That's not what key means.

Dominguez is not an afterthought. He is supposedly a star of the future with potential. At this stage of his career, his is easily replaceable.

The other three players listed are afterthoughts.

Winning is fun.

Soto is a grown man who will make his decision for himself. The psychoanlysis is tedious:

“There is a rigid, robotic-like, buttoned-up feel to the Yankees...there’s something to that type of environment versus the looser, maybe more fun type of environment that the Mets have. Maybe Juan Soto likes that as well.”

The Mets may be more fun than the Yankees.

I've heard his excuse many times when the Yankees are playing poorly.

The Mets are certainly in the running for Soto. They can afford him while many teams can't.

I wouldn't expect Soto to sign for a discount just because the Mets play super-competitive canasta games in the locker room and his teammates are allowed to grow lengthy sideburns.

I can imagine Cashman at the negotiating table, offering the perks that have infiltrated corporate America: "Final offer: Fifteen years, $750 million ... and a free Galaga machine in the locker room."

It's also an ironic observation, because which is it, Sal?

The Yankees are uptight? Or the Yankees lost the World Series because they lack fundamentals and need to tighten up?

Sports talk radio is mostly a grift.

A MLB team just won 94 games and made the World Series. The negative reaction wouldn't change even if the Yankees had won the World Series.

Because the answer is always to trade everyone or break down the team and start from scratch.

I mean ... is it even fun to concoct these scenarios and put them out on the air just to get a reaction?

Even after Stanton's performance in the playoffs, he isn't worth much. He's a fragile one-trick pony. I wouldn't even be hesitant to trade him to an AL East rival.

So trade Giancarlo Stanton.

Trade Giancarlo Stanton to the Padres.

The Yankees will still have to pay 80% of his salary and, in return, the Yankees will get ... let's see ... ummm ... two minor league bullpen pitchers.

"Rebuilding the team" is a surefire key to success.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but no one is arguing with him.

This is all true, but the regular season counts, too.

"The Braves got unlucky because they had to play a double header" is weak.

The Braves had to play a double header because they didn't win enough games in the regular season.

Then, they didn't get a first-round bye.

Like it or not, the teams aren't power-ranked when the playoffs start. Like it or not, the Yankees almost won the World Series. The bullpen pitched well, they hit a lot of home runs, they got their walks, and most of the games were very close.

Four games to one isn't close, but the crowing is because it's fun to beat the Yankees' brand. The brand has outperformed the team for decades.

It is accurate to say that talent lost out to fundamentals, but as is the case with the 2024 Yankees, their talent almost compensated for their lack of fundamentals. The World Series was not a Dodger blowout.

 

As for as Kelly's crowing, it's totally embarrassing and no one can dispute what he's saying.

It's Gary Sanchez being the only catcher in MLB history who jumps out of the way of the tag.

It's supposed future superstar Jasson Dominguez proudly proclaiming that he's going to practice his fielding. Because he wows the scouts with home runs, he apparently hasn't taken care of the fundamentals that he should have handled when he was fifteen years old.

Why doesn't Cole sprint to first base? I have no idea. You struck out two batters in a row with the bases loaded after your teammates committed back-to-back errors. That's the hard part. The sprint to first base is the celebratory easy part. Sprint to first base and get to Game Six and cross your fingers that Rodon pitches well.

Judge took his eye off the ball. It was a rare, poorly-timed goof up by a fundamentally sound player.

That was a shocker. It adds to his choker credentials for sure.

The rest of the Yankee garbage in the field and on the basepaths was entirely predictable and par for the course.

The headline and tag suggest this article is about the Jets.

It's gloating about the Yankee defeat.

Yankees, Yankees, Yankees, Yankees, Yankees, Yankees, Yankees, and the final coup de grace is a zinger lacking in self-awareness: "The Yankees are the other baseball team in town."

Then stop talking about them so much, huh?

The 3-6 Jets saved their season and are going to the Super Bowl.

The AL Champs Yankees are garbage.

Mookie Wilson, Mookie Wilson, Mookie Wilson.

Also, can we please discuss this bogus "transitive property" idea that the Mets outperformed the Yankees in 2024?

The Yankees made the World Series.

The Mets did not make the World Series.

The pride that the Mets take in losing to the eventual Champions? The same team that beat the Yankees?

Who even cares?

I don't remember any parades for the Yankees in 2017 ... or 2018 ... or 2022. Just Mission Not Accomplished: You Lost in the Playoffs.

Just like the Mets in 2024.

The Mets might be on the verge of a true dynasty, but Lupica has said the same thing for decades.

Alex Rodriguez is such a Yankee legend, Jazz Chisolm Jr. wears his uniform number.

