Brunell Aboard; Pre-Training Camp Roster

After about three months of speculation, the Jets have finally signed free agent quarterback, Mark Brunell. Brunell served the last two years as Drew Brees' backup in New Orleans and hopefully can help turn Sanchez into the same type of quarterback Brees is. Brought in more for his experience, Brunell will serve as Sanchez' mentor. Known for his accuracy, Brunell should help Sanchez as he tries to cut down from his 20 interception rookie season.

With Training Camp just days away, I'd like to give my first crack at what the roster might look like come September 13:

OFFENSE
WR - Cotchery, Edwards, B. Smith, Clowney, Woodhead
QB - Sanchez, Brunell, Ainge
LT - Ferguson, Hunter
LG - Ducasse, Slauson
C - Mangold, Turner
RG - Moore, Slauson
RT - Woody, Hunter
RB - Greene, Tomlinson, McKnight
FB - Richardson, Conner

DEFENSE
RE - DeVito, Gholston
NT - Jenkins, Pouha, Kroul
LE - Ellis, Pitoitua
OLB - Pace, Thomas, Taylor, Westermann
ILB - Harris, Scott, Cummings, Laury, Reamer
CB - Revis, Cromartie, Wilson, Lowery, Cole, Coleman
S - Leonhard, Pool, E. Smith, Ihedigbo, Warren

SPECIAL TEAMS
K - Folk
P - Weatherford
LS - Purdum

A few things about THIS 53-man roster:

Biggest note - no Santonio Holmes. He's been suspended for the first four games. My 53rd man was Drew Coleman. My guess is Rex will add another guy to the special teams unit until Holmes returns.

Strongest unit - Linebackers. Starters Pace, Thomas, Harris and Scott need no mentioning, but the depth behind them this year is supurb. I expect Jason Taylor to have a nice year as a situational pass rusher and Jamaal Westermann had a very good rookie season as an UDFA out of Rutgers. On the inside, Kenwin Cummings was one of the stars of the offseason, often the recipient of praises from Rex. Lance Laury and Cory Reamer are special teamers who could see some time at ILB. Laury will be the new Larry Izzo and Reamer has impressed with him ability to digest the playbook.

Weakest - Specialists. I don't think I'm alone in my fears with Nick Folk as the kicker and Steve Weatherford back for another year of mediocre punting. I do expect guys to be signed to compete, (P T.J. Conley is on the roster already) but right now, I see those two being the guys once the season starts.

Season Premiere

It took me around two months, but last night I finally completed all three seasons of AMC's Mad Men. With the season premiere being tomorrow (Sunday 7/25 at 10:00pm), I was pressed for time these last few weeks. But I am very happy that I am finished, and cant wait for tomorrow nights season premiere.

If you don't know what Mad Men is, it was only won the Screen Actors Guild Award for the best television drama in 2008, 2009, and 2010. So yea, it's good. The main plot revolves around Don Draper (Jon Hamm) as the creative director for the fictional New York advertising company, Sterling-Cooper in the 1960s. I don't want to give away any spoilers or anything for those who haven't seen any episodes or sound like Wikipedia, which gives good information on the show, so I will try to be brief.

What originally drew me in in season one was the culture and seeing how life in New York was in the 60s. I won't lie, I didn't think the first few episodes were all that great, but it was the historicism that kept my interest. It wasn't until later in the season that you were able to see some kind of direction and form relationships with the characters.

It truly so different from today and yet it was only around 40 years ago. Historical topics such as the Space Race and the fear of Russians and the assassination of President Kennedy come up on the show and do a far better job of portraying the emotions of the time than any text book.

Though there isn't an actor on the show that is a household name, that doesn't mean that this is poor cast. The acting is tremendous and it is good to see Jon Hamm getting bigger within Hollywood. His supporting cast, Betty Draper (January Jones), Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) and Peter Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) are all young actors with bright futures.

The season three finale that I watched last night, was really a phenomenal episode. Though I suggest trying to watch all 39 episodes if possible (I watched nearly all of them online and they are all easily found) if you are going to watch one episode in advance of season four, make sure it is that one.

Guest Podcast

Check out http://bigdansports.blogspot.com/ for a podcast I did for Dan's blog. Talked about baseball and a little Madmen.

Did Garth Snow Fail?

It's hard to say what was going on in the minds of the Islanders, Devils and Kings front offices. I don't know for sure how hard of a push the Islanders made for Ilya Kovalchuk or if he ever even considered signing here. I do know one thing though. If I were GM Garth Snow, I'd have done everything I could have to bring him year.

