We all know a baseball season is a long, slow slog of 162 games and in the cold weather, many teams start slowly.  But the Yankees are rolling out a roster that looks pretty much like last year’s snoozefest and so far it’s been more of the same.  SU watched a fair amount of last night’s game (in between dozing off and some channel surfing) and they are just boring.  SU is a long-time, major Yankee fan – the type that would stay up to watch the mid-week west coast games that started at 10 pm.  Now?  They field a vanilla, dull, uninspiring line up where the most interesting thing to watch is A-Rod.  I must admit: I am rooting for him big time to do something, anything.  He is still worth tuning in and he did club one last night into a stiff wind that would have likely gone out.

The team’s 8th inning 3-run explosion reminded me of the Mets in years past: bloop double; wild pitch; 2 HBPs; deflected double play rounder that is scored a hit.  Zzzzzzzzzz.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post agrees with SU:

http://nypost.com/2015/04/08/tanaka-concerns-pale-in-comparison-to-yankees-anemic-offense/

NBA playoffs around the corner.  Watch out for the Spurs.  Peaking at the right time.  No one is going to want to play them out West.

SU has been asked to comment on the Rangers but truth be told, I know little.  We know there are many NHL fans out there.  Got something you want to say?  Well, here is your forum to do so.

It’s a good day for women’s college basketball. The UConn women have chalked up another championship for Coach Geno Auriemma who is now in the same class as John Wooden. Some will say that it’s bad for the sport but SU disagrees. It’s not just that Auriemma has been able to recruit some of the best players every year (which he has). It’s because his teams play basketball the right way. There is constant motion on offense, they push the ball every chance they can and he often presses full court for much of the game. There is no walking the ball up the court, no isolation plays where every player stands with their hands on their knees on the 3-point line while someone goes one-on-one (see former Knick coach Mike Woodson’s pamphlet on how to run a pro offense). Year in and year out, this team is a pleasure to watch. Their style of play makes them that much more interesting and their achievement that much greater. The reality is that women’s basketball is somewhat of an acquired taste and SU does not watch much other than the UConn games. I have often said that the WNBA would be well served to have a team of just UConn graduates as a way to generate a higher level of interest.

SU is often asked to make a prediction for the Masters tournament and is happy to oblige. SU loved the recent survey of PGA TOUR professionals where they were asked if a particular player was getting beaten up in a parking lot and you were walking by, would you go and help him? Apparently, Bubba Watson is just about the most disliked and despised player on the Tour. He clearly needs to avoid those parking lots. However, SU believes this will just fuel his desire to win the Masters this year and he has had success here in the past given his style of play. He is my pick to win. Of course, I will tune in to check out Tiger Woods who always makes things more interesting although just finishing a round is now becoming a major achievement for him.

Yankees no doubt hoping for the rainout tonight in cold, wet conditions. They cannot afford to have Pineda pull something covering first base on a grounder to the right side. Red Sox coming in this weekend and it could get very ugly early in the Bronx. The cold weather and the frequent rainouts in April make spring training batting averages a moot point as the conditions change so dramatically. Good news for Stephen Drew on that point.

Great NCAA Men’s finals game last night.  Lots of drama, controversy and freshmen stepping up.  SU’s take:

• SU did not like Bo Ryan’s comments about the officiating after the game.  We all know Duke will eventually get its share of the calls – been that way for about 35 years now.  But in the first half, the calls went Wisconsin’s way.  Whining about the refs sends a bad message to the players and the program, and it makes you sound like Tom Izzo.  It’s part of sports and you have to rise above that – win or lose.
• Okafor gets all the hype but Justise Winslow is really, really good.  I would draft him over Okafor and quite frankly, even over Towns on Kentucky.  Okafor could not even stay with a slow-footed Kaminsky on defense and except for a couple of put-back baskets late in the game from about 1 feet, he was a non-factor.  The NBA is a guard-oriented league now.  Big men rarely dominate.  It will be interesting to see where Phil Jackson goes with his pick.
• Coach K is obviously a great coach but he actually could have played that kid Grayson Allen more minutes in the 2nd half.  He single handedly brought them back when they were down 9 and then went to the bench for a while.  He will be fun to watch next season.
• Wisconsin had a great run but having to beat, Arizona, Kentucky and then Duke in succession is a tough draw.  SU really enjoys the way this Duke team plays and I never like Duke.  Several future NBA stars but the ball moves all around and the points are distributed.  In contrast, Kentucky runs almost no offense.  How Calipari’s name keeps coming up for an NBA coaching job is beyond me.
• SU did not like how some of the Kentucky players did not stick around to shake hands after their loss to Wisconsin.  Your opponents shook your hands for the first 30+ wins of the season.  Show some class.

