Monday Morning Mehta 6/20/05

Edition # 123
June 20, 2005

NOTE: DERRECK SURA'S COLUMN HAS BEEN UPDATED!

Phils/MLB

Since our last writing, the Phillies have gone 8-5, but as usual it's been a Jeckyll and Hyde team. Last week's road trip was a very unimpressive 2-4 against the bottom of the AL West. The Phils played sloppy baseball most of the week and showed many of the same issues they've had the last few years.

Quick Hits:

Pat Burrell who was red hot on the homestand, went 1 for 19 with one run scored and 8 strikeouts in Seattle and Oakland. With Thome still struggling (1 RBI on the road trip), Burrell is vital to the Phillies success. Inconsistency like this will kill the Phils.

Jimmy Rollins had an excellent road trip, including a $40 million contract to boot. I would've liked to seen the Phillies wait a little bit on Rollins, possibly going to arbitration next year, but with the Phillies payroll increasing again next year (Wolf, Thome, Lieber, Burrell all increase significantly), Ed Wade wanted to lock Rollins in at a relatively cheap $4 million next year (probably would get around $5-$6 mill in arbitration). His contract balloons to $7-8 mill in future years.

Randy Wolf's injury comes at an awful time. Wolf will likely miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury. Robinson Tejeda has been amazingly good, but more than likely Ed Wade will need to make a trade sometime in the next 7 weeks. Please don't revive Paul Abbott!

Great trade by Ed Wade to get Ugy Urbina. Urbina looked shaky in his first start but has been great since. They should just let him pitch the 8th no matter lefty, righty, whatever. I've really had enough of Rheal Cormier.

Has anyone noticed Placido Polanco is tearing it up for the Tigers? He had a walk off homer yesterday.

Jon Lieber's had one marginally good start in his last 8 outings. Kevin Millwood disease is setting in.
The Phils take on the struggling Mets this week. They might miss Pedro Martinez if the Mets decide to hold him until the Yankees series over the weekend.

MLB

The Yankees are hot again after going 6-0 this past week. I think I'm just going to look up at the standings on August 15th and figure out what the Yankees are this year, I can't figure that pitching out.

How about them Cleveland Indians? A 9 game winning streak and really starting to realize a lot of the hype people had been giving them in the preseason. They've been beating up on the lowly NL West, but the streak is still impressive.

The Colorado Rockies may be the worst road team in the history of baseball. A 5-28 road record is just ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, the Reds are 6-24 on the road and a decent 21-18 at home. They have so many problems in Cincy I don't even know where to start. One positive is the play of Ken Griffey Jr., who seems to have finally gotten back on track.

Parity is the word this year in the majors. I don't buy into the White Sox hype yet even though they have the best record in the majors. The Orioles have the Red Sox and Yankees knocking on their doorsteps, I'd be worried if I was an O's fan.

The scuffle between the Nationals manager Frank Robinson and the Angels manager Mike Scoscia was one of the best non-fist fight controversies I've seen in a long time. Brendan Donnelly (P, Ana) gets caught with pine tar on his glove, and Scoscia counters by getting Nationals pitcher Gary Majewski's glove looked at because the laces were too long. They brought scissors out onto the field to cut them. Added to this was Jose Guillen, who was cut by the Angels last year after going nuts in the locker room. Guillen would go onto to hit an emotional 2 run homer to tie the game in the 8th. You just can't make this stuff up. The only thing that would've made this game better is if they plunked Guillen in the 9th when he came up again. This game alone was worth the money I spent on the baseball package.

US Open

Michael Campbell (WHO?) with an incredible final round of golf wins the US Open with some excellent play and a final round 1 under 69 to hold off Tiger Woods. Campbell who had a nice run at the British Open in the late 90's, has pretty much been a non factor on the US Tour in years. The US Open sometimes yields a strange winner (Steve Jones) and this year was no different. Don't expect Campbell to compete for too many more majors.

As for Tiger, his putting was simply un-Tigeresque this week. He bogeyed 16 and 17 in the final round which essentially dropped him from contention. Tiger isn't the Tiger he was in 2001, but he's getting close. I expect him to win the British. As for my pick, Phil Mickleson, just a pathetic showing.

The difficulty of the # 2 course at Pinehurst was in question all week. Was it unfair? I thought so until Sunday. In the final round of the majors, I want the players who are leading to be able to hit birdies in the final 9 holes, and make play interesting. Woods and Campbell had plenty of birdie opportunities.

