Giants Lose a Close One

Last week the Giants had a good first hal and a bad second half. Today the script was flipped, but the result was still the same. The Giants havce started 0-2 6 out of the last 7 years. Let's see if the what comes next can be different. There a signs.

Giants Today

In a few hours the Giants, after a short week, will take on the Bears in Chicago. If they have a good game plan and if the players took the corrections to heart after Monday night's lost, they really do have a chance to win this one.  Their OL is also bad, and Mitch isn't Big Ben. If the Giants can do a better job of protecting Daniel Jones and give Saquon some room, the Giants can and should win.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, the Yankees are playing like Yanks again.  The Giants are tried to play like Giants again.  Kravstov is crushing the KHL, and the Knicks are the focus of unsettling rumors. Let's see what's coming up.

Yankees: Now this is much more like it. The Sanchino struck last night to tie the Sox, then the Yanks won it in extras. Not as much fun as putting up double digits on the Jays who were "buyers" at the deadline, but great for a strirring Friday Night. The Yankees magic number is 2. Let's hope the Yanks can stay hot though the sxpanded playoffs.

Giants: Monday night's game was a lot closer than the media is portraying. If the Giants had a good week of practice, they should be in good shape for an upset Sunday. The Bears OL is vastly weaker than the Pittsburgh OL and the firm of Lawrence and Williams could do big business.  The left side of their D was targeted successfully by the Lions.  Also, Trubisky is Trubisky. We'll see how Joe Judge Giants bounce back tomorrow, and they really have a chance to win this one.

Rangers: the big story has been Kravstov. But the big NEED is a 2 C who, like Mika, can pass and score. Having high skill wings like Bread, Kakko, Kravstov and in 17 days, Laffy(!) demands a high skill C like Mika Zibanajed.  Not sure where they will find one, but they must. It would also be good to find a LD, but that can be managed from the system a lot better than 2C (unless Chytil blossoms).  We'll see what the plan is, and details could start emerging any day now.

Knicks: Seems like another offseason of cap games coming up. Do we really want what's left of Chris Paul?  Wasn't Melo supposed bring him along 2 or 3 contracts ago? Yup. When will the actual team building start?  Ever?

There we have it. Yanks are back! Giants have a chance. Rangers have some needs.  Knicks need to rebuild -- please!  Hope you have a great week and a great Autumn. 17 days till Laffy!

Kravstov: The Revenge?

So, the Rangers loaned Vitali Kravstov to the KHL. Now he's owning it. Vitali has 5 goals in the first six games inccluding two last night. That's unheard of for a 20 year old, and you'll recall that his Draft +1 season in the KHL was age significant and he is way aheand of that pace.  He's playing with confidence and physicality. He's running Traktor's first power play from the right half wall. And he's being defensively responsible.  First, this is great news for the Rangers and second, why couldn't they let him do those things for Hartford? Whatever they did shut off his confidence and his game disappeared. Now it's back. They better get the recipe.

By the way, after the weirdness of last season, a lot of the prospect pundits have practiced large scale revisionism. Some have even downgraded VK from top 6 potential, while others have said he can't skate, when in fact he's alway had plus speed. There are times when fast athletes move more slowly and that's when they're not sure or uncertain and thinking too much.  You see it in football and hockey. To play fast you need confidence and certainty and when you're too discombobulated, you don't have either.

Kravstov has both now, and the Rangers have to feed and nurture them.  He's once again a top prospect.

The Judge Giants Had to Start Somewhere

It was a tough game last night against what might have been the toughest opponent the Giants will face all year. They'll never have to break that ice again.  It wil hard work for the players andn coaches as the season rolls on, but that first one, even as a loss had to be gotten out of the way. It's Chicago next and hopefully, Coach Graham will have a plan that looks to confuse Trubisky, and let's hope the Pittsburgh tape shows the Giant D how close they were to even more sacks.  

Coach Garrett needs to find a way to get the running game going against the Bears and henceforth. Not having the run option really hurt last night. A team with Saquon should never be shut down like that.  Also, when the run option wasn't working, they needed to start varying DJ's platform and not allow him to become a sitting who gets hit 22 times.

They'll see the film andn make some adjustments. But now they are in season after their crazy offseason and things will only get better.

