Yanks Stuff

Yanks finally lost a Spring Training game today, but it wasn't for lack of awesomeness or trying.  In the first, Stanton singled and El Gary hit one they may not have landed yet. Sort of meaningless, but this could be his year.  Gleyber Torres tried a mitt flip to start a DP but missed badly and then, rather than pick him up, Cessa promptly gave up a 3 run jack, then a solo shot. Good thing we probably won't see him this year.   Yanks fell behind 6-2, then loaded the bases for Estevan Floria who singled in two runs and then went from first to third on a wild pitch.  This team is significantly faster when Tyler Wade and Florial are in the lineup.  Sheesh.  Anyway, got some bad pitching today, and Betances was in bad part of the season form.  They play the Phillies, yet again, tomorrow.

More Ranger Thoughts

Alright, we've had a little time to breath and reflect.  Hockey's a pretty forgiving game, and if injuries don't get you, the salary cap will.  Over the past few years, the Rangers had to break up a perennial cup contender, over the early decline of Ryan McDonagh, the salary excpectations of RFA's like JT Miller and Carl Hagelin, poor pick management, and NMC they gave to Henrik Lundqvist, that prevented them from moving him when he could have commanded a rolling reload with his pick and prospect price. They started the most painful part of their peel down the day before last year's draft when they traded Derel Stepan, and continued through yesterday, when the traded Ryan McDonagh.  When this latest era was really running those two use to make funny-ish videos for MSG. Alas, we can only hope this next group is as good and as likable, and hopefully a litle lucklier.

So what is next?  Not sure, but it would perhaps be coming sooner had they not spent 4 straight first round picks and trades and failed to recoup #1's in the Gaborik, Hagelin, and Cam trades.  But this year they finally have a plethora of picks coming in this Junes NHL Draft, what's more they still have more moves they can make leading up to the draft, like they did last year with Stepan, and the way they've moved around in many drafts during the Sather/Gorton/Clark drafting era.

They are calling this one the "Rasmus Dahlin Draft" for the sweet skating Swedish D who everyone believes will be the #1 pick.  Barring, long overdue lottery luck, the Rangers probably aren't going to be able to lose enough games to vastly increase their odds.  Of course, during the Sidney Crosby Draft, the Rangers had the by far the best odds, but somehow, the Pens, who were once again on the precipice of extinction won it and have won too often since.  Also, not's go insane and trade up from our highet spot in the first round.  Unless this guy is Bobby Orr, we need more players in the system, not fewer, if we can pair picks around for other target's that's another matter, but no 3 for ones unless we add more picks by draft day -- and that remains a distinct possibility.

So what will they do?  I think they are back on the speed and skating train big time.  You might remember, and few years ago when they were routinely eliminating very good teams, it was because they could outskate them.  People immediately copied them, and now it's their turn to re-set the model.  The Rangers are organizationally trong in goal going forward, as well as D after the the recent trades, and C, though they may not have a Superstar in any of those position groups. They could use power wingers and snipers, and hopefully, barring the positional superstar, they will load up on those guys with the 10 picks..

Okay, took about an hour to look at film of Rasmus Dahlin -- it would be really good to get him.  Though this whole draft looks like a good one, so the 10 or more picks should come in handy.

Here Endeth an Era

Hank's intransigents aside, the trades of the last few days ended an era that began with Renney and the emergence of Hank, Girardi, Callahan, Anisimov and others, through the years of Tortorella, who'd been the safe is death cup wining coach of Tampa, to the don't let Hank face any shots coach ot the Rangers, and the Gaborik days, then we entered the recent years of cup contention and pick forfeiture.  It's been a long, exciting and ultimately fruitless time.  Could have really used a cup in that period, because with the current re-set they are starting all over again.

They currently have 10 picks including 3 firsts, 2 seconds, and 2 thirds going into the 2018 draft where they can trade for even more, combine picks to take a run at #1, or do a little of both. Plus, they will have cap room, this year and next as long as they don't try to jump start things with another Jagr type move for an older Superstar and friends. That bought some time, but I think it would be better to keep in young, and avoid trading futures or currents which shortened the window that just closed.

So they need a great draft, which their scouts can deliver. And they'll need to stay a destination for College FA's who were either late bloomers like Pionk or who didn't want to play for the team that drafted them like Kevin Hayes and Jimmy Vesey.  They'll also need a new coach.

