Kevin DeLury of Go Rangers Radio joined me to talk about Igor Shesterkin’s debut and the state of the Rangers.
After a three-game Western Canada road trip in which the Rangers nearly came back from a six-goal deficit, successfully erased a two-goal deficit and played one of their most complete games of the season, they still lost all three games. Waiting for them upon their return home was the Avalanche and the league’s best offense, but the Rangers got back in the win column in Igor Shesterkin’s NHL debut.
Kevin DeLury of Go Rangers Radio joined me to talk about the Rangers’ impressive win over the Avalanche, the surprising call-up of Igor Shesterkin and his debut performance, predictions for how the Rangers will handle their goaltending situation, David Quinn’s approval rating and being patient with Kaapo Kakko.
I want to believe the Giants got it right this time. I want to believe the team found its head coach for the foreseeable future. But it’s really, really, really hard to put any faith into a decision made by Giants ownership.
I want to believe the Giants got it right this time. I really do. I want to believe the team found its head coach for the foreseeable future and didn’t strike out on the third swing-and-miss in four years. But it’s really, really, really hard to put any faith into a decision made by Giants ownership at this point, especially since Dave Gettleman is still part of the team and involved in decisions.
No one knows how Joe Judge is going to be as a head coach because he’s never done it before. This isn’t Ben McAdoo — a puzzling choice from the moment he was forced on to Tom Coughlin’s staff — showing up to his introductory press conference swimming in an oversized suit with zero career experience as a head coach anywhere. And this isn’t Pat Shurmur getting hired despite a 10-23 record in the league, simply because he worked wonders with Case Keenum, even if it was the Vikings defense which deserved credit for the team’s run to the NFC Championship Game. This is a 38-year-old wide receivers coach, who has never so much as been a coordinator in the NFL, let alone a head coach, being thrust into the biggest media market there is to run what is, or at least was, one of the most prestigious jobs in the sport, before ownership allowed its reputation to be ruined by McAdoo and Shurmur.
I have no idea if Judge is going to stop the Giants from fully becoming the Browns because no one does. Whenever someone is hired as a head coach without any head coaching experience, people think they know how it will turn out, but no one knows. No one has any clue what type of coach Judge will be. Being mentored by Nick Saban and Bill Belichick is meaningless given the track record of their coaching trees. It’s not Saban or Belichick coaching the Giants. It’s someone who worked for them and working for greatness doesn’t make someone great.
The best thing Judge has going to for him is that he doesn’t have a track record. He doesn’t have a ledger. He’s an unknown with a clean slate being asked to prevent the Giants from falling any farther than they have over the last seven years with one winning season, 42 wins in 112 regular-season games and one disastrous playoff game in that time. McAdoo failed to right the ship as it started to sink at the end of the Coughlin era, unable to last even two full seasons, and Shurmur failed to do anything other than cement himself as one of the worst head coaches in the history of the NFL with a now 19-46 record to his name.
If the Giants are right, they will find have found their guy, three tries after regrettably parting ways with Coughlin. If they’re wrong, I’ll be writing these same words about someone else two years from now.
I don’t have any confidence the Giants got this hire right given every personnel, roster, draft and trade decision they have made over the last seven years. But I want them to be right. I want to have a Giants season last past September. I need them to be right.
The Yankees didn’t bring Dellin Betances back and it sucks.
I was in a cab on Lexington on Christmas Eve when I saw the news: Dellin Betances signed with the Mets. I had just regrettably paid for a $15 Christmas cocktail and I could feel it coming back up. My favorite Yankee in a post-Derek Jeter world had once again been screwed over by the only team he had ever known, and the New York native, homegrown superstar and best reliever in baseball for five straight seasons was no longer a Yankee. It didn’t matter that it was the Mets. It could have been the Dodgers or Nationals or Braves and I would have felt sick. The fact it was the Mets only made it worse.
As a Betances fan and someone who wants the Yankees to win the World Series for the first time in more than a decade, the decision to let Betances walk makes no sense. As someone who has watched the franchise treat Betances like crap in the past, the decision to let the team’s only bright spot between the 2012 ALCS and Gary Sanchez’s call-up in 2016 walk makes complete sense.
I will never understand why the Yankees decided to treat Betances like crap. After beating him in arbitration and taking a victory lap in the media following their saving of $2 million, Betances is the latest in a long line of homegrown Yankees who the Yankees have treated poorly when it comes time for a new contract. Maybe he was too accountable as a major league pitcher and too good of a person for their liking. Or maybe the Yankees could never get over Betances trying to receive $2 million he had more than earned when the team needed that money to put toward one of their failed free-agent signings.
