Knicks and Rangers Fooled Me Again

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — [pauses] — shame on you. Fool me — [pauses] — You can't get fooled again." -
George W. Bush

There really isn't much to say after last night's loss

I've been trying to write this blog post all day but it has been tough to figure out where to begin. I think that quote from Dubya seems like as good a place as any. As I look down at my hands to find that I've bitten through all my nails, I wonder how we got here? When the season started there was no reason to think that the New York Rangers or New York Knicks were real contenders. Heck, a few days before their regular seasons, I was going to be happy if one of them made it out of the first round. This is a Rangers team that got the ultimate luck to even get into the playoffs and a Knicks team that started calling random games must-wins down the stretch because they looked so helpless.

And yet I sit here with that uneasy feeling in my stomach thinking about my two teams from Madison Square Garden.

The problem is that I got fooled into thinking that they were better than they were. The Rangers have been a gritty, gutsy team that you love to root for. They block shots, they check, they forecheck, and they really seem to leave it all on the ice. Their best player is their goalie and the rest of their team is young and inexperienced and missing some of their top line forwards to injury. And yet I sat there last night thinking that a 3-0 lead was safe and lamenting that they didn't win a very winnable Game 1 because they could have been up 3-1 in the series.

Then the Caps scored two quick goals and I sadly knew the game was over. Reality set in. I sat there for the rest of the third and two overtimes just waiting for the Caps to win the game. You knew that the Rangers chances would fall by the wayside either because of a bad call or because the referee couldn't get out of their goddamn way. You knew that going 0-7 on the powerplay was going to kill them just as every poor game with the man advantage has killed the Rangers all season long. And you knew a fluky goal was going to put their season on the brink--and then it happened (off the stick of Gaborik of all people).

The problem is that the same exact thing also happened to the Knicks just a day earlier. Faced with a second consecutive chance to steal a game in Boston, the Knicks fell apart at the end. While the Rangers are young and inexperienced, they play a mostly disciplined game. The Knicks, when things fall apart at the end of the game, look like they're an 8-year-old playing basketball for the first time and their coach looks like Morris Buttermaker coaching the Chico Bail Bond Bears--before he sobered up. If the Knicks had a 15 point lead with 15 seconds left, I'd expect them to find a way to let Ray Allen drain 5 treys. It's gotten that bad.

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Knicks (and Rangers) Bringing Excitement Back to MSG

A few years ago the best part of going to Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game was to boo Isiah Thomas. The team wasn't just bad, they were boring and--maybe even worse--extremely difficult to root for. Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, and others would put together a lackluster effort on the court and the once-proud Knicks franchise was reduced to a joke. After the Knicks had mortgaged the future for LeBron James only to see him take his talents to South Beach, I thought the Knicks would continue along this path of futility. But after a third of the season, the New York Knickerbockers are not only fun to watch and easy to root for--but they're also a playoff-caliber team for the first time in a long while.

MSG is alive once again for both the Knicks and Rangers (USA Today)

The New York Rangers have had a lot of the same story but with a bit of a different path. The Rangers suffered from the same uncontrolled spending for years before a lockout and subsequent salary cap forced them to change their ways. They made the playoffs every year after the lockout until last year when a shootout loss in the last game of the season kept them out of the playoffs. The Rangers have been extremely rootable for the past few years with guys like Henrik Lundqvist, Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan leading the charge. The problem is that they've been saddled with tough contracts (Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival to name a few) which has put a salary cap crunch on the team. Yet the current Rangers have been fun to watch, easy to root for, and are producing wins despite a ton of important injuries.

