Some free advice from HalfBaked Jake
The Yankees could win the World Series without playing a postseason game in the Bronx. It’s unimaginable, even sacrilegious, isn’t it? Then again, the Yankees could lose the best-of-three AL wild card series at Cleveland and their quick exit would make all the sense in the world.
Even with a Gucci bag of perspicacity as fully loaded as Half-Baked Jake’s, there’s no answers for the Yankee enigma. So let’s sit just back Tuesday night and see if Gerrit Cole is worth the first postseason withdrawal on his $324 million freeagent deal. And hope he isn’t swarmed by Lake Erie midges like Joba Chamberlain.
In the meantime, permit Half-Baked to withdraw from his bag of acuity after five area teams’ seasons ended over the weekend (three officially).
Hire Alex Cora.
Fire Adam Gase as soon as Thursday night.
Fire Dave Gettleman last week.
Danny Ainge, think long and hard.
Ladies and Mr. Met, please welcome $14.1 billion.
Hiring Cora as manager is such an easy decision for the Red Sox that only Chaim Bloom’s ego could get in the way. And we’re not even sure if Boston’s chief baseball officer has much of an ego. So don’t complicate this, Chaim.
Bloom was given the keys to build a consistent winner after Dave Dombrowski was brought in to essentially buy a championship — which he did with Cora in 2018. We know the Tampa Bay Rays that Bloom worked for are smart. We know the Rays are creative. We know they finished first in the AL East. We also know the Rays have never won a World Series title and the Red Sox, with much deeper pockets, have won four since 2004.
Don’t make this a test on your Yale degree or how much baseball you learned in St. Petersburg, Chaim. The ownership resetting the competitive balance tax structure by trading Mookie Betts and David Price, the Tommy John surgery for Chris Sale and the COVID-19 heart problems of Eduardo Rodriguez takes Bloom off the hook for 2020. He was dealt a lousy hand. Unless, Ron Roenicke suddenly turned into, oh, Alex Cora, it grew apparent he was a nice substitute algebra teacher.
Matt Quatraro, Sam Fuld, Mark Kotsay, Luis Urueta, Jason Varitek, we can line up a credible list of possibilities and the ones with Rays’ ties obviously have an “in” with Bloom. The Red Sox and Bloom did the right thing — the only thing — when they fired Cora before the season after he was tied to the cheating scandal with the Astros. Cora deserved MLB’s one-year suspension. He has to live with that taint forever. He also has done his time and is a tremendous manager, richly respected by Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, etc.
The Red Sox escaped with a slap on the wrist from MLB on
2018, but Bloom had to live with the results of what Cora did the year before with the 2017 signstealing Astros. He doesn’t have to be happy with Cora for putting him in the spot he did. Bloom used so many words to say nothing about Cora on Sunday that people read it both ways. Yes, Bloom has to hire the right guy. After one season on the job, yes, now is the time for Bloom to start making his own mark. But this move shouldn’t be over-thought. Hire Cora when his suspension ends after the World Series. Cora the right guy. Half-Baked tweeted late Sunday night that he thought the Connecticut Department of Health also had the power to forbid the Jets and Giants — off to
0-3 starts — from playing football this fall. Side-splitting comedy, right? But then Half-Baked was reminded by a Twitter pal that the Giants and Jets are high school teams. Ouch. Steve Politi, the excellent columnist of the Newark Star-Ledger only accused the Giants of losing to the 49ers’ junior varsity.
The 49ers were missing 10 projected starters to injury after beating the Jets, 31-13, on the MetLife Stadium turf the previous week. Didn’t matter. The Niners beat the Giants, 36-9 on that same turf. They didn’t have to punt in a game for the first time since 1993. The Giants offense never got into the red zone. Daniel Jones threw an interception and, of course, lost another fumble.
With the Cowboys, Eagles and Redskins sharing the same division, it should be impossible for the Giants to run the 0-16 table, but, hey, Saquon Barkley is lost for the season with a torn ACL and nbcsports.com does have them ranked 31st of 32 teams. Far be it for Half-Baked to jump on the Mike Francesa train, but he has been right on Gettleman’s incompetence the entire time. We’ve wasted enough space on his personnel mistakes. Suffice to say: Not equipped to run the Giants.
Speaking of the DPH, how about them J-E-T-S?
Look, firing Adam Gase isn’t going to immediately turn Gangrene into a winner. Even if the guy who would likely replace him, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams — as the New York Post pointed out — is one of the few interims to post a winning record (5-3 with the Browns in 2018). Yet if the Jets get stomped by the 0-3 Broncos on national TV on Thursday night, with the locker room already said to be turning on their coach, the club will have little choice but to fire him. You can’t have mayhem.
The team stinks in all three phases. San Darnold is regressing at quarterback. And if getting outscored 94-37 in three NFL games — this isn’t Alabama vs. Western Carolina — isn’t bad enough, the Jets have been outscored 59-13 in the first half.
Could be a helluva race between the Jets and Giants to get Trevor Lawrence No. 1 in the NFL draft. You know, the next Joe Namath. (Aren’t they all, New York?)
We are not allowed to do anything except give hosannas and lay flowers at the feet of Kemba Walker in Connecticut — and Kemba did a better than adequate job replacing Kyrie Irving — but permit me to say he did have his share of up and down playoff games.
Don’t get it wrong. Kemba’s part of the solution, not the problem. But the Celtics have not found The Solution. When he isn’t off to a slow start, Jayson Tatum, 22, is already one of the NBA’s best. A max contract extension is next on his list. When Gordon Hayward is healthy, something hard to find during his stay in Boston, five Celtics are among the top 50-55 players in the league (Half-Baked includes hard-as-nails Marcus Smart).
Getting to Game 6 of the Eastern Finals would have been seen as a good run last fall. Still, the doors were thrown open for a run to the Finals and the Celtics wilted when it mattered most. They lost a 14-point fourth quarter lead in Game 1. They lost a 17-point lead in Game 2. Down by one with 5:30 left in Game 6, they were outscored 13-0 over a 2:51 stretch.
Daniel Theis couldn’t stop Bam Adabayo in Game 6. Brad Stevens should have gone more with Grant Williams against Bam. Still, it’s easy to say dangle Hayward and one or two of their firstround picks for a star big man. Remember the Celtics are the same team that stopped Joel Embid in the first round.
The hard truth is Celtics didn’t defend nearly well enough when it mattered against Miami. They went iso ball when it mattered. They were favored over the Heat and weren’t nearly as resilient nor cohesive.
One name that has been rumored for a while is Myles Turner of the Pacers. That makes sense. Yet before he moves an inch, Ainge needs to decide why the Heat were more resilient, more physical and more cohesive in fourth quarters. And then decide if it was a matter of maturity, of a team that needs another season of gelling with Kemba, or needs to trade a wing man for a big. There are only a handful of true star big men. Hayward has a final-year $34 million player option, so if he were to go it would likely have to be to a team close to winning it all. So think, Danny, think for The Solution.
Pending final MLB approval of the $2.4 billion sale, Greenwich’s Steve Cohen, who grew up a Mets fan on Long Island, will take over the franchise and Sandy Alderson will return as the team’s president. After the Mets missed the postseason in 15 of 18 seasons during the Wilpon reign, we will see if Cohen is the messiah so many Mets fans believe. This we do know. At $14.1 billion he is worth more than the next three richest owners combined. As my late great mother-in-law and Mets fanatic would say, “Don’t be afraid to spend some of it, Mr. Cohen.”