Colorado Rockies 1976

Even if Arizona gets a "new" Coyotes team in however many years, is anyone going to get the warm and fuzzies with the same owner hanging around? Sad is that most feel that is wasn't really lack of fan interest that got the Coyotes to this point (I had almost assumed that had played a role). Yeah seems more like a Cleveland Browns situation...or maybe even Brooklyn Dodgers?

Funny thing about Soto...he's obviously off to a ridiculous start AND the guy can get on base like no one else... BUT, I get the feeling once the BA drops a bit (he's a .286 career hitter), as good of a pure throwback hitter as he is, he's going to draw some criticism at times for almost being TOO scientific at the plate, for leaving things up to Judge (who does whiff a LOT) instead of occasionally breaking out of his "draw walks" MO. But man, I do loooooove the guys who live on the basepaths. Especially since when they're slumping, it's not like they're completely invisible, the way guys like Javier Baez are...he has a .296 OB% for his career, and since signing for nice money with Detroit, he's slashed .226/.268/.353...he doesn't even get ON BASE 27% of the time. Baez is basically Rey Ordonez at the plate with more power and a lot less contact...that's really fvcking terrible. And of course when the low-walk, low-OB% guys start to decline, it gets very ugly very quickly; by contrast, even though Mickey Mantle's final two seasons were rough compared to the rest of his career, he still got on base almost 39% of the time. Check out a former player named Gene Tenace. He's the true "Greek God of Walks". He was only a .241 career hitter, but owned a career .388 OB%, as well as a .817 SLG% (he hit 201 HR for his career) and 136 OPS+. Probably among the best .241 hitters ever to play the game.

Pirates were actually off to a nice start to their season: 11-5 coming into this series. Hopefully the Dodgers don't do to the Mets what the Mets just did to the Pirates. But at least a bad start didn't snowball...nice that the Mets don't NEED to rip it up on this trip. I'll take 3-3 with no complaints.

Yeah that would do it. And he definitely did not look right for a while.

Oh no doubt, the Yankees had some really sh!tty people playing for them back then, or guys who simply weren't worth what they were being paid. Remember Danny Tartabull, who went for Ruben Sierra in what was more or less an a$$hole-for-a$$hole trade? I remember Suzyn basically saying the Yankee clubhouse pretty much ignored him his first time around, but he did come back many years later, apparently a changed man.

The Mets BP so far in this series: Game 1: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K Game 2: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K Game 3: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K 9.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 17 K That's a hell of a run. Pirates with only 5 runs for the series with one inning left. And another scoreless inning. 10.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 17 K - damn. Outscored the Pirates 18-5 for the series. Who knows if this will last, but at least they've made April interesting.

Kinda nice when Lindor (good lord when is he REALLY gonna start to hit?!) and Alonso aren't lighting it up today, and the Mets find a way to score six runs. Nice to see the Mets have this surge, after such a painful Devils season. Hope they can take this sweep home, especially with the first WC swing coming this Friday.

For that last WC2 spot, let's face it, ALL of the teams that didn't get in have several games that can be pointed to, in terms of why they didn't make it (and why they didn't deserve to). What's bad for a team like Philly is that they went 13-19-5 over their last 37 GP (much closer to original predictions). Yes, it's expected that they'll make changes this offseason, but do they have another massive-overachieve 25-14-6 start in them? Or a stretch like that in them at any point next season? Given their plan, they might not come as close to a playoff berth as they just did for another couple of seasons.

Oh I'm with ya, I didn't mention that specifically because I already consider that an absolute no-brainer given. Still hoping for an announcement that the Devils are moving on from Green sooner than later.

As far as player transactions go, I'm not expecting much of anything until the season ends. Maybe some signings (think Fitz just signed some undrafted college player to a two-year deal). Curious to see if Luke gets an extension ahead of his final ELC season, but I can see his camp waiting until he's a RFA before signing; if he takes a big step forward, hard to imagine he won't be among the top-paid Devils, on a max-term deal, come 2025-26. The situation that's going to be interesting to see play out is Mercer's...assuming that he's not moved. I wouldn't go more than two years for him at this point...Fitz doesn't have to lock up EVERYONE long-term. I think 2 years $3 - 3.5 million is pretty fair...that's still a big raise, and he really finished out this season in meh fashion. If he puts up numbers closer to 2022-23 (and can become more consistent), then maybe he gets bigger money. BUT, gotta admit, I have a feeling this is all going to become another GM's deal to figure out. If the Devils have to pay a top-end veteran goalie and are expecting to have to pay Luke and Nemec and eventually plan re-up Nico (he's already four years into his current deal), hard to think that Mercer won't become the odd man out...just a "Can't pay everybody" kind of scenario.

Hope we start to see Fitz in action by then too.

Ah the Stump Merrill and Bucky Dent years. And who could forget Mel Hall? Don’t know if you remember Star Ledger Yankee beat reporter Moss Klein, but back then he was constantly ripping what the Yankees had become. Steinbrenner being suspended was the best thing to happen to that franchise. Allowed Stick to build and retain a nice nucleus. And George could still be George when he came back, but no longer to such an insanely destructive degree.

I always see these tournaments the same way: PLEEEEEASE DON’T GET HURT!

Heh heh one thing a lot of Yankee fans really suck at is handling any kind of adversity. Did the “on the ledge” gang really think the Yankees weren’t ever going to lose a few in a row? They want everything to be easy, and at the first sign of “trouble”, they want to trade a bunch of meh-ish guys for whatever star they think they’re entitled to. Because snagging Soto somehow wasn’t enough. Not saying YOU’RE like that, just a lot of Yankee fans that I’ve seen and heard.

And as much as I hate to admit it, had the Devils found some way to win just enough games to squeak in the WC2 slot, hard to imagine that the Rangers wouldn’t have absolutely destroyed them. It would’ve been ugly.