Monday Morning Mehta 7/24/06
Edition # 170
July 24, 2006
Next MMM: August 7th, 2006
www.mondaymorningmehta.blogspot.com
It's finally over! The curse is broken! Lancaster's own Floyd Landis wins the Tour de Fran...I can't even finish it. In typical Philadelphia fashion we're grasping at straws trying to hype Amish bicyclists as the face of the city. Oh well, onto the exciting Phillies.
A 2-3 week for the Phillies in which they fell to fourth place in the division.
Brett Myers returned to the mound in his first home appearance last night. A loud set of boos accompanied his first at bat, but a nice ovation as he left the game in the 9th inning after a great performance. It's becoming more and more evident to me that if the Phillies just told Myers to skip a start or two when in Boston, none of this would have grown into the sports radio angered Phillies frustration that it has become. And if Myers continues to pitch the way he did last night he's going to make it a lot easier on himself.
Sal Fasano's released! Wow was he bad.
As you can see I'm slowing getting back into the Phillies. I watched both Braves games this weekend and felt a calmness while watching. I have no expectations now and it's starting to feel like I was watching the Phillies in 1990 again, when it was just obvious we were going to lose and I didn't care.
One week from the deadline and your guess is as good as mine as to what this team will look like on August 1st. Bobby Abreu's name is all over the rumor mill but I would suspect he gets traded in the offseason. I could see Jon Lieber being sent back to the Yankees as a deal the Phillies pull. I'd also like to see the Phillies deal Mike Lieberthal to anybody for whatever single-A prospect they want to give. Let's move on from the Lieby era. I gotta think he'd make a nice 3-4 day a week catcher for somebody in contention (Houston?). There's a lot of bad catchers out there (Brad Ausmus).
I don't know if that Aaron Rowand for Jon Garland deal was true, or if it was shot down by the White Sox or Phillies, but I'm liking it more and more from a Phillies perspective everyday. People go crazy over these offensive players but let's get pitching in here, and Garland is only 27 he is still getting better (well, until he puts on a Phils uniform that is).
Eagles
The Eagles started camp last Friday and the talk is still Terrell Owens. It will be Terrell Owens during the season too when the Eagles play Dallas twice. Two things I can't listen to anymore, a caller on WIP talking about Bobby Abreu or anything to do with Terrell Owens and the Eagles.
NFC Previews don't come out for a while, but I'll say this: The Eagles aren't in as bad a shape as you may think. I have started doing my extensive research on the NFL teams and the talent level on the Eagles is still there. The Redskins are the team I just can't figure out yet though. My gut tells me Mark Brunell is going down early this year and their QB situation could be a disaster.
Brian Dawkins is in the final year of his contract with the Eagles. It'll be very interesting to see if he gets a two year extension.
The Open Championships
Tiger Woods wins his 11th major and 3rd Open title by holding off a charge from Chris DiMarco. Tiger never really ran away from the pack over the weekend, but for the most part from Saturday on, there wasn't much doubt who was going to win. Sergio Garcia chokes once again. I'll never understand how Garcia plays so well and so un-choke-ingly in the Ryder Cup, yet when he plays for himself is a total choker. His putting is downright horrendous when the pressure is on.
On the other end, there's Chris DiMarco. In my opinion he's currently the best Ryder Cup US player (yes, and that includes Tiger Woods) and he's going to win a major very soon. I'm thinking the 2007 Masters. DiMarco has guts and is awesome to watch. Great competitor.
Next up is the final major of the year in a few weeks the PGA Championship at Medinah in Illinois. I look for Phil to really bring it here and this could be the Tiger/Phil Sunday duel at a major we've all waited for.
NHL Week in Review By : Ed Wasser
- Announcement!!!! From this point forward in this column, whenever I get tempted to use a curse word, I am going to substitute the profanity with some version of the word "Islanders". For example, let's say Eric Lindros missed an important shot I would say "Lindros really Islandered up that shot". Or if Bobby Clarke made a senseless trade I would say "Bobby Clarke has Islander for brains with that trade". OK, just so you know.
