Don't pay the man. He just writes the same thing over and over.

For decades, Lupica has written the exact same thing about the Mets during Spring Training.

Change "Callaway" to "Randolph" or "Collins" or "Valentine" or "Howe."

Change "Conforto" to "Bay" or "Burnitz" or "Agbayani" or "Cuddyer."

It's not baseball analysis. It's Mets PR:

"Does a lot have to break right for the Mets? Yeah. A lot has to break right. Is it crazy to think the big things might break right? Somebody has to explain to me why, or how."

I can say this about any team, any year, any sport. "If a lot breaks right, it's not crazy that this team can compete."

That empty observation does not qualify as analysis or a prediction.


"There is a famous line out of the city’s baseball past, from a season 40 years ago exactly. It was after Bob Lemon replaced Billy Martin and the Yankees came back from being 14½ games behind the Red Sox and Lem was explaining, in his wry way, about the secret of the Yankees’ success after he took over for Billy.

'I just try to keep the pitching straightened out, and hope Reggie hits,' Lem said."

The 1977 Yankees. The 1986 Mets. The 2004 Red Sox. The 1980 US Olympic hockey team.

So, now that you've brought up a 40-year-old quote from a Yankee manager, what does that have to do with the 2018 Mets?


"Mickey Callaway is the one entrusted with getting the pitching straightened out, with Thor and deGrom and Harvey and Matz and everybody else. Then he hopes Cespedes hits. There are other things that need to happen, you bet. They need to get a solid year out of Todd Frazier at third. And it wouldn’t hurt if Adrian Gonzalez were even close to what he used to be on the other side of the infield. Nobody is suggesting they’re great. You don’t have to be to make a great baseball summer again in National League New York.

Mets fans just want a chance. I believe they might have one. New York Mights. Hope might not be the best possible business plan in baseball. What else are you supposed to do at this time of year?"

What a waste of time.

Once again, I truly wonder if Lupica is employed by the Mets and just conning the Daily News.


This entire article provides zero information to its readers. Lupica is just a pea-brain hyping up the Mets and slagging on the Yankees.

You wouldn't know that the Yankees won 21 more games than the Mets did last season. Oh, and the Yankees added the NL MVP.


"How come I keep thinking Stanton is going to do waaaay more DH-ing this season than he thought he was signing up for with our kids on 161st Street?"

Is this supposed to be a slag on Stanton's fielding abilities?

Yeah, no one cares.

Stanton is the Yankees' DH. Stanton is essentially replacing Matt Holliday. Hooray for the Yankees.


"You turn on these early-round games in March Madness and sometimes see so many empty seats, even close to the court, you think for a second you might be watching a Yankee home game."

Zing!

Lupica in mid-season form. Look out, Cashman.

For what it's worth, do you know what the attendance was at Yankee home games last season?

3,146,966.

Not the ARod heydays, but hardly an empty stadium.


"By the way?

You know what the Yankees might be sort of and kind of hoping?

That Alex Cobb doesn’t end up pitching for the Red Sox this season."

Well, it's like Bob "Lem" Lemon told me forty years ago, chomping on a cheap cigar and using a fungo bat to scratch his scrotum. Lem sez to me he sez, "I'm gonna put a lineup out there every day and hope they play good."

Because Hope is the currency of Spring Training.

Even if five-time Cy Young Award winner Alex Cobb ends up pitching at the Fens, Yankee fans still have Hope and Grit, and they can dream of the playoffs if a lot of things break right this year.