Building Up In The Bronx

It was a nasty trend that started last season, and it appears that its already continuing into this year. The New York Yankees had run through a number of guys last year going to the injured list and still managed to win 103 regular season games, which was good enough to grab them an American League Eastern Division title. This year, things were supposed to be different and looking up. They are starting to look up, but the injury bug hasn't stopped.

Over the last month, the Yankees have been hit with injury news to five of their regulars. James Paxton got the news before training camp even started. He had back surgery to remove a cyst and won't be able to throw anywhere close to a normal spring training routine till at least the 5th. He'll miss the start of the season.

Next we have Aaron Judge, who's dealing with right shoulder soreness. This started just before full squad workouts even began. According to reports, he's been hitting indoors, and could resume taking some swings outdoors by this weekend. Reports are he could be back to workouts by early next week.

Giancarlo Stanton is the next Yankee to hit the injured list, this one coming thanks to a strained calf. Its a mild calf strain, one which Stanton developed earlier this week doing outfield drills. According to reports, it will be a couple of weeks before we're close to seeing Stanton on the field, which possibly puts him at missing the start of the season. This could be big considering, due to injury last year, he only played in 19 games.

Tommy John Surgery has struck twice for the Yanks. Aaron Hicks is one guy who's had it. He could be back right around the all star break as he's been rehabbing in Tampa. The other one is a pretty big blow as its starting pitcher Louis Severino. He underwent surgery on it yesterday and will be out of action until the 2021 season. He's pitched in only five big league games since getting signed to a four year extension worth $40 million last fall.

Garrett Cole's signing proves to be even larger now with both Paxton and Severino out. At least on paper, the rotation now looks like Cole, Tanaka, Haap, Montgomery and Loaisiga.. Looks quite a bit different with Paxton and Severino both gone with injuries. At least Paxton is coming back, Sevy who the hell knows what he'll look like when he gets back here. Judge and Stanton are a little different. Both have been slowed down by injuries a little the last couple of seasons. Both guys are different cases because, lets face it, they aren't your average sized ball players. It'll take a little longer for them to come back and they're going to have to be treated a little different. With them out it gives guys like Clint Frazier and Mike Tauchman a chance to earn some more playing time. If both of those guys can perform, which we all know they can, then it will help keep the Yankee machine rolling right along.

We saw what happened last year with the injuries starting to stack up. I know its only the start of spring games but it might be something to keep an eye on once the dog days of summer start rolling around. Depth will be tested again this year. Can they handle it as well as they did last year? Only time will tell

NHL Trade Deadline Winners & Losers

Its one of the days on the calendar that all hockey fans look forward to. In fact, along with the start of free agency over the summer, trade deadline day is the most fun day of the hockey year that has nothing to do with the action on the ice. Who's going to get moved and where? What's the price tag for players? Is somebody going to get a contract extension? All those questions are ussally answered by deadline day. Now, the trade deadline has come and gone in the NHL. Since we've had a few days to try and digest everything that's gone down, there was quite a bit of movement. Here's a look at some of the winners and losers from deadline day.

Winners:
Tampa Bay Lightning
Facts are that since Christmas, there's been no hotter team in the game of hockey then the Tampa Bay Lightning. They've lost only four games since the holiday's and have had two winning streaks of ten or more games (before having that 2nd one snapped by the Leafs). At the deadline, the Bolts went out and made moves to get even better. Rookie GM Julien BriseBois went out and picked up underrated Blake Coleman from the Devils. he then went out and picked up former Buffalo defenseman Zach Bogosian, at a bargain. And to round the day out, they went out and picked up defensive forward Barclay Goodrow. These moves went out and made a good team even deeper. Now with the injury bug looking like its starting to strike the Boiltsw, adding these players looms even larger going down the home stretch.

