There is a lot of hype about the addition of Giancarlo Stanton on the Yankees and how they are surely World Series bound.  This may all be true as they were just one game short last year of making it to the final round.  But SU asks: have they really improved themselves in the areas that needed improving?  Let’s take a look:

• Everyone loves having Stanton on the team.  SU has been lukewarm on this from the start as he is a big strikeout guy and tends not to stay healthy for a full season.  True, he adds a lot of home runs and batting practice is a must see event now for any fan going to a game.  The team scored plenty of runs last season.  Was this really the issue?
• Cashman talked about going young and they rolled out Andujar at 3rd base and Torres at 2nd base this spring.  Well, both are now down with the minor league teams as Neil Walker will play 2nd base until he gets hurt and Drury will be slotted into 3rd base.  Starlin Castro was very good last year at 2nd base – hard to think Walker improves on that.  Drury is probably an improvement over the Headley/Frazier combo but I guess that remains to be seen.
• From what I can tell, the pitching staff is identical to last year.  No upgrades.
• Clint Frazier has had a concussion all spring and will have to play his way back up to the majors in April and May. Ellsbury beat the rush and got his oblique injury out of the way.  He is supposedly healed from that but now has flu like symptoms.  I think it’s safe to say that Cal Ripken’s consecutive game playing streak is safe.

Soooooo, you win the Wild Card game last year which is always a crapshoot and then beat the Indians in 5 games and lose to the Astros in 7.  Have you improved enough to beat Houston?  Cleveland is probably worse given some roster moves.  Cashman may still look to add a stud starting pitcher during the season.  Chance Adams had a bad spring unfortunately so he did not threaten to make the starting staff.

Bottom line: still a very good team that should make the playoffs but not a sure thing to win it all.  SU would still prefer to go with the youth movement and look to get both Andujar and Torres up to the parent club sooner vs. later.  I cannot say there is a marked improvement over last year but they will be interesting to watch if you like home runs and strikeouts.

Yankee fans: how optimistic are you for this season?

Those of us who are old enough to have watched ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” growing up are very familiar with that phrase.  The agony of defeat in the opening was the ski jumper crashing on the launch and flying right off the ramp onto to the slope.  Last night, Michigan and Houston had one of those moments in the final seconds of what had been a brutal game to watch if you are a Michigan fan.

SU must say this having now watched a few games in this year’s NCAA tournament.  I know how the Big Ten refs its games (badly) and my sense is that the other conferences are better in that regard.  But it seems like the NCAA has instructed its officials to put a stop to any minor infractions – especially early in games.  In the NBA, it’s no big deal – you get 6 fouls and coaches don’t worry much about 2 early fouls for a player.  However, in college with 5 fouls, most coaches whose players get 2 early fouls are sent to the bench for the rest of the half.  If it’s an obvious call, we all get that.  But last night, for example, Mo Wagner picked up a foul in the post where he was battling with the opposing player for position.  In the NBA, this would be seen as business as usual.  In another one, a player drove on him and elbowed him in the face and the foul was called on Wagner.  To top it off, the refs stopped the game to review on replay if the elbow to Wagner’s face was in fact a flagrant foul.  Explain that one.  SU says the refs need to see how the game unfolds and then react accordingly on their calls.

Last night’s game had no flow in the 2nd half.  The last 10 minutes were a lot of foul shots, touch foul calls and little action for long stretches.  Michigan played its 2nd consecutive awful game offensively but SU has a theory on this.  In the Big Ten Tournament, they got away from their offense a bit and just stretched out the floor and allowed their guards to go one on one to make plays on drives to the basket.  That is not their normal offense.  I feel like they are still playing that way in these last 2 games and the guards are struggling big time to finish at the rim.  They don’t get any calls on those drives (unlike Houston) and their 3-point shooting has been terrible.  Wagner has been invisible.  They should have lost last night – SU was resigned to that in the last minute – and in the end, you never blame the refs.  You have enough possessions and opportunities to overcome it.  Find a way to win – that is your mission.  Overcome adversity.

