EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday. There was great weather this weekend, I hope you enjoyed it and took advantage of it as much me and my family. With that said, here is today’s slate: Mets Heating Up, Knicks Win Playoff Opener & RBNY Vanzier Suspended.
Mets Heating Up
The Mets are now about 16 games into the season and have a few positives and negatives. The bats are getting in groove. Pete Alonso has already hit 8 home runs, which is the most for any Met ever (at this point in a season). Fransisco Lindor is looking good and so is Jeff McNeil. These were the key men last year. Key role players like Brandon Nimmo are doing it with their glove and bat. The key concern is that only Kodai Senga has looked the part as an ace pitcher. Max Scherzer has looked less than dominating and Cookie Carasco has crumbled. Verlander is still unavailable so the Mets have used a few spot starters, while Dave Peterson and Tylor Megill finish the starting staff. They have been serviceable, but they don’t give the greatest sense of belief. The back of the bullpen with Robertson and Ottavino hav looked like a decent pair splitting time in the setup and closer role… Good start, and they just swept JG Clancy’s A’s so let’s see how they do as the season wears on.
Knicks Win Playoffs Opener
The New York Knicks won their playoff opener on the road against the Cavs. That was a big win as they had to recover from a blown lead and come back with 2:30 left in the game. Julius Randle looked solid as he played his first game back from injury and had his best statistical playoff game ever. Jalen Brunson looked fantastic and may go down as the best Knicks free agent signing this century and possibly top 5 greatest NY sports free agent signings ever. Josh Hart has looked great coming of the bench and closing games. His partnership with Brunson works because they are better as a duo then individually and their genuine friendship dates back to winning college championships together. Don’t want to read too much into 1 game but this looks like a serious the Knicks can definitely win, hopefully in 6 or less.
RBNY Vanzier Suspended
Red Bull New York’s big off-season signing from Beligum, Dante Vanzier, has been suspended for 6 MLS league games and can’t play in any Cup games until the suspension. Vanzier was found guilty of yelling a racial epithet at a ref. Rumor has it, he called the ref a “Nikka lover.” I wish they could cancel his contract and find another player because he will struggle to comeback from that. The thing is, all the therapy, community service and apologies will only be proven successful when no one is around. At the very least, when he comes back, he better get a boat-load of goals to make it easier on fans.
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below. Check out Ben Whitney, who will talk about the Yankees for some reason.
