Depending on what Howard is looking for: maximum years and dollars, or his best shot at winning a championship will play into his decision as to where he ends up. If Howard does leave L.A. as a free agent, he will be suiting up for his third team in as many seasons. It was just under a year ago that he forced his way out of Orlando for the sunshine and sure-fire title that was going to coincide with his arrival to the Lakers, but never materialized. Injuries and inconsistent play throughout brought the Lakers dream team crashing down to Earth, and saw them get swept out of the playoffs in the first round.

The Rockets have plenty of cap space, and pairing Howard along with James Harden, leaves the Rockets a large amount of money to pursue other pieces to surround the two with, as Houston would immediately become a contender in the Western Conference.

The Mavericks are similar, as owner Mark Cuban has always had an infatuation with Howard, going back to his days in Orlando, and believes that Howard along with Dirk Nowitzki, would provide a size and offensive advantage heading into next season. If Howard signs with anyone other than the Lakers, he would leave money on the table, as the Lakers are the only ones under the current collective bargaining agreement that can sign Howard to a five-year deal. Other destinations would be restricted to four-year contracts.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak is hopeful of re-signing the all-star center and keep the nucleus of what was supposed to be, intact for at least one more season prior to the impending retirement of Kobe Bryant.

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For the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony put up 39 points, shooting 15-29. Iman Shumpert had 19 points while going 5-6 from three point land. However, the reason for New York’s struggles during the game and throughout the series has been Sixth Man of the Year winner J.R Smith. Smith went 4-15 for 15 points. Knicks fans should be used to J.R taking bad shots, but for some reason he used to make them. Now, J.R is just taking bad shots and he’s out of luck

A massive offensive surge by the Knicks in the third quarter allowed the Knicks to tie the game, but unfortunately their offensive dominance ceased there, as they posted only 18 points in the 4th quarter, largly due to the Pacers stellar defense. The Pacers went on to post 25 points in the fourth quarter, winning the game and the series.

The Pacers will play the Miami Heat on Wednesday, May 22nd in a series that will determine who takes a trip to the NBA Finals, where they will play either the San Antonio Spurs or Memphis Grizzlies.

Before you assume to know what ills the Los Angeles Dodgers, you better have a pretty good idea of the makeup of this team. You should also know that there are seasoned baseball men running this organization, from Stan Kasten to Ned Colletti, to Don Mattingly. Don’t sit there thinking you with your spare tire gut and your weekend softball league know the answers and the Dodgers do not. You can’t blame Don Mattingly. Why? Over the last 2+ seasons, he took a wretched payroll, one with very little star power outside of Matt Kemp, and kept this team competitive. Good enough for a second and third place finish during his first two seasons at the helm in Los Angeles. Did he become a worse manager over the winter and early spring? Let’s take a closer look at why the Dodgers are in dead last seven weeks into the season in the National League Western Division.

1. The team imported someone else’s problems

Does anyone outside of Magic Johnson and Red Sox Nation truly believe that it was a good thing to pull the ultimate in bail you out of bad contract trades last summer when the Red Sox escaped financial constraints by trading three marquee names to the Dodgers for nothing more than a pretty good prospect or two? I shouldn’t have to remind baseball fans how well Boston’s last two seasons ended.

Carl Crawford was injured and ineffective during his brief stay in Beantown. Josh Beckett has always been considered one of the main culprits in the “beer, chicken, and video game” controversy that swirled when the BoSox collapsed at the end of the 2011 season, which carried over to more discontent in 2012. To make matters worse, Beckett is being paid like an ace ($17 mil per) and pitching more like Robinson Cano’s father in the past two Home Run Derbys. We can’t forget about Adrian Gonzalez either. Media galore were ready to hand a virtual dynasty to the Red Sox for swiping the former San Diego first baseman for next to nothing. This is the same guy that instead of taking a stand against his managers (Francona and Valentine), or confronting chemistry issues within his own clubhouse, instead walked back to said clubhouse, grabbed his cell phone, and cried like a little girl to the ownership group in Boston. Behavior like that permeates wherever you go, and it is now located in Dodger Stadium 81 nights per year for almost $22 million dollars annually.

2. The bullpen is really, really bad

For all of the money that Dodgers’ ownership spent to build a World Series or bust team, they missed a few key components in the team’s design. People wonder why the New York Yankees despite all of their injuries, still are one of the top teams in baseball. The answer is simple: It’s the bullpen! The Yankees have power arms up and down, and have a flock of young arms awaiting in the minor leagues when they need a few extra innings. The Dodgers on the other hand, depend on players such as Javy Guerra and Brandon League to slam the door on opposing teams. Really? With all of the durable free agent relievers that could have been bought, this is what the Dodgers thought would carry them to their first title since 1988? At this point, I think I would rather have Jay Howell, Jesse Orosco and Alejandro Pena tossing the pill towards the plate; and I mean these three guys NOW. 

