The release of ARod wouldn't shock me at this point.

"With every move they have made this offseason it’s clear the New York Yankees are preparing for the early jettison of Alex Rodriguez from their roster in 2015. The signing of Chase Headley to a four-year contract left him without a position in the field and the acquisition of lefty slugger Garrett Jones as a possible DH Friday further takes away potential at-bats for A-Rod.

It makes you wonder if the Yankees really expect – or want – Rodriguez, who’ll turn 40 in July, to play for them at all. It’s almost as if they are giving him a good-faith gesture in allowing him an opportunity to show he can still hit after a year-long suspension for PEDs. However, if he’s hitting .220 with a homer and 10 RBI in the middle of May, the real plan is to hand him his walking papers by Memorial Day and eat the remaining $60 million or so on his contract which runs through 2017. The surest bet in sports right now is that A-Rod will never play through the rest of that pact."

That may be overstating it, but I think the risk-reward analysis has tipped. $60 million is still a lot to throw away, but it's not really that much.

Scam

"Manager Buck Showalter told reporters Tuesday that Davis, who was diagnosed with ADHD while playing with the Texas Rangers and had previously obtained TUEs from the league for Adderall, will have the league’s permission to use it again in 2015.

Nearly 10% of Major Leaguers received TUEs for Adderall in 2014, a rate well higher than the 4.4% of adults affected by the disease nationally."

Ten percent that we know about.

Richard Justice really likes Chase Headley.

Of course, I don't think Richard Justice ever has an unkind word for anyone:

"Anyway, Headley re-upping with the Yankees for four years at a reported $52 million changes the divisional landscape yet again. The Yankees were prepared to move on without him, saying they'd shift Martin Prado from second to third and allow Jose Pirela and Rob Refsnyder to compete at second.

...

Meanwhile, the Yankees badly wanted Headley back. He probably surpassed all their expectations after being acquired from the Padres on July 22. His defense was outstanding. Offensively, his .381 on-base-percentage was fifth-best among all big league third basemen in that time. He was also fifth in walks, 13th in home runs and 11th in slugging.

These aren't All-Star numbers, but when his defense is factored into the mix, he was a solid contributor to a team that was in the playoff mix until the final few days of the season.

There was something else about him the Yankees appreciated, and it has become a pattern with general manager Brian Cashman's acquisitions. Headley fit in the clubhouse, too, in the overall culture of the Yankees."

No, I'm not sure what that means anymore, either.

aa
As for the Yankees, I must say, this guy is very optimistic:

"OK, back to the AL East, where the offseason has been punching and counter-punching.

I'd rate the Yankees and Red Sox in a dead heat for first place. How's that for copping out?"

I don't think it's copping out at all. It's a bold prediction for two teams that combined to be outscored by 112 runs last season.

"Landed on their feet" is one way to put it.

"Of course, an underlying storyline here is that Cabrera is another in the line of players recently suspended for PEDs to cash in with a nice little contract. Cabrera's deal actually comes two full years after he was banned 50 games after he tested positive for testosterone. In wake of their 2013 suspensions during the Biogensis scandal, both Jhonny Peralta (four-years, $52 million with the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 2014 season) and Nelson Cruz (four-years, $57 million with the Seattle Mariners on Dec. 1) landed on their feet despite the obvious baggage."

The list goes on and on ...

"In their second major deal Friday, the Yankees landed prized reliever Andrew Miller, who agreed to a record four-year, $36 million deal.

 The $36 million guaranteed contract for a setup man broke Rafael Soriano's three-year, $35 million contract with Yankees signed in 2011."

So if the Yankees signed Soriano to a record setup man deal in 2011 ... and the Royals didn't make the playoffs until 2014 ... and the Miller signing is proof that the Yankees are mimicking the Royals ...

Oh, forget it.

Late '70s. The Yankees had Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage in the same bullpen ...

I guess acquiring Gossage in 1978 because the Cy Young Award winner in the bullpen wasn't enough.

Ron Davis setting up Gossage. 131 innings in 1980.

Moving Rookie of the Year Dave Righetti to the bullpen.

Mariano setting up Wetteland.

The Mendoza-Stanton-Nelson "bridge" to Mariano.

Betances setting up Robertson:

"There has never been a single offseason that I can remember when the Yankees weren’t declared world beaters after they started making moves.

I like the signing of Andrew Miller, and it made perfect sense for them, especially not knowing whether or not David Robertson is coming back.

But I was a little confused, tracking the giddy reaction to Miller’s signing, as to how I could possibly have missed the obvious comparisons between him and Mariano Rivera.

Not so long after the Yanks were going to be world beaters because of the longball, now they are selling something new:

The first all-bullpen team in Yankee history!"

Nice addition of a setup man that no one is particularly excited about.

Zero people have compared Miller to Mariano and very few people think the Yankees are world beaters.

So, once again, Lupica is creating an imaginary, defenseless opponent and then intellectually defeating that opponent like a Big Man with a typewriter.

The Miller signing continues the Yankees' decade-long obsession with a strong bullpen. Every hack writer seems to have conveniently forgotten.

A suggestion for John Sterling.

The proposed HR call: "This is the dawning of the Age of Gregorius."

Two words: Rick Honeycutt.

This particular narrative is driving me crazy. The idea that the Yankees are copying the Royals:

"The Yankees are trying to navigate this difficult terrain: They want to position themselves to contend for a championship in 2015 without taking on onerous long-term contracts at a time when their roster is, at minimum, problematic.

This is why they are involved so deeply with Andrew Miller."

In his heyday with the Yankees, journeyman lefty reliever Mike Stanton appeared in 79 games in 2002. It's not quite the Yankee record. That would be Paul Quantrill with 86 appearances in 2004. It's not even the record for a Yankee lefty -- that's Boone Logan with 80 in 2012.

Remember when Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young Award? Me too.

Remember that year when Alan Embree pitched, like, 20 games in a row in anticipation of a playoff matchup with David Ortiz? The year was 2005 and here is the Torre Special Game Log.

What do all these workhorses have in common?

They pre-dated the 2014 Royals.


"The Royals showed last season that an indomitable late-game bullpen could be the key element in a team getting to the World Series. In conjunction with an elite defense, Kansas City used its powerhouse late-game trio of Greg Holland, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera to cover up for blemishes, namely, a good but not championship rotation and a middle-of-the-road offense.

The strategy is to win a disproportionate amount of toss-up games due to the strength of the pen, hope that is enough to push toward 90 wins or more and — should you get into the playoffs — have a proven October formula for success by reducing games to six innings."

Sounds like the Royals are copying the Yankees ... and the Red Sox ... and the Larussa A's ... and lots of other teams over the years.

Failure

"The league reported 10 positive tests for stimulants - which MLB first banned before the start of the 2006 season — between the 2013-14 offseason through the end of the '14 postseason, two positive tests for steroids — Boldenone and Methandienone — and the one non-analytical positive, which is the result of evidence of a violation other than from a positive test.

