SU has been struck by the high level of optimism among Yankee fans during the Gary Sanchez homerun fest and the sudden explosion of offense in August.  The Yankees actually have the 3rd best record in baseball this month.  SU is also excited – love to watch the youngsters get a shot.  But Yankee fans, please.  Keep a few things in mind here:

• the bullpen outside of Betances is just not very good or reliable.  They have a lot of rookies pitching important innings and they are just not ready for prime time.  Adam Warren is a nice pitcher but is not your lock down 8th inning guy.  Tyler Clippard is  on again, off again.  The last 2 games are examples of what will happen.
• SU liked the way the offense showed signs of life in the 8th inning last night and got the tying run to the plate.  Of course, Girardi felt compelled to go with slugger Texeiria as a pinch hitter for Tyler Austin as if he was going to pull a 98 mph outside fastball into the seats.  David Cone mentioned how you need to go with that pitch to left field but after 8 years of this, did anyone really think that would happen?  SU says he cannot retire fast enough for me.  I know he is hitting better now – up to .205!  But I am tired of him hitting into shifts over and over again as if something new will happen.  Stick with the rookies.
• Did you see Chase Headley complain publicly last week that he should be playing every day over Torreyes who is red hot?  After all, he does have 42 rbis for the season having played every day and must get a $20 million bonus if he gets to 50 by year-end.  The word “chutzpah” comes to mind here.  At least Ellsbury and his .262 average for $22 million a year stays quiet when he sits.

SU is thrilled that they are still in the mix and playing meaningful games.  But I also believe the young guys should be in there every day.  The whole team is playing better offensively because there is now competition for playing time.  Plain and simple.  Sanchez has put McCann in the DH role which displaces someone else.  This is the way it should be.  Earn your at bats.  The games are much more interesting and I actually look forward to seeing guys come up to bat again.

Ivan Nova is 4-0 with a 2.85 ERA since being traded to the Pirates.  Carlos Beltran has been slumping badly.

The Mets are running on fumes but can take advantage of an easier schedule.  SU says they are still dangerous but they really need their starters to stay off the DL.  They are more likely to get a wild card vs the Yankees.

The US Open is underway and SU is worried about Djokovic.  He has a bad wrist but last night he also seems to have a tight forearm.  He played pretty listlessly but got the W.  However, I wouldn’t count him out.  He tends to play better with each successive round but ultimately it will come down to his health here.  Andy Murray is playing the best tennis of his life and per usual seems to have a more favorable draw.  SU says watch out for Del Potro as a wild card entry – this guy hits hard.

SU caught a few innings of the Little League World Series.  It’s amazing those kids can hit anything as homeplate must be 3 feet wide.  What are those umpires looking at?

Finally, can you believe college football is starting this weekend with a slew of interesting, competitive games?  As sports fans, we enter the best time of the year with the start of pro and college football overlapping with the MLB penant races and post-season.  Come February when you are left with the NBA (and college hoops) you will look back fondly to this time of the year.

After 3 years of extreme boredom, SU is finally getting excited about the Yankees 2.0 edition coming to a theater near you in 2017.  Picture this line-up:

• Greg Bird – First Base
• Starlin Castro – Second Base
• Didi – Shortstop
• Ronald Torreyes – 3rd base (or Rob Refsnyder)
• Aaron Judge – right field
• Jacoby Ellsbury – center field (only because he could be the most untradeable player in MLB).  Maybe Hicks will become something in his 2nd year and can be slotted there
• Tyler Austin – left field (Brett Gardner is tradeable)
• Gary Sanchez – catcher

OK, so they don’t have any starting pitching and the bullpen is lacking.  But SU is willing to endure a couple of 75-win seasons to see these young guys develop.  Torreyes is only 23 years old.  Surely the braintrust sees that Chase Headley and his  annual 50-rbis output is so bad.  A young roster is much more fun to root for than the over-the-hill gang of the past three seasons.

SU is concerned that the Yankees may feel obligated to retire the numbers of A-Rod and Mark Texeiria in order to sell out the stadium for a couple of dates in 2017.  Note to management: they are not worthy.  If you feel the urge, just average A-Rod’s #13 and Tex’s #25 and retire #19.  You save a number in the long run that way.

I thought the Mets might have a run in them but their players are dropping like flies.  Now, Jay Bruce is injured.  Some people are saying now that the deep playoff run last season took its toll on their young arms.  Maybe the teams with the innings limits know something?  The bottom line is that pitching is an unnatural motion and no matter how hard you throw, injuries are part of the game.