Giants Lose a Tough One

Okay, so the Giants lost. But it was a terrible matchup for their first game, and if they'd made a few more plays here and there, they probably would have won. On their first possession of the game, the Steelers muffed the punt and the then Jones appeared to throw an incompletion.  Replay showed it was a fumble that Nick Gates recovered for a TD. Judge didn't challenge and that's on him. They kicked a field goal. Later in the first Jones hit Slayton for a long TD. Early on the D was really flying around and looking like they knew where they should be.

The second half was frustrating. The running game could not get started and Saquon only had one big catch and some good blocks,  Evan Engram was a disaster, He had 2 or 3 drops and got called for a specious OPI, but he and Saquon have to make plays for the Giants to win any games.  Jones was good, but he made 2 mistakes, one was a line of scrimmage INT on an incredible play by Watt who elevated. The other came in the third quarter when the Giants were winding up a 19 play scoring drive.  Jones had to roll right and rotate left to make a pass.  As he did Dupree hit his passing arm and the ball floated into the endzond for an easy pick.

Still the Giants drove again late and Jones hit Slayton with a laser for their second TD of the night. They missed the 2 pointer, and also didn't recover the onside kick, which was meaningless after they failed to covert the two pointer.

We'll probably have more thougthts as the week goes on, but it was not like most Shurmur nor McAdoo losses.

Giants Game Day

The Joe Judge Era begins in a few hours. After the past two Errors, let's hope for a refreshing change and a team that looks coached. They're going against Pittsburgh team that's been playing the same shemes forever, and thus will have lot more muscle memory that the Giant who have two new schemes they'll use for the first time tonight. Not the easiest assignmnet. But Judge seems like the real thing, so the only thing I'm looking for this season in progress.  It took Parcells a few years start winning and Coughlin had a tough first year before making the playoff in his seecond.  So and upset would be great, and let's go Giants, but progess is what we should all be looking for in either event.

UPDATE: Golden Tate is out tonight,

This Week on the Blog

Alright, this past week so the Yanks finally show signs of life, the Giants name their roster and practice squad, the Ranger lay low and the Knicks do nothing. At least the Giants are starting. Let's see what else is up.

Yankees: The Yanks have won three in a row and got great starts from Cole and Tanaka, and need Montgomery to folow suit today. Every time I worry that the Yanks are blowing it, I just look at this crazy year and be thankful that we at least have the Yankees back. I've missed the Yankees minor league system this year, but hopefully, things will be back to normal soon. The Yanks should start geting some talent back in the next week or two.

Giants: the Giants will host the Steelers on Monday Night. While the consistently good Steelers seem like a brutal first oponent for the Joe Judge Giants, it probably couldn't be a better test. Back in 2008 the Giants played the always physical Steelers and beat them up, They also beat up the Ravens. That's the physicality that's been missing over these lousy years, and win or lose Monday night, let's see if the physicality is back because that will be the most reassuring sign that the Big Blue Wrecking Crew will be back in the near  future.

Rangers: In less than 2 weeks, on September 25th, the NHL buyout window will open. Unless Henrik Lundvist retire, which he should, the Rangers will probably buy him out. A trade is unlikely because of Hank's NMC, high salary, steep decline and a goalie glutted market. Buyouts are brutal because they double the remaining cap years - remember Dan Girardi? The Rangers are still dealing with that cap charge. Let's reiterate that over the next few flat cap years picks are nore valuable than contracts for middling RFA's. Going forward, the Rangers should trade all RFA's that aren't cup core. And they should start doing that this offseason,.

Knicks; The Knicks need a great plan. We'll see if they can come up with something.

So there it is. The Yanks are waking up., the Giants are starting up, the Rangers are paying and the Knicks are hopefully not screwiing up.

And hopefully, nothing is screwed up for you.   Have a great week.

Yanks Finally Win a Game

And a child shall lead the way. Deivi Garcia pitched 6 strong and ended the Yankee losing streak tonight. Gleyber Torres may finally be waking up and had a double and a bomb. LeMahieu also homered and had a good game. So congrats to Deivi for his first win. Let's go, Yanks. Time's a wasting!

Rangers Loan Libor Hajek to Czech Extraliga

Following suit with much of the league, the Rangers have loaned 7th or 8th defender Libof Hajek to the Czech Exraliga. It's interesting that other countries have been able to open their sports on time, but North America is a crapfest. Hopefully, the Rangers will be able to get all their kids back when they need them.  And, by the way, Lias Andersson and Vitaly Kravstov are off to strong starts.

