Yankee Stuff

The Yanks didn't waste time declining their option on Edwin Encarnacion. I think they'll end up giving Didi a QO that he may not accept, too.  In general, it's probably the best policy to not attach names to the Yankee needs this year.  They're changing their approach to picking players, and as we saw with DJ Lemahieu and James Paxton last offseason, so more of those kind of acquisitions should be expected - even if we can't attach the names yet.

One interesting guy, is Japanese lefty swinging 1B/LF Yoshitomo Tsutsugo.  He's going to be posted some time in November or December and the he was a guest of the Yankees during their ALCS home games.  Interesting guy, who can also play 3B in  a pinch.

They need versatile guys.

Rangers Stuff

So maybe Kravstov just couldn't align with an AHL assignment.  Perhaps he came over and  was only going to play for the Rangers and that's why his agent negotiated that European out.  He left on the first day his contract allowed, and this now makes the most sense, given a few thing.  First, The Wolf Pack are undefeated, and have collected 17 out of 18 points they could have this season.  Second, Chytil and Lindgren came up last night and rocked the Garden.  Quinn called Chytil a whole new Fil. And he and Lindgren were a big part of the win.  What's more, after the game, Chytil talked about his AHL assignment.  He said he went down and focused on his "hockey."  He said he got to play a lot and his game just snapped back.  He also said that the team, the coach and his teammates were all great.  I do wonder why Chytil got the first line time and Kravstov didn't, but the larger data suggests, he was just unwilling to put out in the AHL and had counted on being a Ranger.

Other stuff, Georgiev is really good.  It's a shame that we will probably never see a Georgiev/Shesterkin rotation in goal for the Rangers, but they had better get a big haul when they trade him.

Yankee Stuff

Things are a little more up in the air in the system than we might have expected. The Yanks didn't just fire Rothschild, they parted ways, with Scott Aldred, Tim Norton and many other long term Yankee pitching coaches.  Seems like Sam Briend has taken charge.  He's the guy they hired from Driveline and it seems like they have given him the keys to the kingdom, to wit, the Yankees are interviewing all sorts of forward thinking college pitching coaches, like Matt Hobbs from Arkansas, and the guy from Michigan.  They're meeting with Hobbs today in New York.  Of course, they now have all sorts of minor league pc and coordinator jobs available. So they're probably not getting a younger Rothschild.

In other news, Jay Bell has left the organization, so now they need a new AAA Manager, too.  This stuff is fun.

Rangers Play the Kids and Win!

Wow.  Mika is out, so the Rangers finally played the kids.  For the first time since 1976, they played 7 guys who were 21 years old or younger.  And they played them against last year's President's Cup winning Lightning.  They played an electric fist period, but get scored on on a bad change.  Then the fun started.  Kaapo Kakko tied it up in the second.  It was a power play goal from Strome and Panarin.  It remained tied at 1 till well into the third, when Filip Chytil scored the game winner in his return. It was a beautiful redirect from Buch, and, obviously his first goal of the season.  Then, to put the game away, Adam Fox scored his first career goal, this one from Kreider and Lindgren - got his first NHL point on the assist.  Finally Strome scored an unassisted empty netter to make it 4-1 and the best game of the season so far.  Not only was the energy great, but even the kids who didn't make it on the score sheet, like Libor Hajek and Lias Andersson made plays that helped them win.

Georgiev was also pretty spectacular.  Chytil ended up being first star, Geogie was second and Foxy was third.  Big night of for the kids!

And the first healthy scratch of Marc Staal's career.  And it probably won't be the last.

Knicks Win

Wow, the Knicks just got their first win of the season by coming back against the Bulls.  Bobby Portis went off, scoring 28, grabbing 11 boards, while adding 2 dimes and 2 blocks.  Robust!  He hit 2 key 3's to basically put the game away down the stretch. The young master, RJ Barrett had his first double double pouring in 19 and grabbing 15 rebounds to go along with 5 assists and another block.  Monstrous. Randle also had a double double, going 13 pts and 14 boards and he also had 5 assists.  Mitchell Robinson was in foul trouble again buy chipped in 10 and 9 and 2 blocks. Knox had 14, 2 assists, 2 boards and a steal. Ellington also had 2 key 3's during the comeback.

