Long-time SU subscriber T. Potter sent SU this baseball trivia quiz from the New York Times:

SU has traditionally steered clear of trivia questions as the intergalactic subscriber base has a tendency to use the internet to assist in answering.  But if you are home from work this week or sitting on some beach, perhaps these challenging questions will provide a welcome diversion for a few minutes.  I think you have to click on the headline to access the questions.  Have at it!

First of all, there is no need for any of you to thank SU for providing the latest and greatest commentary in the sports world for yet another year.  Vice President Mike Pence had contacted SU “to say a few words” but at SU, we don’t need that type of adulation.  We are just here doing our job for the intergalactic subscriber base.

Lots of rumors swirling today in Yankeeland.  For your viewing pleasure and consideration:

• Talks are heating up between the Yankees and Pirates about acquiring pitcher Gerrit Cole for a bunch of prospects.  The Yankees actually drafted Cole when he was in high school but he opted to attend UCLA and turned them down.  They have always coveted him.  The Pirates really want Gleyber Torres but the Yankees are, so far, standing firm.  Clint Frazier has been offered and rumors are it will be Frazier and Chance Adams as the primary pieces moving.  As SU has said many times, I much prefer the prospects to be given a chance – especially the high quality variety that the Yankees have these days.  Cole is not coming off a good year.  Give Adams a chance.  Unhappy about this one.  Many say this one is a done deal – just a matter of who is traded and the date it’s announced.
• Now, how about this one?  Jacoby Ellsbury to the SF Giants for the pitcher Jeff Samardzija.  Bad contract for bad contract.  SU would do this deal just to move Ellsbury.  There is no place to play him now and he still has about 27 years left on his deal.

Thoughts?  The guy to get is on the Tampa Bay Rays – Chris Archer.  Yankee killer, throws in the high 90s.  But they would no doubt demand a boatload of prospects.  The Rays are in full teardown mode.  Have you been following Derek Jeter’s almost daily trashing?  Did he really need to sign up for this?  SU wonders if he already regrets getting into this in Miami.

Sad news about the passing of Dick Enberg.  “Oh my!”  Truly one of the great sportscasters who did so many sports over the years – football, baseball, basketball, US Open tennis.

The Knicks start on the tough part of their schedule now – 16 out of the next 20 on the road.  They do need to get Hardaway back healthy to have a shot here but continue to play a fun, up-temp style.  So refreshing.

Merry Christmas!

As long-time subscriber, S. Goldman, commented in yesterday’s posting, this afternoon is the last show of the Imperious One, Mike Francesa, on WFAN.  For those of us in New York, he has dominated the drive time hours for the last 30 years or so.  He was bigger than life – always opinionated and very knowledgeable about the Yankees and Giants.  He was abusive to the callers who disagreed with him and soaked up the adulation from those who sucked up to him.  For SU, the best was listening to him say everything in triplicate – especially when Mad Dog left for Sirius Radio and he was on by himself for 5 and a half hours a day.  There is an art to saying the same thing 3 times in a row and SU suspects that to this day, he has no idea he is doing it.  No clue.

He became more cranky the last few years and who can blame him after doing this for such a long time?  Last year, during the election, he became totally unlistenable as he is a huge Trump supporter and we listen to him for sports, not his politics.  Anyway, best of luck to Big Mike.  I am sure he will stay active doing something sports related.

Others want to share their thoughts of Mike Francesa?

Melo makes his Garden return tomorrow night as OKC comes to town.  SU says the Knicks will give him a nice video montage of highlights and the fans will give him a warm ovation.  You can picture the montage: setting the Garden scoring record for a Knick, pointing to his head after a made 3-pointer, doing the jab step move from the right side,  jab stepping from the left side, and of course, jab stepping from the top of the key.  Perhaps they will include some video of him jogging down the court on defense?  The Knicks gave up a lot of young players to the Nuggets to acquire him and their style of play during his era was boring.  But he put points on the board, was never afraid to take the last shot, and was a stand up guy in the locker room.  At OKC, he is shooting 40% from the field and there is talk of moving him to the bench to play with the 2nd unit which makes the most sense given the number of individual style players on the Thunder.  It will be interesting to see if he is a team player and makes the move.

He deserves the applause tomorrow night.

SU asks: “At what point do the Yankees say enough is enough?”  Lots of rumors flying around that the Yankees were kicking the tires to trade for Manny Machado.  The Orioles realize they will lose him after this season and want to get something for him now in the way of prospects and younger players.  Well, the Yankees have lots of those guys including Didi, Gleyber Torres and some other top tier prospects.

