WHITE PLAINS, NY – Oh man, I spaced on my column. I’ll blame it on my twin babies and a hockey game last night. A rough 5-1 loss, for those keeping track at home. Anyway, let me bang something out with the forethought of Trump firing a key official. The top story on SportsCenter is ManBun Crushing the Wizards, but I’ll stick with more familiar territory. We saw some Danger Signs in Yankeeland, Mets Crumbling Like Feta Cheese and the Giants Trying To Build a Functional Line.
In Yankee land, the warts might be pushing their way through the cover up. We knew they had a rock solid pen, but didn’t have much depth in the rotation. CC Sabathia looked like he had figured out how to pitch without his heat early on, but he’s been getting shelled lately. Luis Severino looked good early, but he’s having trouble getting deep into games and may have a skill set better suited for relief. Big Mike Pinieda has looked good at times, but we’ve seen this movie before. Hiro Tanaka got roughed up by Houston and continues to prove he’s not an ace. Jordan Montgomery has looked promising, but there will be growing pains.
Now that Arnoldis Chapman is out, the pen gets shorter. Dellin Betances steps into the closer role and they’ll need bigger outs from Tyler Clippard and Adam Warren. With the starters regularly going, teams will get into the soft underbelly of their middle relievers and it could mean trouble. Joe Girardi has been a master at getting the most out of his pens, but he’ll have his work cut out for him if the starters keep giving the pen four innings. The Astros are feisty, but we saw some of what we were worried about heading into the season.
The Mets on the other hand, lost their fifth straight. They are also sans closer and took a beating in Milwaukee. Has Collins been sacked yet? Let’s get Trump in there to clean house. He’ll be out of a job soon.
Word out of Giant camp is that Bobby Hart and Ereck Flowers and looking lean and motivated. Before you laugh, remember that Flowers is 22 years old and could just be coming out of college now. Hart was a guy they drafted as project and could be finding his way. What, it could happen. Ex-Giant David Diehl thinks they could surprise.
The Giants are about a 20-1 shot to win the Super Bowl. Doesn’t that feel like a decent dart throw for a few bucks? They should have a championship caliber defense and Landon Collins is only gonna get better. They got Eli some new weapons, the only question is up front and in the running game.
But two years ago the Giants scored a ton of points with basically this same line. They added help on the periphery with Rhett Ellison and Brandon Marshall. They’re pretty solid the middle with Pugh, Richburg, and Jerry/Fluker. If the tackles step up and the offense returns to form, this team could be legit. That schedule is rough though.
That’s it for me. Come back tomorrow for Angry Ward and the Temple of Doom… Follow us on Twitter at @benwhit, @MeetTheMatts, @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