The Rangers have been killed by injuries all season long. Their most recent game against the St. Louis Blues saw them lose Alex Frolov for the rest of the season. Vinny Prospal has been missing in action most of the season, Chris Drury has missed a lot of the first half, and in the past month they've seen Ryan Callahan, Derek Boogaard and Erik Christensen go down to injury (and Michal Rozsival has missed the past few games as well). They've been forced to dip into the minor leagues but have found some guys who look like they could stick around for a while like Derek Stepan (hat trick in his first game), Mats Zuccarello (a few huge game-winning goals recently), Mike Sauer (+11 rating leads all rookies), and, most recently, Ryan McDonagh (the prize of the aforementioned Scott Gomez being dumped on Montreal). And now comes word that Glen Sather has traded Rozsival for some forward depth in what the National Post is calling a "legitimately great trade." The Rangers have somehow managed to scrape by and after an impressive win against Dallas, they are in 6th place in the Eastern Conference and shown as a force in the East.

The Knicks have been building with youth as well, albeit in a much different way. After draft bust upon draft bust, Donnie Walsh has hit gold with guys like Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and, most recently, Landry Fields. Amar'e Stoudmire is a sure-fire MVP candidate a third of the way in and the point guard, Raymond Felton, has been astonishingly good. What was seen as a huge drop down from LeBron and Bosh has actually developed into a pretty solid Starting 5. And that is even without Carmelo Anthony who seems like he's headed to New Jersey. Although it would be painful to see him go to their division foe, I think Knicks fans should feel content that the Knicks didn't give up the players (and the future) it would require to acquire him. Anthony would make them better--but if it isn't enough to bring them a championship, it probably isn't worth [further] mortgaging the future.

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New York Rangers Have a Long Way to Go but Reasons to be Hopeful

After I got home from Madison Square Garden last night, I realized I forgot to post a "View from the Seats" on the blog. But you aren't missing much (that doesn't mean I wasn't appreciative for the tickets, though, so thanks to Ben W and Glenn). The Rangers lost 3-1 last night to the Pittsburgh Penguins and playing one of the top teams in the NHL showed the Rangers weakness: they don't have enough difference makers. That doesn't mean they don't have a good core--Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal make up a pretty great young core--but they don't have players who you rely on to finish. 

Sean Avery's Rangers couldn't get the puck into the net last night (WaPo)

Brandon Dubinsky leads the team with 12 goals, Brian Boyle has somehow notched 10 (considering he generally seems to have bad hands), and Marian Gaborik has 5 despite only playing in 13 games, but with the game on the line, there's few guys you want to stop from getting the puck. I admit that I haven't watched as much Rangers hockey as I usually do, but watching the Rangers gameplan for Sidney Crosby (who should have been ejected for a slew-foot and I think has cemented his place as the most hated opposing player in the NHL) and Evgeni Malkin made me realize the Rangers need to find a way to develop more scorers. Maybe a guy like Derek Stepan (6 goals) or Artem Anisimov (7 goals) develops into that sniper, but right now, who from the Rangers really scares the opposition besides Dubi and Gaborik?

The real problem is that the Rangers have been killed in free agency and did the right thing this year going with lesser cost moves to try to fill holes. Unfortunately, guys like Ruslan Fedotenko, Alexander Frolov (who The Blueshirts Blog points out got 1:37 of icetime in the 3rd period last night) and Todd White haven't produced for the Rangers. Ditto Sean Avery, who is stuck at 1 goal on the season. If you're going to have a team that has problems finishing, you need to be dynamtie on defense and the Rangers last night showed they have way too many lapses there. Michael Del Zotto (who has developed into quite a good player despite his propensity to miss the net) made a great defensive play coming back but besides D-Z, no one really looked overly fast or overly skilled which is not good when you're not putting the puck in the back of the net.