All cases resulted in discipline, including a season-long ban for Rodriguez, whose suspension was upheld by an arbitrator in January. By comparison, the league reported eight positive tests for stimulants a year ago, and zero positive tests for steroids and performance-enhancing substances. There were 13 non-analytical positives for steroids in 2013, all resulting in suspensions stemming from baseball’s Biogenesis steroid investigation."

That's what I thought:Two positive tests for steroids in two years.

MLB basically found none of their steroid users. The newspapers found all the steroid users.


Guess how many therapeutic use exemptions in MLB?:

"The number of TUEs granted in the past year was 113 - one for hypogonadism and 112 for attention deficit disorder."

That's four players per team with Attention Deficit Disorder. It's amazing that Selig rides off into the sunset with accolades from the three-monkey press corps.


ARod was caught because his supplier is from Miami.

If ARod played in Boston, he'd be going to the Hall of Fame, supported by a compliant press corps and compliant MLB officers.

A clone of Mark Teixeira, with one or two fewer chins.

And Epstein isn't even the GM anymore.

It's very important for Mike Lupica to convince himself that the Red Sox are a small market team. The Red Sox would never attempt to buy the World Series title because buying things is the worst thing a business can do:

"By the way?

Does anybody believe that five years for Sandoval and four for Ramirez is the same as seven years for Jacoby Ellsbury and seven for Masahiro Tanaka and more than $300 million laid out?

Really?"

You just asked three questions in a row in the most passive-aggressive non-statement in the history of pseudo-journalism ... even though "by the way" isn't a question ... and even though you're asking an extremely specific question to which the answer is probably "no."

It's a non-answer to a non-question that nobody was asking.

But we still get the point. The Yankees are stupid and bad and all their players will get injured. The Red Sox are smart and good.

No, let's not gloss over that. Or the fake website which intended to osbscure the criminal facts. Or the fact that the Feds seem oddly disinterested when juxtaposed with another MLB player.

"Let's also not gloss over that PED suspension with the Giants back in 2012. He hit .346/.390/.516 that year; take that season out of the equation, and his four-year numbers look a lot more pedestrian."

They had Travis Ishikawa, but they lost Travis Ishikawa.

"The Yankees had plenty of problems in 2014, but among the most glaring was the lack of a capable backup first baseman."

Never really thought about it.


"With Mark Teixeira unable to consistently stay on the field due to various injuries, the club was forced to scramble."

I remember McCann screwed up a couple of plays.

I think the bigger problem might be the days when Teixeira was healthy and, you know, playing first base and batting fourth.


"Maybe Teixeira proves to the Yankees this offseason and during spring training that he's ready to take a heavier workload."

I certainly understand the desire to use the words "Teixeira" and "heavier" in the same sentence, but I'd say the starting first baseman is a bigger problem than the backup first baseman.

Don't pick on the Mets.

Funny how the press continually used steroids as a frying pan to bang over the heads of the people they dislike. As if Scott Boras has anything to do with this:

"Maybe Scott Boras should spend a little less time making snarky — and generally unfunny — comments about the Mets and do a much better job denying that he ever told Anthony Bosch to whip up a fake medical history for Manny Ramirez the way Bosch used to whip up steroid cocktails for all of his Biogenesis friends."

As I'm being snarky and generally unfunny.

No, for real, that was supposed to be funny. The phrase "whip up" used for dual purposes. Blows your mind with the word play. Maybe not funny, but clever.


"I’m not sure what Joe Girardi could have said about Alex Rodriguez that would have satisfied everybody.

You ever wonder who A-Rod thinks is a weasel, by the way?"

Joe Torre.

Never welcomed ARod to the Yankees, blasted ARod in a book, batted ARod eighth in a playoff game, and is now MLB's Vice President of Baseball Operations in Charge of Thug Punishments.

So is it a coincidence that MLB uses a large amount of resources and shady tactics going after ARod and his crew?

I mean, I can't see behind the curtains, obviously. I was surprised to find out that MLB had positive Biogenesis drug tests and they kept this information private.

But why the obsession with Bosch and Sucart while (as far as I know) ignoring all the other suppliers, mules, and hush men?

Failed drug tests?

First I have heard about the failed drug tests. I can't understand why MLB wouldn't just suspend the players according to its own rules. I also don't understand why MLB would hide the fact that its drug tests might actually be effective.

Bullpen? What's a bullpen?

I agree that the game has changed quite a bit and bullpens are more important that ever.

Of course, this observation is about 25 years late:

"It’s a changing game where, as both the Royals and the Giants demonstrated, the bullpen is everything now. As Cashman discovered last year when CC Sabathia went down and was hardly missed, and the subsequent loss of Masahiro Tanaka was likewise hardly felt, you don’t need a 250-inning, 20-win horse to compete. It’s nice if you have one (or two if you’re the Los Angeles Dodgers), but the vast majority of starting pitchers now are out of the games after six innings and/or 100 pitches, and if you don’t have the relievers who can consistently get you those last nine outs, you’re sunk."

Sure, it's nice to have a starting pitcher who pitches 250 innings, like Mario Soto or Dave Stewart, but Dennis Eckersley and Randy Myers have shown the baseball world the importance of bullpens.


As for the idea that Sabathia and Tanaka weren't missed? Let's suppose they both come back in 2015 and pitch light's out. Both are Cy Young Award candidates, as their salaries would more or less indicate. If that happens, the Yankees are instantly the best team in the AL instead of .500 slobs.

Tanaka was 12-4 and on his way to 20 wins when he got hurt.

You might as well say the Mets didn't miss Matt Harvey.


"This is why re-signing David Robertson is Cashman’s absolute top priority and why, if Chase Headley and Brandon McCarthy get over-market four-year offers elsewhere, the Yankees will simply move on."

Robertson is better and more important than Headley or McCarthy. The success of the 2014 Royals has nothing to do with that.

Besides, I don't know if anyone noticed, but the Giants won the World Series ... and the MVP was a starting pitcher workhorse. His name is Madison Bumgarner and he is good.


"With Robertson in tow, and Dellin Betances supported by Wilson and emerging system lefty, Jacob Lindgren, plus Shawn Kelley and Adam Warren, the Yankees could potentially have one of the deepest bullpens in the AL."

They already have one of the deepest bullpens in the AL, and it's certainly an important component.

But I'll also say that a knockout closer is wasting his time on a bad team.

So of course the Yankees should sign Robertson.

Then maybe buy Teixeira a gym membership and tell him to hit a HR once in a while with men on base. That way, perhaps the Yankees will have actual leads in the ninth inning and Robertson can get a lot of saves.


"The point is, as long as he has a strong and deep bullpen, Cashman doesn’t need to have a superstar-laden lineup (although he does need to have a relatively healthy lineup, which could be no small order considering all his over-30 veterans)."

This is such a weird conclusion.

The Yankees had a star bullpen last year ... and they missed the playoffs.