Anyway, it’s on to baseball season.  SU will not over-react to the Yankees’ opener even though many games this year will look like that one.  Zzzzzzzzz.  The Mets are off and running and with Harvey on deck, have a chance to get off to the good start that they desperately need.

It’s Opening Day 2015!  Baseball is upon us and it’s time for SU’s fearless and occasionally accurate MLB predictions.  See our 2014 forecast below from a year ago:

“OK, here are SU’s fearless baseball predictions.  The Nationals and the Dodgers seem to be the hot picks in the NL but SU disagrees.  The Dodgers have too many out-sized personalities and Don Mattingly will be hard-pressed to manage the chaos.  The San Francisco Giants win the World Series on the even years now and SU says they will beat the Cardinals in the NLCS to get to the World Series.  The Mets, despite their rare opening day loss yesterday, will surprise and win 82 games as the fans return after the All-Star break to see if they can grab a wild card (which they won’t).  In the AL, there is way too much gloom and doom associated with my Yankees.  They have great starting pitching this year (says SU) and Phelps is there as insurance if one of the starters does down.  The experts are hot on the Rays but SU says their offense always makes it so difficult in the end.  Plus, you know they are going to deal David Price at some point before the trade deadline.  The Yankees will be major players for talent in July and SU says their infield will look very different by the end of the season as they pick up someone of major league pedigree to play 3^rd base.  They will win the wild card if not the division in the East.  The Red Sox will have a letdown and who knows if Big Papi can summon yet another big year?  By the way, why doesn’t he ever get booed for having failed (or being suspected of it) a PED test?  The keys for the Yankees are Teixeira and whether he can regain his form and not be terrible all the way into June, and of course Tanaka and if he is the real deal.  Either way, Hal Steinbrenner will be resembling his father this year as the season unfolds.

 SU will take Oakland over the Tigers in the ALCS, and then the Giants over the A’s in an all-Bay area World Series.  The good news is that no one, not even SU, will remember these fearless predictions come October.”

OK, respectable and certainly better than SU’s NCAA Tournament prediction.  By the way, you have to think John Calipari’s NBA stock just dropped a whole lot as his end of game coaching left something to be desired (3 shot clock violations in a row?).  But I digress.  So, here goes:

In the American League, this feels like a wide open field.  Many of the experts are picking Seattle but SU is not feeling that.  They are still offensively challenged and while Nelson Cruz is a big addition, you know he will immediately go into a funk hitting in spacious SafeCo Field.  The AL East actually has a fair amount of parity.  Many are high on Toronto but they seem to always come up with some unexpected injuries and fade by June.  The Red Sox added offense but their pitching has lots of question marks including a season starting hamstring injury to the world’s most annoying closer (Uehara).  The Rays are truly bad and the Yankees, well, we will get to them in a second.  The Orioles lost some guys but get others back from injury.  SU sees them taking the division.

Watch out for the White Sox in the Central with the pick-ups of David Robertson and Melky Cabrera (long-time SU fave).  Out West, the A’s are worse and Texas is terrible which helps to have a Wild Card come out of that division.  SU will go with the Angels.  Wild cards will be Seattle and Detroit.  Look for the Tigers to add some pieces come trade deadline and make it to the World Series this year.

As for the Yankees, Tanaka is already saying his velocity will be down this year.  Not a good sign.  By his 2^nd start, that will go out the window and he will be throwing full throttles which will then lead to injury.  There is just no way he is finishing the season.  CC was rocked all spring, Pineda never makes all of his starts and SU believes the bullpen without Robertson is not a sure thing.  Offensively, blecch.  A-Rod is the most interesting aspect of the line-up.  By the way, he will win the Comeback Player of the Year Award (or MLB’s newest award: “Best Season by a Former PED User”).  Look for an 82-80 record and tons of empty seats by July.

In the National League, SU is intrigued by the Mets.  Many say they are still a year away and have lots of holes offensively and in the bullpen.  But those can be plugged as the season unfolds and if Granderson can go back to his AL hitting ways, this team can win some low scoring games with strong starting pitching.  SU sees an 88-74 season and more importantly, a Wild Card in their future as they finish behind everyone’s favorites, the Washington Nationals.  And yes, the Mets take over the town and the back pages.  This is the year as the Yankees are truly, truly uninteresting.

The Giants win in the even years and it’s St. Louis in the odd ones.  Cardinals take the Central and the Dodgers win the West.  The Pirates will grab the other wild card spot.  St. Louis over Detroit in the World Series.  OK, enough of that – too exhausting.  SU has never liked doing the preseason stuff but feels obligated to help the intergalactic fan base.

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