I mean, I understand the story line.
It's opening day and that's what happened in his Mets debut.
I also think that this type of scrutiny just doesn't comport with baseball.
What happened in this particular at-bat? I swung and missed on a 99 MPH slider. I had 1/100th of a second to make up my mind. It looked like a strike for the first 1/1,000th of a second, so I started to swing.
Bonus: As far as I know, Whitaker has never been accused of statutory rape.
That's the thing with Pete Rose. You have to be more specific when granting him a pardon.
While we're at it, maybe Congress should get over the whole "you're gambling with World War III" thing and discuss Tommy John's HOF credentials.
Why not take this to the next level?
At the next general assembly of the UN, all the world's delegates should be presented with a dossier explaining that the mostly forgotten Bobby Grich has one of the highest non-steroid career WARs amongst those not elected to the HOF.
Grich has a higher career WAR than Andruw Jones.
That's surprising, right?
Right?
Hello?
Are the translators working today?
The article is behind a firewall, so I can't say for sure if Madden is ignoring the Orioles. But the headline is funny either way.
Heck, I could be the best student the Yankees ever had. I can strike out every time and drop every fly ball to the outfield. Embrace the stink.
I don't know where this guy's career is headed, but he just strikes me as another player who never bothered to learn the craft and take care of the easy parts.
No, not that.
Or that.
No. I had forgotten about that, but that's not it.
I mean his five o'clock shadow:
"In 1991, club legend Don Mattingly, frustrated with ownership’s lackadaisical attitude toward improving the roster, grew his curls out to his shoulders. He was punished with a one-game benching before he agreed to a haircut. Hall of Famer CC Sabathia and seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens, both of whom were in Tampa with beards as guest instructors on Friday, were infamous for showing a good deal of 5 o’clock shadow.
...
Steinbrenner’s willingness to adapt to the shifting sands is a recognition of reality. Times have changed. The Yankees can no longer rely on their aura, their tradition of excellence and their bottomless caches of cash to nab top free agents. Every advantage — and disadvantage — matters.
In other words: Players care about tradition, but they care about winning more, much more."
I mean, sure.
Times have changed.
I'd go even further and say players don't care one bit about tradition.
The Yankees don't rely on tradition or aura, they rely on big bucks. In certain circumstances, they can appeal to a free agent who wants access to a big market, but that's not going to matter to Devin Williams, much less the catcher Austin What's-His-Name.
The Yankees have lost their intimidation factor and aura because they have just one championship since 2000.
The Yankees' lack of world championships in recent years has much more to do with the expanded playoffs than anything else.
No one likes it when Cashman correctly points out it's a crap shoot, but it's a crap shoot.
Players like money and they also like winning. The two things are correlated somewhat, but not too much. One thing that is not correlated to either of these things is facial hair. There are quite a few mediocre free agents with beards who signed with mediocre teams.
Alex Rodriguez is very tan in February.
Alex Rodriguez can also find $10k in between his couch cushions if he really feels the need to give money to college students.
I am not saying Williams is lying.
I also think the facial hair policy was outdated.
Yankees have an uptight corporate image before, during, and after this particular policy.
In some instances, it's conceivable that a corporate culture or clubhouse cohesion could influence a player's decision. They're in for a rude awakening if they sign long-term with a team because they enjoy the Spring Training camaraderie, just to find that all of their best bid whist partners were traded to Oakland before the season even begins.
As for Williams's free agency, let's play one regular season game first.
He might win the Cy Young Award and World Series MVP and ask for a lot of money.
That would be a high-demand scenario.
Or the opposite may occur.
In any case, the size and grooming of his beard will be about 100th on his priority list.
I saw the headline at MLB.com and knew it was Lupica.
The following is Mike Lupica praising the 2025 Yankees.
Which is something he will never do in the Daily News:
"The Yankees have reigning MVP Aaron Judge, who hit 58 home runs last season and came that close to being the first New York slugger in history to hit 60 homers in a season twice. They have Gerrit Cole, who finally won a Cy Young Award the season before last, and has been one of the true aces in the sport for a long time. They just signed free [sic] Max Fried to the biggest free-agent contract any left-handed pitcher has ever signed.
