Bleacher Report - Articles by Brian Sausa

The Only Met Swinging To Win

Brian Sausa — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:45:09 -0400

Overall, the New York Mets have underachieved up until this point in the season. Sitting at 10-13, their mediocre brand of baseball has had the Queens faithful groaning both in their living room and in the seats of the sparkling new Citi Field.

When the hitting is there, the pitching hasn’t been, and vice versa. The starters other than Johan Santana have been shaky, and the bullpen has had 2007 and 2008 relapses at times.

With not much to cheer about the Met fans, watched John Maine surrender six walks at Turner Field in Atlanta, where New York went 1-8 last year.

The Mets trailed 3-0 in the sixth inning. It was their big hitter of the 2009 season, Carlos Beltran who pulled out the whoopin’ stick on Javier Vazquez. sending a rope into the left-center field bleachers.

Newly strikeout-prone David Wright would add a two-run shot of his own two batters later to give the Mets the lead. Then in the eighth, the .400-hitting Beltran went yard again, another two-run shot, giving the Mets two runs of very much needed cushion, cementing a 6-4 victory over their oldest rival.

The point isn't David Wright finally hitting a ball a long way, or even the Mets pulling out a 2009 rarity and coming back form three runs down. The story here is Carlos Beltran.

Since his arrival in 2005, he has been the most criticized Met ahead of anybody else whether it's his lack of sliding (which is still a problem,) his lackadaisical outfield play, his inability to take the bat off his shoulder, or his inability to hit when it counts.

Well right now, he is the only one hitting and it does count. Beltran will go down as one of the best switch hitters of this generation, and one of the great switch hitters of all time.

The Mets are being led not by their spark plug Jose Reyes, or their golden boy Wright, but by the guy with the most overall talent on the team. The same guy that has been booed at Shea Stadium since 2005 for his streaky hitting and seemingly effortless yet still amazing fielding.

Carlos Beltran is the heart of the Mets right now, and thanks to him, this team is staying afloat. This team will catch fire, and when they do they’ll have him to thank for his inability to quit and stop hitting when everyone else has.

NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals: Which Hero Will Rise?

Brian Sausa — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:35:37 -0400

As if the first round of the NHL Eastern Conference Stanley Cup Playoffs wasn't exciting enough, the second round gets even better. The heads of all NHL fans, turn to Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Not only does Crosby help his Pittsburgh Penguins dispose of the Philadelphia Flyers in six games, but he gets to go on to face the rugged, hard-hitting sniper Ovechkin in the next series.

Along that same line not only does Ovechkin lead the best line in all of hockey back from down 3-1 to the New York Rangers, but he also gets to lead his team into battle with the finesse-filled, pretty-boy Crosby starting Saturday afternoon at the Verizon Center. This is the type of match-up the NHL wanted, and you can tell as the referees did all they could to yank the previous series out of the Rangers' hands, but that's a whole other story.

Now we all predict for ourselves, "How will it play out?" Will the tough rugged Russian prevail over the shifty Canadian, or vice versa? This is the view I see of the upcoming series, and why I feel the advantage lies with the boys of D.C.

The Washington Capitals, who were 3-0-1 vs. Pittsburgh this year, have too much firepower for the Pittsburgh Penguins to handle. The aforementioned best line in hockey presents a challenge for the Pens that their defense cannot handle. Backstrom, Semin and Ovechkin lead the way for a Washington team thast went into Madison Square Garden in a must-win Game Six and made the Rangers look like a bad high-school team. The Penguins do have a better proven goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury, who has played in the post-season before.

Washington is still riding the wave of rookie standout goaltender Simeon Varlamov. His career record is 4-0-1, all wins coming in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, out-dueling Henrik Lindqvist of the Rangers. Nobody can really know how Varlamov will fare for the rest of the playoffs, but if there's one thing the Russian has its confidence.

The goaltending will not matter because Fleury is not as good as King Henrik and even though the Capitals struggled top score at times, they scored enough. Aside from that first line, guys like Tomas Fleishmann, Sergei Fedorov, and Viktor Kozlov are too much for Crosby and Malkin to handle. Not to mention the top offensive defenseman in all of hockey, Norris Trophy candidate Mike Green.

