Daily RoundUp- Tuesday March 10th

Apologies for the absenteeism yesterday. Inexcusable. But I have come with a plethora of news. First of all, let me say this about the Terrell Owens signing.

It makes sense on a few fronts. One, it makes the offense better. It creates one on one match ups for their number one, Lee Evans. Two, it makes sense financially. Six and a half million for a superstar receiver who caught 69 passes for 1052 yards, the ninth time in the last 11 years that he has gone over the 1000 yard mark for a season. Plus, it puts butts in seats at a time when financial times make it tougher for the American family to go and see a sporting event. T.O. is a bonafide star and will draw national media attention to Buffalo, the likes of which has not been seen in Western New York since the Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas era. Third, it is a one year contract so the perceived threat of him ruining a locker room is very small. Don’t get me wrong, he can speed up his usual demonic devices and create a bad locker room mix but don’t believe the hype. The guy wants to win, and he is going to a division that is getting tougher and tougher by the day. Plus, these are his average numbers for his first year with any team 86 receptions 1277 yards and 13 touchdowns and he usually plays 15 games. So, not a bad grab and chance by Buffalo.

Pretty cool story by Bill Madden about Mets management greeting some familiar faces in the Miami territory before the Mets took on the Orioles in a Grapefruit league game.

Tony Sparano a Mets fan huh? Liking this guy already. The Wildcat himself saw the Mets sans 16 players lost to the big league roster by the World Baseball Classic which is heating up right now. One thing bothers me about the Big Tuna’s Wild Cat, why does he wear shades everywhere. I mean I understand why in Florida weather but even in press conferences dating to last year, he wore those shades. Is this his way of playing poker with the press? It bothers me, but he’s a good progressive coach that Parcells shook the Cowboys down to get.
Parcells has plenty of cross sport friendships. One of his best friends is Bob Knight. Doesn’t that make sense?

With no Alex Rodriguez, a huge void needs to be filled in the power department but one guy who is stepping up to quell another pressing concern is Brett Gardner who is showing his stuff in Spring Training and needs to says John Harper.

Fact is, without A-Rod for the first two months of the season and quite possibly longer, the Yankees will have to look for the entire line up to produce almost immediately and if Gardner’s progression is any inkling of things to come, the Centerfield position might be solid for this season and perhaps many more. His power numbers and his speed make him a very valuable threat perhaps to the top of the line up where he could hit or maybe in the nine hole where they can use his speed to get back to the top of the line up and to the big boppers there. If he can continue progressing the way he has, when A-Rod comes back, it will be equivalent to any trade deadline move because they will have a pretty balanced line up.

Word has it that the gunslinger himself Pedro Martinez, vying for a job by using the WBC as his personal resume tape, longs for the Mets to make him their fifth starter. Jerry Manuel in an interview said it would be “unfair to the guys they brought in to just sign up Pedro to be their fifth starter.” Agreed. But it would be even more unfair to allow Pedro to go somewhere else and flourish if he indeed is healthy as he showed. Kevin Kernan agrees that the Mets should make that call.

Its no secret that I have an affinity for Pedro Martinez. His ailments over the last few years have done nothing in my mind to sully his unflappable reputation in the annals of pitching. The guy is a flat out beast and some team will be lucky to have him in the back end of their rotation. Right now, all the guys the Mets have for the fifth starter job are stiffs. Having a proven veteran like Pedro would be good. He seems healthy and if he can give you six solid innings every five days then great. Your bullpen is supposedly in better shape and realistically all he’d be asked to go most is 7 innings anyway. The eighth and ninth have been taken care of thanks to the offseason grab bag of relievers the Mets picked up.
What the Mets need to do is ask Freddy Garcia to go to Triple A, give Redding the long man job out of the bullpen and get Pedro to be their fifth starter. Far be it from me to inject some common sense into the equation.


Also in a newsflash, I’m a big fan of Jason Whitlock and he writes a pretty good article about why fans should expect more from the media and not be allowed to just show unwavering support to a guy who won’t give rhyme or reason to the media or the fan base as to the decisions he makes.

I’m not going to lie, the guy can write. His words just effortlessly float over the page like 3 d and its just purely common sense that you can’t believe you didn’t think of writing this article in the same manner stylistically or with as much charisma as he did. I am a huge fan of the media watch dog role and many in the media make it difficult for the everyday fan to believe that that is their actual role when they uncover stories. New York is quite possibly the worst market to ever have any hope in the journalistic process. Its four major sports papers try to elbow each other for the better cover story and the better bottom line and will do just about anything and put just about any headline on its newspaper to attract the subway commuter. The fact is, we need to expect more of the media. For more, just read the last line in the article.

Finally going to end it off with another writer I’m a fan of, Mr. Peter Vecsey. Enjoy his humor and his truth and his guile for Sir Cumference (LOVE That nickname