Boston Bruins
Everybody knows good and well that the Bruins are one of the best all around teams in the game this year, poised to make another run at the title. The Bruins didn't have to do much of anything at the deadline, they could have stayed pat and been just fine. Instead, they went out and traded David Backes to the Ducks for 24 year old winger Ondrej Kase. Backes hasn't done anywhere near what you got out of him when he was in St. Louis, so unloading him was a huge relief for the B's. Plus, you got a solid return in Kase. He's got plenty of potential to be a good all around scorer in this league. Kase has one piece of baggage attached, if you even want to call it that. He's been hit with injuries during his career. When healthy, he's going to have a big impact in Beantown

Carolina Hurricanes
At the time of this writing, the Hurricanes sit just two points back of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. With the moves they made at the deadline, it could be of huge help in getting them the push they need at the final playoff spot. Carolina has to deal with Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce being down with injuries. So to help deal with that, the team goes out and brings in Sami Vatanen and Brady Skjei. Everybody know that Vatanen is coming in as a rental, but the addition of Skjei is big because he's not only got youth on his side (and is very good), but he's also locked up to a long term deal. Oh yeah, they also gave their offense a big boost by picking up Vincent Trocheck from the Panthers. He;'s got great offensive skills and is also signed to a long term deal, so he'll be here in Carolina a while. Carolina is looking for a repeat of the success they had in last year's playoffs and this will help get them in the right direction.

Losers:
Chicago Blackhawks
Its no secret here that the Hawks are in a bit of a rebuild. lets face it, they aren't going to contend this season and were looking to sell at the deadline. You'd like to think that they would be able to get some kind of decent return for some of the pieces they were selling off. Instead, the opposite happened. All the Hawks managed to grab was a second-round pick, a third-round pick, a backup goalie and a college defenseman who isn't ranked high on a lot of people's charts. And the two guys that they got rid of were pretty popular in the hawks room. Erik Gustafsson should have been traded this past summer, when his value was much higher. Meanwhile, Robin Lehner, a reigning Vezina finalist, kept Chicago in many games earlier this season when everything else was falling apart. Since the return on Lehner was so low, it raises the question of why he was even traded at all.

Joe Thornton's Cup Chances
Had he wanted out, nobody would have blamed him. Jumbo Joe has had a hell of a career in this league, one of the all time greats of this generation of hockey players. If Thorton had asked to be delt to a winner, General Manager Doug Wilson would have oblidged. Never happened. And when you see guys like Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrick Marleau getting moved to contending teams, it leaves one to wonder why in the hell would Thornton stay put on a floundering team in San Jose to get a shot a cup?

Local Teams
New York Rangers
Sure, they traded Brady Skjei to Carolina, but that's not even the biggest move coming from the deadline that the Rangers made. Biggest move was signing Chris Kreider to a seven year contract extension worth $6.5 million a year. Its a little down from the number Kreider wanted, which was $7 miullion a year. The most important thing is, Kreider is staying on Broadway, a place he said he really wanted to be.He's been considered a heart and soul guy for this team and a building block that the rangers want to be able to build around.

Grade: B+

New Jersey Devils
Lot of moves made by the Devils, who are going full blown rebuild and basically blowing the team up. It started with trading Taylor Hall to the Coyotes back in December. Then at the deadline they kept going. Andy Greene to the Islanders. Blake Coleman to the Lightning. Wayne Simmonds to the Sabres. Louis Domingue to the Canucks. Sami Vatanen to the Hurricanes. In rteturns were a lot of prospects and draft picks.. This is what happens when an experiement fails. Whoever comes in as the next GM for this team has a lot of work to do to get the Devils back on the right track. But he does have some good pieces to work with in the draft picks

Grade: B

New York Islanders
Two moves by the Isles at the deadline. They sent a 2021 second-round pick and defenseman David Quenneville to the Devils for Andy Greene. Then they added offensive help by sending three conditional 2020 draft picks to Ottawa for Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was proptly signed to a six year contract extension. Greene has been a good signing. He's stepped right in and been an impact player on a team that's had their blueline depleted by injuries as of late. Pageau has been an interesting move. On the one hand I do like it because he brings 24 goals down from Ottawa, and scored in his first game against the Rangers the day after the trasde. He can provide an offensive spark to this team, if he is able to bring that same game and jump he had in Ottawa. The picks may have been a little steep, but if he's anything close to what we've seen in Ottawa, then it was worth it.

