The Basement View

 Corey Kluber just threw the seventh no-hitter of 2021 (yes, I’m including Madison Bumgarner “unofficial” seven inning no-no) in the majors and it’s only May 19 th . For some reason, the amount of no hitters already is throwing up red flags for me instead of filling me with unexplainable joy. I’m extremely happy for every guy who has put himself in the history books so far in 2021, but a large part of me wants to renationalize what I’m seeing (I know, I KNOW, I should just shut my mouth and enjoy the games) because the type of history we are seeing doesn’t happen. According to the Elias Sports Bureau the last time that there was more than seven no hitters in a year was 1884. In the modern era (since 1900) there has been seven no hitters thrown in five seasons (1990, 1991, 2012, and 2015, and 2019). What we are witnessing right now is unchartered waters. History is being made nightly and maybe we are all victims of the moment. Maybe because the league changed the ball at the begin

 Fifty-Three Years after Bob Gibson dominated hitters from a mound as high up as an orbiting satellite, baseball needs to change the mound again. What you usually hear in April of a normal year, is that the pitchers are a head of the hitters, and it usually takes a month and a half to catch up. Well, it’s May 10 th when I’m writing this, and the Major League Average for all the hitters is .232 up to this point. That’s ludicrous. For context, the desire for exit velocity, launch angle, and go for it all at-bats has never been higher, but the pitching has never been better. There are a few companies in the game that have advanced pitching beyond reasonable doubt. So much so that Jacob deGrom is averaging 99 MPH on his fastball. That means if you watching the game at home or at the ballpark you don’t have to look at the speed gun to know that the fastball that just landed in the catchers mitt or in the stands was at least 99 without a shadow of a doubt. THAT’S VIDEO GAME STUFF. That’

 The column I wrote around the All-Star break still stands, but I have a different MVP as the season comes to a close.   I never was going to fake vote (since I don’t have a real vote yet) for James Harden for MVP, even if he stayed completely healthy until now, but the basketball that he was playing at the time had to be highlighted. Harden at the time was playing MVP level basketball. However, what he did to Houston at the beginning of the season cannot be rewarded with the MVP. The NBA cannot reward someone throwing a napalm grenade to an organization and walk away with an MVP. Harden’s award this year is that he gets to compete for a championship instead of having to sit through one of the worst teams in recent memory. His secondary award is that he added another layer of strength in the player empowerment area because now players can say “look at what Harden did in Houston, I can do the same thing.” I believe that you’ll see stars throwing temper tantrums until they are traded

 The way the New York Yankees finish Mission 28 is by fixing the computer glitch in their analytical department. The fanbase doesn’t know who the group of Yale MBA’s are and wouldn’t know where to begin in picking them out of a lineup, but they are to blame for this poor start at the beginning of 2021. This lineup will hit, they will score, don’t believe, look at the back of the guys baseball cards, they produce. The pitching will get solved even with the club plugging several leaks at one time. Even if the staff is duck taped—it’ll be good enough to compete in the playoffs. Back-to-back series against Baltimore and Detroit will not move the needle for me and scream to the hills that the Bronx Bombers are fixed. The Yankees are supposed to stump lesser teams because they are a World Series contender. When the Yankees are scoring eight plus runs against a team like Tampa Bay, Minnesota, or Houston—I’ll reconsider. Until that point I will remain cautiously optimistic about this tea

I’m not adding to the Nets bulletin board material. I will not bet against this Nets team. This take isn’t a homer play here or a reverse jynx—this take is common sense. I’m not going to be apart of the montage of takes that will ring through the Nets victory parade saying, “this team couldn’t do it or I’m concerned with the Nets chances of winning the title.” I refuse to steep to that level because it’s foolish. I will not overreact to Steve Nash sitting Durant for the Philadelphia game instead of sitting him in the Minnesota game the day before, that is just the NBA, and arguing load management is the basketball equivalent of screaming into the abyss. When Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden are all on the floor together, THEY ARE THE BEST TEAM IN THE NBA! There is no question about it. That trio doesn’t have to be fully healthy either, I would take all three of them at 75% against the field for the title. To me it doesn’t matter if they only have 10 games total play