SU did demand on the last possession that Jordan Poole get that shot (we have text proof on this).  The fact is that Beilein does not play him enough.  He is instant offense and can take anyone 1-on-1 which given how they are playing now is critical.  He needs to be on the floor much more.  SU says expect him to be out there more Thursday night.  The celebration was great but they were really, really lucky,

While my bracket is busted due to Virginia’s amazing blowout loss in the first round, I am enjoying the games.  Loyola’s last second heroics have been great and Buffalo’s win over Arizona was not on many people’s bracket.  At least for a few weeks we don’t have to hear about the FBI investigation and you notice that the announcers never bring it up.

One more request: get rid of the reviews by the refs late in the games.  If you can’t resolve these more quickly then don’t bother.  They take forever and don’t always get it right in the end.  I always felt the calls were part of the game and over a lifetime, they come out around 50-50 in your team’s favor.  Combined with the play clocks that seem to stick in every game, who needs it?  The Michigan – Montana game ended around 12:30 am and included a blowout of the scoreboard that took 15 minutes to fix.

Actually, one more request.  In these early round games, the top seeds get to play in an arena close to home.  Kansas played in Wichita for example.  But if you play their game first, many of the fans leave and don’t stick around for the 2nd game which makes for a quiet arena.  SU says play them 2nd.  Their fans may not come to the 1st half of the first game but they will filter in for the 2nd half.  When you watch on TV, you have to wonder where are all the fans?

Michigan will play the winner of the North Carolina – Texas A&M game in LA Thursday night.  They were blown out by Carolina back in December on the road but that was a long time ago.  The Tar Heels are good but often go long stretches with not scoring (like Michigan) and are not unbeatable.  SU has Michigan in the Final Four but they have been fortunate to get to the round of 16 – really in both games.  If they continue playing at this level, they will lose by 25.  SU just needs 2 more weeks to get me to the start of the baseball season.  I have confidence.

The brackets are out for this year’s NCAA tournament.  Here is what you need to know as you fill out your brackets:

• How did Oklahoma get in this tournament?  18-13 record, 4-11 in their last 15 games.  SU says ridiculous.
• And the same goes for Syracuse who no-one was talking about as even being a bubble team.  Clearly the NCAA did not want some other bubble teams in there as they are the subject of the FBI investigation into the NCAA.  Let’s face it: this is not an exact science despite all of the “quadrant” wins and losses.
• SU says the experts are not expert.  They are like you and me – trying to forecast this year’s upsets and who will get hot for 3 weeks.  Jay Bilas of ESPN is predicting Michigan State.   Maybe he knows something the rest of us don’t but even when winning 13 games in a row, they were not blowing people out in the Big Ten.
• Be bold and this is the year to do that.  There is no one clear favorite despite Virginia being the #1 overall pick.

SU sees it this way.  I think Villanova is a seasoned, veteran, experienced tournament team that if they can stay fully healthy should win it all.  I also think Michigan will have a deep run as teams don’t like to play them in the tournament and John Beilein does a good job of preparing his team.  SU’s final 4: Villanova; Auburn, Virginia; and Michigan (OK, I prefer to pick them to go far vs. predicting with my head and having to root against them).  Villanova over UVa in the finals.

Key upsets: Loyola over Miami; St. Bonaventure over Florida; Michigan over everyone; and Auburn over Kansas.  Make your predictions and if you are right you will have the enduring admiration of thousands of SU subscribers around the world.

Yankees sign Neal Walker as clearly Cashman is concerned that Glayber Torres will not be ready to start the season at 2nd base.  They will keep him at Scranton for a few weeks until Walker is injured (who is from the Jacoby Ellsbury school of not playing a full season).  SU actually likes Walker and is ok with the move.  Clearly an upgrade over Danny Espinoza.  But Torres needs to get hot in Scranton and then make the case for getting the call to the majors showing he deserves it.  Hitting .130 in March is not cutting it.

Every once in a while you attend a sports event that is so enjoyable that the memory will stay with you for years.  SU had that experience over the past 3 days with the Big Ten Tournament here in New York.  SU was at MSG for the last 3 games to see Michigan play along with a number of members of the SU intergalactic subscriber base including B. Levine, J. Silver, A. Cohen, S. Fink and A. Weissman.

