They thought they could gain an upper hand by using technology to cheat. They will come up with something else. They always do.
In the end it's on the Wilpon's. It's always on the Wilpon's.
After initial reports indicated Tuesday that billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen was backing out of a $2.6 billion sale to purchase the New York Mets from Fred and Jeff Wilpon, details about why the deal fell through are starting to leak out.
According to the New York Post the deal died because Jeff Wilpon wanted more power and say in the franchise's operation -- even with Cohen as the majority owner. The Wilpon's wanted Jeff to maintain control of the team through the five year transitional window and maintain a senior position within the organization after Cohen took over.
There was no way Cohen was going to accept having the Wilpon's hang around with total control for that long and he got out of the deal.
There is also a rumor that Cohen was trying to change the financial terms of the deal as well.
Either way Cohen is not going to buy the Mets, and expressed his disappointment and thanked Mets fans for their support.
"I want to thank the fans for their support and the respect they showed me and I want to thank Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB for their support through the process. I gave it my best shot."
The question now is what will the Mets do moving forward? For the interim, and the foreseeable future the Wilpon's will remain the heads of the organization. How long that will be the case is anyone's guess.
The Wilpon's issued a statement after the sale fell through that they are "pursuing a new transaction and have engaged Allen and Company to manage the process."
There is also the belief that the Wilpon family wants to sell the team and does not want Jeff to run the franchise for much longer. There is a desire to get out.
The problem the Mets and the Wilpon's face is very simple: who will ever want to work with them on a sale? Can they even be trusted at this point? And will the Mets find another billionaire like Steve Cohen with $13 billion to his name to buy the team?
It's hard to imagine. Remember this is now the second time the Mets have tried and failed to sell the team because the Wilpon's own personal greed got in the way.
In 2011 they tried to sell a minority stake to hedge fund manager David Einhorn with the understanding that he would have a majority stake in the team within three years. At the time Einhorn said the Wilpon's kept changing the terms of the deal, including warning him that MLB would have a problem with the transition in power.
Einhorn took it upon himself to ask then commissioner Bud Selig, who indicated that MLB would have no problem with the terms of the deal. The Wilpon's lied the Einhorn, and they played difficult with Cohen.
Who in their right mind would want anything to do with the Wilpon's? They are not only cheap, but have proven in two attempts to sell to be both petty and vindictive.
The Mets front office is definitely a mess and it isn't going to get better any time soon.
In an off-season that has been dominated by the nothing but bad news for the team across town in the New York Mets, it has been kinda quiet in the Bronx.
Really, outside of the signing of Gerrit Cole, there hasn't been a lot to talk about in Yankee-land, until now.
James Paxton could miss anywhere between three to four months after undergoing back surgery to remove a peridiscal cyst from his lower back. The initial diagnosis had Paxton not returning to the Yankees rotation until June at the latest, however, a report from MLB Network's Jon Heyman has Paxton coming back as early as late April or early May.
"We're very optimistic that he will be back in the first third of the season," Paxton's agent Scott Boras said.
Paxton is arguably the Yankees second best starter, and might be its most valuable behind Cole, since Paxton is a lefty.
In his first season in Pinstripes, Paxton went 15-6 with a 3.82 ERA in 29 starts, including winning 10 of his last 11 starts to close out the season.
This could only happen to the Mets. And six days before Spring Training no less.
Steve Cohen, the Billionaire hedge fund manager, whose endless pockets of money appeared to be in line to become the next owner of the New York Mets, now won't be after contract negotiations stalled.
Multiple reports indicated late Tuesday that the discussion between the Wilpon's and Cohen has fallen through completely after Cohen walked away from the table. The parameters of the deal may have changed, and it is anyone's guess as to why and how.
But history tells us that this is shaping up into another dirty trick by the Wilpon's. Why? Well, nine years ago the Mets were in negotiations to sell a minority stake to another hedge fund manager in David Eihnorn. There was even discussion that the Mets would make Eihnorn the majority owner, potentially, after three years. Then, suddenly the deal fell through. Many speculated then that the Wilpon's convinced Eihnorn that Major League Baseball would never approve of a transition in power over the course of three years. Eihnorn found out the contrary from baseball itself, and the deal died.
Could that be the reason behind this latest mess? Only the Wilpon's and Steve Cohen know for sure.
This is not to say that Cohen and the Wilpon's won't meet up again and try to make a deal work for both sides -- it's part of the negotiation process, but the likelihood that a sale will happen appears remote.
This is a huge disappointment for fans hoping to get the frugal owners out of the owners box and substitute them with an owner with deep pockets. The Mets were going to be real players. Instead of shopping at Walmart ( and I have nothing against Walmart) the Mets would be shopping on 5th Avenue. Now those dreams are just that, dreams.
It wasn't easy, and it certainly wasn't pretty. But when you are a franchise like the Kansas City Chiefs, who have waited 50 years to win anotherSuper Bowl, no road ever is.
When Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw his second interception of the evening on a pass intended for Tyreek Hill that bounced up into the hands of safety Travarius Moore with 11:57 to play, and Kansas City already down 20-10, things went from bleak to looking really bleak.
The 49ers rode their defense all the way to the Super Bowl. And after a topsy turvy first half, their front seven was really sticking it to the Chiefs and Mahomes. Kansas City couldn't slow down the Niner pass rush as defensive end Nick Bosa spent a large amount of time in the Kansas City backfield rushing Mahomes all night, forcing the 2018 League MVP to make throws he normally wouldn't make under most conditions.
