To put it mildly, this is hardly the ideal way to start  a Super Bowl title defense. In less than a week, the Giants have dealt with the retirement of Michael Strahan, the unhappy rantings of disgruntled Jeremy Shockey, and now the demands for a new contract by Plaxico Burress. So much for peace, love, harmony and a lack of distractions.

Burress apparently wants to be paid TO/Randy Moss/Javon Walker money. Shockey is ticked off at the Giants for God knows what, so he spent yesterday, the first day of mini-camp,ticking off his head coach. Strahan just wants to make millions without sweating and having 300-pound guys beat on him every Sunday.

It seems like a mess. In reality, though, we should have seen all of this coming.

Burress played tremendously on one leg last season, proving himself to be among the half-dozen elite receivers in the league. Now he wants to be paid like it. In today’s NFL, that’s how it works. You win, the stars demand to cash in. TO recently signed a four-year, $34 million deal, and Walker got six years and $55 million from Oakland. I don’t know exactly what Burress wants, but he’s earned some type of raise.

As for Shockey, we’ve known since before the Super Bowl that he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the Giants. And you had to know it was a strong possibility Strahan would not come back. So, none of what is going on right now should be considered an “out of left field” type shocker.

To be honest, the one that worries me the most is the Shockey situation. The Giants missed a draft-day opportunity to trade him, so now the two sides are stuck with each other. Since Shockey does a better imitation of a pouty 5-year-old than an adult we know this one could get even uglier.

I visited some of the various Giants message boards yesterday, and fans seemed to be in a panic over the number of players sitting out with “injuries.”

Relax, people. It’s the second week of June. Many of those guys are still re-habbing injuries, so you wouldn’t expect them to practice now.

The same really goes for Burress and Shockey. If it’s two weeks before the season-opener, Burress is holding out, Shockey is holding the Giants hostage, a dozen players are sitting out with injuries and the Giants simply aren’t ready then I’ll panic.

Right now, though, it’s time to relax. The weather is gorgeous, there’s time for all these things to work out and the Giants are still DEFENDING SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS.

(Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View)

Read lots of speculation yesterday that Super Bowl heroDavid Tyree could find himself out of a job this season.

With third-round pick Mario Manningham added to a deep corps of receivers that includes Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer, Steve Smith and Sinorice Moss the questions about Tyree’s ability to make the team are justified.

Tyree will also be fighting for a roster spot with Michael Jennings, free agent DJ Hall and return man, special teams ace Domenic Hixon.

“I have no reason to really worry,” he said. “I’ve proven myself when I’ve been given the opportunity. I’m not that concerned. It’s not that big of a deal to me. I just have to get back to being healthy and do the things that I can do.

“Making the catch was a great opportunity, but I can’t rest on it. I have to work hard. There’s always something to prove. You always have to have the competitive edge.”

The reality is the Giants don’t need Tyree as a receiver. He caught only four balls in the regular season last season and has 54 catches in five seasons.

His value is really in coverage, and that’s a job Hixon can also do.

It would be a cruel blow to the Super Bowl hero if he can’t make the 2008 team. Yet, there are no guarantees.

Sentimentally I would like to see Tyree make the team. In the end, though, I want to see the Giants win.

If Tyree isn’t one of the best 53 players, then so be it.

(Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View)

So, what does the signing of defensive end Renaldo Wynn, a 12-year veteran, mean for the Giants?

• Does it mean they think Michael Strahan is retiring? I don’t know, but they are definitely hedging their bets.
• Does it mean they would really like to keep Mathias Kiwanuka at linebacker, at least on running downs? Definitely.
• Does it mean Wynn can expect a lot of playing time? Even if Strahan retires, the Giants have Osi Umenyioraand Justin Tuck, as well as Dave Tollefson and Jay Alford, both of whom showed some ability last season. They also have sixth-round draft pick Robert Henderson.

Wynn played for Giants coach Tom Coughlin in Jacksonville. To me, this is simply a case of the Giants bringing in a player Coughlin respects to be absolutely certain they have enough depth on the defensive front.

