Money

The Mets are pathetic. It's hard to expect them to win anything significant with four or maybe five (depending on which Carlos Delgado shows up) replacement level players in the line-up. And I'm not sure K-Rod/Putz will make nearly as much of a difference as they are expected to make. The back end of their rotation involves John Maine (who seemignly can't stay healthy anymore), Oliver Perez (who has a career WHIP of 1.43), and Livan Hernadez (who is flat out terrible). They've also collapsed each of the last two seasons. But hey, new stadium. Get excited!

BB01 ... register your fantasy baseball team already! The info is available in the other thread.

Nothing is getting in Kenny Phillips' way this year. It's his job. At SS, I think Brown is a bit better suited than Johnson, who seemed much more comfortable in the FS role with Butler doing the dirty work in the box. So I would guess Brown earns the starting spot, though all three guys will receive a starter's equivalent of playing time...

Despite our continued heavy investment in the DL, I think our secondary -- led by Webster -- right now has as much talent as, well, ever. We got four legit CBs, two solid and capable safeties, and a FS who has the pedigree of a future star.

In fairness to Butler, he toughed out a hamstring injury throughout the second half and postseason in '07, which obviously affected his mobility. Also in fairness, Wilson is one of the faster safeties in the league. He ran a 4.4 coming out of Tennessee...

Brandon Pettigrew actually is from Ok State

Playing on a better team doesn't always translate to better stats. Bad teams put up big offensive numbers with regularity, just by virtue of throwing the ball every down. In fact, Holt's teammate -- rookie Donnie Avery -- had 53 catches and 3 TDs, which is pretty close to Holt's output. I'm not sure TH deserves the "bad team" excuse, especially since his physical condition is in question. The Rams also play in a dome, and the Giants play in a notoriously windy stadium. I think Hixon deserves the benefit of the doubt in that regard; he was more than the beneficiary of a good team.

I think he has a lot of ability, yeah. Whereas Torry Holt reportedly has a degenarative knee condition. I'd rather have the young player on the rise than the declining player with the inflated price tag.

If you extrapoloate Hixon's '08 numbers over an entire season, he outperformed Torry Holt last year by a substantial margin.

Before the Plax saga, we had a good working relationship with Rosenhaus. Not sure where we stand presently, or if Drew would be complicit in bringing a WR to NY knowing it would likely spell the end of Plax's Giant career.

I wonder about Holt's knee and his duability moving forward.

MBIII has too much guaranteed money to be moved. He signed a huge deal last year, so they can't trade him without absording something like $12 million.

I agree, which is why I was banging the Braylon Edwards drum long before the debate entered publuc discourse. But if getting Edwards or Boldin is infeasible, then I think there are a number of WRs worth pick 29 (Nicks, Britt, maybe even Robiskie to name a few). This is where I disagree with ppodlsny, obviously. Maybe that player won't impact in 2009, but there are several guys who would absolutely fit into our long-term plans. Still, my top preference would be dealing pick 29 for a top-notch WR (unless we can miraculously make a deal at a reduced cost). Think about it: if you're 1st round pick is an experienced Braylon Edwards, that's much better expected value than someone unproven like Darius Heyward-Bey or whoever...

The Giants already have the best OL and running game in football. They've added four defensive free agents. What other area of their team could they possibly improve outside of WR?

I don't think he's a better pass rusher than Robbins, but he wasn't brought here to replace Fred Robbins in 2009. If Robbins recovers from his knee surgery, he and Canty will be your starters at DT. Robbins, coincidentally, only had 3.5 career sacks before coming here. He's recorded 23 in a Giants uniform. So we seem to be fairly good at projecting DL. However, "starter" is a nebulous tems for us because we're going to deploy a really heavy rotation with the goal being to maximize everyone's performance and efficiency. Tuck and Bernard are probably our best interior pass rushers, and I'm sure that will be reflected in our subsitution patterns. But Tuck took a beating last year, and having Canty and Cofield and Robbins and Alford available to take snaps at DT can help to preserve him. Canty isn't a pass-rusing specialist and won't be used under thos auspices; however, he can move the pocket and affect the QBs vision with his height. We know this; we've seen him do it to us...it's not an assumption. With fewer double-teams, he'll get to the QB more often. As I mentioned earlier, he also bats down a lot of passes at LOS -- those are negative plays and just as valuable as sacks. If you add up his sacks and PDs last year, you get 8.5. He's a guy teams have to account for in pass protection. Also, both Cofield and Robbins are coming off surgery. Neither is under contract for 2010. Signing Canty was just as much a long-term move as it was a short-term move, especially since the availability of good free agents will be diminished if the CBA isn't resolved and 2010 remains an uncapped year (for example, players will need to have accrued 6 years of service instead of 4 years of service to become UFAs; everyone else is merely a RFA in that scenario).

Although we are all very impressed by your ability to copy and paste, the Ravens midseason "swoon" means nothing in the narrative of their season. Their offense bounced back in big way during the second half, and made big plays throughout the postseason. Shannon Sharpe caught a 96-yard TD in Oakland. I realize that you might not know that despite being the Ravens biggest advocate outside of Art Modell, but I remember it like it was yesterday. But yeah, keep believing that we should try to be like the Ravens of nine (!) years ago. Totally reasonable to go into a season expecting to allow 10 pts/game.

Again, it's not a dramatically different role he'll be playing here. He's going to be a valuable player for us stopping the run and shrinking the pocket. Those things are on film, and that's all the evidence you need...

Won it in all three phases of the game. You might recall them jumping to an early led with Brandon Stokely, and then answering the Giants lone TD with a kick return by Jermaine Lewis. Also, the legend of the terrible Ravens offense that year is totally overstated. They finished the year averaging 21 ppg, more than the team they would beat in the Super Bowl, the Giants. Beyond that, you're really fooling yourself if you think the Ravens are a realistic model for success. I'll save you the suspense: we won't have the best defense to ever step on a football field next season, so we'll have to be able to score and plays specials if we expect to win a championship.

No one thing wins championships. You have to be good in all phases of the game. Right now, our offense is pretty bad without a top-notch wideout; the plot of our season revealed that in no uncertain terms.

The NFL uses some mysterious formula for determining comp picks, but it's safe to assume we'll get a couple. It's hard to say what round, though.

This seems to be a red-chip draft, so I wouldn't anticipate a blockerbuster trade. Those three picks (29, 45, 60) are looking really valuable right now. If they don't land a veteran, maybe they engineer a small trade up if they don't want to risk losing the WR they really want...

Michael Johnson sure looked ok as a starter last year, when, you know, he started every game. CC Brown is a 4-year starter, too. We have no urgency to add another safety to the mix...

3-4 DEs typically don't excel as pass rushers, at least in terms of getting sacks. But Canty does move the pocket and he gets his hands up, which are coveted skills and just as important as sacking the QB outright. As for his transferable skills, it's not a difficult projection to make from a scouting standpoint. In general, 3-4 DE and 4-3 DT are similar positions with similar responsbilities (though this can vary depending on the scheme and the fronts). Projecting 4-3 DTs to 3-4 alignments has actually proven to be trickier. In a 4-3, Canty will have more iso block situations and he'll have to deal with fewer double teams than he did in a 3-4 ... I'm sure he's very excited about that.

...and he's a good fucking player...

That's idiotic. Why in the hell would the Giants ever dream of releasing Domenik Hixon?! They're just as likely to release Eli Manning as they are to release Hixon.