After Kansas City scored its first touchdown of the night in the first quarter, the Chiefs were held to a field goal, a punt and two costly turnovers. They were getting beat in every sense of the word at the line of scrimmage, and it appeared for a while -- in that third quarter and early fourth quarter -- that the Niners defense was about to put the clamps down on the Chiefs for good.
The interception by Mahomes with 11:57 to play was not only his second of the game, it was his second in the Chiefs last two possessions, and it killed a 12-play drive that ate 5:30 off the clock.
Can you say defense wins championships? Well, it looked like it was about to happen.
Then, all of sudden, the script changed.
The Niners couldn't take advantage of the second turnover, gaining only 17 yards on five plays as the Chiefs finally got a little heat under the collar of Jimmy Garoppolo, who was not only the understudy to Tom Brady at one point in his career, but was the understudy to Mahomes in the hype leading up to the game.
The question about whether Garoppolo would be able to handle the big moment appeared to be a story destined for the scrapheap. Heading deep into that fourth quarter, Garoppolo had only three incompletions, and was quietly putting together a Phil Simms-esque performance in the Super Bowl. He wasn't flashy, but he was getting it done.
Of course his teammates played a big role. Deebo Samuel was gashing the Chiefs on end arounds, screen passes, and seldom used fullback Kyle Juszczyk was having a huge impact with three very big catches, including a touchdown pass that helped propel San Fran to that 10-point lead.
But, as fate would have it it all fell apart, and the questions about the Niners offense, their quarterback and the play-calling of Kyle Shanahan would all come into question again.
But make no mistake, this wasn't the fault of any one person wearing 49ers White and Gold on Sunday night. What happened in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV was the equivalent of a flash of lightning hitting a tree and setting it catch fire. It happened quickly, unexpectedly and there was no way for the Niners to stop it.
When Mahomes dropped back all the way to his own 28-yard line and heaved a pass downfield that probably traveled close to 60 yards in the air only to drop into the waiting arms of Hill at the Niners 21-yard line, the character of this game changed for good.
Now the Chiefs were back to being the Chiefs -- a fast-break offense that can make big plays all over the field with Mahomes playing the role of point guard Steph Curry running the pick and roll for the Golden State Warriors.
Two plays after the pass to Hill, the Chiefs got a huge call to go their way when Travarius Moore was called for defensive pass interference on a play intended for tight end Travis Kelce. On the next play, Mahomes rolled to his right, faked the pitch-out and zipped the ball to Kelce, who somehow was left alone in the back-corner of the end zone for the touchdown.
Suddenly it was 20-17 with 6:13 to play. Kansas City was alive and well.
Instead of playing the clock with a three-point lead, Shanahan had his quarterback throw the football, and Garoppolo couldn't answer the bell with two dreary incompletions under heavy duress forcing a three-and-out.
And with that an open invitation was sent to the Chiefs who took full advantage. Mahomes completed four straight passes, including a 38-yarder to wide receiver Sammy Watkins to move the ball to the 49ers 10-yard line. After Mahomes scrambled for six yards on first and goal, running back Damien Williams took it in for six-points, extending his arms long enough to get the ball over the goal line for the score.
It was close too. It appeared in replay that Williams may have stepped out of bounds at the same time the ball was slicing over the goal line. Replay officials felt determining exactly when Williams' foot went out of bounds and when the ball crossed the line was inconclusive; the touchdown stood.
With San Francsico now down 24-20 Garoppolo got one last shot to show the world he could stand on the shoulders of giants like Joe Montana and Steve Young, and even his mentor Brady from his days in New England. All he had to do was lead his team the length of the field for a touchdown in the final minutes.
Garoppolo guided the Niners to the Chiefs 49-yard line before Kansas City turned up the heat on the young quarterback, forcing him to throw three straight incompletions. No incompletion was bigger than the pass Garoppolo chucked 35-yards downfield to Emmanuel Sanders that sailed over the wide receiver's head in a failed attempt to emulate the bomb once thrown by Joe Montana and caught by Jerry Rice thirty years earlier in Super Bowl XXIV.
Finally on fourth down Garoppolo was sacked as he tried to desperately get rid of the football, turning it over on downs.
From there the Chiefs turned the lights out on Super Bowl LIV when running back Damien Williams found a hole in the Niners defense, cut upfield and dashed past everyone on his way en route to a 38-yard touchdown that put the game away, ending a 50-year drought for a franchise that was one of the building blocks of the old AFL.
Speaking of the old AFL, some 43 years ago at the conclusion of Super Bowl XI, famed Raiders play-by-play man Bill King once said of Raiders coach John Madden after his team won the Super Bowl over Minnesota that "Madden's grin is ear-to-ear! He looks like a slit watermelon."
Well that maybe how to best describe Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid on Sunday night. Reid, who like Madden in 1977 had spent years searching and searching for that one Super Bowl victory, almost always coming up short was overjoyed. His grin, like Madden was ear-to-ear, with his large face turning as bright red as the Chiefs windbreaker he was wearing on the sideline.
It was his moment as much as it was the Chiefs moment.
Reid has been an NFL head coach for 21 years, and before coming to Kansas City in 2013, his Philadelphia Eagles teams were always coming up short in the playoffs, particularly in the NFC Championship Game. The one time the Eagles did get to a Super Bowl under Reid in 2004, they lost to the Patriots.
He hadn't been back since until Sunday night. This time he made it count. For Reid it was 21 years; the Chiefs 50-years, stranded in the desert. And finally, at long last, finding paradise.