Aside from the fact that it was stupid for the Big Ten to hold its tournament a week early just to play in New York, for Michigan fans, of which there are thousands in NY, it was an opportunity to see your team play up close and personal.  SU’s observations:

• John Beilein makes his teams play the right way.  SU views any season as a journey.  What you see in December is not what you will see come March.  Players develop, some regress, others go through slumps and the style of play evolves over time.  That is the joy in watching a team sport.  Basketball is not a one-on-one sport despite what you often see in the NBA.  It’s about running, cutting, screening and every player touching the ball on every possession.  It’s not four guys standing on the 3-point line while one player holds the ball and jab steps.  Beilein doesn’t recruit the one and done players.  Michigan does have some guys leave after their sophomore year (see Trey Burke, Nik Stauskus, Glen Robinson III) but the majority stay at least through their junior year and as we all know, that is the joy in college hoops.  Watching players develop, get better and take on more of  a leadership role over time.
• Beilein had 3 players leave last year and had to restock.  To win the Big Ten Tournament in back-to-back years with so many guys playing more important roles is a great achievement.  Also, if you are a top point guard in high school, how do you not want to play for him?  He gives the point guard so much control and accountability – you have to want to be here.
• The Garden was electric Saturday when Michigan played Michigan State.  Very loud, sold out and a great atmosphere.  Tom Izzo trolled the sideline which is an appropriate way to describe that.  If you have ever listened to one of his post-game press conferences, it’s never his fault.  “We had a great scouting report and game plan but didn’t execute parts of it.”  Hey, he has two lottery picks on this team (Miles Bridges and Jarren Jackson Jr. who by the way, is going to be special in the NBA.  Izzo has not developed his game but he is a future star and the Knicks should pay attention here) and they had a great record this year but their style of play is choppy, not fluid and so far, they have under-achieved given the talent.  Now, they may find it later this month but talent-wise, they are one of the top teams in the country.
• Big Ten refs are just bad.  Gene Steratore reffed the Friday and Saturday games and he just sees fouls from across the court that refs who are much closer to the play let go.
• SU has thoroughly enjoyed Michigan’s season.  This team can be very frustrating and if they don’t shoot well from 3, well they will and do lose.  They now have a long break before the NCAAs start and that may hurt them.  On the other hand, they could make a deep run but for SU, unimportant.  This tournament was special and a great achievement for this team.  Whatever happens from here on out is icing on the cake.

By the way, LeBron has it right: let the high school kids play in the G-League right away and skip playing in college.  The one and done players make it a joke.  You go to classes for one semester and then take the 2nd one off to prepare for the combines and the workouts before the draft.  It’s stupid.  Go directly to the G-League and get paid.  I would much rather watch kids who want to be there in college and will stay a few years.

SU caught a few innings of the Yankees yesterday.  I don’t know if it’s because I am transitioning from the action of basketball to baseball, but the pace of play is a big-time issue.  Soooooo many strikeouts.  So many shifts.  Greg Bird is way under .100 so far and while it’s only early March, you worry a bit about him.  They continue to shift against him and if he doesn’t learn to go the other way, he will turn into Mark Texeira.

SU says enough batting practice.  Let’s play some games.  The Yankees continue to bring in veteran infielders to compete for the 2nd and 3rd base positions.  Danny Espinoza is the choice at 2nd and Brandon Drury at 3rd.  Competition is good and no one should just be given a guaranteed spot in the line up (see Jacoby Ellsbury for the past few years).  However, it’s time to go with the youth movement and the Yankees can afford to start both rookies at 2nd and 3rd if they deserve it.  My worry is that Cashman likes his version of gritty veterans to complete the line up.  Chase Headley, Todd Frazier, Travis Haffner, Brian McCann – they have all come and gone and have all under-performed.  I have no problem getting behind the youngsters and living with their growing pains.  The prediction: Torres gets sent down to Scranton in order to save a year of arbitration eligibility and returns in May.  They give 3rd base to Drury even if he underwhelms in spring training.  As much as Cashman has amassed prospects effectively, he still seems to shy away from pulling the trigger.  Let’s see what happens.

SU continues to be wary of the Yankees’ line up and the hype.  Too many strikeouts are looming in this line up.  Now maybe that’s the way baseball is played today but it’s not entertaining to watch swings and misses.  Keep in mind that Stanton has rarely played a full season.  Ellsbury needs to work hard and wait for his chance which will come.

