With the Mets Spring Training Split Squad team's season spiraling out of control... blanked by the Nationals last night.  Yes, those Nationals...

...ToTT begins to look ahead to happier times, the NFL season, and the start of training camp.  For the defendng NFC East champ New York Giants, workouts begin on August 3, a mere week and a half from now.

Now for the most part, the team is deep at every position and there are almost no major positional battles save for two.  The first one, which was one of the NYG weak areas last year is OLB, where former Falcon Michael Boley (below) was expected to step in as a starter but was not only injured and now in the middle of an 8-10 week recovery, but he also has been suspended for the first game of the season. 

So the starter role is down to a duel between perenially injured Gerris Wilkinson... no relation to Kendra we believe, but we'll post a picture of her just in case...

...and second year man Bryan Kehl... As LB was probably the Giants weakest spot this year, it will be critical to have consistant performance for the team to avoid the late season slump last year.  But with arguably the best D-Line in the NFL, the LB's might have things a bit easier this year.

On the other side of the field, there is another minor battle as incumbent Danny Clark will try to fend off rookie second rounder Clint Sintim (#97 below). 

Clark had a solid, yet unspectacular season and should continue to be the starter, but will have more pressure to perform.

Now the biggest and most important battle and team issue is at Wide Receiver, and who will play what role.  With both of last year's starters, Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer, gone, backup and new personnel will be looked at to move to starring roles.  On paper, Domenik Hixon and Steve Smith are now the starters but that is by no means etched in stone.  Hixon made some big plays last year, and Smith alway seemed to be there when Manning needed a big completion, but neither seems like your traditional #1 receiver. 

Pushing them will be a team high on talent but with a lot to prove... Returning WRs Sinorice Moss (training camp wonder, injury list frequenter), and Mario Manningham (past attitude question, not much playing time in '08) and rookies Hakeem Nicks and Ramses Barden (both below in same order). 

It is these last two that will garner the most attention and expectation.  Nicks, this year's first round picks, is labeled as "Michael Irvin - like" ... hopefully in talent and not the fondness for 'illicit' substances... while Barden was a touchdown machine in college, granted against mediocre competition.  Both are big, 6'1" and 6'6", and the (unrealistic?) hope is that they'll be the kind of red zone targets that Buress used to be.

Now every year, there seems to be a WR or two that bursts into the scene as a rookie and sets the league on fire.  And we do mean 1 or 2 out of dozens drafted, so the odds that 1 or 2 in the same team will be the talk of the town during their first year is unlikely.  Yet we will keep our fingers crossed and hope the trend is bucked.

On item of concern though is that Nicks, Barden and Sintim are the only rookies yet to sign.  And as history shows, once a rookie has lost camp time, it is almost impossible for him to catch up in time to make a significant contribution that season.  Here's hoping all are in the fold in the next 10 days.

In any case, this season holds a lot of promise for the NYG and a lot is expected.  Anything less than an NFC East crown and deep run into the playoffs will be viewed as a dissapointment.  So with that, we look forward to August 3rd and the start of training camp... which will again be way to long though... because watching baseball now is just painful... Although with a few more stories like this, as reported by Adam Rubin of the NY Daily News today, maybe things will get more interesting after all...

The Binghamtom Mets clubhouse nearly turned into a scene out of WWE Raw recently, when VP for player development Tony Bernazard  removed his shirt and challenged the Double-A players to a fight during a postgame tirade, multiples sources told the Daily News.

Bernazard particularly went after middle infield prospect Jose Coronado using a slang term associated with a woman's anatomy, a source indicated. The confrontation happened about 10days before the All-Star break