It’s Offseason for the Mets

Hamstring tightness. An inconspicuous injury. Usually happens in baseball when a veteran was running a little too hard to beat out an infield single he had no chance to beat out. Defined by me as a one and a half week injury that has a high chance of re-injury with a longer return time.

In this sprint-not-a-marathon of a season, it means an injury that’s going to cost you half of a season and that player will not be 100% for another one and a half weeks. Michael Conforto of the Mets had this injury. The Mets’ offense would have obviously taken a hit in a normal season and no one would even care about this kind of injury, but, this truncated season is over for Conforto and he could’ve been the Metsies’ life support to tap the Mets into the playoffs. But no, his season’s over and the Mets are out of it.

Well, now the Mets have to focus on the offseason. However, the Mets’ GMs are peeing in their pants out of fear of making any moves that are harmless. Something like the Knicks having room for a cornerstone and a good player but chose to sign Taj Gibson and some weird shooting guard and consequently will now blow the draft.

In the New York Post, Joel Sherman wrote a great article, in which he asked NL East execs about who they would take: Pete Alonso or Dominic Smith if they had the choice. Last year, I would have taken Pete Alonso in a heartbeat, I thought of Dominic Smith as a last resort, a chubby power hitter who would hit at most 5 homers per year and can’t do anything else.

But boy did he put in work this offseason. And Dominic showed that work very well. Tied for second in homers on the team, a plus .300 average, most RBIs, and in every category better than Pete Alonso. And more versatile, Pete can only play first, while Dom can play left and first. I love Pete Alonso, but Dom has to be a starter next season. And, if the NL sticks with the DH, which I hope, Dom can play there and the Mets could sign/trade for someone. Pete’s ceiling is higher, and we saw a glimpse of that, with 53 homers in his rookie year, but now, Dom’s floor is a lot higher. Pete’s floor is a .220 average, 15 homers and 70 RBIs – sad.

In general, we had a very underwhelming season, our bullpen was farrrrrr below average, our hitting was great, but it’s like asking a fish to walk – they don’t have legs, so how is it going to walk? Asking our offense to perform, is torture for them.

Pete Alonso and Dom Smith and Conforto aren’t enough, they’re all good, all contending teams have an outstanding hitter, and then Robin to his Batman. The Mets have like drunken Joker’s henchmen. Everyone, the media, is set on getting Trevor Bauer, but I don’t think so. Not so fast, we have a great starting rotation when healthy, DeGrom, Syndergaard, and Stroman fills out our three-headed monster. Focus on our little baby hitters. Amed Rosario is not who we wanted to call up in 2017 – he was supposed to be a defensive wizard with a lot of speed. He was a good defensive player with good speed and no hitting. But, this is just a taste of what it will be in my next blog post: the New York Mets Offseason Aspirations.

Shifting Gears to the NBA

Tyler Herro of the Heat will now be dubbed Tyrone Herro, after he dropped 37 points and was a pest on both sides of the court. He’s a thorn in the side of Celtics, who’s wedged in there well and the Celtics can’t remove him with tweezers. Jimmy Butler has taken a back seat in the Conference Finals and letting his young grasshoppers take the reins. He’s just a pest on defense and a facilitator on offense. Tyler Herro, Goron Dragic (who even though I wouldn't want him on my team because he’s slow and strong {which is bad for point guards, they should be fast and nimble} he is a scoring machine), Bam Adebayo, Jae Crowder, and Duncan Robinson are taking the load here.

Like with my aspirations for the Mets, a lot of good players are just as good as a superstar or two great players. The Celtics are literally supposed to win this, of course, I’m rooting for the Heat, but Jayson Tatum (number one scoring threat), Kemba Walker (top five point guard), Marcus Smart (All-Defensive First Team), Jaylen Brown (can do it all) and Daniel Theis, a diamond in the rough (and is a physical monster).