Grade: B+

Wake Up Call On Long Island?

Things are starting to heat up on Long Island, and not in a good way. We're almost at the 60 game mark for the regular season and the Islanders current;y sit in 3rd place in the Metro division, which is a top  heave division. Both Washington and Pittsburgh, who are ahead of them are starting to pull away, while Columbus, Philadelphia and Carolina are breathing right down there necks. What's going on with this team?

Well , there's a lot you can point at right now. The Isles are on a three game losing streak on their current road trip. During this trip, they've been shut out by both Nashville and Vegas, while managing to score just one goal against Arizona on Monday. Sure, Lou Lamarillo went out and got Andy Greene from the Devils to help out the banged up blueline. Good start but more has to be done to help this team out. I'm sorry but there's no scoring depth on this hockey team. Here's why this could be huge. The scoring differntial for this team is a plus 8. Not bad, but it looks bad when you see the two teams ahead of you are at a plus 39 and a plus 28. The goaltending at times has been fantastic, but the defense has been slipping as of late. They were outshot 43-19 in the shutout loss to Vegas on Saturday night.

That us a staggering number to think about. That shot total number from the Vegas game show what's going on with this hockey team. Adding Greene on the back end helps out because the goaltending has looked human this year. Then there the scoring. One guy, Brock Nelson, has hit twenty goals, he's sitting at twenty one. I'm sorry, as much as I'm a fan of Brock's I don't feel comfortable with one twenty goal man on this team. I know there's still plenty of season left to go, but there needs to be more.

There's no real depth on this team. No sense of urgency when it comes to offensive push. This is coming from a frustrated fan, but I need to see more fire from the forwards, there's nothing the last three games. Sure, they had a few more chances hitting the post on multiple occasions against the Coyotes on Monday but, that's not the puck hitting the back of the net. It hasn't happened that often this year where I fell that this team can roll with anybody. They've showed flashes that they could be a major threat in the East for a shot at the Cup, and there's times that they've come out with no heart and laid an egg.

Barzal is the team's best player anybody and everybody knows that fact. I've argued this for a long time now, how little scoring depth on this team. It's been hit or miss with getting anything consistently. It's driving me crazy wondering most nights which team is going to show up its very Jekyll and Hyde as to what offense will come to play every night. All I ask of my team is that they show up and give me effort from an offensive standpoint every night. No more flat performances and no more getting out worked. It might also help if, between now and Monday's trade deadline, our general manager goes out and adds an offensive weapon to help out with this team and attempt to make it stronger. The forwards are almost as banged up as the blueline which isn't helping things much.

Really Sorry?

It's been a story that has dominated the headlines for most of the winter. The Houston Astros stealing signs during the 2017 World Series year. This morning, the Astros owner, new manager and some of their players addressed the media at their spring training facility in Florida. Some of the statements made sounded honest, while others didn't sound as much. Below are some of the quotes from the press conference via ESPN.

Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve were the first two players to speak in front of the media about the scandal.

"I am really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization and by me. I have learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans," Bregman said.

Altuve said the Astros had a "great team meeting" on Wednesday night and said the "whole Astros organization feels bad for what happened in 2017."

"[I] especially feel remorse for the impact on our fans and the game of baseball," he said.

Oh there's more. New Astros manager Dusty Baker said he hopes his players will be forgiven by fans and other players. "I ask the baseball world to forgive them for the mistakes that they made," he said.

Amnd last but not least, there's a great quote from the team owner, Jim Crane. He said "Our opinion is that this didn't impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we'll leave it at that,"

This is a complete one eighty from what the players were saying and showing to the fanbase over the last month or so, as this information was unfolding. And not only that, but t, to put it bluntly, it feels like a total load of crap. If you've seen any pictures or videos from the press conference earlier, you could tell by the facial expressions and body language of Altuve and Bregman that they didn't want to be there. They felt and looked totally out of place. You could tell they were like kids being sent to the principal's office to face the music for what happened.