Something that should be noted by Knick fans. Barrett is almost always playing pick and roll, and unless he's playing it with Randle, he doesn't get the ball back. Several times tonight, and it was a night when they couldn't stop him without fouling him, Peyton just didn't get the ball back to him - or even realize that it was pick and roll. That's ludicrous.

Also, Trier didn't play at all tonight.  Weird -- but the win was quite thrilling.

Rangers Recall Chytil and Lindgren

In perhaps a case of too little, too late, the Rangers have recalled Chytil and Lindgren from Hartford. Hartford is undefeated (8-0-0-1),by the way, largely because Chytil has dominated and not because they treated Kravstov like crap. Lindrgren looked like he was a top 6 Dman for the Rangers in the preseason, but he was curiously sent down.  Chytil had added a lot of strength since last season and it might have been that that created the blip in his development in camp. He's apparently adjusted to his new strength level as he was scoring more than a point a game in the AHL. This is probably happening now because Mika is day to day.  But it should have happened as soon as Chytil had adjusted.  Let's hope he proves he belongs this time.  Lindgren should easily be top 6, but will they be willing to scratch Staal or Skjei of the other non-performers?  We'll see.

Yanks Fire Rothschild

Twitter is bubbling up with rumors of Rothschild's imminent departure. We'll see if they actually do it.  But, the case against Rothschild is all about rotation performance. Severino was allowed to tip pitches, and Rothschild had no solution.  Happ showed up and won 7 games, this year he became discombobulated.  The Yanks made a good trade for James Paxton, and he was allowed to spend most of the season struggling before finally figuring things out.  So let's hope they do get someone new - and hopefully swap out the bullpen coaches and perhaps some others.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: He's gone,  Let's see if they go "driveline" or seek a more traditional PC.

Giants Acquire Leonard Williams from the Jets

This is weird.  Leonard Williams will be a free agent after this season.  Yet the Giants are giving up a 2010 3rd round pick and a 2021 5th round pick to add him to their current tire fire. Btw, the 5th becomes of 4th if Williams signs a new deal before the next League Year. I'd hope he's given the Giants an indication that he will sign. That's the only way this makes sense.  The Jets are also paying 4m of the 6M remaining on Leonard's current contracet. Also, if there is a deal to be made, this probably means Tomlinson who's have a good season, won't get a new deal.  It also probably means Big Dex, who has been playing DE, will move to nose.

The Giants, still should be sellers at this deadline - and the only way this buy makes sense is if they have a deal they can make.

This Week on the Blog

It's been a cruddy two weeks for our teams.  Yanks got eliminated.  The Giants keep getting decimated.  The Rangers finally won a game, but then damaged their development plan.  And the Knicks are now 0-3.  Sheesh.  They all really need and another offseason, and only the Yanks' is on the horizon.  Let's take a look.

Yankees: The Yanks announced injuries and how they weren't able to make deals with starters.  We'll see what they do now.  Boone seems safe.  Let's hope they move on from Rothschild. Other than that it will probably be about what they are willing to spend. They keep paying for the endless and foolish deal they gave Ellsbury several years ago.

Giants: Idiots are already blaming the kid QB. The OL is underperforming and the weapons have all been banged up, out or not weapons at all.  Even the healthy guys have had drops and they keep letting Jones get hit. Also, we're already seeing the refs disregard roughing of Daniel Jones, just like they did with Eli. I don't what that is, but it has to start getting called. The trade deadline is coming up on the 29th and it will be interesting to see if the Giants can unload anyone.

Rangers: The Rangers finally played for 60 minutes and won the other night.  That was after taking off the first 40 minutes of their two previous games. It was a big win.  But since then, it's been one repudiation of their offseason plan after another.  First, they soured their relationship with Vitali Kravstov - no worse than their second best prospect - and he went back to Russia.  Then, after giving Kaapo Kakko a few minutes on the first line in the win, they have demoted him to the third line.   So he's gone from second with no C, to first with a C and now he's been sent down to the third line.  What the hell are they doing???

