Yankees Season Preview

Coming off of a disappointing 2011 first round playoff exit, the Yankees look to rebound in 2012 to claim it's 28th World Series Championship.  It was somewhat of a quiet offseason for the usually very active Bronx Bombers.  The biggest move being the aquisition of the hard throwing right handed Michael Pineda.  The Yankees did have to send young stud Jesus Montero to Seattle in return.  The Yankees also finally parted ways with A.J Burnett, which means they will need to find someone else to throw pies in players faces during post game interviews.  The best signing this offseason was snagging veteran Hiroki Kuroda from Los Angeles to stabalize the rotation.  The question for me is when will the age of the Yankees finally catch up to them.  I'm now going to go over the strengths, weaknesses, x factors, and predictions for the New York Yankees in 2012.

Strengths - Pitching Depth - The Yankees come into the season with a very solid pitching staff.  For the starters, Freddy Garcia has won the 5th spot in the rotation due to Michael Pindea being put on the DL.  If Andy Pettitte and Michael Pineda can both be guys that need to be in the rotation, the Yankees will have seven starters for five spots.  The Yankees pitching depth is also solid in the bullpen.  Even though Joba Chamberlain recently suffered a very severe ankle dislocation, I think the pen will be solid.  Mariano Rivera, David Robertson, and Rafael Soriano is as stable of a 9th, 8th, and 7th inning crew as you will find.  Boone Logan also adds a lefty specialist option for the team.

Weakness - Age of position players - Last year the Yankees were one of the best run producing lineups in baseball.  They did this by relying heavily on the long ball.  Robinson Cano was the only player in the lineup to bat .300 or higher.  With that being said, I don't think this will change with every guy being a year older.  Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Nick Swisher are all guys that are going to need to be DH'd throughout the year sporadically.  The Yankees trading away their top prospect Jesus Montero doesn't help the age either.  The 22 year old looks like he is going to have a hell of a career with his great opposite field power. Unless Alex Rodriguez's knee surgery works wonders like it did for Kobe Bryant, (who had the same surgery) this lineup won't be as scary as it looks on paper.

Pitching X Factor - Ivan Nova -  Nova recorded 16 wins in only 27 starts last year for the Yankees.  His 3.70 ERA was also solid in his first year being a consistent guy in the rotation.  Nova will be a huge factor in whether the Yankees rotation will be very strong, or just about average.  I see Nova making even more strides this season, adding to the depth of the rotation.

Offensive X Factor - Brett Gardner - The speedy Gardner can be a huge headache for teams when he is on base.  The problem is he has to get on base to be that headache.  For a guy who gets so many hits from his speed alone, a .259 batting average is not good enough.  Gardner should be more around .300 and 100 runs year in and year out.  With the Yankees lacking speed to begin with, Gardner's progression as an every day outfielder is huge to the Yankees.  Look for Gardner to raise his average from last year, while stealing at least 50 bases.  That is the spark Yankees manager Joe Girardi wants to see out of Gardner.

Predicion - My prediction for the 2012 New York Yankees is an American League East Championship.  I see it being a tight race for the division, but the Yankees have been there before, and they have enough talent to take this division.  I don't see a World Series for this team however.  The Yankees will lose to Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALCS.  The Yankees do have to stay healthy of course.  Pineda being a prime example of health issues, Girardi did not sound to up beat when talking about Pineda's struggles in an article on ESPN New York.  He was quoted saying this,


"There was always that curiosity, you know, why isn't it going up higher, and as you're looking for answers we're looking, too, trying to figure out why isn't the velocity where it was last year Is it the innings, is he just not ready to turn it loose, you know, what is it? None of us are ever really going to know but right now, he's shut down and we'll get him back as soon as we can.'"

Who knows what the Yankees will get out of Pineda this year, but if he continues to have shoulder issues the Yankees front office will be heavily criticized for trading away the best hitting prospect in the organization for him.

One last bold prediction is that Robinson Cano will be the American League MVP.  Cano was in the running for MVP last season, but he slumped ever so slightly at the end of the year.  Justin Verlander won last year as a starting pitcher, something that is rarely done.  Cano has improved his stats every year as a pro, I see him having a monster season.  He is capable of having a .340, 30 HR, 120 RBI kind of year.  If he does that at the second base position, he will be taking home the hardware.

Knicks Limping to the Finish Line

With only 15 games left in the NBA season, I'm going to tell you why the Knicks are going to win the Atlantic Division.  Amare Stoudemire, Jarred Jeffries, Jeremy Lin, Bill Walker, and Carmelo Anthony are all dealing with some kind of injury, so why would I think this?

