Sports

The first quarter of the Great Brett Favre Experiment drew to a close with team headed into a bye week at 2-2. And if, as head coach Eric Mangini maintains, the bye is reserved for unsparing honesty and brutal self-assessment, then this is the prefect time to offer some suggestions as the team readies itself for the remaining 12-game push.

Commit to a throw-first offense.

The wide-open attack on display during last week’s 56-35 victory over the Arizona Cardinals is not merely the best way for the Jets to play; it’s their only hope. Let’s be plain: the Jets simply lack the personnel necessary to execute the plodding, ball-control offense prized by Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. That much ought to have been obvious on the first day of training camp, and if not by that point, then certainly by the time that Brett Favre was acquired. The notion that this team, led by the foremost quarterback of his generation and possessed of two high-quality receivers, would be best served by deferring to a patchwork offensive line and a 30-year-old journeyman running back who had rarely been better than average was unrealistic if not downright foolish.

Nevertheless, the team opened the year seemingly committed to the same brand of stodgy conservatism seen over the last two seasons. Unsurprisingly, it proved a resounding failure. The team had to hit rock bottom on Monday Night Football in San Diego before the coaching staff resolved to write a bigger part for the guy with 448 career touchdown passes. One week, 56 points, and six touchdown passes later, the Jets seemed to have hit their stride. But if the trend is to continue, Mangini and Schottenehimer must resign themselves to life in a Favrecentric universe. Yes, there will be ugly interceptions, and plenty of them. Get over it. What Favre brings to an offense far outweighs what he gives away. That’s why the NFL’s all-time interception leader is also its only three-time MVP.

Split carries between Thomas Jones and Leon Washington.

If Thomas Jones’ late-career renaissance in Chicago entitled him to some indulgence following last year’s disappointing debut in New York, then the honeymoon is just about over after a similarly uninspired start to 2008. Jones, who spent the first five years of his career on three different teams, now has as little big-play ability as any starting running back in the league. Astonishingly, he has not had a regular-season run longer than 36 yards in his last 853 carries. Add the reality that he brings little as a receiving threat out of the backfield and nothing as a goal-line runner, and it’s difficult to understand why Jones continues to command the lion’s share of the playing time at tailback.

Clearly, he scares no one and does nothing to keep pressure off the passing game. His backup, Leon Washington, is arguably the Jets’ most explosive player. Last year, Washington averaged a gaudy five yards a carry behind the same porous offensive line that took the fall for Jones’s lackluster 2007. The year before that, he averaged 4.3 yards a carry behind a line that was quite possibly worse than last year’s iteration. In the worst case, he seems a safe bet to match Jones’s production. In the best case, he would represent an appreciable upgrade and afford greater credibility to the Jets’ play-action passing game.

Start the Bob Sutton Watch.

Lost amid the stirring 56-point outburst last Sunday was the reality that the Jets’ seemingly insurmountable 34-point halftime lead was whittled to an uncomfortably narrow 13-point edge after defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s defense allowed 35 second-half points. And had Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin not received the jarring hit that would cost Jets safety Eric Smith a one-game suspension and a $50,000 fine, the tally likely would have been 42 points. In a half. This, not one week removed from surrendering 48 points to the Chargers.

Clearly, allowing an average of more than 41 points in consecutive games is unacceptable for any team playing against any other teams, but when one considers the amount of talent on this defense, it becomes particularly appalling.

After spending about $60 million to acquire the likes of Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace, and the utterly invisible Vernon Gholston, the Jets had to expect more than what they have seen thus far. The defensive line, anchored by Jenkins and veteran defensive end Shaun Ellis, is no worse than average overall. The linebacking corps, led by Pace second-year standout David Harris is probably a tick or two better than the league average. And although the secondary lacks a proven strong safety and an established second corner, it boasts two pro-bowl caliber players in young stars Darrelle Revis and Kerry Rhodes.

Last Sunday’s defensive meltdown was ultimately washed away by the good cheer that invariably follows a much-needed win. But the Jets should remain mindful that not even Favre can consistently outscore a defense as bad as the one we saw over the first quarter of this season. Something must change, and unless the team shows a major improvement over the upcoming spate of games against the lowly Bengals, Raiders, and Chiefs, the Jets should strongly consider handing Sutton his walking papers. Eric Mangini served as secondary coach and defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick in New England and is doubtless capable of coaching this unit should a change become necessary.

With Brian Cashman now signed on to run baseball operations for the ailing New York Yankees through the 2011 season, the team will now turn its attention to starting another postseason streak. Fortunately for the Yankees, they have lots of money, and the holes they most need to address can be plugged with the free-agent market.