Giants Cut Derrick Dillon and Sign 2 More the the Practice Squad

The Giants have cut LSU speedster Derrick Dillon and replaced him with former Giant RB Rod Smith and seemingly sought after SB Ryan Lewis. Lewis went undrafted out of Pitt in 2017, and has been on tour of much of the League. Last year he finished up with Graham's Dolphin's D.  The Giants tried to grab him on waivers from the Dolphins, but Washington jumped their claim. When Washington tried the sneak him through to their practice squad, Graham called him and now he's on the Giant Practice Squad. That's a lot of energy on someone who is at best the 54th man. Graham must like something.

NHL Moves the Draft Up To 10/6

The NHL has moved it's draft up to 10/6 - 10/7, so less than a month to Alexis Time!

Giants Announce 6 Captains

The Giant players have voted and elected 6 captains.  On O, the captains are Daniel Jones and Saquaon Barkley. On D the captains are Dalvin Tomlinson and Blake Martinez.  On special teams the captains are Nate Ebner and Julius Peppers. It's now been decades since Harry Carson would trot out alone for the coin toss. The unusual part of this vote is what does Peppers do in Specials if he's not the punt returner? On the other hand, it seems like a nice sign that the specials guys, at least, see Peppers as a leader.

Giants Release DeAndre Baker

In what can only be seen as a tragedy, the Giants today cut bait on a former first round pick. This is just sad. Baker had it all in front of him. He was basically a slightly more talented version of Bradberry as a football player.  He would have been a perfect fit in the new D. Unfortunately, he is an imbecile who threw it all away playing gangster one night. There's no one to blame here but Baker. Georgia's a great program and there was nothing in his past that indicated a future as an armed robber.  Last year, the Giants had 3 first round picks, between Jones and Dexter Lawrence, it looks like they found two core player - and one future crook.  The Giants will now be forced to draft Patrick Surtain II or some other top college corner in 2021.

Nick Gates Listed a Starter at C

Nick Gates has been named starter at C on the Giants initial depth chart. This is fantastic news, especially if he means he can settle in and become part of the line's future, keeping us from spending a high pick on a C next year. Corey Ballentine is starting at CB opposite James Braderry. Kick returners are Darius Slayton and Darnay Holmes - both of whom are FAST. Golden Tate is listed as the starting punt returner, but it could be CJ Board. Jackson Barton is listed as back up OLT, and Peart is listed as back up ORT.  Let's hope he takes over at some point. Peppers and Love are the starting Safeties, so Logan Ryan doesn't have a spot in the base D as of now.  Of course, how often will they be in that?  It could be prerry positionaless in the back seven or deep four.

Giants Announce 14/16 Practice Squad Players

The Giants, today, released the names of the 14 initial members of their Practice Squad.  They are QB Cooper Rush, WR's Alex Bachman, Johnny Holton, Derrick Dillon, Austin Mack and Binjamin Victor. They also added OL's Kyle Murphy, Tyler Haycraft, DL Niko Lalos, and DB's Chris Willams, Jarren Williams, and Long Snapper Carson Tinker.

They also added K/P Ryan Santoso, who is LB sized.  They also re-added the foreign assignee Sandro Platgummer, who won''t count against their number. So they might only have 13/16.

UPDATE

They've added Chad Slade back to the PS.  They have 2 spots left.

UPDATE 2

The Giants have added S Sean Chandler to their practice squad.  They have 1 space left.

Giants IR McKinney and Mayo Add 2

The Giants amde the revocable IR moves and brought back TE Eric Tomlinson and DB Jarren Williams. Tomlinson is much more blocker than playmaker, and Jarren is one of a plethora of DB's named Williams that went to camp with the Giants. Seeing that they brought back the blocking TE rather than Dickerson, while only keeping 5 wide receivers may be pretty convincing evidence that the Giants are going to be run heavy, but with Saquon and Evan Engram as top targets.

Giants Claim 3 Players

During the waiver period the Giants successfully claimed three players.  They are OT Jackson Barton, Safety Adrian Colbert and WR Damion Ratley. All three have good size and though Barton and Colbert are former 7th roinders, Ratley was a 6th rounder. We'll see who the cuts are.

Also, Ryan Connelly was claimed by the Vikings. Crazy situation.

UPDATE: The Giants have cut OL Chad Slade to make room for Barton. The other two moves claims could be covered by moving McKinney and Mayo to the revocable IR.

UPDATE 2: The Giants have released WR Corey Coleman and S Sean Chandler to make room for the other 2.  Coleman is a shock, since according to all the Giant yotubes, he'd had a hell of a camp.