The Capitals are a recipe for disaster until there is a team that can score more than them, and the Penguins are not the team. I will say Capitals in six games unless Fleury can stand on his head for Pittsburgh. When you have the best player in all of hockey with other great players surrounding him like the Caps do, it's hard to beat four-out-of-seven times.

Looking Ahead: The New York Mets Offense In 2009

Brian Sausa — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:59:32 -0500

There is definitely some upgrades to the New York Mets entering the 2009 season. Most of those advancements, including all the important ones were made in the pitching department.

Pitching was obviously the biggest problem with the team last year so the moves were some of the best they could have made. However, we are here to talk about the offense, which received no upgrade whatsoever, other than a seemingly healthy Ryan Church.

Many will tell you the hitting was also a huge problem with this team which is why the Mets should have pursued Manny Ramirez this offseason. While Ramirez would be a tremendous help in any lineup, I am here to say to Met fans everywhere that it is going to be okay. Because the offensive output the team had in 2008 was more than enough to win the NL East, and will be enough this year as well.

If the bullpen for New York would have saved just a third of the games they blew, the Mets would have won the division by at least three games. The Mets scored 799 runs in 2008, second in the NL, tied with the world champion Phillies, and only trailing the Cubs. The offensive output was there, even with lowly Luis Castillo in the lineup at times. This year, the lineup will be about the same, and so the run totals should be there. With better pitching now, it should be a recipe for success.

The lineup on opening day is probably going to end up like this:

Reyes

Castillo

Wright

Delgado

Beltran

Church

Murphy

Schneider

Santana

This lineup has the potential to be one of the best in baseball, and definitely could be the most productive in the National League.

As always, the keys are going to be Jose Reyes, who is the sparkplug for this team, and David Wright. Because of Reyes, and whoever the No. 2 hitter was, Wright got up a lot of times with two out, nobody on in the first inning. David hit .313 in those situations last year. Bottom line is the Mets need to get their OBP up.

Reyes cannot go through dry spells of 2 for 21 like he has done at times in his career. Wright will get his .300 and his 100 RBIs but last year he could have had 150 RBI instead of 124. Believe it or not, a huge key to this team is also going to be Luis Castillo. He has been a rally killer ever since coming to New York. He needs to prove that he can extend the rally, and maybe even steal some bases. He needs not be so selective at the plate and look for walks but should poke and slice singles into the outfield, which is what he’s made his living doing.

Murphy should hit second , and Castillo eighth in my opinion but I do not see it happening here. Jerry Manuel believes in everyone on his clubs’ offensive ability, including Castillo. Other than Castillo, Ryan Church is another guy to be concerned with. He needs to come out and prove he can be the hitter he was in the beginning of 2008 before all the concussions that sidelined him for most of the season. Nobody really knows what it will take for him to be out again, so it leaves Met fans nervous, even skeptical of their right fielder at this point. It is up to Church to put that notion down. According to him, he is ready and feeling good for spring training.

Changing our subject, there is not a lot of power in this lineup for 2009. We can’t really expect Carlos Delgado to duplicate what he did in the second half of 2008 can we? But besides Delgado, Beltran and Wright we know, Reyes occasionally, and Murphy in a flash as well. Other than that, this needs to be a gritty team that grinds out wins with steals and smart base running. In the big spots this year, the Mets are going to want David Wright and Carlos Beltran at the plate. Beltran? Yes, Carlos Beltran struggled in the big spot all of last year and now he will be back as one of the best switch hitters of this generation, if not the best.

As for Wright, he is New York’s golden boy, homegrown superstar, and best player. He will do his part to take this team on his back into the postseason. High-pressure situations are what Wright looks for in a baseball game. He also struggled in big spots in 2008, so we will see how those two, the three and five hitters fare at the plate when the Mets need a big hit.