The Yankees had Robertson and Mariano the year before that ... and they missed the playoffs.


The Yankees have been obsessed with bullpen depth since at least 1996. Nobody remembers Mariano setting up Wetteland? Nobody remembers Yankee closers winning the World Series MVPs in 1996 and 1999?

Sure, Mariano was the foundation for a long time, but the "bridge" to Mariano included pitchers such as Tom Gordon, Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Kerry Wood ... remember when Phil Hughes, and Joba Chamberlain were great setup pitchers? ... and they also had quite a few high-investment 8th-inning busts, such as Juan Acevedo and Todd Williams.

If anything, the Royals are mimicking the Yankees.

2014 AL MVP

 BBWAA

Name	Points
Mike Trout	420
Victor Martinez	229
Michael Brantley	191
Jose Abreu	145
Robinson Cano	124
Jose Bautista	122
Nelson Cruz	102
Josh Donaldson	96
Miguel Cabrera	82
Felix Hernandez	48
Corey Kluber	45
Alex Gordon	44
Jose Altuve	41
Adam Jones	34
Adrian Beltre	22
Greg Holland	13
Albert Pujols	5
Howie Kendrick	3
James Shields	3
Kyle Seager	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Mike Trout	28
Miguel Cabrera	9
Jose Abreu	7
Victor Martinez	6
Jose Bautista	4
Michael Brantley	3
Corey Kluber	3
Robinson Cano	2
Nelson Cruz	1

2014 NL MVP

Not too much buzz with the MLB awards this year, but here are the results:

 BBWAA

Name	Points
Clayton Kershaw	355
Giancarlo Stanton	298
Andrew McCutchen	271
Jonathan Lucroy	167
Anthony Rendon	155
Buster Posey	152
Adrian Gonzalez	57
Adam Wainwright	53
Josh Harrison	52
Anthony Rizzo	37
Hunter Pence	34
Johnny Cueto	22
Russell Martin	21
Matt Holliday	17
Jhonny Peralta	17
Carlos Gomez	13
Justin Upton	10
Jayson Werth	9
Denard Span	8
Yasiel Puig	8
Devin Mesoraco	5
Lucas Duda	3
Freddie Freeman	2
Justin Morneau	2
Dee Gordon	1
Troy Tulowitzki	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Andrew McCutchen	18
Giancarlo Stanton	17
Clayton Kershaw	16
Jonathan Lucroy	6
Adrian Gonzalez	4
Buster Posey	1
Anthony Rendon	1

MVP analysis according to Felz.

• No one on the Yankees received a single MVP vote.
• Nice to see Lucroy finish 4th in the NL.

2014 AL Cy Young

 BBWAA

Name	Points
Corey Kluber	169
Felix Hernandez	159
Chris Sale	78
Jon Lester	46
Max Scherzer	32
David Price	16
Phil Hughes	6
Wade Davis	3
Greg Holland	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Felix Hernandez	20
Corey Kluber	17
Max Scherzer	7
Jon Lester	3
James Shields	3
Dellin Betances	1
Chris Sale	1
Jeff Weaver	1

2014 NL Cy Young

Not too much buzz with the MLB awards this year, but here are the results:

 BBWAA

Name	Points
Clayton Kershaw	210
Johnny Cueto	112
Adam Wainwright	97
Madison Bumgarner	28
Jordan Zimmerman	25
Cole Hamels	17
Zack Greinke	6
Doug Fister	5
Jake Arrieta	3
Craig Kimbrel	3
Stephen Strasburg	3
Henderson Alvarez	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Clayton Kershaw	24
Johnny Cueto	12
Adam Wainwright	12
Madison Bumgarner	2
Cole Hamels	2
Wily Peralta	1

Check mate, rest of AL East.

They all have lost the benefit of the doubt.

Even badminton players:

"By the way, I read the other day that Rodriguez could have been a baseball immortal without PEDs.

But how could anybody possibly know that he wasn’t using drugs from the time he was a kid?"

Would you please cite a source for once?

All of these arguments with "people" who said "things."


Who, what, where, when, why ... the most fundamental basics of writing.

Who? Somebody.

What? Something.

When? The other day. The other day? He seriously is citing a vague something he read the other day?

I won't even cite something on this stupid blog without trying hard to attribute it. The pseudo-journalistic traits of Mike Lupica's writing are pathetically amateur.


We don't know if ARod was using steroids since he was a teenager. I now think that scenario is more likely than not.

Made a ton of money for himself, made a ton of money for other people, got caught, lost a lot of that money, lost his HOF creds, which he may have never achieved in the first place without the help of steroids.

But, without proof, I can say the same thing about hundreds of MLB players.

Not the HOF credentials part. Jason Grimsley, Jordany Valdespin, Francisco Cervelli, and many others lost their scrub credentials.


Let's say you were tied to a railroad track and the train was bearing down.

You can divert the train by pushing a lever. "Yes" lever or "No" lever. Choose correctly or you will die.

Simple question: Did the following player take steroids?

David Ortiz? Yes.

Craig Biggio? Yes.

Albert Pujols? Yes.

Josh Hamilton? Yes.

Edgar Martinez? Yes.

Nomar Garciaparra? Yes.

Mike Piazza? Yes.

This is not proof, it's just common sense, an educated guess, more likely than not.

Obviously, I could list hundreds of ballplayers I'm fairly certain about.

Once I get into some tricky calls -- Randy Johnson? Rickey Henderson? Trevor Hoffman? -- and I might get smushed by the imaginary train.


The thing is, nobody is going to jail, or getting their contract voided, based on innuendo.

You can't prove that ARod has been taking steroids since he was 17 years old. If you can prove it, then prove it. If you can't prove it, then you're just piling on a specific player because it's fun.


The list of steroid suspensions in MLB is astonishingly small. The drug testing doesn't work. The Miami New Times did all their work for them. The fans, managers, coaches, owners, and journalists all played along for a long time.

MLB investigators found a lot of damaging evidence on ARod... more than on any other ballplayer. But ARod's the only person they have investigated.

Kenneth Star never got the Clintons with Whitewater, but he stumbled into Monica Lewinsky (not literally).

Nostradamus's quatrains are always accurate simply because people always find what they're looking for. If you take the 14th letter of the 28th page and then read backwards every 13th stanza, it spells BKUJ... but that translates to AROD in ancient Abyssinian tongues.

Put the same energy, money, and time into investigating every player in the All Star Game ... every player in the Magical World Series.

Don't be surprised if you find steroid cheats, tax cheats, hidden evidence, hush money, drunk driving, wife beating, greenies, greenies, greenies, greenies, parking tickets, and a various assortment of copyright violations because they forgot to clear the Van Morrison song on their home movies.

I think you'll find that ARod is not the biggest criminal in MLB by any means.

So did ARod take steroids for his entire career? Probably.

Same for last year's World Series MVP.

Who isn't being banned from MLB because he's the Embodiment of Boston Strong.