I was listening and chuckling when ARod described the fifth inning as the worst meltdown he had seen in forty years. (Technically, he said "one of the worst.")

For one thing, have I got some 2024 Yankee clips to show you!

Most perplexing of all is the obvious observation that this dude was front and center in the Yankee collapse in the 2024 ALCS.

While I totally agree with all the postmortems ... WHY IS THIS THE FIRST I'M READING ABOUT IT? ABOUT THE YANKEE LACK OF FUNDAMENTALS? ANYWHERE BESIDES MY OWN BLOG?

This is why I thought the Yankees wouldn't get past the Royals.

Indulge in a Lupica gloat session.

Same template.

The current Yankees aren't as good as the Torre-era Yankees. 

What was your first clue over the past 20 years?

"Sure, they had the best record in the American League and won against garbage teams in the AL playoffs," that kind of thing.

It doesn't matter.

The Dodgers are better and the NL is better. The best teams don't always win the World Series, however, and I thought it was exciting and fun to make it.

Sorry if I had fun being a fan of a baseball team.

If winning the World Series is the only way to define success, then only the Dodgers were successful in 2024.

The oddball hypocrisy is his dismissal of the Dodgers payroll compared to, well ... I don't need to prove the case. 

I mean, he is kind of re-imagining the Torre-era Yankees after years of dismissing them as MLB-ruining Steinbrenner Stormtroopers.

But the really oddball thing is his insistence of rebuking an argument that no one is actually having.

No one is saying the Yankees are better than the Dodgers. No one is patting themselves on the back for almost winning.  No one is elevating this era to the dynasties of the past.

Where are you hearing these things, kind Sir? The voices in your head?

It's the World Series and the defensive ineptitude is making headlines.

Soto is a Gold Glove finalist, but I don't see it. 

Volpe already has one Gold Glove and is a finalist for another. I don't really agree. Maybe there's a defensive drought at shortstop in the AL?

Verdugo is a finalist and probably deserves it.

The best defensive starting OFer on the Yankees, in my opinion, is the one who isn't a finalist. Go figure. Or draw your own conclusions about the veracity of the Gold Glove award.

As for Gleyber, what else can be said about the man who consistently refuses to do the easy things?

It's a tad convenient to "blame" one play or another. The Dodgers had lots of scoring opportunities, only hit a couple of sac flies, and didn't cash in until the final at-bat.

But as a mind exercise, imagine the following: "If Gleyber Torres can catch a relay throw from the outfield, the Yankees will win Game One of the World Series."

So you sign up for that bargain, and you still lose.

 

Unearned runs and ineptitude with RISP.

I totally missed the deal with the ninth-inning intentional walk. I somehow missed the consequence of Verdugo throwing the ball from the stands. I thought runners were still on first and second.

It's still a risky move because, with the bases loaded, you can't afford a walk or a HBP.

Which means Cortes is under more pressure to throw a first-pitch strike.

Which means ... well, it happened.

I agree with Klapisch that Cole should have stayed in longer.

 I can't say for sure that Hill would have gotten Freeman out, but that is also a fair criticism of Boone.

 I'm still traumatized by the ridiculous walk to Muncy. Cousins has to challenge Muncy instead of just giving away an at-bat. But this is the high-reward/high-risk Yankee bullpen.

We all saw what happened. The sloppy play in the field is very standard operating procedure for this team, especially in big spots, and it comes back to haunt them quite often.

Jazz manufactured a run in the tenth, which was a long-awaited pleasant surprise.

But the Yankees are precisely who they are. They hit one home run and almost won the game. They needed two home runs.

Giancarlo earned the MVP of the ALCS. My observation is not a criticism of his performance or of his MVP credentials.

It's just a really good microcosm of modern baseball.

A DH who batted .222. in the series end up being the obvious choice for MVP.

Of course, since all four hits were home runs, his slugging percentage for the series was .889.

The Mets have a "better future" than the Yankees, for sure!

The Mets didn't give up in Game Five of the ALCS.

Even after having a bad record in 2023, the Mets didn't give up in 2024. 

Gee.

The Yankees, on the other hand, one game away from the World Series, have no pitching and their superstar, Aaron Judge, is a bum.

This is why the Mets are better.

But we already knew that based on the Mets beating the Yankees 4-0 in the regular season and Lupica explaining this to us the past thirty years or so.

Lupica has always told us the Mets are better, and he is right.

Also, the Mets have a better future than the Yankees. Obviously.

Not sure how this conclusion reached ... details are for FanGraphs dorks ... but it's obvious to anyone who believes in Truth and Justice and Grittiness.

So if the Mets are better than the Yankees; and if the Yankees get further than the Mets in the playoffs; then the only conclusion is that the Yankees overachieved or the Mets underachieved.