3. The so-called big guns, are shooting blanks

The combination of Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Adrian Gonzalez have combined to hit a whopping nine home runs. That isn’t a typo. Nine home runs. In comparison, Yankees’ outfielder Vernon Wells (an Angels throw away) has nine all by his lonesome. Anyone that has worked with Don Mattingly knows that if it’s broke, he will fix it. He is one of the greatest hitting instructors of all-time, and still offers advice. The problem is, you have a handful of players that think they’re better than Don Mattingly, so the advice goes in one ear and out the other. Ramirez has been hurt all season, Kemp and Ethier just aren’t hitting, and Adrian, while hitting .338, is more like James Loney than Adrian Gonzalez.

4. The starting pitching may be worse than the bullpen

We’ve already discussed some of the issues with Beckett, and besides being a malcontent and an attitude problem, his velocity is down, and he gives up a ton of long balls. Cy Old more than Cy Young-caliber. The lone bright spot is of course Clayton Kershaw. Nothing fazes this guy, and he isn’t about to let a bunch of stiffs around him prevent from getting a big contract in the very near future. The Dodgers gambled on Zack Greinke, and so far, it hasn’t paid off. He caused a bench clearing brawl, got his butt whipped, and needed a rod inserted into his non-pitching shoulder. He has pitched well when he’s been healthy, but he only has a third of the starts that Kershaw does at this point in the season. Chad Billingsley was lost to Tommy John surgery shortly after coming off of the disabled list, and Chris Capuano and Ted Lilly are flat out duds. Hyun-Jin Ryu has looked solid, but he is far from being a guy that can carry a team during a losing streak.

5. The infield is a disaster

I have always argued that the World Baseball Classic is a bad thing for players. If you look at the number of guys that end up on the disabled list in the years in which they have played for a country in the WBC, you’d be amazed. Hanley Ramirez’s injuries in 2013 started in the WBC, and continue as the Dodgers are sorely missing his bat and glove. Instead, they start an infield that shouldn’t be the starting infield for a Double-A Dodgers team, let alone at the Major League level. Justin Sellers, Luis Cruz, Dee Gordon, and Nick Punto wouldn’t scare a little league squad. How then can they be expected to produce nightly and keep a proud franchise in contention? It’s pathetic is what it is. Mark Ellis isn’t even the league average statistically, and he’s been the only one to man second base in 2013. Adrian Gonzalez is gold glove caliber, but is limited by a neck issue on some days. The catchers, well, to say that they are all glove/no hit is an insult to empty catcher’s mitts everywhere.

Everyone outside of the organization wants to put the entire onus of poor play and underachievement at the feet of Don Mattingly. Unfortunately, at age 50, Mattingly probably would still be working harder, and come closer to his career .307 batting average than most of the corpses that are taking the field each night for the Dodgers. This is a roster issue. This is a chemistry issue. Most of all, it is a lack of heart issue. If the Dodgers eventually decide to let Don Mattingly go for how their season went, it’s a good reminder that when you point the finger of blame, there are three pointing right back at you. Perhaps Magic Johnson and the ownership group of Guggenheim should think about that before pulling the trigger.

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Their Porsche was stained with bullets, and when police arrived at the scene they found one man dead in the car, and the other one in the freeway, which Police believe was due to being ejected from his car, and then hit by another car.

Authorities said both men were decked out in Golden State gear and had tickets to Thursday night’s playoff game, which had ended a short time before the shooting, with the Warriors losing to the San Antonio Spurs 94 to 82, ending the Warriors season. Police said dozens of vehicles passed by the scene before the California Highway Patrol shut down the northbound lanes.

Investigators are looking to talk to anyone who drove by the scene before the freeway was closed. Names of the victims have not been released. Authorities suspect that, most likely, the two basketball fans were targeted. No arrests have been made.

People need to start realizing that basketball is just a game.

Photo credit: www.sfchronicle.com

You can add the back problem to a list of other injuries that Gronk’s sustained in his career, most recently a broken arm that he’s going to be having a fourth surgery on soon. In the words of Patriots Football Weekly’s Erik Scalavino, “Gronk’s back. That’s not a positive statement, it’s a new problem.”

