For those of you that took in a few minutes of yesterday’s Yankee game, that may have been the bottom.  There is certainly the theory that in a long season, you go go through peaks and valleys but SU is pretty certain that this is who they are with the current roster.  Carlos Beltran has a nice hitting streak going with basically 1 hit a game.  Texeira has been red hot for him this early in the season but he is not going to hit 40 homeruns and drive in 120 runs this year so he will cool.  The issue is that McCann and Headley are only mediocre hitters and will not pick up the slack.  If George was alive, surely someone like Stephen Drew would have been sent packing by now.  SU says players need to earn their playing time.  Girardi needs to make guys uncomfortable.  Open the Wilkes Barre Scranton express.

Good comment from relatively new SU subscriber A. Zagin yesterday on Kyrie Irving:

“I think the cavs play is slightly less surprising than most fans think. All year people praised kyrie Irving offensively, and he is extremely talented, but is his absence or injury plagued playoffs that much of a loss. Lebron was fortunate to have him alleviate some of the regular season rigors, but the playoffs are entirely different. With kyrie either spotting for up or on the bench, the most noticeable result is that all of the isolation sets that lebron used to allow kyrie to run, mostly when lebron needed a rest, are now being taken over by lebron himself. This just gives lebron more time with the ball in his hand, and while he’s not the shooter Irving is, he’s stronger, finishes better, and sees the floor better. Combine all of this with the fact that kyrie’ minutes are being filled with Matthew dellavadova, who people forget was arguably the best college player in the country his senior year. Dellavadova, while not as offensively gifted as Irving, is a much bigger and better defender who can knock down open jump shots created by lebron.”

One thing about Kyrie is that he is a terrible defender.  SU assumes his game will evolve over time on the defensive end.  I am not a fan of Dellavadova as he rarely shoots well when given more minutes.  But he is a tough kid and as Andrew points out, was a force offensively in college.  I still think the Cavs are much better with Kyrie contributing some minutes as LeBron can wear out having to play both ends against the Warriors.

Crazy number of injuries in the NBA playoffs this year.  They are really having an impact on the various series.

SU has been a long-time LeBron fan but this year you really have to appreciate just how good he is.  Kevin Love goes down for the series with the Bulls and is gone for the year and now Kyrie Irving is hobbled in the Conference Finals.  You don’t hear any whining from James.  He just raises his game and is 2 wins away from the Finals.  Did you know that in his career, LeBron has surpassed 30 points in 44% of his 174 playoff games?  That is an amazing stat.  And he is not just out there chucking it up.  Interesting quotes from his teammates after last night’s win:

“He helps us elevate our game,” Tristan Thompson said. “Playing with a great player like him just makes you want to get better, makes you want to put the time in watching film and I think that’s what great players do. They take the group around them and help elevate their game.”

“We all have a skill set and you want to be able to get to your skill set and do what you do best and he allows that,” Jones said. “If you’re a defender and you’re an on-ball defender, you know you can pressure up because he’s a great weakside defender and that gives you the confidence. If you’re a shooter, he gets you the ball in spots. If you’re a big man, he finds you in transition. So, all the different facets on the game he’s able to impact.”

For SU, it’s such a contrast with what you have in NY with Carmelo.  You never, ever hear comments like this.  It just highlights the distance between LeBron and that next tier superstar in the NBA.  Money-wise, it’s the same.  Impact-wise?  Miles and miles apart.

Jeff Van Gundy is a leading candidate for the Pelicans’ head coaching job.  Good for him.  Good guy, good coach.  Mike D’Antoni is apparently in the running for the Denver Nuggets position.  SU would love to see him get that job and then bring in Jeremy Lin to run his offense.  That would justify my purchase of next season’s NBA Season Pass to watch those games.

Yankees getting clobbered again today – 10-0 half-way through.  The only positive that could come out of this is that Cashman might finally start bringing up some youngsters to replace his under-performing veterans.  Stephen Drew may still be a viable major league player but not in New York.  He is one of those players who cannot perform here.  Bring up Refsnyder from the minors.  If he makes a lot of errors, believe me – no-one will notice as the whole team makes a lot of errors.  Didi Gregorius just cannot hit at all.  Is this the best Cashman can do?  Use the rest of the season to play the young guys.  The fans demand it.

