Unlike most people in the media, SU had low expectations for the Yankees this year. As I have said for the past several months, this is an incredibly boring team. Now, they are off to an 8 – 14 start for April – the worst since the Stump Merrill years of the early 1990s. SU was glad to read that Joe Girardi basically yelled at them in the clubhouse after Friday night’s loss which clearly inspired them last night in an 8-0 shutout where they pounded out 5 hits. At 8 wins, they have 1 more win than the two worst teams in the AL – Minnesota and Houston. They are on pace to lose 100 games for the year.
Now, the “common wisdom” is that guys will eventually start to hit like the back of their baseball cards. SU says that may in fact be true but so many of these players are old and they are going to trend toward the 25th percentile of their body of work. This is not something to look forward to. Truth be told, Girardi is limited in what he can do. Ellsbury has several years left on an untradeable contract and you don’t want to hurt his sensitive ego (SU senses he would not respond well). Texeiria always starts slowly and you don’t even have another player who knows how to play 1st base. A-Rod is on contract for 1 more year but for SU, he is the only player worth watching – still. Brett Gardner has some trade value. But it’s time to make a statement. Some player must be sacrificed and he be Chase Headley. SU has run the numbers and projecting his current numbers shows no homeruns and no extra base hits for the entire season. Eat his salary and let him go. Put Refsnyder or some other young guy in there. Bring up Nick Swisher to at least have someone yukking it up in the dugout. Just another bad move with Headley – admit the mistake and move on.
Meanwhile, SU has taken in a bit of the Mets lately. Wow. And they aren’t even hitting with RISP yet this season. Guys are having fun, there is energy in the stands and there are numbers starting with “3” in their batting averages. They have a mix of youngsters and veterans and a cockiness about them. Thank goodness.
The NFL needs to put Deflategate behind it now. Reduce the Brady suspension to 2 games and call it a day. No more scientists showing the results of their ball air pressure tests. SU still maintains the suspension was way over the top for the crime.
SU caught a bit of the NFL draft. It’s so funny to hear the commentators gushing over every pick – literally. They make is sound like every guy will be a future Hall of Famer at his position. Except of course for the Mississippi lineman, Tunsil, with the gas mask and the bong. The Miami Dolphins will need to assign someone to be with this guy 24/7 to keep him out of trouble. But SU hopes he does well – makes for a good story.
Big game 7 for SU favorite team, the Charlotte Hornets today. With Nick Batum hobbled, they just don’t have enough scoring to win but SU still enjoys watching them as Jeremy Lin gets his shots and minutes and doesn’t have to look over his shoulder every time he makes a mistake. If Kemba Walker can avoid trying to win the game singlehandedly, they have a shot today. He needs to get everyone involved first. Btw, 2 weeks for a 7-game series? The NBA needs to move things along – hard to maintain interest much less find out which channel is even broadcasting the game day-to-day.
Lots of comments from the SU faithful on the NHL playoffs. Good to see. The Islanders are tied 1-1 but have home ice advantage now in the series. They are a good story and SU has been watching here and there.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
As it pains me to watch this town become orange and royal blue that is what it will be for all those doubters before Memorial Day. Once again, Jeter’s timing to retire couldn’t have come at a better time. Though I would have liked to see how productive he would have been with no teams fearing any of our hitters today.
I watched the game against those hated Red Sox. I don’t think today’s fans between 10-30 really have no clue as to those yesteryear’s vaunted rivalry. There is just nothing going for the Yanks today with Bird sidelined for the year. Yup 100 losses seems a better possibility than being over 500 this year.
When the number of old, unproductive players exceeds the number of quality young players, the results are not good. They should have traded GARDNER over the winter, as it is always better to trade a player year earlier rather than a year later, and the Yankees are inundated with Gardner clones like Ben Gamel at TripleA.
Definitely ugly for the Yankees. The inability to score runs is a huge problem. Still, nobody in the East other than Toronto scares meet and it’s early. Note that you mention Houston as a team with a worse record and they were picked as a playoff team by just about everybody.
Girardi was complaining about what the shift has done to the game which was pathetic. Doesn’t he realize that teams need to adapt? Doesn’t he remember the Yankees teams he played on in the late 90s. It seemed that when those teams would get the leadoff runner on they always scored a run. Amazing how they can get first and second with nobody out now and I still doubt they’ll get a run in. Nobody’s talking about it but his job should be on the line. I think he’s a fine manager but this is the type of record that managers get fired fore. We’ll see how long the leash is.