For those of you keeping track, today marks the 7-year anniversary of the Knicks’ trade with the Denver Nuggets for Carmelo Anthony.  SU says it’s actually fitting given that the Passover holiday is coming up next month where the Jews wandered the desert for 40 years after leaving Egypt.  Hopefully the Knicks will find their way more quickly than 40 years.  As SU has mentioned many, many times, the team was on the right track prior to that move with a fun line-up.  Seven years later, it’s back to square one.  I was glad to see that Trey Burke was given a chance to shine last night and led the team to victory.  However, with Hornacek, he might be a DNP next game.  There is no rhyme or reason in how he plays guys each game.  SU predicts he will be gone after the season as the next rebuild begins and the next savior coach is brought in.  And so it goes.

March Madness is just around the corner.  Watch out for Michigan which is peaking.  Their style of play is effective in the Tournament as teams are not used to so much motion on offense.  SU predicts a great NCAA tournament this year.  The question is when will the results of the investigation into all of the top programs be released?  Or leaked?  We may have another championship being vacated in 2018 just like Louisville’s in 2013.

Charles Dickens clearly had the 2018 Yankees in mind when he wrote his classic many years ago.  No doubt Aaron Boone who had his opening spring training press conference yesterday would agree.  It will be all downhill from here on out.  In February, you can be a potential genius new manager with no experience.  Most everyone is healthy, there are no personality issues with players or between players and perhaps even Dellen Betances (slimmed down to 265 pounds from 280 last year) can find the plate now.

Last year’s team was one game from making the World Series and anything short of playing in the World Series will be considered a failure in 2018.  That means a lot more pressure on the youngsters.  If Aaron Judge does 2 months again striking out almost every at bat, that will be a lot worse than it was in 2017.  There are still unknowns at 2nd and 3rd base where rookies will be competing for the starting jobs.  SU is looking for both Torres and Andujar to get a shot and hopes they can avoid injury to win the jobs.  Also looking for a big year from SU fave Greg Bird.  And Jacoby Ellsbury is still here and is clearly untradeable.  But SU says you know someone will get injured and he will be thrown into the mix to hit .269 with no power and no rbis.  It’s a living at $23 million a year.

The good news is that baseball is here.  The Mets also unveiled their new manager and if their pitching can stay healthy – a big if – they are contenders in the NL.  Goose Gossage has been banned from the Yankee camp.  Let’s face it: he’s an idiot.  Bad mouths everyone, hates everyone and he shouldn’t be there.  SU would keep him away from the Old Timers Day game as well.

Did you see the story about former Yankee pitcher Esteban Loaiza?  Busted with 43 pounds of cocaine.  Dude made $43 million in his career.  How does that happen?

Hope springs eternal.  SU is ready.  The Knicks are playing for draft positioning, Jeremy Lin is out another year and the NBA won’t get interesting until May and June.  Bring it on.

The Yankees broke from the Chase Headley strategy of signing “gritty veterans” to supplement the roster of young, exciting players with high upside.  Instead of bringing back Todd Frazier, they held firm and allowed him to move to Queens to join the Mets at Citifield.

The Mets will be getting a great guy in the clubhouse who loves playing baseball.  He will be a leader on the field, hit .217, with 32 home runs and 71 rbis.  Of course, you also get the 179 strikeouts and Met fans will get to the point where just putting the ball in play will feel like a successful at bat – especially with a man on 3rd base and less than 2 outs.  As long-time SU subscriber D. Harmon said, pairing Frazier with former Red teammate Jay Bruce adds a lot of strikeouts to the line up and is not a good strategy.  Now in this day and age, maybe that is the strategy.  You no longer worry about putting the ball in play.  Rather, nothing wrong with strike outs as long as you get the occasional home run thrown into the mix.  The Yankees are actually set up that way as well with Judge, Sanchez and Stanton.

SU prefers seeing the ball put into play and moving runners along with speed.  The Yankees went in a different direction and time will tell on that front.  Aaron Boone will be on the hot seat if they get off to a slow start – say 2-4 (just kidding, the media and Yankee fans will allow him 9 games to get comfortable).  The expectations will be very high this year – a totally different feel from last season.

Tough injury last night for KP on the Knicks.  But that was an injury that was bound to happen as he is often in the air given his style of play.  A torn ACL takes 10 months to rehab and this will likely cost them next year as well.  The good news is that they can now move some players off the roster before the trade deadline and give Trey Burke more minutes to see what they have there.