Finally, the French Open starts tomorrow and the men’s draw has Djokovic playing Nadal in the quarterfinals.  I know they come up with a draw by picking names out of a hat but that is crazy.  SU is pulling for Djokovic to get that first French championship and his career Grand Slam.  To win it, he will likely have to beat Nadal, Murray and Federer in succession.  If you win a major in Men’s tennis, you have earned it.

SU is on the way back from some badly need R&R time, but of course has its finger on the pulse of the latest developments in the sports world.  A few thoughts this morning:

• Memorial Day is a key benchmark for baseball teams.  You can generally tell what you have for the season by now.  For the Yankees, who always have higher expectations, SU will stick to its original prediction of at best a .500 team.  Early season success has given way to a spotty offense that is geared to Ellsbury and Gardner getting on base.  Ellsbury has never played a full season and going on the DL will no doubt impact their ability to score consistently.  For the diehard fans like SU, there is little to get excited about with this year’s team.  Admit it – other than seeing A-Rod come up, who are you watching on the edge of your seat?  Chase Headley?  The injuries to the pitching will only heighten the need to get younger and sooner.  SU says bring up the young guys and at least give fans something to watch.
• For the Mets, they never have the same expectations and have surprised thus far with an impressive record despite some important injuries.  The addition of Syndergaard to the rotation is great and now you have three young studs going every 5 days.  Once Wright returns, the offense should stabilize a bit.  They should be in the mix through July and then we shall see if they have staying power.
• What have we learned about tanking an NBA season?  First, do not go out and win a couple of late season games for pride.  Bad move by the Knicks there.  You have to be all in on tanking.  Second, this year’s draft requires you to be in the #1 or #2 spot.  At #4, the Knicks will have to gamble on the kid from the Congo playing in China (or more accurately being injured in China) or else take a lesser impact player.  What’s amusing is that many sports writers are saying that you have to draft someone who will blend nicely with Carmelo.  So, if you go with the point guard, he will have to learn to stand in certain parts of the court once the ball stops moving.  Sure, they will play the triangle offense into late November but after that, Melo will have seen enough and taken over the new and improved “isolation triangle” offense.  This will be Phil Jackson’s defining off-season with the draft picks and some cap room.  Prepare to be under-whelmed.
• SU enjoys watching LeBron and surely he is the best player in the league.  But why do you go away from an offensive scheme that works for the first 44 minutes of the game to having James go one-on-one for the last 4 minutes?  From what SU has seen, he risks losing leads in these games.  It’s fine to isolate him but he still needs to pass it to the wings if guys are open.  He has not been that effective doing this late in games.  SU expects more from him.

As many who follow SU on a regular basis know, SU has not been a full believer in the early season success of the Yankees.  Starters who can’t go longer than 5 innings and an offense built on the homerun do not spell long-term success.  Things peaked last Sunday when Pineda struck out 16 hitters in a dominant performance.  Now, 4 losses in a row later, the Yankees are dropping to what is most likely their true performance level, i.e., around .500.  They have played a ton of games against the other equally mediocre Eastern Division teams and now the schedule becomes a bit more diverse.  As Michael Ray Richardson says, “the ship be sinking.”  SU believes it’s really just a fall-off to what is their real level.

The Mets are in a similar free-fall and I would have to say they will also find their level.  They do have the excuse of a ton of injuries to some key guys (Wright, D’Arnaud) but after being swept by the Cubs, they were trounced tonight by the Brewers.  The NY teams are trending very similarly right now – and in the wrong direction.  We may all look back fondly to early May as the peak of the season.

The Clippers had an historic meltdown going for the series win last night against the Rockets.  They were out-scored 40 – 15 in the 4th quarter and blew a 19-point 3rd quarter lead.  SU  still believes the Clippers can win game 7 on the road but this will be a real gut check for them.

Jorge Posada has come out with a new book on his career with the Yankees.  Check out the link below from today’s New York Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/new-book-jorge-posada-reveals-bitter-core-article-1.2216846

SU was always a big Jorge fan.  Tough guy, really cared about winning and losing, played with a lot of heart and fire.  From the attached article, you can see that he was not a happy camper the last few years, and he was especially unhappy having Joe Girardi as his manager.  He took the catcher’s job from Girardi in the late 1990s and he clearly did not enjoy playing for him at the tail end of his career.

