The unmistakable rhythms of baseball.

 What else are you going to talk about in the off season?

"Necessity."

 No baseball player is "necessary."

Ah, yes, the question everyone has been asking: Should Billy Wagner be in the Hall of Fame?

No.

Billy Wagner should not be in the Hall of Fame.

I know it's symbolic for the Mets and Cohen to pump up the payroll.

But I'm going to engage in a little thought experiment.

When you thought Correa was signing with the Giants, did you think it upset the balance of the NL West? 

Or did you think the Giants were a third-place team who would maybe battle for a wild card?

The Mets were already a good team, in a surprisingly tough division if you think the Phillies are legit. I'm not so sure they are, but who knows?

I think Correa is better than Escobar and the Mets are hoping Correa comes through in October.

It's not that big of a deal in the scheme of things.

I would be very surprised if the Mets won more games in 2023 than they did in 2022.

Is $1 million a lot?

The over-reaction on both sides to the Correa signing is bizarre indeed.

The Mets didn't sell one million tickets in one day, the sold $1 million worth of tickets.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 single-day tickets. Just guessing $100 average ticket price. No big mathematical analysis here.

Not 10,000 season tickets, just 10,000 single-day tickets. Like, more than you'd expect to sell probably in the middle of December, but it's not like you have to rush if you're planning a family outing in May.

The Other Team in New York

We weren't even talking about the Yankees: 

 "What really just happened for Mets fans, like '’Twas the Night Before Christmas' a few nights early, can be traced back through 50 years of Mets history, all the way back to when Yogi Berra was their manager and once said this, famously and for all times in baseball:

'It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.'"

 Yes, Yogi Berra is probably most well-known for being a manager of the Mets.

Also, next time you write a story, just re-read it first. Now imagine the story without the opening paragraph.

Better? When the opening paragraph doesn't add anything? It's just, "it's almost Christmas, am I right?"

 

"Once George Steinbrenner, on the other side of New York baseball, became the most flamboyant owner in all of sports in the 1970s after he signed Catfish Hunter on New Year’s Eve and signed Reggie Jackson to what felt like the biggest deal in the world before the 1977 season -- $3 million over five years -- and then signed Dave Winfield to a 10-year contract after that. Steinbrenner was the one in the center of the baseball bullseye."

Let's talk about the Yankees from 35 years ago.

 

"The Yankees went deeper into the playoffs this past October than the Mets did, making it to the American League Championship Series before being swept by the Astros. The Yankees then spent with both hands and brought back Judge, their big man, on the biggest deal they’ve ever made, and just signed left-hander Carlos Rodón . Even with all that, the Yankees feel like the Other Team in New York, at least for today, because of what just happened with Correa."

I think Lupica is the only person keeping score of the Battle of New York.

Notable, of course, is the lack of derision in paying luxury taxes, hiring mercenaries from all over the world, treating the rest of MLB like a farm system, it's not how much you spend, it's how ... but that's very typical.

No one really wants to dismantle the Yankees. They want to emulate the Yankees.

The man with the six-year slump.

"Jason Heyward, the former All-Star and five-time Gold Glove Award winner who has struggled offensively for most of the last six years, has signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team announced Thursday. The agreement includes an invitation to spring training."

I think we should all get past these childish analyses.

Aaron Judge is a movie star. He will move massive amounts of merch and put fannies in the seats. He's the only Baby Boomer who made it (no offense to Severino). He's the face of a $billion corporation.

Also, he's earned it.

When you're casting "Taken 3," you would be a fool to replace Liam Neeson.

I truly don't know why these analyses of a contract's "worth" don't take these factors into account.

I know the hardcore angry fans who point out the subpar playoff performances and the unfortunate tendency of modern-day fans to take of the role of Comptroller for the Yankees: "They could have spent this money on two mediocre starting pitchers and a lefty reliever. This 'asset' will be de-valued by year seven."

I'm not even sure that's accurate.

In 2030, I'll bet half the fans in sold out Yankee Stadium will be wearing #99 jerseys.

 

 

Revisiting a prediction from September.

 

I'm going to guess eight years, $350 million, not the Yankees.

Nine years, $360 million, yes the Yankees.

Mike Lupica's lack of ethics is predictable and tedious.

This is Mike Lupica a couple of weeks ago, elevating the status of Jacob deGrom in the free agent pool, particularly vis a vis Aaron Judge.

Lupica acknowledges the risks associated with age and health, but basically concludes that you want this dude throwing effortless 100 MPH fastballs at awestruck batters.

He quotes his lone remaining MLB source Buck Showalter at length.

Then when the news of deGrom's signing blazes across the twitterverse (when is the last time Lupica has been first with breaking MLB news, by the way? Like, 1988?), Lupica instantly dismisses the signing.

Tweet number one points out that the Mets won 101 games in2022 and deGrom only won five (the Mets actually won six of his starts, which isn't much of a difference, but it's at least comparing apples to apples).

Tweet number two elevates the previously mentioned risks and mocks the Rangers for the size and length of the contract.