The current standings have the Philadelphia 76ers in first place.  The Boston Celtics tied with the same record of (28-22) in second. The Knicks find themselves third, two and a half games back, with a record of (26-25).

Let's start with Philadelphia.  This team started the season on fire with a record of (18-7).  The Sixers have lost their winning ways going (8-15) since February 15th.  A team once under the radar became a team with a bullseye on their chest.  Although the schedule is the most favorable out of the three teams battling for the division title, I don't see the Sixers being able to hang on to first place.

The Boston Celtics are tied with Philadelphia for first but they have issues that they have to think about that they can't even control.  That would be their brutal schedule.  Take a look at the teams the Celtics have to play to start the month of April. This is in order, (Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat (again), Atlanta Hawks).  If you haven't already noticed, the Celtics will play seven straight games against teams above .500.  I can easily see the Celtics winning only one of those seven games to start the month.

Now to the Knicks.  Since the firing of Mike D'Antoni the Knicks are (8-1).  They also have not let up 90 points to their opponent 8 out of those 9 games.  Defense and accountability are two things that interim head coach Mike Woodson have been preaching.  Amare Stoudemire has a bulging disk in his back and will likely be out for four weeks.  This is not a big deal in my opinion.  Amare looks like he has lost the hop in his step all season long.  It could be his knees that everyone knows were an issue the day the Knicks signed Stoudemire.  His defense is below average to put it nicely and the Knicks are much better defensively without him.  Another interesting note is that the Knicks are (8-1) when Stoudemire doesn't play.  The Knicks might be finding their game at the right time of the year.  Coach Woodson has a huge task at hand with this team, but I do think they will finish first in the Atlantic.

Winning the Atlantic Division is a big deal for these three teams because it will give them the four seed in the playoffs.  That means avoiding the two power house teams Miami and Chicago.  It will certainly be an exciting race to the finish line.

Devils Clarkson Making Huge Strides

Before the start of the Devils season, David Clarkson was known as an energy guy.  Every team in the NHL has them.  When your team is playing flat and uninspired hockey, your energy guy drops his gloves hoping to re focus the team.  He takes his five minutes in the penalty box, and hopefully landed some solid punches in his fight.  Clarkson once had 183 penalty minutes in one season which was one of the highest in the NHL.  That season in 82 games, Clarkson only scored nine goals.  His career high in goals was 17 in 2009.

This season is a completely different story for Clarkson.  He can no longer lead the NHL in penalty minutes because he needs to be on the ice for the Devils.  With four games left to play in the regular season Clarkson has set a career high in goals, assists, points, shots, and game winning goals.  Clarkson has taken his game from the bully, to one of the top goal scores on the team.  With 29 goals this season, Clarkson looks to hit 30 goals for the first time in his career.  If you would have told me that Clarkson would only be four goals behind super star goal scorer Ilya Kovalchuk in goals at the end of the season I would think you're crazy.  This guy always seems to be in the right place at the right time.  He is a dominant puck possession winger along the boards, and he has increased dramatically in his puck handling skills.  It is really nice to see his game come full circle in his sixth NHL season.  As a Devils fan, I would love to see this guy continue this play into the playoffs, which is in only 2 weeks.  Six game winning goals for the right winger which is the highest on the team, Clarkson is one of the most valuable forwards on the team, and now its not just because of his right hook.

Best Game I Ever Saw

A highly respected play by play announcer, Al Michael’s was quoted during the game saying, “You bring this script to the studio, and they throw it out, I mean this is like fantasy”.  On December 21^st, 2003 Brett Favre’s father, mentor, and closest friend in life died of a heart attack.  His Packers had a game on one of the biggest stages in football, which is Monday Night, the very next day.  Nobody thought Brett would be able to play, but Brett said it took him only 5 minutes to decide he wanted to play.

Coming into the game nobody knew what to expect.  The only thing people could imagine was that Brett would have a hard time running an NFL offense under these circumstances.  The thing I will never forget as a fan watching from my couch was Brett running through the tunnel as he was announced, slapping all of his teammate’s hands.  Every hair on my body was standing up.  The fact that he was there for his teammates in a time like this was amazing to me.