But way too much whining about batting lower in the order, not being allowed to catch anymore, no team spirit, etc.  Writing a book like this only tarnishes his image and makes him look bad.  Fans were left with a very postiive view of him as a “true Yankee” (whatever that means) and a warrior.  It is good to see that he still hates Pedro Martinez.

SU says leave with class.  Not everyone gets to have the lovefest in their last season like Mariano and Jeter.  This book was a mistake.

As an NBA team playing in a hotly contested playoff game, do you want your star players to be able to over-rule the coach when designing the plays for the end of the game?  Take yesterday’s game between the Bulls and the Cavs.  1.5 seconds left in the game.  LeBron has shot 9 for 29 for the game and has committed 2 offensive fouls in the last minute and a half.  Kyrie Irving hurt is ankle and has been a non-factor.  Coach Dave Blatt, rookie in the NBA but very experienced internationally, has LeBron taking out the ball underneath the basket.  In the huddle, LeBron over-rules the coach and says just give me the ball.  Naturally, he drains a fall back base line jumper from the corner at the buzzer and is the hero.  But is this a good thing?

This incident made me recall the series between the Knicks and the Bulls back in the mid-1990s after Jordan had “retired” and Scottie Pippen was the star player.  Phil Jackson drew up a last second play for Toni Kukoc to take the shot.  Pippen got pissed off in the huddle and took himself out of the game.  Kukoc hit the 3-pointer to win the game and Pippen looked like a fool and a spoiled, selfish NBA star.  In that case, Jackson wanted to use Pippen as a decoy to free up Kukoc to take the shot.

We all know the NBA is a star’s league – more so than any other professional sport.  No doubt, a lot of this goes on in late game huddles.  Hell, even in the movie Hoosiers, coach Gene Hackman originally had someone else taking the last shot in the championship game until Jimmie Chitwood spoke up that he would make it and the coach changed the play.  It is unusual that your star player feels the need to publicly acknowledge what happened in the post-game press conference, and make your coach look a little small.  For Dave Blatt, he also lost track of the timeouts and almost called one in the last few seconds that he didn’t have which would have resulted in a technical foul and loss of possession (and likely the game).  But one of his assistants pulled him back to the bench and saved him.

From SU’s standpoint, these coaches have 27 assistants to help them in these situations (note: back in the Knick glory days, it was just coach Red Holzman and he had trainer Danny Whelan who kept track of the timeouts.  No other assistants on the bench back then).  Blatt will now be in the spotlight and may be viewed as a puppet coach who is being manipulated by LeBron the rest of the playoffs.  SU does not love this situation because here is how it may play out.  If Cleveland advances and goes all the way, LeBron adds to his legacy as superstar and pseudo-coach.  If they lose, and it’s because of some late game decisions by LeBron, he will blame it on the coach.  LeBron needs to set the record straight today that Dave Blatt is the coach and the players have some input at times – even if it’s not  true.  And the reason is that things will only spiral downhill from here if they don’t nip it in the bud.  SU is not a fan of the control freak coach who calls every possession like Pat Riley.  But there needs to be some order in late games situations.

Your thoughts?

SU has a theory on why the fans have rallied around A-Rod so quickly in NY this year.  First, check out a today’s read by Wally Matthews on espn.com:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/85025/alex-rodriguez-the-winner-in-dispute-with-yankees

SU believes it’s a combination of three factors.  First,  A-Rod has gotten off to a good start and has hit some tape-measure homeruns.  Second, he is saying all the right things and has been able to stick to the story line without being tempted by the media to go negative.  And third, it’s the absence of the shadow of Derek Jeter and SU believes this is in fact the most important reason.  Jeter always did everything right, he never, ever mis-spoke (as he learned to say nothing in answering reporters’ questions) and for the last few years, he did not have A-Rod’s back anymore.  They were best friends back in the mid-1990s but after the Esquire article where A-Rod bad-mouthed Jeter (slightly), well, that was that.  After the 2009 World Series win, it just got bad and they really didn’t interact much anymore.  The fans sensed that too and as long as Jeter was around, A-Rod would always be the bad guy and would always get the boos – especially at home if he failed to come through.  With Jeter now retired, if you notice, A-Rod is no longer booed at home when he strikes out or leaves guys on base.  We live in the post-Jeter era now and SU believes A-Rod also feels less pressure without Derek around.  He is playing much more relaxed (and chemical free).

