Riddle

What's the difference between the NFL and the WWE?

One is entertainment thinly disguised as sport, populated with steroid-addled goons with cartoon-like personae, acting out preposterous story-lines that create heroes to be adored and villains to be hissed, all marching towards inevitable conclusions while being lorded over by a power-drunk commissioner seemingly incapable of consistent leadership.

The other is professional wrestling.

Instant Gratification

Although the MLB trade deadline was less than two weeks ago, the Toronto Blue Jays are getting all A's for their flurry of deadline deals. Since shortly after the trades were made, the Jays have won 9 games in a row and cut the deficit in the AL East from 6-1/2 games to a half a game. 

A General Manager wants to give his team the chance to win.  Alex Anthopoulos has done just that. Regardless of where the Blue Jays finish, these trades -- obtaining David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, LaTroy Hawkins, Ben Revere and Mark Lowe -- have pumped life into this franchise right now.  A franchise that is set to play their most important games in recent memory -- a sold-out weekend series against the Yankees with no less than first place on the line.

On the flip-side, the Yankees are in free-fall.  After standing pat at the deadline -- Brian Cashman's only acquisition, utility man Dustin Ackley, promptly landed on the DL -- the Yanks were swept by Toronto and saw their lead nearly vanish.  

But while you can already call the moves the Jays made a success, it's still too early to say whether Cashman's gambit was a failure.  If the Yankees hold on and win their division, it would be hard to argue with Cashman's strategy.  They were a first place team with a solid lead and didn't need to make a deal.  Or at least they didn't appear to need one at the time.

Fast forward a couple of weeks: Michael Pineda, one of the Yanks' few dependable starters, went on the Disabled List the day before the Jays landed Price.  The Yankees once-formidable offense all but disappeared, going 31 straight innings without scoring a run.  Even when that string was broken last night, and clutch Yankee hitters gave the team the lead in the 10th inning, previously unhittable closer Andrew Miller blew his first save.  Yet the Yankees finished the night still in first place.  

But questions remain: Can Mark Teixeria, who hasn't played a full season since 2011, continue his resurgence?  Can Alex Rodriguez, already 40 years old and having played twice as many games as he's played in the last two years, keep hitting, too?  How will 21-year old Luis Severino respond in the heat of a pennant race?  

So kudos to Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays for taking a shot and seeing it pay off in the short term.  By October, we'll know who was right.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

The 2015 Yankees will not be a good team.  Certainly not "good" by typical Yankee standards.  Much of that is due to some odd acquisitions this winter and a sudden fiscal responsibility.  One choice the frugal Yankees made this off-season was to let incumbent closer David Robertson depart for the White Sox rather than attempt to resign him.  Though it left a Mo-sized hole at the back of the bullpen, the Yankees are prepared to fill that hole with a very big body. 

Newly-acquired reliever Andrew Miller, a 6'7" lefty, join's last year's 6'8" set-up man, the right-hander Dellin Betances, to form the last line of defense for New York.  How those two will be deployed is one of spring training's early story lines.  I would advocate moving away from the traditional (and some would say silly) model of having one guy designated as the closer and one as the 8th-inning set-up man.  I'm not the only one with this idea, and Joe Girardi has even been asked whether he'd consider a closer tandem:

It would not be my first choice, but it’s something you can definitely think about.

Okay, Joe, let's think about it.  For one, both Betances and Miller present the same interesting fact: neither one is appreciably better (or worse) against lefties or righties, making the two of them virtually interchangable:

PITCHER	2014 VS. LEFT		2014 VS. RIGHT
	AVG	OPS	AVG	OPS
Betances	.163	.405	.135	.482
Miller	.163	.467	.145	.446

You can still play lefty vs. lefty and righty vs. righty, figuring that even perceptibly hitters are less comfortable facing a guy throwing from the same side.  Then it's up to Girardi: who's coming up in the 8th?  Is Robinson Cano slated to bat second?  Let Miller start the 8th.  (The lefty Cano is 1-for-12 against Miller.)  Won't see Miguel Cabrera until the 9th?  Save Betances for the end, as Cabrera has come away with 3 strikeouts in 3 trips against him.

Another benefit of an interchangeable 1-2 punch: gone are the days of the too-tired closer.  Some nights, even the infallible Rivera was unavailable if he'd pitched in three straight games.  With a pair of arms to choose from on any given night, there should always be a powerful (and fresh) arm to close out a game.  It also makes the lives of opposing managers more difficult.  If you can't guarantee who's pitching in the 8th or the 9th, you can't effectively line up your late-game pinch-hitters. 