Knicks: The Knicks just lost their third in a row.  It was their biggest loss and it was their home opener. They were in the first two games till late, but this one they sort of bailed on in the third quarter. Yikes.  Anyway RJ Barrett is very good.  So is Mitchell Robinson - though he's got to stop fouling at such a state suppressing rate.  Kevin Knox is improved, and both Trier and Dotson seem like they can do more.  It looks like it's going to be another long year.  But RJ will be fun to watch.

So there it is.  The rebuilds need more building.  I hope everyone has a better week than this one has been for our teams.

Kravstov Opts Out

Vitali Kravstov has gone back to Russia.  And this can only be looked at as an organizational disaster for the Rangers.  Two provisos, the KHL season ends in March, so he could be back, then.  Also, the Rangers can still call him up from Russia.

But here's the big issue: player development. When JD was welcomed back he spoke at length about player development and pouring more resources into it.  In his early interviews he talked about how impressed he was with Vitali Kravstov, who had learned English and had a great sense of humor. Not only that, but Kravtov, Fox and Kakko were the best Ranger players at the development camp and then again at Traverse City.  What's more, Kravstov was the only rookie to score a goal in the preseason. Nevertheless, he was sent down with Chytil, and once down, scratched and remanded to third line duties.

It's clear Kravstov would rather play than be punished, and so he's off the Russia. This shouldn't have happened.  Quinn is supposed to be a great young players coach, Kravstov is gone and Kakko is unhappy.  Not sure how Lias, feels, but he's not playing much, either.

Is Quinn only good at bringing along the North Americans? That's sure what it looks like now. And wouldn't better communication perhaps have kept Kravstov stateside?  How about more ice time in the AHL.  What was done down there is unforgivable.  A possible star forward is more important than an AHL coach, and Knoblauch shouldn't have been allowed to put him on the third line of scratch him.

And what does this say to the unsigned prospects like Miller, Jones and Barron, as well as others, who have leverage and don't have to sign with the Rangers.  Could this turn them into the next Vesey's or Fox's?  It doesn't look like the Rangers will go out of the way for their own kids.  They better not let it snowball.

As for Kravstov.  Mickey Mantle got sent down and wanted to go home as a teenager.  His dad picked him up and said what had to be said.  No one has done that for Kravstov. But he can still have a great career.

The Rangers need to fix this.

UPDATE: Vitali Kravstov has signed back with his old team, Traktor Chelyabinsk.

The Rangers Rip Buffalo

Now that was unexpected.  Through the first 10 games of the season the Sabres had been the best team in the league. Not tonight. After falling behind in the first period of their last two games, the Rangers flipped the script.  Artemi Panarin stole a puck from Rasmus Dahlin, and took it to the house for his 5th goal as a Ranger.  And then the flood gates sort of opened. Howden, with those hands I always talk about, score a scrappy goal from Fast and Lemieux.  Next Strome got off the seasonal schnide from Skjie and DeAngelo - and the first period ended 3-0 Rangers.

Second period the Sabres scored early, than Tony DeAngelo got it back, from Buchnevich and Skjei.  Next goal was to the Sabres, but the third period was all Rangers,  Strome got his second of the game from Howden and Kreider wrapped things up with his first goal, this one from Fox and Fast,

Hank was solid, but probably wants the second goal back.  Quinn kept moving Kakko around, but the did get a post on a slick move late and does seem to threaten the other team whenever he has the puck. His break out will come.

This is more of what we expected to see - not necessarily the names on the score sheet, but better skating and urgency in all three zones. They held Eichel and Dahlin off the score sheet, and they should be very proud of that.

Yankee Stuff

  

Cashman just spoke and it turns out that Aaron Hicks did have Tommy John Surgery and will be out for 8-10 months.  Let's hope he's more like post TJS Gleyber than Didi has been.  He also said that Mashahiro Tanaka had bone chips removed from his elbow.  Then he added that Luke Voit has already had 'core muscle' surgery.  Cash also said that they will review their medical personnel. I've never seen the Yanks go through a season with this many injuries.