For the Celtics to stay alive, Brad Stevens needs to take the bull by the horns and rattle the bull. Also, the bench needs to step up, the starters are taking the load too much. Gordon Hayward needs to be a facilitator, wait till next season for the scoring part. Take advantage of your being a potent scorer and pass the ball. Marcus Smart, play more offense. Jaylen Brown, stay the same. Jayson Tatum, score at least 30 points per night and be an offensive initiator, Kemba Walker, do it all, man, there’s nothing you can do less of, keep doing you, to the second power.

Lakers vs. Nuggets tomorrow, plus football. 

Is the 2020 Season over for the Mets?

I don’t think this truncated season has been good for the Metsies. We haven’t made the playoffs since 2016, very rough times. And we’re 1.5 games back from the Wild Card with the monsters from Space Jam ahead of us, but with not a lot of games left, this ain’t it, chief. The Yankees clinched a playoff spot for sure because, you know, they’re the Yankees and they’re playing in a quite a weak division.

The Mets need to make urgent offseason moves and I will be talking about that next post. 

Now, I don’t know what to write about at all, I’m juggling three sports and I don’t know which would appeal to you, but now I have to write about all three, I just don’t know which. Today, I’m writing about football.

Good news, readers. I went 2-2 this week in fantasy football. I smoked my wins and then lost in very close games. There were soooooo many injuries this week, and my projections crashed and burned. I have Saquon Barkley in THREE of my leagues, and then Christian McCaffrey in one. So, my running back situation is officially fried, and the backs are the most important position on the team. Luckily, Dak Prescott and Aaron Jones stepped up on my best team, when Saquon Barkley and Nyheim Hines, who both had great last weeks, had a combined 4.2 points. But consider it done that I’m putting Cam Newton on all my teams. On my second-best team, I have great backups, so that league isn’t completely fried. And, I traded away toxic Joe Mixon, Courtland Sutton, who blew out his knee, and Julio Jones for a payday, Ty Hilton, DeVante Parker, Amari Cooper and Kenyan Drake. And I’m planning on using DeVante Parker and Devin Singletary to completely rip off my friend, for Alvin Kamara and Michael Gallup. Crazy, right?

FANTASY TEAM ONE

I’m also thinking about ripping someone when I trade away Christian McCaffrey for a lot of good people. But, I’m being veeerrrrry cautious about that one. My main candidate for that trade is the guy I just stripped clean of players. I’m very interested in this league because two of the other leagues, all the other owners forgot about their teams already. For curious readers out there thinking about whom to pick up or trade for, just follow some fantasy football accounts on social media, and listen to football podcasts. But, I would say, when trading with someone, always choose someone who you don’t want just to bargain with, and then just eliminate him when the other guy says no. Running backs are the most important position, but wide receivers are very undervalued.

FANTASY TEAM TWO

The Jets lost to a JV squad, now, if I saw that on a news story headline, I wouldn’t be surprised. Their defense, offense, coaching, quarterback are horrible, and the injuries are just plaguing them more. The 49ers had 50% of their team broken down and playing by halftime. But, with a team full of backups, only the Jets will manage to lose, not to mention getting blown out by more than double their score. Breshad Perriman, the Jets only hope at this point, also got injured. So now the wide receiver room has “receivers” that are just learning football, got pulled out of their college class, played rugby for a few years, and then the brainless skinny people who had one thing built in their head since birth, “FoootBal, FoootBal.”

FANTASY TEAM THREE

The Falcons blew yet another lead, yet another one, crazy how that happens. First the Super Bowl and now this one. 30-9 at halftime, 40-39 at the end. Now, Dak Prescott literally helped me win two games singlehandedly, amazing. Matt Ryan was spotless, 273 yards and four touchdowns, Dak Prescott had 470 yards and only one touchdown, but, three rushing touchdowns. The receivers really stepped up here, something the Jets need to look at here, but, is the GM really going to do something, yeah, right, funny one. Calvin Ridley is a big sleeper that I’m also going to quietly trade for, and he had 2 touchdowns and over 100 yards receiving, him and Chris Godwin, look at them. The Falcons mustered 1 sack and no interceptions against  the ‘boys, because Prescott had something else to say, and likewise to the Cowboys, quarterback statement and all.