In addition, the Yankees now have one of the game’s star closers in Devin Williams -- Williams now getting the chance to bring that Airbenddre pitch of his from Milwaukee to Yankee Stadium, and perhaps give the Yankees their best 9th-inning option since Mariano Rivera.
The Yankees also will have two other former MVPs in their regular lineup in addition to Judge with Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, both veterans showing up at The Stadium with much to prove. They have lost a lot in losing Soto, of course, but may come out of that an even more complete team. And maybe this is the season when The Martian, Jasson Domínguez, becomes the hot kid people have been expecting him to be for a while, even though he is still just 22."
This isn't difficult to figure out.
To the New York audience, he's trolling Yankee fans.
To the national audience, he's trolling Dodgers fans:
"The Dodgers are loaded again, absolutely, having now added former Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a world championship team, and Japanese star Roki Sasaki to a team that at some point will get Shohei Ohtani back as a starter. It still won’t make LA any more of a star town in baseball than New York. Sound the trumpets and play the season. The Yankees and Mets will worry about the Dodgers later."
The whole premise is weird.
It's a shot across the bow to all the people who are saying ... ummm ... what are they saying?
They're saying that the LA is more of a star town in baseball than New York! They're wrong! LA is not more of a star town in baseball than New York!
I actually thinks he says the right thing at all times:
"Judge dropped Tommy Edman's routine fly to center in World Series Game 5 for his first error of the year as the Yankees blew a 5-0 lead and were eliminated with a 7-6 loss. Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly said his team had anticipated defensive mistakes by the Yankees.
'We heard that, but there's nothing you can do besides you have to beat them,' Judge said. 'They won. They can say whatever they want. So if you don't like it, you got to play better.' "
A young player in his prime.
The Yankees tried to match the Mets' offer, so it's disingenuous to act like the Yankees dodged a bullet.
I don't even think this is that complicated.
Of course the Yankees can thrive without Juan Soto. Their Plan B has been pretty good, actually.
But it's still Plan B.
Plan A was signing Juan Soto long-term, a decade of Judge/Soto probably drawing comparisons to the greatest MLB duos of all time, and cashing in with multiple rings.
Ichiro Suzuki, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Yu Darvish, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kodai Senga, and how can we forget about the immortal Ken Takahashi? None of whom picked the Yankees:
“Since Ohtani...these are three major players that basically had no interest in New York, or the Yankees specifically.”
Sal doesn’t see it as a knock on the Yanks, but it does show that the days of Hideki Matsui and Masahiro Tanaka are over, as the Bombers are now underdogs with the best players from Japan, as many modern players are choosing the Pacific coast.
“It’s the world famous New York Yankees,” Sal said. “They’re still that, even with not winning the World Series since 2009. It’s still the biggest brand in sports. Have the Dodgers eclipsed that now?”
This is not a story.
The Yankees can't lose their pre-eminence among Japanese players because they never had it.
Four prominent Japanese players signed with the Yankees: Matsui, Tanaka, Irabu, and Igawa. Two were good.
Kuroda was a good free agent signing, but he is overlooked because the Yankee teams he played for aren't legendary.
That's it.
That's all I can think of.
Those are the only Japanese players who played for the Yankees.
Oh, wait. Ichiro stopped by on his way to the Hall of Fame, but that's only interesting if you are using that information to fill out a cell in the Immaculate Grid.
It's an answer to a Yankee trivia question, joining the ranks of Kenny Lofton, Andruw Jones, Jose Canseco, Ivan Rodriguez, Lee Smith, and many others you don't associate with the Yankees.
"Oh, yeah!" if you're a big fan, and "they did?" if you're not a big fan.
There is one other Japanese player who played for the Yankees and I have no recollection of him. His name is Ryota Igarashi. He pitched three innings for the Yankees.
If Sal Licata is so worried about the Yankees' waning influence in Japan, I'll bet Ryota Igarashi would agree to a $100 million contract from the Yankees right now.
The Red Sox haven't signed a prominent Japanese player since Koji Uehara and the Red Sox only won 81 games last year.
It's a troubling trend for the Rays, who haven't signed a prominent Japanese player since Akinori Iwamura and have never won a World Series.
It's a troubling trend for the Chicago White Sox who need all the help they can get.