Knicks Tonight

The Knicks will start their regular season tonight in San Antonio. This probably won't be the antidote Yanks/Giants/Rangers fans are looking for to break their losing streak. To lengthen the odds against an upset, Mitchell Robinson twisted his ankle Monday, so he's out for tonight's game - at the very least.  So that's an additional challenge. It's also unclear who is starting at the point tonight.  Barrett seems to be their best option, but he's also the best option at 2, and there's a rumor that Elfrid Payton may have been promised the spot as a term of his accepting the Knicks offer.  The truth of that rumor could be exposed or disposed of tonight.  Yesterday, Coach Fizdale said that Alonzo Trier is being considered as a starter - could that mean they are starting RJ at the 1 and Trier at the 2? That's intriguing.  In other news, Taj Gibson seems like he's be on the shelf, they Knicks will be down 2 bigs and 12 fouls.  Sub-optimal.  And Iggy doesn't look like he's in the rotation, not having played at all in the preseason - which was a little surprising after he dropped a 30 spot in Vegas. Maybe they're red shirting him.

UPDATE: The Knicks have signed PF Ivan Rabb to a 2 way contract.  So that might give them 6 more fouls to play with tonight.

UPDATE: They ARE starting RJ and Alonzo at the guard spots!  Also Morris, Randle and Portis.  Feels like they're run it though RJ and Randle.  Out of the box, thinking right out of the box!

Giants Sign LB Deone Buccanon

The Giants have signed undersized LB Deone Buccanon, who had been part of  Bettcher's effective Cardinal D's but had been cast adrift by the Jags. Bettcher had flipped him from safety to money -backer when he had him before and might install him as the Giant money backer.  Let's hope this guy falls into the Golden category ex-Cards and not the Olson Pierre type.

The Knicks Pick Up Frank's Option

The Knicks just picked up Frank Ntilikina's fourth year option. This is a bit of a surprise, as the current administration has run so far and so fast away from most of Phil Jackson's moves. This is encouraging because it shows the Knicks valuing something more than the way the player came in -- which may have brutalized them last year. Frank is a defensive whiz, who, Friday Night, seemed to fit in really well with RJ Barrett as the Knicks made a run. Both Frank and RJ have good handles and can probably get the rock to the bigs consistently.  Plus Frank is an elite defender who, along with Big Mitch gives the Knicks two strong defenders, who can perhaps influence the defensive futures of guys like RJ, who seems willing and Kevin Knox who seems to have the tools.  Some of the guys Knicks have had good defensive years and perhaps having 2 young defenders like Frank and Mitch going for it every night, will inspire the guest vets as well as the rest of the team. Surprising and really appreciated.

UPDATE: They are also picking up the option for Dennis Smith Jr, and at least one outlet is reporting, for Kevin Knox, too. Though that would be a year early.

Rangers Stuff

When John Davidson came back to preside over the Rangers, one of the key concepts, perhaps the most key of those concepts was "player development." That idea seemed to echo what the Rangers had been doing since "the letter" and the hiring of a college coach, David Quinn. They almost immediately hired Knoblauch and Gord Murphy to run Hartford. They also hired Glass and Ruutu to track and counsel the North American and European prospects. It really looked like the Rangers understood that their futures would be largely predicated on how they developed a ton of kids.

It seemed like all they would have to do plug in the players and let them grow.

And right now, it's just not happening at the NHL level. Yesterday - as the NYR contribution to a truly brutal weekend - the Rangers lost their fourth game in a row. That's neither here nor there as they have had a bizarre schedule that has seen two long layoffs among their first 6 games. That said, one of the most impressive Rangers, starting in camp, has been Lias Andersson, and while the Rangers have found no one to man 2 C, Andersson hasn't even gotten a chance. How is that player development.

Also, they have kept Kappo Kaako on the second line all year, though they've had no center for him.  And rather than promoting Kaako to first line when Buch was unproductive, they bounced Kreider over to the rignt side and moved him up.  Kaako has massively better hands that Kreider and this was just ponderous.

Oh, and, by the way, Filip Chytil is averaging more than a point a game centering the first line for the undefeated Wolf Pack. How long will it be till they promote him.  By the same token, why are they playing Kravstov on the third line in the AHL?  Could they bury him any deeper? How is this development? If the idea was to send Kravstov down to become more of a two way guy, I sort of understand it, but at least give him the ice time he'll need to improve.

On the other hand, Igor Shesterkin is developing and had a 36 save shutout the other night,  Seems like he's figured out the new rink size just fine. He's buddies with Kravstov and hopefully will help him keep his head on straight.