Favre started the game 6 for 6 with two touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders that night.  Touchdown pass after touchdown pass, it just seemed like tonight was going to be his night.  The score was 31-7 at the end of the half.  Favre was 22/30 with 399 yards passing, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.  In a game where the Packers needed a win to keep its playoff hopes alive, Favre had a perfect night.  The final score was 41-7.  People involved with the game felt that if it was a close game Brett would have had a couple more touchdown throws.  A side story in all of this was the Oakland crowd.  Oakland fans are known to be the most brutal, in your face fans in all of football.  On this night they were clapping and cheering for Favre after every score.  Something that I don’t think will happen for an opposing player ever again.  Nobody would have thought that only a day after his father passing away, he would be able to have one of his greatest games, in Oakland, on Monday Night Football.  

Sometimes a game is much more than just a game.  For Brett, who knows how much he was thinking about the actual game.  He just wanted to make his father proud of the way he played, and I think he did that.  It was almost like he wasn’t upset at all during the game, like those three hours kept him from grieving about his loss. After the game was final, he was hunched over at his locker with both palms on his forehead, crying his eyes out.  This was the best game I ever saw.

Mike D'Antoni out, Phil Jackson in?

The news today in Knicks nation is that Coach Mike D'Antoni has resigned as the head coach.  This has been something that Knicks fans including myself have been begging for all year long.  The Knicks were giddy about the roster coming into the season, and were talking about winning a Championship in preseason interviews.  They find themselves six games under .500 and out of the playoff picture.

Why didn't D'Antoni fit?  Coach D'Antoni is a brilliant offensive coach, some consider him a genius at what he does offensively.  But for Knicks fans who only remember the winning ways of toughness, tenacity, effort, and most of all defense, led by Patrick Ewing and company years ago, the patience was not there.  D'Antoni did not hold stars Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire accountable for their efforts on the defensive end.  To D'Antoni's defense, which is ironic, he didn't want the trade for Carmelo Anthony to happen in the first place.  He got a player who was not going to fit into what D'Antoni wanted on offense which is spacing and ball movement.  At the end of the day Carmelo was a huge reason for the resignation of D'Antoni.  He never bought into what D'Antoni was teaching and D'Antoni doesn't have the personality to punish Carmelo for doing so.

Phil Jackson who retired last year is being mentioned as the replacement for the Knicks next season.  This is a guy who would not put up with anyone not doing what he says.  He would hold everyone accountable and can also coach star players.  Winning titles with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant proves that.  One more thing is that Phil Jackson seems to have a bigger ego than Carmelo Anthony, something that is hard to find.  Phil seems to be the perfect fit, the question is now does he have the desire to come back and coach.  Some say that if there is one place that he would come out of retirement for it would be New York.

Marty or Mo?

With spring training getting started for all MLB teams, the question was brought up to Mariano Rivera of how much longer he would be able to play.  Rivera gave an answer that seems to me like he might be playing his last year.  Martin Brodeur is facing a lot of the same questions from reporters as his numbers get less impressive, and his age increases.  Both guys are arguably the best to ever play at their respective positions.  So who is better at what they do, Marty or Mo?

Mariano Rivera holds the record for saves with 603 (17 seasons).  A 12 time all-star, and five time World Series Champion, Mo is regarded as one of the most dominant relief pitchers ever.  In his seven World Series, Rivera posted an ERA of 0.00 for the entire series four times.  Pitching over 1,000 innings, Mo has only given up 54 home runs in relief.  He also has won Rolaids Relief Man Award (best reliever) five times.

In Martin Brodeur's 19 year career, he has won the Stanley Cup three times.  He has made the playoffs an astounding 17 of his 19 years as a Devil.  He leads the NHL in wins, shutouts, and games played.  Brodeur is also the only goalie to win 40 times eight different seasons.  He won the Vezina Trophy (best goalie) four times.  While adding ten all star appearances.

This is such a tough argument because you could easily go with either guy.  Both great professionals, great teammates, and dominant athletes.  I'm going to have to go Martin Brodeur on this one.  This guy literally changed the game of hockey.  They had to change the rules with the lines made behind the net showing where goalies can handle the puck.  Before the rule change other teams were worried about changing because Marty would quickly skate to the corner of the ice and fire an accurate pass to an attacking teammate.  Although the closer role is not an easy position it's not a position that is relied on as much as goaltending.  You also can't find great goalies that easily and if you don't have one you don't have a good chance of winning anything.  Great closers come and go pretty often, obviously not with the longevity and consistency of Mariano Rivera, but they are around.  And you don't really need a great closer to contend year after year like you need a goalie in hockey. What do you think?