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NYaT Roundtable: World Series Picks

We gave you our division series, ALCS, and NLCS picks but now it's time to figure out who is going to win the World Series. Here at NYaT, we didn't do well last round but we'll try to do better with the World Series which starts tonight. Here are our predictions:

Will the Giants pitch to Josh Hamilton in the World Series? (NYT)

Ari: "Texas hitting is just too strong. San Fran pitching behind the Freak has been iffy recently. The MVP will Hamilton if they pitch to him--potentially Cliff Lee if they don't." Rangers in 6 - Series MVP: Josh Hamilton

Ben P: "San Fran pitching is better than the Texas hitting" Giants in 7 - Series MVP: Pat Burrell

Ben W: "Tough choices here. No doubt in my mind it goes 7, since both teams have great starting pitching and strong bullpen arms. After Lincecum vs Lee, take your picks. I'd take Sanchez over Wilson and Cain over Lewis. But I'd also take Hamilton, Guerrero, and Cruz over Posey, Huff, and Burrell. My vote: pitching wins." Giants in 7 - Series MVP: Brian Wilson

Jay: "Just like last year, Cliff Lee will win his 2 starts. This should be a lower-scoring series than the ALCS, but the Texas lineup will score enough runs off Matt Cain and the fading Jonathan Sanchez to pull out the other 4 wins. Elvis Andrus will continue to harass the Giants by stealing 2nd and 3rd seemingly at will. Hamilton won't be walked every single trip to the plate, and he'll make San Fran pitchers pay when they finally pitch to him. Cody Ross will cool down but Buster Posey will shine on the biggest stage of them all. The ageless Vlad Guerrero will come up clutch one more time at some point, not unlike his line drive double in Game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees." Rangers in 6 - Series MVP: Cliff "Soon to be a Yankee" Lee

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Tonight's Pitching Matchup: Yankees vs. Rangers Game 6

For the past history of tonight's match-up between Phil Hughes and Colby Lewis, check out the post from Game 2. Of course, what happened in Game 2 isn't included in those numbers, but they should give you a good sense of the two pitchers' history with the Yankees. As you may remember from Game 2, Lewis pitched pretty well (only two runs given up despite 6 hits and 3 walks in 5.2 innings) and Hughes got bombed. ESPN's Katie Sharp goes into greater detail on the match-up and figures out that the breaking point between the two performances occurred at two-strikes.

Phil Hughes looks focused as tonight as he tries to stave off elimination (LoHud)

In Game 2, Hughes struggled to finish off hitters when getting to two strikes, as the Rangers went 5-for-11 (.455), including four extra base hits, in two-strike counts. Hughes also left his pitches up, and the Rangers capitalized, going 6-for-8 (.750) on pitches in the upper third of the zone and above. 

This has been an issue for many of the Yankee pitchers. They have--for the most part--been OK at getting ahead in the count, but the Rangers have been able to foul off a lot of two-strike pitches. CC Sabathia had this trouble with the Rangers on Wednesday as many of the hitters battled him even with two strikes. Hughes' key tonight is finding a way to put the Rangers hitters away.

One key for Lewis in Game 2 was his use of the curveball as an out pitch, as the Yankees went 0-for-4 against the hook. Lewis was also effective in getting Yankee hitters to chase pitches, with four of his six total strikeouts coming on pitches out of the zone.

Again, the issues for the Yankees came with two strikes. It will be even more important to resist the temptation to chase pitches tonight, as free-swinging Marcus Thames will be replacing Mark Teixeira's bat in the line-up and another free-swinger--Robinson Cano--will be moving up in the lineup to the third slot. The Yankees ability to get hits off of Lewis with runners on and to get to the Rangers bullpen early will be a key to this game.

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Tonight's Pitching Matchup: Yankees vs. Rangers Game 4

Whether you have faith in A.J. or have faith in the Yankees...or not, tonight is a big game. With the Yankees down 2-1, they need a good outing from the enigmatic starter. On the other hand, the young Tommy Hunter goes for the Rangers. Here's the match-up

A.J. Burnett vs. the Rangers hitters (including playoffs)