FANTASY TEAM FOUR

Just a reminder: Schools are open but for me it’s virtual schooling at least for the first trimester. The next blog tomorrow will football and basketball.

 Salvation for the Mets? 

Our savior, Steve Cohen is here. Finally, he can do what is needed especially house cleaning upstairs. Bring in a new general manager, me, preferably, and I can do wonders for the team J. He wanted to buy the Mets ever since he was a little boy and now fulfilled his dream. He shoved away Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez and now stands over them, standing on the Mets and his incredible pile of straight cash.

He now becomes the richest owner in baseball by, get this, $10 billion.

WEEK ONE OF FOOTBALL:

Here are the best games:

Packers vs Vikings: Wow, the Vikings defense and the Packers defense really showed up in this game. Wow, 77 points allowed in total. Aaron Rodgers had a great game, sadly I didn’t start him in fantasy, he had 360 yards and four touchdowns and no picks. On the other hand, Mister completely average, Kirk Cousins had 259 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. Luckily I had Adam Thielen in two of my fantasy football leagues, both of Cousins’ touchdowns when to Thielen. Luckily I have him because Stefon Diggs went to Buffalo, and the rest of the wide receivers are Uber Drivers and Walmart Baggers. And Davante Adams turned into Jerry Rice and had 156 yards and two touchdowns, I was smoked in two leagues because of him. I went 1-3 in fantasy by the way, but, on the bright side, I’m projected to win all four this week.

The WaSHiNgTOn foOTbAlL TeAm scored 27 unanswered points to the Eagles, and Carson Wentz is going to die in Week Two because he was sacked 8 times this week, next week, it’s probably going to be more like 38. Imagine thinking that starting Dwayne Haskins over Alex Smith is a good idea. Dwayne didn’t throw any picks, but he wasn’t very good either…. Carson Wentz went straight to the ICU, the diagnosis was LosingtotheWashingtonFootballTeamandBeingsickfromEmbarresment-itis, a very rare condition. Prayers go out to the Wentz family. If you look on the stat card, then Jalen Reagor had a great game, but it was one catch for 55 yards, still good, but, 3 catches look better.

The Saints marched up against the Buccaneers, and the Saints won. Surprisingly actually, but I think the Bucs are going to be a repeat of the Browns every year for the past three years. Had Super Bowl hopes on Week one, finished 6-10, 7-9, or 8-8. Drew Brees continues his great career, 160 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. Maybe he visited the Fountain of Youth over the offseason. Tom Brady had a horrible game for his expectations. He had 239 yards, two touchdowns, and two picks, yeesh. Maybe he has to get accustomed to not playing the Dolphins and the Jets every week. Chris Godwin had a great year, playing second fiddle to Mike Evans, but in this game, he was the whole orchestra. Mike Evans had two yards, yes, you heard me right, two yards. I would’ve won if it wasn’t for him. And I picked him up as a third-round pick, the underrated round. Michael Thomas had a horrible game, only 17 yards, but Brees, he’s just so good, he wins even without his best receiver. The Bucs are going 7-9, return to this blog post in mid-January. 

Schools are open but for me it’s virtual schooling at least for the first trimester. The next blog will feature more football, fantasy teams and basketball.

What are the Mets to do?

I feel like the Mets have four different games, they get blown out, they blow the other team out, they blow in a close game, or they win a close game, there are literally no different games.

Since I wrote my last baseball blog, they get blown out by the Orioles, they won a close one. They massacred the Blue Jays on 9/11, 18-1, then they lose a close one, 3-2, and today they got blown out by the Jays, 7-3. See a pattern here? Yeah, me too. Heh, heh, “second place to get into the playoffs” isn’t too consoling for the rocky Mets.

