A Few Thoughts

A few thoughts I would like to share in no particular order of importance; Merry Christmas as well.

*I am feeling good about my blog, the Giants won and the Yankees agreed with me and found another 200 million for Texeria. I am off to a fine start but this will only help to further my belief that I am always right.
*Great win by the Giants on Sunday. A classic game by this team, the Eli/Coughlin era, far from perfect but they find ways to win. Over this great run in the last year they look awful at times, how bad did the Defense look in the first half Sunday?, but they hang around and make plays when they need to make them. How many third down conversions do they convert or key scores before the end of a half? This is possibly the greatest run in the team’s long history and certainly the finest consecutive seasons of my lifetime.
*The Jets suck and it doesn’t matter who is coaching or who the players are, they just blow. It is difficult to believe that the Jets won the most important game in the history of the league.
*I am waiting for the Jet fans to start begging for Cower to be hired, it can’t be long now. Mangini let this season slip away and should be fired. It doesn’t matter if Favre comes back or not. The Jets will sign Matt Cassel or some other hot free agent that will ultimately disappoint.
*Enough of the Chad Pennington revenge talk. I know the Dolphins will probably win the division on Sunday but the Jets knew Chad could take a team to the playoffs; they also know he can’t win many games once he gets there. The Dolphins and Chad will not win a game if they get to the playoffs but I guess it is a matter of perspective, being 1-15 last year a loss in the wildcard game is wonderful. I still do not believe the Jets made a mistake letting him go.
*Texeria goes to the Yankees for 8 years and 180 million…where do I begin? I like Texeria as a player. He is a solid player; he hits for average and power, plays a slick first base and seems like a decent guy but 8 years?!? I know he is not old but I am not comfortable with that long a contract. Is he that good? Arod signed a couple of 10 year deals but he puts up the best numbers ever! I know they are usually empty numbers but they are unreal. Texeria is a nice player but he is not a lock for the Hall of Fame, all-time great, super clutch deserves the second highest contract of all-time kind of player. The Red Sox and Angels are the two most successful franchises of the last 6 or 7 years and both teams passed on signing Texeria. I have to believe length of contract was the issue. The Nats offered him the same deal a month ago, so I don’t think it was money. I love the way both of those teams are run. If only the Mets would emulate them.
*I love that the only other signing of note this off-season is the Mets signing Krod at a bargain price, while the Yankees spend record amounts. Who exactly are they bidding against? Was this really the year to sign all the expensive free agents? After years of passing on center fielders and other positions of need the Yankees decide to sign every expensive guy they can to a record deal. Ha! Why stop now? They better sign Lowe for 5/75, just in case he has a good year in ’09. Can the rest of baseball be wrong? Is every other team worrying about the economy affecting them next year crazy? I know the Yankees have the most money but didn’t foolish spending cost them last year? They are the only team that pays fines each and every year, 26 million this year. Detroit also paid 1 million this season and that’s it, no one else. At some point all the money is gone and with it the flexibility to improve your team.
*I think there will be an amazing amount of players available this July as teams struggle to make ends meet. I am hoping the Mets can steal some guys from Toronto or Houston. The mid level teams will be hit hardest; the teams that try and spend with the big boys but just don’t have the revenue. The Red Sox, Angels and Mets should be able to pick up some great players for relatively nothing if they can afford to take on more payroll.
*How great is baseball? Merry Christmas