When push comes to shove this is the biggest overall concern for the Mets in 2009. This lineup, as said before, has all the goods to be an absolute terror for any National League Pitcher. The problem is that we do not know what will happen because it was the same situation last year and there were way too many spots where the big hit did not come. We will see, but my final opinion here is that the Mets will really be fine and will put out the offense they are capable of. The Mets should be very successful in 2009, on the road to winning the NL East.

Francisco Rodriguez Headed To Queens

Brian Sausa — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:12:51 -0500

Major League Baseball's best closer has come to terms with the New York Mets this afternoon at the winter meetings in Las Vegas.

Mets GM Omar Minaya wasted no time on Sunday night when the meetings first started, sitting down for dinner with the single-season save record-holder, Francisco Rodriguez.

Today, it was announced that pending a physical, the Mets get the world-class closer for three years at a cost of $37 million. That's ust over twelve million a year—which is considerably lower than the fifteen million everyone originally thought it was going to cost to get Rodriguez.

This now means the Mets enter 2009 and Citi Field with a remarkably huge addition to a terrible bullpen. Hopefully this is the first of several moves to sure up Met pitching.

K-Rod to the Big Apple was an exciting thought, and now it is a happy reality. The closer has such an enthusiastic attitude that he fits in New York well. The blue-collar Met faithful will love Rodriguez's intensity every night on the mound. He seems like one of the few players that actually wants to win more than the fans do.

Welcome to Queens, K-Rod—the biggest move of the winter meetings, and will be one of the most important of the offseason.

Big 12 Tragedy...Surprise, Surprise...The BCS Committee Screwed Up Again

Brian Sausa — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:28:13 -0500

Anyone that tells you that Oklahoma deserves to be in the Big 12 title game vs. Mizzou over Texas does not know what they are talking about. Texas is the latest victim of the BCS committee, being stripped of their chance to go to the national championship game.

As we all know, it has been an extremely interesting season in the Big 12 with the Sooners, Longhorns, and Red Raiders of Texas Tech, who if it wasn't for their loss vs. Oklahoma would be in the big game.

Each team plead their case as Tech thought they deserved it because they beat Texas, who beat Oklahoma.

Oklahoma thinks they are rightfully in this position because they beat Tech, who beat Texas.

Finally, Texas thinks they were stubbed since they beat Oklahoma. And Texas is right. Mack Brown's team deserves more than Oklahoma to be in Kansas City this weekend.

Lobbyists for Oklahoma say that OU deserves to be where they are now based on a few criteria. That criteria is best road win, out of conference win, and margin of victory, among a few other things. Those stats do show that the Sooners are much more impressive in those categories. If we had to pick between the two teams based on that, of course Bob Stoops' club would be on top.

Too bad it doesn't matter because THEY PLAYED EACH OTHER!! And we all know what happened...Texas won the game. 45-35 Longhorns.

That means that it should be Texas at Arrowhead Stadium next week playing for a spot in the BCS National Championship at the Orange Bowl. You can't use all the outside stats when the two teams met. This, going along with the fact that the Big 12 is letting the idiots on the BCS committee decide their final game, is where we end up.

A team most deserving getting snubbed without a legitimate reason. Don't expect a good explanation either because there isn't one and there's no good reason for this. It makes someone who loves watching college football for three months sick to see an injustice like this. In addition, trying to justify Oklahoma deserving to be where they are is just as bad as what happened to Texas.

The bottom line is this: Texas BEAT Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a great team. But when they met at the Cotton Bowl this year.

To make matters worse, and an even more unjustifiable thing happened this week. Texas was in front of Oklahoma in the rankings. So after OU wins by 20 at Oklahoma State, and Texas wins 49-9 at Texas A&M, Oklahoma jumps them. They were flip-flopped at No. 2 and No. 3 for absolutely no reason.

This is what the morons at the BCS think: Well OU won by 20 vs. a good Ok. St. team. (true) Texas won by 40 vs. a bad A&M team. (also true) Since point differential and opponent is taken into consideration, that means they think that A&M has to be less than half as good as Oklahoma State since Texas won by double the margin, therefore Oklahoma gets to move up in the rankings.

How ridiculous and stupid is what I just said? Very dumb, but do not put it past the BCS idiots because that is the only thing I can think of that would make them flip-flop the Longhorns and Sooners.

