Great game last night between the Warriors and Rockets.  It’s interesting to watch how Golden State is deviating from their winning formula of ball movement to going with the player with the hot hand for long stretches in isolation.  It’s been Durant for much of the playoffs but now we see Curry taking over – especially in the 2nd half of these games.  While you benefit from a flurry of points for short periods, other players are not in rhythm, e.g., Clay Thompson.  And then, late in the game when those players need to produce, they can’t as they have barely shot the ball.

Houston on the other hand plays this isolation style which for SU is unattractive, uninspiring and just hard to watch.  Especially when you have one of the top point guards of all time on your team in CP3.  I mean, who wants to watch James Harden jab step from the top of the key for 20 seconds (other than Carmelo Anthony who no doubt watches in front of the mirror practicing the same move)?  You can’t argue with regular season success certainly for the Rockets but is this style effective in the playoffs?  And SU says how do you let him drive left over and over again and not have someone underneath to protect the rim?

Celtics and Cavs have both held serve so far on their home courts.  LeBron continues to impress with his production.  While he is a pass first player, he knows he needs to score 35+ points a night for them to win.  SU is not sure what happened to Kevin Love who was unstoppable in Minnesota but is really a pedestrian player in Cleveland.  He needs to be the 2nd option for LeBron.  Otherwise, your fate rests with JR Smith and Knick fans know how that usually ends.

Gary Sanchez was brutal last night behind the plate.  3 wild pitches in one inning and SU says Romine stops all three of them.  He finally left the game with a calf issue and maybe that was bothering him.  I get it that in the regular season, your team benefits by having an offensively superior player at catcher and he sure can hit.  But come playoff time, he will be a liability.  He also calls a bad game.  When Romine catches the ERAs are lower and the pace of play moves along.  Sanchez just lacks the instincts of how to call a game and can’t be trusted in the 8th and 9th innings of close games.  Now, David Cone went off last night defending him bigly and he does have a gun for an arm, but the reality is teams don’t need to bother stealing – just wait for the passed ball or wild pitch.  SU is not sure why the Yankees can’t improve his defense.  Long-time SU subscriber S. Greenberg says Sanchez has stone hands – can’t receive the ball cleanly.  SU would agree.

Cole Hamels auditioned for the trade to the Yankees later in the year.  He looked good but where would he start on the Astros?  Maybe the 5th starter?  SU says he is not the answer.  Cashman needs to keep looking and waiting.

Finally, Chase Headley was officially DFA’d.  He can be picked up for the minimum salary for the remainder of the season.  You know Cashman is tempted and may assign him to the minors to compete with veteran Adam Lind.  Greg Bird is close to being ready.  SU says they really need his left-handed bat in there.  I am fine with moving Tyler Austin.  He reminds me of Andruw Jones – all or nothing approach at the plate.

So, what is it about the pattern of former Yankees who have failed PED tests?  Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Francisco Cervelli – all friends of A-Rod.  Hopefully, not friends of A-Rod’s chemist.  SU was saddened to learn about Cano – 80-game suspension and cannot play in the post-season.  Brian Cashman no doubt feels like they did the right thing letting him go to Seattle – that plus having Gleyber Torres to play 2nd base at 21 years old.  Cano did not appeal the suspension.

Apparently, Cano was on a trajectory to make the Hall of Fame.  He already was in 2nd place for career home runs by a 2nd baseman.  It’s hard to see that happening now.  He failed a test for a drug that is used for masking other drugs.  His statement said he was taking it for some unmentioned medical condition.  But we have heard all of this before from anyone that is caught.

SU caught some of the Rockets – Warriors game last night.  Kevin Durant is unstoppable.  The problem is that he is scoring mostly in 1-on-1 situations.  While he gets his points, the other players are not in rhythm and then can’t turn it on when needed.  SU still believes too much of the Rockets’ offense runs through Harden vs. letting Chris Paul orchestrate more but they had the most wins this year so it must work.  This is an interesting series.  SU says the Warriors need a rim protector in there when Harden drives and beats his man to the basket.  They have that guy in McGee but he doesn’t play at all.  Meanwhile, the Cavs are in big trouble but Boston has not played well on the road in the playoffs this year so they need to hold serve these next two games.

The Yankees are keeping Brandon Drury in the minors for now.  Bird returns in a week or so.  If he can stay healthy (no small feat for him), roster moves will need to be made.  SU says package Hicks, Austin and maybe even Drury for a young, front-line pitcher.  Clint Frazier gets his shot this weekend and if he can produce, his upside seems to be higher than what we see in Hicks so far.

Finally, I get that the pro sports leagues want their cut of gambling revenues.  However, once you start putting kiosks in your stadiums and arenas to allow for in-game gambling or even displays at every seat, this could get out-of-hand.  It’s like putting pouches of smokeless tobacco at every seat.  You are inviting people with addictive personalities to get addicted.  As a fan, do you want to sit there and bet on missed foul shots?