Now as bleek and needy as the situation now looks, they do have Shestyorkin playing over in Russia, and Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil playing down in the AHL for a few more weeks until they can come up without burning up a year of their ELC's.  They also have some solid recent picks in guys like Ryan Gropp, Adam Tambelini, Boo Nieves and some others, so it's not the worst.

People have decried this era for a lack of "elite" talent or talent that played at an elite level very long, which I'd argue McDonagh did before a rapid decline.  But that mght be gained come June, or guys like Filip and Igor could turn out to be that.  What's more, who knows what young guys like Buch and Skjei will look like under a better coach - one that knows how to bring the best out in youth.

So let's not get to down, and enjoy "the process."

Rangers Trade McDonagh To TB

The Rangers just traded their second Captain in a row to Tampa Bay.  Still waiting for the details.

Breaking: Apparently JT Miller is also going to Tampa.

UPDATE: McKenzie says it's for Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Vladislav Namestnikov, a 2018 First rounder and a conditional second rounder.

UDDATE: Vladislave is a 25 year old first or second C who can step right in.  Brett Howden is a 19 year old C who won Gold for Team Canada in World Juniors.   He's playing a 200 foot game in the WHL.  Libor Hajek, 20, is a defenseman who kicked ass for Czech Republic in the World Juniors.  He's also plying his trade in the WHL.  Starting to feel like the Rangers prefer the WHL ot the OHL these days.  Hmm.  The first gives us 3, and the second is conditional on the Lightning winning a Cup this year or next.

I'll have more thoughts on this later.  But we're not going to really be able to hoist any numbers but Hank's from this era, because players haven't hung around enough or won a Cup.

UPDATE: After the deadline the Rangers announced that they had traded AHL D Ryan Graves to the AV's for AHL D Chris Bigras.  Graves is big and responsible, Bigras is a better skater and stickhandler,  Skating seems to be a theme again, and we'll look into that as we go on.

Yanks Retain Their Special Advisors

Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui, Reggie Jackson and Nick Swisher will serve as special advisors to the Yanks this year.  Nick is the only new one, but it's refreshing to see Alex, outside of his big contract, and with plenty of other work, still assisting the organization. He has meant a lot to the kids, and so has Reggie. Pretty cool to have those guys around.

Rangers Trade Rick Nash

Early this morning the Rangers completed another trade with Boston, this time sending Rick Nash for Boston's 1st round pick this year and 7th round pick in 2019.  The Rangers also netted collegiate D Ryan Lindgren, who is 20 and 6' 202 libs.  He was the 49th pick in the 2016 draft.  The Rangers also added F Ryan Spooner, who is 26 and has 25 points and a + rating this season.  He's an RFA this summer, so he could move in another deal any time now.  He's 5'10 and 187.  Finally, to make the cap work the Rangers had to retain part of Nash's salary,  and accept half of the next two years of Matt Belesky.  Belsky in 29 and been with Anaheim, where he was pretty good, and was playing in the minors for Boston since December - which is probably where the Rangers will keep him.

The good thing here is the first round pick.  Lindgren might also be something, but he is the third LHD they have acquired in the past few days.  Belesky is cap crap.  They didn't get any of Boston's tip top prospects, but you've got to trust the scouts to make the most of the Bruins #1.  Nash was a rental.  McD is not.  So if they make a deal there, it had better be a better haul.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, it was a sort of interesting week as all four of our teams made player moves.  The Yanks traded for Drury. the Giants re-added Greco and cut Deonte Skinner, the Knicks signed Troy Williams, and the Rangers made two trades for picks and lefty D's. the first one O'Gara is already up, the other one Igor Rykov, could be in the KHL till fall of 2019. Unusual.  This week we could see a lot more action.  Let's take a look.

Yankees: The Yankees our now 2-0 in the first two preseason games of the Aaron Boone Era.  The Game winning hits have been provided by Jake Cave and Billy McKinney, who are maybe competing for one spot.  They're actually both perfect for the bench, and Clint Frazier is dying to make the team. He's even been running into walls!  It's going to be interesting, and Ellsbury and Gardy are really clogging the conga line.  What's more, the beats and announcers all seem to think they'll make another deal for a starter.  We'll have to see.  As discussed earlier, let's hope the deal has major league parts, because the prospects like Florial and Andujar look like hot stuff.

Giants: The Giants will head to the Combine, FINALLY.  They keep moving this thing back to no discernible advantage for the players or the teams. Anyway, if they're seeing their rare #2 overall pick as a rarer opportunity to pick up their next franchise QB, they better pay close attention to the hand sizes, velo's, Wonderlic's etc of all 6 of the top QB prospects, and maybe got a little deeper.  Even if they don't think the next Eli is there, they should add a third QB somewhere, because Geno Smith thinks the world is flat and we don't need that around the locker room.

