Apparently, Philly won’t have Embiid, George or Grimes when we play them in Abu Dhabi. The first two are recovering from off season knee surgery and Grimes still hasn’t signed.

“We’ve got a couple of guys that we’ll allow to dance with it and let it go, and they know who they are, but if we play like we’re capable of — with pace, especially spacing, and the paint touches — we should generate a lot of catch-and-shoot 3s,” the Knicks’ new coach said. “If you’re open and your feet are set, especially if that ball hits the paint or we’ve got a cut or roll and it pulls the defense in and now we get a spray to a 3, we better let it fly. We better let it fly.”

we better let it fly. We better let it fly.

Josh Hart is either going to let it rip and have his best season or be himself and struggle.

Given his age and that finger, I’d be working the phones hard right now.

Two quick NBA things and one MLB thing:

1. I feel terrible for Jared McCain. Kid has so much potential. He would be a huge X factor for Philly. I’m happy that we won’t be facing a healthy Philly team in that sense lol
2. I’ve always been a huge Mitch fan, but I wonder- which would be more important for the starting 5: Mitch’s all around awesomeness on defense, or Deuce’s strong POA defense? On one hand, Mitch is gonna keep guys out of the paint and give us plenty of 2nd opportunities with his offensive rebounding. On the other- Deuce can help minimize guard penetration and allow Mikal and OG to play to their strengths on defense more. I guess the real question is, which option is the better tone setter for this roster?
3. Does it make me a bad Mets fan for hoping they don’t make the playoffs? I just don’t understand how a team with above average pitching, a now deep bullpen, a dominant closer, 2 30/30 guys, and practically 2 40 Homer 100 RBI guys who get on base ALOT(not to mention underappreciated seasons from Nimmo and Baty) could collapse the way they have. Injuries be damned because I’m not sure they’ve had the kind of injuries to derail a season. Slow em down a little? Sure. But fall into a tie for the last wild card spot with a Reds team who spent much of the season virtually 8 or so games behind? No. Something’s wrong. I hope it’s not Mendoza. I think he’s solid. Does he need a better coaching staff? IDK, but I feel like them backing into the postseason is an embarrassment

I’m attending my 30 year HS reunion today and apparently it’s going to be held in the new Dolan Family Science Technology and Research Center.

Dolan is a common name, though, right? It could be anybody.

Alas Hubert, it was the Dolan Family, including our favorite son, James, whose name is in the news due to a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled fired ex-employee

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6666732/2025/09/26/madison-square-garden-lawsuit-discrimination-security-misconduct/

Maybe Jimmy will play an acoustic set.
PJ, read an interesting analysis of the Mets woes this season. It seems that most everyday players had similar output as last season and with the exception of Manea most pitchers did. The article in the Atlantic attributed the many long losing streaks to ” sequencing”- that the hitting and pitching slumps happened simultaneously. Sounded plausible. That said, there’s been a sloppiness this season that is attributable to a lack of focus ( Holmes not backing up home the other night. Mauricio not covering 3rd on a steal last night, right after Greg Soto failed to check the same runner who stole 2nd and 3rd). That has to fall on Mendy.

I was a reasonable man for a while. I maintained a moderate “I’d vote for Judge, but Raleigh winning would hardly be outrageous” stance.

But now with Judge fueling an unlikely run at the division, and the numbers being what they are, I am determined to stop the steal.

The Mets pitching staff since Spring Training was always doomed for disaster.

I don’t know which is more bizarre — the Mets on the outside looking in with that lineup, or the cantankerous, contrarian Hubert somehow being 47 instead of clearly being 67.

nice noble, pretty darn cool judge ended up playing for the new york yankees…

only thing left is to get him a world series…and at some point, off to cooperstown he will go…

3. Does it make me a bad Mets fan for hoping they don’t make the playoffs? I just don’t understand how a team with above average pitching, a now deep bullpen, a dominant closer, 2 30/30 guys, and practically 2 40 Homer 100 RBI guys who get on base ALOT(not to mention underappreciated seasons from Nimmo and Baty) could collapse the way they have.

From an objective point of view their starting rotation isn’t up to snuff for a team with big plans and the second highest payroll in baseball.

They banked on Senga being their ace, a 32 yr old with 30 career starts in MLB and who sat out almost the entire 24 season with 3 different injuries, the most important being a shoulder capsule problem.

Peterson is a fine pitcher who never pitched more than 121 innings in his 6 year career, so it wasn’t unexpected when he shit the bed the past 6 weeks.

Holmes was actually a mitzva for them as they couldn’t possibly have expected more from.

Not a team with a WS caliber rotation. They DO have a couple of promising young arms, so things will get better.

And they aren’t out of it yet and could get on a heater. The Yankees looked dead in the water 2 months ago.

I don’t know which is more bizarre — the Mets on the outside looking in with that lineup, or the cantankerous, contrarian Hubert somehow being 47 instead of clearly being 67.

You make more money in life by being a contrarian.

The Mets’ pitching staff, after months of brutal performance, is still 10th in the league in pitcher WAR and 5th in FIP. Their peripheral stats are mostly still good: 1st in MLB in groundball percentage, 8th in HR/FB, 2nd in HR/9.