Retief Goosen's 81 will go down as one of the biggest choke jobs in a long, long time.

NHL Week in Review By: Ed Wasser

- Word on the street is that the NHL management and players agreed on a salary cap structure. The cap will be based on team by team revenues. If that's true it's a nice step in the negotiations but there's still a loooooooooooooooong way to go. Everything from free agency to rookie contracts to the players' merchandising percentages has to still be hammered out. Al Morganti actually had a good point on WIP (A good point on WIP? I don't believe it!!). He said that he just hopes that this all gets settled before it's too late to promote the season. Also he hopes that the rule changes (namely a shoot out to settle ties) which don't require player approval get settled before the CBA so no time is needlessly wasted.

- On '100 Greatest Kid Stars' on VH-1 Corey Haim actually uttered the line, regarding he and Corey Feldman's fame and success in the 80's, "we felt like the Beatles!!" Let me ask you, do you think Paul McCartney ever uttered the line "The Beatles were so big we felt like we were Corey Feldman and Corey Haim!!"

- Former NHL player John Welsbrod quit his job as the Orlando Magic general manager because he wanted a job in the NHL. He wrote his reasoning in an article in last week's 'The Hockey News'. It can all be summed in these sentences..."I knew the NBA would be different but ultimately I thought, though the culture and mentality of NBAers differs from NHLers, human nature is human nature and people respond to the same things. I've been asked "What's the difference between an NBAer and an NHLer?" I've never known any basketball players to use their signing bonus to buy heads of cattle. I played with a lot of hockey players who did just that. Hockey players, more than any athlete, know how lucky they are to play a game for a living. Basketball is more of an individualistic, ego driven game. There's a sense of entitlement among some of the guys". Damn straight.

- From the wire...(AP) Philadelphia : The Philadelphia Eagles announced the signing of free agent kicker Jimmy Kibble. Kibble's main duties in training camp will be holding the ball while David Akers practices kickoffs, fetching wayward Akers' field goal attempts, and yanking the net up and down while Akers practices extra points. Said Eagle coach Andy Reid, "last year we lost ball boy Wally Glick for a week when Akers accidentally kicked his finger. That's not a chance we want to take again". In an effort to save time, immediately after signing his contract Kibble was given the locker closest to the door and a release form already filled out and dated Aug. 29, 2005.

- I know, I know...everybody's waiting for me to comment on the big story from last week, Brad and Krystal getting eliminated from 'Beauty and the Geek'. Don't you know that it had to happen? Krysal was cursed from the start as was Brad by proxy. Krystal was a blithering moron like the other girls, and not really that hot like all the other girls but she still never had a prayer. You see, in the first episode she announced her occupation, "I'm a dancer for the Philadelphia 76ers!!" That's it, thanks for playing, the security guard at the gate will validate your parking. Nobody, under any circumstances, associated with Philadelphia sports can win anything. Period.

- Nice week for Bada Boom Racing stables. First was Clemente running last Tuesday in a 7.5 furlong turf race, running from the second post position with Rodrigo Madrigal Jr. in command. When the race started a horse named Storm at Sunset bolted way in the lead. Storm at Sunset was ridden by Victor Molina. It was such a stupid move on his part. 7.5 furlongs is a long way, don't have your horse at full blast right away, he's going to run out of gas. And that's exactly what happened. As the turn for home came Storm at Sunset tired out but, and more importantly, Clemente, who was lying in wait in about the third position, turned on the jets and "PASSES STORM AT SUNSET LIKE HE'S STANDING STILL!!!" to steal a line from Belmont Stakes announcer Tom Durkin. Clemente won by a length. He paid $32. It was a huge win because it was an allowance race with a lot of quality horses in the field. Needless to say he'll be on the turf again soon. Last Saturday was the debut of Velocious for Bada Boom. He was running in a 5.5 furlong claiming race with David Mello as the pilot. The race began and David had Velocious in good position, running in about the third position with room to make a move against the rail. Unfortunately, since this was a low level race, there were a lot of immature horses and one jockey, named Carlos Lopez, who had no idea what he was doing. Lopez's horse, which I believe was named after a MMM subscriber...I just don't know which one, was called Little Chubby Guy and he was all over the place. Inside outside inside outside, Lopez rode Little Chubby Guy like there were orange cones on the track and he had to run in between them. David did everything he could but he finished fourth. The more I get to know David Mello I'm finding out that he's pretty feisty. He was a high school state wrestling champ in Rhode Island in 2001 and has been fined and suspended for fighting in the jockey locker room. I'll bet anybody anything you want to bet that Mello had Lopez up against a locker after that race. Velocious should be going again in about 3 weeks. He's having some knee issues so he needs some time off. Also, he's crazy. He bites, he rears up, and he's generally psycho in the paddock so we may have to have him gelded. That's why I always behave in the paddock, I wanna keep my cajones.