And if they do it right, those free agents best-suited for the Yankees will make the team younger in the process.

The Yankees need to start with targeting C.C. Sabathia. New York lacks a true number-one starter, though Joba Chamberlain, who appears ticketed for the rotation, should be close if he can provide New York with 200+ innings. But Sabathia, who has topped 240 innings each of the past two years, certainly has that capacity. The Yankees have badly needed a Game 1 starter—they can get one in Sabathia without giving up any minor league talent, just a pair of draft picks. He is a must-get.

While revamping the starting rotation, the Yankees should also make a strong play for Oliver Perez. Getting the lefty with upside gives New York a starting staff of Sabathia, Chamberlain, Chien-Ming Wang and Perez, with Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy battling for the fifth spot. Not only would the group be one of the finest in the American League, check out the 2009 Opening Day ages: Sabathia 28, Chamberlain 23, Wang 29, Perez 27. That’s a foursome that could power Yankee playoff runs for years.

Another area in which the Yankees can get younger and stronger is at first base, by signing Mark Teixeira. The slugging first baseman just posted his second straight season with an OPS 50 percent better than league average, along with terrific defense at first base. He’d also be just 29 in 2009 (his birthday is in April), and provides the Yankees with an in-his-prime hitter to combine with Robinson Cano.

While these two players won’t come cheap—expect each to cost more than $20 million annually—they answer a pair of needs for the Yankees, and don’t even mean a net increase in payroll. After all, coming off the books would be Jason Giambi ($23.4 million), Andy Pettitte ($16 million), Bobby Abreu ($16 million), Mike Mussina ($11 million) and Carl Pavano ($11 million!!!). That’s $77 million right there—and even if New York brings back Abreu, which they should, that leaves $60-65 million to spend.

The rest of the team doesn’t provide much room for change. It would be foolish to trade Robinson Cano coming off of his worst year as a professional—betting on a player with his natural talent as he enters his age-26 season would be wiser. With his defense, Cano is a net plus for the Yankees even when he struggles at the plate.

Obviously, A-Rod stays at third, and though he is quickly entering Cal Ripken Icon/Albatross status, Derek Jeter is your shortstop in 2009. With no young players at the position to push him, nor any obvious free-agent alternatives, this is an obvious choice.

In the outfield, the aforementioned Abreu is still plenty productive in right field. Signing a stopgap center fielder is possible, though it makes more sense to send Melky Cabrera back out there and see if he can grow into a productive hitter—he is still just 24 years old. Either way, that player is holding the fort for the talented Austin Jackson, who should be ready in 2010. Left field should be turned over to Xavier Nady, whose offensive production and passable defense provides a good placeholder. Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon can spell Nady occasionally while providing a good bit of offense splitting time at designated hitter.

At catcher, the options are bleak. The hope has to be that Jorge Posada returns to form. A backup better than Jose Molina is a must. First choice? Javier Valentin.

As far as the bullpen goes, few changes are needed. The bullpen posted a 3.79 ERA, and much of the damage was done in the second half, when an overworked relief corps began to wear down. Should the rotation be upgraded as planned above, that fatigue should dissipate greatly. A combination of Mariano Rivera, Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, David Robertson, Phil Coke, and numerous other high-minors arms (such as Marc Melancon, who could be the eighth-inning pitcher) should be more than sufficient.

But it all depends on bringing in the three high-priced twenty-somethings: Sabathia, Perez and Teixeira. They are the infusion of youth and talent New York needs to get back on top.

So what are the poor, pathetic, sidelined Mets to do as they approach roster decisions this winter?

At first glance, their options for building a team that can play consistently good baseball for an entire season are grim: A weak free agent class provides little in the way of help, either offensively or with starting pitching.

Fortunately for the Mets, though, these were both strengths in 2008, and figure to be again in 2009.

Instead, the only area where the free agent market has any particular depth is in relief pitchers. And the Mets need to go out and get the very best options from that class: Francisco Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes and Juan Cruz. Simply signing middle relievers to large deals won’t guarantee much of anything. (If you don’t believe me, ask Scott Schoeneweis and Guillermo Mota.)

But signing all three—Rodriguez, Fuentes and Cruz--would go a long way to tilting the balance in the NL East in the Mets’ favor. Conversely, failure to do so could leave the Mets in the exact same position in 2009—or worse.