SU says bad idea.  It’s one thing if you are operating from weakness and you are desperate to add a Machado who is no doubt a superstar and as some on this blog like to say, a “once in a generation player.”  But the Yankees don’t need him – they don’t need more offense.  They have Torres who is 21 years old and is supposed to be the real deal.  As a fan, let’s find out if he is.  As a fan, blend together your stars with younger players.  The Yankees have Torres, Torreyes, Tyler Wade, Andujar and then some even younger players coming up behind them.  I would love to see these guys be given a shot to compete for a job and then see them struggle, overcome and flourish.  When you have a bunch of sluggers already, you can afford to do that.  And that is the key as soon enough Sanchez, Judge and Didi will be free agents and you won’t have enough payroll to keep them all.  Of course, don’t forget your pitching is already sub-standard and needs an upgrade at the starter position.

The Yankees are rumored to be looking at Brandon Drury on the D’Backs who can play multiple infield positions.  SU is not familiar with him but would prefer to give the prospects a chance.  Cashman always likes the “workman like, grind it out” players like Chase Headley.  It sounds like he is in that mode.  Boring.  Show some confidence in your own youngsters.

SU hopes that Cashman is only trying to drive the purchase price up for Machado in case some team like the Red Sox are in the mix.  Of course, the Red Sox tried to bean him last year so you wonder if he would want to play there.

Hot stove baseball is unlike any other sport in the off season.  Always fun for the fans.

Latest Trey Burke update: averaging 26 points, 6 assists a game; shooting 51% from the field and 46% from 3-point range.  Unreal that he is not back in the NBA.  As a subscriber of the NBA Season Pass, SU sees the quality of point guard around the League.  No wonder some teams are always terrible.  GMs have no clue.

Long-time subscriber T. Potter just gave SU a heads up that Chase Headley had been traded.  SU’s crack research division went into action and here is the story:

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2017/12/12/report-yankees-trade-chase-headley-to-the-padres/

So, Bryan Mitchell and Headley to San Diego for Jabari Blash.  Say who?  What?  Never heard of him.  The article says it was a salary dump.  But SU is now concerned that the Yankees are going to bring back Todd Frazier.  I mean, how many swing and miss hitters can you tolerate in a line up?  The better option would be to spend some money on pitching.

We are in Baseball Winter Meetings mode so more to come no doubt.  SU had started to grow a little (just a little) fonder of Headley but I will get over this.

OK, Eli got his ovation and respect yesterday from the Giants’ faithful and that was nice to see.  He was treated poorly by McAdoo and Reese and ownership made sure he got the starting nod yesterday.  He did his best with a patchwork offensive line and must have set a record for dump off passes.  Of course, most of his throws to the wide receivers were dropped as they are 2nd and 3rd string.

But with 3 games remaining, start Davis Webb and see what you have.  They will likely have the 2nd pick in the draft.  Doesn’t it make sense now to see if you need to draft the next quarterback?  Eli had a great run but the Giants are going into a rebuild and should start over.  The Broncos would be thrilled to have Eli next season and he clearly has a few good years left for a playoff ready team.  The Giants need someone more mobile.  It’s actually an easy decision right now.  SU says make the move already.

Giancarlo Stanton will be introduced to the world as a Yankee today in Orlando.  The SU subscribers have weighed in as overwhelmingly in favor of the trade.  Of course, time will tell if this was a good move.  One positive is that most likely the Yankees will allow Todd Frazier to move on as a free agent.  SU believes they will now look to package Clint Frazier in a trade for a younger pitcher for the starter rotation.  This is the fallout from these types of moves.  You trade your prospects for more experienced players.  SU was interested to see how he would develop but I suspect he is seen as expendable now unless they allow Gardner to leave after this next season.

OK, looks like this deal is done pending Stanton’s physical.  Yankees only had to give up Castro and a couple of lower level prospects.  They get a $31 million break on the rest of the $295 million contract.  Great comments from the SU intergalactic subscriber base – both pro and con.  SU likes to see the analytics making their way into the comments to support your arguments.

On the face of it, this is similar to signing a big time free agent.  You give up Castro but he is easily replaced by Gleybar Torres who now has a position going into spring training.  SU asks this question: “If you had this roster with Stanton playing Houston this past October, do you win that series?”  SU says no – you still lose.  You just have a different guy swinging and missing at low and outside sliders and curve balls in the DH spot.  Your pitching is still not good enough and you are still not able to manufacture runs.

With Stanton, you win 95 – 100 regular season games in 2018 and feast on the bad teams’ pitching.  But Cleveland and Houston still have the horses in their rotation and the Yankees still do not.  And now you do not have the payroll to acquire that talent as Hal is intent on getting below $200 million next season.  You will instead rely on the young arms in Chance Adams and Sheffield.  And SU is fine with that.  But Stanton does not win you extra games in the post-season in 2018.

SU agrees with B. Rosano’s comment that this feels like the 2004 A-Rod signing.  Do you remember that team?  Gary Sheffield, A-Rod, Jeter, Posada – they scored a ton or runs.  Same in 2005.  But come playoff time, you had John Lieber, a scotch-taped Kevin Brown and then in 2005 an aging and pissed off Randy Johnson starting and losing games.  For SU, this feels very similar.  They already had plenty of offense.  But Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber are still going to be there in October and the Yankees will still be swinging and missing.

