The Next Clippers?

Well, with baseball season coming to a close, I think its only fair to focus some attention on a sport that has been slowly going downhill since MJ walked away (the second time). As a Knicks fan I’m well aware of how bad NBA basketball can look. Passionless, ugly, full of turnovers, one on one plays, bricked free throws, arguing in the media. Ok I’ll stop, since all that happens during and after just one Knicks game. So what to expect from this upcoming season for the Knicks? I turn to one of my favorite fictional athletes ever to phrase it correctly:

Reporter – “What’s your prediction for the fight?”
Clubber Lang – “Pain”

Isiah Thomas will be fired if the Knicks don’t do better than last year, but honestly you can’t do worse than last year, unless you actually play with only 4 guys on the floor. And if you watched the Knicks last year, they sometimes looked like they only had 3. Is this a good team? No. Is this a great team to play Live with? Definetly. They also have some viable fantasy stars. But you look at the roster and realize that not only does Isiah Thomas have very little idea how to put a team together, he is too stubborn to realize he needs to try something new. The Knicks are set up to be the big losers in the east for the next 5 years easily. Of course, in the East, that means they’ll probably be the 6-8 seed in the playoffs every year by winning 37-42 games a year. If you look at the teams that have been winners lately (not just champions) and you see a common thread. 1 superstar, 1 or 2 stars, and a heck of a lot of roleplayers who excel in only 1 or 2 things. The Spurs have Duncan and Ginobli/Parker. Then a guy like Bruce Bowen who may be the most important part of the Team. Dwayne Wade, Shaq, and Gary Payton. Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, and of course Raja Bell. The list can go on.

So what do the Knicks do? Their “star” is Stephon Marbury, who is nowhere near the level of where he should be, or where he ever will be. Our #2 guy? Steve Francis, who has cost more coaches their jobs, and made more teammates angry than almost any other player. Oh, and the franchise center is Eddy Curry. He’s never met a rebound or blocked shot that he liked. Jared Jeffries was a terrible signing to begin with, throw a large amount of money at a guy who supposedly played defense and could rebound, yet did neither on a Wizards team where he started. Oh, and now he’s hurt. The Renaldo Balkman era has yet to begin, and most likely never will. Renaldo and Jerome James can sit at the end of the bench and talk about how cool it is to be getting paid lots of money to run around in practice and be laughed at in the media. By the way, I know this joke has been made, but is there any chance they can do a press conference after Balkman gets a bunch of garbage time, scores 10 points, gets hailed as a “steal” and then have him show up to meet the media with Rolando Blackman?


Sure I love Nate, Channing and David Lee, but you know Isiah won’t use them right. Hopefully they will at least get some playing time, since Larry Brown was on Meth for most of the season or something like that.

My prediction on the season: 36-46, 7th seed in the playoffs. Isiah is hailed by Dolan at the end of the season as “turning the team around, and being ready with key acquisitions to make a run at the championship in two years”. Dolan is then exposed as a sports zombie, intent on sucking the life out of every major New York sports franchise and P Diddy takes over the Knicks. Dolan takes over the Red Bulls. Isiah decides to become a life coach.

Taking Home The Hardware

A while back a friend of mine made his awards prediction for baseball, and I have to say I agree with most. But I think its worth giving my own, even if they only differ a little. Lets start with the easy league:

AL ROY
Winner: Justin “JV” Verlander
2nd Place: Fransico Liriano

Most people have picked JV, and how can you argue with 17 wins, a 3 era, and a ton of strikeouts. The AL had a number of impressive rookies, and had Liriano started the year as a starter (and finished it actually player) this would be reversed. And don’t forget about Papelbon, Melky Cabrera, Howie Kendrick and of course someone who was so good he got his brother released, Jered Weaver. Down the road you wonder who will have the best career, and I personally think its Liriano, barring injuries. I saw him pitch in the WBC, and he was filthy. Like he was playing MLB ’07, and the hitters were in RBI Baseball.

AL Manager of the Year
Winner: Ron Gardenhire
2nd Place: Jim Leyland

Many would argue Torre deserves this award for dealing with so many injuries, but I can’t argue that he should get it with the talent he had over someone like Gardenhire, who took a terrible start, turned his team around, and got them a division title. Plus if you actually look at the Twins, they are really a 6 player team with Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer, Santana, Liriano and Nathan. How many teams that won their division can say they have less talent than the Twins. Leyland gets it if his team didn’t nose dive at the end (the Royals!). Too bad for him, you decide this before the playoffs start.

AL Executive of the Year
Dave Dombroski

Just for hiring Jim Leyland. He probably should have been fired after not winning at all last year with the talent this team has, but he knew he needed a stronger leader than Alan Trammel, pulled the trigger and now the tigers are favored to win it all in the world series. He also wasn’t afraid to throw rookies into key positions and give them the confidence to succeed. Just look at Curtis Granderson, Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya. Plus the mid-season trade for Sean Casey, a left-handed bat they their right handed dominated lineup desperately needed.