This guy is so close to Joe Torre, that he nominated Torre for the ALS ice bucket challenge.

"It should no longer even be in dispute that the Yankees should do everything in their power, and explore every possible legal option — with the full support of Major League Baseball — to make sure Alex Rodriguez never wears their uniform again.

This doesn’t just speak to their obvious and own financial interests, and the more than $61-plus million for which they could eventually be on the hook for with a guy like Rodriguez. It speaks to their brand. The recent Yankee past is littered with guys who turned up dirty on baseball drugs. But there is nobody close to Rodriguez."

I totally disagree that there is nobody close to Rodriguez.

If the Yankees are seriously upset about steroid use, then give back all the tainted rings and take Torre's plaque out of the Hall of Fame.

For starters.


Then, donate about $500 million to anti-steroid campaigns, fire Cashman for negotiating contracts with known steroid users, and challenge all other teams to rid themselves of anyone associated with steroids, past or present.

Is that a strong enough message for you? Is that too much of a scorched earth policy?

Or just do the easy Selig strategy. Blame it all on ARod.


"You will hear once again about the sanctity of the guaranteed contract in baseball. One of these days somebody ought to challenge that notion, now that it turns out that Rodriguez sold out the Yankees in the interest of getting paid — the only thing that has ever mattered to him, truly — and mounted these various and fraudulent legal challenges during which he sold out just everybody with whom he came into contact, starting with Cousin Yuri Sucart."

It's not the sanctity of guaranteed contracts in baseball ... it's the sanctity of contracts and guarantees in the United States.

They already challenged ARod's contract and partially won.

They already got back around $27 million, or whatever it was.


"Whenever somebody like Rodriguez gets caught like this, we hear about how this is a world of second chances. It is. But you have to say Rodriguez already had a pretty good second chance, after he first copped to steroids five years ago at a press conference in Tampa. That was the first time he came around panhandling to the public and Yankee fans and his own teammates, looking for a second chance, and redemption, you bet.

A year later, almost as if he were still in the shadows of the Canyon of Heroes after leading the Yankees to the 2009 World Series, Rodriguez went straight to Tony Bosch for drugs. That is the only issue that matters with Rodriguez. It’s not about the coverage, it’s not about baseball’s prosecution of him and defense of its policy, it’s not even about all those who thought investigative reporting on Rodriguez — when he was in the barrel — involved taking phone calls from his lawyers and his flacks."

Yeah, he's a dick.


"Now we hear he is on the road to redemption, as if that day with the DEA was supposed to be something as inspiring as St. Paul’s epiphany on the road to Damascus, instead of him being just another perp trying to save his sorry self."

I haven't seen anyone claim he's on the road to redemption.

I think Lupica "hears" a lot of things in his head, imaginary arguments with the opposition.


"Only now the Yankees are just supposed to take him back because of a contract. But if honoring its terms meant nothing to Alex Rodriguez, why should it mean anything to them? They’d have the high ground with Rodriguez. But then, ask yourself a question: Who doesn’t at this point?"

You can honor the contract by cutting him or maybe by sending him to the minors (though he may be out of options, whatever those are).

The team that welcomed back Jason Giambi has the moral high ground over nobody.

That's why a lot of us fans don't really care.

Baseball is not the place we turn to for moral guidance. If we did, then MLB and the Yankees have already let us down thousands of times while they take the money and run.

I think ARod may end up as a high-priced platoon at third base with Chase Headley. That's embarrassing enough. That's more embarrassing than the steroids revelations. That's probably the worst punishment he can receive for his crimes -- a slow descent into irrelevance.

Two Words: Steve Howe.

Of course Steinbrenner would fight to dump ARod's contract. Not to save the Yankees' image, but to save money.

Save me the mush, it's utterly ridiculous:

"At the same time, people always wondered why Steinbrenner could be so hostile to Winfield and engage in verbal warfare with so many other of his core Yankee players, yet go out of his way to give chance after chance to noted drug abusers Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. The difference, Costello reasoned, was that Gooden and Strawberry never did anything to Steinbrenner, only to themselves."

Pettitte is probably going to get a plaque in Monument Park, OK? This idea of Embarrassing and Besmirching.

If you're serious about your anti-steroid stance, then just invalidate all the Torre-era rings.

Maybe a bold move like that would Save the Children.


"I would think by now, especially after all these new revelations and confirmations of everything that MLB prosecuted A-Rod for, Steinbrenner would be revolted at the thought of him ever wearing a Yankee uniform again. Whether he would go so far as to write him a check for $60 million and say goodbye and good riddance, no one can say. But we do know this: A-Rod himself has told his lawyers he can’t play without steroids — and proved that by beating the system right up until baseball launched its investigation of him. Does he really want to go to spring training and embarrass himself while being subjected to the daily media hordes and 'cheater' chants from fans everywhere?

This is why there has to be a meeting of the minds, between A-Rod, the Yankees and MLB, to negotiate as graceful an exit from the game as possible for him before he has to report for spring training. As bad as it’s been for A-Rod this past year and half, he was fortunate to never know what a Doberman Pinscher The Boss could be."

Madden has been pushing the ARod Apocalypse for a while now. Not sure what he'll write about in ARod's absence, but maybe he can drum up some fan interest in Brandon McCarthy, or something. A light conversation where you meet his family by the pool and talk about the pressures of playing in New York.

1) I think the remaining contract is small enough now that a buyout is a possibility. This is more of a cost-benefit analysis than a principled stand against steroid cheats. Just everyone needs to understand, you don't get to spend that money on other players.

2) The fans who are yelling "cheater"? If they are at Yankee Stadium, in the stands, it will be a miracle and a blessing for the Steinbrenners.

3) The latest unscientific poll I saw basically said 1/3rd of the fans are going to cheer for ARod. So is it really that much different than 2004?

ARod's willingness to endure embarrassment is very high. I think he will love going to Spring Training and playing baseball. I also think he's shot. The Yankees will pay him a lot of money to hit .240 and drive in 65 runs. A worst-case scenario.

All he needs is an online fake interview show and he's be the second coming of Mark Teixeira.

Francesa kisses ARod's butt in the search for ratings.

If anything, Francesa should kiss John Idzik's butt a little and try to get past the Jets' boycott of his show:

"The content and tone of the Pope’s sermon made it clear he wants to reprise his role of A-Rod’s designated interviewer/pro bono attorney in the next exclusive one-on-one. Short of reminding Rodriguez to bring his pillow to their next pillow fight, Francesa did everything he could to nail down the next one-on-one.

'Would I have him back on the show? Absolutely, tomorrow,' Francesa, without hesitation, told one of his callers. 'I would be stupid not to. No one would turn down an interview with him.'

Someone who takes lying seriously, or being used, might."

So says Bob Raissman, while writing another story about ARod. 

Look, it may not be hypocritical for the Daily News to criticize ARod while ignoring all the other steroid cheats ... but it's absolutely hypocritical for the Daily News to criticize people who pay attention to ARod in the search for ratings.

