The Knicks and Taylor Swift

 

WHO F---ING CARES?!

A Course of Action For the Mets

It's Time to Square Up and Spend the Loot

The Mets have a golden opportunity to make up for letting Pete Alonso get away for absolutely nothing in the worst move in franchise history (At least they got some trinkets for Tom Seaver and Pete Crow-Armstrong).  The free agent pitching choices are obvious so here's another free agent platter. They should consider signing at least the first two.

1. Ty France 1B - He made the best of a 1-year minor league deal to post solid numbers this year for San Diego - 21 homers, 72 RBIs and an .865 OPS in 133 games with his 8 Outs Above Average ranking in the 93rd percentile at first base. The Mets haven't had a defensive 1B of this caliber who can hit since John Olerud.

2. Luis Arraez 2B - Who wouldn't want a 3-time batting champion in their lineup? (He missed a 4th title by just one percentage point this season) You have to go back to Jeff McNeil's heyday to see the last time the Mets had someone with this kind of hitting dynamic. Arraez hit 6 homers while driving in 60 and showed great improvment defensively with his 12 Outs Above Average ranking in the 97th percentile at his position.  A 2-year deal would enable top prospect Jefferson Rojas to take over in 2029.

3. Dominic Smith - The former Met would fill the team's need for a lefty DH and bench strength. His production in limited action this year was decent (9 homers and 46 RBIs in 269 at-bats) and defensively he's still solid. He'd be a marked improvement over Jared Young.

These three signings could make the lineup look something like this:

1. Lindor SS

2. Arraez 2B

3. Soto LF

4. Bichette 3B

5. Benge RF

6. Ewing CF

7. France 1B

8. Smith DH

9. Alvarez, C.

With this potential lineup backing their young up-and-coming starting pitchers, the Mets could very well find themselves right back in contention. Imagine how many runs Juan Soto will drive in with Francisco Lindor and Luis Arraez hitting in front of him.

The Mets have a ton of money coming off the books after the 2027 season so Steve Cohen can afford one more season with a bloated payroll - but the important thing is that they'd have a much better ballclub than the 2026 version, which will improve attendance, increase revenue and relieve some of the payroll burden. Makes sense, yes? But if David Stearns is unwilling/unable to do it, get somebody who can. The time's getting short so the Mets better act fast.

Mets S.O.S. - More of the Same Old Sh!t

Does Steve Cohen Know What to Do Or Not?

 The Doubts Are Getting Louder

Looking back, it didn't take long for the bright and shiny optimism of the new Steve Cohen regime to start fading. He hired several general managers only to have to scrap them due to personal issues. One of them, Zach Scott, immediately put the franchise's long term goals in question by acquiring Javier Baez and pitcher Trevor Williams from the Cubs in exchange for prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong.

 [Bookended with David Stearns stupid idea of letting Pete Alonso go for nothing means that the 2026 American League home run champion (Alonso, 43) and the National League champ (Crow-Armstrong,45) could very well have lifted the Mets to pennant-winning stature this year. Bad management.]

This year provided fans with another typical Mets season of losing baseball featuring dozens of no-name journeymen players, another replacement manager culled from a front office job and his subsequent decent record under no pressure allowed Cohen and Stearns to absolve themselves of the work involved with finding a legitimate winning manager by slide-stepping a three-year contract to Andy Green instead. Bad management.

The Stearns situation is somewhat reminiscent of the times Knicks owner James Dolan kept Isiah Thomas around despite his horrifying incompetence as an executive. Now, I'm not comparing Cohen to Dolan. Cohen is a very decent man while Dolan is a major league schmuck inside out and in every direction. But this particular situation is puzzling, at the least and infuriating at the most.

Bad management. Those words have clung to this team for generations like the awful stench of rotten eggs. The only way left to scrub that acrid smell from the Mets reputation is to take action right now. 1. Remove David Stearns from any and all baseball personnel decisions. 2. Hire an experienced general manager with a successful track record. They're out there, just wave some of that money around. 3. Start acting big market and get some big name players to compliment the young talent the organization's developing. 

                                                           Carson Benge

Cohen has said he wants to be the Dodgers East. Well, it's now or never. Bad management and "S.O.S." on the New York Mets must be eradicated once and for all.

the Knicks' Huge Advantage Over Every NBA Team

And the Man Most Responsible For It

There's a major league intangible embedded in the New York Knicks' drive to the 2025-26 NBA championship. One that gives them an unparralleled advantage for their upcoming defense of their title. One that only one man can take credit for, even though said person is no longer with the team. 

That intangible is superior conditioning, endurance and stamina, something they have in abundance over every team, particularly everybody's new favorite darlings, the Philadephia 76ers of LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey. Everyone knows that Embiid is very injury-prone but LeBron hasn't played a full season in 10 years, which would make the possibility of their Big 4 playing together for all 82 games highly unlkely and stunting the development of team chemistry - another New York strength.

Last season the Sixers starters missed 135 games while the Knicks missed only 46. That was no coincidence because the year before the Knick starters missed 40 games while the 76ers' missed 136. That could be the biggest reason why the 76ers will fail again this season. They don't have the physicsal endurance the Knicks possess.