So, so far, though player development is one of the key missions, it's not happening with the top prospects on the NHL level.

They have another game tomorrow, and we'll have to see what they do with Kaapo and Lias.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, this was a pretty frustrating week.  The Yanks now face elimination because they've left the world on base.  The Giants did have a game.  The Rangers finally had two games and lost them both and the Knicks wrapped up their pre-season.  Let's hope for a better week, now let's take a look.

Yankees: First, Paxton was fantastic last night. That's what they got him for, and let's hope that's not the last we see of him this season. For that to happen, the Yanks need to win each of the next two games.  Lose one and they're done.  We might need to talk about Boone at that point, but at this point it would be nice if the guys that can carry the team - Judge, Sanchez and Stanton, started carrying.  It was tough enough for the Yanks to do without each of them for big chunks of the season, but now it's time for them to do their things. That's in.  Win and stay in,

Giants: Saquon Barkley and Evan Engram will be active tomorrow.  That is huge for the Giants, in general, and for Danuel Jones in particular.  Barkley immediately opens up the play action and Engram gives Jones the big, fast target he's been missing.  Even without Sterling Shepard, the Giants should still be able to finally get the offense rolling. The D showed some things against the Pats and if they can build from there, they have some winnable games coming up.

Rangers: The Rangers have been awful   Not only do they have some of their most talented kids trapped in Hartford, but the replalcement level guys they're rolling out, just aren't getting it done. Plus, the lines and defensive pairings have been ponderous.  As impressive as Coach Quinn steering an undermanned squad, they're more "manned" now, and he hasn't been impressive at all.  He's been ponderous. That's too bad, but when a team is as capped out as the Rangers are, they have to win more games.  Right now, they're barely winning periods.  And, yes, they had a weeklong layoff and a 5 day layoff, but didn't they use that time to practice?

Knicks: The Knicks play the Spurs to start their regular season on Wednesday, and if there's anything we learned during the pre-season games, it's that RJ Barrett is good at basketball. As long as this blog has been going, we've talked about basketball players vs athletes.  Barrett is much more a player than athlete.Kevin Knox was must more athlete than player when they got him, This year, Knox looks bigger and stronger, and last night, Barrett hit a streaking Knox withe a long outlet pass from his own key for an easy 2.  Barrett has been playing the 2, but he might be the best 1 on the team.  So far Frank is one dimensional (D), Smith Jr. has been banged up and doesn't look like he fixed his shot, and Elfrid has been out.  Barrett has better court vision than all of them, and he can score (efficiently last night!), rack up assists, grab rebounds and has been contributing blocks and steals, too.   Good player and the sort of guy the Spurs really love.

So there it is, the Yanks are in a horrible position, but still have a chance, the Giants should be better tomorrow, the Rangers need to figure things out, and the Knicks have to play to win, though staying in the lottery would also be good.

Have a great one.

Yanks Take Game 1

It seems like the Fox production meeting lead to the announcers only focusing on Astro pitching. Masa was masterful for 6 scoreless innings, and all they could talk about was Greinke and his low pitch count as he gave up 3 runs over the same 6 Masa dominated.  Enough of that, Gleyber Torres had a homer and 5 RBI's as his contribution  to the Yankees 7-0 win in game one. Stanton also got off to a nice start with a homer and a base hit and Judge is about to explode. This is a huge win, and if they can hold serve tomorrow - they might just sweep.  This is not the team that won 103, it's the team that would have won 110 or more had they not lost hundreds of talent games over the regular season.  Most of that talent is back now.

This Week on the Blog

Alright.  Weird week ending.  Rangers didn't have a game, the Giants had insult added to their injuries, the Knicks won and lost, and the Yanks waited for their next prey to present itself. This could be a much better week.  Let's take a look.

Yankees: The Yankees keep adding parts back.  At the end of the regular season it was Sevy and Stanton, and today it is Aaron Hicks.  Hicks isn't a superstar, but he is a grinder who can take over a game both with his offense and defense.  The Yanks will start playing Houston later, and it sure seems that guys like Judge, Sanchez and Severino are still raw over the 2917 ALCS.  We'll see if they can turn that into positive performance.  The Yanks are finally pretty healthy, so any comparisons in rate stats between the Yanks and Astros are moot. Many of the Yankees missed big chunks.  What's more the undermanned Yanks still beat the Rays by 7 games over 162,  and they just pushed the Astros to a game 5 in the division series  Let's hope the guys who've arrived since the 2017 series, like, Stanton, Torres, and LeMahieu show why they were acquired.

