You can’t make this stuff up.  Giancarlo Stanton may not be ready for opening day – in fact, unlikely – as he strained his calf muscle doing defensive drills before yesterday’s game.  SU is off the Stanton bandwagon.  I enjoyed my 48 hours on it – there were cushioned seats and free popcorn.  But he is just another over-muscled player who has career DH written all over him.

Fine by me.  Put Tauchman out there and give Miguel Andujar a shot in the outfield.

Note to Yankees’ Strength and Conditioning Staff: remember to stretch.

So, about those Yankee world championship predictions.  You now have Severino out for the year with Tommy John surgery, Paxton out until June most likely with back surgery and German out with his suspension.  All of a sudden JA Happ is a key guy in the rotation and that is not a good thing.  And we are only in February – plenty of time for another pitcher to go down.

The good news is that the Yankees do have some youngsters with high upside who should get a shot in the rotation.  SU enjoys rooting those for those guys – makes it more interesting.  Of course, now that Cole is on the Yankees with their medical staff, who knows what awaits him?

Aaron Boone is likely running his analytical models as we speak of how to position his all right-handed line up for this year.  It does require some thought about where to put Brett Gardner and maybe Tauchman.  You want to make the most of your two left-handed batters.

We will soon find out what a $260 million payroll gets you come early April.

Is all attention actually good?  If so, then MLB will have a great year.  Commissioner Rob Manfred gave the Astro players immunity in order to get them to cooperate in his investigation.  He was able to get the facts (except the elusive buzzers) and he suspended the GM and the manager who were then fired.  But, and perhaps surprisingly, the players on opposing teams are very upset – especially on the better teams who lost to the Astros in the 2017 post-season.

It’s funny: we did not see that reaction during the PED era from opposing players – at least not so much.  Now, that may have been because everyone was doing it and the other players were just happy not to be caught.  We are now seeing the best players voice their anger and frustration, and some of the pitchers are threatening retaliation.  Even LeBron is upset.

On the one hand, attention is good.  SU predicts the Astros will set a road attendance record in 2020.  Good for business.  Fans welcome the chance to boo and see a hitter or two get beaned.  And you can already see how this is going to play out when the Yankees play the Astros.   The umpires will be instructed to protect the Astro hitters and any pitch somewhat up and in (but not really) will result in the ejection of the Yankee pitcher.  Now that CC has retired, who will carry the mantle of hitting opposing batters?  SU says watch out for Tommy Kahnle — he is a tough dude.  No way Cole is going to hit his former teammates – not even if it would endear him to his new team.  When you make $35 million a year, you call the shots.   Chapman would be my other choice although likely not on purpose as he hasn’t been able to locate his fastball for 2 seasons.

No doubt April and May will be turbulent and then things will die down a bit.  But down the stretch, if Houston is fighting for a playoff berth, it will pick up again.   It’s hard to see how Baseball can put this behind it.

SU just read in  Sports Business Journal that the NHL is nipping at the heels of MLB for popularity.  The issue seems to be that the demographic for baseball is older white guys and your Gen Z and Millennials are not patient enough to watch a whole game.  SU finds it hard to believe but time will tell and no doubt MLB is focusing on pace of play in a big way now.  Having to change catcher signs over and over again will only slow it down more.

Men’s tennis is also faced with the pace of play issue.  If you ever watch the videos of matches from back in the 1970s and 1980s, no one was toweling off in between every point, and you certainly didn’t see the ball kid running over with a towel.  SU contends that players were sweating way back when – this is nothing new.  Guys like Nadal will have to wear sleeves on their shirts so they can wipe away the sweat without a towel and my man Djokovic will not be able to do the OCD towel off in between each point.  Use the shot clock in every tournament and no longer have the ball kid run the towel over to the player.  Speed it up!

Finally, James Paxton is out and now Severino has a sore arm.  We have been down this road before with the Yankees.  They should have enough offense to win their share of games – although it’s all right-handed.  If Gardner gets hurt, you only have Mike Tauchmann as Hicks is out until mid-year.  Will we see a big year for Giancarlo Stanton?  SU says yes!  He’s had 2 years to get comfortable in New York and this will be his year.  I know, hard to believe I am saying that but it’s time for him.  I will save you a seat on the bandwagon.

Or he’ll get injured in spring training…

Finally, finally, finally.  Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training facilities down south.  Aaron Boone met with the media and is still upset about the Astros’ stealing of signs in 2017 and 2019.  Long-time subscriber, E. Alper, sent SU this article in the Washington Post which is a good read about just how rampant the cheating was with the Astros:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/astros-cheating-open-secret/2020/02/11/1830154c-4c41-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html

There was another article in The Athletic that really killed Carlos Beltran.  He was clearly a leader in all of this.  SU says it’s likely this will keep him out of the Hall of Fame when his name comes up unless William Barr somehow becomes the next MLB Commissioner.  The Mets were smart to move on from Beltran.  SU must admit that my thinking on the cheating scandal has evolved.  In the beginning, I didn’t think it was such a big deal as teams have been trying to steal signs for decades.  But the use of technology – and especially after the Commissioner warned teams to knock it off – took it to another level.  SU saw an article yesterday where Yankee reliever, David Robertson, looked back to game 6 in the 2017 playoff series and thought about how he was lit up that night.  He said he was throwing the ball as well as he had all year that game and was surprised at how the Astros laid off certain pitches and were on others.

