This is known as reverse psychology.

Mike Lupica suddenly pretends to be bearish on the Red Sox and bullish on the Yankees:

"There are a lot of people in Boston who think Bobby Jenks is going to end up being the Red Sox closer this season, not Jonathan Papelbon."

1) In my next life, I want to be a journalist whose idea of a source is "a lot of people."

2) Remove the extraneous information from this so-called English sentence to reveal the following: "People think something is going to happen, not Jonathan Papelbon."

So we've learned that Jonathan Papelbon is not one of the people who thinks Bobby Jenks to going to be the Red Sox closer this season.


"Sometimes you look at the Red Sox, who have been treated as odds-on favorites since they got Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, and think they have as many pitching issues as the Yankees.

And maybe more."

"And maybe more" is a paragraph by a professional columnist who is writing for a major newspaper.


"Terry Francona keeps saying he isn't worried about Josh Beckett, now the No. 4 man in Boston's rotation, but just about everybody in New England from Maine to Block Island seems to be."

Just about everybody in New England, not Jonathan Pabelbon.


While criticizing Papelbon and the Red Sox ...

"If the Yankees get big seasons out of A-Rod and CC and Teixeira and Cano and Mo Rivera - seriously, how do you pick against them in the American League East?"

This is probably the first time I've agreed with Lupica with regards to the state of the Yankees. Not optimistic, but realistic.


Problem is, I don't believe him.

I think he is merely setting up a weird "supposed to" for future Yankee ripping and BoSox praising ... a predictable mid-July column where he goes nutso for Epstein/Francona because the Boston bullpen (which was "supposed to" be terrible) has pitched well and the Red Sox are hanging in the AL East pennant race.