In the slaughtering of the Jays a couple of days ago, Michael Conforto (who the Mets are being mysteriously quiet about extending the single most consistent player on the team), Dominic Smith (who just now is becoming the hitter the Mets called him up to be) and Wilson Ramos all had four RBIs. They all had a home run, including Dom Smith’s first career grand slam. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit, except, ladies and gentlemen, Pete Alonso… He’s batting .226 and has not nearly had as a good a season as last year, maybe Baseball America’s Gary Green’s prophetic words to me about Alonso being a flash in the pan are now coming true…

In the next game, the Mets started out with the lead on a Jake Marisnick double (who I don’t know why the Mets brought in, an offense helper, a defensive helper or just sitting on the bench and being a trash can), then three straight runs, two of them delivered off of Seth Lugo. Then, as always, the Mets try and mount a rally, but that never works. Only last year when they had that stretch where they were hotter than the sun as they mowed down teams.

On the gridiron …

The Jets begin another season today, or should I say another 3-13 season. Ha-ha, no, I predict they’ll go 6-10, Sam Darnold will disappoint, Le’Veon Bell will be very toxic, and their whole offensive line will go down with strains and fractures in bones and ligaments no one’s ever heard of. Today, they started off the season very Jets like, down 21-3 at half time, and then try and come back (sound familiar?) but fail, final score 27-17. Sam Darnold had a very average game, 215 yards and a touchdown and a pick. In the run game, Frank Gore and Le’Veon Bell are supposed to anchor the run game right? Well, the no-name running back Josh Adams, had the only touchdown on the ground today. And speaking of carrying something, poor Jamison Crowder is literally the only receiver on that team that isn’t on a 10-day contract, he had 115 yards and a touchdown (big sleeper in fantasy, might pick him up later). The defense allowed three touchdowns to Josh Allen, and guess what, the Jets defense really locked them down… no picks, oh yeah, they’re really good, no bolstering needed.

More in-depth football news coming next time, also, my fantasy football teams and some advice possibly? Stay tuned. 

Basketball Finals Predictions

Now I just have one question. How did the Bucks lose to the not-so-hot Heat? It’s nothing more than the Heat bearing down and charging through Giannis Antetokounmpo. And here come all the people saying that Giannis was out with an ankle injury, but that was a game in total, half here, half there.

But, Khris Middleton stepped up, who’s Scotty Pippen (who helped Jordan through and through, like he’s doing with Giannis, except they don’t really have that bond, but, who knows), and killed the mid-range game. Now, will Giannis pull a KD and do an “if you can’t fight them, join them”  or will Giannis pack his bags and go a little farther north or join up with virtually any team in the playoffs right now and bring “home” the new chip? 

First, if I was Giannis, I would demand a roster upgrade, though I don’t know how their stacked roster isn’t working now, and if they don’t get the sufficient pieces, bye-bye, doesn’t matter how much money you offer, Giannis should pack his bags. 

Sadly, I’m a Knicks fan, and I think we could look dangerous this year, we have a good draft pick, we could sign Giannis and then trade for someone. That’s the roof, the floor would be drafting someone unranked from Bulgaria, signing nobody in Free Agency, and then trading away Julius Randle for a player that averages fewer minutes per game than Ernie Johnson or Shaq after he retired and, of course, the usual Coke can and the half-eaten tuna sandwich (but that can hit threes though, watch out). But, there will be more teams that are more appealing than the Bucks, like, the Trail Blazers, the Warriors, the Rockets, and the Raptors, very Kawhi Leonardesque of them to do that. 

After being up 2-0 to the Raptors, the Celtics have engaged themselves in a series that they didn’t want to be in, at all. Kyle Lowry (all by himself, mind you) hauled the team on his back for 48 minutes plus another 10 because of two OTs and through the whole series because Pascal Siakam is just spinning his way into nothingness and disappointing Nick Nurse. Nurse, should get fined, because, the Celtics could’ve tied or won the game, but Jayson Tatum confused him for a player and threw the ball out of bounds. Not Tatum’s fault, because in the spur of the moment, he saw a teammate in the corner (actually, two of them, because a real teammate was in the corner as well) and lasered it out of bounds. My guess is that Tatum and Kemba Walker will stop them in their tracks and will win.