If you remember, the only reason the Patriots landed Gronkoski in the 2010 draft was because of a back injury that kept him on the sidelines his senior year, though reports say that this new back problem is unrelated to that one, and is a bulging disc that’s been bothering Gronk since last season.

Gronk has reportedly already had an MRI on his back, and will see a specialist some time next week after he has a surgery on his broken forearm, to see if he’ll need to have the operation which would shave down part of the disc that’s causing the problem.

Reports say that this latest Gronkowski injury is only a minor problem, and shouldn’t keep him out of the game any longer than his arm keeps him out, which is a positive sign for the Patriots.

Photo credit: www.zimbio.com

Most fantasy owners that drafted early for a shortstop went in one of two directions: they sought speed, extra base hits, walks, and runs scored with Jose Reyes OR, they went for pure power, tons of runs batted in, and a mainstay of any lineup-Troy Tulowitzki. Both are serious injury risks, but after the two of these guys, the talent level of shortstops drops off dramatically. Even the injured Derek Jeter was still a pre-season Top-10 fantasy shortstop. Yup, it’s that bad.

I personally took Reyes, not trusting that Tulo was going to be able to hit for power over long periods of time without getting hurt. Boy, was I wrong. Less than a month into the season, one of my greatest fears, Reyes playing on astroturf came to fruition, he rolled his ankle in an awkward slide at Rogers Centre, and he is now on the shelf until the all-star break. Tulo on the other hand, appears to be as good as new, leading the Rockies to an early lead in the NL West. If you’re like me as an owner, you’ve spent countless hours combing the waiver wire, free agency, and your fellow team owners looking for a viable solution to your glaring hole at shortstop.

For those of you still searching, look no further than Didi Gregorius of the Arizona Diamondbacks. What was supposed to be a short stint in the show for an injured Cliff Pennington, has now turned into a Wally Pipp demonstration. For anyone that doesn’t know who Wally Pipp is, I’ll give a shout out in my next column to the first person who can correctly explain who that was and what he meant to baseball history in the comments section of this column. Now, back to Gregorius. This kid seems to be the real deal. He’s hitting .354 with 3 bombs and 10 runs scored. If someone else hasn’t snagged him, now’s your chance, because he is getting better every day. Gregorius is only owned in 33 percent of standard leagues.

Another Diamondback of note, that has never gotten the attention he rightfully deserves in fantasy circles, is Gerardo Parra. He gained more playing time when Cody Ross began the season on the disabled list, and played so well that manager Kirk Gibson continued to find ways to play him every day. Parra is hitting upwards of .320, and shows modest pop in his bat. He is a running scoring machine, and is well on pace to score over 100 runs this season. Owned in about 65.5 percent of leagues, he is definitely worth the risk.

My favorite player growing up was Don Mattingly. Unfortunately for me, he’s the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and not my beloved Yankees. He’s been on the hot seat since the team chose not to pick up his contract extension during this past off-season. Mix that in with the Dodgers bringing up the rear of the NL West, when it is a season of World Series or bust, Donnie is having to go for the jugular every night just to keep his job.

That brings me to the final add player of the day. Brandon League stinks so bad, I can smell him here in the Rocky Mountains. The guy you should be focusing on is set up man Kenley Jansen. Scouts say he is the closest thing talent-wise to Mariano Rivera in a major league bullpen right now. With League’s continued struggles, Jensen is picking up steam both in Mattingly’s use of him, and in fantasy circles. Don’t ever overpay for saves, and now is the time to put that philosophy in motion. Jansen is available in about 30 percent of leagues. If you have room to add him, do so now!

One, Two, Three Strikes, You’re Out!

When the Boston Red Sox came out of the gate smoking hot, their players were hot fantasy pick ups, including outfielder Daniel Nava. Now that the Red Sox have encountered an extended losing streak, the numbers are falling for many of their fringe players–including Nava. Over his last fourteen days, he’s only had six hits. With John Farrell trying to mix and match to get firepower back in the lineup, Nava appears to be the odd man out. Say goodbye and move on.

Arriving in the Rocky Mountains with a splash, Nolan Arenado was the hot pick up every owner tried to make upon getting called up to the big club a month ago. Since his initial fast start, Arenado has slumped, now hitting .241 without any power. There is a chance he gets sent back to Triple-A Colorado Springs if he can’t make the adjustments to big league pitching. Save yourself any further heartache and be proactive but dumping him from your team now.

Holding out all of spring training appeared to have not affected Kyle Lohse one bit…until recently. After his strong start to the season for the Milwaukee Brewers, he has struggled to get through even five innings. Over his last four starts, Lohse has posted three losses, and they were beatings. While he will most likely bounce back strong, with the depth of available quality pitching, there is no reason to continue running him out every five days unless you have a very deep roster and you can afford to bury him on your bench until he improves.