SU is back in action with some thoughts about the Rio Olympics:

• Ryan Lochte: a lesson learned for any athlete caught in the act.  Today there are video cameras everywhere.  Best to come clean and avoid throwing your teammates under the bus.  The meter is still running on how many millions of dollars in endorsements he has lost.  However, Americans are always willing to forgive and you just don’t know where the final story is going to land here.  I mean even A-Rod is a sympathetic character these days – at least in NY.  What is especially disturbing is that at 32 years of age, he should have been the sage, wiser member of that group in terms of what to do.  Instead, it appears that he put his teammates in jeopardy by acting out.
• US Women’s Basketball Team: that was some roster.  SU only saw the finals game but they played so unselfishly.  SU loved that they had 5 UConn players on the team and 4 of the 5 started the championship game.  I have always said that the WNBA should take all of the UConn players and put them on one team.  Now that would be fun to watch.  Diana Taurasi summed it up well that all of the players had to sacrifice for the good of the team.
• US Men’s Basketball Team: you know, they were only missing a couple of star players in LeBron and Curry.  The roster was good enough to blow away any team if they played team ball.  But this group was not capable of that.  There was one sequence yesterday where the ball really whizzed around the court resulting in a Thompson 3-pointer from the corner.  But that didn’t happen enough – if at all.  SU thinks part of the problem was that Kyrie Irving was the point guard.  He is a shoot first point guard and that just plays into one-on-one ball.  Team USA would have been well-served by having a true point guard on the roster.  Carmelo announced his retirement from the Olympic team and was surprisingly ineffective in the gold medal game.  You wonder if his skills are starting to diminish.
• Michael Phelps: great champion, etc.  I must say that I didn’t like the self-promotion in the pool after each victory.  I mean we get it right?  SU has always been a proponent of “act like you’ve been there before.”  Now that would be cool.
• Juan Martin Del Potro: most of you didn’t see any of the tennis.  In fact, SU only saw the finals as I finally figured out that NBC was televising this on the Bravo Network (who knew?).  But that guy had some run beating Djokovic and Nadal before falling to Murray in the gold medal match in 4 tough sets.  He will be a wild card in the US Open and some top seed is going to have to play him in the early rounds.  Where he is placed in the draw is going to be huge.  Good guy coming back from multiple wrist injuries.   Great for the sport to have him back.
• Women’s Gymnastics: US team was the best ever.  An easy team to root for.
• Men’s Soccer: SU caught the end of the gold medal game between Germany and Brazil.  Of course, it came down to penalty kicks.  It’s so ridiculous.

SU watched more than I thought I would.  Good stuff.  The Americans won a ton of medals although the absence of Russia in track and field no doubt had a little to do with that.

The Mets won 2 huge games in SF this weekend and that might give them a little momentum now as they head into the home stretch.  Joe Girardi put out the Clay Bellinger line up yesterday by starting Texeiria and resting the youngsters and paid the price.  It’s time to give Texeiria the Posada treatment in his last year and bat him 8th with little playing time.  He still can’t get over .200.  SU says keep the youngsters out there every game and no rest days please.  They are 24 years old.

Finally, SU is starting pay attention to football – both college and pro.  We will make the transition by moving resources internally.

The good wishes from A-Rod’s former teammates and managers are pouring in.  They are all written all so carefully except for Mariano’s I think.  I thought you would find them interesting in how people characterize A-Rod:

“Alex was a hard worker, a genuine fan of the game and possessed great ability.  In our time together, I always knew that the game mattered to him.  Baseball teaches all of us at some point, and I think he should be proud of the way he carried himself these last two years.  I wish Alex and his family all the best in the future.”

“I’ve spent 22 years playing against, playing with and watching Alex from afar, and there are two things that stand out to me the most: the conversations we had when we were young — hoping for the opportunity to play at the Major League level and then somehow finding a way to stick around — and the championship we won together in 2009.  That was a season everyone on that team can cherish.

“What people don’t realize is how much time, effort and work that Alex put in on a daily basis.  He lives and breathes baseball.  I know it will be difficult for him to not be on the field, but I’m sure he will continue to give back to the game.  Congrats, Alex.”

“I had a chance to see Alex as a young player in the league, and I knew immediately he was going to be special.  It was always fun competing against Alex, but I really enjoyed having the opportunity to play side-by-side with him in New York.  He was a big reason we were able to win the 2009 World Series.  I wish Alex and his family nothing but the best moving forward.”

“Alex was not only one of the best players in the world, he was also one of the smartest players on the field.  It was such a great combination.  Please go have fun and enjoy your family — you are an awesome dad.  I’m very proud of you.”

