New York sportsblog 5000

Catching Back Up

It's been a while since I've posted which is entirely my fault for trying to figure out what to my life since my beloved college experience has ended and with it my journalism career, which is why NewYork Sportsblog 5000 is being revived and you all benefit from my stellar writing abilities.  But a lot has happened since my last post and I'll take you through the good (the Mets), the bad (A-Rod), and the ugly (Randy Johnson - literally and figuratively.  I mean seriously he's the ugliest man alive and unfortunately for his illegitimate daughter she looks exactly like him.  Imagine going through life looking like that...OK back on topic).
       Since my last post the tired Mets bullpen has had time to rest, the back-end of their rotation looks solid, their offense has exploded (minus Cliff Floyd), Carlos Beltran - if only for a week - looks like a nine-figure player, David Wright has become one of the best players in the NL, Tom Glavine has struggled, and Pedro finally got a win.  They have built the largest lead in the majors, 7.5 games over the Phillies, and are currently 7-1 on a 10-game West Coast/Philadelphia road trip that was 'going to define their season.'  But there is some bad news....wait there's no bad news, this is the best stretch of baseball for the Mets since their run in 1999 when they went 40-15 after firing three coaches.
    As for the Yankees there's a lot not to like, however as of the standings today, June 14...really the 14th already!...the Yanks are tied for the lead in the East, obviously with Boston.  Jeter and A-Rod are playing hurt or sick right now, Sheffield and Matsui are out, which looked OK at first but now the league is figuring out how to pitch to Melky Cabrera and now it's a problem again.  Their rotation is a mess with the Big Ugly crashing harder then Robert Downey Jr., Shawn Chacon battling injuries, Aaron Small being Aaron Small again.  Their bullpen is just waiting for Octavio Dotel to walk through the door so Scott Proctor can feel his arm again and Kyle Farnsworth won't have to come in only to blow a lead before one of the greatest closers of all time, Mariano Rivera.  But with all these problems, (don't even get me started on the Giambino's hand and how much it's hurting my fantasy team), they're still tied for first.
    On to the biggest tragedy in sports at the moment, the US Soccer Team.  Their draw in the World Cup is not only the toughest route in the world but comes at a time when the MLS is doing alright, Landon Donovan and DeMarcus Beasley are almost household names and people were just starting to pay attention.  But then US draws a group with the #2 team in the world in the Czech Republic, European powerhouse Italy, and the best African team in Ghana.  Should the US somehow survive that and come finish second in their group allowing them to advance to the elimination round, they get the pleasure of playing Brazil.  For those that aren't clear on this, Brazil is to soccer what the 90's Yankees  were to baseball.  Except if the Yankees were three times as good as they were, and actually had fun while playing.  Anyway so much for soccer in the US.
    Watched the NBA Finals last night and remembered real quick why I hate basketball, the refs get too caught up in the momentum of the game and literally change the outcome.  They called Dirk Nowitski for a moving pick, decided not to call a foul when Eric Dampier got pushed going up for a rebound which allowed Shaq to grab it, and missed several other loose ball fouls on Miami.  They pretty much handed them the game.
    Watched the NHL Finals and it took about two minutes to remind me why I love hockey.  For those of you that don't know the Carolina Hurricanes are playing the Edmonton Oilers and the crowd in Edmonton is just constantly loud and raucous.  Edmonton was throwing some vicious body checks at full speed, with Carolina showing off the speed and open ice the new NHL allows.  It's the best sport out there and I'll defend it against basketball any day of the week.
    Anyway it's good to be back and I gotta run now but I promise to keep up with the blog from now on or else bigshow will make me feel guilty again and we can't have that.

El Duque Comes To Shea

The Mets decided they couldn't wait any longer.  They had enough Lima Time, enough waiting for Brian Bannister and his injured hamstring, and enough questions about moving Aaron Heilman out of the bullpen.  Instead they moved Jorge Julio out of the pen and across the country to Arizona for former Yankee great Orlando 'El Duque' Hernandez.

The word 'great' was chosen carefully.  El Duque was the most dominant post-season force in the Yankees starting rotation for the duration of the their run of championships.  He started 21 games when he joined the Yanks in 1998 and went 12-4 with a 3.13 ERA.  That post-season for possibly the greatest Yankee team ever he gave up only 1 run in 14 innings.  For his career in the playoffs El Duque is 12-3.  He's now 41, according to Buster Olney (3 years older then listed on ESPN.com),  and headed to Shea to fortify the one glaring weakness for the leaders of the NL East.

Will it work?  At first glance there was a bit of trepidation.  Julio is 26, throws 96, and has been deep-sixed by the Mets since spring training.  But Duaner Sanchez and Heilman afforded Julio time to figure things out and he started making progress. In April, Julio sported an ERA north of 7, giving up 10 runs and 15 hits in 11 innings, while opponents hit .294 off him.  But in May, Julio settled down.  He dropped his ERA nearly six full runs (1.86), and in 9.2 innings this month opponents are batting just .176.  The trick for Julio was taking a little off his pitches allowing for better control.  Bottom line: he trusted the defense more.  He even started to inspire dreams in the heads of Mets fans of six-inning starts and then a Julio-Heilman-Sanchez-Wagner shutdown bullpen.