The owners quote made me scratch my head even more. It didn't impact the game? I call bull crap. You guys had a six year run, including your first two years in the American League, where you had a losing record. Then in 2016 you make the playoffs with 86 wins. Then the win total jumps to three straight years of over 100 wins and three straight ALCS appearances. Trust me I've seen big turn around in sports, but nothing like this.

The fact that all of this came out, and that's the attitude your going with? Don't even try it. If you were really remorseful about this, then you would have come out with an apology right from the start and actually showed emotion. Today you guys just looked like little kids who were forced to apologize after stealing candy from the convenience store up the street.

I really can't wait to see how teams handle Astros hitters this year, because its going to be an ongoing story all season long

Two Big Storylines For New York Baseball

Ah yes, its that wonderful time of the year for baseball fans. Spring training has arrived for Major League Baseball and we're about a month and a half away from the start of the regular season. Everybody trying to get back into game shape after a long and cold winter. It means that warmer weather is on the way. As far as the New York baseball scene is concerned, there's quite a few storylines to pay attention to heading into camp. There's two in particular we are going to look at here and now. One from the Bronx and the other from Queens.

Starting in the Bronx, one of the biggest concerns has to be the pitching staff. They were struck with injuries and inconsistent play for most of last year. Still they managed to come within a game of a World Series appearance. So how do you take a good team and make it better? Go out and get one of the best pitchers on the market. Gerrit Cole got paid to play here. Nine years at $324 million is one hell of a payday. Now the question is, was it a wise investment?

When you spend that kind of money on a pitcher, there's going to be question marks. Was he worth it? Can he deliver? Your going to get those kind of questions not only in camp, but once the season gets going as well. This deal now looms even larger for Cole to deliver, since James Paxton is going to be out for some time with the back injury. He's coming off a year when he finished second in Cy Young Voting in the American league, won 20 games, leading the AL with a 2.50 ERA and 326 strikeouts. Anybody watching baseball knew he was going to get a big payday when he hit the market, and the Yankees were the team to give it to him.

There's no doubt he got the stuff, he displayed that the last couple of seasons in Houston. He should be fine during not only camp, but as the regular season rolls along. Its not a reason to worry, at least not about his stuff, because he;'s got plenty of it and can deliver. Question is can he handle the pressure of New York and keep this up over the length of the contract.

Now we go to the National League team. there's a few storylines about who's going to get playing time and where. The name that's right at the top of the list is Yoenis Cespedes. Sure, there are guys around other camps we want to keep an eye on who are coming off injury seasons last year that are looking to bounce back, but Cespedes is the highest profile one. He hasn't played a game since 2018, and that year played only 32 games. He's missed all of last season as he recovered from surgery on both heels and a broken ankle.

There was a lot of talk around him after he signed that huge four year deal after the hot end to the year he had in 2015. He had his salary reduced because of lack of playing time, but can earn as much as $20 million this year through his salary and bonuses. The thing to look at with Yoenis is, he's 34 years old and coming off major injuries. He isn't going to run anywhere close to what he did before injuries took hold. The big wonder is, can he still throw and can he still hit with the power?

Should the power and the arm be there, which will find out during camp, then the Mets would be dumb not to find a way to get that into the lineup everyday. Of course they are going to be monitoring him the whole way. The outfield depth chart has Michael Confort in right, Brandon Nimmo in center and JD Davis in left. If Cespedes can play even remotely close to the level he was at before he got injured, then they pretty much have to play him

What The Hell Is Going On In Queens?

Spring Training has finally gotten underway in Major League Baseball. This is normally the time of year when players start getting back into game shape, while others are just trying to make a Major League roster. As teams slowly start taking shape to get ready for the 2020 season, there's a huge news story/distraction coming out of Mets camp. And it gets more and more bizzare by the week.

We talked about it on the show last week, how things started to fall apart between Sterling Equites, the current ownership group of the Mets run by Fred and Jeff Wilpon, and Steve Cohen. Just a quick refresher. A deal was signed, in principal, that Cohen was going to buy the Mets for $2.6 Billion and over the next five years, gain control of the team, owning 80% of the club. Well, it fell through, mostly because Cohen tried to re-write the deal as he went along. In doing so, it soured the Mets ownership group from wanting to sell him the team, and the deal was said to be finished and off the table earlier this week.

