Some people lack self awareness.

But I suppose he did recognize that, yeah.

Most Yankee fans didn't want him back on the team anyway. 

On account of they won the World Series.

"The Dodgers are bad for baseball" crowd.

The tactic is so tedious and stupid.

Create a non-existent position and then tear it down.

"Just as everyone feared or sneered, the Los Angeles Dodgers are champions. Again. In what some forecasted as a harbinger of doom, the sinister strategy of employing the best baseball player on the planet along with a generous number of his nearly equal peers proved effective. It’s not fair, some people will say in the coming months about the fact that the team broadly believed to be the best ultimately won it all."

In the world of hyperlinks, "everyone" and "some people" should have examples of the widespread existence of such sentiments.

"To be a little less sanctimonious and a lot less poetic: People take issue with Dodgers because of their payroll. Including the penalties for blowing past the various tax thresholds, the Dodgers paid more than half a billion dollars for their rings this season. Small market owners would tell you the Dodgers should be cheaper. If the Dodgers didn’t try so hard at roster construction it would be easier to keep up. Is that how competition works?"

"People."

"People" have lots of opinions, but there just isn't a huge anti-Dodgers fever sweeping the country. 

Maybe they're watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 reruns.

Hey, man, you're the clown who was talking about a Subway Series in June. "The '86 Mets 2.0" and all that nonsense.

Fundamentally, the reason your predictions are usually wrong is because you seldom know what you're talking about. 

Who will be the hero?

Funny, this is my pick as well:

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, INF

With Bo Bichette playing at less than 100 percent due to a compromised left knee, there’s a decent chance we see Kiner-Falefa in Game 7. And while he hasn’t hit well in this World Series so far, IKF did hit .333 with a pair of doubles in the seven-game ALCS victory over the Mariners. And he has some significant playoff experience, having played in 20 playoff games between the Yankees in 2022 and the Blue Jays this postseason.

Sans the power, Kiner-Falefa has demonstrated some of what has made the 2025 Blue Jays so successful at the plate -- he makes frequent contact (15.1% whiff rate during the regular season) and doesn’t strike out often (16.8% K rate in the regular season). If there’s one thing Toronto has shown during these playoffs, it’s that putting the ball in play and putting pressure on the opposing defense can pay dividends.

If it comes down to a big moment late in the game when putting the ball in play could be huge, Kiner-Falefa could find himself in the spotlight with a chance to etch his name into Blue Jays lore.

-- Manny Randhawa

 

"Shut up and ground out to the second baseman with runners in scoring position."

The Star-Ledger doesn't need to pay attention to Mark Teixeira. It isn't sports coverage.

Just my periodic reminder that Yankee fans ran Clay Holmes out of town.

Not to mention IKF, who starred in the ALCS turning confident doubles plays and delivering a pivotal two-strike hit in Game Seven.

Luke Weaver was a fun ride while it lasted. It was a mirage. He is the same as most relief pitchers. He is closer-quality unhittable for very brief periods of time. He's more Chad Green than Mariano Rivera.

Mr. Met Chris Bassitt finally gets a chance to get a ring with ... ummm ... let me look him up online to find out what team he's on.

Scherzer was with the Mets for 15 minutes.

Good article, though. 

They really changed their facial hair policy because of this guy.

"Where" is the least of my concerns.

Winning is fun. Losing is not fun. It really doesn't matter where it happens. 

Please don't talk about the Yankees. You don't know what you're talking about.

The 2025 Mets are going to challenge the 1986 Mets.

It's basically just a jinx. If Lupica has a prediction about a baseball outcome, bet the ranch on the opposite.

Bob Nightengale knows what is going to happen in a three-game series.

I think the Dodgers are sleeping giants and deserve the benefit of the doubt. But a few bad pitches to Soto or Alonso or Lindor and suddenly your entire season is sunk. A bad umpire's call. An unexpected fielding error at a bad time. A relief pitcher wipes sweat off his forehead with the bases loaded and it's a balk.

It would be funny. To me, it would be funny.

I don't even believe in the "Kings of New York" story line and I pay more attention to the Yankees than the Mets.

But with all the preseason and early season hype, it would be hilarious and just desserts if they missed the playoffs.

I also think they'll make the playoffs. Then they might even win the World Series. 

The Hall of Fame of Three-Pitch Strikeouts?

Stanton is playing much better this season than I expected and I look optimistically towards another season of Playoff Stanton.

But the Hall of Fame? 

The Hall of Fame of What?

The Hall of Fame of One-Trick Ponies? 

 

Indefensible.

For one thing, fans never need to relax.

Fans are fanatical and pro athletes should get down on their knees and thank the Lord we have an illogical passion for this stuff.

Furthermore, Sabathia's analysis is just provably incorrect:

" It’s hard to develop young talent here. Just because of the demand, right? We’re trying to win the World Series every year. You don’t have time for guys to go through growing pains.' "

Three full seasons is approaching veteran status. It isn't just growing pains.

 

"' If we were able to, as a fan base, as a city, let these kids go through whatever they’re going to go through.' " 

Players are judged by their performance on the field.

More than any other young player can remember, Volpe has been given a chance to prove himself.

 

" 'The game’s hard to play, man. It’s very difficult.' "

Correct. Playing professional baseball is difficult. Anthony Volpe has met his match.

He is unable to perform this particularly difficult task to the level of highly-paid professionals who are competing against him every game.

 

"Sabathia said that phenomenon — and the fact that it's impossible for Yankees shortstops to escape comparisons to Jeter — is what has fueled the negativity surrounding Volpe."

Nobody said it was easy to be a shortstop in the major leagues. The comparisons to HOFer Derek Jeter are foolish indeed. You may as well compare Greg Bird to Lou Gehrig.

As for the post-Jeter Yankee shortstops, that's also a cop out. It isn't the fan's fault. If you can't do it, then you can't do it. 

 

 

 

It's the umpire's fault.

"When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat,” Williams said. “Obviously, Correa hit the double, so I kind of had my back against the wall right away. Made some really good pitches to Sánchez, which [Walsh] missed two in that at-bat. You just keep going, right? But at the end of the day, that changes outcomes. I should have had Sánchez [who walked on five pitches] 0-2 instead of 2-1. ... The 2-0 pitch was a strike,” the right-hander said. “That turns into a 2-2 count instead of a 3-1 count.”

Frankly, given Williams's lack of professionalism, I'm surprised he understands the importance of throwing strikes. Though throughout his rant he displays a confusion about arithmetic, at least he understands the theoretical bedrock principle that strikes are good and balls are bad, from a pitcher's perspective.

From a pitcher's perspective, home runs are also bad. Runs. Hitting batters with pitches. 

So maybe there's a long way to go before he's a professional pitcher, but it's baby steps. 

He makes good pitches like Volpe makes good swings.

Volpe's 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts was one of the most promising 0-for-3s I've ever seen, just given the subjective quality of his swings.

Same goes for Williams. If you ignore the two hits, the four walks, the four runs, and the 5.60 ERA for the season ... if you are fixated on the outcomes rather than the artistic aesthetic ... you may miss out on the true greatness of Devin Williams.