We already know how Lupica would have reacted if deGrom had re-signed with the Mets. It would be the 30th year in a row the Yankees need to look out for the superior Mets.

Have you tried ebay?

Just one iceberg sunk the Titanic.

"Five hundred sixty-nine home runs, 3,020 hits and one positive steroid test. That is the Hall of Fame candidacy of Rafael Palmeiro in one sentence."

I think PED-heads wll eventually make the HOF because a lot of them are already in. But I read "one positive steroid test" as "hundreds of false negatives because cheaters find ways to evade capture."

 

"He is infamous for wagging a finger at Congress two months before he flunked the drug test.

'If I could do it over, I would have handled the Congress situation differently,' he says. 'The pointing of the finger ... that was not my personality. That was not me. That was the advice I was given.'"

You sound like an unrepentant cheater who doesn't really take responsibility for any of his own behavior.

 

Without an infield shift, Rizzo is going to bat .300.

Because he's short. Get it? "Big" is an ironic description in the headline.

I mean, Jose Altuve certainly plays baseball for the Astros and the Astros make the playoffs a lot. So there's that. 

In the 2022 playoffs, he has not come up big:

"Altuve, who has been such a terrific postseason player in his career, somehow started the ’22 postseason by going 0-for-25."

"Somehow."

 

"He hit in a big October game the way he has so many other times in his career, and he reminded everybody of something, as if anybody needs reminding at this point in Altuve’s career:"

And yet, here we are.

 

"He has been one of the best players of his time, and one of the great second basemen of all time."

I guess you can sit on an article for a couple of weeks and wait for Altuve to finally get a hit. Which he did. Truly compelling stuff.

 

"Listen, everybody knows what happened with the Astros in 2017, even as they keep winning. Altuve and his teammates are always going to hear it in New York, and they’re sure never going to love the Astros in Los Angeles. But the team is the same as the guy who leads off for Dusty Baker and is still out there at second: They don’t go away."

Everybody knows and nobody needs reminding. 

Maybe the Daily News could therefore make better use of their resources by reminding their readers that the clocks are turned back next Sunday.

 

I think I understand Manny's sense of humor.

No, he isn't actually planning a comeback. He is saying that the Yankees offense was so bad vs. Houston, he couldn't possibly be any worse.

Congratulations on your participation trophy.

There's something noticeably unsettling about the players on this team who are positive to the point of being delusional. I don't know why he's so proud of himself for not pouting and the bench ... and whatnot:

“I thought I bounced back from being benched,” he said. “It’s a tough, tough place. And I was able to make the routine plays and whatnot. I could have folded and let things beat up on me or could have just sat on the side and not worked. But after I got benched, I was out there early every day. Just wanted to help the team in any way possible. I had an opportunity in Game 1 and Game 4 and I was able to play good defense — way better than the LDS — and swing it when I had the opportunity.”

The 28-year-old Kiner-Falefa has one more year of team control left but he knows he may have fallen out of favor in the Bronx. The club has Peraza and Anthony Volpe coming up and they may choose to go in another direction with someone like free agent Carlos Correa.

Though fans might remember him for the October defense, Kiner-Falefa is happy with the character he felt he displayed in what could have been his final game in pinstripes.

“I’m definitely happy with not giving up and still working, even though I could have just quit and sat on the side and just been a grump and, and whatnot,” he said. “I was just happy that I kept my head up and just waited for another opportunity and didn’t botch any balls tonight.”

I don't see a strategic way out. Find players who come through in the playoffs.

That's why the got Rizzo and Donaldson.

Build a team around Judge and Oswaldo?

Hope that Oswaldo gained some experience and the .083 postseason batting average is not indicative of future performance?

Maybe that happens. I'll believe it when I see it.

A catcher who can get a hit once in a while would also be a change for the better.

Because I don't think it's impossible that Cashman, Boone, and Judge are all gone for the 2023 season. The Yankees won't be better, but the expectations will be lower, and in a perverse way, that will provide the fans with some relief:

"The more immediate curiosity is what Hal Steinbrenner does with the damning data. This will be the Yankees’ sixth failed attempt at a world championship in the Boone/Judge era. Something has to give. The blowback from fans will be unlike anything the Yankees have experienced in years.

You didn’t have to be an expert in public relations to know why the crowd started heading for the exits in sixth inning on Saturday. Yes, sixth. The fans were voting with their feet.

The Astros had just taken a 5-0 lead, but the Yankees still had 12 outs to manage a comeback, two more chances for Judge to hit a monster home run. But the ticket buyers had seen enough.

They knew the Yankees weren’t rallying against a team that’s beaten them 8-of-10 times this season."

I think there is an organizational arrogance and stubbornness that manifests itself negatively. The same can be said for the players who make unbelievable and endless excuses.

The Astros have beaten the Yankees eight out of ten this season, including a no-hitter. The Astros have not lost a single game in the playoffs this year. 

It's not the ump, the wind, bad luck, the banging of trash cans five years ago.