SU notes the irony. Kevin Long was let go by the Yankees last year, signs with the Mets, and their offense is terrible for the first half of the year. Sandy Alderson engineers a few moves and all of a sudden, they are a juggernaut. Clearly, Kevin Long is a miracle worker!
Well, today the Yankees jettisoned one of their two hitting coaches:
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2015/10/19/yankees-back-market-hitting-coach-easy-point-fingers/
Pentland must have been the one that worked with Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner and Chase Headley. No doubt he focused all of his efforts on Drew and never got the credit for helping him to raise his average from .160 to .190. SU has always felt that the impact of the hitting coach was overrated (in the Yankees’ case, the hitting “coaches” is overrated) but they do seem to get their share of the blame for lack of productivity. Anyway, if anyone in the SU intergalactic subscriber base has some tidbits to offer, there is a job opening.
The Mets are making it look easy so far but you have to figure the Cubs are due for a breakout game back at home. This series is not over yet but with DeGrom pitching, that is a huge advantage for the Mets.
SU has purchased the NBA League Pass for this season in order to be able to watch my favorite players: Jeremy Lin on Charlotte; Nik Stauskus on the Sixers; Tim Hardaway Jr on the Hawks; Mitch McGary on OKC; and Trey Burke on the Jazz. The thought of being limited to the Knicks and the national broadcasts was just too painful. Worth the $199 investment.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
what happened to RJ being one of your favorites? He’s going to get a lot of minutes especially the first half of the season.
Good point! I forgot he was on the Cavs this year. He has managed to hang around. And his 3-point shot has gotten better with age. Popovich tried to bury him in San Antonio and Mark Jackson banished him to the bench in Golden State. But still he is here. Thanks, Dave — my original favorite player after John Starks.
I’m going to use the quote I heard on WFAN once, from that famous wordsmith and tennis opponent of ours, Chris Russo, who was responding to a caller criticizing the work of the Yankee pitching coach many years ago: “You want to be a good pitching coach? Sign good pitchers.”
Yup, Mad Dog had it right. Plus guys that make $5 – 10 million a year need to also be held accountable for their own production. That’s why I like teams where the at bats are not a given – you have to earn them. Makes players stay sharp and try harder.
Players are coached at every level. There’s no reason that hitting or pitching coaching becomes meaningless as soon as the players become millionaires. Wealthy, poor-performing professional athletes are easy targets but they’re trying to do something very hard and I have to believe that a good coach can help with the physical and/or mental aspects. The difference between an All Star and Stephen Drew can be about 2 hits/week. Good coaching doesn’t have to do too much to make a huge impact. And how about the Cardinals? The team everybody wants to hold up as a model organization. Are their spreadsheets better than every other team? Maybe. But their coaching is pretty good too.
Advantage Mets but certainly not game over. The only thing I dread is seeing the network broadcast those completely useless stats like “The team whose backup 3rd baseman eats Cheez Wiz 37 minutes before the game wins 74.3542 percent of the time. I’m sure they’ll start tonight’s broadcast with an equally worthless piece of analysis touting the Mets chances in percentage form.
For some real entertainment, here is an actual quote from James Dolan when trying to once again defend his continued involvement with Isiah Thomas: “There’s something inside of both of us that’s really quite similar”. While I don’t dispute that fact, I think he meant it in a positive way. The words that I was thinking of were things like “incompetent”, “immoral” and “idiotic”.
Agree about the Mets’ chances. If the Cubs can find a way to win tonight with DeGrom pitching, then the Mets have Matz on deck and you could be looking at a 2-2 series. This is a huge game tonight – the same way that it was for the Royals last night. Johnny Cueto came up small and Toronto’s home field is something else with that crowd. I know there is a tendency to let down when up 2-0 but with your ace starting, there should be a sense of urgency to get to 3-0.
ESPN is all over the stats now in predicting playoff eligiblity for the NFL Clubs. The Giants are down to 16% to win the Division while the Eagles are at 62%. I watched that game last night and trust me: the Eagles are not 62% likely to win the East. They are not good.
Yeah, I get all that but it’s not like they are getting individualized attention. Most teams have one hitting coach and they are limited in how much they can really work with individual hitters. The good hitters are able to avoid the prolonged slumps – that is really the difference. Everyone has their hot streak – even Stephen Drew – but the better hitters have longer hot streaks and shorter cold ones.