Much of the Yankees’ success this season is due to the combination of Ellsbury and Gardner at the top of the line-up.  Some said last year that Girardi should have moved Jeter down in the order to take advantage of this but did not want to diss him in his final season.  Given how bad their offense was last year, it looks like that would have been a good move.

Ellsbury is on fire of late batting around .500 for an extended period of time but still only has 4 rbis on the season because he bats in front of Stephen Drew and Sir Didi Gregorius.  That is amazing.  For the Yankees to have close to the best record in the AL with those two plus Beltran in the bottom of the line up is impressive.  Surely Perela will start to get more playing time and the Stephen Drew era in NY will end.  Some team must need a shortstop for the 2nd half of the season.

Finally, Deflategate is getting out of hand.  There is talk now of a 4- or 8-game suspension for Brady.  SU cannot believe this.  It reminds me of the Mitchell Report in baseball where they exposed a handful of players for possible PED use and they took the fall for everyone else who was using PEDs.  They all remained silent.  Don’t you find it hard to believe that other NFL QBs are not doctoring the air pressure of their game balls?  I am not a Patriot fan but the punishment does not fit the crime here.  The refs handle the ball on every play – every play.  If the air pressure was that far below the 12.5 psi threshold, they would have noticed it.  It will be interesting to see if Brady gets both fined and suspended over this.

So, let me see if I have this right?  The New England Patriots took air out of the balls in order to cause a traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge.  Oh wait, I am mixing up Deflategate with Bridgegate.  The NFL just released its report and while it’s “probable” that the Patriots equipment personnel took air out of the game balls, there is no smoking pin.  SU may be on the wrong side of this but I just cannot get too excited over this.  I know the golfers out there will be outraged as they play by a thousand specific rules and police themselves on the course (I guess be careful if you play with an NFL player).  The baseball players will just yawn as MLB stars have been taking PEDs for years and before this era you had catchers and pitchers scuffing balls and hitters corking bats.  In hockey, they curve their sticks a little extra.  In tennis, they try and put a few extra dimples on their sneakers to play at Wimbledon for better traction.  Basketball is harder – not a lot of equipment other than the ball.  No doubt there will be suspensions for Brady and the equipment guys and by the way, once again you really shouldn’t use email to communicate with one another about how you are going to circumvent the rules.

Many in the SU universe will say that the integrity of the game has been damaged and that this is a gross violation.  SU says that in every sport, players and coaches are constantly looking to gain advantage and that they push the rules to the limit and beyond in doing so.

Do you agree?  What say you?  Or will you leave SU talking to myself?

The NY Rangers continue their amazing playoff run going back to last season with so many consecutive games being decided by 1 goal.  As of now, they are winning their share of these but you have to figure their luck may change – and it may be this week unfortunately.  The Yankees are in the same boat as they play a lot of close games which means they need to always use the Twin Towers (as A-Rod calls them) of Betances and Miller.  Girardi won’t allow his relievers to pitch on 3 consecutive games so it inevitably creates days like yesterday where you can only use one of them.  SU says it’s not sustainable over the long term and you will start to lose your share of the close games.  No bullpen is perfect.  The offense needs to do more and learn to manufacture runs without the benefit of the homerun.

He doesn’t get the same attention as LeBron or Stephen Curry but Blake Griffin is really coming into his own in this post-season for the Clippers.  SU has not watched him that much but he is the complete package.  Did you see his stat line last night without Chris Paul in the line-up?  26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists.  The Clippers basically ran their offense through him on most possessions and let him make decisions on when to shoot or pass.  Those are amazing numbers for a forward.  Knick fans: think of your main man, Carmelo.  If he ever hit 5 assists you would be singing his praises.  Griffin is light years ahead of Melo as a franchise player.  It’s an interesting contrast.

Speaking of the Knicks, Isiah Thomas is returning as the President and part-ower of…. the Liberty!  SU says this is just the beginning.  Once Phil Jackson bails on the rest of his contract, isiah will be warming up in the bullpen.  The clock is ticking.