Knicks: The Knicks let the younger guards play the other night - and they won.  They're playing again in a little while, but it almost looks like they have 2 pairs, the French Connection and the Michiganders, who can really play together. And Troy Williams gived them another scoring wing.  Let's hope they stay in the lottery, but if the kids are good, let's hope they let em be.

Rangers: With about 44 hours left till the deadline, the Rangers seem to have some balls in the air.  Hopefully, they'll do what Cashman did in 2016 and really increase their holdings.  Of course, you can't trade picks in the baseball draft (except the comp balance ones) so the coming deals will be more pick heavy, and the Rangers have the scouts to turn the picks they get into big time prospects, and that's what's got to happen here.  Or the Rangers can hold some guys to trade during the draft or the offseason, thought I'd suppose, since they started thinking about this two months ago, they'll get the heavy lifting done now.

So there we are, more Yanks, more young Knicks and some new young Rangers coming right up.  Have a great one, peeps!

Giants Pick Up a Compensatory 4th

The NFL has handed out the compensatory picks from their secret formula and it spat out number 135 for our Giants.  So, something at the end of the 4th round.  They had previously handed over their 7th rounder for Cockrell, so now they are back to 7 picks, but through 6 rounds.  Hopefully, they can find more, even before a trade down or two.  There's so much to be done, but it's great to have 2 4's.  Also, not having a 7th isn't really a big deal, it will allow the Giants to start lining up undrafteds one round earlier.  Of course, that's assuming everyone else follows the roots, when in reality it has seemed like only the Giants do.

Breaking: Grabner to the Devils for D Igor Rykov and a 2nd

According to McKenzie, Grabner has been traded to the Rangers for 20 year old KHL defenseman Igor Rykov, and a 2nd round pick.  Rykov is in his third year over there and has scored 20 points through his first 51 games, both of which are career highs.  He's listed as 6'2" and 205, though at just 20, that could change. So now, through the first two trades, they have 2 D's and second and third round picks.  No big hauls so far, but picks have been weapons for the Ranger scouts, so these deals are not complete till the picks are made.

UPDATE: Rykov has played with Buchnevich in the past and Shestyorkin now.  So the Rangers have seen him alot.

UPDATE: The Rangers are listing Rykov as 6'3" and 225, now.

Nash and Grabner on the Move?

Rick Nash and Michael Grabner are both healthing scratches for tonight's game against Montreal.  Since they are two of the players everyone has presumed would be traded, this is no great surprises.  But, these are two important trades and the Rangers have to get great value with each or if it's the same trade, they must get massive value.  This can't be Leetch return.  It's got to be Gomez type return. We'll see, and probably by, during or after tonight's game. Fingers crossed for value.

The Trades Are Going to Start Hurting Now

By spreading Solak and Widener two two teams for Drury yesterday, the Yanks, with all of their enviable depth have made sure the next trade will hurt. Right now the Yanks continue to have a conga line of talented kids on the way, but by taking out 2 from from the lower top half of their talent pool, they're going to have to move closer to the top or to the top to add anything else.  Now this might just be true for this offseason, because the guys from last year's draft like Stephan, Otto, Sauer and Schmidt (who started throwing off a mound yesterday) could move into the top 10 or top 5. Likewise, kids like Dermis Garcia and Luis Medina could fly up the charts and push other guys down. Still the Yanks have now traded something like 14 prospects since going all in on Robertson, Kahnle and Todd Frazier, and while they've had a secondary active period in this year's IFA class, and added more teenagers, that's still a lot of prospects to give up. Heck, there are entire organizations that don't have the combined upsides of the 14 kids the Yanks traded in their entire systems. We can trust we'll have another strong draft that will be lopsided based on draft strength and IFA agreements, and we'll have another strong international class, but it would really behoove the Yanks to start trading their over 30's as parts of any deals in the near term.  They can never go back to that fallow period that started when George decided to skimp on the drafts.

Giants Re-sign G John Greco

The Giants today re-signed John Greco, whom they'd picked up in November and played effectively down the stretch. You might recall how the year 2000 NFC champion OL was built and I wonder if they are trying to do that with Greco, and older guy who looks to have some tread left on his tires.