NBA - Derreck Sura

Detroit v San Antonio - Spurs leads 3-2. Robert "Big Shot" Horry has done it again. His game 5 winning 3 pointer with five seconds left in overtime has SA planted firmly in the driver's seat as the series shifts back to the Alamo for game 6, and potentially game 7. Counting the Pistons out is never a good idea, since they play their best when their backs are against the wall, but winning two straight games away from Motown is going to be a very difficult, if not impossible, task, even for the defending champions. After watching the last three games, and reading about the first two, I can't help but think Detroit's effectiveness is determined by the way the referees call the game. If the zebras call it tight, then the Pistons' defense suddenly isn't as suffocating. However, when the officials let them play, Detroit takes advantage and is able to put the clamps on like no other. There's no more tomorrow for the Pistons now, so taking the night off is no longer an option for them. If Detroit is able to bring the intensity necessary at this stage for two straight games, they still have a shot, albeit a long one, to defend their title.

Prediction update - Even though I didn't make an "official" pick, Spurs in 6 was the way I would've went if I had written a preview of this series. I'm not sure SA can end this one in 6, but I like their chances to win one out of two at home. The main reason for that is the Spurs' role players always seem to perform better and play with more confidence in SA.

- On Tuesday the Los Angeles Lakers re-hired Phil Jackson as their head coach. As a Laker fan, I'm very happy with this move. Probably not as happy as Phil though, who ended up getting his 10 million per year after all. I'm sure Kobe Bryant and Phil will still have their share of run ins over the course of their reunion, but I think ultimately it will all work itself out. The main reason being, there's no more Shaquille O'Neal for Kobe to have to share the spotlight with. LA is now unquestionably Kobe's team, and everyone knows it, including Phil. There will be no more internal struggles about who's team it is, and that's where most of the Shaq-Kobe trouble started. Phil and Kobe both have tremendously big egos, and both want to win like no other, so in order for that to happen, they must work together and be on the same page. This may take a while, depending on how bull-headed they are with each other, but in the end their desire to win should be enough to overcome any personal issues they have. As I see it, Phil has two tasks in his first year as Laker coach. Number one is getting Lamar Odom to perform to the level he's capable of playing along side Kobe Bryant. That's the main reason I'm excited about Phil's return, because if Phil can't find a way to maximize Odom's immense potential, no one can. Number two is getting LA to play a much better brand of team defense. Even before the Lakers started mailing it in last year, their team defense was awful. A perfect stat to explain this is when LA held their opponents to under 100 points, they were 27-6 last season. As opposed to 7-42 when they allowed over 100 points in a game. Regardless how many personnel changes are made (a pass first PG with quickness and an athletic big man that can defend, rebound, and block shots would be my top priority), if Phil can do those two things, the Lakers should be back in contention for a playoff spot next year.

- On Friday the Minnesota Timbewolves hired long time Seattle assistant Dwane Casey as their head coach. Casey had been on the Sonics' bench for the past 11 seasons and was promoted to "associate head coach" in 2000. Casey is a defensive oriented coach who is known for his intensity and preparation. I like this move for the Wolves, especially when the rumored other two finalists were P.J. Carlesimo and Paul Silas. Yuck. As I've said before, I always prefer giving a long time assistant, or an up and coming assistant, a chance before hiring one of the same old retreads.

- Since the Finals will be over, one way or the other, by Thursday, this will be my final column of the year. The news has been positive as of late regarding a new collective bargaining agreement, and I truly hope both sides are able to work things out before the 7/1 deadline. A lockout would be disastrous for the league, and if it gets to that point, I expect the owners to take a new, and extremely hard line, approach with the union, which will ruin the off season, and eventually lead to games being lost in the '05-06 campaign. With the NBA on the verge of exploding internationally, there has to be a way to split up the reportedly 3 billion dollars the league pulls in annually that both sides can live with. I guess you could say that I'm "cautiously optimistic" right now that an accord can be reached, but in the world of professional sports, nothing is a given, nor does anything surprise me anymore.