Season Preview

Season Preview: New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are going into the 2012 season with a lot of the same pieces that they had last year. Their offseason acquisitions focused mainly on getting better starting pitching than they had last year. They signed Hiroki Kuroda from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Also they traded for a young right hander in Michael Pineda. The most surprising free agent signing was of course Andy Pettitte, who came out of retirement to try and help the Yankees win their 28^th World Championship. After adding those three pitchers they have traded A.J. Burnett to the Pirates and lost Bartolo Colon in free agency to the Oakland Athletics. There was only one real move to help improve the lineup and that was signing Raul Ibanez. He is a lefty hitter who will mainly face righty pitchers.

Weakness: Age and injury

The Yankees have a lot of money tied up with players that are older. Everyone in the infield is over 30 years old (Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriquez, and Mark Teixeira) except for second baseman Robinson Cano. In the outfield Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher are also over 30 years old. For the pitching staff there are two guys over the age of 35 Freddy Garcia and newcomer Hiroki Kuroda. That is somewhat of a concern because historically as guys get older more nagging injuries will affect their career. And the injury bug has already hit the Yankees rotation with Michael Pineda going on the 15 day disabled list with a shoulder injury. This won’t hurt them right away because of all the arms they have in the rotation, but it is something to keep an eye one when you look at the future of this ball club.

Strengths: Pitching and Experience

The Yankees are going into this season with better starting pitching and a better bullpen than they have had in years. You can start with ace CC Sabathia who has been anchoring this rotation for the past three years. He is a pitcher that you know what you are going to get; he throws 200 plus innings and is capable of winning 20 games a year. He also is great for the younger players to learn from because of his knowledge of how to pitch. Also in the rotation for the second year in a row would be Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia. Nova won 16 games last year as a rookie and he hopes to avoid a sophomore slump. Garcia is a wily old veteran who knows how to pitch. Hiroki Kuroda will be making his debut for the Yankees this year and it will be interesting to see how the 3.45 career ERA will translate to the AL East. Phil Hughes is also going to be in the rotation and I think that will be the weak spot for the Yankees because he has lost a lot of velocity and the one year he was a starter his ERA was over 4.00.

When you look at the real strength of this team it may lie in the bullpen. You can start with the best closer of all time Mariano Rivera. With Rivera you know what you are going to get no matter how old he is. When the Enter Sandman song comes on more times than not the game is over. Before you get to Rivera the Yankees may have the best 8^th inning guy in the league in David Robertson. After his first All-Star year and having an ERA of 1.08 he is a guy that the Yankees hope can continue his success in 2012. And finally the next big arm in the bullpen would be Rafael Soriano, who was supposed to be the Yankees 8^th inning guy until Robertson flourished under that role. Soriano had an off year last year but he has the stuff to make this bullpen the best in the majors.

The Yankees are a team that has experience of winning championships all over their roster. The captain Derek Jeter is a five time World Champion and so is Mariano Rivera. They have the ability to help the other players young and old on how to win in New York. They have been through it all and that is something many teams do not have. Also their manager has won the World Series as a player and as a coach so he knows what it takes to get the job done and the type of players you need to win another World Series.

X-Factor: Mark Teixeira

Mark Teixeira is a player that can make the Yankees get to the next step if he steps up his at the plate. He is a guy who is capable of hitting forty home runs and driving in well over 100 runs. But the problem with him is that his average has gone down every year that he has been with the Yankees. Almost all teams put a shift on when he steps up to the plate and he continues to hit right into the teeth of it. If he could start to spread the ball around the field more this will help the Yankees be a better team. He is now batting in the fifth spot in the lineup so he is going to have plenty of chances to drive in runs with the guys who hit in front of him. His homerun total might go down but if he could get his average back up to .285 or higher it will greatly improve an already powerful lineup. Also what he brings on the defensive side is remarkable. Since I’ve been watching baseball I have not seen a first basemen make as many spectacular plays look so easy.

Prediction:

I think that the New York Yankees are going to have a lot of competition like always in the American League East. You have Boston who is always going to be a contender with the lineup they have. The Rays are a great young team that have a rotation with experience and live arms. And when you look at the Blue Jays and Orioles they continue to get better every year and are always capable of pulling off a surprise season. Having said all that I still think the Yankees can win the division for the second year in a row because of how improved the rotation looks. But the battle between Boston, Tampa Bay, and New York is going to be something special to watch and I can’t wait for the season to get started.