Yanks Deal Nick Solak for Brandon Drury

Yanks, showing little faith in their plethora of infield prospects, just traded 2B Nick Solak to Tampa in a three way deal that netted them 2B/3B/OF Brandon Drury. Drury is another right handed hitter, so unless he's got oppo power his middling homers won't be helped.  He's already 25 and though he is still on his rookie and deal and doesn't created any sort of a salary problem, he doesn't get on base, and we traded someone from the same position group that does.  And if they use him to keep Andujar or Torres down, they're losing a talent advantage at either position he plays for them.  Also, Tyler Wade has defensive versatility, gets on base, hits lefty and didn't cost us Solak.  Ponderous.

UPDATE: RHP Taylor Widener also went in this deal.

UPDATE: Jabari Blash was DFA'd to make room on the 40.

Rangers Trade Nick Holden

Here we go.  The Rangers just traded Nick Holden for Rob O'Gara, a 24 year old Bruins D and a third round pick. O'Gara is 6'4", was a Bruin pick in 2011, and went to Yale.  Not a particularly thick guy, so let's hope he's got a cerebral advantage. Okay move, considering our scouts have kicked ass in third rounds, but hopefully they'll get more in subsequent moves.

Yanks Hire Some Old Friends

The Yanks have hired David Adams to coach one of their GCL Teams and Torre Fave Miguel Cairo to be their Minor League Field Coordinator.  This will be David's first managing stint, after his promising career was short circuited by injuries.  He was one of the first real Yankee type bats they grabbed out of college. The other guy who was like that, Bradley Suttle, also had his career fall apart do to injury.  Miguel Cairo played for 17 years, two of which were spent with Torre's Yanks, and for the past 5 years he's been a special assistant to the Reds. I like it when they hire ex-Yanks.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, Yankee pitchers and coaches arrived.  The Giants completed their coaching staff.  The Knicks went into tank mode, tough they won't admit it. And the Rangers were sort of doing their own tank thing.  Let's takea a look at what could be up for this week.

Yankees: Giancarlo Stanton showed up yesterday, and the press sort of swarmed him.  He handled it really well, thought coming from where he has it must have seemed insane. We'll start seeing how the new staff runs a full camp with Rob Thompson, who used to make the schedules and organize the whole thing gone. The Deep Yankee Staff can probably fill them in, if Thompson didn't leave clues. Still sort of surprised they didn't make a trade or acquire anyone yet.

Giants: The Giants added Mike Shula as OC to fill out their staff.  Though the quoates make it seem like he's not a combination of OC and QB coach, just an OC coach who also works with the QB's.   As we know,  Bettcher is "multiple" but has used the 3-4 .  Because of that, the fact that Isaaq Williams got cut, failed physical, we kind of odd.  I guess they can sign him back but he was a cheap DE/OLB who was a natural fit for the outside LB position in a 3-4 or 3-4 look.  I hope they find more cheap pieces if that's what they want to do.

Knicks: the Knicks have looked awful in general but competitive for the first quarter or two of games.  If winning now is important to you. or if basketball is, you should probably want a new coach.  Hornacek's rotations, particularly his overplaying of Jack, are killing the Knicks and any chance they have to get better.  For some reason, they've said things will be different after the all-star break, which we're in, and the kids will play more, but I have no idea why they're using the break as their demarcation when their seaso was doomed as soon as KP went down. Ponderous.

Rangers: the Rangers know what's coming and are playing like minor league basball players sometimes play as they approach the deadline.  That is to say: poorly.  Not everyone is playing poorly, though, Pionk, Gilmour and D'Angelo have all shown some things since their call-ups.  The deadline is now about 9 days away.  Of course if the Rangers let their scouts take the lead, they should do pretty well. If they let Sather or the coach have anything to say about it, they're cooked.  Though I will say, if you point Satcher in the right direction, he can be ruthless.  In the meantime, Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson are 1 and 2 in ppg among rookies in the AHL.  Just saying.

Alright there it is.  Have a great one.

Here We Go!

When you think about it, unless you are an over the top Shurmur fan, nothing good has happened for our teams since the Yanks got Stanton.  But finally they are back.  They left us a game short last year, well ahead of schedule, and then went out and improved themselves.  What's technically happening today is that pitchers and catchers are reporting.  But the truth is, most of the players are already there, and all the top prospects have been there since Captains Camp in January.  They still never made that second move for pitching, nor have they added any serious competition to Andujar at third and Torres at second, unless you count other prospects.   This is going to be so much fun!

