Yankee Stadium's Misfits of Row X

NOW? Can we seriously entertain the idea of a GIANTS-JETS Superbowl?

The two New York area football teams are playing the best football of anyone in the NFL. The Giants are 10-1 and have won 6 games in a row. The Jets are 8-3 and have won 5 in a row.

On Sunday the Giants played without their top receiver Plaxico Burress and their top running back Brandon Jacobs,  but "The little Eli that could" was rather unfazed.   "We weren't worried about it," Manning said. "Obviously (Burress is) a great player for us, but I feel confident with whosever in there."  The Giants rushed for a mere 87 yards, but Manning threw for 3 touchdowns completing 26 of 33 passes for 240 yards.

So Eli's team has continued to win, running his record to 14-1 in his last 15 games including a tremendous run through the playoffs and through an undefeated, and supposedly invinceable Patriot team in the Super Bowl. Yet, last season's Cadillac Super Bowl MVP is still talked about as if he were an economy car.  Still think he was just "lucky" last season? Stay under the radar Eli, it just makes it that much more comical when you rack up win after win after win.

The New York Jets SUPER hopes?

Even for all his foibles, Man(not)Genius has his Brett Farve led team on a hot streak includng their own win over an undefeated team this past weekend in Tennessee.  I dare not denigrate Broadway Joe Namath and reference  Brett Farve with like moniker, however the old guy has just brought home two very impressive, and promising, road wins.

In the last two games, Farve completed 51 of 65 passes for 582 yards with four TDs and just one INT. In a contest that was nip and tuck, and neck and neck a week ago they beat the always dangerous Belichek Patriots in New England. This weekend Farve took his currently Off-Broadway show to Tennesse where his team manhandled 10-0 Titans by a score of 34-13.

Controlling the ball for a Gordon Gecko greedy 40 minutes the Jet offense posted 34 points against a Titan team that was giving up an average of 13 per game through its first 10.

An all New York Superbowl?  What Namath did was far too David and Goliath for Farve to measure up to, the league built on a supposed parity just isn't set up for such a contest. However, considering the dearth of postseason hope experienced by New York Area baseball teams the past few years a Giant-Jet Superbowl would obviously lift Farve to 'hope savior" status round these parts, just like Eli did at the University of Phoenix field last season. 

This kind of finish to a season would certainly better befit the closing of old and opening of new with regard to Stadiums, certainly much more poetically than the respective disgraces that Met and Yankee fans endured this past September.

Is it ironic that we are have this "Super" discussion on the tail end of another Giant return from a victory in Arizona?

Pedro's most effective role with Mets: Recruiter

Still think the 9 -1 GIANTS got lucky last season?

When Ray Lewis isn't involved in murders at parties he plays middle linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens.

On Sunday he, and his team, were run over by the Giants.

D'Asshole has Knicks sitting at 6 wins and 3 losses. Talk about NBA-lite

Yanks make offer to Sabathia

Yanks dump sloppy Betemit, get grinder Swisher

Addition by subtraction. Anything in return for Wilson Betemit, including a bucket of batting practice baseballs is a good trade. The Yanks traded Wilson Betemit, Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez to the White Sox for Steve Swisher and minor league reliever Kanekoa Texeira.  

This does not absolve Cashman of all of his stupidity but its a nice move, and he is due for some luck - long, long, overdue.  Aaron Small is still nursing a bad shoulder so we can't count on him to bail us out.

The 27 year old Steve Swisher is the main nugget. He batted .219 last season in Chicago after campaigns of .262/22 HRs in 2007 and .254/35 HRs in 2006.  Swisher sees more pitches per at bat than anyone in baseball and has a reputation as a grinder and a good clubhouse guy. His dad, Steve Swisher, spent 9 years in the majors.  The Yanks are looking at the upside, the guy is coming into his prime-age years and although 2008 was abysmal, Swisher has averaged 26 HRs over his 4 full seasons in the majors.  In the late 1990's the Yankees acquired another "role" player under similair circumstances and that one worked out well - anybody wanna guess who I am speaking of?

Wilson Betemit was atrocious and basically the total opposite of Swisher as far as approach. Betemit basically went to the plate looking to hit a home run every time up. If you had the chance to watch batting practice that was all he did there. Never saw him work the ball around the field, and try to at least prepare himself to do different things with the bat. No. Not Wilson. Instead it was just this "smiling Island attitude Bullspit" that had nothing to do with winning.  Every time you turned around it seemed that he was just hitting another lazy fly ball. He didn't take many pitches, and just seemed to not have a really good plan at the plate.  There is no excuse for a fringe player to have such a sloppy approach in a lineup full of boppers.  Glee fills me at mention of his exit.

Jeff Marquez didn't show much growth the past few years and has been hurt. Jhonny watever, who cares, not much on him.  Good to see ya  - ok - goodbye and dont come back. Considering how little the Yankee youth movement has given us on the mound the last few years the fact that neither of these guys could get a sniff at the ML level speaks volumes.

Kanekoa Texeira pays watching. He was the other chip that the Yankees received, and he actually stacked up pretty well.  He was who was 6-3 last season with 21 saves and a 1.33 ERA in 51 relief appearances between Class A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham. Those numbers included 20 saves and a 0.93 ERA with Winston-Salem, and a scoreless-innings streak that hit 22 straight appearances before the 22-year-old's promotion.  Numbers don't always translate, and hopefully the Yankees minor league staffers wont F this guy up, but he is off to a good start.