Loved the comments yesterday on our friend Pedro Martinez.  From S. Goldman: “I heard the Pedro interview with Mike Francesa yesterday afternoon. It was just like watching him pitch. He was bright, articulate and incredibly entertaining. But he was also maddeningly stubborn and confident that he had never done anything wrong and every incident in which he was ever involved has a back story in which he was the real victim. He spoke of all the intentionally hit batters but also of how certain ones weren’t (“Jeter, yes. Soriano, no”). He was extremely critical of a couple of opponents and threw a few teammates, coaches and owners under the bus. Every injury he ever sustained was somebody’s fault but never his. Same could be said for every run he ever gave up and every elderly coach he ever threw to the ground. All in all he was incredibly entertaining. 90% of sports autobiographies should never have been written but he deserves to sell every copy. I hated him as a player and he’s probably not a great guy either. But he’s incredibly entertaining and sports can use more personalities like him.”

And from S. Long up in Beantown: “You are just learning now that most of Pedro’s HBPs weren’t accidents? Seriously? I haven’t read the new book excerpts, but I recall an earlier article about Pedro hitting people. The gist was that he wasn’t necessarily hitting them on purpose, he just didn’t give a crap whether they got hit or not. He said “It’s my job to throw the ball. It’s their job to get out of the way.” Personally, I wish more pitchers had that attitude.”

It’s only May 4th and we certainly don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.  A Yankees’ sweep in Boston?  We don’t see that everyday.  The Mets are shut out 1-0 in back-to-back games?  The pitching always gives them a chance to win but the injuries may finally be catching up to the offense.  SU thoughts from the weekend:

• ESPN must take Curt Schilling off the air for Sunday Night games.  I cannot be the only person out there who just cannot listen to him anymore.  SU prediction: he does not make it through the season.  As we speak, Joe Morgan is warming up in the bullpen and practicing saying “The Yankees are just not that good.”
• In case you were watching “Mad Men” like SU last night and missed it, the Red Sox and Yankees engaged in a little beanball action.  Hanley Ramirez got hit with his team down 8-1 and took MAJOR offense feeling it was intentional.  Really?  Because he did what to them?  SU will beat the rush and will start hating him now as he clearly has the sense of his namesake, Manny Ramirez.  Of course, the Red Sox had to retaliate and hit Ellsbury on a 3-0 pitch after a couple of previous pitches missed him.  The umpire could have stopped it before then but it’s baseball and you need to settle it on the field.  To be continued as they will face each other many more times.  This is when you wish you still had Roger Clemens who loved these situations.
• Speaking of beanballs, you have to check out the excerpts from Pedro Martinez’s new book Pedro in last week’s Sports Illustrated.  Some books should just not be written.  He focuses on the 2003 season and fesses up to the fact that most of his HBPs in his career were intentional.  I know, shocking news.  SU always hated him when he was on Boston but respected him.  Great pitcher.  Now I can hate him and not respect him.  Feels better.
• The Mets continue to get great pitching but will need to find some offense until David Wright and others return.  It’s hard to win a lot of close low scoring games.  Baltimore did it in 2013 but the odds say you will trend closer to .500.  The Yankees are doing it now with their starters going 5 innings and a lights out bullpen.  That is not sustainable as the relievers will tire at some point.
• Jose Pirela is lighting it up for the Yankees in the minors in his rehab assignment going 11 for 19 over the weekend with power.  Look for him to be brought up very, very soon, and they should put him in the line up every day.  He is clearly better than Drew or Gregoius and even Headley could use some competition for his playing time.  At what point do you say that Stephen Drew is in fact a .150 hitter at this point in his career?
• Mark Texeiria, for all his early success, is hitting about .080 with RISP.  But the Yankees are powered by Ellsbury and Gardner this year who seem to always be on base.

The Jets had a great draft and seem to be trending in the right direction.  As predicted, Clippers – Spurs series was fantastic and SU hopes that Chris Paul can get well fast to get them to a Warriors – Clippers Western Conference final which would also be fun.  Finally, will the Rangers play any playoff games this post-season that are not decided by one goal?  No doubt stressful for the diehards.