But there was a fundamental flaw underlying all of it, even in the early part of the season when the staff was dominating: they walked too many guys. They had a high strikeout, high walk, low HR, high groundball approach. This works until everybody burns out their arms by throwing too many pitches.

The Mets lead MLB in pitches thrown. More walks and more guys on base means you’re throwing more high stress pitches. It means your starters don’t go deep into games because of high pitch counts, and you have to run up the pitch counts of your relievers. One of the most unfortunate things about the way the season has unfolded is that the Mets, in a desperate push to make the playoffs, have leaned on their three blue chip pitching prospects as starters in the last weeks of the season, pushing them well beyond the number of innings you’d like those guys to throw in a season at this stage of their careers.

The Mets average 158 pitches thrown per game. That just does not work.

I wouldn’t be cantankerous or contrarian if you guys weren’t wrong all the time.

Also yesterday the Mets made several egregious mental errors in a crucial game against a bad team, and Mendy responded by panicking and pulling an otherwise effective Brandon Sproat after 61 pitches.

They’re not responding to his leadership. To play that badly and give away runs like that in such a crucial game… Mendy’s gotta go.

MLB has to be rooting for Mets to get the final WC spot and for Toronto to win the division cause that would set up WC series between Mets Dodgers and Yankees Red Sox. Padres Cubs is pretty good too. Of course if Yankees win the division its still possible and most likely we’d get a Yankees Red Sox ALDS matchup.

Yanks are 9-1 in the last 10, on the way to winning today. They’re putting a ton of pressure on Toronto. Highly encouraging.

Anything can happen in a short series, but if Toronto stumbles and the Yanks get a bye, World Series seems likely. Cashman irritates me, but he did a good job this year and they are better off with a deeper lineup instead of just Soto.

Regardless which seed the Yankees enter the playoffs with on paper they’re by far the best team in the AL, even moreso than they were last year. However I want nothing to do with a short playoff series vs Boston…

if giancarlo stays post season gaincarlo AND if aaron judge can just stay steady, good way to start any post season series…

max looks like he’s back, rodon’s been pretty consistent…having 2 competent post season starters ain’t bad…

it’s been a pretty solid finish to the season…

It seems that most everyday players had similar output as last season and with the exception of Manea most pitchers did. The article in the Atlantic attributed the many long losing streaks to ” sequencing”- that the hitting and pitching slumps happened simultaneously. Sounded plausible. That said, there’s been a sloppiness this season that is attributable to a lack of focus ( Holmes not backing up home the other night. Mauricio not covering 3rd on a steal last night, right after Greg Soto failed to check the same runner who stole 2nd and 3rd). That has to fall on Mendy.

And that really bothers me, because I really didn’t wanna move on from Buck. But Mendy made me a fan last season. For a ‘precocious neophyte’ (I’m clearly ready for basketball lol), I thought he and his staff did a really nice job last season, and it gave me hope that the Mets would have a legit young and capable skipper. The Mets can’t afford to cycle through coaches when the vibes are finally good again. Unless Counsell wants to leave the Cubbies

I’m a little worried about the lack of experience in the back end of the Yankees bull pen and, of course the result of the x rays on Jazz’s forearm.

going through espn’s top 100 checking in on knicks’ players…

saw KAT ranked at 27 (he was 30 last season), saw some of the players above him, yeah no…hard for me to imagine KAT not being a top 20 player…

For you golf fans out there, the Ryder Cup has been a total rout for the Euros. They have played out of their minds, and the Americans have been badly outclassed on their home turf. Honestly, I don’t think any Ryder Cup team in history could have beaten this Euro group the way they are playing.

Having just been in Europe, I’m sure the fans there are relishing this asskicking, especially given how political relations are with our current regime.

Having just been in Europe, I’m sure the fans there are relishing this asskicking, especially given how political relations are with our current regime.

How bad political relations are with Europe? I thought the King and PM of England felated Herr Trump pretty well a week or so ago…. If they aren’t careful, we’ll just go home with our bombs and tanks and then see what happens. They might have to pay for their own defense!

The English are flattering Trump and playing to his ego. It doesn’t mean they like him and all is well with our transatlantic relationship

I’m happy to report I’ve learned that Charles, not James, is the Dolan who went to my high school and paid for the science center.

Bob wanting to debate whether Europeans really hate Trump is down there with Strat arguing that Frank Ntilikina was good but misused.

Well, you know, Trump and Prince Andrew go way back. What happens on the island stays on the island, amirite?

deleted.

Bob wanting to debate whether Europeans really hate Trump is down there with Strat arguing that Frank Ntilikina was good but misused.

I don’t want to “debate” anything other than sports, but someone who shall go nameless decided to conflate the Ryder Cup results with the view of Trump in Europe.

Trump is largely despised by the citizens of Europe. Is that even a debate? Hell, he’s despised by over half the citizens in his own country! But hey, if you need evidence, why don’t you go over there and talk to them and find out for yourself?

Although they are probably psyched that when he took office, the euro only bought you 1.04 USD and now it’s up to 1.17!

As a year-long Dodgers fan should I be rooting for the Mets or the Reds tomorrow?

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