The Yankees are not going to sign every free agent.
The Yankees are not going to sign every available player from every country in the world.
For every Ichiro Suzuki there is a Kei Igawa, so chill out.
"Not signing a player" is not troubling and it also isn't a "trend." Three teams are on the table for this guy, which means 29 are not.
"Sasaki continuing the trend of rejection is troublesome moving forward, especially next season. Slugging corner infielder Munetaka Murakami is expected to make the jump to MLB next offseason and he would fit the Bombers like a glove. The left-handed hitter has a career .938 OPS in NPB with 241 homers in seven seasons.
The 24-year-old will be a normal free agent, so he will be able to earn a legitimate contract unlike Sasaki who came over as an International Free Agent and is only limited to signing bonus money and a standard rookie-scale contract. Not to mention, the Yankees will have a clear hole at first base as Paul Goldschmidt was signed as a stop-gap on a one-year deal for whatever long-term plans they have for first.
Murakami’s swing in Yankee Stadium is what dreams are made of for Brian Cashman and company. However, they will have to buck the trend of rejection and pony up the most cash.
If Juan Soto taught the Bombers one thing, it’s few people truly care about the allure of pinstripes and the legacy of the Yankees. It’s merely become a soundbite for players at press conferences who decided to sign the dotted lines with the Bombers because they were the highest bidder.
Sasaki confirmed that sentiment when he became the latest to reject the Bronx."
"Confirmed."
I mean, of course this is true, and it has always been true.
It's also bad news for the Mets and "confirms" that no one wants to sign there unless they are paid $765 million.
I also like the way this guy is not even talking about this player, he's talking about the next player, one year from now, who is expected to come to America, but because Ohtani and Sasaki didn't consider the East Coast, then that means Murakami will not consider the East Coast.
It's a lot to worry about.
Maybe the Yankees will pay Murakami $2 billion and move the team to Hawaii so Murakami is closer to home.
I was going to remind Sal Licata, but then he remembered:
"With that said, Sal does acknowledge that Alonso lost a lot of negotiating power after having arguably the worst season of his career when it was time to secure a payday.
'Pete had a chance to prove himself in a walk year...and he didn’t,' Sal said. 'He wilted like a little flower until the postseason.
'This is part Pete’s fault for not producing the last couple years.' "
Does anyone care about my opinion about the CFer in Boston?
Is anyone in Yankee Universe even paying attention to the Red Sox?
Rivalries ebb and flow and the Yankees rivalry with the Red Sox is in a trough.
Except, of course, in Lupica Land.
Where he dusts off one of his favorite go-tos: Pick a player for the Red Sox (81-win team, third place in AL East, 13 games behind the Yankees, missed the playoffs for the fifth time in the past six seasons) and then compare that player to a Yankee player:
"The Red Sox getting Garrett Crochet could turn out to be as big a pitching move in the AL East as the Yankees getting Max Fried.
And the Sox are spending a lot less money to do it."
And?
Lots of things could turn out lots of ways.
If the Red Sox don't win the World Series, does it matter? Just using the Lupica tried-and-true criteria for success.
So it's a "big pitching move."
Which means what?
Which means the Red Sox win 100 games? 120? Or just hang around and go for a wild card?
The baseball analysis isn't even why I am fascinated by this blurb.
It feels like turning on the radio and hearing Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant or some blast from the past you hadn't thought of in a while.
Coco Crisp is better than Jacoby Ellsbury ... and the Red Sox are spending A LOT LESS MONEY.
Sandy Leon is better than Brian McCann ... and the Red Sox are spending A LOT LESS MONEY.
Jonathan Papelbon is better than Mariano Rivera ... and the Red Sox are spending A LOT LESS MONEY. (He probably never said that, but I remember some big Papelbon worship period. I think I remember.)
Babe Dahlgren had half the production of Lou Gehrig ... and the Red Sox spent A LOT LESS MONEY.
Who cares?
I mean, the Red Sox are not irrelevant, but they're not top of mind ... and no one expected the Red Sox to field a team in 2025 without a pitching staff.
Yet every move the Red Sox makes is a Reverse Babe Ruth.
The Garret Crochet signing is an epochal shift.