Wynn won’t be asked to do anything great. Just play an occasional series, defend the run and hold his own.

(Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View)

Jeremy Shockey’s chief complaint with the New York Giants for the past couple of seasons is that the ball just doesn’t come his way often enough. Let’s look at the hard numbers and see just how valid his complaint is.

In Shockey’s rookie season, 2002, he led all tight ends with 74 catches. In 2006, the last full season he played, he caught 66 passes, a good number that placed him 5th among all tight ends. Last season he had 57 catches in 14 games — a number that means he would have roughly equaled 2006 if he had played all 16 games.

So, Shockey hardly has a beef if his contention is that the Giants ignore him on offense.

Let’s look deeper than just the number of catches to see how effective Shockey has been.

Football Outsiders uses a couple of statistics One, called “Defense-adjusted Points Above Replacement” or DPAR to rank players at each position. Another, “Defense-adjusted Value Over Average” or DVOA, represent value per play.

When looking at tight ends, Shockey ranked third in the NFL in DPAR in 2002 and only 20th in DVOA despite his 74 catches.

For me, the really interesting number in the 2002 stats is that the Giants tried to throw the ball to Shockey 127 times. Only one other tight end, Baltimore’s Todd Heap, had more than 100 balls thrown his way. Heap had 122 passes thrown in his direction.

Fast-forward to 2006, and you find that the Giants tried to throw the ball to Shockey 115 times — a difference of less than one fewer throw per game. Or, hardly a noticeable change at all.

The real difference? In 2006, there were six tight ends who had more than 100 balls thrown in their direction. Only San Diego’s Antonio Gates (120) had more than Shockey.

In 2007, there were five tight ends with more than 100 balls thrown their way. Shockey had 93 in 14 games, so he would likely have made the total six. In 2007, though, three tight ends — Jason Witten (Dallas), Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City) and Kellen Winslow (Cleveland) had more than 130 balls throw in their direction.

When I look at those numbers this is what I see. The Giants aren’t necessarily throwing the ball to Shockey less — though the number of pass attempts going in his direction is down very slightly.

The reality is that it seems other teams are using their tight ends more. While Shockey’s opportunities have remained relatively static, tight ends like Witten, Gonzalez, Heap and Winslow are seeing more balls than ever heading in their direction.

The other thing that jumps out at me from the Football Outsiders analysis is that the Giants are incredibly inefficient when they throw the ball to Shockey.

In 2007, Shockey caught 61% of passes thrown in his direction. In the two previous seasons the Giants were successful completing passes to Shockey only 57 and 53% of the time.

The completion percentage numbers seem to be 65% or higher for most of the elite tight ends, though Winslow (55% in 2007) is an exception.

What does that tell me? I think it’s been obvious, but the numbers back up the belief that the relationship between Shockey and his quarterback, Eli Manning, isn’t that good.

How to fix that? Again, obvious. Instead of complaining, Mr. Miami needs to get to New Jersey more often and forge a better relationship with Eli.

We have been saying it for a long time, but if Shockey would stop being such a stubborn, selfish jerk and actually put in some work with his quarterback a lot of his issues would take care of themselves.

(– Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View.)

Between now and Week 1 against the Washington Redskins, I’m sure we will spend lots of time discussing this. Since Yahoo! Sports brought it up, though, let’s talk about where Mathias Kiwanuka plays if Michael Strahan retires.

It would seem natural that Kiwanuka, drafted as a defensive end, would move back to his natural position if Strahan hangs up his spikes.

Not so fast, though. This is what defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had to say on the topic of Kiwanuka.

“If Michael does retire, I think we’ll try to leave Kiwi at linebacker. That was the original plan and he was growing into the position. Of course, in case of injuries, guys move around. And in our defense, he might be on the line now and then, but I would like to keep him as a linebacker.”

If Strahan retires and Kiwanuka goes back to end, it’s a move I certainly would understand. I hope it doesn’t happen, though.

