News & Notes

With the Record's great columnist Bob Klapisch out due to injury, I'll be taking over his space for a while...

At least on this website, in a similar manner with which he operated.

News Item: Shockey traded to Saints
The company motto, seemingly around the Giants and NYC (at least according to Kellerman and Kenny on 1050 ESPN) is that this is addition by substration. That is foolish.

While Shockey's numbers may be varied at times and he did drop passes, he was a legit threat, or at least was considered so by opposing defensive coordinators. That means they planned for him, wondering whether to use a strong safety (too small) or linebacker (too slow) to defend him.

Shockey was also a quality blocker, something the replacement everyone is crying for, Kevin Boss, isn't right now. While I'm not saying they shouldn't have done the deal, let's not forget what the crazy Oklahoman brought to the table.

With that being said, Shockey's exit no wmeans that this is officially Elisha Manning's team. The old guard of Fassel's era (Barber, Strahan, Shockey) are gone. Toomer is part of that, but you never really hear from him. We now live and die with Elisha...

By the way, when was the last time a defending Super Bowl Champion was albe to play the "Us against the World" card two years in a row? According to the world at large, the Giants will be lucky to make the playoffs behind the Eagles with a healthy McNabb and the Cowboys, the greatest team that hasn't won a playoff game in the last decade.

News Item: 'Dancing' Taylor goes to Redskins
Once again, the Redskins place well in the off-season standings with the biggest trade of the off-season. Or at least the last one...

Don't be truly fooled by this. It was necessary for the Skins after a season-ending injury to Phillip Daniels. They needed to fill a hole and the Dolphin great does just that.

Will he be motivated to be great? Yes. Will he make a difference? Sure. Will he be the same All-Pro, Defensive MVP candidate he was in Miami? Of that, I'm not sure. Will he make the Skins good enough to make the playoffs and compete for a Super Bowl? Once again, we'll see but the cards are stacked higha againt himm and his teammates playing in the toughest division in the NFC.

News Item: Yanks just 4.5 gams back.
Despite what Kris read, I wasn't bashing the Yanks with my movie pitches in a previous post. I was just stating the obvious, that this Yankee team is a touch old with young players mixed in (Somewhat like their neighbors in Queens). But I heard an intersting fact the other day.

The Yanks were only a game off the pace they set last year, a year that saw them in the playoffs. Granted, they only had the Red Sox in front of them at the time, but this year they're only three back in the wild card and have nothing but people coming back from injury to help.

It's a scary time to be in the American League right now, but to steal a page from the Wilpons; In his first season at the helm, Joe Girardi will manage meaningful games in September.

News Item: Mets vs. Flithies for the NL East
Yes, the Marlins are only .5 games back and the Braves haven't officially called it in and traded Mark Teixeira (although I don't know who's going to take him, a Scott Boras client in his walk year when most if not all contenders have 1B locked up)...

But tonight starts the biggest three-game series of the year for both the Mets and Flithies. For the Cheese Steak Boys, they had a chance to run away from this division a couple of weeks back and decided to go into the tank against the AL (4-11). They've realized that Adam Eaton was bantu fodder and Joe Blanton is much better and hope that Brett Myers can hang.

The Mets, and all their front-running fans, should just shut up. I didn't think we would run away with anything this year, but I didn't cry a river and call for everyone's head when they played like crap for the first 6 to 8 weeks of the season.

Nevertheless, who would have thought Delgado would remember to go with pitches the other way and Oli Perez would come down to Earth for a couple of consecutive starts and Mike Pelfrey would remember that it's pretty hard to hit a 92-MPH sinker in the strike zone.

But that's all for not since the season starts today and today is when Johan Santana can earn his HUGE contract. We overpaid him for starts like tonight and I don't expect, I demand he produce with at least 7 innings with less than 3 runs. If he can do that, we'll be OK...