A Happy Mother’s Day to the moms out there in the intergalactic SU subscriber base.  This is clearly big news.  The San Diego Padres have designated Chase Headley for assignment after his .115 start this season.  SU says let’s see if Brian Cashman picks him up as we all know he has a soft spot in his heart for Headley.  Maybe the Mets will show some interest?

Here is a good trivia question.  SU usually doesn’t put these out there because many of you cheat (or should I say use the internet to find the answer).  But I think the answer to this question is hard to actually find on the internet so have at it:

“What MLB player hit a World Series home run in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s?”

It’s a tough question but SU did get the answer.  Hint: it came up during today’s Yankee – Oakland game.  That is actually a helpful hint.

Kudos to long-time subscriber, B. Rosano, who predicted a Yankee letdown against Oakland this weekend after the intense stretch against playoff contenders.  The team is definitely playing a little less intensely.  Neil Walker has solidified his position on the roster now with a game winning, walk-off hit today.  SU believes that Cashman will bring up Brandon Drury by Tuesday (apparently his last allowable rehab day in the minors) and will send down Tyler Austin who is in a major 0 for slump and has probably earned the demotion.  SU says teach Drury to play some first base while Bird is rehabbing.  Once Bird returns, they will then have a decision to make with the roster.

SU says that Aaron Hicks has put his spot in centerfield in a bit of jeopardy as Clint Frazier is heating up in the minors.  One of those two will be packaged in the trade for a starting pitcher soon.

Matt Harvey: 4 innings and one hit in his Reds debut as a starter.  Something to watch and see if the Reds turn him into a trade deadline deal for prospects come July.

SU checked the calendar and it’s still early May.  The Yankees have basically run the table against the best teams in the AL – Angels, Indians, Astros and now the Red Sox.  As a Yankee fan, you pretty much cannot ask for more.  But SU says, it’s a long season and in baseball, especially with pitchers, you have to deal with injuries.  But let’s discuss:

• The team batting average is still only around .250.  If you look at the line up, they roll out 3 players a game with averages hovering around .200 (Sanchez, Walker, Gardner).
• You cannot lose sight that this year’s team has won a lot of close games late and come from behind late several times.  Now, does that have staying power all season long?  Perhaps – we see that over the years that teams have a confidence (Astros last season).
• Offensively, they are being carried by hot hitters here and there – but that is typical of most teams except the 1998 Yankees which had strength up and down the line up as well as veterans on the bench like Tim Raines and Darryl Strawberry.
• The bullpen continues to be a question mark although some of the injured pitchers like Kahnle and Warren will return.  Long-time SU subscriber A. Grossman points out that they lack a lockdown lefty (Andrew Miller type) which is true although the hard throwers get everyone out.
• The game has changed.  It’s no longer about stealing, hit and running, small ball.  Today it’s wait for the 3-run home run and take your strikeouts.

SU says you are never as good as you look when you’re hot and you are never as bad as you look when you are cold (although I do make exceptions for Todd Frazier and Chase Headley).  The Yankees are winning pretty much all of the close games right now.  I don’t think that rate is sustainable.  Aside from the record, SU enjoys watching this team for its youth, enthusiasm, good guys and the feeling that they are just having fun out there.  It’s not about millionaires going through the motions.  This team is great.  Cashman will make his tweaks – SU looks forward to Greg Bird’s return – and we will see if the starters can stay healthy.

Is this year’s team on a historic pace for wins?  Can you really project wins in baseball?

Finally, the Mets are advertising for a part-time position to make out the line up cards.  It’s a couple of hours a week.  Copying skills are a must.

Several members of the intergalactic SU subscriber base have asked SU to weigh in on LeBron and what he has accomplished in this year’s playoffs to date.  Think about what he has done:

• The Cavs traded Kyrie for Isiah Thomas who was basically a non-factor for Cleveland.  Thomas is then traded to the Lakers for a bunch of reserve type players.  The net is he lost the only other All-Star on the team.
• He single-handedly willed them to the victory over the Pacers, and then they swept the #1 seed in the East in 4 games.
• He is playing about 45 minutes a game, and knows that for them to win, he needs to score 35+ points, have around 10 assists and 10 rebounds.  Anything less than his A game and they lose.

It really has been impressive.  SU does not like the way he argues every foul call which sometimes results in not running down court but I suppose this helps him conserve energy.  But he puts out every game and is scoring from every angle and every way.  SU says he is deserving to be in the conversation with Michael Jordan at this point in his career.  At his age, this season has been remarkable with this roster.

Thoughts?