Despite his early struggles last season I maintain that Kiwanuka can be a tremendous force at linebacker given the opportunity to get completely comfortable there. I want to see him get that opportunity.

We saw before he got hurt last season that Kiwanuka was a force as a hybrid linebacker/defensive lineman, and the better he becomes as a linebacker the more devastating he can be in this hybrid capacity. The manueverability he offers is one of the things that can make the Giants defense special, and we have seen that Spags isn’t afraid of doing unconventional things.

From Yahoo!

But the way Spagnuolo designs his highly unorthodox defense, there’s no telling where Kiwanuka will be coming from down to down. Several times last season the Giants’ front line consisted of Strahan, Umenyiora, Tuck and Kiwanuka.

“The goal is to get the best 11 players on the field,” Spagnuolo says. “We are fortunate in that we have several players who can play different positions and hence different roles.”

As he was last training camp, Kiwi will be one of the interesting players to watch this time around. I hope we are still watching him as a linebacker.

Your thoughts?

(– Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View.)

No one in a position of authority with the New York Giants is going to say it, but from here it seems pretty obvious the team is preparing for life after Michael Strahan.

How else do you explain the drafting of Robert Henderson, who would seem to have no shot to make the team if Strahan is in uniform? The drafting of two linebackers who would seem to make it OK to move Mathias Kiwanuka back to defensive end if the need arose? The fact that veteran defensive end Renaldo Wynn, who played for Tom Coughlin in Jacksonville, visited yesterday and could sign with the team soon?

Strahan is, arguably, the second-best defensive player in Giants’ history behind Lawrence Taylor. I have been hoping, and will continue to hope, that he returns for a 16th season. The way he played last year, with 9 regular-season sacks, you know he still has the ability.

Strahan was coy Wednesday night when asked — again — whether he plans to play this season.

“I’ll be honest with you, I pretty much know what I’m going to do right now,” Strahan said. “But you know what the thing is? If I say it, I can’t change my mind. So I would rather wait until I know I’m 100% sure that when I say what I’m going to do, I’m going to do it.”

Maybe I’m reading too much into Strahan’s comments. Obviously, all we can do until he makes a definitive announcement is speculate on what we think he is going to do.

To me, though, Strahan sounds like a guy who is ready to take his Super Bowl ring and his 141.5 career sacks and go home.

If that is ultimately what he decides to do, I certainly couldn’t blame him for that. He has certainly earned it.

Peter King came out with his off-season team rankings yesterday in his weekly ‘Monday Morning Quarterback‘ column.

He placed the defending Super Bowl champion Giants sixth on his list behind New England, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Dallas (ugh!!) and San Diego.

The only one on the list that really bugs me is Dallas. Talent-wise, I get it. The Cowboys haven’t proven they can win when it counts, though. The Giants, obviously, have.

Here is what King said about your defending champions.

This is a team that caught fire at the right time and rode the wave to a title. Was it the best team in football in 2007? For the last two games of the year, yes. For the rest of the season, not even close. But the last two games of the season are the biggest.

Funny how a season progresses: In Weeks 9-14, the Giants went 3-3, losing three times by double digits and winning by six, five and three points. Then, ka-boom.

Moving forward, the Giants will be fortunate if Michael Strahan plays. I think he’ll retire because he always said he was playing for a ring, and now he’s got it, and a cushy Fox job awaits. But the Giants will still be able to kill the passer if he does because Mathias Kiwanuka will be back healthy.

Eli Manning had a charmed postseason, but he’s got to be more accurate than 56.1 percent for the Giants to be better than 14th in scoring offense, which they were a year ago. The encouraging thing about Manning is that the day after the Super Bowl, he was already talking about the things he needed to do to get better. Smart, because he knows he has to be more consistent to be a top quarterback. This should be a maturing offensive team and a threatening team on D.

Your thoughts?

(– Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View.)

With rookie mini-camp this week (Friday and Saturday) it is still all about the newcomers for the Giants this week.

So let’s take a more in-depth look at each of the Giants’ draft choices, how they affect the roster and how much playing time we can expect them to get.