Giants Hire Mike Shula as OC and QB Coach

We'll have to see how this works out.  I felt going in that whomever was the OC was going to be a Shurmur functionary. And that what this looks like, but I don't get making him the QB coach, too.  I think that will leave them short of a brain, and if the Giants use the #2 pick on the QB, the QB coach either won't have enough time for him, or he won't have enough time for the rest of the O.  We'll have to see.

Meanwhile, this does represent a type of symmetry for the Giants.  They originally got "good" when they hire George Young, and peronnel guy who had followed Don Shula from Baltimore to Miami. And now the Giants are getting Shula's kid.

Vikes Won't Let Giants Talk to Stefanski

Wow.  So the Vikes won't let the Giants talk to Stefanski, even though, they already filled their OC spot, and denied Stefanski a promotion.  This wreaks to high heavens of Stefanski, who's been with the Vikings for 10 years and has a wife and family, not wanting to uproot things and come to NYC.  Hopefully, the Giants have another plan, because it is time to cut bait, and get the coaching staff fully locked and loaded.

This Week on the Blog

Here we go. Pitchers and catchers report on Tuesday, but a lot of the kids are already in Tampa.  The Giants still need an OC and QB coach.  The Knicks lost their best player and made some so what? trades at the deadline, and a big deadline looms for the Rangers. But, first thing's first:

Yankees!  Our beloved Yanks, who came within a game of making the world series last season, are BACK! Does the heart good.  Oh, and they picked up Giancarlo Stanton for relative peanuts. The second move never came, so don't be surprised if there is a surprise in the next few days.  This is the weekend where we got ARod.  Regardless, the excitement for the coming season cannot be bridled, so don't try. We're gonna hurt some people.  Let's go, Yanks!

UPDATE: Darvish to the Cubs, so that won't be the possible Yankee surprise.

Giants: The Giants were thought to be waiting on Kevin Stefanski to be their OC. When he didn't get the Vikings' job a few days ago, it seemed like it would be a matter of hours, not days.  But here we sit.  I don't think we've heard anything about QB coaches, but the QB's will have a "room" and it would be good if they had their own dedicated coach, instead of having Shurmur or whoever the OC is double dip.  It'll happen.   The combine is coming up, and it will be important to discover the hand sizes and velocities of all the QB's who might be there at 2.  Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen both showed big hands and good velocity at the Senior Bowl, so we're waiting on Darnold and Rosen.  It would be nice to get the coaching staff finished up before the combine.

Knicks: The Knicks were absolutely derailed with the injury to KP.  They might have made the playoffs this year, and next as they await for the big 2019 free agency year, but without their best player, they are likely to get 2 more chances to build through the lottery.  Thank goodness they still have all their 1's.  I have to wonder if the KP injury forced them to change course at the deadline.  Instead of looking to add a now part for a playoff run, they added two 2's and another pointguard.  They are once again lopsided, but now it's with guards and not with bigs.  Sadly, they traded Willy Hernangomez, who just last year looked like a long term piece.  But, in doing so, they called up Luke Kornet, who is another lovable and skillsy big man, who actually posted a double double in his first action.  Don't think he has the bulk to ever be a starter, but he looks cut out to be long term leader of the 2's.  The press didn't like Phil Jackson, but he left us with our picks and and did well in the drafts of UDFA periods.

UPDATE:  KP will have his ACL surgery on Tuesday.


Rangers: The Rangers are primed for a teardown at the deadline.  Doesn't seem like Hank will waive his NMC, but they should still have a lot of moves they can make.  Coincidentally, the kids on the farm are looking more and more ready.  Two of the college D's came up yesterday, Pionk and Gilmour, and Pionk even won the Broadway Hat last night.  That's encouraging. AV is not the man for a rebuild, and hopefully, the Ranger realize it.  Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson could be up by March.

So there we are!  Yanks are coming back.  The Giants are still a little undressed.  The Knicks, are lottery bound (and it's a good draft year) and the Rangers are possibly lottery bound as well.  Have a great week, my friends.

Rangers at the Deadline

Earlier today, the Rangers called up offensive defenseman, Neil Pionk from Harford, after asking waivers on D Brett Smith.  Then Jeff Gorton and Glen Sather issued a letter preparing fans for the selloff on which they are about to embark. Gorton says they are looking for prospects and picks. So here's hoping they can bring back the kind of packages that Cash wash able to corral at the 2016 trade deadline, and with the subsequent McCann trade.  Let's go, Rangers!