The key guy today is obviously Swisher, and I will caution to not get too wrapped up in his bad 2008 campaign.

Everyone remembers Scott Brosius and the big bang that he brought to the Yankees right? Ok.  Well, after a few solid seasons in Oakland in the mid 1990's Scotty Bro had a terrible 1997 batting .203. Then he came to the Yankees in 1998 and batted an even .300 on his way to the Babe Ruth award and the World Series MVP Award.  So who knows, maybe Swisher can be the new Scotty Bro. We need one.

Yankees laying back?

Say NO, or just a lot less, to Pious Pettitte the Phony

IF Andy Pettitte is to come back and pitch for the Yankees he should receive a significant pay cut. He was horrible down the stretch and his potential for injury has become too prevalent. Not to mention that, in general, the guy is a piece of garbage. He put the Yankees on the hook for $16 million last year when he knew he was going to be outed in the steroid scandal.

Mike Mussina, on the other hand, won 20 games in 2008 and showed that he was physically sound. He also reminded that although his alter ego of Rain Man may occasionally show up, he isn't going to get arrested for beating up his wife, or get indicted for links to steroids. If he does come back for one year I'd expect him to do all he can to prepare, I can't see him coming back "just to play" or enjoy the camraderie of the Arod.  He has already written his book(2007), so he won't be able to give us the "distracted" excuse that he did for that absolute disgrace of a season. I have to think that he wants one more chance at a ring - and if the Yanks add Sabathia, and get Wang back - you have to think they'll be right in the thick of things in 2009. 

Supposedly, the Yankees are waiting on Mussina's decision before dealing with Pettitte.  This is good to hear, Pious Pettite's fate should have to wait until after Mussina makes his decision, Pettitte The Rat must be slotted lower on the food chain. Good to see Pettitte being kept in his place, and getting something of a long overdue slap in the face.

Pettitte had a reputation as a 'good guy', and had a lot of people fooled. I have maintained since the late 90's that he was a phony - but as long as he kept winning I didn't care. But his character has been revealed, lets look at Andy's greatest hits and attach them to his recent Yankee foibles.

First Pettitte had to leave the team and play for Houston in 2004 because his wife discovered he was having an affair - "allegedy".  Yes, thats right, from the man whom did commercials for POWER FOR LIVING, throwing a bible into our faces, feigning a pious perfection of his own persona. More disgusting because of how this guy used airtime to throw his religious beliefs in our face between innings of Yankee games. Here is a link to the original piece http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106448,00.html. 

Not buying it?  If you followed the Pettitte negotiations closely back in 2003 the pieces will begin to fit together.  There was a big delay by the Yankees to put an offer on the table, certainly moreso than any other big time free agent they had ever pursued.   At the time it just didn't make sense, and went against the grain of everything that we knew about the Yankee protocols of pursuing top flight guys. If you accept that he was having an affair and his wife gave him an ultimatum as noted above, it would appear that each side massaged the situation so that to some onlookers each side could walk away looking good, a P.R. masterpiece.  Pettitte looked good for 'taking less money to go home', and the Yankees showed their fans that they were serious about retaining him by offering him $12 million more than the Astros. 

Cashman, never a good actor, was at the time all too indifferent for a guy who'd just lost his #2 pitcher after offering $12 million more than the Astros. The whole thing just didn't make sense - at the time.   Perhaps Cashman forgot to channel HIS own alter ego, George Costanza:

George Costanza: (Mr.Wilhelm comes in and hears George yelling) You tell that son of a bitch no Yankee is ever comin' to Houston! Not as long as you bastards are running things!

Back to Andy's shining personal moments...the SOB knew he was being targeted/investigated in the steroid scandal last winter 2007, yet he went ahead and signed a $16 million contract with the Yankees and didn't let them in on the secret.  Honest Andy. Phony.

Then he threw his father under the bus by not only revealing him as the source where heacquired the HGH, but also, the obvious original spectre of Andy  putting his dad in that position in the first place. Garbage.  If he didn't think his dad was doing anything wrong for him, then why didn't Andy just pick up the HGH himself?

Power for Living huh? Must not have been very powerful.

Yanks to pursue Peavy and Sabathia, surefire busts to dwarf Morganna

More and more the Yankees moves toward 2009 reveal that last year wasn't very important to them.  They passed up on Santana - and had the unmitigated gaul to cry the money blues, saying he was too expensive not in players - but rather, primarily, in salary cost.

So now they have turned their sights to proverbial DEER IN HEADLIGHTS Jake Peavy, a player who didn't even include the Yankees on his initial list of teams he'd like to be traded to. Oh - he later added the very wealthy California Angels, and of course the ultra rich - and stupid - New York Yankees.

For any of you Yankee fans who have eaten the ticket price increases over the past few years, yet, have been hearing the "we can't afford him" blues about the likes of Johan Santana, you have to be incensed with outrage.

They pissed away last year and are now in a position to go after Peavy, who will fold faster than Eddie Lee Whitson - and CC Sabathia, a big, fat, lazy dog - another player who has not listed the Yankees as a desireable destination for his services.

D'As$hole is going to lose more games than last year's coach