Finally, SU provides this public service announcement to men riding on Metro-North trains in the middle seat.  When you slide in there, do not put your computer bag on your lap – that widens your area and you end up infringing on the space of your neighbor.  And please, don’t feel the need to send 87 texts from the train where your elbow is flapping wildly into the side of your neighbor.  It just doesn’t feel good for 38 minutes of train time.  Women riders may ignore this public service advice – they keep to their personal space.  But men, get with the program. You know who you are – knock it off.

We now return you to your original programming.

Who wouldda thunk it?  We got an action-packed, high powered offensive Super Bowl in Minneapolis  that featured over 1,100 yards of offense and maybe 2 punts.  There were 4th down attempts near mid-field, passes to the quarterback by both teams and a game that came down to the final play.  Who invited these two Big – 12 Conference teams to play?  For SU, this much more preferable than a 13-10 slugfest with 7 punts in the 1st quarter where the coaches are playing field position with their defenses.  I just can’t watch that style of football anymore.  The reality is that if player safety matters, this may be the future of the NFL – less hard hitting and more up and down the field.

It was a great game – close throughout and you felt it would come down to whoever had the ball at the end of the game.  The refs got the two calls right on the touchdowns that were closely reviewed even though SU says that in the regular season both calls get overturned.  It’s time to change the rule on the ball moving in the receiver’s hands.  There is no way the refs on the field can see that in fast motion and let’s allow them to focus on whether they get the feet in-bounds.  Replay is fine but not for overkill purposes.  SU does note that the head referee, Gene Steratore, is the same ref who changed a possession call with 8 seconds left when Michigan played Purdue that was ridiculous.  Apparently, he has learned from his mistakes.

Chris Collinsworth is taking a beating on Twitter today by questioning both calls.  SU still likes him as an announcer but the Philly fans are not happy.  SU is wondering why Malcom Butler did not play on defense for the Pats after starting all year.  They were torched all night long.  Odd move by Belichick but of course he has been right much more than wrong in his career.

Tom Brady is the only QB in all of NFL history to throw for over 500 yards, 3 touchdowns or more and no picks to lose a game.  Crazy.

So, about those predicted scores.  Let’s review who weighed in:

• SU: Eagles 31 – 24
• PBok: Eagles 31 – 30
• Mark N: Pats 24 – 17
• Steve: Pats 27 – 24
• David Ball: Eagles 30 – 28
• David Stockel: Pats 27 – 23
• Robert A. Rifkin: Pats 27 – 23
• Tom: Pats 34 – 20

Hmmmm.  Final score was Eagles 41 – 33 – an 8-point differential.  Who was closest?  Wait for it…….. Ah, SU!  I guess I get to keep the SU travel bag and windbreaker for another year.

Do the Eagles have a QB competition next season?  Will Nick Foles be in high demand when he becomes a free agent in a year?  Or is he only good in Philadelphia?  Do the fans that abandoned the NFL over player kneeling come back now after an exciting Super Bowl?  SU suspects that if the President stops talking about it, this will go away.  SU also suspects that ain’t going to happen.  And so it goes.

Super Bowl comments?  Did the Pats get robbed on the TD calls?

SU’s crack research team  has been running thousands of simulated game scenarios for this weekend’s Super Bowl.  So far, the Patriots are coming out on top 54.3% of the time while the Eagles win 45.6% of the games.  Donald Trump won 0.1% of the time but SU believes some Russian bots may have infiltrated the system so we will just call this outcome illegitimate.

SU is on the record predicting an Eagles 31 – 24 victory in an upset.  As is tradition at SU, we ask the subscribers to weigh in with their game predictions.  The person who comes closest to the actual outcome will receive props from SU and of course, the complimentary SU windbreaker and travel bag.  And a special shout out to long-time SU subscribers J. Winston and R. Winston who will be heading to Minneapolis for the game to root on their Iggles.

This is your chance to shine.  Let’s see what you’ve got.

Many of you are no doubt following what is going on at Michigan State as a result of the Larry Nassar scandal with USA Gymnastics.  The school President and Athletic Director have now both resigned but it looks like they may have company very soon.  Long-time SU subscriber, T. Potter, just alerted SU to this article:

http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/22214566/pattern-denial-inaction-information-suppression-michigan-state-goes-larry-nassar-case-espn

Marc Dantonio has had a nice long run at Michigan State but remember, Jim Tressel was like a god at Ohio State and even he was not immune to some scandal.  And this is a whole lot worse than that.  Might Tom Izzo even get caught up in this?