He ultimately signed a 17 year deal to return to New Jersey. Rough numbers are that it was at 102 million and it could reach much higher. That is a lot of years and a lot of money. Chances are, he wont play it out - he'll be 44 at the end of 17 years. What I heard though, is that the Islanders just barely had their feet in the water with Kovalchuk. This is unacceptable. There is a chance the team is moved and what is being done to convince ownership to stay?

The Lighthouse project seems like it was a wash. That could have been great for Long Island and Nassau County, but it appears no one other than Charles Wang and Islander fans wanted it to happen. It has long been known that Long Island is a tough draw for free agents. Despite the proximity to NYC and the great beaches, free agents just do not want to play at the Nassau Coliseum.

Snow had the money to bring in a BIG free agent like Kovalchuk, but did nothing. This team is losing fans and money and Kovalchuk might have been a franchise savior. Along with Tavares and Okposo, fans would have been selling out the Coliseum to see them play together. Kovalchuk would have brought hope and life to this dying team. I can't say for sure if the team is going to be moved, but if I'm Charles Wang there is nothing that makes me want to stay here and I can't blame him. If the team is moved to Kansas City or wherever, we can always look back at the day Kovalchuk resigned with the Devils and wonder if we missed our chance.

Arrivals and Departures

It seems as though the Mets are going to have a number of roster moves to make in the next two weeks to go along with the ones they already have so far after the break:

A team source said Luis Castillo is expected to return tomorrow which likely spells the end of Justin Turner, who is starting today in the series finale against San Francisco.

Oliver Perez is also finishing up his rehab assignment and could rejoin the team by the end of the week in what Jerry Manuel calls a "lefty vs. lefty" situation.

Jose Reyes is supposedly on track to start tomorrow in Arizona, but we could never be certain until we actually see him take the field. If he doesn't, you have to think about putting him on the DL as it just a waste of a roster spot.

If Castillo returns and Turner is demoted back to AAA Buffalo, that still leaves 4 middle infielders on the roster assuming Reyes isn't placed on the DL. That's too many in my opinion unless Alex Cora becomes the primary backup 1B and 3B. That then makes you wonder what will happen when Fernando Tatis comes back.

If Perez comes back this week, my guess is that Raul Valdes would be sent back to AAA. However, a move like this could really damage the bullpen long term. Valdes just pitched 2.1 innings last night of mop up duty. Yes, he let up two runs during that time, but he was able to get through 2 full innings of work. If Perez is only going to face one or two lefties at a time, there is no long man in the bullpen. The only way to fix that problem would be to move Takahashi back to the bullpen and call up someone like Pat Misch and hope lightning strikes twice with him and R.A. Dickey.

If I had my way, Castillo comes back and BOTH Justin Turner and Ruben Tejada are sent to AAA. Along with Castillo, Nick Evans gets called back to be the primary right handed PH off the bench. He could also played 1B and, not that its needed right now, but OF. (This is contingent on Reyes starting at SS tomorrow in Arizona).

Takahashi is moved back to the bullpen, indications are he will make his next scheduled start Thursday, but I still want him in the pen regardless of that outcome. Pat Misch is recalled to be the starter long term or until the team acquires a pitcher. Oliver Perez is then recalled for his "lefty vs lefty" situation and Valdes is sent down.

Oh, and the team is still carrying three catchers.

Bay Batting Second?

Tonight's lineup vs. San Fransisco:

1 - Tejada - SS
2 - Bay - LF
3 - Wright - LF
4 - Beltran - CF
5 - Francoeur - RF
6 - Davis - 1B
7 - Barajas - C
8 - Cora - 2B
9 - Niese - P

Yes. Jason Bay is batting 2nd. Rookie Ruben Tejada is batting leadoff. Beltran is back, which is supposed to make the lineup better, but is this really better? I know Bay has not at all been what we paid for, but is putting him at 2 going to do any good? We cant expect Beltran to be the all star he has been before right away, look at how long it took Reyes to come back. I'd much rather see Beltran at two and Bay at five. That would take much more pressure off Beltran and allow Davis to go back to the clean up spot. Just because Beltran is back doesnt mean the entire lineup needs to be flipped.

It sucks that Reyes is out for the time being, but with that, wouldnt it be nearly impossible to remove Pagan? Jerry has a problem of holding onto players just a little too long. Matthews started opening day and was still around in May before Jerry finally gave Pagan everyday duties. Tatis and Jacobs were our opening day starters at 1B and it took way too long before Carter and Feliciano were called up. How long is he going to play Francoeur while Pagan sits on the bench, just because.

This is a crucial time in the season, we're facing a tough stretch of teams on the road and falling behind in the standings. God knows when Reyes is going to return. We're hopeful that Beltran is going to be the old Beltran, but right now we don't know. We need to stick with what works, which is Pagan leading off in the absence of Reyes and Davis batting higher than six.