It was easy for the Yankees to give A.J. Burnett a five-year, $82.5 million contract, eventually paying him to pitch for Pittsburgh for the final two years of the deal. They didn’t even blink when they bid against themselves in handing Jacoby Ellsbury a seven-year, $153 million contract, for which he only played in games in four of the seven years before being released. Brian McCann? Here’s five years and $85 million, and we’ll pay you to play for the Astros for the final two. Carlos Beltran? How about $45 million for three years, and you can finish the contract in Texas. Right now, the Yankees are trying to get salary relief on the $17 million they owe J.A. Happ for 2020. It’s always been easy for the Yankees to overpay and hand out ill-advised free-agent contracts for other team’s free agents. But when it comes to paying their own, homegrown free agents, they have been nickel-and-diming for years.
Bernie Williams was seconds away from signing with the Red Sox and rewriting baseball history before George Steinbrenner to his modest salary demand. Mariano Rivera was allowed to meet with the Red Sox as a free agent despite being the best relief pitcher of all time. Derek Jeter was told to test the market as the team’s captain and everyday shortstop of 15 seasons. If the organization could treat 51, 42 and 2 so poorly, it should come as no surprise that Betances is no longer a Yankee. He didn’t have his best years with another team and he has been nothing but a model professional on and off the field.
Yes, Betances missed nearly all of last season due to a shoulder injury suffered while trying to rush through spring training. And yes, he suffered a freak Achilles injury in his only appearance of 2019, and there’s some cause for concern about paying a 32-year-old reliever who throws as hard as Betances and has for as long as he has and is coming off a lost season. But the Yankees’ finances allow for them to take these kinds of risks. The Yankees can afford to gamble that Betances is still the 2014-18 version of himself. Many, many times over the last two decades have the Yankees taken risks on injured pitchers with must less talent and nowhere near the track record of Betances. But those were always other pitchers from other teams whether it was Gabe White, Mark Prior or Pedro Feliciano. Rather than give Betances an extremely affordable deal and make what’s already the best bullpen in baseball even better, the Yankees allowed him to walk. And now, someone with the talent level of Jonathan Holder, Ben Heller, Stephen Tarpley or Luis Cessa will be in the Yankees’ bullpen because Betances isn’t.
There was no reason for the Yankees to not sign Betances. Believing they don’t need him because they have Aroldis Chapman, whose declining velocity and control and inability to put away hitters is frightening, Zack Britton, whose control is a real problem and isn’t who he once was, Adam Ottavino, who helped ruin the ALCS, Tommy Kahnle, who is a year removed from spending the season in the minors, or Chad Green, who was demoted last season for the worst stretch of relief appearances possibly ever, is more than risky. The Yankees might not need their excessive abundance of elite relievers on days when Cole pitches, but they’re still going to need them when James Paxton (less than 5 1/3 innings per start in 2019), Masahiro Tanaka (just over 5 2/3 innings per start in 2019), Luis Severino (will be coming off season-long shoulder and lat injuries) and Jordan Montgomery (will be returning from Tommy John surgery) pitch. (Or Happ if they’re unable to move him). The Yankees’ bullpen is deeper, better and more stable than any other bullpen in baseball, but that’s even more of a reason to make a strength stronger. They might not need their bullpen to win the division and beat up on what will once again be a mostly non-competitive league, but they will need it to win in October, as we once again just saw. Having to watch someone Tyler Lyons or Luis Cessa enter a playoff game because the Yankees are one elite reliever too short to get 27 outs in the postseason isn’t something I want to see.
I hate the Mets. But when Betances is called on to get the Mets out of a jam or hold a runner at third with less than two outs or protect a lead or nail down a save, I will be a Mets fan because I’m a Betances fan. Betances deserved better and he deserved to be part of what will be a championship-or-bust season. Trying to achieve the former and trying to avoid the latter for a 12th straight season is going to be that much harder without him.
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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!
Scott Reinen of Bronx Pinstripes joined me to talk about the Yankees’ offseason and if they’re done spending.
We are at about the halfway point of Game 6 of the ALCS and Opening Day 2020. It’s been a while since the last Yankees podcast, which came right after the Jose Altuve season-ending home run, but it’s back and will be back every Monday and Thursday through at least the end of the season, which shouldn’t be until the end of October.
Scott Reinen of Bronx Pinstripes joined me for the first time since the end of last season to talk about the Gerrit Cole signing and Brett Gardner re-signing, the regrettable decision to not bring back Dellin Betances, the still right-handed heavy lineup and if the Yankees are done spending this offseason.
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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!
In what is becoming a recurring theme, the Giants aren’t going to win the Super Bowl this year since they once again didn’t reach the playoffs. Now I need to figure out which teams to root for this postseason.
Someone will win Super Bowl LIV, but it won’t be the Giants. Unfortunately, this blog is becoming an annual thing because of the Giants’ inability to reach the postseason.