Make no mistake about it, there are other areas in which the Mets can improve as a team. And in a world with limitless salaries, the Mets could take every step. Obviously, signing CC Sabathia would improve the starting rotation. Trading Carlos Delgado (as Branch Rickey said, better a year too soon than a year too late) and signing Mark Teixeira would provide the Mets with a first baseman in his prime to add to their current stable of 20-something stars. Signing second baseman Orlando Hudson would provide certainty at the position that has been missing.

But such moves would cost the Mets upward of $300 million dollars without addressing the team’s fatal flaw. Delgado should provide adequate production at first base, even though a repeat of 2008 is too much to ask as he enters his age-37 season. Signing Sabathia would mean an outlay equal to or greater than the long-term deal New York gave to Johan Santana, when far less is required to simply re-sign free agent Oliver Perez. And the talented young player Daniel Murphy is headed to the Arizona Fall League to learn how to play second base—a low-cost alternative to Hudson, who carries a far more potent potential bat. (Incumbent second baseman Luis Castillo will be sent to another team or the glue factory, depending on which will pick up more of his salary.)

But New York simply doesn’t have the solid internal alternatives in the bullpen to stand pat. As it currently stands, New York lacks a single option who can retire both left-handed and right-handed hitters. The team has no closer; the team has no setup men.

So the plan starts with Rodriguez, who will likely command five years and upwards of $75 million. For their money, the Mets get a closer who has dominated since coming into the league. Despite a difficult start, Rodriguez finished with a major-league record 62 saves in 2008. More importantly, his strikeout rate continued to stay above one per inning, while his control actually improved as the season went on.

His unorthodox motion does make signing him to a long-term deal somewhat concerning—and there are inherent risks to signing any pitcher long term. But Rodriguez’s upside is too enormous to pass up. He would give the Mets, who already possess a potent offense and solid rotation, the finest closer in baseball.

And in the spirit of the 1986 Mets tandem of righty Roger McDowell and lefty Jesse Orosco, New York also needs to go out and sign Brian Fuentes. He will likely command three to four years and $25-35 million. He will be the highest-paid setup man in the major leagues. But for a team devoid of decent bullpen options, Fuentes is not only a luxury, but a necessity.

He’s closed for the Colorado Rockies, and for three out of four years has posted a strikeout rate of better than one per inning, including 82 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings in 2008. His walks are always low, and amazingly, he allowed just three home runs all season—in other words, New York’s 2008 total for a single game.

Only his age—he’ll be 33—makes signing Fuentes a bit risky. But his late-career start and resulting light career workload, as well as his strong 2008, makes Fuentes a good bet to not only complement Rodriguez—he’s a lefty to balance Rodriguez’s right-handedness, though both are lights out against either side—but to step in should Rodriguez need a night off from closing.

While simply making each game a seven-inning affair should be enough, the Mets need to make certain that on nights when their starter struggles, they have other options, too. Juan Cruz, who spent 2008 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, is likely their best bet. Cruz is a strikeout machine—158 over 112 1/3 innings in 2007-2008—who can also pitch multiple innings if necessary. He will be 30 next year, and likely will command a three-year deal at approximately $18-20 million. Cruz can also step in to take care of the eighth inning should either Fuentes or Rodriguez fall victim to injury.

The rest of the bullpen then falls into place. Scott Schoeneweis is your lefty specialist—the role he should have been filling since coming to New York. Pedro Feliciano may be a second lefty out of the pen at worst—at best, he reverts to 2006-2007 form and retires righties again. The point is, the Mets wouldn’t need to rely on him either way. Joe Smith could also be kept on to retire the occasional righty.

The final spot in the bullpen could be a toss-up between Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman and Bobby Parnell. Parnell could probably use a year of seasoning at AAA, but he’d be a fine final man in the bullpen. And should either Sanchez or Heilman return to form, the Mets could give Parnell additional time. Alternatively, Heilman could even be stretched out and given a shot at the fifth starter spot. If he’s healthy, now that he has three pitches, he could be a better-than-average fifth starter. Either way, the Mets won’t need to rely on him either.

And it goes without saying that the team needs to bring in another dozen or so starting pitching and relief candidates, fringe pitchers who can either surprise and make the team as fifth starter/final reliever, provide depth at AAA, or be discarded. But this is a negligible cost. A similar strategy should be employed in left field, in case Fernando Tatis’ clock strikes midnight.