Twitter is alive this morning with reports of the Yankees finalizing a trade deal for Giancarlo Stanton that would feature Starlin Castro going to the Marlins with some prospects.  Stanton is owed $295 million over 10 years with an opt out in 2020.  SU says this is a mistake by the Yankees.  Consider:

• The Yankees have some talent in the minor leagues ready to make an impact.  They are young, fast, get on base, can cover the outfield.  Most importantly, they will make contact.
• Gleybar Torres can slide into 2nd base with Castro gone which is fine.  However, you will still need to find a 3rd baseman at some point or maybe Chase Headley will get his own 10-year deal.  But this is minor in the overall scheme of things.
• Most importantly, the addition of Stanton makes the line up a series of power hitting, swing and miss batters.  SU says how much power do you need?  It’s enough with Judge, Sanchez, Bird, Didi.  This is overkill and quite honestly, will make watching games more boring.  Fans sitting around waiting for a home run or a strikeout.  Seriously: not entertaining, not enjoyable, not inspiring.  What’s fun about this Yankee roster is that many are minor leaguers who spent time in the Yankee system.  Stanton is a great talent but he is another all or nothing, home run or bust hitter.
• Taking on another $300 million contract will hurt their ability to get some more pitching.  That is the need right now – starting pitching.
• All long-term contracts end badly.  It’s a fact.

SU is unhappy.  Trading for Stanton is an over-reaction to not getting Ohtani.  SU says Cashman and Hal should take a deep breadth and do some meditation.  This is the wrong move for this franchise.  And by the way, if you have a line up of only home run power hitters, you don’t need Aaron Boone and any analytics.

So, what do you all think?

Alabama is in as the #4 seed joining Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma and freezing out Ohio State.  SU says that aside from the fact that I hate Ohio State, this was the right choice.  Alabama had been the #1 team for most of the season and had just one loss.  While their strength of schedule was not what it usually is, Ohio State had 2 losses including a thumping at home by Oklahoma and then a blowout loss at Iowa.  The Big Ten was mediocre this year and the goal of the FCS Committee is not to have conference champions in each of the 4 slots.  Rather, they are supposed to put the best teams into the playoffs and this is just what they did.  SU is fine with these selections and these will be great bowl games.

Clearly, the Ohio State fans will not be happy but why put a 2-loss team in there just because they won their conference?  The PAC 12 is also left out.

Thoughts?

Ownership and Brian Cashman have spoken and the winner of the Yankee managerial sweepstakes is Aaron Boone.  SU can live with that.  OK, he has zero managerial experience and as far as I know, does not speak Spanish or Japanese.  But clearly Cashman values having a younger manager who has been around the game his whole life.  It’s his choice, the team is ready to win now and the pressure and spotlight will all be on Boone in 2018.  Welcome to New York.

So, who will be the bench coach?  Interesting quote here from Brian Cashman regarding his interactions with A-Rod:  “I reached out to Alex a number of times, ‘Hey, what do you got?’ I looked for a lot of guidance from a lot of people that I have a lot of respect for, and Alex knows baseball as well as anybody” Cashman said. “He never expressed interest in any way, shape or form in it. I engaged him, but — I don’t want to speak for him — but I don’t think he has any interest in that position.”

He has no interest in managing but what about being the bench coach?  SU says he would be the ideal choice.  Lives and breathes baseball, is very analytical and just enjoys the game.  It would certainly make it more entertaining!  But having him as the #2 guy would probably not work – he would be too forthcoming and compete for the spotlight.  Maybe David Cone?  Larry Rothschild is coming back as the pitching coach and Rob Thomson has already accepted the bench coach role with the Phillies.  SU hopes Boone picks someone younger or maybe this is where the Spanish/Japanese speaking part comes in.  Tony Pena could do it although he is the 1st base coach.

If Cashman really wants to be gound breaking, why not put the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst in there – Jessica Mendoza?  If you watched any of the broadcasts, she was much more insightful than Boone, and her predictions of what would happen were much more accurate than his.  SU says push the envelope and really shake things up.  Btw, that is the one thing SU is a bit leery about.  I never thought Boone had much to say of interest on those broadcasts.  I actually do not think he is especially analytical.  His strength had better be in the clubhouse talking to the players and giving out those big hugs.

Did you see that Derek Jeter fired one of the Marlins’ scouts while the guy was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery?

https://nypost.com/2017/12/01/derek-jeter-fires-marlins-scout-who-has-cancer-and-needs-kidney/

The question is why do you think Jeter is qualified for this job?  A-Rod is better suited to be a manager than Jeter is to be the quasi-team president/GM.  Not sure this ends well for Jeter.