Though Practice Squad is still coming together, it does feature at least 4 WR's inclunding Bachman and Mack.  Phew on the Bachman factor.

Rangers Get Pick 22

With the Islander win tonight, the Rangers second first round pick moved up one slot to 22. Last time they had pick 22, they traded up for it and took K'Andre Miller.  As expressed yesterday, the Rangers need to add more picks in this deep, deep draft.  The flat cap makes another Panarin move impossible, which is fine because there is no Panarin out there this year.  While Free Agency is a down market, the draft is a great market and the Rangers should use what they have to amass more picks.  All they need for the NHL club is a #2 C and a Left Handed D to paiir with Trouba.  If they amass picks they can not only make them and stash players, but they can also trade them for RFA's, and the RFA market is better than the UFA market- again. Let's hope that's their plan, but, as of right now we finally know where all of their 10 picks are.

Giants Stuff

The initial 53 man roster is disbalanced.  There are 4 more D's than O's and keeping just 5 WR's seems risky. The current waiver period expires at 4 pm est Sunday and at that point teams can start filling their 16 player practice squads. They will IR Xavier McKinney and David Mayo tomorrow or something, then probably add another WR and RB or TE. The Giants are 4th on the waiver list, so they will probably make some claims and be awarded more players. We'll see.

Giants Make Their Cuts

 

The Giant cuts are slowly oozing out.  Thankfully, the Alex Tanny era is now over. That was Shurmur's craziness, thankfully, not Judge's.  Grant Haley, Prince Smith, Draven Askew-Henry, Keivarae Russell, Eric Smith,  and 2019 draft pick Chris Slayton are the names we know so far.  Updates to come.

UPDATE: Dartmouth DE Niko Lalos and LS Carson Tinker have also been cut. They're probably heading to the psquad. Also, WR Austin Mack has been cut. Also RB Tevin Feaster.

And in a shocker - Ryan Connelly.  Wow, guess he didn't make it all the way back from his ACL that fast.

The Giants also released WR Alex Bachman (dammit), WR Johnny Holton, WR Derek Dillon, WR Binjamin Victor,  TE Eric Tomlinson, TE Garrett Dickerson, OL's Kyle Murphy, Jon Halapio, Tyler Haycraft, DL Daylon Mack, LB Josiah Tauaefa, DB's Chris Williamson, Montre Hartage, Brandon Williams. and Jarren Williams.

They also cut Cooper Rush, so they're starting out with just 2 QB's.

Connelly is the big surprise. Bachman the big disappointment.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, this was another tough one for the Yanks, the Giants started making moves, the Rangers hopefully kept crafting a great plan and the Knicks twiddled their thumbs. We're in the midst of a long weekend, but let's see what's coming up.

Yankees: The Yanks need a winning streak. This is a joke of a season without fans and just 60 games,  but the Yanks have to do better than this, even if they can't win, the young stand-ins have to learn to win games. And the bullpen has got to stop blowing leads. That's been ridiculous.

Giants: The Giants have to cut down to their initial 53 by 4pm est.  So far, no cuts have become public and we must wonder if the organization will just make an announcement or two around 4. They're off till Monday, but by then they should have a roster and a 16 man practice squad.  Could be a wild few days or a complex but stunningly organized series of moves. We'll see.

Rangers: Last night Dallas won, so the Rangers have pick 23 in the coming draft. If the Islanders win tonight, the Rangers will move up to pick 22. So 23 or 22 are the only two possibilities.  That said, they should still be looking for more picks as we discussed yesterday, It's a good market.  Earlier the Rangers hired Jaques Martin to be their new defensive coordinator, and here's hoping he can install and effective structure that's easy to play. While they were getting steam rolled in Toronto the analysts were focusing on the Canes ability to play their structure.  The Rangers not so much, so, hopefully, he can come up wiht omething that they can easily play,

Knicks: The Knicks may or may not be in the process of adding a development team to augment their regular coaching staff. It will be interesting to see what that will look like. The Knicks are supposed to be able to meet and practice with the coaches at some time this month, so that should also be interesting, Sort of like when Coughlin took over the Giants,.

So there it is.  Yanks have to start winning, the Giant need to make great roster choices, the Rangers need to keep building and the Knicks need a plan.  Hope you have a good one.

Giants Make Logan Ryan Official Move Sills to the IR

Covid protocols passed and Logan Ryan has officially signed.  Tall WR David Sills was moved to IR with a broken foot. That's unfortunate but given that teams can move more guys off of IR this season, it could be a better stash vehicle than it used to be when players would loose a year of practice.  They have less that 24 hours to get to 53.