“It was a privilege to play with Alex. Through his preparation and work ethic, you saw how much he cared about this game and about helping this team win. I love him — as a friend and as a teammate. He was all you could ask for in both.”

“He’s one of the best players who ever played.  He’s a guy who worked hard.  I’ve never seen a guy who worked harder than him.

“There’s three things that I can say.  He loves baseball, he’s a guy who works hard and a guy who loved to win.  He was a great teammate.  For me, he was one of the best teammates I’ve had and a guy who helped me when I first came up and I appreciate all of the things he’s done for me.”

Not exactly what you read for Jeter and Mariano when they hung up their spikes.

SU gave up on the Yankees back in April but surely the Mets were on track to be a playoff team.  Well, after a bad series vs. a bad Arizona team, the Yankees actually have a  half game better record than the .500  Mets.  How did that happen?  Sure, injuries are a factor here but their offense has just been bad from day one.  The homeruns masked just how poorly they hit with RISP but they have fallen off as well.  Are they in free fall?  SU says no – they will make one more run but the clock is ticking.

Meanwhile, A-Rod finally gets a start tonight against the Red Sox.  While SU is a Joe Girardi fan, he has really mishandled this.  He continues to say he is not in the business of farewell tours for retiring players and he is trying to win games.  He is also batting Chase Headley 3rd in the line-up.  SU says: “case closed.”  You put Texeiria in the line up with his .190 average and Aaron Hicks out there every game with his .190 average.  Surely, A-Rod is no worse than these guys.  Absolutely ridiculous.

Apparently A-Rod wanted to play 3rd base Friday night and Girardi said no.  Actually, I can’t blame him for that but DHing is a no-brainer.  Jayson Stark of espn.com did a phone survey of MLB GMs to see if they thought A-Rod would land somewhere in 2017.  9 of the responding 21 GMs say he will play somewhere in 2017 and Miami seems to be early favorite.  SU says good – put him out there.  Why not?  He actually looked good pinch hitting last night.  Somehow I don’t think he will get the Jeter/Mariano treatment tonight from the Red Sox fans.

One more day and that will be it.  Unless he hits 2 homeruns in the next 2 days.  Stay tuned.

So, there it is.  A-Rod plays one more week and then hangs it up officially as he moves on to his mentoring/instructional role with the Yankees.  SU’s take:

• I will definitely miss A-Rod.  Admittedly, he’s a knucklehead and has poor judgment.  He has taken the advice of some bad people over the years and made his share of mistakes.  Having said that, I think he’s a basically good guy and a great baseball player.  Too much ego, too much vanity and too much preening at times.  He certainly knows the game and has been a model citizen the last couple of seasons.
• On a Yankee team that has been boring for the past several seasons, he was a guy you waited to see come up to bat.  The current line-up features no-one, as in no-one, that you even care to see hit.  As dull as can be.
• But here’s the deal for SU.  Brian McCann is now getting a lot of the DH at bats as Gary Sanchez is doing a lot of the catching.  I have watched McCann for almost 3 years now.  Whenever he gets a hit, I am surprised.  Truly surprised.  He is a .230 hitter who swings for the fences.  If this is A-Rod’s last week in pinstripes, just start him for every game.  You lose nothing offensively by putting him in there.  McCann does nothing more than he does.  I understand you still think the team is in the wild card hunt (note to readers: it’s not).  The reality is let us see him play his last few games.  It won’t happen but it should.

SU prediction: A-Rod plays somewhere else in 2017.  I think he believes he has something left in the tank and will work on his conditioning and flexibility in the off-season.  And I hope he does.  OK, thoughts from the SU intergalactic readership?  Will you miss A-Rod?

This tidbit from the Times of Israel web site:

The head of the Lebanese delegation to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro boasted Saturday that he physically blocked the entrance to a bus to prevent Israeli athletes from boarding amid a refusal to travel with them to the opening ceremony of the games on Friday.

“There were more than 250 buses assigned to transport delegations from the Olympics village to the ceremony. After we boarded bus number 22, for the Lebanese delegation, I was surprised to see the Israeli delegation approaching and trying to get on,” Nacoula said.

“I told the bus driver to close the door but a trainer who was with the Israelis prevented him from doing so. I had to physically stand at the door and block him and the rest of the delegation from boarding, knowing that some were trying to force their way through and were looking for trouble,” he went on.

Nacoula alleged that the Israeli had their own bus to take them. “Why did they want to board a bus with the Lebanese delegation?”