I mentioned in my opening blog that this will not just be about sports. So far though, that’s all it has been. Well not anymore. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about perception and reality. It’s something I’ve had been trying to define for a while. And having a background in philosophy, (I finished 3 credits shy for a minor in Cortland) I love discussions or talking about things like this and this gives me another forum to do so.

What I’ve been focusing on lately is where thoughts come from and why we perceive them as such. I happened to read this article, in a timely fashion. Alright the article is about an athlete and I said this was not a post about, but I’m using my own creative license to allow this. Besides, it only fueled my thought, it is not what the post/original idea is about. (I would like to thank my old friend Sean Brennan for posting this on his facebook, which allowed me to read it. So, thanks Sean).

How many of my current thoughts, of your current thoughts, feelings, beliefs, quips, intuitions, have been placed there without knowing it? There is an entire industry around this. People everyday come up with ways – slogans, pictures, videos, whatever to tell us what to think. Has it gotten so far that all of our thoughts need to be told to us? Will I be able to see something as good without having first been told to think that? I know there are people out there, hopefully reading this, saying, “No. You’re wrong, Joe. I come up with my thoughts all on my own. No one tells me what to think”. And maybe they’re right. But it is also a matter of why we think what we do. There are people trying to sell the idea that Justin Bieber is a good singer/artist. They aren’t telling you to think that. And even if you think the opposite, that he is not, you are still thinking about him. Someone forced the idea of Justin Bieber onto you and made you if only for a second, think about him. Now think about why you think he is good or bad. (Yes, now I am telling you what to think). Those thoughts about goodness or badness probably stem from somewhere where you were told what good or bad music is. We are all influenced by someone else and their ideas. Unless you never heard music before and were given every record, tape, CD, Gregorian Chant ever made and decided based on that what is good, it is nearly impossible to say that what you think is good music are your own thoughts. That is scary. Other people control my thoughts.

This lead me into thinking about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and his Metaphor of the Sun. How do we know what is good? I don’t think that there are many times in a person life where someone can say they recognized something good without that thought being influenced by something prior. Even love, which is indefinable I do not feel passes this test. First of all, I think the fact that it has a name, “love” means that it cannot be an unknown good. Even if we can’t define it, there is an idea of what it is and what it feels like and we search for it. Those thoughts come from somewhere else – parents, friends, television, Hallmark. We know that love is supposed to be good whether we have it or not. In the allegory, the prisoner did not know of the sun at all and still, upon his own finding knew it to be good.

So does this actually exist? Is there anything comparable to the allegory? I believe I experienced it once. Children of course are most likely too having not been exposed to the world so much. I was lucky enough to be old enough to remember, but not old enough to know what was happening until much later in life. And only recently have I been able to appreciate it for what it was. I can’t describe it much now because I don’t remember the exact feelings I had, but I knew I felt good and that I didn’t know why.

I hope I have at least one more of these, what I call, “organic thoughts” but I don’t know if I will. Perception has long been the defining case of reality and I hate that. I’ve challenged it as much as I can. If perception is reality then there is nothing that defines us as people. If an alien ever came down here and saw a man and woman, do you think he’d be able to recognize the differences? Chances are, in his perception, they would be the same just like two aliens would be the same to us. That is not reality though. There are many things that make us different. We all like to think that we come up with our own unique thoughts on things, but that is not always the case. Our own perception can actually alter our reality. Getting out of the cave and recognizing the good for ourselves is impossible if we never know that we are in it.

First Podcast Finished!

My first podcast is complete! Go to to check out mine and Dan Weine's thoughts on LeBron James going to Miami and a whole lot more NBA here.

LeBron's Future New Team, Beware

It’s here. LeBron’s decision is in a matter of hours. I’m not going to speculate as to which team he’s choosing, I think that all these “sources” who claim to know where he is going know as much as you or I do. At this point, we’ve heard just about everything except for the final decision, which should be all that matters. But if we learned anything over this week, its that that is not all that matters. What matters more to LeBron than his next team is LeBron. That’s what this week and his hour long special are about: LeBron doing LeBron.

Regardless of the backlash of his TV special, this will no doubt be a huge television moment. The first ten minutes could have more ratings than the Finals did. Is the whole thing selfish and a giant ego stroke? Yes. But for me and fans like me, it makes for great TV and is more entertainment than most NBA games will be this season.

My purpose in this blog is talk about the other sides of LeBron and his choice. Because there is clearly more to it than people are talking about, not that it is being hidden, but because it doesn’t make LeBron look good.

