Baron Davis’ signing brought some very interesting news. He was expected to sign for the $2.5 million exception that the Knicks had at their disposal. But contained within this report, its now known that he signed for the veteran’s minimum of $1.4 million which gives them room to sign another free agent. Perhaps James Posey? Peter Vecsey writes that everyone has an opinion on the Baron Davis signing but he’s a fan of the signing. Alan Hahn says that despite the Baron Davis signing Toney Douglas will do whatever is asked of him. Baron Davis says that the Knicks have the pieces to contend according to Frank Isola of the Daily News.
Forget that Baron took less money to sign with us signaling a huge shift from years past where the Knicks had to overpay to get talented players. Its that James Dolan did the convincing according to sources. JIM DOLAN! Somehow, someway he has been doing things that I NEVER thought in a million years he was willing to do as Knick owner. Not only has he given Verizon FIOS customers MSG HD so that we can now enjoy our Knicks and Rangers games in beautiful, stunning HD, he is now proving to be quite the recruiter. I have always said this and I will continue to say this: a motivated Baron Davis makes him a top 10 PG in our league capable of taking over games which means the Knicks would have 3 capable scorers in crunchtime. Ideally having 3 options which the defense would have to spread itself out would be something dream worthy but if those three prove to be ball stoppers and would rather want to create their own shot instead of looking for the open man (unless they are the open man of course) then that advantage gets nullified.
I’m not signing off on this signing yet but I can promise you that the Garden’s energy will be needed everytime Baron is out on the floor. I remember watching that Warriors/Mavs series and seeing Davis’ play rise proportional to the crowd’s noise level so there’s that element to wonder about. The Knick crowd is an intelligent and very aware crowd. IF you don’t show the right attitude and aren’t diving for loose balls and playing lackadaisically, they will call you out and boo you. But this deal depends solely on Baron. Solely on whether he comes to practice hard and play harder. Keeping him motivated for that long will be difficult but the bigger the stakes the bigger his game gets and you’d like to think that the Knicks are positioned to be playing in several big games.
Last year the Knicks slogged through injuries and the sort to some of their top players and in the end it was Carmelo Anthony and a bunch of stiffs trying to beat the battle tested Celtics. Conditioning will be important and that’s what’s troubling for the Knicks. IF the Knicks hope to enjoy ANY kind of success this season keeping Baron, Amar’e and Melo away from the trainer’s table will be of the utmost importance. Let’s see how it all plays out.
The Yu Darvish sweepstakes is over and the winner is…..The Texas Rangers. According to several reports, the Rangers posted the winning bid believed to be in the neighborhood of $51.7 million which would make it the highest posting bid in the history of MLB. Darvish is the 25 year old Japanese phenom that had several teams bidding for his services. Darvish is the son of an Iranian father and Japanese mother. Last year he compiled an 18-6 record with a 1.44 ERA and 276 strikeouts. Jean Jacques-Taylor said that the Rangers proved, with this move, that they are indeed a big market team. Scott Miller of CBSSports.com writes that this bid may be the start of a bigger war for the AL West between the Rangers and the Angels. Meanwhile Jon Morosi of Foxsports.Com writes that with the Yu Darvish posting news over its time for Scott Boras to make his move.
Darvish is another in a long line of Japanese born pitchers slated to arrive in the US and revolutionize the art of pitching. He apparently features a 7 pitch repertoire that has people drooling. He throws in the mid 90’s and has excellent control. That’s the miniature scouting report. As for what he will actually do, well that’s the question mark. There’s NEVER a sure thing especially pitchers who come from different leagues and different hitters. Darvish will be afforded the benefit of playing for a Rangers team that will score him plenty of runs. The experts still put the Rangers with the best offense in that league and rightfully so. Even with Pujols’ entry into the AL West war, the Rangers have the deepest line up in that division and pending the Yu signing will have a 6 man rotation, a problem that GM Jon Daniels (Bayside, Queens stand up) is happy to have. Of course the Rangers are still linked to Prince Fielder though if you do the math, apparently Yu wants a 5 year contract at an annual rate of $15 million, Yu will cost the Rangers slightly more than $125 million. I don’t know how likely it is that they sign Prince for his reported asking price of $200 million.
Prince is repped by Boras who will get the highest dollar figure and the Rangers are too smart and savvy to play that game. So Boras may start searching elsewhere. One team he may want to check in with? The Toronto Blue Jays. They attacked twitter announcing their disappointment that their team could NOT get Yu. Alex Anthropolous the boy wonder GM of the Jays may have to make a move being so flush with cash. Don’t be surprised if he gets involved in not only Prince (rumors are that the Jays have a ton of money to spend) but also swing a trade for Gio Gonzalez or Matt Garza. Both pitchers are available via trade though it will cost several high priority prospects which teams may regret giving up.
The Matt Latos deal by the Padres shows that teams will have to pony up the big boy prospects in order to pry loose a young talented pitcher who has arbitration controlled years left. Gio Gonzalez won’t be a free agent till 2016 and so his value coming off an 18 win campaign is NEVER going to be higher so credit Brad Pitt, I mean Billy Beane with trying to extract as much as he can. Beane knows that it will be years before the A’s will be able to move to a better facility and will be flush with cash to compete with the likes of the Angels and the Rangers and so he’ll have to continue trying to turn water into wine.
An interesting note for Met fans is that the Blue Jays loss in the Yu sweepstakes opens the door for them to trade Jon Niese who’s another team controlled player that the Jays have interest in. If it means getting Travis D’Arnaud for him it may be worth it. As a Met fan expect very little and you won’t get hurt. This is all depending on IF Sandy Alderson is motivated to trade him which I believe he is. He’s listening to all offers and if it brings him back D’Arnaud and a pitcher the Mets will jump to trade Niese whom the Aldersons of the world have all but made their mind up on.
Finally, a story that should tickle your funny bone. A sprinter who was caught tested positive for performance enhancing drugs will be trying again for his chance to compete in the 2012 London Olympics. Story is here in the NYTimes. He was caught thanks to a high dosage of Extenze in his system. Yep. THAT Extenze.
For those interested in hearing Rex Ryan’s mouth and former Giants players response here you go.
Finally, Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette writes that the Steelers went dark.
Not buying the win by the 49ers. Big Ben was hobbled and he really needs to sit out the next few games because its bad and running him out there every week is pointless. Then again, that’s the kind of player Antrell Rolle would want to play with right?
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