Enjoy your weekend, have some barbecue, some cold beers, enjoy the family, and I’ll be back soon with more advice to get or to keep you on the right track towards fantasy glory!

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Andy Pettitte came out with what is being termed a strained lat muscle, and a couple of innings later, catcher Chris Snyder came out with a leg injury. The Yankees had just activated outfielder Curtis Granderson from the disabled list with a broken forearm, and are still awaiting the return of countless others.

How can the Yankees continue to withstand these types of injuries and remain contenders in the highly competitive American League East? As of Friday, the injured Yankees players, who are far too many to list out in this writing, have missed a combined 322 games this season. A full quarter of their payroll hasn’t played a single game this year.

As much of a buffoon as many Yankees fans believe manager Joe Girardi to be, this season could be his very best as the skipper. If the Yankees continue to stay atop the division, or at the very least in Wild Card contention, he should be the unanimous selection for American League Manager of the Year. The season is only in it’s second month, and the wheels may still come crashing off, but for right now, the right buttons are being pushed by the entire organization to keep Yankee Pride alive and well in 2013.

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Fast forward to the 2000s, and there was Donnie Baseball, wearing his retired #23 jersey, serving as Joe Torre‘s hitting coach and later as his bench coach in New York. Rumblings about who Joe Torre’s replacement would be in the Bronx grew louder as each World Series title became more distant each fall when the Yankees failed to bring home another championship. As with every manager of the George Steinbrenner era, the ending did not go well. A slap in the face to Torre, who had brought four titles and six AL pennants to New York was told to either take a pay cut or hit the bricks. Torre was too proud to be treated in such a disrespectful manner, so he chose to walk away.

Mattingly, along with former Florida Marlins‘ manager and Yankees’ backstop Joe Girardi were the finalists to be the next Yankee skipper. Mattingly was the fan favorite, but Girardi had the experience, and the job he was his. Mattingly followed Torre out to California and served as his bench coach for two seasons before Torre decided to retire from managing.

Torre convinced the Dodgers brass that Mattingly was the guy. He even went to the Arizona Fall League before his first season in L.A. to tighten up his managerial skills. In the meantime, his children had grown up, his wife is now an ex spouse with substance abuse issues, and he is happily remarried with a new life on the west coast.

During his first two seasons, Mattingly kept a severely flawed Dodgers team in contention, despite injuries, no payroll to work with, and scraping together a bullpen and starting rotation. A second and third place finish was considered genius given the circumstances. Mattingly has never been brash or a guy who toots his own horn, so when he asked for his contract extension to be picked up after last season, it was thought around baseball that it would be an automatic. How shocking was it that the Dodgers declined, and instead told him “We’ll see how you do this year.”

The Dodgers took on the Boston Red Sox bad chemistry and bloated contracts, thinking they had just assembled a World Series winner. Bringing in Zack Grienke, along with some bit pieces, and the leadership of the Dodgers firmly believed all they had to do was show up and a title would fall in their laps. Mattingly had seen this before, after all, he captained a Yankees franchise that went his entire career without winning a single championship, while spending money like water on the latest and greatest free agents that flamed out year after year.

The Dodgers are currently sitting five games under .500, and are in dead last in the NL West. Much of the same talent that sunk the Boston Red Sox in both 2011 and 2012 are on this Dodgers roster. Add in Matt Kemp forgetting how to hit with power, a starting rotation that can’t produce quality starts consistently other than Clayton Kershaw, and a bullpen that gives up more than it gets out, and Donnie Baseball sees the sharks circling. Blood is in the water. Magic Johnson said unless the Dodgers win the World Series, the season will have been a disappointment.

How much longer can Mattingly keep his job? The L.A. press has the Fire Mattingly watch on, and rumors of such replacements as Ozzie Guillen don’t come from thin air. Unless the Dodgers get their act together quickly, the guy who steered the ship through the rough McCourt waters, will pay the ultimate price for a group of overpaid, underachieving ballplayers that are more concerned about how good they look in their uniforms than they do about winning baseball games.

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COMMENTARY| Heading into the 2013 season, the New York Yankees made it very clear both to their players and to their fan-base, that this season would not be treated the way past seasons of recent memory have. The Yankees are now a fiscally responsible organization, one that will not spend money just to make headlines. The key problem with this new approach by the Steinbrenner brothers and general manager Brian Cashman, is that all-star second baseman Robinson Cano is in the final year of his contract, and also in the prime of his career. Should the Yankees give Cano an Alex Rodriguez-type deal? Absolutely not, and if rebuilding a crumbling dynasty through minor league development and frugality allows the team to save money, then the only option for the Bombers is to trade Cano and get as many cheap, under control prospects in return, and start again from square one, circa 1990-92.