Giants: The Giants don't have the Yankees depth, so Thursday night when they went to New England without Saquon, Sterling, Engram and Connelly, and lost. The team played hard, but the refs were horrible, and some of the vets missed tackles or drew penalties that kept the defense on the field. Anyway, that's over, and they now have 10 days to get guys back and have a mini-camp,  They are 2 and 4 and can still have a season.

Rangers: the Rangers didn't play this week. The Wolfpack hasn't played since Sunday. So, they both had a chance for their own mini-camp, and it sounds like they both did.  Three things are starting to loom.  First, Georgiev was much better than Hank in the two games they did play. We said over the summer the best possible scenario was to keep Georgiev and Shesterkin.  We'll see how this plays out.  Second, the Rangers do not have a second Center, and that mean they don't have a second line.  Even thougb Kreider and Kakko are both very talented - they need someone to pass it to them or to receive their passes, and Strome isn't it. Third, Kakko hasn't scored yet, and thought it's only been two games, Buch hasn't scored yet, either.  Maybe a switch would help.  But that wouldn't do anything about the issue of having no second line. Are they waiting on Chytil?  And why hasn't Andersson gotten a chance?


UPDATE:  Kakko scored while I was writing.  From Strom and off his backhand.  Sweet one.  Game is tied 1-1 going into the third.

Knicks: The Knicks have now won one and lost one. Doesn't look like Knox played last night.  Neither did  Smith, and Iggy hasn't gotten a minute in either game.  Randle, Portis and Morris were effective, but Mitchell barely played and Payton was scoreless and -24.  Not good.  Barrett wasn't quite as good in game two, but he still had 15 points, 7 boards but just 1 asssist, while adding a block and a steal to his stat sheet. That's one great thing about him, he'll usually get multiple assists and check multiple boxes.  They play again Wednesday,

So there it is.  Big chance for the Yanks.  Important period for the Giants. The Rangers get to play again, and the Knicks may already have a big problem at the point if Smith can't play.  Go teams and go readers.

Giants Stuff

The Giants are in a pretty impossible spot tonight.  They are playing the Patriots, which is always tough enough, but they are doing it without Barkley, Shepard, Engram and Gallman.  It's so dire that they just called up RB Austin Walter from the Practice Squad and cut QB Alex Tanney.  Of course, unless Walter goes off and keys a win tonight, he'll be cut and Tanney restored to his seat on the bench as soon as tomorrow.

So this will Daniel Jones against the World Champs.  But, once this one is out of the way, they have 10 days, in which they can get players back and, perhaps, make other roster moves.  So they will probably come out of this at 2-4, but that won't necessarily end their season.  This would be a good night for the OL to step up.

Yanks Complete Sweep of Twins

That was impressive.  In the first two games in New York, the Yanks bludgeoned the Twins with homers and big doubles.  Last night they beat them with pitching a defense.  And what defense, Didi, Judge, Gardy, DJ, and Torres all made great plays. We really haven't seen many games like that in modern championship runs. It really was notably impressive.

What's more, Luis Severino showed the heart of a lion. That was a some pure Yankeeness last night.  He had no fastball control command and got into a bases loaded/no outs situation in the second and a two on/no out situation in the third -- and didn't give up a run.  He was making it up as he went along, and got swings and misses with his slider, 4 seamer and change when he needed them most.  Just a really great performance.

On the hitting side, Gleyber Torres just doesn't care who they're facing.  He keeps on hitting,  He started the scoring with a second inning homer, and stole third later after another big double,, to put more pressure on the Twins.  He was the MVP, and he'll need to keep playing like that if the Yanks want 28.

Rangers Trade Namestikov

The Rangers used the second day of their early season week off to make a trade we all expected them to make over the offseason. They just sent Vlad Namestikov, who got demoted for Lemieux in their last game, to the Jets for a 4th round pick in 21 and a 25 year old AHL DMan.  Not much, but they're only retaining 750K, so their saving all but 2 games of the rest of his 4M salary.  So that's around 3.16 in much needed room added and maybe now they can promote guys.