AL Cy Young
Winner: Johan “I like the Metrodome” Santana
2nd Place: Does it matter?

I’m not going to waste more than 10 words on explaining this one: He won the quadrouple crown of pitching.

AL MVP
Winner: Derek Jeter
2nd Place: Justin “I’m Canadian, you have a problem with that?” Morneau

In my mind there really isn’t even a discussion here. Jeter almost had 100 rbi’s out of the 2 hole, came in second in hitting, and scored 118 runs, stole 34 bases, and oh yeah played gold glove defense. Did I mention he is the face of baseball, the captain of the best record in baseball (with the mets) and had an ops of .900 for a #2 hitter?






NL ROY
Winner: Hanley “Don’t Call Me Manny” Ramirez
2nd Place: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7628

Think the red sox would like to reverse the Josh Beckett deal? Ramirez tore up the NL in his first season. Always a top prospect, no one expect him to play at this level this quickly, hitting .292, 17, 59, 119, and playing good defense. Oh, and he was 2nd in steals with 51. Its pretty scary, when you look at him and realize he really hasn’t filled out much and already hit 73 extra base hits in his first season in the majors. He hit leadoff most of the year, but he could arguably turn into a #3 hitter, If not for his speed. Jose Reyes may have some competition for best SS in the NL in the next year or two.


NL Manager of the Year
Winner: Joe Girardi
2nd Place: Willie Randolph

Probably a first, since Girardi has already been fired (although I may be wrong, what am I Stats Inc.?) but he did far and away the best job managing out of anyone in baseball. No one expected the Marlins to be competitive this year, let alone win 78 games. He will get another job very soon, and whoever gets him should be thankful because he clearly can relate with young players. And that’s en vogue now, teams are realizing you want to be good for a long time, and keep your fans happy, you need some young talent to tantalize and say “just wait till he matures”. Willie gets second for the same reason Torre didn’t win. He had a ton of talent, and a huge payroll. Despite dealing with injuries to his pitching staff and outfield, he managed the Mets to the best record. He may not win it this year, but Willie will have some hardware soon enough if Minaya keeps making shrewd moves.

NL Executive of the Year
Winner: Omar Minaya

Sure its easy to be a great executive when you have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, but what separates the good GM’s from the bad GM’s are the ones who make the key acquisitions that are below the radar. Minaya made the big splashes trading for Carlos Delgado and signing Billy Wagner, which coming into the season was all the big talk. But he also made other smaller deals, like stealing Duaner Sanchez away from the Dodgers for Jae Seo (who didn’t even last the season) or trading Kris Benson for Jorge Julio and John Maine. And what about signing Endy Chavez and Jose Valentin. Or the in season moves of trading for El Duque, and Oliver Perez. Omar made moves, and almost everyone of them paid off, for a team that won 97 games. As Billy Beane says, my job is to get the team into the post season, after that you can’t predict anything.

NL Cy Young
Winner: Roy “Almost a Met” Oswalt
2nd Place: Trevor “Don’t hassle the Hoff” Hoffman

Perhaps the most contested of all the awards (ahem, except the NL MVP, but were getting there) I think Oswalt deserves it over Hoffman, Carpenter, Zambrano, Wagner and Smoltz. In a year where not a single starting pitcher in the NL won even close to 20 games, you have to go with the best of a mediocre bunch. Oswalt finished leading the league in ERA, tied for the league lead in wins, threw 220+ innings like always, an excellent K/BB ratio and a great BAA. Oh, and he would have won 20 games for the third straight year if not for his terrible offense and Brad “no really, I’m over Pujols’s home run” Lidge. I just can’t give it to Hoffman because while he was dominant he also doesn’t strike out hitters as much as he used to, and he blew the all star game. Zambrano doesn’t have enough wins (some his fault), and Smoltz is too under the radar this year, although his numbers are great, he had too many losses and bad outings. Carpenter, the defending Cy has some excellent numbers, but if you look at his games, he had 11 games where he allowed 4+ runs. Is that a Cy to you? He also got most of his dominant games against very bad competition.

NL MVP
Winner: Albert “The next Barry Bonds” Pujols
2nd Place: Ryan “DH” Howard

This is a tough one. Many are picking Howard, and you cant argue with the home runs and rbi’s and his attempt to single handedly carry the Phillies into the playoffs. Then again, he failed, and Pujols got his team in the playoffs. While Howard beat Pujols in homers and rbi’s, Pujols hit for a higher average, scored more runs, had a higher on base percentage, a high slugging percentage, a higher OPS, more stolen bases, and plays a much much much better first base. The standard argument for who deserves an MVP is it’s not about the numbers, its about who is the most valuable. Both players hit in weak lineups, with minimal protection. Both players were on mediocre teams fighting to make the post-season. One player led his team there, and one didn’t. Oh and nice little stat, Pujols had one more strikeout than home run. Howard? He had 123 more k’s than homers. Who would you rather see stepping into the box, Pujols or Howard in a big at bat?