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP
Matt Treanor	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	0	0	0	0
Josh Hamilton	19	16	4	2	0	1	3	2	2	.250	.368	.563	.931	0	0	1	0
David Murphy	22	17	5	0	0	1	2	4	4	.294	.455	.471	.925	0	0	1	0
Nelson Cruz	18	14	2	1	0	1	4	4	8	.143	.333	.429	.762	0	0	0	0
Vladimir Guerrero	60	56	13	6	0	2	6	4	13	.232	.283	.446	.730	0	1	0	2
Mike Young	37	36	9	1	0	1	1	1	6	.250	.270	.361	.631	0	0	0	0
Ian Kinsler	22	20	4	0	0	1	4	1	4	.200	.273	.350	.623	0	0	1	0
Elvis Andrus	17	14	3	0	0	0	0	2	4	.214	.353	.214	.567	0	0	1	0
Bengie Molina	5	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200	.200	.200	.400	0	0	0	0
Julio Borbon	9	9	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	.111	.111	.111	.222	0	0	0	1
Jorge Cantu	15	15	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	.067	.067	.067	.133	0	0	0	0
Jeff Francoeur	9	7	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	.000	.111	.000	.111	1	0	0	0
Cliff Lee	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
Mitch Moreland	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
Total	238	213	44	10	0	7	24	20	50	.207	.286	.352	.638	1	1	4	3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/19/2010.

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Tonight's Pitching Matchup: Yankees vs. Rangers Game 3

1 win a piece and now we're back to New York for Game 3. This game will feature two veteran lefties who have a chance at swinging the series. Let's take a look at how they match up against the teams they're about to face:

Andy Pettitte vs. the Rangers hitters (including playoffs)

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	GDP
Jeff Francoeur	11	11	6	1	0	1	1	0	1	.545	.545	.909	1.455	0	0	1
Elvis Andrus	9	5	2	1	0	0	1	4	2	.400	.667	.600	1.267	0	0	0
David Murphy	12	11	4	1	0	1	3	1	2	.364	.417	.727	1.144	0	0	0
Vladimir Guerrero	33	31	13	4	0	1	3	2	6	.419	.455	.645	1.100	0	0	0
Jorge Cantu	3	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.667	1.000	0	0	0
Josh Hamilton	10	10	3	0	0	1	2	0	2	.300	.300	.600	.900	0	0	0
Bengie Molina	22	22	7	0	0	1	3	0	2	.318	.318	.455	.773	0	0	1
Mike Young	38	31	9	2	0	0	6	5	9	.290	.368	.355	.723	0	2	0
Matt Treanor	3	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	0	0	0
Ian Kinsler	15	14	3	1	0	0	1	1	1	.214	.267	.286	.552	0	0	2
Nelson Cruz	15	11	1	0	0	0	1	4	2	.091	.333	.091	.424	0	0	1
Andres Blanco	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	1	0	0
Total	173	153	50	11	0	5	21	17	27	.327	.390	.497	.886	1	2	5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/18/2010.

This is not a pretty picture for Yankee fans who are hoping that history will be on their side tonight. It's a good thing that past results are not indicative of future results. Besides Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler, most of the Rangers lineup has manhandled Andy Pettitte. Pettitte's one advantage is that he's good at keeping runners close at first so hopefully that will limit the Rangers running tonight. While the individuals have been good against Pettitte, he's had a pretty good success rate against the team. In his one 2010 start, Pettitte went 8 innings in April against the Rangers, giving up only 4 hits and 2 runs, striking out 4 and walking 3. Elvis Andrus and Michael Young were the two Rangers to get to Pettitte that day.

Overall in Pettitte's regular season career he is 11-9 with a 5.24 ERA in 146 innings against the Rangers, striking out 105 and walking 51 while giving up 178 hits, but had much more success against them in the playoffs, pitching Game 2 of the ALDS in 1996, 1998 and 1999 and earning the victory in two of those three games (the 1996 game he got a no decision but the Yankees won regardless). For the Yankees to have success tonight, they will need another good start from Pettitte who went 7 innings of 2 run ball in Game 2 of the ALDS.

Cliff Lee vs. the Yankees hitters (including playoffs)

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