Francesa got the interview. Mad Dog would kill for that interview. Raissman would be so excited to get this interview, he'd pee his pants on the air at SNY.


"Even though his gut told him his client, er, interview subject was probably lying, Francesa portrayed Rodriguez as a martyr. And he portrayed himself as a pit bull saying he asked Rodriguez the same questions (are you still doing steroids, did you lie, etc.) '10 different ways.'

A few minutes later, Francesa said he asked the question '20 different ways.'

A few minutes later: '42 different ways. What did you want me to do, yell at him?' Francesa said on the air. 'Tell him, "You’re lying." '

Well, yeah."


Well, no.

Raissman, of course, is holding Mike Francesa to exceedingly high journalistic standards, even though Francesa is not a journalist and makes no claims to be a journalist.


Bob Costas was lied to by Jerry Sandusky. Go listen to it. It's chilling and it's also amazing. "I enjoy young people."


Even though I am not always the biggest Costas fan, this was a great interview.

What kind of skill does an interviewer possess to get a grown man to say, "I enjoy young people"?

Costas didn't act angry with Sandusky, the prison-bound child molester. The interviewer needs access to the interviewee.

This really is not news.

"The news that Alex Rodriguez has confessed to routine performance-enhancing drug use probably means we’ve eliminated the last person who might have believed in his innocence, the existence of witch hunts and the over-aggressiveness of Bud Selig: that person being Alex Rodriguez himself."

ARod is guilty.

Selig was over-aggressive with ARod.

It never even occurred to me that these two observations were mutually exclusive.

  
My evidence that Selig was over-aggressive with ARod?

• The penalties given to every other guilty MLB player. 
• The guilty former players who work for MLB. 
• The endless list of guilty players -- past and present -- who received no penalty.

It's not even a question of if, it's a question of why.

But we know why.

Francesa got ARod to lie on the air.

Why is Francesa getting grief? The interview was terrific and ARod was not under oath.

Francesa didn't shy away from the tough questions. He backed ARod into a corner and made ARod lie on the air.

Of course he'd have ARod back on the air.

Michael Kay wouldn't?

He lied to Mike Francesa.

What's the agenda?

It's very important for Mike Lupica to convince you that the 2014 World Series was great:

"People act as if the World Series wasn’t great or memorable until the end because it didn’t have enough one-run games, like we did in that magnificent seven-game series between the Twins and Braves in 1991.

If they really think that, they don’t know what they were watching."

Funny you should mention what I was watching. Netflix probably got a workout, if you know what I mean.

I believe Schwarzenegger's "Conan the Barbarian" was on one night, but I don't remember for sure. That's always fun, even when toned down for basic cable.

Also, I'm always a sucker for reruns of "Law and Order."

So that's probably how "people acted." They didn't "act" like the World Series wasn't great or memorable, these "people," when they "acted." They didn't have an opinion one way or the other.


"It had the Giants scoring 15 straight runs after the Royals led 4-1 in Game 4, and then it had the Royals coming back and scoring the next 10 runs after that. Go find another World Series in all of baseball history where anything like that happened."

Gee, when you put it that way, it sounds more boring than I thought it was.


"In the end, you know what the 2014 World Series really was?

A celebration of baseball.

It was a full-out celebration that made a lie out of the notion from fake baseball fans and fake baseball experts that if you don’t have home runs in baseball you don’t have anything."

Fair enough.

Baseball could use more fans, fake or otherwise, that's for sure.


Also, it is very clear that the author of this statement only watches about 20 baseball games per year, and maybe about 120 total innings. Maybe I'm underestimating ... I'll change that to 120 innings when Harvey and Tanaka are not pitching, how's that?

When it the last time Lupica pushed his weight around to score seats for a mid-week game between two #5 starters, White Sox vs. the Yankees?

Do you think Lupica could name the Mets' starting five without looking it up?

Real fans care about that game simply because they're real fans. Fans of actual baseball, not just fans of player gossip or GM moves.

Real baseball experts ... well ... I have ten years of archived material calling out this guy's dopey predictions. (Sonny Gray is going to win the Cy Young ... I never saw him pitch, but I looked it up on fangraphs because I had a column due on Sunday morning.) I mean, Lupica  is the kind of self-professed baseball expert who couldn't get the $10 question on "Beer Money."


He hate homers so much, but his relationship with one of his sons was apparently built on the backs of McGwire and Sosa ... or maybe the author of that book is just a fake baseball fan.


Sorry, pal, it's not going to work.

Selig's legacy is steroids.

I see the narrative you're trying to push. The Wild Card World Series, the banishment of ARod, the Salvation of Selig, all rolled up into one ... the Little World Series that Could ... the Thinking Man's World Series ... the Old School World Series for Aficionados of the Game.

Stupid and incorrect.

You are the fake baseball fan, you are the fake baseball expert, and your Favorite Commissioner is a fraud. Madison Bumgarner didn't wash away your sins.

Bumgarner was remarkable and amazing, but ...

The simple fact is, if you're talking about the best of the best ... the best performances in the history of baseball ... you have to deduct points from Bumgarner's accomplishment because he was facing a relatively unimpressive lineup.

So lazy.

I know the best way to win the World Series.

Do what the Giants did.

Because the Giants won the World Series:

"A look at how San Francisco and Kansas City competed should give Brian Cashman and Sandy Alderson some ideas about how to tinker with their rosters. Young and fast is the way to go. While power is and always will remain important, it is better still to have consistent contact hitters. For all the fearsomeness Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Buster Posey, Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez offered, four of the Series’ final five games concluded without a homer. And that one homer, by Moustakas, simply provided the meaningless final run in the Royals’ 10-0 rout in Game 6.

In fact, there were only five homers hit the entire series."

Right.

If the Royals had one more well-timed homerun, then they're World Series champs.


"Instead of collecting every 38-year-old still working, the Yanks should focus their attention on importing younger, faster talent and developing through the minors. Imagine the stir they’d cause if a fast-growing star like Joe Panik came out of their system — just as a good-looking shortstop named Derek Jeter did 20 years ago — and produced a play like that third-inning, glove-hand flip that turned a potential rally into a double play. Imagine if they had a fast, fleet outfielder like Lorenzo Cain, who ran down just about everything in the expansive Kaufman Stadium outfield."

The 2014 Yankee outfield was Gardner, Ellsbury, and Ichiro. That may not be a young outfield, but it's athletic.

I think we all know by now that a lot of high-priced Yankee players are depreciating at the same time. It is a problem that doesn't seem to have a quick fix.

But young isn't necessarily good, and athletic isn't necessarily good. The Yankees can send out Brendan Ryan and Zoilo Almonte and you've got athletic and young covered, as long as you're willing to endure a lot of combined 0-for-10s.