The Astros hurt other players in their careers.  Baseball has a stupid credo where you don’t rat out other players – it goes all the way back to Jim Bouton in Ball Four in the 1960s and of course many years before that.  It’s why the PED era lasted so long (and who knows what they are taking today that’s undetected?).  You almost feel like the Astros should be punished more and perhaps their 2017 title should be taken away.

The Yankees are already down James Paxton now – another casualty of the Yankees’ medical/strength and conditioning staff from last year who recommended that he not have back surgery after the season.  All of a sudden JA Happ is back in the rotation and Yankee fans are already buying up tickets in the right field stands for his games to catch those home run balls.  It opens the door for some young players to get into the rotation until German and Paxton return around June.

SU just read that NBA ratings are down 10-12% this year.  It’s interesting.  SU has the same experience – just not as interested.  I watch games to see certain players, e.g., Duncan Robinson on the Heat, vs. any team.  The reality is that there are some young, exciting teams out there now – Memphis, New Orleans – and the Miami Heat play the right way.  The downfall of the Golden State Warriors is certainly a factor and having no Kevin Durant, Curry or Thompson playing this year is also  not helping.  But SU feels there are a lot of great young players and in time, interest will rise again.  It just may not be this year.

What do you think about the proposed MLB playoff changes being discussed for 2022?  Another 3 teams in each League qualifying for the playoffs, best record gets a bye and the best team would get to pick who it wants to play in the first round.  Pretty wild.  I guess baseball wants to be more like the NHL where everyone makes the playoffs.  SU is not a fan at the moment but is open to learning more.

First off, we give props to long-time subscriber, T. Potter, who had the closest prediction for the final score of the game at 34 – 24 for Kansas City.  Very impressive.

SU says that there were two major points in this game where the Niners had some curious play calling:

• First, at the end of the first half, they allowed KC to run the clock down before punting with 1:35 on the clock and 3 timeouts.  That was a lost opportunity to try and score again before half time.
• Second, with 5 minutes left and up 20-17, SF ran on first down for 5 yards.  But then, passed on 2nd and 3rd down and had to kick.  They are a good running team.  That was the time to run the ball.

Yes, the Niners are young and they may be back.  But in football, being back means staying healthy and that is not always easy.  Time will tell.

Greg Bird signs a minor league deal with Texas.  SU will be watching.  The over/under for his first injury is March 3rd.

Mookie Betts to LA as the Red Sox look to cut payroll.  They are in transition but will no doubt look to regroup in 2021 with some new technology for stealing signs.  The Dodgers are all in to win it all in 2020.  They continue to come close but their time is now.

Finally, SU watched the Michigan – Ohio State game last night.  I must agree with ESPN commentator Jay Bilas who says that officiating is ruining college basketball this season.  There is so much grabbing and holding going on that players can’t cut and get open.  It’s like watching the Rye High School basketball team over and over again.  And in the Big Ten, it’s always bad officiating on steroids.  Michigan did not deserve to win shooting 30% for the game but SU saw a first at the end of the game.  Zavier Simpson drives to the basket, is fouled and then as he is falling to the ground happens to grab on to the jersey of the Ohio State player which rips.  Simpson is assessed a flagrant foul.  2 fouls shots and the ball with 35 seconds left.  Never seen anything like that at any level – high school, college, NBA.  To SU, it’s incidental contact and he was heading to the floor and just reached out.  But the officials got together and disregarded what happened but rather just looked at a ripped jersey.  Someone had to pay.  Is that the rule?

SU may be wrong but it feels like the unexpected and tragic death of Kobe Bryant has overshadowed a lot of the normal hype surrounding this year’s Super Bowl.  That’s fine with me – a lot of that talk is just background noise anyway (like listening to Dick Vitale doing a college basketball game and easy to tune out).  This does set up to be one of the better games in recent years and it should be close.

SU is on record for a San Francisco win: 31 – 27.  I do like the Chiefs and Mahomes but the Niners defense will be a difference maker as well as their running game.  It’s great for the NFL to showcase Mahomes and there is a lot of sentiment to have Andy Reid get his first Super Bowl championship.  Feel free to post your predicted scores here if you’d like.