Knicks Stay in Neutral at the Deadline

Earlier today, the Knicks finished their deadline dealings by sending the less valuable 2 they picked up in the Willy trade to Denver and Doug McDermott elsewhere for Emmanuel Mudiaywho had been the 7th overall pick in the 2015 draft.  The Knicks now control the 4th and the 7th pick from that one.  Big whoop.  The Nets now control 2 of the top 3.  We'll see how it works out.  In the short term the Knick have an even bigger logjam at PG, where they should have spent most of the season grooming Frank, who's been bothered by a knee of late.  Sort of sad to see McBuckets go.  He was an effort guy, and probably a glue guy on a real team. Oddly he joined the ranks of all world shooters, who suddenly could find their stroke for the Knicks.  So weird.  Back in the day, we had endless shooters. Anyway, it will be interesting or very frustrating to see what Hornacek, who's terrible, does with all these point guards.

Knicks Trade Willy for Johnny O'Bryant

And 2 future second round picks.  O'Bryant is a rotational PF on a bad team.  He's 24, went to LSU, and was drafted by the Bucks, and had toured the D-League before joining the Nuggets and  sort of settling in with Charlotte last year.  He'll be 25 in June, and if they handle this selloff correctly, that will make him one of the oldest players on the team.

UPDATE: The 2's are both Charlotte's origininal's for `20 and `21.

FURHER UPDATE: Knicks will waive O'Bryant and keep the picks.

KP Tears his ACL

As if Knick fans didn't have enough to worry about, our franchise player, Kristaps Porzingis just tore his ACL.  This is awful, and of course we wish him a speedy and sound recovery, and all success going forward, but DA-AMN! The deadline is two days away and they now only have uncertainty to bulid around.  Though, tanking is also their only option so they will have another lottery pick.  But seriously, the greater concern is for KP, not the team that keeps letting him down.

Knicks at the Deadline

The NBA trade deadline is coming this Thursday,  February 8th.   F/C Willy Hernangomez  has demanded a trade, because after an impressive rookie year, he hasn't been getting consistent minutes this year.  It's understandable and a testament to the continuing dysfunction that has gripped the Knicks since Riley left, and that was not a clean function. Oh well, we'll see what the latest version of the FO can get for Willy, and O'Quinn or Lee or whomever else they are willing to part with come Thursday.  Btw, it the NBA dealine seems early I'm sure it's because they were sick of trade talk drowning out their all-star game.  Not now.

Of course, the NHL has already had its all star game, so their deadline is February 26.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, this week the Knicks got blown out by an undermanned Celtic squad, lost a hart breaker to the Bucks and easily handled the Nets. The Rangers sucked and lost Buch to a concussion.  The Giants kept looking for or waiting for an OC.  And the Yanks sat on their hands.  Let's see what's on the horizon.

Yanks: The Yanks still haven't made the other move Levine declared they would in during his Stanton interviews. Anyway, Pitchers and Catchers report in 10 days, and nothing seems to be cooking.  Reporters intimate that the Yanks are looking to clear money to sign Darvish, but unless if means moving Ellsbury, it could damage the 25 man team. They've added a few guys on minor league contracts, and we'll have to see if Boone will be as interested in letting them make the team as Girardi used to be. And of course, till we clear Valentine's Day, you never know what might happen.

Giants: The Giants need an OC and a QB coach. That they haven't got either right now might mean that the one or both of them will be coaching tomorrow.  Or the OC Minnesota wants is coaching tomorrow, but they're hanging onto Stefanski till they find out.  The Giants might actually be waiting for Stefanski to be their new OC.  In any event, we'll find out next week.

Knicks: The Knicks are a disaster.  They don't play the game right.  They don't take full advantage of having a Unicorn. There seems to be no development plan for the young kids aside from Kristaps either. The new GM has yet to distinguish himself and the current coach isn't doing a good job.  Also, Hardaway seems hurt, so we have to question the trainers and medical people, too.  In other words, it's another lousy season to be a Knicks fan.

Rangers:  The Rangers have gone from being the diametrical opposite of the Knicks to being the Knicks on Ice. The Coach has long overstayed his welcome and that they haven't moved on yet raises questions about their once respected FO.  We'll see how the sell off goes. Btw, Hank says he's down for a sell off if it comes to that, which basically means he's not waiving his NTC. That's not the worst thing in the world.  Hopefully, this summer, the Rangers can finally bring over Igor Shestyorkin, and then revisit a Hank trade.

So there we are, our two teams that are playing suck and need to sell, while the Giants are still filling out a coaching staff and the Yanks are gearing up for Spring Training.  Have a great week, folks!