The good news, of course, is that you don't have to be a good team anymore to win the World Series. So maybe Tanaka stays healthy, Beltran and McCann rebound a bit, the 3-4-5 hitters learn how to get an occasional RBI, and the Yankees get hot in October after winning the second wild card with 86 wins.


"Suppose they stopped making an issue of 39-going-on-100-year-old Alex Rodriguez, left Chase Headley alone at third to excel there, and developed a younger talent who could offer hitting and defense in the style of the 28-year-old Sandoval."

Correct. If only Yangervis Solarte was better. But he isn't.

The Yankees should also develop Bumgarner while they're at it.

That's what they should totally do! Just develop lots of World Series MVPs in their minor leagues.

I wish Cashman had thought of that.

Did anybody notice, that in this era of supposed unlimited opportunities, the Red Sox and Giants keep winning the World Series?

I'm going to explore this comment from the Newsday article a little further:

"Selig recalled how he was told during the mid-90s that '25 teams couldn't win' because the sport's economics were stacked unfairly against franchises that didn't play in the most lucrative areas"

Let's explore the mid-'90s:

• In 1993, the Blue Jays won their second title in a row. This was shortly after the 1980s -- ten different Champions in ten years.
• In 1994, the Expos and the Yankees had the best records in baseball when the season was interrupted because of the strike.
• The 1995 WS was Braves over Indians.
• In 1996, the underdog Yankees beat the Braves in the WS.

So why would Selig think that 25 teams couldn't win?

Because he didn't think that. It's revisionist history.

All of this nonsense is an over-reaction to the success of the 1998 Yankees.


You got what you wanted. It totally works out if there's a one-run Game Seven, but I fail to see how that particular excitement is a function of the Wild Card playoff system.

I can prove, with actual data, the the "hope and faith" nonsense did not boost attendance in any wild card city ... not even KC was into it until the very end of the season.

I can also prove, with data, that the World Series was a ratings disaster. I can't prove that the ratings tanked because the teams were relatively lame -- the first sub-90-win teams to ever face each other in the WS. I can't prove it, but the numbers speak for themselves.

A weird shill for Selig,

Gimme a freaking break with this:

"That is why there has never been a better ending to the World Series than we got Wednesday night in Kansas City, an ending and a World Series to make fools out of all the critics who keep suggesting that the sport is dying or has been passed by, the people who don’t love baseball or follow it and somehow think they have a right to tell you how to fix it or change it."

So Mike Lupica was riveted to the 7th inning of Game Six, at 1:00 am, to see if Tim Lincecum (or a differnt Giants mop up guy) was going to come in out of the bullpen?

Was Lupica keeping score at home?


I don't even know how to begin attacking this one sentence:

1) The World Series was terrible. You already know why, I don't have to explain again.

If you can name more than five players on either team, then you get a cookie.

If any of these players end up in the top five in MVP/Cy Young for the 2014 season, I have no idea who that would be (on second thought, maybe Posey can pull it off).


Five out of seven games were blowouts.


2) Some of us actually prefer to see the best teams and the best players in the finals.

Not some of us, a lot of us.

That explains why the ratings were the worst ever.


3) Of course a one-run Game Seven is terrifically exciting.

Now imagine if if happened with two good teams: Anaheim vs. LA.

Mike Trout or Yasiel Puig at the plate instead of an anonymous Royal.


4) The best ending ever to a World Series?

Bill Mazeroski, Bobby Richardson, Joe Carter, Jack Morris, and Luis Gonzalez might have something to say about that ... and there are many others.

Lupica even goes on to list the superior WS endings, inadvertently subverting his own argument. Context is key, and every other WS in memory involved superior teams.

Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez slayed the beast. Bumgarner beat the KC Royals, an 88-win team with no power who had not made the playoffs in three decades. You can't separate the story from the context.



5) Guess who has every "right" to explain what is wrong with baseball? The people who don't watch it or follow it.

That's exactly who needs to be convinced to watch baseball.

MLB should beg these point-missers to complain about the game rather than ignore it entirely. If I were Microsoft, I'd beg the consumers to explain why the Windows Phone only has 2.5% market share.


6) All of this nonsense is Lupica's weird defense of Selig. Probably hoping to gain endless access, a la Torre and Showalter. Not a journalist, a butt-kisser.

Selig makes 20 million steroid dollars per year and makes his final official appearance in an off-the-rack Sears suit.

Cool, man. We get it. You ooze "aw shucks" authenticity. It's your brand, you big phony.

Selig passes the commissioner baton to another old white lawyer, or whatever. A real out-of-the-box choice whose name I can't remember.

None of them get it. Lupica doesn't get it. Stop blaming the customer.


"This was the ending that this Series deserved, and that baseball needed, at this time when point-missers keep telling us that the only way to measure the sport is by network television ratings in October, as if that is the only way to measure the enduring beauty and greatness of the sport. This was a Series to make the people who think that baseball needs home runs to flourish look like the worst point-missers of them all."

Again with the ratings.

Lupica has forfeited the ratings argument forever, but I know for a fact he's going to waste no time mocking the 2015 post-Jeter YES Network ratings.

I mean, ratings no longer matter! The Astros are a huge success ... critics who panned "Manhattan Love Story" were missing the point ... the XFL lives!


Lupica has the nerve to explain to fans why they are incorrect when they tune out the Wild Card World Series.

Sorry, pal. The fans vote with their eyes, and they can never be wrong in that regard.

See? I'm not crazy. It's all here. He did this on purpose.

You keep using the word "confidential," but I do not think it means what you think it means.

"Bosch pleaded guilty last week to drug charges and is cooperating with investigators in hopes of getting a lenient prison sentence. In the DEA affidavit, he is identified as 'CS1,' short for 'confidential source 1,' and told DEA agents that Berejuk was his first source of testosterone beginning in 2007."

Just what I have been saying.

An 88-win team vs. an 89-win team in the World Series that is going to get terribly low ratings.

Two exciting pennant races rendered meaningless.

That's the result of Selig's Master Plan.

In exchange, he got KC fans jazzed up a little more than usual at the end of the season. Of course, they are coming out for the playoffs ... but that's going to happen in any city once you get past the pointless wild card game.

What does this even mean?

" 'I had a really bad season last year,'; he said.

So on Tuesday, he said, he charted his strength — and the results weren't thrilling.

'I was almost off-the-charts low on upper-body strength,' he said.

'I understood that I need to get stronger,' he added. 'I didn't realize how weak I was upper-body. I'm going to be working the weights a lot harder. That will be my adjustment for this year.' "

You didn't do a pushup for seven months?

So you just woke up one day and looked in the mirror and realized you didn't have any upper body strength?

How long did you let this drift?

Name five players on the Royals ... better yet, name the Yankees' starting staff.

Mike Lupica, King of the Fake Baseball Fans, calls out the amateurs:

"All the fake baseball fans who wring their hands constantly about the state of the game, and act as if the only way to quantify the sport’s appeal is through network TV ratings, if the stress of that is all too much, they should just skip watching the Royals trying to finish off one of the great and magical storybook runs in all of baseball history."