Here’s the list of playoff teams in order of who I want to see win the Super Bowl to who I don’t want to see win the Super Bowl.
1. Vikings Do I want Kirk Cousins to be a champion? No. But I do want my wife to be happy and since her Dodgers aren’t going to win the World Series anytime soon now that the Yankees have the best rotation and bullpen in baseball, she should at least have her football team win a championship. Unfortunately, the Vikings’ inability to win within their division cost them the NFC North title and a home playoff game, and they will open the postseason in New Orleans in the Superdome, which has once again become the worst place for any opposing team to play. Sorry, Brittni, but your NFL postseason is going to last one week.
2. Titans The Titans only getting five points in a playoff game in New England is ridiculous. This isn’t Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson playing outside in the cold in January. It’s Ryan Tannehill. I don’t care about what he’s done this season in taking over the starting job from Marcus Mariota or him finally realizing his potential as a former franchise quarterback. Hey, I want nothing more than for the Titans to upset the Patriots and knock them out of the playoffs as quickly as possible, but I’m a realist, and it’s going to take an actual miracle for that to happen.
3. Bills I think the Bills can win this weekend in Houston. But then they will have to win at either Baltimore or Kansas City and then most likely at whichever of those two teams they don’t play in the divisional round. The Bills are a nice story, and easy to root for, but trying to win three road games just to get to the Super Bowl is way too much to ask of this Bills team.
4. Texans The Texans aren’t going to win the Super Bowl. To me, it’s the Texans and the Bills who have the lowest odds of winning a championship, even if the Vikings have the hardest first-round matchup. If the Texans beat the Bills, they’re most likely going to have to go to Kansas City, and if they were to win there, they would win then most likely have to win at either Baltimore or New England. That’s not happening.
5. Chiefs If the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, it means the Patriots didn’t.
6. Ravens Last postseason, I bet on the Ravens to beat the Chargers. I still have no idea how John Harbaugh sat there and let a winnable postseason game fade away as Joe Flacco stood on the sideline while Lamar Jackson couldn’t register a first down. I also have no idea Jackson went from the quarterback in that game to the one who is now the league MVP. But as has always been the case with the Ravens, unless they are playing the Patriots, I don’t want to see them win.
7. Packers Until the Patriots are eliminated, I need NFC teams in the playoffs that can beat them should they reach the Super Bowl. The Packers needed a time-expiring field goal to beat the David Blough Lions with a first-round bye on the line in Week 17, and needed a time-expiring field goal to beat the Lions in their first game of the season. I don’t care what the Packers’ record is, if the Patriots do their usual playoff thing, I can’t have the Packers as the last line of defense to prevent another Patriots championship.
8. Saints Last season, in this blog, I wrote this about the Saints:
I will be rooting for the Saints on Super Bowl Sunday when they play the Patriots in Atlanta. I don’t want to root for Drew Brees to win another championship after he single-handedly depleted my bank account over the last few weeks, but I’m going to have to. The Superdome Saints aren’t going to lose in the NFC playoffs and then it’s off to Atlanta, another dome for the Saints to hopefully prevent the Patriots from winning another championship.
After blowing an early 13-0 lead in the NFC Championship Game, the Saints got screwed over on the non-pass interference call which changed league rules and then lost in overtime on a Drew Brees interception. The Saints’ loss cost me a two-team parlay with the Patriots that day and the Saints’ loss gave the Patriots a sixth Super Bowl win after getting to play the inferior Rams. The only reason the Saints aren’t lower on this list is because there are much worse options to win the Super Bowl.
9. 49ers When the Falcons blew a 28-3 third-quarter lead to the Patriots in Super Bowl LI, it was 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan calling the playoffs that led to turnovers and three-and-outs as the Falcons completely abandoned the run. Had the Falcons just run the ball for no gain and then punted on fourth down with the 25-point lead, they would have won the game. Shanahan deserves to never experience a Super Bowl win as a head coach after that.
10. Seahawks I will never get over what Pete Carroll did in Super Bowl XLIX. Never. I will also never root for him unless I absolutely have to because of it. And the only way I will have to is if there’s a Super Bowl XLIX rematch.
11. Eagles I never thought I would root for the Eagles, let alone with a Super Bowl on the line, but playing the Patriots will do that. But one championship is enough for the Eagles and their fans. There’s only way I’m rooting for the Eagles, and it’s if there’s a Super Bowl LII rematch.
12. Patriots My hatred for the Patriots forced me to root for the Giants’ No. 1 rival in the Eagles in the Super Bowl. If I’m willing to root for the Eagles to win a championship, I’m willing to root for anyone other than the Patriots to win the Super Bowl.