SU caught the Michigan – Rutgers basketball game at the Garden yesterday along with long-time subscribers B. Levine, S. Levine and several of their Michigan classmates.  MSG was rocking – huge Rutgers turnout as they finally have put together a competitive basketball team.  It was technically a Michigan home game but there were many more Rutgers fans.  Great atmosphere and an exciting game.  SU was grateful to see Michigan in person although this is definitely a transition year for the team as they seek to be a bubble team for the NCAAs.  Rutgers is good – very athletic – and undefeated at home this year.  All good for the Big Ten.  Now Rugers just needs to get their football team on the same footing.  The Big Ten is a slogfest with the top teams struggling to win on the road.  And the NCAAs are set up for a wide open tournament which is ideal.

SU woke up early to catch the Australian Open finals with Djokovic pulling out a 5-set win over Dominick Thiem.  Interesting match as Djokovic had an energy lapse for a set and a half but somehow rallied from behind win his 17th major.   But the younger players are clearly ready to break though and SU says it will be someone in the Thiem, Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev group for 2020.  Men’s tennis is really set up well now for the next several years.

On the women’s side, it was great to see an American take the title with Sophie Kenin.  She is fierce.

Finally, pitchers and catchers (and metal trash bins in Houston) are just about ready to report.  Lots of research on the Astros’ hitting stats for 2017.  The numbers are striking for the home games vs. the road.  Someone even watched videos of every home game and charted the number of trash bangs vs. hitting/wins and losses.  Pretty striking and pretty obvious.  And, of course, those stats can’t pick up the buzzer-aided at bats.  The Astros also showed a huge drop-off in strikeouts in 2017 vs. 2016 – especially at home.  It does feel like this story will have legs well into the 2020 season.

Clearly Greg Bird is feeling unshackled now after living for several years under the Yankees’ facial hair policy.  Check out the before and after pictures below:

Lots going on.  A few thoughts this morning:

• SU has been surprised about the reaction to Kobe Bryant’s tragic death.  He was clearly in that iconic category of sports talent – along the lines of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Ali.  SU always viewed him as one of the best NBA players ever – top 5 – but not my favorite to watch.  He was fearless, always wanted the ball in crunch time and welcomed the chance to carry the team on his back.  A great scorer – and a high volume shooter who could score from anywhere.  It’s clear from the reactions of current and former players and fans that he had a real emotional connection – especially with the younger players who he apparently coached and counseled regularly.  It’s another major loss for the NBA coming on the heels of David Stern’s death.  Just very sad.  SU was thinking what this could be compared to.  There was Roberto Clemente who’s plane crashed delivering supplies to Nicaragua.  There was Thurman Munson’s plane crash.  But both of them were still active players at the time.
• Eli Manning has officially retired.  SU will remember him as a solid quarterback who had two magical post-season runs.  His .500 career record is probably about right.  He will be a borderline Hall of Fame candidate.  SU would say no as he was never a top tier QB for most of his years with the Giants.
• I don’t know if you saw it but when Justin Verlander was awarded his Cy Young trophy over the weekend at the Baseball dinner, he thanked the Astros’ organization for their “technological and analytical” prowess.  No doubt he meant that as a compliment but given the cheating accusations, he showed he is pretty tone deaf.  The Astros are going to experience some tough road environments this year.  Probably good for their road attendance as fans will turn out to chant “Cheaters, Cheaters.”
• We are less than a week away from the Super Bowl.  The betting line is very close – 1 point – and it should be a reasonably good game although none of the national brand teams are playing.  SU believes that the Niners’ defense will rise to the occasion and will pay attention to Mahomes so that he can’t scramble out of the pocket.  Prediction here: SF 31, KC 27.  Per usual, feel free to post your predicted score and SU will be sure to give you props come Monday.  And, of course, you will be in the running to win the SU-logoed gym bag and backpack.
• Finally, we are weeks away now from pitchers and catchers.  SU has been monitoring Greg BIrd to see where he lands – no doubt many of you are doing the same.  And did you know that Jeremy Lin is averaging 25 points a game in China?  Ah, what could have been…

SU cannot verify this but just came across it on Twitter:

From Carlos Beltran’s niece:  she says that Altuve and Bregman wore devices that buzzed on the inside of their right shoulder under their uniforms from the video guy in the hallway by the dugout.  Remember how Altuve says he doesn’t like it when his teammates try and tear off his uniform shirt after hitting a walk-off home run?  Said his wife didn’t like it.  Well, says SU, maybe he didn’t want that buzzer revealed?  And his niece says she has pictures from the locker room.  Let’s get her on the Rachel Maddow Show!

And as I recall, he hit a walk-off home run off of Chapman to win the series.  Was that at bat buzzer aided?  Many, many questions to be answered…

And there it is.  Beltran has stepped down.  No truth to the rumor that the Red Sox will now hire him (just kidding).  No doubt we will soon find out if this was his decision, the Mets’ or a “mutual meeting of the minds.”

Too bad.  He’s a good guy.  A-Rod can advise him on how to rebuild his reputation.