This hasn't happened yet.

Next week is difficult to predict, much less the nebulous "future."

But if that happens, then that's the only conclusion one can logically reach.

I have zero confidence in Stroman.

If he's described as a secret weapon, then I suspect the Yankees will be hoist by their own petard.

That's from Shakespeare.

Because I'm super smart.

An 80% save percentage isn't very good.

I'm not being serious.

One out to go is tough to take, but the Yankee bullpen wasn't going to have an ERA of 0.00 forever.

A real Joe Namath over here.

A modern-day Mark Messier, don't you know?

Messier famously got a hat trick after he guaranteed a playoff victory. Symbolic and inspiring.

Jazz is batting .138 in the 2024 playoffs.

I know it's just his preferred way of communicating and psyching himself up. It's just clownish to me if you don't deliver.

"Not ... crisp."

"Rizzo did not start Game 3, as manager Aaron Boone went with utility infielder Jon Berti against the left-handed Matt Boyd.

While it was an adventure at time [sic] for Berti, he got through most of the game without a crucial mistake. Boone would later use Rizzo as a defensive replacement in the later innings and the veteran first baseman was not as crisp."

The Yankees are heavy favorites, evidently.

12-1?

OK, fine.

I hope 12 out of 13 experts are correct.

So the Guardians are not a third-round bye?

“They’re way better than anything the Yankees will have faced this year,” Sal said of Cleveland. “The bullpen, the defense, even the lineup, while it’s not as deep as the Yankees, it’s far better than what the Yankees saw with the Royals. So they’re gonna face their toughest challenge.”

He is correct in the sense that the perception is incorrect. The perception is that the AL Central are a bunch of farm teams for the coasts and that the Yankees have an easy path to the World Series.

As for the Yankees' lineup, it's lots of things.

It's effective, as explained many times before, mostly due to walks and home runs. They hit into too many double plays, have trouble hitting situationally, and have a slumpy way of forgetting how to hit with RISP.

One thing it is not is deep.

Even with Gleyber doing the job from the leadoff spot and, in my opinion. a competent catcher who is due for some productivity from the cleanup spot ... the Yankee lineup is basically two great hitters and that's about it.

“They don’t have the starters that Kansas City had...but the Yankees don’t hit in the postseason! That’s been the given. I wish I could say I was encouraged with the first four games of the Yankees postseason...but the Guardians can pitch and play excellent defense, and I don’t think they’re gonna be intimidated at all by the Yankees. This is gonna be a very difficult series...I think the Guardians can win this series very easily.”

The Yankees also have a tendency to beat themselves.

They mostly played "clean" in the first round of the playoffs.

I foresee an infuriating situation where the Guardians score a few tide-turning runs that the Yankees give away. A walk on a pitch clock violation; a catcher's interference; a wild pitch; and an error on a tailor-made GIDP.

 

 

There's a word for fly balls that are almost home runs but caught by the outfielder.

They are known as outs.

Almost fair balls are foul, almost strikes are balls, almost wins are losses.

Besides, I'll take my chances in an extra-innings battle of the bullpens.

When Erik Kratz talks, people listen.

He is certainly entitled to his opinion. The proof is in the pudding and I don't think he's correct in this instance. In any case, the "ex-Yankee" angle is just click bait. When you think of ex-Yankees, Kratz falls somewhere between Mike Jerzembeck and Henry Rodriguez.

It's both. Why can't it be both? It's obviously both.

"You can blame the enigma that is Carlos Rodon, he of three lights-out innings before imploding in the fourth, all you want for the Yankees’ Game 2 loss, but the fact is, he had one bad inning and the bullpen was aces for five behind him."

I mean, he sort of kept his team in the game, if that counts for anything. I suppose it does.

It wasn't a complete disaster. I've seen worse.

But "one bad inning" always means it's a bad start. You don't get credit for almost getting out of an inning.

"To Boomer & Gio, it was the other side, where the Yanks had just five hits entering the ninth and squandered multiple opportunities, that bears the brunt of the loss."

Sure.

Two runs isn't enough.

So in yesterday's game, the offense was bad and the starting pitcher was bad.

The bullpen was excellent. Both games. Zero runs combined.

" '... he pitched much better this year than he did in previous years, and you would think that he’s gonna be a guy that's gonna at least get us through six innings – but they used eight pitchers last night.' ”

Did he pitch much better this year?

He got a lot of wins.

He surged at the end of the year to get his ERA down to around 4.00.

I certainly did not think he would get through six innings.

He pitched 175 innings in 32 starts. A lot of those starts against non-playoff teams. Do the math, kind sir.

The other aspect which unfortunately played out is that the guy seems to be a head case, which is bad news in the playoffs.