UPDATE: I stand corrected.  Because Sills was on IR before making the initial 53, he is lost for the entrire year.  Strange that they couldn't finesse another 24 hours.

Rangers Offseason Strategy

The Rangers have another fascinating offseason underway.  Last year, which now seems so long ago, the Rangers won the #2 pick in the lottery, traded 2 2's for the rights to Adam Fox, traded their second 1, and Neil Pionk for Jacob Trouba, had a strong draft and then made Artemi Panarin Rich.  This year, they head into the offseason having won the #1 pick in the draft lottery, as well as another first rounder they got for Brady Skjei. Beyond that they have no 2's because of the Adam Fox deal, but do have 2 3's and one pick each in the 4th, 5th, and 6th and 2 picks in the 7th round.

Whereas last year and in previous years the salary cap went up, because of the of the Covid overkill, NHL Owners expect a flat cap this year and possibly for the next few years. We could go on and on about how ridiculous caps are, but this year's will be flat and that's what's in front of the Rangers.  So. it's unlikely that the Rangers can solve any roster issues by giving out another Artemi Panarin deal.  Fortunately, there's no one of commensurate value in this year's UFA class.

So the Rangers best bets to keep building this autumn will be through trades and the draft.  Though the Rangers already have the first and 22 or so picks in the first round, they should pursue more. They have to decide who on the team and in the pipeline is core or future core, and be willing to trade those that aren't.  Seeing what Toronto got for Kapanen, the Rangers should be looking for a similar return for Buchnevich.  Buch is a good player but is not a top 3 forward in the Rangers organization, and with Lafreniere and others on the way, he's a great player to use to get another pick between 10 and 20 in this historically deep draft.

The Rangers also have Strome and Deangelo as RFA's who need new deals.  If the Rangers can move Buch's 4M, are those 2 really the best place to spend the additional cap space?  Or would it be gbetter to trade both of them for more picks including some 2's? Then, with more cap space the Rangers might be able to offer sheet a young RFA C or, more likely trade a new found pick or two and their RFA's for young C or LHD to go with Trouba.

It's unclear if the Rangers are seeing things the same way. They clearly value Strome and think he's an important part of the room, That said, on a good team, which the Rangers still aren't quite, Strome is a 3C so he shouldn't be overpaid.  They should hope that the draft and the trade market can bring better help for Panarin or whoever is on the second line.

If they can't get more firsts and a second or two, the Rangers should use their second first rounder for a C who they can stash in college, overseas or in the AHL while he develops and have Morgan Barron and Philip Chytil sort out C while they wait. And then use the 2 3's on a pair of prep or overseas D's they can stash in college or keep overseas.

Let's hope they can trade roster value for draft value, then use the extra picks to address 2C and LHD, even if it means putting them in another trade.

Giants Stuff

The Giants had their final scirmmage today and are now off for a couple of days while the coaches and execs cut their numbers to 53. The roster has been volatile lately so we could see more trades as well as extra cuts for waiver claims before the dust settles and the first 53 man roster is revealed.  Then a few more before the first 16 members of the practice squad are named.

There were no Jones fumbles in the final scrimmage, but Alex Bachman caught another TD and kept making plays. They don't need to play roster games with a kid like that.

Giants Trade a 7th for CB Isaac Yiadom

The Giants beat the waiver process by sending a 7th to Denver for CB Isaac Yiadom.  The Broncos had taken Yiadom in the 3rd round of the 2018 draft. Isaac is 6'1" and about 190. He was sort of ball hawky at BC, so maybe the Giants can turn him into something.

Earlier, the Giants had also signed Long Snapper Carson Tinker. The cutdown to 53 and the signing of the expanded to 16 Practice Squad will also be taking place over the next few days.  It could be pretty volatile as we are already seeing.

Giants Bring Back Halapio

This is disconcerting. The Giiants are re-signing C Jon Halapio, who tore his achilles last year and was the starting C for 2 of the worst OL's in Giants history. I suppose this is okay if the plan is to cut Pulley and make Pio the backup to Gates.  If they're bringing back Pio to start, they are insane.

The Giants are also bringing in WR Johnny Holton who is an ace gunner and replaces the injured Cody Core, let's hope his niche hiring doesn't prevent them from keeping Bauchman or one of the other interesting young WR's.