The ownership group has insisted for months that the team’s payroll must be at or under $189 million dollars by next season, or face the consequences of an enormous luxury tax bill increase to almost 50 percent. Sure, some money will drop off of the roster heading into the ’14 season (Mariano Rivera, Curtis Granderson, Kevin Youkilis, and perhaps Andy Pettitte among others), but the payroll must continue to move downward if the Steinbrenners wish to see the team’s luxury tax rate reset to a manageable 17.4 percent. If the Yankees give Cano the money he seeks, the financial responsibility model the Yankees are attempting to sell to their fans goes right out the window.

Unfortunately for Cano, George Steinbrenner is no longer the owner of the team. His children care more about the bottom line than they ever have been about winning World Series championships. The only realistic solution to meet the organizational goals is to trade Robinson Cano. The sooner they deal him the more they will get in return. Here’s the thing: Cano is in his walk year, and unless the Yankees can find a trade partner who has the top-line prospects to meet their asking price and are willing to sign Cano to a long-term contract extension (teams generally are given a 72-hour window to negotiate such matters), the Yankees are between a rock and a hard place.

The Yankees are old and the cracks are vastly apparent as several key members of the roster are opening the current season on the disabled list. Through the first few games, Cano simply hasn’t shown that he can carry the lineup as an offensive force. He is without a doubt, the best all-around second baseman in baseball. He is still not in the same strata as the Ryan Brauns, Miguel Cabreras and Prince Fielders of the game. Cano would make a great addition to any team that is prepared to win and win now, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is not the type of hitter a team builds their franchise around. Harold Reynolds and Brian Kenny were recently discussing on the new television show MLB Now: teams pay players for what they did in their twenties, but only receive the production of a player in their thirties. Kenny believes Cano is worth roughly 42 wins to the Yankees over the next six seasons, while Reynolds doesn’t believe the Yankees can afford to give him $200+ million dollars.

Cano will be 31 years old this coming October, and will most likely ask for an 8-10 year contract. Second basemen historically have not aged well, and the offensive numbers begin to drop off dramatically by their age-33 season. For example, Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan‘s numbers hit the wall between his age-32 and age-33 season. Morgan’s batting average dropped 32 points, his runs batted in went from 111 at age 32 to 78 at age 33, and after his age-33 season, he never again topped 20 home runs in a season. Morgan is considered the gold standard for offensive second baseman.

Do the Yankees really want to pay Cano by the time he’s 33 years old, an additional $180-$190 million to see his offensive prowess vanish by age 34 just to squeeze an additional two or three seasons of production on the front-end of the contract now? Baseball fans have seen how well that has worked in recent years for three-time MVP Alex Rodriguez. I argued at the time that when A-Rod opted out of his contract, the Yankees should have let him walk. They can’t afford to make the same mistake with a player who has topped the 100 RBI plateau only twice in his career. The Yankees and Robinson Cano have two options: Cano can realize that he is not a $200+ million dollar player, and sign a more realistic and manageable contract to remain in New York, or the Yankees can play him up as one of the elite batting forces in baseball and fleece another team of its prospects and bid Cano adieu.

The Yankees cannot continue to do business as usual and hand out albatross-type contracts to aging players. As of 2013, they are on the hook for a ton of money to players who won’t be at or near the top of their respective games when their contracts expire. The Yankees currently have a handful of top-tier farm hands who are awaiting their chance to become the next generation of Yankee mainstays. Adding another out of control contract to a player who simply hasn’t been dominant long enough to expect that kind of payday will set this franchise back at least a decade, perhaps longer. The only option the Yankees have if everything remains the same, is to trade Robinson Cano.

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Dr. Jesse Jupiter is set to perform the operation, which will consist of replacing the metal plate in Gronk’s arm if the infection is gone, which would likely be the last of the problem. However, if the infection is still there, Gronk will likely miss part of, if not all of, OTAs, and maybe even part of the season, depending on the severity of the infection.

Ian Rapoport reports that a fifth surgery is likely, but the Patriots and their fans are hopeful that this is the end of the Gronk forearm fiasco.

The Patriots are stacked at tight end, so even if Gronk misses time during the start of the season, it won’t be a massive blow for the team, especially considering the team’s recently-found ability to rush the ball well, but having Gronk available for week one would help act as a crutch for Brady while he gets used to his entirely new receiving corps.