There's also something to be said for sharing the burden.  Neither Betances nor Miller has been a full-time closer before, and certainly neither has done so in the pressure cooker of Yankee Stadium.  Knowing that the whole world isn't riding on your shoulders has to be a relief.  If an anointed Betances blows a couple of April saves, how would that affect his confidence moving forward?  How would it affect him if Miller got the next save opportunity?

But if each pitcher knew that the manager was going to use each pitcher to the best of his abilities, dictated by the situation, each would know that his role was safe.  A blown save on Tuesday and an 8th-inning role on Wednesday wouldn't portend anything for Thursday.  That's not to say that one player won't excel in the closer role and make him the de facto choice.  But why force the issue before we really know?

It's an interesting "problem" to have, and I wonder how it will work out.  With a team that's likely to struggle for runs again, protecting a late-game lead becomes even more important.  The Yankees would seem to have the weapons.  How those weapons are to be deployed is the real question.

Shut It Down!

In what came as less a surprise than an unfortunate (but perhaps necessary) inevitability, Carmelo Anthony indicated that the NBA All-Star game would probably be his last game of the season.  Like Liz Lemon used to say, "SHUT IT DOWN." 

Citing a sore left knee that has kept him out of action at times this season, Anthony told ESPN Radio it's "very likely" he won't be back on the court after Sunday's game.  In fact, Anthony may only make a token appearance, wave to the fans (well, to the laughably small contingent of fans in attendance) and shuffle off the court.  Like most Knicks' fans, Anthony has had enough.

Without Anthony, a Knicks' team that already has the worst record in the NBA will be, somehow, even worse.  But for Knicks' fans who had already given up on the season, that's okay.  Because the light at the end of the (Lincoln) tunnel is the Draft Lottery.  The biggest dreamers among us will remember that first draft lottery.  Much has changed since 1985 -- now we have ping pong balls, weighted odds, and a lot more teams.  But seeing Dave DeBusschere nearly topple over with glee when David Stern revealed the Knicks to be the winner of the Patrick Ewing sweepstakes is the sort of thing that makes losing, if not palatable, then a means to an end.  The Melo-less Knicks would certainly have the inside track to that 25% chance at the #1 pick.

Speaking of wihch, many early mock drafts have Duke's Jahlil Okafor as the top pick.  With Jason Smith and Cole Aldrich sharing time in the middle, the Duke center would look mighty fine in orange and blue.  Even if the Knicks don't land that top pick, PG Emmanuel Mudiay, SG D'Angelo Russell or another top prospect will be on the board when the Knicks make their selection.

It's safe to say that Phil Jackson will get a rehabilitated Anthony some help when the (post-surgery?) forward takes the floor next October.  Add a star free agent to the mix -- the Knicks could have some $30 million in cap space -- and all this losing may not seem so bad after all.

A Playoff Win

Chalk one up for the inaugural College Football Playoff championship.  Even before Ohio State dispatched Oregon for the title, the playoffs were a success.  Highly-anticipated match-ups brought record-breaking ratings and great football to the semi-finals, setting up last night's championship game.  But until this season, it could never have happened.

In past years, we would likely have seen #1-ranked Alabama face off against undefeated (but not highly acclaimed) Florida State.  By some chance, if the BCS voters and computers thought better of Oregon, we might have seen the Ducks jump over the Seminoles to face the Crimson Tide.  The most unlikely scenario, though, would have been for the Buckeyes, a one-loss team in a downtrodden conference playing with a 3rd-string quarterback, to get a shot at the title. 

Thanks to the new (and, naturally, controversial) Selection Committee rankings, FOUR teams were chosen to play in the first playoffs in major college football history.  No longer would it be settled on paper ballots -- the champion would be decided on the field.  And a team that last season would have been on the outside looking in has busted through.  While a 10-1 team hardly fits the bill as an underdog, #4 Ohio State was not expected to beat Alabama, and certainly not in the way they pounded the Tide into submission.  Even then, the Buckeyes weren't the favorites against the high-flying Ducks, either. 

But there they were, Ezekiel Elliott breaking off huge chunks of yardage, Cardale Jones finding open receivers downfield.  The Buckeyes defense causing fits for Marcus Mariota and the Oregon receiving corps.  And even though I didn't personally care for the outcome, I could certainly appreciate the ride.

Slow News Day

It's the baseball off-season, the Hot Stove!  But not every day is a big news day.  Yet columnists still need stories to write.  Let's file this one under "Interesting Item that will be Quickly Forgotten".  According to Michael Axisa at River Ave Blues, the Yankees are considering hiring Jeff Pentland for their vacant hitting coach position.  Who is Jeff Pentland?  He's a 68-year old veteran who's bounced around the majors for the last couple of decades and presided over some pretty bad teams with mostly lousy hitting.  Here's a look at those teams, their records when Pentland was acting as hitting coach, their league rankings in both Average and OPS, as well as the standout from that season.

