This Week on the Blog

This week ended with a thud as Luis Severino injured his triceps, or finally had it manifest during last night's dismal appearance where he "had no command."   More on that in a bit as we get into this coming week.

Yanks:  The DL'ing of Severino, to go along with that of Kaprielian, and a passel of other minor league arms of note, leaves only Ian Clarkin and Domingo Acevedo active among the established high upside system arms. Clarkin was a monster in his last start, btw, going 7 scoreless and K'ing 11.  Hopefully, prehab worked for him, and he'll progress without anymore detours.  On the MLB side they called up relievers Chad Green and Connor Mullee, and acquired JR Graham from Minny, and sent him to double A. Mullee is a great story, made it all the way back from  3 TJ's and onto the Yanks.  Guts.

Rangers: The Rangers, yesterday, signed Pavel Buchnevich, who, is the closest thing they currently had to a Odell Beckham Jr./Kristaps Porzingas level prospect.  Some folks are trying to use analytics to determine what Pavel will be, based on what other kids who left the KHL for the NHL have done lately, but I just don't think there's a large enough sample size, or a strong enough metric available to do that.  The Rangers think he is a blue chipper, and Chris Drury, who went to Russia to follow him a bit this season marvelled at his skating and array of shots. We'll see what we have. As for the Ranger Brass, they're still in LaQuinta making important plans -- that they have to get right. They didn't feel like the Rangers we've been following for the past several years this season, and their early ouster, showed they were not, and left a lot of us with big holes in our Springs.

Knicks: Even though they have no picks in the upcoming draft, the Knicks, this week, or at least some of them were scouting the NBA combine, and starting to book tryouts.  The press is taking for granted that the Knicks are trying to buy a first or a second, but I really wouldn't rule out trades that net picks as we head into another big offseason with cap room.   And the Knicks presence at the combine was sort of inconsequential as far as I'm concerned.  Sure Rambis, Mills and Houston were there, but Phil Jackson was not, and I've heard nothing as to the whereabouts of Big House Gaines or any of Phil's other trusted talent evaluators.  And they still don't have a coach.  Btw, the agent for Willy Hernangomez was denying the widespread reports of a Knick deal being offered to Willy.  We'll see.

Giants:  The Giants were doing their volutary practice stuff with both vets and the rookies this week. They still haven't done anything about the OL, and, as one scans the roster, very few postions seem to have the "intriguing depth" we are used to seeing among most of the position groups. The depth seems intriguing with Marshaun Coprich and the RB's, as well as at CB and S, and probably DE, but literally nowhere else on the roster.  After the top 4 WR's it looks like crap vs. crap for the #5 and #6 jobs.  The OL depth is abysmal, heck, even two of the starters are abysmal on that unit.  The LB's may have three starters, but will mostly feature retreads and no up and comers among the depth.  The DT's may not have a third guy yet, though they do have some big bodies, and I gues Greg Milhouse from Campbell is intriguing.   The TE situation should be really competive, and they may have to keep 4 or even cut Donnell if LaCosse shows, beyond that they have Ryan Malleck, solid depth, but not that intriguing depth.  In any event, I don't think they're done putting this roster together, they could use more starters even on OL, and better depth in most areas.

So there we are.  Have great one everyone!