When you're a fan of Philadelphia sports teams you start to become immune to asinine management moves. The GM's of the Philadelphia sports teams could Islander up making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I mean if you fans of Philadelphia sports read tomorrow that Allen Iverson got traded to the Knicks for Malik Rose would you honestly be THAT surprised? Or if the Phillies traded Bobby Abreu to the Yankees for Bernie Williams would you really be THAT bowled over? It would just be par for the Philadelphia sporting course. But occasionally news will come out of another city that is so Islandering silly, so Islandering ludicrous, so flat out Islandering ridiculous that it makes me stunned that it didn't happen in Philadelphia. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the new general manager of the New York Islanders....Garth Snow (What the Islander?? THEE Garth Snow?). Yes, THEE Garth Snow.
I got the news of this move from MMM subscriber John Miller and my reaction was "huh?? Are you sure?" My mental rolodex was spinning thinking that it couldn't be THAT Garth Snow, it must be another Garth Snow. I mean when does a guy go straight from being a player right to the most important job in an organization? In fact Snow would have still been on the Islander roster when he got the job. Right from player to GM without any training whatsoever, that would never happen in a million years right? Well, I was wrong.
According to ESPN.com this is what happened...Islanders owner and certified crackpot Charles Wang hired Neil Smith to be the general manager a little over a month ago. Smith won a Stanley Cup as GM of the Rangers in 1994 by the way. So Smith, did I mention he won a Stanley Cup, went about trying to dismantle the slop that is the Islanders. That team is the most Islandered team in the NHL between the bad trades, free agents not wanting to play there, and Alexi Yashin's idiotic 10 year contract. And who gave Yashin the 10 year contract when he probably would have signed for 4 years? Charles Wang of course. For some reason Wang, who once thought about trying to recruit Sumo wrestlers to play goalie (true story), didn't like what Smith was doing as GM because, you know, it may actually cause them to win a few games. So Wang approached Smith and asked him to resign. That was after Smith was on the job a total of 41 days. Smith told Wang to go Islander himself because he wasn't quitting.
At that point special advisor and ex-Islander great Pat LaFontaine stepped in. LaFontaine tells Wang that he's going to really Islander up the team even more if he doesn't back off and let Smith do his job. Wang ignored him and fired Smith and hired Garth Snow because Snow claims he "reads the NHL collective bargaining agreement for fun". So LaFontaine, realizing that Wang has made the team an even bigger Islandering mess then it was before, resigned his position in disgust.
Oh and by the way, just by accepting the GM job Garth Snow Islandered up their salary cap because his own $750,000 salary counts against the cap this year and next year. Retirement as a player doesn't mean that the cap hit disappears. That team my friends is a clusterIslander.
- The Penguins are about to be sold to some rich guy from Connecticut named Sam Fingold. Believe it or not he out bid a group that included Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and ex-NFLer Dan Marino. Fingold has ties to Kansas City, a city which reportedly wants an NHL and an NBA franchise to help them rid their podunk town image, yet he swears he plans to keep the team in Pittsburgh. Yeah right. If the Penguins don't get the new arena they need within a few months they'll be in Kansas City quicker then a fat kid on ice cream cake.
July 24, 2006
Next MMM: August 7th, 2006
www.mondaymorningmehta.blogspot.com
It's finally over! The curse is broken! Lancaster's own Floyd Landis wins the Tour de Fran...I can't even finish it. In typical Philadelphia fashion we're grasping at straws trying to hype Amish bicyclists as the face of the city. Oh well, onto the exciting Phillies.
A 2-3 week for the Phillies in which they fell to fourth place in the division.
Brett Myers returned to the mound in his first home appearance last night. A loud set of boos accompanied his first at bat, but a nice ovation as he left the game in the 9th inning after a great performance. It's becoming more and more evident to me that if the Phillies just told Myers to skip a start or two when in Boston, none of this would have grown into the sports radio angered Phillies frustration that it has become. And if Myers continues to pitch the way he did last night he's going to make it a lot easier on himself.