Knicks Tonight

The Knicks, apparently, have a preseason game tonight against The Washington Bullets, (I'll never call them Wizards).  The starting lineup features Elfrid Payton at the point, RJ Barrett at the 2, MarcusMorris at the 3, Julius Randle at the 4 and Mitchell Robinson at Center. So, Big Mitch and 4 new guys.  There was word that Dennis Smith Jr. was sore during the public workout, so he may be out for physical reasons. Those same reports said that rebuilt Kevin Knox was the best player there.  So, it looks like he's getting some "tough love." I'm not a believer in "tough love" and I hope the Knicks haven't abandoned their development mantra.  Go Knicks.

The Giants Get Out-Coached and Lose

The Giants need Saquon.  That's never been more apparent than today, when Gallman went down with a concussion and they ended up trying to get productions out of Jon Hilliman, who is not ready for prime time. What's more, Pat Shurmur had no plays to run in the red zone without Saquon or even a viable Gallman.  And Shurmur's plays that he did call seemed to be immediately recognizable and addressable to his old boss Zimmer.  This was the opposite of what happened when, in his first season as Giant Coach, Jim Fassel went down to Arizona, from whence he had been hired, and kicked their butts because they hadn't switched up there calls.  That a funny, this was disconcerting.

Rangers Win Again

Mika Zibanejad had a Hat Trick and an assist to give him four more points and a total of 8 for the year.  Panarin had the other goal, as the Rangers won 4-1.  Georgiev was in net and was a lot more forgiving of the defense than Hank was in game one. In general the D was better.  And that first line is looking like a killer. Though Buch also had thee assists, I think Kakko has to play with better passers, and until Chytil and Kravstov get back, he should play with Mika and Panarin.

Yanks Club Twins To Take Game 2

Tanaka was Playoff Masa, and Didi Gregorius found his power stroke with a grand slam as the Yanks beat the twins 8-2 to hold serve.  They now just need 9 more wins.  Let's go, Yanks!

The Week on the Blog

Huge win for the Yanks last night. Giants are coming off a blowout. The Rangers won on opening night, and the Knicks have started camp - for real.  It was a good week.  Now let's see what's coming up this week.

Yankees:  Tanaka will be on the bump today and if he's playoff Tanaka, the Yanks will move to 2-0,  The Yanks put up a ten spot last night without big hits from Judge, Stanton or Sanchez.  Of course they got some huge doubles for Edwin and Gleyber and then insurance knocks from Gardy and DJ.   Anyway, it would be nice to get the power flowing from Judge, Stanton and Sanchez.  And it would also be nice if Tanaka can give the Yanks 6 innings today.  I don't really see the Yanks facing an elimination game this year, but they need to take it one game at a time,  Btw, Jasson Dominguez homered in his first AB in instructs.  Could be a fast mover, if they'll allow that.

Giants: The Giants have a chance to go 3-2 tomorrow, but they'll have to try it again without Saquon Barkley.  But they will have Golden Tate for the first time this year, and he could really flourish in Shurmur's O, especially  with DJ's accuracy.  Zimmer, the Viking's coach said that they were familiar with Shurmur's O, so, hopefully, the Giants will mix things up some tomorrow.   Also, the D is short on LB's again, but still have to find a way to stop the Vikings rushing attack or it's gonna be an awfully long game. They are also said to have a great pass defense, but the expectation here is that Daniel Jones will have his best game yet.

Rangers:  The Rangers won a wild one the other night and it looked more like A Winter Classic than a regular season game. The Rangers also have a weird schedule, where they play tonight and then don't plat again until next Saturday, then after the game in the 12th, they don't play again till the 17th. In other news, the AHL starts today and for the first time in a long time, the Wolfpack is stacked. Let's hope Knoblauch is great and he gets Chytil and Kravstov squared away starting tonight.

Knicks: the Knicks are having a public practice and scrimmage today at Colombia. It should be on YouTube or the app later. There have been reprorts that the Knicks are installing a complex O (the Triangle?) and we should all be curious to see what that looks like. They didn't have any semblance of an O when they were tanking. I hope they can grasp whatever it is.  And they are, apparently, really focusing on D. We'll see if that takes.