Greatest Game

Takeem Hedgman is the greatest high school football player I have ever seen. Ever since we were in fifth grade the town was talking about his skill on the football field. He was a legend locally even before he stepped through the doors of Monticello High School for the first time. The news papers would have headlines like, “Takeem the Dream”, “Keem’s Team”, and “Sonic the Hedgehog” for how fast he was. He had speed, quickness, and agility like no one else I had ever seen and people in the community were noticing.

At the start of his high school career he was the starter and he never relinquished that role until he left as a senior. He never missed a game for any reason. But there was always one question about a great player that everyone loves to talk about and debate, and that is; Can he win a Championship?

Up until his senior season that had not come true yet. So Takeem went out to prove to everyone that he could win it all. He had a mentality I had never seen before. During his senior year there would be games where he scored 6 touchdowns and have 300 yards at halftime, and he wouldn’t play the rest of the game. He set the all-time Virginia record for touchdowns in a season with 51 and had over 3,000 yards for the year.

But all of those statistics didn’t mean anything if he never got a ring.

It was an ice cold Friday night in December. The first round of the Virginia high school playoffs were going on and Monticello was losing by 21-17 with 2:32 left on the clock. It had been a hardnosed game all night back and forth. They had the ball at their own 20 yard line and had to drive 80 yards to win the game. At a time like this you usually see teams airing it out and trying to throw down field as much as possible to try and score. But not this team, not with Takeem.

The first play was a hand off to Takeem and he made one cut up field, ran the safety over, and ran for a 30 yard gain. The home crowd went insane, the sideline was jumping up and down getting ready for what we all knew was coming next. Now with the clock running they pitched the ball to him twice and both plays go nowhere. Third and twelve with the ball around midfield and 1:20 remaining on the clock. What do you do? Hand off up the middle and Takeem made the best play in one single run that I had seen. He was jump cutting, spinning, and carrying defenders down field. He got all the way to the two yard line. The field was shaking from everyone screaming and cheering in the stands and on the field. Next play, touchdown. Monticello eventually won the game and went on easily to win the State Championship behind their leader at running back.

It was the first time I have ever seen a team that was willing to stick to the run regardless of what the clock said. With the season on the line Takeem put on a show and it is something that I will never forget as long as I live.

Melo's Stage

It is time for Carmelo Anthony to prove why he belongs in New York.

The Knicks are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, just two games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks. They are a team that has been playing great lately winning six of seven under head coach Mike Woodson. But now they are without their "superstar" Amare Stoudemire with a bulging disk in his back. According to ESPN New York Anthony said,"A situation like this requires me to step my game up a little bit more, take it up a notch." ESPN Article

Without another scorer at the power forward position the Knicks are going to have to rely on their number one guy Carmelo to provide most of the scoring.

Anthony has had a great career scoring the basketball while other parts of his game, like defense and leadership have been brought into question. This year that is not the problem for him. His defensive intensity has been one of the main reasons for the Knicks turnaround. And on the other hand scoring has been Melo's downfall. His shooting percentage is around the worst of his career and before last night against the Bucks Melo had not reached 20 points in any game under Woodson. He needs to put this team on his back if he wants to prove he can be the guy the Knicks thought he was.

Knicks fans are praising him for his defensive skills and intensity throughout the game, but now with not a whole lot of offensive help it is time for him to show off his scoring ability. He has a great young point guard in Jeremy Lin who can get him the ball and their is no reason why he shouldn't be the main target in Woodson's offense.

Anthony wanted this pressure from the day he demanded to play for the Knicks. This is what he wanted, to play in the sold out Garden every single night. He wanted to be New York's next big star. Well Carmelo, here is your chance to take the city over, take the Knicks further than they have been in a decade. Now let's see what you got.

Met Problems

When you have the luck of a New York Met fan you just wait for the moment when you hear something that is going to ruin the season. Any little amount of bad news can turn disastrous for this franchise. Last year first basemen Ike Davis went to catch a little pop up in the infield and "rolled" his ankle. He was later pronounced out for the year with that injury; they called it damage to ankle cartilage.

This spring the Mets have started off pretty much where they left off, with injury news flowing all around and Ike Davis is involved again. Davis has likely been diagnosed with early Valley Fever, a fungal disease that starts in the lungs. It is considered to be non contagious and he might not even miss any action, but its still a serious diagnosis and it is something that can get progressively worse over time. The more intriguing news comes from the Mets star third basemen David Wright. Wright has a rib cage injury that has already sidelined him for the first two games of the spring.