Sal Fasano's released! Wow was he bad.
As you can see I'm slowing getting back into the Phillies. I watched both Braves games this weekend and felt a calmness while watching. I have no expectations now and it's starting to feel like I was watching the Phillies in 1990 again, when it was just obvious we were going to lose and I didn't care.
One week from the deadline and your guess is as good as mine as to what this team will look like on August 1st. Bobby Abreu's name is all over the rumor mill but I would suspect he gets traded in the offseason. I could see Jon Lieber being sent back to the Yankees as a deal the Phillies pull. I'd also like to see the Phillies deal Mike Lieberthal to anybody for whatever single-A prospect they want to give. Let's move on from the Lieby era. I gotta think he'd make a nice 3-4 day a week catcher for somebody in contention (Houston?). There's a lot of bad catchers out there (Brad Ausmus).
I don't know if that Aaron Rowand for Jon Garland deal was true, or if it was shot down by the White Sox or Phillies, but I'm liking it more and more from a Phillies perspective everyday. People go crazy over these offensive players but let's get pitching in here, and Garland is only 27 he is still getting better (well, until he puts on a Phils uniform that is).
Eagles
The Eagles started camp last Friday and the talk is still Terrell Owens. It will be Terrell Owens during the season too when the Eagles play Dallas twice. Two things I can't listen to anymore, a caller on WIP talking about Bobby Abreu or anything to do with Terrell Owens and the Eagles.
NFC Previews don't come out for a while, but I'll say this: The Eagles aren't in as bad a shape as you may think. I have started doing my extensive research on the NFL teams and the talent level on the Eagles is still there. The Redskins are the team I just can't figure out yet though. My gut tells me Mark Brunell is going down early this year and their QB situation could be a disaster.
Brian Dawkins is in the final year of his contract with the Eagles. It'll be very interesting to see if he gets a two year extension.
The Open Championships
Tiger Woods wins his 11th major and 3rd Open title by holding off a charge from Chris DiMarco. Tiger never really ran away from the pack over the weekend, but for the most part from Saturday on, there wasn't much doubt who was going to win. Sergio Garcia chokes once again. I'll never understand how Garcia plays so well and so un-choke-ingly in the Ryder Cup, yet when he plays for himself is a total choker. His putting is downright horrendous when the pressure is on.
On the other end, there's Chris DiMarco. In my opinion he's currently the best Ryder Cup US player (yes, and that includes Tiger Woods) and he's going to win a major very soon. I'm thinking the 2007 Masters. DiMarco has guts and is awesome to watch. Great competitor.
Next up is the final major of the year in a few weeks the PGA Championship at Medinah in Illinois. I look for Phil to really bring it here and this could be the Tiger/Phil Sunday duel at a major we've all waited for.
NHL Week in Review By : Ed Wasser
- Announcement!!!! From this point forward in this column, whenever I get tempted to use a curse word, I am going to substitute the profanity with some version of the word "Islanders". For example, let's say Eric Lindros missed an important shot I would say "Lindros really Islandered up that shot". Or if Bobby Clarke made a senseless trade I would say "Bobby Clarke has Islander for brains with that trade". OK, just so you know.
When you're a fan of Philadelphia sports teams you start to become immune to asinine management moves. The GM's of the Philadelphia sports teams could Islander up making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I mean if you fans of Philadelphia sports read tomorrow that Allen Iverson got traded to the Knicks for Malik Rose would you honestly be THAT surprised? Or if the Phillies traded Bobby Abreu to the Yankees for Bernie Williams would you really be THAT bowled over? It would just be par for the Philadelphia sporting course. But occasionally news will come out of another city that is so Islandering silly, so Islandering ludicrous, so flat out Islandering ridiculous that it makes me stunned that it didn't happen in Philadelphia. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the new general manager of the New York Islanders....Garth Snow (What the Islander?? THEE Garth Snow?). Yes, THEE Garth Snow.