So there it is.  Yanks doing their things. Giants with another chance.  Rangers with a weird schedule and the Knicks with transparency.  Let's go, teams.  Have a great one.

Yanks Releaser Their ALDS Roster

The Yankees have issued their roster for the first series, and it does include struggling Luke Voit over Mike Ford, but otherwise, features a lot of good news.  First, Gleyber Torres is active.  Second, Edwin Encarnation is active. Third, Tyler Wade made the roster. Johnny Lasagna also made the roster, but sadly, so did Cessa. Let's win 11.

Rangers Win a Wild One!

What a wild one. Spoiler: The Rangers won 6-4.  Anyway, this one went back and forth till the game was tied at 4 halfway through the 3rd period.  Then with a little over 4 minutes left, Brett Howden scored (remember him?) he has great hands and he used them.  Then Fast got penalized with about :90 seconds left, and Brendan Smith ended up scoring the empty netter with about ten seconds left.

Both Panarin and Truba were very impressive and each had a goal and at least one assist.  I think Trouba had 2, not sure about Panarin, yet.  Mika Z had a goal and three assists. Because there were a lot of penalties, Kaapo didn't play a ton, but he made a few opportunities for himself and it's sort of a surprise that he didn't score.  He will.  Buch had better chances and couldn't convert them. Won't be surprised if if those two flip sides.

Trouba played 24.5 minutes, which was big. Fox was pretty good, Hajek was up and down but got an assist.  DeAngelo had an assist and looked good. Lemieux looked good and both guys looked valuable. Kreider was also good, and flashed his super speed at times.

Hank got his 450th win.  He gave up a couple he'd want back, but he was into it and got the win.

Yanks Announce Their First Three Starters

The Yanks have named James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and Luis Severino as their first three starters for the Twins series. Let's hope they get the elite version of each.  JA Happ has been named long reliever for the first two games.  Let's hope he's not needed.  CC won't be on the roster because he's got a shoulder injury, to go along with his balky knee. Though it hasn't been announced yet, Encarnacion is apparently good to go, and it will be nice to have him in the lineup with Judge, Stanton, El Gary and Gleyber.  Really nice.

Giants Stuff

Consequences seem to be the order of the day at Giants Central, they didn't just cut one sub par WR, they cut 2!  Bennie Fowler, who was running bad routes and might have been more of an Eli speed receiver then a Jones guy, was released, and so was TJ Jones who muffed a couple of punts on Sunday. It will be interesting to see what they do at WR.  Unless one of these is the Golden Tate move.

In other news, they've promoted ILB Josiah Tauaefa from the practice squad. Looks like they're not so confident Ogletree or Davis will be back, though, I might like Josiah more than both, at this stage.

Rangers Stuff

So, Kaapo Kakko has switched to number 24, Fox is wearing #23, Lias Andersson has switched from 50 to 28, and Libor Hajek switched from 43 to 25. Also, they signed Michael Haley to a two way contract.  They're keeping the roster at 22 now, though they could go up to 23 - I guess if they see anyone they like on waivers.  That's when they would probably send down Smith, so this could be fluid for the next few days.

Quinn and Gorton spoke after the cuts yesterday, and it really seems like they believe sending Chytil, and Kravstov will benefit from playing first line, first PP, possibly the kill and basically in all situations.  It looks as if they really trust the Knoblauch/Gord Murphy combo down there to get them the work they need. Basically, they said Kravstov has to learn the North American game, and Chytil needs to get 20 minutes a night at C. As long as it's not the waste land it has been,  this could work out.  Mickey Mantle got sent down.  So it can happen to anyone and the player will still determine his response.

First game is Thursday.

Knicks Open Camp

So the Knicks finally opened their official training camp - and just in time because they have a game next week. Media Day was yesterday and several of the players referenced having been working out together for the past two months,  so it seems they really have stuck together this offseason and we'll see what that means on the court. Of course the big battle is at PG, and then, perhaps at the 3, and in general with the from court rotation.  RJ  should start at the two - I say "should" because who knows what goes on at MSG these days.