1) LeBron has failed in the playoffs. There is no doubting that. No one can convince me otherwise. Anyone who watched game 6 this year about Boston watched him quit on his team. He’s been in the league for 7 years now and still has no matured. Would Jordan or Kobe EVER quit during a playoff games? No. No chance. If they aren’t winning, they are going to make sure whoever does win exhausts all they have to get that victory. All he has done is make excuses. We know that he has never had a true Robin to his Batman and that falls on the Cavs but he also sells them out. He has complained more than anyone about wanting someone else next to him. So what will his next excuse be if he doesn’t win in Miami or Chicago or NY?

2) Has LeBron ever gone completely in eff-you mode? Does he have it in him? How often down the stretch in crucial moments have we seen him defer the ball? He does it all the time. Even during the 08 Olympics he didn’t step up and needed Kobe to save the team. When is he going to step up, put a team on his back, and win a playoff game or a series? I’m not doubting his abilities, but if he is the best player on the court and he knows this, he can’t be afraid to take control down the stretch.

3) Is going to Miami to form a super team with Wade and Bosh not the ultimate cry for help? The old adage is “If you can’t beat them, join them”. Is LeBron admitting he can’t beat them? Has there ever been an athlete the caliber of LeBron with an ego the size of LeBron who has ever admitted he needs help? Any one with any competitive fire from pee wee to the pros knows that you want to win on your own to prove yourself. If LeBron chooses the Heat, that opens more questions about his character than anything else would

4) Basketball is a team sport. There is a misconception that you only need 2 or 3 guys to win a championship. That is not the truth. Role players are called that because that is how big they are – there roles are that important. It’s like any movie (with the exception of Cast Away), there needs to be supporting actors to make the stars look great and to make the overall picture a success. I don’t think LeBron understands this. Whichever team LeBron chooses, LeBron is going to think that it is all about him. After all, what other free agent in any sport could pull off their own hour long TV special to announce the team he chooses? As much as the pomp and flair of basketball is about the one superstar, there needs to be a team surrounding him to win a championship. Would the Lakers have won without Derek Fisher or Shannon Brown or Ron Artest? Would the 08 Celtics – a team with Garnett, Pierce and Allen all playing at the top of their games have beaten the Lakers without Eddie House or James Posey? No. These role players are important to any championship team. If LeBron really does think it is all about him, than any team he goes to doesn’t stand a chance.

To me, there are three teams that make sense with actual reasons for signing – 1) Chicago – best chance at multiple rings, 2) New York – could become a huge legend for making basketball matter again in world’s largest market, 3) Cleveland – loyalty. I could be talked into any of those three teams. Miami is a cop out. Miami is Wade neutering LeBron. Either way, this media frenzy is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. This is all making for incredible TV drama. Cleveland will NEVER forgive him if he stabs them in the back and they have every right to hate him. That would be one of the cruelest things to do to a city.

The future is going to go one of two ways for LeBron after tonight – either he is going to go to a team and completely turn them around and win multiple titles, or he is going to be named the best player to never win a championship. After how many years would we begin to ask “Can LeBron win the big one”? Two? Three? There is expected to be an immediate turnaround – hard for anyone to do on any team. But after three more seasons he’ll have been in the league for 10 years without a ring with the window growing smaller everyday.

Podcast

Great news, just finished doing some testing for the podcast and figured out that a cell phone actually sounds pretty good over the recorder so I am very excited about that. I'll be able to do podcasts with people over the phone instead of having to be with the person. Also have been working with Windows Movie Making and learned how to edit audio so there should be the first podcast with a special guest coming soon. My guess is that it will be tomorrow either before or after "The Decision 2010" regarding LeBron James. So look for that, there is a link to the podcast webpage over on the sidebar.

D'Brickashaw is Signed

Just received word (thanks to Rich Cimini's Twitter) that D'Brickashaw Ferguson and the Jets have agreed to a 6 year 60 million dollar extension that will keep him a Jet for the next 8 years and hopefully the rest of his career. You can read the initial article by ESPNs Adam Schefter here - http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5361080 Great news for all Jets fans. I will have more information and opinions regarding Ferguson as well as the rest of the Jets in search of new contracts coming soon.

Opening Blog

Welcome! This is an excited day for me. I've finally started a blog of my own and a separate podcast thanks to www.mypodcast.com

I will have a link to my podcast page as well as my twitter and facebook pages and will update the blog as soon as a new podcast is posted.

In addition to the podcasts, I will be writing posts here about anything I feel like talking about. Some sports, television, music, movies as well as personal subjects about work and feelings and opinions on anything that peaks my interest.

Thank you to all that decide to read and listen to what I have to say and please leave comments or emails about your thoughts of if you want to be a part of the podcast!