I got the news of this move from MMM subscriber John Miller and my reaction was "huh?? Are you sure?" My mental rolodex was spinning thinking that it couldn't be THAT Garth Snow, it must be another Garth Snow. I mean when does a guy go straight from being a player right to the most important job in an organization? In fact Snow would have still been on the Islander roster when he got the job. Right from player to GM without any training whatsoever, that would never happen in a million years right? Well, I was wrong.
According to ESPN.com this is what happened...Islanders owner and certified crackpot Charles Wang hired Neil Smith to be the general manager a little over a month ago. Smith won a Stanley Cup as GM of the Rangers in 1994 by the way. So Smith, did I mention he won a Stanley Cup, went about trying to dismantle the slop that is the Islanders. That team is the most Islandered team in the NHL between the bad trades, free agents not wanting to play there, and Alexi Yashin's idiotic 10 year contract. And who gave Yashin the 10 year contract when he probably would have signed for 4 years? Charles Wang of course. For some reason Wang, who once thought about trying to recruit Sumo wrestlers to play goalie (true story), didn't like what Smith was doing as GM because, you know, it may actually cause them to win a few games. So Wang approached Smith and asked him to resign. That was after Smith was on the job a total of 41 days. Smith told Wang to go Islander himself because he wasn't quitting.
At that point special advisor and ex-Islander great Pat LaFontaine stepped in. LaFontaine tells Wang that he's going to really Islander up the team even more if he doesn't back off and let Smith do his job. Wang ignored him and fired Smith and hired Garth Snow because Snow claims he "reads the NHL collective bargaining agreement for fun". So LaFontaine, realizing that Wang has made the team an even bigger Islandering mess then it was before, resigned his position in disgust.
Oh and by the way, just by accepting the GM job Garth Snow Islandered up their salary cap because his own $750,000 salary counts against the cap this year and next year. Retirement as a player doesn't mean that the cap hit disappears. That team my friends is a clusterIslander.
- The Penguins are about to be sold to some rich guy from Connecticut named Sam Fingold. Believe it or not he out bid a group that included Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and ex-NFLer Dan Marino. Fingold has ties to Kansas City, a city which reportedly wants an NHL and an NBA franchise to help them rid their podunk town image, yet he swears he plans to keep the team in Pittsburgh. Yeah right. If the Penguins don't get the new arena they need within a few months they'll be in Kansas City quicker then a fat kid on ice cream cake.
posted by Monday Morning Mehta at 10:58 AM
3 Comments:
Stuart Pankin has the noted place of being my least favorite actor ever. He was so bad in "Fatal Attraction" he actually made me pissed off.
Ew
I actually believe BK when he says he's not trading AI. I'd say it's lack of balls more then anything though. He knows that if AI goes, the Sixers will stink. Which is a necessary evil when trying to turn a mediocre team around (unless you get exceedingly lucky in the draft).
I agree that there's no doubt BK would have f'ed up trading AI royally. You need to get a combo of young players and expiring contracts (forget getting equal value, never going to happen), or it's really not even worth it. It's also possible that all he was getting offered was other people's trash (i.e. guys with big contracts like K-Mart). If that's the case, it's probably better to just wait until after the '07-08 season when C-Web comes off the books and AI will be in the last year of his deal to start the rebuilding.
In the interim though, your '06-07 Philadelphia 76ers will be exactly the same, minus one difference. John Salmons for Rodney Carney. Wow, if that's not enough improvement for you on a 38 win team that missed the playoff in the weaker Conference, I don't know what is (sarcasm there people).
The peeps of Philly are not stupid, so I expect this current version of the team to be an extremely tough sell to the locals. Something's got to be done, whether it be Dalembert, Webber or whatever, because you can't possibly expect this team to make the playoffs in the East (unless AI2 absolutely explodes). Basically, every team that finished below Philly has improved this summer (some more then others). Meaning BK has to do *something*. The only problem is that I think his own confidence is shaken to the point of it seeming like he's second guessing himself out of making the bold moves needed to change the culture of the team.
- D$
Maybe when the trading deadline is about to hit some team that feels like it's one player away will over pay for AI. Maybe.
EW
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