These improvements would call for addition payroll in 2009 of approximately $30 million. The Mets could largely pay for this with the exiting 2008 salaries of Moises Alou, at $7.5 million, Orlando Hernandez, $7 million and Pedro Martinez, about $12 million. Assuming the Mets re-sign Oliver Perez at around $13 million per season (up from $6.5 million), and let rookie Jonathon Niese take Pedro Martinez’s spot in the rotation, that leaves New York with a payroll increase of around $10 million, factoring in raises from arbitration-eligible players. Depending on Pedro’s salary demands, he’d be a good choice as fifth starter, should he perform as he did in 2008, with the chance to be far better.

But between the increased revenue from their new stadium and all the postseason tickets they won’t have to refund for a change, that’s money well spent.

Lingering doubts about the Brett Favre acquisition were silenced yesterday afternoon amid a record-breaking barrage of touchdown passes, as the resurgent New York Jets defeated the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 56-35 at the New Jersey Meadowlands. Capitalizing on an uncharacteristically aggressive game plan, Favre connected on a career-best six touchdown passes, propelling the franchise to its greatest offensive output in 23 years and pulling the team’s season back from the brink of oblivion. In many ways, yesterday’s game was a microcosm of a storied career marked by headstrong misadventure and stunning, overwhelming redemption, all within the span of minutes.

On the team’s second drive, and after an uninspired three-and-out to start the game, Favre took the snap on third and one from the Cardinals’ 48.  read more »

It’s not just that the Mets lost to the Florida Marlins Sunday, 4-2, to finish out of the playoffs—it’s how they lost.

There was little question that New York’s bullpen would provide an obstacle for the team’s stellar starting pitching and offense to overcome. But in the final three games of the season, while the starters and relievers held to form, the offensive production that made the Mets a playoff threat simply disappeared.

In the final weekend of the season, New York lost two of three games to the Florida Marlins. The starting pitching, a strength for much of the season, ranged from good to spectacular.  read more »

The Mets continued their season of stupefying depths and dizzying heights with arguably their most improbable win yet—a 7-6 result over the Cubs on Thursday night, one night after a 9-6 loss to the Cubs that saw the team strand a runner at third in each of the last five innings.

The ups and downs have, against all odds, put the Mets in a tie with the Brewers for the wild-card playoff spot, and just one game behind the Phillies for the National League Eastern Division lead. And somewhere along the way, both their victories and losses stopped making sense—never more than during Thursday night’s farce.  read more »

As the Yankees head into their final meeting of the year with the Red Sox, looking up at them like at a distant star, one has to wonder what all this means to them. If we are to believe what the commentators say, every Red Sox game is special, and despite the standings, the Yankees will not go into the game as “spoilers” but as competitors, dignified and determined to show the true colors under their pinstripes.

This year, all the hullabaloo about A-Rod’s dalliances, the ascension of the Steinbrothers and the readying of the stadium for eBay makes one wistful for the old days when the Yankees could be seen on the streets with scarves and top hats.  read more »

It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

For a stadium that had witnessed so much, from countless no-hitters and perfect games, to more championship banners than any other major professional sports franchise, the end was supposed to come late in October, a final out squeezed by Derek Jeter to make the Yankees champions.

Instead, the final game at Yankee Stadium, a 7-3 win Sunday night against the Baltimore Orioles, only delayed the single Yankee loss or Boston win that would eliminate New York from postseason contention.

So with the game a planned anti-climax, a part-celebration, part-wake ensued in the hours leading up to the scheduled hourlong pregame celebration.  read more »

It has been argued (by me) that overcoming a bullpen as terrible as New York’s this season is a tribute to both the tremendous offensive talent and frontline starting pitching the Mets possess.

But as Sunday’s 7-6 loss to the Braves demonstrated, the reverse is also true. It takes a historically awful Mets bullpen to undo the great work by New York’s offense and starting pitching. If Sunday--which saw the bullpen allow four runs (and an inherited fifth runner) in just two innings—is any indication, the Met relievers are up to the task.

The basic horror is easy enough to document. Despite an offense that is second in the league in runs scored and a starting rotation with a second-half ERA of 3.  read more »

The Mets don’t look like a winning team customarily looks. It seems impossible to imagine that a team with a bullpen so unreliable, and utterly devoid of quality performers, could manage to make the playoffs, let alone contend for a championship.

But as the Mets showed again Thursday night in a 7-2 victory over the Nationals, good starting pitching and good hitting can often overcome even a horrible bullpen. And unlike 2007, when the Mets had intermittently effective offense and thin starting pitching, this group excels in both areas. The fact that they trail the division-Phillies by just half a game, and lead the Brewers by 1 ½ games for the wild card with ten games left is no fluke.  read more »