Here's where it gets really screwy. Jeff Wilpon released a statement Monday, a very vauge one at that, regarding the failed sale of the team. Wilpon went on to say, "We would like to share more information on why the proposed transaction has ended however, due to confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, we are unable to do so at this time."

I'm sorry, but how the hell could you not have a comment at this time? I know its a business move and your trying to keep quite about it, but come on the fans aren't stupid. You guys as owners of the team say you want to win, but you don't make much of any effort to show that you want to win. Think about this for a moment. Since the Wilpons took sole ownership of the team in 2002, the Mets have had three playoff appearances. 2006, 2015 and 2016. 2015 was the World Series year and should have been something that the team could have capitalized on and yet you failed to do so.

The team has shown no interest in going out on the market and signing players. They have done good in developing guys in past years, no doubt about that. Wright, Reyes, deGrom, Alonso, Syndergaard, all home grown guys (even though Thor was picked up in a trade, he started his big league career in New York so I consider that a home grown guy). But since the 2006 season, they haven't really gone out and made splashes in the market. They tried that earlier this century by signing older marquee stars and it blew up on them, they were bad signings. Now, when they have a chance to go out on the market and make a splash with young, talented guys that are out there to either sign or trade for, they refuse to do it.

To make this whole thing even weirder, the Wilpons are still looking for a buyer for the team. I'm sorry, but with the way things just went down with the Cohen debacle, I'm not really sure who the hell is going to want to take a chance on buying this baseball club. It has nothing to do with the product itself, its more so dealing with the Wilpons and getting the right offer on the table. You saw what just went down with Cohen, you figure it out. I see this as the Wilpons wanting to sell, but still wanting control in the team. Nobody is going to want to buy with that staring them in the face. If this is to work, the Wilpons have to be willing to give up full control to whoever takes over as owner.

This is coming from a Mets fan who is tired of seeing average and underacheving baseball and his favorite team being run like a circus!

Ovechkin Chasing History

Scoring a goal in the National Hockey League is a tough thing to be able to do. It's the best hockey league in the world for a reason. Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals has been doing this for quite some time now. For fifteen years now, Ovechkin has been a major threat in this game, and he's close to reaching a pretty big milestone.

Including this year, Ovechkin has lead the league in goals nine times, as he's leading the league (at the time of this writing) with 40 goals. He now sits at 698 goals, following last night's natural hat trick against the Kings in a 4-2 win. The goals place him 8th on the NHL's all time goals list, just two shy of cracking 700 career. The only other guys in the history of the league to crack 700 goals are Wayne Gretzky (894), Gordie Howe (801), Jaromir Jagr (766), Brett Hull (741), Marcel Dionne (731), Phil Esposito (717) and Mike Gartner (708).

How does Ovie keep doing this? He has the trait possessed by all great goal scorers. He goes after any and every puck. He wants the puck on his stick at all times Ovie at times can do things with the puck on his stick that were really reserved for mostly video games. Best way to describe Ovie when it comes to chasing after a loose puck is he's like a shark that smells blood in the water. And one of his greatest gifts is that he's been healthy and consistent throughout most of his career.

And Ovie is kid of a bit of a throwback to the likes of Cam Neely a little in that he likes to play physical. He's different from a guy like Neely in that he's not as physical and is a better scorer then Cam, he'/s built in the same mold in my mind. He's got size and the physical game to him, but he's better known for his scoring touch.

It really is amazing to sit here and think that he's going to become just the 8th player in history to reach 700 goals in the NHL. Leave him room at the top of the faceoff circle and the puck is anywhere near him, he's going to find a way to put the puck in the back of the net. And he's been coming on as of late this year too. Looked like he got off to a slow start, but he's found his scoring touch. Not only will he eclipse the 700 goal mark, but he shouldn't have a problem hitting the 50 goal mark this year either.

Every so often an athlete comes along that leaves us in awe and wanting more. Alex Ovechkin is that athlete right now and its been a lot of fun getting to watch him play the last fifteen years.