When you look at both of these injuries you could say that they aren't season threatening or even threatening to the start of the regular season, but its the Mets. The team that, over the past two years, has had their said to be star Jason Bay go down, Jose Reyes was out for over a month with a hamstring injury, their best pitcher Johan Santana has been out for two years, even the back ups who were coming in to play were getting hurt. The injury cloud that is over this team is amazing. And the start they have had to this spring is something that should be alarming for Met fans. We are only starting the second week of spring training and the news surrounding the New York Mets is negative injury news.

Sooner or later they will be able to get away from this injury bug, but as of right now, if you wear a Met uniform BEWARE of SERIOUS INJURY.

Bye AJ

AJ Burnett is gone. To all Yankee fans that have had to pay money to watch him pitch over the past three years, in the words of Michael Kay, "Seeee Yaaa". He was terrible for the Yankees, he came over from the Blue Jays with all this potential talent and he only delivered for half of a season. Over his five year contract I would go as far to say that he has been and will continue to steal money from the Yankee organization. He never lived up to the hype for whatever reason.

Some people have it and some people don't. AJ Burnett is one of those people who doesn't have what it takes to pitch in pinstripes every fifth day. He would go out on the mound with a scowl on his face and just throw the ball. At times it looked like he had no idea where the ball was going he was just out there to throw. He would blame others and argue about who was catching him and that he would be taken out of the game too early. But almost every time it was his own fault. He was the one pitching and throwing the ball that was getting knocked all around the ballpark. He was the one who was punching walls hurting his throwing hand. He was the one who got punched and walked around sporting a black eye from an anonymous puncher.

I know some people will say, but yea he won a ring in '09 and pitched well in the World Series. I guess those people forget about the torture he put us all through on the nights he would pitch in hot July. I would make sure that every time he pitched I wouldn't put the game on until the fourth inning because who knows what the hell was going to happen when he was on the mound.


Now he comes out and says too many people were tinkering with his arm, trying to give him too much advice. Well AJ you wouldn't have that problem if you were putting 0's up on the board instead of 4's, 5's, and 6's. People had to tinker with your arm because, lets be honest, you sucked.
Well enjoy your ring, enjoy Pittsburgh, and enjoy the money you are still collecting from the Yankees for the next two years. But I know one thing AJ you will never ruin one of my nights again with your wild pitches to the backstop every tenth throw.

Leader

To win a World Championship it helps to have someone who has been there and done that. You want someone who is going to step up and be a leader for the rest of the team. That person for the New York Giants was Justin Tuck. After fighting through injuries all season Tuck put that aside and carried a defense, and team on his back.

Before the game the usually soft spoken Tuck grabbed some of his teammates and let them know how enthusiastic he was about this game. He took the role to fire everyone up and make sure they were prepared and that there head was in the game. Tuck was yelling, “You don’t have a ring!” he began, literally shouting at guys like Chris Canty and Michael Boley. “You don’t know how this feels. Think about that. Think about what you’ve missed in your life.” Those are words that can get you fired up. He got them ready for a game against one of the greatest all-time quarterbacks. Not only did Tuck vocally show his leadership, but also led by example recording two sacks (with one on the final drive).

This Giants team has controlled their own destiny by winning the Super Bowl. They were led, by their quarterback Eli Manning, to score a touchdown with 57 seconds left. But the inspiration came before that by the words of Justin Tuck. “I said, ‘None of you want to walk off this field tonight thinking you missed this opportunity, because you never know when you’ll get another,’ ” Tuck explained later. “And I told them that we’re built for this. To go out and grab it. It’s there for us.” With a leader like that you can become Super Bowl Champions. And the Giants now are.

God Bless America

Sometimes we forget what is the most important things in life are. We all know the fans that claim that they are die-hard and would do anything to see thier team win a championship. But there are more important objectives in life and ways to live life besides living and breathing sports. Yes, sports can give fans a sense of unity and accomplishment, but what about our soliders who are fighting for our country and really a main reason why we are still able to watch these events on television.

One question I always think about is, "What can we do to help these soliders out?" Well sports are something that actually does bring people together from all over the world. It connects us in ways we wouldnt normally think about. An example would be the article written by Ian Begley. Doug Weaver and his brother Jeff are both huge Giants fans. They would usually watch an event like this together but Doug is over in Afghanastan fighting for us. His brother Jeff will actually be at the game in Indy while he is watching with his soliders overseas.

Its great to hear that there can be a little relief for the soliders with a football game. Watching a game of football is something that all of them can hopefully relate to. Doug said, "It's nice to be here and watch the game with fellow soldiers, but it's also nice to sit here and picture what it's like to with family and friends at home," he says.