TEAM	YEAR	RECORD		Rank AVG	Rank OPS	Team Best
Marlins	1996	80	82	9	10	Sheffield, .314-42-120
Cubs	1997	68	94	5	12	Sosa, .251-36-119
	1998	90	73	5	6	Sosa, .308-66-158
	1999	67	95	14	15	Sosa, .288-63-141
	2000	65	97	13	12	Sosa, .320-50-138
	2001	88	74	8	6	Sosa, .328-64-160
	2002	67	95	15	11	Sosa, .288-49-108
	AVG	74	88	10.00	10.33
Royals	2003	83	79	4	7	Beltran, .307-26-100
	2004	58	104	13	14	Sweeney, .287-22-79
	2005	56	106	10	12	Sweeney, .300-21-83
	AVG	66	96	9	11
Mariners	2005	69	93	14	14	Sexson, .263-39-121
	2006	74	84	10	12	Ibanez, .289-33-123
	2007	88	74	2	6	Ibanez, .291-21-105
	2008	61	101	9	13	Ibanez, .293-23-110
	AVG	73	88	8.75	11.25
Dodgers	2010	80	82	10	12	Ethier, .292-23-82
	2011	82	79	6	10	Kemp, .324-39-126
	AVG	81	81	8	11

For the most part, Pentland's teams were bad, the worst one being the 2005 Royals.  To be fair, Tony Pena walked away from the team in May and the coaches soon followed.  Remarkably, Pentland managed to find work quickly with the Mariners and led their hitters... well, nowhere.  The 2005 Mariners finished dead last in the AL in both average and OPS.  It only got slightly better in 2006.  But in 2007, the Mariners busted out and gave Pentland his best season as a hitting coach.  Led by Ichiro's .351 average and three players with an OPS over .800, the Mariners finished 6th in the AL in OPS.  By the next season, though, the M's OPS dropped to 13th in the league and Pentland was gone again.

Now, I don't know much about Jeff Pentland beyond these numbers.  He was apparently good enough to keep getting hired, in spite of the apparent lack of success he brought to his teams.  But if I'm looking to replace Kevin Long, a hitting coach with a long record of success in New York, Jeff Pentland is not first on my list.  Or second.  Or, well, you get the idea.

I happen to like the idea that was floated a few months ago: bringing back Jason Giambi to coach.  These aren't the Royals or Marlins.  Even an unproven coaching commodity like Giambi makes more sense than a small-town, semi-successful, retread like Pentland.

The More Things Change, the Yankees Don't

The Hot Stove season is underway, and the Yankees are making moves.  Underwhelming, head-scratching, and downright bone-headed moves. 

They began by re-signing Chris Young, a player the Mets didn't want.  (Let that sink in for a moment.)  But Young will be the 4th outfielder, a guy who can play all three OF positions, and someone who's not expected to do much.

Today, though, the Yankees addressed a much bigger need.  With a Derek Jeter-sized hole at shortstop, the Yanks traded for Didi Gregorius.  Gregorius is primarily a glove-first guy, having shown only marginal success hitting at the major-league level.  I would question the need to acquire a glove-first SS, considering they already have that in the form of Brendan Ryan.  But I will also agree with those who say Ryan cannot hit, while Gregorius has hitting potential. 

The head-scratcher, though, is that the Yankees chose to part with Shane Greene, a major-league ready starting pitcher, in exchange for Gregorius.  While his sample size was small from his rookie year, Greene put up good numbers: 81 strikeouts in 78 innings and an ERA under 4.  Sure, Greene might not rise very far above a 3rd or 4th starter.  But for a team with a question-mark riddled rotation, a Gregorius for Greene swap may amount to nothing more than patching a hole here while creating another over there.

But for me, the worst move of the off-season so far has been the signing of Andrew Miller.  While I think Miller is a good reliever (at least he was last season), in no way is he worth $36 million over four years.  Miller, you'll recall, is a failed starter.  No big deal there, as nearly every successful reliever is a failed starter.  However, successful teams don't pay $36 million for someone else's reclamation project.  There are cheaper alternatives to be found everywhere, and teams that put together those great bullpens with arms no one else wanted -- see Royals, Kansas City or Orioles, Baltimore -- reap the rewards.  (It's no surprise that Miller was part of that outstanding Baltimore pen, and also not a surprise that the O's didn't want to pay to keep him.)  It remains to be seen how long Miller remains an elite reliever and whether the Yanks will earn a return on their hefty investment.

It's only December, and the Yankees still have needs.  Third base, starting pitching, maybe second base, too.  But I don't see any obvious fixes or any evident plan that puts the Yankees on a course correction for 2015.  With other teams in the East getting better, the Yanks might be playing catch-up during the regular season, too.