Those were the famous words of Mariano Duncan of the Yankees back in 1996 during their world championship season.  Well, the 2018 version of the Yankees are certainly, as of right now, playing that way.  Even yesterday, when down 4-0 in the 8th inning with 1 hit and John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman saying how you can’t win them all, this year’s team rose from the dead to score 7 runs in 2 innings.  It sure seems like they find a way to win every day.

Last year’s team had a terrible record in close games.  It was why despite a high run differential, the won/loss record surprisingly did not match up.  This year’s team is very different and is winning close games and winning close games late.  That is a good formula.  They are plowing through the toughest part of the schedule in great shape.  If you are scoring at home, that’s 6 wins in a row over Cleveland.  Now, as we all know in baseball, a lot of your success comes from when you play certain teams.  The Indians’ bullpen is a mess and that showed up this weekend.  But the Astros have been hot and so were the Angels.

The Yankees are benefiting from the youngsters and due to injury, Cashman did as SU has said right from the beginning.  Play the young guys.  German looks legit as a 5th starter.  There is still a deal to be made later in the year for a front line pitcher and they have the chips now to make a deal.  The team is only hitting .250 and many players have not hit their stride as of yet.  SU says this could be a special season.

What could mess it up?  See below:

• Matt Harvey: no reason to even talk to the Mets.  Harvey has too much ego and this year’s team has a good feeling.  Absolutely no need to kick the tires on Harvey.
• Jacoby Elsbury: luckily, he is so injury prone, SU cannot see how he makes it back.
• Sending Andujar down: if his average tails downward, Cashman will be tempted to send him down and bring Drury up.  I believe there is a limit on how many games a player can rehab.  We are no doubt getting close to that.
• Chapman: he needs to stay healthy and Boone should watch the appearances.  They are playing a lot of close games.  SU likes that Boone is trying to win them all but you don’t want to burn out the relievers.  Guys like Paul Quantrill were very valuable over the years to come in and instantly lose games in extra innings.  Jonathan Holder is that guy this year.  Keeps the bullpen fresh by blowing games quickly.

The team is winning with minimal contributions from Stanton.  The Red Sox come to town next.  SU says do not get into the beanball war stuff with them.  Nothing good comes from that except injured star players – either hit by a pitch or injured in a fight.  It’s stupid.  You can roll that out some other time.

Clearly, Giancarlo Stanton’s ears were burning yesterday from the lack of love offered up by SU.  Two home runs and a double were impressive although SU did predict he would have better success going up against a soft tosser like Kuchel who is left-handed.  Today will be a good test with McCullers who has a wicked curve ball.  SU is not ready to say he has turned the corner.  One game.

Severino is showing that he is a stud ace.  There can be no doubt.  Still throwing 100 mph in the 9th inning.  With Montgomery now out 6-8 weeks, he needs to be the man.    SU checked the Scranton team’s stats to see how Brandon Drury is doing.  He is batting .348 but with no power and has made 3 errors in 7 games.  Hmmm.  Clint Frazier is now there and hit a home run and had a walk-off hit yesterday.  Greg Bird will return later this month.

SU says is it time to move Brett Gardner?  He is 35 years old now.  He is steady – you know what you get – and is a very good outfielder.  But SU says the Yankees should not just trade away Frazier without giving him a really good look.  OK, he does run into walls but that can be corrected.  Hicks had a good 2017 – switch hitter and has a great arm.  SU would keep him.  Brian Cashman is going to have an interesting few weeks.  Get rid of Walker and teach Drury to play first base.  Gardner may actually be a 5/10 player now and have veto power over a trade – not sure.

Full disclosure: SU has always been an A-Rod fan.  Sure, he is flawed as a human being and made some bad decisions in his career but I have always viewed him as a knucklehead who made bad choices with PEDs, lying, etc.

If you recall when A-Rod was with the Texas Rangers, he would always start the season poorly and then catch fire once they were far, far out of the playoff hunt.  He was very good in July through September.  Hit well in the meaningless games.  SU believes that Giancarlo Stanton is a similar type of player.  He was a big-time hitter in Miami when no one was watching and no one cared.  Now that the spotlight is on him in New York, he is coming up small.  He is over-matched at the plate by any hard thrower.  SU is not saying that he’s not trying or not competitive.  He is such a big swinger that it almost seems physically impossible for him to put the bat on the ball against the big time pitchers.

He should have a shot tonight against Kuechel who doesn’t throw hard.  But Boone needs to drop him further down in the line up – and further down than 5th.  He is striking out at an historic rate.  SU says check your ego at the door.  These are the Yankees and the line up is not made based on annual salary.  Plus putting him down to 6th or 7th would take the pressure off and allow him to put up Dave Kingman numbers for the season.  He does not seem to have the spine for New York – much like A-Rod didn’t in 2004 when he joined the Yankees and certainly in October except for 2009.

SU is ready to be proven wrong.