We cant wait for all the soliders to come home and be able to watch the greatest sporting event in the world. But until then, God Bless America and keep all our soliders safe.

Happy Super Bowl Go Giants.

Forgetting Plax

The shadows of Plaxico Burress may never go away for the New York Giants. At today's media day for the Super Bowl Brandon Jacobs, who has never been shy, said, "I know he wanted to come to the Giants."  

This response Jacobs gave the media is one that might be true or not, but it won’t go unnoticed. Burress was a great wide receiver with the Giants and helped them accomplish many things. Some people think that if he never shot himself in 2008 they would have repeated that year. Burress was a weapon unlike any other the Giants had ever had before. He was a player who could go over the middle or catch the deep ball. He is someone who will forever be remembered for making the game winning grab against the previously 18-0 New England Patriots.

Some people thought the Giants would never be the same without him there to help Eli Manning out. But the times have changed Eli is now considered elite by most people and the giants are headed back to the Super Bowl. Plaxico went from the top of the mountain by winning a Super Bowl in '07, to just going through the motions with the New York Jets and playing a mediocre season.

Now the Giants are four years older and maybe in a better situation. They are the hot team on a roll right now and some of that contribution comes from Plaxico's replacements; Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, and Mario Manningham.

Hard Work

As a kid my father was always asking for more than I thought I could take. When it came to sports he would either take me to the batting cages for hours so I could get my swing down or be outside shooting hoops until it got dark. For many years I didn't understand why I was always doing all of this extra work when other kids were inside playing video games.

As I got older I started to realize that he was pushing me so I could be the best player that I could be. He wasn’t concerned with the outcome as much as he was with the effort I provided.

That lesson taught me a lot about life and what goes into being successful. The same could be said for Victor Cruz of the New York Giants. Cruz was somewhat of a no-name player when he entered this lockout season. He was buried on the depth chart of wide receivers and looked like he needed a miracle to get onto the field. In an article by ESPN New York's Ohm Youngmisuk, he explains Victor Cruz's ride to stardom. http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/7508706/2012-nfl-playoffs-hoboken-workouts-helped-grow-victor-cruz-confidence-early

That all changed when he got a call from the starting quarterback Eli Manning over the summer to come workout with him. This was an opportunity like no other because everyone is doing their own thing getting ready for the season without training camps. Cruz was now able to pretty much have a practice with Eli and be able to get in rhythm with him and have an advantage over his teammates and the competition.

After these practices over the summer you could tell that Cruz became Eli's security blanket all year and that all started by putting in some extra effort just like my father taught me. Cruz had a great season with over 1,500 yards and nine touchdowns. He was the Giants big play maker and he came out of nowhere. Now we see all their efforts have paid off with the Giants set to face the Patriots on Sunday evening.

Sometimes as fans we look at these players like they are super human and untouchable. But when you look at their stories and how they got to be where they are most of the time you find hard work and dedication. I will never forget those values that my father tried to instill in me as a young man.

Giants DB's Overlooked

During the 2011 NFL football season there were times where the New York Giants secondary looked like they were lost and confused.  It looked like the Giants were going to witness another epic collapse after starting the season off great. The leading culprits that I kept seeing the most was the veteran defensive backs. It was like they were out of sync and lost all the confidence they ever had. This all changed when, as a group, they decided they needed more film work with each other so they went to each others houses and watched film together. Mike Garafolo of The Star Ledger had a great story on how the Giants players were taking upon themselves to not let this season slip away. http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2012/01/giants_cornerbacks_get_it_toge.html

Starting safety Kenny Phillips is a big reason why the Giants defense turned it around. Philips said, “The chemistry is just crazy right now,” Phillips said. “I don’t want to say it’s just the meetings, but guys are just dialing in to what we’re doing.” And it is about time. The Giants defense is flying around looking athletic and physical.

When you look back at the 2007 run Corey Webster was one of the major reasons why the Giants won the Super Bowl. He was a shut down corner and he is proving it once again for the Giants. He has locked down on the opposing team's number one receiver and has done a great job.

His partner Aaron Ross (who takes a beating from most Giant fans) on the other side has only had two healthy years as a starter. He started in 2007 his rookie year and also this year. Both of those years the Giants went to the Super Bowl. He plays with heart and intensity and that's what you love about any player.

Most of the credit goes to the defensive line for the Giants turn around. I respect that opinion but when you have four or five guys flying around, diving, intercepting, and stripping footballs loose on the back end of your defense only good things can happen. Thankfully for the Giants that's the case, now they have to prove they can do it one more time against arguably the greatest quarterback of all-time in Tom Brady.