SU liked the Mets’ pick-up of Tyler Clippard. He is a good bridge type guy to get to their closer and has a lot of experience. He will blow a couple of games along the way but he’s solid and it doesn’t look like the Mets gave up too much to get him. They still need that big bat but time is running out and it’s not obvious who that might be. But hey, management has made some moves so the fan base needs to get on board.
Meanwhile, Tulowitzki is on his way to the Blue Jays who really need pitching, not more offense. But what do I know? Reyes moves to Colorado and Twitter is active with calls for the Mets to get Reyes back in NY. Ben Zobrist was just traded from the A’s to the Royals who have now made two big moves (they got Johnny Cueto from the Reds). There are still stories out there about the Yankees looking at other utility infielders like Martin Prado. SU says just bring up Refsnyder and let’s start the youth movement now. Why is every other team able to incorporate rookies into their line up but not the Yankees?
The NFL just upheld Tom Brady’s 4-game suspension and apparently is upset that he destroyed his cell phone. This story will not die. I know many of you hate the Pats and believe in the sanctity of the game and all that. SU says this gotten so blown out of proportion and will now hang over training camp right up til the start of the season. I guess it’s good for the NFL as it just keeps it front and center all the time. 4 games still sounds overly harsh to me.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Mets deal was unnecessary. Their bullpen is a strength. No need to give up a top-10 prospect for like 20 innings of Clippard.
But Matt, it does give you some depth if Famillia goes down with an injury in the last 2 months of the season. You have Parnell but he is coming back from Tommy John and you don’t want to push that.
If I were married to Gisele Bündchen I’d destroy my cell phone too if I thought someone would be looking through it…
PBok – awesome comment! I think you are on to something there. I agree with SU on the harshness. Herm Edwards (the walking cliche) was on Mike and Mike the other day – and he went on and on about it only needing a fine – since it was an equipment matter. Do we think Brady will take it to Court and is this really about his reputation/legacy?
Sasha, I think it’s all about his legacy at this point. He is a prideful guy and to have this blemish on his record in the home stretch is a black mark. Plus those who feel this is major cheating will claim that he has done this his entire career. Many are surprised that the NFL didn’t just reduce the suspension to 2 games. One ESPN writer made the comparison with Hardy on the Cowboys who also received a 4-game suspension for some much worse things than taking air out of a football (abuse, drugs, etc.) It does seem excessive.
Can’t compare the off-the-field behavior punishments in the NFL with Brady. Those have nothing to do with the game but are handled by the league because it has to. This stuff often gets handled (or not) by real laws and the league is on shaky ground when it tries to do something (or not). On-the-field stuff should be their primary focus and I’m all for throwing the book at someone. Still, even though the story is dragging on, this is not a bad outcome for Brady or the NFL. Imagine if he was cooperative and admitted to all that he’s accused of sometime between the Indy game and the Super Bowl. You would have had the face of the league admitting to cheating before the biggest game. Nobody would have known how to deal with that.
Still amazing that the outcome isn’t that the league use one ball for both teams. I imagine they want ball tailoring to be yet another one of the aspects of the game that gets overanalyzed. I can see at least a half-hour weekly show on the NFL network where they report on average PSI and scuff marks on balls used in games each week. Also amazing to listen to talk radio where the consensus seems to be that the NFL should allow QBs to tailor the ball as long as it’s within a certain range of specification. Do that and the problem goes away. Problem: That’s exactly what the rules already were.
As they proved with the Dickey trade and again this week, the Mets are much smarter than the Blue Jays. They gave up next to nothing last week and got two average players that drastically improved their lineup. Why? Because they addressed a weakness. Cheap, average players made a huge difference. The Jays just traded a good SS for a great one and took on huge salary and (somehow) greater injury risk. More importantly, they didn’t address their weakness (pitching) at all. Maybe another move is coming where they give up one of their bats but for now, this doesn’t look like a bit improvement.
Yankees were down 5 and then…. Wow.
Mejia needs A-Rod’s guy.
Or someone to explain to him why he was suspended the first time. What a knucklehead.
The big takeaway from the Brady story was that this: “Still amazing that the outcome isn’t that the league use one ball for both teams” wasn’t true to begin with. To be honest I always thought they were using the same balls until this story broke. I have no idea which brainiac at the NFL came up with the idea to let everyone bring their own ball instead of a standard set of game balls.
What were they going to come up with next? One ball for running plays and a different one for passes? The QB throws one ball and it magically transforms into a different ball for the WR to catch?
Well they already use a different ball for the kicking plays and have actually done that for a long time. The idea of each team providing different balls for offense is newer and was the result of lobbying by a couple big-name QBs (including Brady).