 

The Clippers look like they have the series in hand, looking like they will easily beat the Nuggets, who have Jamal Murray, who’s just been insane, and Nikola Jokic, the passing forward/center who hasn’t really been playing all that well. But they do have Michael Porter Jr. to look forward to. But, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Patrick Beverely, Lou Williams and Montrez Harrel? See the Lakers in the conference finals with them.

Coming to my next point, the Lakers have two tools, very controversial, but who are we kidding? AD and Lebron James are the only people they have. The Rockets also only have two, more like 1 and a half, Russell Westbrick and James Harden make two, but AD versus little PJ Tucker? That takes away half. The Rockets might force a game 6 at most, but then Lebron is going to go playoff mode and smoke Harden.

Now that my playoff predictions were wiped… Here are new ones!!

Celtics v Heat – Celtics (all though I don’t know, the Celtics might look like Girl Scouts to the Heat)

Clippers v Lakers – Lakers in 7

Finals:

Celtics v Lakers – Lakers in 6 and then Lebron will play till his son comes in the league and then retire (nice storyline, right?) 

A parting word about baseball, specifically the Mets: the Mets played badly, (and surprise there?) but they will bear down and possibly win some games, remember – only second place needed for the playoffs.

 A Turnaround for the Amazins?

The Mets are finally being revived by the baseball gods, also maybe just the NL East is only good when they want to be, and maybe because the Yankees have little, itsy-bitsy spurts of good playing, and then mostly bad playing.

Don’t even get me started about how they split a two-game series with the pathetic Orioles five days ago. The Mets tried to assert their dominance against the Yankees and they succeeded, but it is the crippled Yankees we’re talking about, but hey, a win’s a win.

In the series that they’re in right now, the Phils beat the Mets in the first game three days ago, but Rick Porcello was on the mound, and then you know it’s a close game or the opponents smoked the Amazins. And then the peanut gallery spoke up, Jared Hughes and Brad Brach, came out of the pen, (who, I opined in my last blog, the Mets should trade), and Hughes created the damage here, giving up 3 runs, and Brach struck out 3, so not bad from Brach but, Hughes, yeeshsh.

The Mets beat the Phils in the second game, 5-1. Andres Gimenez had a great game, and ol’ reliable Seth Lugo, pitched 5 innings with one run needed, and the bullpen held on, but probably by a hair follicle.

In the third of four games, the Mets bulldozed the Phillies with a Mac Truck and then incinerated them. The final tally was 14-1. In this game, the Mets big boy power hitters, Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso picked up the team and trampled the Phils. They had 3 RBIs, 4 and 3 hits, respectively, and both had 2 runs. Alonso had two homers and Domonic Smith just had hits that stayed inside the park. The constant contact hitters, Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, both had three hits, but only Nimmo got a ribbie. Of course, it was Jacob DeGrom who pitched and the peanut gallery who finished it. DeGrom allowed one and Charlie Brown and Co. allowed 0… somehow.

In the final game of the series, David Peterson opened the round with five runs in the first two innings, and then, my favorite time of year, COMEBACK SEASONNNN started. It was 6-0 before we mounted an amazing comeback, 3 runs in the fifth, Michael Conforto, Dom Smith, and JD Davis doubled there against our old friend Zack Wheeler. We scored one more in the seventh, until, with two on, and Jeff McNeil up, McNeil parks one to the right to put us up. I was ecstatic, screams were heard around the house when McNeil made contact. In the eighth, Jeurys Familia blew the save by allowing a single to Alex Bohm which tied the game. As I’m writing this, Edwin Diaz is up in the ninth, hopefully he doesn’t leave a lollipop down broadway. Diaz didn’t give up anything, whoosh. The Mets didn’t put up anything, now the Mets need to clamp, and the Mets need to produce some offense. The Mets put probie, Miguel Castro, in, and allowed Jean Segura to go yard to put two more runs on the board. The Mets tried to put up some runs in the 10^th, but they managed to put up one and the Mets split the series, sadly.

Oh well, the season isn’t over till it’s over.

Also, RIP Tom Seaver, the Mets’ GOAT, who passed away seven days ago.

Tomorrow, basketball.