“I stood at the door and told those responsible that we would not let them on the bus with us,” he said.

Back home, Nacoula was praised in the press and on social media as a hero.

The incident was first described on Friday by Udi Gal, the Israeli sailing team trainer, who took to social media to criticize the Lebanese.

“I kept on insisting that we board the bus and said that if the Lebanese did not want to board as well they are welcome to leave,” Gal wrote in a Facebook post Friday.

“The bus driver opened the door, but this time the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and sent us away to a different bus,” he added.

SU says: here’s to hoping that Lebanon goes medal-less in Rio.

No, but thanks for asking.  The subject has come up on sports talk radio this morning and SU just doesn’t see it.  True, he was a gold glove first baseman his entire career, made the All-Star team a few times at a high profile position and won a World Series with the Yankees in 2009.  He had 400 homeruns as a switch-hitter which is impressive.  But to me, he falls short.  Care to weigh in from  your perspective?

SU’s biggest memory of Tex will be his unwillingness to adjust batting left-handed as the shifts against him became more and more severe.  Absolutely refused to do it or consider it.  His numbers tailed off badly the last few years – some of that due to injury but much of it due to stubbornness.  He could do it right-handed but felt he was paid to hit homeruns and that was that.  SU will miss his glove and consistency.  I will not miss his .130 batting average every April.  And for you cynical Met fans, the Yankees will not retire #25.

Speaking of the Mets, SU enjoyed its time at Citifield the week before last in a suite behind home plate.  Great ballpark and great staff.  SU sends a shoutout to the Human Resources team of the Mets for its hospitality and being easy to do business with.  Well done.

SU has been following some of the averages of the recent trade deadline players.  Here is my theory: when you trade a player to a new League at the deadline, they find themselves facing pitchers for the first time.  This makes a huge (as in HUUGGGGEEEE) difference in how these players perform (see Eduardo Nunez struggling big time for the SF Giants so far).  It should be a factor for GMs as they consider these moves.  Similarly, it’s an advantage for pitchers that move to a new League.  HUGE advantage.

SU made a visit to the NY Jets training camp this week (see?  I get around).  Beautiful facility in Florham Park, NJ right in the middle of corporate office parks.  Brand new and all-encompassing.  Unfortunately, nothing to report on actual players as they were not out there but I did read that Brandon Marshall and Revis got into it yesterday at a level that was more than just “the heat of the action.”  Clearly, they do not like each other.  We will see how this plays out over the course of the season.  The Jets return a lot of key players and if Fitzpatrick can repeat his form from last season, they should be a playoff team.  However, that is a big if as he had a career year.  The key for them is to avoid Geno Smith.

Finally, it’s time to get in Olympics mode.  I must admit that I struggle to do that.  I do enjoy women’s soccer and basketball, swimming and some of the track and field.  The men’s hoops team is just too good – even without some of the stars on the roster.  Funny moment on the Mike Francesa show this week on WFAN.  He was trying to name the players on the roster for the men’s team.  Rather than just have someone look it up, the FAN always likes to play the guessing game with Big Mike so he can look brilliant when he gets a few right.  He is truly the imperious one but for me, a good listen.  He knows the Yankees and I do enjoy his pompousness and ability to repeat every statement 3 times in a row.  Not everyone can talk in triplicate.

SU says kudos to Sandy Alderson of the Mets who was able to grab Jay Bruce at the trade deadline to shore up their offense.  They did have to part ways with their 2nd baseman of the future, Herreria, but they needed to jolt the offense now and Bruce is having a great year with RISP.  It’s not ideal unless Curtis Granderson can log some innings in centerfield but SU says good move and bold.  They also reacquired Jonathan Niese to have another starter in the rotation given all the injuries.

Meanwhile, as SU has been saying for months, the Yankees completed the fire sale by sending Beltran to the Rangers and Nova to the Pirates.  Cashman got a high draft pick from Texas (#4 overall pitcher from 2015) who has struggled this year but hey, roll the dice.  Apparently, Brian McCann stays put for now although he may be headed back to Atlanta in the off season.  Question: do we now get to see A-Rod in the line-up every day???

The experts on the MLB Network are very high on what Cashman has done and SU is excited.  Now, if he can move Jacoby Ellsbury to any team for anything, he will be the MLB Executive of the Year.

A lot of guys changed teams this afternoon.  Texas is all in for this season even with Prince Fielder going down although he was having a terrible year.  The SF Giants picked up Matt Moore who is coming back strong now from Tommy John surgery.  He could be key down the stretch and in the playoffs.