El Duque doesn't have much of a fastball to speak of anymore, instead relying on the impatience of hitters who can't sit on a 59 mph lob.  He's already reached his peak and approaching the bottom of the mountain.  But he will be useful for the Mets. First, he's gotta be better then Lima, Jeremi Gonzalez, or John Maine, just because of his experience and savvy.  Second with fellow Cuban pitcher Alay Soler now getting his tryout with the Mets, El Duque can act as a mentor to the promising Soler as he did with Jose Contreras. 

Let's try not to be pessimistic just because it's the Mets.  The guys in charge now have put together a pretty good team; proof they actually know what they're doing.  So maybe they know what we would've found out: that Julio just isn't destined to be good.

Scott Kazmir is the Devil

Scott Kazmir is the best left-handed pitching prospect in the majors and is doing things at age 23 that no pitcher has done since (god this hurts) World War I.  Just to clarify that's the first one, which ended in 1918.  We'll get to that in a second.  Scott Kazmir was also the best left-handed pitching prospect in the Mets farm system until their team was highjacked by a renegade GM named Jim Duquette who was in power for three months and caused years of anxiety.  Imagine Mets fans it's 2007, the Mets lineup is anchored by homegrown talents Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Lastings Milledge, with Beltran, and Delgado driving in runs.  The rotation with Kazmir and 2005 first-round pick Mike Pelfrey as your third and fourth starters, with Aaron Heilman locking up wins from the bullpen. 

Hmm.. A young homegrown nucleus combined with quality vererans that take pitches and expect to win.  That sounds a lot like the formula for a certain New York baseball team that won four championships in the late 90's.  However these are the Mets and they can't just leave well enough alone.  So as torture to Mets fans everywhere, myself included, here are some tidbits of information on just how good Kazmir really is.

From Sunday:
-Scott Kazmir topped Dontrelle Willis to complete the Devil Rays' sweep of the Marlins. You could make a strong case that Kazmir, not Willis, is now the "best young left-hander" not just in Florida, but in the majors. At the time of last year's All-Star break, Willis was 13-4 with a 2.39 ERA while Kazmir was 3-7 with a 4.59 ERA. But since then, Willis is 10-11 with a 3.72 ERA and Kazmir is 14-4 with a 2.61 ERA.

Kazmir is tied for the major league lead in wins. Over the eight previous years of Tampa Bay's brief history (1998-2005) no Devil Rays pitcher finished a season ranked among the top 30 winners in the majors.

"I think he's the best pitcher in the AL East right now," Devil Rays rightfielder Jonny Gomes said. "And maybe the best pitcher in the game."
-John Romano, The St. Petersburg Times

-"...There he was again Tuesday, him and that God-given left arm, tying for the major-league lead with his sixth win, his fourth straight, outlasting the World Series champion White Sox at Tropicana Field...Kazmir has allowed one earned run or less his last four starts...Since Opening Day, all eight of Kazmir's starts have come after Rays' losses. The Rays have won seven of those starts, and Kazmir has got the win in six. That's what aces do.

In his first major-league start, in 2004, then 20-year-old Kazmir won at Seattle, starting off with a 97-mph fastball to batting champ Ichiro Suzuki. Four starts later, he outdueled Pedro Martinez at Fenway Park. And it's probably not coincidence that Kazmir already has won three times in the cauldron of Fenway, becoming the first lefty to beat the Sox three times in the Fens before he was 23 since before World War I"
-Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune

-People who aren't Mets fans get a fascinated kick out of watching the way Mets fans torture themselves every fifth day, whenever a kid left-hander named Scott Kazmir takes the ball for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and, more often than not this season, looks like a mixture of Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Sid Fernandez and Bob Ojeda. The first reaction of the non-believers is a natural one: Move on. Bad deals happen. They happen to every team. There was Brock-for-Broglio.

There was Ryne Sandberg-for-Ivan DeJesus. There was Jeff Bagwell-for-Larry Andersen. The Mets weren't involved in any of them. Get over yourself.

But there is no getting over anything for Mets fans, because through their history, when the Mets make a trade, they generally get over on no one.

Given that prism, perhaps you can understand why Mets fans look at Kazmir and see Sandy Koufax, why they remember Kris Benson as if he were Walter Johnson, why they are absolutely certain Lastings Milledge will eventually become Willie Mays and Mike Pelfrey will be a latter-day Bob Feller ... for another team. After all: what fun is it being a Mets fan without all that attendant agony?
-Mike Vaccaro, The New York Post

Fixing the Rotations pt. 2

OK since as I was writing Part 1 of this post Hideki Matsui broke his wrist, I feel like I owe it to you, the faithful readers, to examine just how this changes my brilliant plan....it doesn't.  Plan is the same. If you listen to Mike and the Maddog you might believe now you have to go out and give up Wang, plus you're three best minor leaguers for Bobby Abreu.  That makes sense, get more offense, and weaken the pitching in the process; reminds me of that old axiom, 'offense wins championships.'