The way this came out is a travesty and the BCS should be ashamed of itself. Texas deserves to be in that game. Go Mizzou because OU doesn't deserve it.

Detroit Red WIngs Heading Back to the Stanley Cup Finals Again?

Brian Sausa — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:39:36 -0400

The 2007-2008 Detroit Red Wings were not just the best team in the Western Conference last year—they were the best team in the NHL, by far.

You don't always see the best team win the Cup, because sometimes they lose in a playoff series on the way, or come up short in the Finals. That was not the case at all last year, as the best team in the NHL went with little trouble to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In six games—led by Chris Osgood, not Dominik Hasek; with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk and not Steve Yzerman—the Red Wings won their eleventh Stanley Cup over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

To add to the bad news for the rest of the NHL, this team has not gotten any worse. In fact, they actually signed Marian Hossa to a one-year, $7.4 million deal. Hossa was a member of the Penguins team that lost in the Finals to Detroit.

There are only about six teams that have a legitimate chance of winning the Stanley Cup. Detroit is clearly the front-runner of them all. Nobody is saying they cannot be beaten, because as we all know, surprises happen all the time in sports. The point is that no team in the NHL, at least not right now, is good enough to beat Detroit in a seven-game series.

It will be very interesting to watch this team play and see if the same urgency is there, even with a ring from last spring. With the new NHL schedule and everybody playing each other at least once, every team will get see the Red Wings, and on the road I'm sure they will be a good draw.

This is przetty much the same team that owned the NHL last year and my prediction is a repeat. Go ahead and try to beat this team four times in about a week—it probably won't happen.

Penguins-Flyers Battle Stars Sid the Kid and Amazing Evgeni Malkin

Brian Sausa — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:37:08 -0400

The NHL Eastern Conference Finals are sure to be two extremely entertaining series.

A scrappy group of Philadelphia Flyers are fresh off convincingly beating the number one seeded Montreal Canadiens in five games.

Their interstate opponents, hailing from the West, are the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins also won their series in five games, topping the New York Rangers.

Now these two meet for the right to represent the Eastern Conference of the NHL in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The finessed Penguins razzle-dazzle with young studs Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Many people like to argue about which phenom is better.

I don't think it matters since they are on the same team and complement each other like peanut butter compliments jelly. Crafty vets, such as Marian Hossa and Gary Roberts, make this team extremely dangerous.

On top of that, I'm sure that Pittsburgh's talented goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury plans to make it difficult for the boys from Philly.

On the flip side: the Philadelphia Flyers. Led mostly by young players, the talented Flyers have used grit, hustle, and lots of speed to win the two series thus far.

Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and R.J. Umberger lead the attack on opponents and are extremely successful. Seasoned veteran defenseman Derian Hatcher holds the group together. Minding the net is Martin Biron, a standout in the league, and a clutch playoff performer in the playoffs thus far.

This is, flat out, a hard team to beat four times out of seven.

My Prediction

There are pros to both teams. They are both very good at executing their game plans. The Flyers dump and chase and use their speed, while the Penguins play a tic-tac-toe passing game that is fun to watch.

Both styles are the beauty of hockey itself—old school dump and chase, crashing the boards versus the finesse of Pittsburgh's young and talented players.

The Penguins have more talent than the Flyers, so they will win this series in six games, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go the distance.

This is a hard-fought interstate and inter-division series. Ultimately, the Pens will emerge victorious because the Flyers' defensive corps, as a whole, will not be able to hold the offensive talent of Pittsburgh, led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Philadelphia will fight hard and win a couple of games. But overall, Sid and Malkin will get the job done, doing what they do best.

When 87 and 71 are out on the ice, great things happen.

What Will Hinder Mets From Post-Season Glory?

Brian Sausa — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:22:17 -0400

The New York Mets are now 30 games into the 2008 season. There are many fans, including this one, that are upset with many different things involving this ball club. One of those things being the hitting. With a lineup containing several run producer, plus electric Jose Reyes, they have managed just over 4.5 runs per game in the early going. I will not sit here and defend that number because we all know damn well this team is capable of more than that. However, the hitting is not the biggest problem, at least not in my mind it isn't.

