Old pal Dominic Smith did not end up in Tampa Bay, where 1B rediscover themselves on a seemingly annual basis. Instead, we’ll potentially get to see Smith 14 times next season, as he signed with NL East rival Washington on a 1/$2 million deal, with the possibility to earn $2 million more in incentives. Seems like a great buy-low opportunity for a club that lost 107 games last year. Yikes, that ties for the second-most losses in Expos/Nats history, with only the 110-loss squad in the expansion team’s first season in 1969 being worse.

*****

One thing that I meant to include somewhere along the line is that the calendar year of 2022 had to be one of the best winning percentages of all time for NY-area teams.

The Mets won 101 games and the Yankees pulled down 99. That’s probably enough all by itself.
The Giants and Jets combined for 16 wins. And if we consider upstate, the Bills have 12 wins
The Knicks were 19-18 in the 2022 part of the 2022-23 season
The Nets were 24-12
The Rangers were 19-12-6
The Islanders were 21-14-2
The Devils were 23-11-2

Nine of the 10 teams listed above had winning records and the Jets were 7-4 at the end of November before stumbling down the stretch. No doubt people will point to the seasons where multiple teams won championships. But you’ll find at least one team with a much-worse record than the 2022 Jets – whether that’s the early Nets in the ’69 and 73 seasons, the Mets while the Islanders were winning the Stanley Cup every year, the Devils when the Mets and Giants were on top and so on.

11 comments on “Wednesday catch-all thread (1/4/23)

  • JamesTOB

    It’s Duke Men’s Basketball visiting N.C. State tonight at 7:00 pm. Of the two of us, Brian, one will be sad tomorrow morning. Fairly certain it won’t be me. (I was a fellow doing graduate work at Duke in the 1980s.)

    • Brian Joura

      I can’t believe the line is only 3.5

      • JamesTOB

        Wow, NC State blew the Blue Devils out of the gym. Congratulations, Brian.

        • Brian Joura

          In the first half, it was Duke playing poorly
          In the second half, it was State playing like I wish they would every game

          Duke’s clearly the better team and in the 2nd half, they hit 50% of their shots. But State still outscored them after intermission, even with taking their foot off the gas the final few minutes of the game.

  • Brian Joura

    And the Sabres were 18-14-2

  • Mike W

    My team Rutgers knocked off number one Purdue.

    On another bit Dom Smith signed with the Nats. Although I didn’t care for him on the Mets, I wish the kid well and hope that he can turn his career around.

    • Brian Joura

      Whenever I hear Rutgers basketball the first thing that pops into my head is Jammin’ James Bailey.

      • Hobie

        Rutgers BB = Phil Sellers via Thomas Jeff HS, Brooklyn

      • Mike W

        Bailey got drafted the year I started college. I did see him play for the Nets. The Nets played at the Rutgers Athletic Center while Brendan Byrne Arena was being built. It was pretty cool to be able to see NBA basketball in Piscataway.

        • JerseyJack

          I was there when RU went to the final 4 ! Great memories of that 1976 team !!

  • AgingBull

    Brian, you should do a poll on which is going to happen first: The Mets sign Correa or the House gets a Speaker. LOL.

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