The mystery man responsible? None other than former Knicks honcho Tom Thibodeau. When he was being criticized for playing his starters too much little did anyone figure that the madness in his method was building a very durable roster that would not tire out so easily. By playoff time, when even the best teams are naturally worn out after the grueling regular season, the Knicks were in midsesason form and were never out of a game no matter how far behind they were. They were relentless. They kept coming. they never quit.

A repeat in 2026-27? It's a lot more plausible than people realize

An Open Letter to Mets owner Steve Cohen

 

This Wasn't Supposed to Happen Again

Dear Mr. Cohen,

  In October 2020, when you purchased a 95% controlling stake of the New York Mets from the Wilpon/Katz Group, I, like most fans, was thrilled because, as a fellow Met fan from early 1970s Great Neck coming off the Wilpon regime with dark memories of M. Donald Grant and the Tom Seaver trade always lurking, my wishes for legitimate, competent financially solvent ownership had finally been granted (and, as I told my life-long Great Neck friend, "Hey! He's one of us!"). I had - and still have - faith that you'll suceed but after nearly 6 years, something has gone awry.

Your approach of building a sustained winning frachice through a strong farm system and responsible spending (at least) is the way the Yankees, Dodgers and Cardinals have been doing it for many decades now. It's the right way and I know it'll work eventually but, in my opinion, there's currently a fly in the ointment by the name of David Stearns who, as president of baseball operations, has set the process back a few years. He's adopted the small-market style that marked his time in Milwaukee (with respectable results but no world championships). Stearns had some success in Cleveland and Houston too, but he appears to have left his edge back there. Meanwhile his current policies of echewing top players in favor of loading up the roster with unknowns, career minor leaguers, reclamation projects and over-the-hillers has the 2026 Mets looking and feeling eerily like the low-budget Mets of M. Donald Grant and the Wilpons. This wasn't supposed to happen again.

Over $1 billion was invested on 2 players, but Stearns has decided to start his minor league rebuild without a vital ingredient: quality veteran players to hold the fort and act as mentors until the kids are ready to take over. That should've been the roles of Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo instead of just shipping them out without thinking it through beforehand. Granted, had they returned it's isn't likely they would've improved at this stage of their careers but that shouldn't have been the sole deciding factor. Then, there's the case for Pete Alonso. 

There was absolutely no excuse for letting Pete get away and depriving the fans of watching one of the top sluggers and run-producers in the game. He may not be Keith Hernandez at first base (who is?), but he's worked hard to become reliable around the bag. He's a leader, a class act, a good guy and a promotional goldmine. He's not 35; he's 31 and still in his prime years. .Alonso earned a long-term deal. What more did he have to do? Why did Stearns refuse to sign him despite the virtually limitless budget at his disposal? I know he's trying to pare the payroll but this was an colossal, unwise blunder which Stearns only magnified by trying to convince the fans that Jorge Polanco was a viable replacement instead of swiping Cody Bellinger from the Yankees. Pete Alonso didn't want to leave; he wanted to be and should've been a career Met.

An often overlooked intangible is how the mere presence of a big bat like Alonso's positively affects the rest of the lineup (The same held true for Darryl Strawberry). Even if he's slumping, just the possibilty of a home run from him lent confidence to the hitters and kept opposing pitchers honest. Losing that perk damaged the offense and losing Alonso for nothing was just as destructive to the franchice as the Tom Seaver trade for a variety of reasons. The parallels are impossible to deny.

Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Alonso formed an outstanding 1-2-3 punch but now with Alonso gone and nobody able to step into his role, the considerable talents of Lindor and Soto are going to waste on this team intead of helping the Mets win meaningful games, particularly with both dealing with substantial injury issues this season. [Mark Vientos was supposed to be Alonso's heir apparent but after a slow start following a solid 2023 season, he never got a fair shot at returning to form. Player development has never been a strength of this franchise.]

                                                          Promising rookies Benge and Ewing

On the flip-side, Noah McLean, Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing have provided a solid ray of hope for the future (McLean and Benge will garner some Rookie of the Year votes) but it would seem that much brighter if Stearns hadn't traded two oher vaunted prospects (Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams) to his former team for veteran pitcher Freddy Peralta only to trade the predictably disappointing Peralta away six monhs later for three lesser propects, sending the future further in reverse. And what about trading Auisangel Acuna for the perrenially underachieving Luis Robert Jr. who Stearns has had an inexplicaple crush on for two years? Has Stearns ever made a trade for a big-name player? Because that's another similarity he has to the Grant era - questionable trade acumen. And the fact that the Mets have exactly one prospect in MLB's Top 100 makes the future feel that much farther away.                         

                                                                                                  Noah McLean - The Makings of an Ace

This can't go on. As I said, it looks too painfully familiar. I admire your choice to honor Stearns' contract but that shouldn't preclude you from bringing In a legitimate general manager to take over that aspect of the job at hand which includes signing a qualified field manager, of which there are no shortage of candidates.

Enough time has gone by. Now's the time to take serious action. Your public is waiting.

                                                                

                                                            Sincerely,

                                                                      Josh Silverstein