I'll make a deal with you regarding Fake Baseball Fans who worry about ratings. If TV ratings don't matter, then never bring up the post-Jeter YES Network ratings.


Very nice run on sentence, by the way, Fake Sportswriter. Read it out loud to yourself before you print it. That's a very basic rule.


Also, for what it's worth? There is absolutely zero stress involved in the decision to skip the World Series. It's the opposite of stress. It's disinterest. No team to root for and no team to root against.




"I think 10-year contracts for baseball players are dumber than Bruce Jenner, but if given the choice between 10 years for Cano or seven years for Ellsbury before the last offseason began, there’s no question that paying Cano would have made more sense."

First, some background: Lupica presumed the Yankees were going to sign Cano to a dumb ten-year contract. So Lupica pre-emptively ridiculed the contract. But the Yankees didn't sign Cano.

Then, Lupica insisted Ellsbury would get hurt. So Ellsbury played pretty good and stayed healthy. Ellsbury or Gardner were the best non-pitchers ... and Ellsbury was probably not worth $17.5 million ... but Ellsbury still undoubtedly proved Lupica wrong.

Lupica was wrong about the Yankees and wrong about Cano. Yankees are fools for signing Cano, Yankees are fools for not signing Cano. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

So how does Lupica try to wriggle out of it?

By comparing Ellsbury's contract to Cano's ... and not even considering the possibility that Cano wanted to leave ... and not even offering any basis for his conclusion. (I'd definitely take Ellsbury's ridiculous contract over Cano's impossibly ridiculous contract.)


But it doesn't even matter.

The entire "choice" is a red herring. It's a non-argument. Before the offseason began, if given the choice between a ham sandwich and flesh eating bacteria, the Yankees should have chosen art deco.

Everyone knows Cano is better than Ellsbury. The Yankees know this. Ellsbury knows this. That's why Cano makes about 50% more per year.

The Yankees did not want to pay Cano $241 million. Which is a smart decision, and the wisdom of that decision has nothing to do with Jacoby Ellsbury or Masahiro Tanaka or Brian McCann or anybody else.

Stop with the Royals worship.

I admire the hitting approach of the Royals and the Giants (and the Cardinals, for that matter). The Yankees swing for the fences in all circumstances, as we all know.

But the Royals won 88 games this year, have not yet won a World Series, and missed the playoffs for the previous 29 years.

This is not a model for success that anyone needs to follow:

"This was after Game 2 of the ALCS in Baltimore, in which the resurgent Royals had just beaten the Orioles at their own game again, and a couple of scouts were discussing the way the series was going.

'Let me ask you something,' one of them said to me. 'If the Yankees, with all their over-30 guys and questionable defense at so many positions, had to play the Royals 162 times, how many games would they win?' ”

If Tanaka is healthy, then the Yankees probably win 90.

If Tanaka is not healthy, then the Yankees probably win 80.

The Yankees are not very good and neither are the Royals. Welcome to the Wild Card World Series. If two sub-90-win teams jazz you up, then good for you. Like most of America, I'll tune in from time to time, depending upon what happens to be playing on Comedy Central.


"The point he was making was that, in this post-steroid era of declining offense, especially home runs, it’s a greatly changing game, with the formula for winning having shifted to athleticism, defense and, most importantly, a shutdown, power-arm bullpen."

Sounds like the Yankees in 2014, at least two out of three.


"And, of course, the one thing that never changes is that there is no substitute for youth.

This is Brian Cashman’s challenge as he seeks to restore the Yankees to perennial World Series contenders. He’s got a three-year contract to do it. Unfortunately for him, it’s going to take at least that long for the Yankees to start getting younger and more athletic, with Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran locked in for two more years for $23 million and $15 million per, respectively, Brian McCann for four more years at $17 million per and Jacoby Ellsbury six more years — to age 36 — at $21 million per."

Did somebody really suggest Mark Teixeira is not athletic?

3-4-5 should be a lot better than they are. They're paid to produce and they don't produce.The Yankees could take a lesson from lots of teams who know how to drive in runs rather than constantly swing for the fences. I agree with that obvious observation for sure.

I just wouldn't use a Hot Team in October as a model for the next dynasty ... especially if the plan is to wait three decades.

I must say, I'm shocked to hear about the juice bars.

"He had his worst full big-league season in 2014, hitting just .216 with 22 homers and 62 RBI. Some of his struggles, however, could be partly attributed to the various injuries that limited him to just 123 games."

Right.

Maybe his injuries are partly attributable to the fact that his exercise bike is covered in spider webs.

As for the referenced story, Wallace Matthews claims that Mark Texeira "displayed a genuine flair for comedy in the 'Foul Territory' segments he did for the YES network, in which he played himself as a bumbling TV interviewer"

Maybe WAR isn't what you think it is.

In the ongoing battle between the old school baseball poets and the new wave sabermetricians (Bill James started publishing his Baseball Abstracts in 1977, so I don't now how new it is), WAR is one of the focal points of disagreement.

• There was some general disagreement with WAR when it listed Alex Gordon so highly. Sixth in MLB for 2014. After watching the playoffs, maybe Gordon is undervalued and WAR reveals his true value.

• The career WAR ranking of Yankees? Jeter is fifth, ahead of Berra. So maybe WAR is right, and maybe WAR doesn't really disagree with the old school.

Apparently, Mike Lupica knows people who talk about the Yankees like it's the '90s.

"A better way is the Cardinals, who have become the model organization of the sport without buying their way here. They are now in the NLCS for the fourth consecutive year, have won two World Series over the past decade, lost two others to Boston. The Giants, who don’t buy their way to October, are looking to win a third World Series in five years."

Correct.

The Yankees have not been as successful in recent years as the Cardinals or the Giants.

Thank you for your in-depth baseball observations.


As for the team payrolls for the Giants and the Cardinals, it's like $140 million and $110 million, respectively.

They're still buying their way to October.


"The Yankees, with general manager Brian Cashman getting a new three-year contract, basically say they aren’t going to change. It means they are going to keep spending like drunks. They have spent about $3 billion to win one World Series since 2000."

Correct.

I verified this with exactly 1 second of research.


"But we still talk about them like it’s the ’90s, and they are just a couple of moves away. They’re not."

Who?

Who does this?

Who still talks about the Yankees like it's the '90s?

I don't know of any group -- players, coaches, writers, fans, announcers -- who talk about the Yankees like it's the '90s.

"We" isn't me or anyone I know.

Good luck selling this stuff without getting a knuckle sandwich.

NLDS

Classy and Classier.

Oh, boy. The Players' Tribune.

Dear Mark Teixeira,

Where do you get inspiration for Foul Territory?

Your biggest fan,
Felz

I hope ARod doesn't disrupt the chemistry of a team that has missed the playoffs two years in a row.

Let's say runners are in scoring position and the count is 3 balls and 2 strikes.