Big early season test for the Yankees and their right-handed line-up.  The Astros are throwing Morton tonight (1.86 ERA), Verlander tomorrow (1.36 ERA), Yankee killer Keuchel on Wednesday and then McCullers on Thursday who shut them down in game 7 in the playoffs.  SU has these observations to share:

• Didi Gregorius looks tired.  He should be DH in one of these games this week.
• Giancarlo Stanton looks tired.  Of course, that is a joke as he is DH in most games.  The truth is that he looks bad.  The Yankees are 18-9.  What would their record be without Stanton?  Hint: 18-9.  Non-impactful player for a month now.  I know they gave up almost nothing to trade for him but his $30 million salary could have been used on starting pitching.  Now, he may break out this week but for SU, with his swing, whenever he gets a hit I am surprised.  We are talking Todd Frazier territory here.
• Brandon Drury is raking down in Scranton and is ready to return.  The Yankees carry an extra relief pitcher – unnecessary although with Sonny Gray starting tonight, they likely need 2 extra relievers.  Neil Walker can be designated for assignment – this was a bad pick-up and just eat the $4 million salary.  That is a rounding on Stanton’s contract.  SU continues to be concerned that Cashman is going to send down Andujar or possibly Torres.  Tyler Austin is ready to return and Greg Bird is taking batting practice.  The smart money says that once Bird returns and is hopefully healthy, you package Austin and prospects (Clint Frazier?) for a starting pitcher.
• The line-up continues to be too right-handed.  Many are not worried about this but let’s see how it looks this week against playoff contender pitching.  Gardner is hitting about .100 for the last few weeks but we know he will then hit .500 for 2 weeks before reverting to .100 again.  He will be at .260 come October.
• Judge is starting to strike out a lot now after a solid start.  SU must say that he does not get the calls for those low strikes which are clearly below his knees.  The umpires don’t make the adjustment calling those pitches.
• It was heart-warming to sweep the Angels and Mike Scioscia.  The Yankees have also won 3 of the last 4 games by 1 run.  Good sign as last year they lost many of those games.

SU knows the NBA is a superstar league but must James Harden and LeBron get every call?  LeBron initiates so much contact on his drives as does Harden.  SU says make them non-calls if that’s the case.  Otherwise, how do you play defense?

Carmelo finally voiced some complaints about how he was used this year in OKC.  While SU is clearly no fan of his, I actually feel a little badly as he was marginalized playing with Westbrook.  Did you see Westbrook took 43 shots in game 6?  What is that?

The Pacers had a shot yesterday but their offense became entirely one-on-one in the 4th quarter.  SU says since when did Mike Woodson’s offense become all the rage in the NBA?  Coaches just find it easier to coach offense this way.  You don’t see it at the college level as much but come playoff time, many NBA teams resort to this style.

SU just read the excellent article about Saquon Barkley in Sports Illustrated.  The short story is that he is intent on becoming the poster child for the entire National Football League.  He is a marketing machine and has a 15-person team representing him.  Barkley is very image conscious and is determined to make all the right moves to not only be the face of the franchise for the Giants but the face of the NFL.

Now, the Giants already have someone like that who also wants to be in everyone’s face in Beckham Jr.  This is going to be an issue for the Giants to manage.  OBJ will welcome him – at least in the beginning – but it will be very interesting to see how they compete for media attention.  SU says this does not end well – for OBJ.

Btw, after reading this article, SU is even more positive that the Giants made the right pick.  This guy is solid and if he can stay healthy (always a big if in the NFL), is headed for greatness.

Did any of you catch the Yankee game last night and the bizarre sacrifice fly play that the umpires badly botched?  The Yankees had runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out and slugger Neal Walker up.  He tagged one that made it to the right field wall where the outfielder leaped over the wall to take away a home run.  Didi was on 3rd and tagged up but so did Stanton on 2nd base.  The replay showed he waited for the catch and then ran to 3rd base.  The Angels frantically waved to throw the ball back in to 2nd base where the infielder stepped on 2nd just before Didi crossed home plate.  The umpires just whiffed on this play and called Stanton out at 2nd and a doubleplay.  However, they ruled that Didi crossed home before the player stepped on 2nd (he did not and it was clear on replay).  They allowed the run to score.

Now, Aaron Boone already had his bench coach ejected complaining about balls and strikes earlier in the game.  Boone took too long to file an appeal for replay and thus could not challenge the play.  Apparently, in MLB you can’t challenge a sacrifice fly play at 2nd base but you can challenge a “border” play like a catch at the wall which would then allow the replay officials to review the entire play.  Are you following this?  If done correctly, Stanton should have been on 3rd with 2 outs.

SU says the umpires just screwed it up and Boone being a bit of a novice and not having his bench coach there also did not handle it well.  Replay is annoying in terms of delay time but the umpires make it a necessity due to their inability to get the close plays right or even this one which wasn’t close and was pretty obvious.  As Mad Dog would say, “bad job!”