Say what you will about the lineup and this and that and Ryan Church needing to be in the 2-hold since Luis Castillo hasn't swung the bat since his knees were good. That is not the issue. The lineup will come around. The focus here needs to be the pitching. The bullpen is to be left aside for this one. I am talking about the starting rotation in Queens. We know what we get form Johan Santana. He is arguably the best pitcher in baseball and is the guy to stop a losing streak and keep the team afloat. He is everything the Mets needed coming into this year, especially with Pedro Martinez on the Disabled List. But Santana is really the only constant in the rotation. Mike Pelfrey is still a young kid out of Wichita State learning the big league hitters. Give him time. Nelson Figueroa has filled in nicely, but he is not part of the long term picture nor is he nearly as important and John Maine and Oliver Perez. These are two men the Mets need desperately if they are to go deep into the playoffs and finally capture that pennant that left Shea Stadium just as Yadier Molina's home run did in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series. Both of these guys were 15-10 last year, and were great for the Mets, and vital to their success. Maine I will give a pass on because he is certainly talented and coming into his own not just this season after a shaky start, but as a major league pitcher all around. Now on to Oliver Perez. The Mexican southpaw was a throw-in in the trade between the Mets and Pirates when New York sent reliable outfielder Xavier Nady to the steel city for beyond-aging Roberto Hernandez following Duaner Sanchez getting injured in an auto accident over the All-Star break. He has got all the talent in the world, really great stuff and he can be potentially great. Key word there is potentially. He has yet to prove he can harness that talent and turn himself into a really good big league pitcher. He was clutch for the Mets down the stretch in 2006, and good last year with that 15-10 record, but is ridiculously inconsistent. He needs to settle down, work with pitching coach Rick Peterson, and get his head out of....well, you know where. If Oliver Perez can straighten up and fly right, and if John Maine can continue to improve, the Mets will be off into the postseason and ready for any team in the National League. The lineup will come around, and now as a whole, its time for the starting rotation to come around also.

New York-San Jose: Goals From Mike Magee and Jozy Altidore Give Bulls 3 Points

Brian Sausa — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:02:25 -0400

The New York Red Bulls came into their game against the re-expansion San Jose Earthquakes needing a win. With a 1-1-1 record, they were at five points, several behind the Eastern Conference leaders.

The game begun as a defensive tussle, with not many shots on goal, even though the Bulls had several corner kicks. As a live viewer, it was a game that seemed uneventful heading into the half.

As the second half went on, it seemed that San Jose sat back as New York raised their ante and outplayed them. However, it was not until the 79th minute that the scoreboard shook a zero off of it.

A cross into the box from New York's John Wolyniec hit 18-year old sensation Jozy Altidore, and he was taken down by San Jose defender Ryan Cochrane. This resulted in a penalty kick taken by Mike Magee. Magee riped the kick to the upper-left side and beat Earthquake keeper Joe Cannon over the right shoulder. Cannon had a good game, but did not have an answer for Magee from the penalty dot. It was the first goal for Magee since July 22, 2006, when he scored the game winner against Kansas City at the Meadowlands.

That 1-0 lead was held until extra time of the second half, when Jozy Altidore tallied another one for the Red Bulls after receiving a superb pass from John Wolyniec, who had an extremely impressive game all-around, along with everyone else on the field for New York. The 2-0 win was able to happen thanks to the wonderful defense of Seth Stammler and Chris Leitch. Captain Claudio Reyna played a good and spirited first half. A solid game from Luke Sassano also deserves noting.

The most intriguing part of this victory is that the Red Bulls managed to do it without their leading scorer from last year, Juan Pablo Angel. Angel has been suffering from a nerve-related lower-back injury. We see many times that teams do not come out with a big effort when missing their top player.

Not the case on this night under the lights, as the New York Red Bulls came out with a supreme effort from keeper Jon Conway to striker Jozy Altidore. With an impressive display under early season pressure, the Red Bulls answer the call for three points, and the second win for Head Coach Juan Carlos Osorio.