Daily RoundUp- Monday, February 23rd

While more Oscars are being taken back from Hollywood to Bollywood to be placed on mantles at homes, spring training brings us several interesting plot lines especially in New York not involving the black hole that is the steroids controversy.

Jerry Manuel has been talking about a platoon in right field for most of the winter with Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis, but now Manuel has expressed confidence that Murphy is ready to become an everyday player. Since we can be sure that Beltran’s job is safe, it appears Ryan Church’s job duties look to be significantly reduced as expressed by John Harper of the Daily News.

The pressure of New York got to Ryan Church or so is the belief of Jerry Manuel. But on that same token you could make the case for several other Mets. Remember, this guy came back from complications from concussion and then was thrust into a pennant situation that in Washington was nonexistent until last year, so I’m going to be giving him the benefit of the doubt. Right now, I agree with giving Daniel Murphy the starting rightfield job only because he seems like he’ll do well on an everyday basis and Tatis is just a platoon guy and nothing more. He can play multiple positions and needs to be available to spell Delgado, Wright, Church and Murphy every few days, perhaps every fifth day for Church and Murphy just to keep them fresh for the September and October push especially. But having options like that are what’s a blessing to a manager come late in the year when you need someone to pick it up.

After searching enough, I found a storyline in Yankee camp that does not revolve around planet A-Rod and that has to do with the all important 8th inning guy. While the Mets imported a closer and made him their pre-closer, the Yankees had several internal options and are leaning towards one of those guys, Brian Bruney according to Bill Madden.

The debate for the Yankees have already begun about the potential relievers for THE reliever of all time, Mariano Rivera. Rivera had off season surgery to shave a bone off his shoulder and his time at 39 seems to rapidly be coming to a close and soon the Yankees will have to accept that the time post-Rivera is at hand and will have to make a decision. The most logical thing teams do is promote their 8th inning guy who is Brian Bruney who seemed to pitch well last August and September. But remember, a great two month stretch do not make a great reliever. The Yankees struck lightning with a starting pitcher they converted into reliever and they haven’t looked back for the last 12 years. The debate is to see if they can strike the same kind of magic with Joba Chamberlain and perhaps they can but the Yankees must be careful. With his repertoire he deserves to get a crack at the starter role and see if the job suits him. If he’s prone to injury due to the work load then perhaps Joba the reliever is a better role. Everytime I think about this decision I wonder what would have happened had the Cubs put Kerry Wood as their closer a long time ago given his injury history? The Yankees have a very difficult decision but as long as Brian Bruney pitches well, perhaps they won’t have to make that decision and the player will make it for them.

Bringing a double dose of Yankee news, or perhaps with the subject of this story its more like quadruple the dose. C.C. Sabathia, the high priced free agent pick up for the Yankees comes to camp with more than just a few extra dollars for some hot dogs, but Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger comes with the extraordinary pitching talents that Yankee fans hope bring them back to the days of Ron Guidry pitching every fifth day and giving them a pretty good chance to win according to Mike Vaccaro.

The sound of a fastball slapping into a mitt is one of the best sounds you can hear in the background every time there is a report on a spring training team and it immediately transports you into a fine August day at the ball park. The Yankees had better hope that he comes with the fire that he brought to the Indians two years ago and the Brewers during the second half of last season because the Yankees will need him but with Chien Mieng Wang and A.J. Burnett, they will have the security of having one of the best rotations in all of baseball.
See Yankee fans, I am capable of writing more than one positive article about the Yankees even if it is for the team’s resident sumo wrestler MR. Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger Sabathia.


Interesting email exchange between Bill Simmons and Jason Whitlock in which they ponder a sports franchise moving to Kansas City.

The option to bring a franchise back to the city of its roots is both interesting and a heartwarming tale. In this financial crisis we’re in a lot of teams may be looking for new ownership groups or cities in which an already-there facility awaits them and a fan base willing to root a new upstart franchise. The Kings are one of those teams that could be looking at a move from Sacramento after seeing their team sell off their assets more than Ed McMahon. Perhaps there’s something to that idea but why would Bill Simmons suggest any other city than Seattle to get the next franchise considering all the poo-poo’ing of the NBA he did when the Supersonics were stolen from their city?



Since I haven’t updated in a few days one of the biggest storylines I missed was this doozy of a presser: Jerry Jones putting a gag order on the coaches of the team. Here’s Tim Cowlishaw reacting.

As soon as I read the story on Thursday or Friday I believe, I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Seriously? So the press has to go through their owner for any kind of comment on anything? Perhaps Wade doesn’t need any kind of distraction during Combine week. But what Jerry is doing is beyond ludicrous its just creating the continued circus like atmosphere that will never win them anything.
The fact that Demarcus Ware is going to convince Jerry Jones to bid on Ray Lewis who, at 33 is an aging LB and coming off a really good year, is even better news. Ray Lewis is a pretty good show to throw out there in Jerry’s new gymnasium and he’s sure to be drooling over the profit potential of Ray Ray doing his silly gyration filled dance on top of the star. Yeah Dallas, keep self imploding

Finally Joe Lapointe giving his view on the NFL Combine.

Its termed as the biggest interview of their lives and its true. Between these last few days and today, the earning potential of these kids will either increase ten fold or decrease significantly and its important how they do in arbitrary tests like a 40 yard dash or the high jump. The interview process is also funny considering teams only get 15 minutes with a player and its hard to gauge whether the player is a good character guy or not. It’s a difficult measure of how a player will react to the environs of a much speedier game than the college game. Look at Vernon Ghoulston who has been a colossal bust with the Jets, just goes to show you that perhaps the Combine shouldn’t be as hyped as it is.