Anyway back in Rational Land, we can look and see the Yankees finally resemble an actual team.  Two all-stars out, two role players in.  Welcome to the real world of Major League Baseball, where lineups have weak spots.  Melky Cabrera will start in right for Gary Sheffield (he shouldn't be out too much longer), and Bubba Crosby in left, their lineup is younger, faster, and more versatile.  They still have Damon and Jeter getting on base, Giambi and Arod producing runs, and now some smallballers with speed at the bottom.  However, you can't completely overlook the fact that over 60 homers and 200 RBIs are suddenly missing from your lineup in Matsui and Sheffield.

But how do teams without all-stars at every spot in the lineup win any games? Pitching and defense my friends, which basically makes my plan that much more important.  In case you missed it I proposed the Yankees send Cano, and their two best prospect, pitcher Phillip Hughes and third baseman Eric Duncan, to the Florida Marlins for Dontrelle Willis.

As of right now the deal for a 100 RBI-slugging outfielder is not out there.  The Dontrelle Willis deal is. Maybe you try a little harder not to give up Cano, but you can't argue with logic: if your offense is weakened, you strengthen the pitching. 

Regardless of whether or not this deal even gets discussed, don't be surprised if in the next couple of weeks the Yankees make a serious run.  Look for everyone left in that lineup, with roles solidified, to turn it up a notch.

Fixing the Rotations

Met and Yankee fans aren't all that different.  Both are passionate and devoted, and both cringe as they get to the back end of their starting rotations. 

For the Mets injuries have taken their toll.  The man we all knew was a permanent waste of a uniform, Victor Zambrano, finally proved it when he ran off the mound last Saturday, after he tore a tendon in his elbow.  The best part of this story: Zambrano telling the media he's never been healthy since he was traded to the Mets almost three years ago for the best left-handed pitching prospect in the Majors, Scott Kazmir.  Not only did he clinch that he's a waste of a uniform, he also clinched the Kazmir-Zambrano trade as the second worst trade in Mets history...but I digress.  Back on topic, Brian Bannister pulled a hamstring running the bases in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago but could be back for the first game of the Yankees series next weekend. Until that tentative date, it's Jose Lima (Lima Time!), and Jeremi Gonzalez filling out the roataion for the Mets.

In Yankee Land, there seems to be some confusion about how good their rotation really is.  This happened last year and the question was answered pretty clearly once the playoffs started.  Shawn Chacon and Chien-Ming Wang are solid major league starters.  Chacon turned from indifferent to intense after leaving the altitude (Colorado) for the Yankees, last year and pitched well.  Wang doesn't miss too many bats but has a good sinker and induces a lot of ground balls.  The bigger problem are the pitchers at each end of their rotation.  With Randy Johnson pitching like he's 42, which he is, the Yankees lack a true dominant ace. The kind of pitcher that wins playoff series for teams.  And as a favor to all Yankee fans, I won't even get into Jared Wright.  If you're interested, look his stats up, otherwise just take my word for it, he's no good for anyone.

But the title of this post is Fixing the Rotations, so let's get to it.  We'll start with the simpler fix first, the Mets.  The answer for the Amazin's is sitting in their bullpen, which means all the Mets need is for their manager Willie Randolph to actually change something, and that has as much of chance of happening as SportsCenter actually showing highlights.  Aaron Heilman has shown he can be effective as a late inning reliever and has excelled in that role.  He's also shown he can pitch multiple innings, pitch effectively to both righties and lefties, and in a spot start last year threw a one-hitter against the Marlins (back when they still were a major league team).  I'd rather have 5 or 6 innings of Heilman and one of the enigmatic Jorge Julio, then have to endure anymore Lima Time, whose blond dreadlocks make it look like a poodle exploded under his hat.  As for their fifth starter, Bannister will be back soon, that oughta do it.

Now the insanity starts.  Yankee fans what you're about to read may stun you.  You guys love the idea of homegrown talents coming through your system and playing big time ball in the Bronx, and you should, it's how you won four championships in the 90's.  However you also won those with hitters that worked counts, dominant starting pitching, and Mariano Rivera.  With that preface I'll just come out and say it, Robinson Cano, Phillip Hughes, and if you need to Eric Duncan, for Dontrelle Willis.  Let's not fool ourselves, with that lineup of the Yankees you really wouldn't miss Cano that much, plus Cairo isn't exactly a stiff (you want some small ball right?).  As for Duncan, unless he switches to right field there's no place for him in the Bronx.  And although Hughes, the Yankees first-round pick in 2004, appears to be an upper echelon prospect, in other words a player other teams actually want, the Yankees need help now, not three years from now.  Normally I'm all for building from within but Willis is only 24, is left-handed, won 22 games last year, and pitched in the 2003 World Series (there's that postseason experience Yankees fans love so much).  Basically the question to ask yourself is whether you believe Hughes will ever be much better.  The beauty of this trade is youth isn't an issue.  You'd have Willis for as long as you want him and for this year at least, the Yanks would be the favorites to win the World Series.