Today, we will look at No. 1 pick Kenny Phillips.

The Miami safety was thought by most to be the best safety in the draft, and he figures to challenge for playing time right away.

My guess is that veteran Sammy Knight, signed to replace the departed Gibril Wilson, gets one safety slot.

We have talked about it a little before, but I think Phillips will eventually push the just-adequate James Butler out of the way for the other slot.

Argue if you want about strong and free safety — that doesn’t interest me. What does interest me is getting the two best players on the field.

Oddly, Phillips’ presence doesn’t really put anyone’s roster spot in jeopardy. The Giants had only three safeties — Knight, Butler and Michael Johnson — on the roster. You need at least four to open the season, anyway.

(– Read more of Ed Valentine’s Giants’ coverage at Big Blue View.)

Good morning! Your breakfast order is now up here at the Hot Stove. So, grab that coffee and dig in.

A slightly different style this morning, since thinking up breakfast items every day makes me hungry and I really, really need to drop a couple of pounds.

Anyway, here goes.

News Item: Giants visit White House

Thank you Dubya! I am, admittedly, a Democrat and I can’t wait until you’re outta town. Today, though, you’re the man. That Jessica Simpson joke you cracked when the Giants were in town yesterday, where you said “We’re going to send Jessica Simpson to the Democrat National Convention,” gave me the perfect excuse to run a photo of Tony Simpson’s — er, Romo’s — lady friend.

News Item: The Yankees are falling

Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez and Phil Hughes have gone on the disabled list in successive days. Any guesss who will join the injured tonight? My money is on Melky Cabrera, since he is actually playing well.

On the field, the Yankees lost and finished April at 14-15. Oh, and Joe Girardi’s impatience with and jerking around of reporters covering the team is beginning to wear thin with them.

News Item: Mets pounded by Pirates

The Mets had a game scheduled against the Pirates, but apparently preferred some extra rest as they sleepwalked their way through a 13-1 drubbing.

News Item: Not so fast, Jax

With Avery Johnson and Mike D’Antoni out as coaches in Dallas and Phoenix, respectively, Mark Jackson might have some competition for the Knicks’ job.

News Item: Last stand?

The Rangers try to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. Win or lose, the blue shirts are toast (look at that, a breakfast reference!).

So, what is wrong with ‘The Franchise’?

It is painfully obvious that the New York Yankees’ Phil Hughes, youngest starter in the majors at 21, looks out of his league right now.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way for the phenom.

Over at Bugs & Cranks, I opined that it might be time for Hughes to make a few starts at Scranton to regain his seemingly shattered confidence.

At the awesome Yankees’ blog, River Ave. Blues, they are advancing a different theory. They say Hughes’ primary problem is that he does not know how to deal with failure.

From RAB.

When Phil was cruising through the minors, he’d be going five or six innings, and in many games he’d have just two or three baserunners. That simply doesn’t happen in the majors, not for a 21-year-old. Major league hitters won’t be fooled by the same stuff that gives AA hitters fits.

That’s fine, though. Every pitcher needs to make adjustments at each new level. Phil has to adapt to not only pitching with guys on base, but to the psychology of having guys actually hit you hard.

In other words, welcome to the majors, meat.

The problem is that he’s not adjusting. Once he starts to get hit, he’s all over the place.

I actually think there is a great deal of validity to this theory.

Think back to how carefully the Yankees handled Hughes throughout his minor-league career. He was generally on an 85-pitch limit. That meant he simply blew away low-level minor-league hitters for 5 or 6 innings, then stopped. He never pitched tired and rarely pitched out of jams.

Also, remember that he pitched very little last season. He logged only 72.2 big-league innings and 37 minor-league innings (28 at AAA).

So, Hughes has very little experience pitching to hitters who can actually do damage to the stuff he throws.

I still believe that a short trip to Scranton to fix his mechanics and his confidence is in order. In the end, though, Hughes is going to have to toughen up and learn how to pitch through some adversity.

That, unfortunately, will only come with experience.