Fly Balls

-Imagine you are the manager of a team that just rattled off 11 wins in 12 games, your team is 15-6 in the month of June and you are without your best pitcher who is still rehabbing from Tommy John Surgery. Your best player just came back after spending over 50 days on the DL. What do you do? Resign of course. That is exactly what Nationals manager Jim Riggleman did after his team beat the Mariners 1-0 on Thursday afternoon. Riggleman didn't want to be a lame duck manager, said he wanted job security, so he quit his job. Wait, you wanted job security so you quit your job? If I am a baseball GM I wouldn't even consider a guy who literally quit on his team. Something tells me his heart just wasn't in it, wasn't in this team. If it was he wouldn't have quit, he would have let the numbers do the talking and forced GM Mike Rizzo to re-sign him. Well, stupid is as stupid does and stupid did.

-I am getting really fed up with the Yankees handling of Jesus Montero. There is no way Francisco Cervelli is better than Montero in any facet of the game. Brian Cashman even admitted as much recently. When Jorge Posada was a youngster they didn't keep him at AAA until Joe Girardi was ready to leave. Nope. they brought Posada up and allowed him to learn on the job. If the Yankees want to see what this kid is really made of bring him up, allow him to spell Russell Martin a couple of days a week, thereby keeping Martin fresh, and allow him to DH against lefties. That's 3-4 games a week he could be playing in. And when he sin't playing he could learn from Tony Pena, Russell Martin, Jorge Posada, and Joe Girardi, all former catchers how to better field his position. Right now Montero is batting over .290 at AAA and people around him, including former All-Star catcher Butch Wynegar, think he is bored. Wynegar even said the kid was MLB ready. C'mon Cashman, bring him up!

-Ron Artest has filed for a name change. His new name? Metta World Peace. Ummm, yeah.

-With the 17th overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft the New York Knicks took Iman Shumpert, a 6-6 PG from Georgia Tech. The Knicks passed on Chris Singleton from Florida State to get Shumpert. Wait, wasn't Iman a model from the 1990's? Anyway, the kid is supposed to be a good defensive player, something the Knicks need but will not use under Mike D'Antoni.

-The last pick in the NBA draft, the Mr. Irrelevant of the NBA was Isaiah Thomas, Jr. We knew Isaiah Thomas was irrelevant in the NBA for quite some time. At least Jim Dolan didn't order the Knicks to draft him, now that would have been interesting.

-The New Jersey Nets had a very nice draft. They traded with the Celtics for Marshon Brooks, a pretty good scorer who can slide right into the #2 guard position. In the second round they traded for Bojan Bogdanovic, who ranked second in the Euroleague in scoring. I don't think he will be around for a year or two but the Nets needed some extra scoring punch. The Nets then went for defense and rebounding when they took Jordan Williams from Maryland. He is small at 6'9" but he has the instincts. I'll give the Nets an A- for their draft.

-The Knicks draft wasn't as exciting. They could have something if their first rounder Iman Shumpert learns from Chauncey Billups all that he can in running an NBA offense. Until then they have a perimeter defender who should at least contest opposing ballhandlers when Billups is off the floor. They obtained big man Josh Harrellson from Charlotte in the second round. Harrellson is big, has little offensive talent, and will be lucky to crack D'Antoni's strict rotation. Knicks grade is a B- but if Shumpert develops into their PG of the future then this becomes an A.

-There are rumors swirling around the New York Rangers and Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators. Depending on what the Senators would want in return for Spezza he would be an excellent fit on Broadway. However, I don't think a deal will happen, not with Brad Richards a free agent. Spezza had knee issues last year that limited him to 60 games but he is a playmaker and goal scorer, just what the Rangers need. I can't see Ottawa wanting to trade him though, nor do I see the Rangers wanting to part with a lot of the kids they have patiently developed.

-I am not understanding Joe Girardi and his insistance on playing Andruw Jones over Brett Gardner in left against left-handed pitching. Gardner is hitting .278 against lefties with more walks (5) than strikeouts (4) in 36 at-bats. Andruw Jones is hitting .241 against lefties in 58 at-bats but has 21 strikeouts and only 6 walks! Oh, its because Jones has homered 4 times off of lefties this year? Crap Girardi! Look, Joe, I don't disagree with a lot of what you do but give Gardner the playing time. He has earned it. If it makes you feel any better Joe, Gardner and Jones have the same amount of homers (4) but Andruw is only hitting .213 while Gardner is hitting .286 now. C'mon man! Be smart! Put the best lineup out there!

-Don't look now but Ivan Nova is now 7-4 with a 4.13 ERA. He is 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP in June. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for this kid.

Layups

-The Yankees signed Brian Gordon today and announced he will make the start on Thursday in place of Bartolo Colon. Gordon, who has 4 innings of Major League experience under his belt, was pitching well for the Phillies AAA team, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Gordon owns a 56/7 K/BB ratio in 55.1 innings so far and a 38% groundball rate. Gordon appeared in 4 innings with Texas back in 2008 and fared pretty well in 3 relief appearances. He was born August 16th, 1978 in West Point, New York. He does have 15 minor league seasons under his belt. Personally, I would have started Hector Noesi and signed Gordon as bullpen insurance, just like the Yankees did with Corey Wade and Greg Smith this past week.

-Is it me or is most of the news about the Finals about the Heat losing rather than the Mavericks winning? Seriously, do we really need all this LeBron coverage? What about Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki...don't they deserve some credit here? Don't the Mavericks deserve their time in the sun? Has any losing team ever received this much credit? Enough already. Let the Mavericks enjoy their moment and shelve the LeBron talk until next season.

-Marc Berman wrote in the New York Post today that the Knicks should abandon the 3-star plan taken by Miami this offseason. Wait, what? The Knicks should avoid signing Chris Paul or some other big free agent in 2012 because Miami fell two games short of a championship? That might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard from a sports columnist in years, or ever. What Miami did is not exactly new. Having three stars is not new. Miami just overpaid for Chris Bosh and instead should have signed several role players to fill needs around the court. They didn't. But does that mean Miami will never win a championship? No. It is asinine to assume anything in sports after one season.

-Mets pitching prospect Matt Harvey is dominating the Florida State League. It is time for the Mets to bring him up to AA and see how he does. I understand why the Mets are taking it slow with Harvey after watching Jenrry Mejia go down for Tommy John Surgery. However, the Mets should be reservedly aggressive with Harvey. He has the makings of a number 1-3 starter, something the Mets don't really have right now. I don't know where Dillon Gee is going to be in three years but if this year is an early indication Gee could be a decent starter. The Mets could have three decent starters in Mejia, Gee and Harvey. At least one of them should become a good MLB starter.

-Ryan Zimmerman is back after missing 58 games due to an abdominal strain. Zimmerman is the face of an up-and-coming franchise. The Nationals missed his bat and his glove over the past 2 months but have kept their heads near the waterline. They won't compete this year but when Bryce Harper, Tyler Moore, Anthony Rendon, and Stephen Strasburg all come up or come back from their own injuries the Nationals might be a force in the NL East.

-Who comes back first? Johan Santana or Rafael Soriano? Santana might be back by August or September. That's too late for the Mets to try and trade him this year. However, if Santana comes back, does well and stays healthy the Mets might be able to dump him next year for some very good prospects. If I'm the Mets I do that because they aren't winning anything anytime soon and Sanatana isn't getting younger, or healthier for that matter. A team like the Yankees might part with a couple of prospects. If I'm the Yankees I'm staying away though. Not worth the money he is being paid right now.