Don't think about ARod's press coverage. Think about getting a hit.

When the run scores, the team scores a run, and you get something called a "run batted in," commonly referred to as an "RBI" for short.

RBIs are good things.

RBIs are things that we like.

RBIs help the team and also help your personal statistics.

It's a win-win:



"When Rodriguez returns, Girardi doesn’t believe he will cause too much of a distraction, but remember Girardi’s glass is always half-full.

'I thought our guys handled it pretty well.' Girardi said of Rodriguez’s return from injury in 2013, when he continued to play while appealing his MLB suspension. 'Will there be a number of new guys in there? We will do everything we can so it’s not a distraction, but until we get into it we won’t really know. My personal opinion is that it won’t be one.'

The smart money differs."

Don't blame ARod for this mess. He wasn't even on the team.

The final ugly numbers.

Mark Teixeira's 2014: .216/.313/.398, 22 HRs, 62 RBIs, 56 runs.


It gets worse.

• Fifteen solos HRs, six 2-run HRs, one 3-run HR, zero grand slams.
• RISP: One HR in 113 at-bats.
• Two outs and RISP: 7-for-45 (.156).

In 2015, the Mets will be better than the Yankees.

After proclaiming Mets superiority for a decade or two, Lupica is finally poised to win a Pyrrhic Victory.

What did Lupica lose in the war?

All credibility:

"Which New York baseball team do you think is set up better for next season, the Mets or the Yankees?"


The Orioles were better than the Yankees this year. The Orioles finally won the AL East.

Except it felt like the Orioles won the "AL East" and finally beat the "Yankees."

When the Mets win 81 games in 2015 and the Yankees win 77, it will be a big deal to Lupica and Mets fans?

Meh.



"Now that the farewell tours have ended, which Yankee are you buying tickets to watch play next season, especially if Tanaka has to miss next season because of Tommy John surgery?"

Got it. This is undoubtedly true.

But you can't have it both ways.

If you ridiculed Jeter's $20 million annual salary... and ARod's $25 million annual salary ... then you should at least recognize what they were paid to do.

They moved the product, and you're a dumb hypocrite because you are the first person to criticize ARod's contract.


"Which contract do you think looks better now for our kids on 161st. St., incidentally, Teixeira’s or Sabathia’s?"

David Wright's.


 "Alex Rodriguez’s contract, as you know, is in a league of its own."

It's like a reflex.

He really can't see it, can he?

I think the party is over for ARod. The Yankees will get little return for the remaining $60 million, both in terms of on-field production and ticket sales.

But if you really question the return on ARod's overall contract, then count the number of times your newspaper put him on the back page over the past 10 years.

Then, look up the Yankee Stadium attendance numbers.

Yankee Stadium II: The House that ARod Built.

Bob Raissman is the downstream feed.

"In his final days as a Yankee, Derek Jeter gave the media what he had not been able to deliver during his 20 seasons in pinstripes — controversy.

The more precise way of describing Jeter’s gift is this: He provided the media with the motivation to create a controversy. Of course this enabled Valley of the Stupid Gasbags, and commentators from other media precincts, to verbally take out cans of whup-ass and spray paint the Captain.

Or passionately rally to his defense."

Valley of the Stupid Gasbags? Says the guy who regularly appears on SNY?


"It was all entertaining. It also begged the question: Was all the passion, with the extreme points of view, more about evoking the 'Wow, did you hear what that guy said about Jeter' moment than it was about the legitimacy of the critique itself?"

Oh no, they're stealing my shtick.


"Jeter’s been around for two decades, so why did Olbermann wait so long to go to the whip? If he felt Jeter’s skills were so inferior, why not put the verbal beatdown on him years ago? Gee, why wait until Jeter’s end is near? Oh shucks, this is so hard to figure out."

I don't know if this is accurate.

The anti-Jeter backlash is deserved and I wouldn't be surprised if Olbermann has rolled his eyes several times over the past 20 years. I know I have.


I don't even think it's so much tangible vs. abstract. At this point, Jeter's leadership qualities are clearly overrated to such a degree that his actual tangible baseball-playing abilities are overshadowed.
 
I heard one talk radio caller say Jeter is a bi-racial healer and our society will fall apart without him. I paraphrase in this particular case, but that was kind of the gist of many teary-eyed old men: "Jeter transcends baseball."

I heard another say that Jeter should run for mayor. No word if Ricky Ledee would be the deputy mayor.

 
"See, everybody’s a winner here.

So, thanks Derek Jeter. Thanks for leaving us all with something to peddle. Free of charge."

Unsure if that's a confession.

But if Raissman is ripping his content providers for providing controversy, then what does that say about his column?

Just say "Mark Teixeira" instead of "some players."

"According to clubhouse sources who were present for the critique, and backed up by interviews with more than a half-dozen players, most of whom spoke to ESPNNewYork.com not for attribution for fear of angering their manager, Girardi chided some players for being overweight and others for not being 'hungry' enough."

Anthony McCarron seems to have forgotten about the fan favorite playing first base and making humorous videos for YES Network.

"For the first time since maybe the early 1980s, the Yankees are icon-less, an unusual position for a franchise built on some of baseball’s biggest names, from Babe Ruth to Lou Gehrig to Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle to Reggie Jackson to Don Mattingly to Jeter himself. In some ways, it’s not just their shortstop that’s leaving, it’s part of their identity."

I know the answer to their problems: Win. That's what fans like.


The Stadium was empty when Mattingly played on bad teams, and, frankly, the Stadium was dead in 2014 when Jeter played on a bad team.

Who will be the next iconic Yankee? Tanaka has a shot. But it doesn't really matter, anyway.

If Tino can get benched in the playoffs and then find himself in Monument Park 18 years later, then anything can happen.

But nothing happens unless you win.

Derek Jeter is the prism through which I view my life.

I don't know who this guy is, but he said that Jeter has played up to expectations and has the Yankees in the middle of a pennant race.

Derek Jeter has gall to make money.

Having trouble seeing what Chris Carlin is upset about here.

Derek Jeter not living up to an imaginary ideal?

A pro athlete making a commercial?


I think many observers don't get the whole farewell tour thing ... I sure don't ... especially when opposing teams go out of their way to honor the retiring player.

However, even if Jeter's not-too-inclusive leadership skills and aw-shucks humility are consistently exaggerated, I fail to see how Jeter can be a fraud, when all he really ever claimed to be is a pro baseball player. He's a great player who stayed out of trouble (check the national headlines) and ran hard to first base for twenty years.


Carlin is on the Mets station and he's ripping a Yankee player. The station that operates under the pretense of covering "all NY sports" while openly mocking the Yankees.


Carlin's commentary is brought to you by your tri-county Ford dealers (just like the 15th out of the game serves to remind us that you can save 15% on your car insurance in 15 minutes).

So what is Carlin's gripe with a Gatorade commercial?

Jeter makes some cash and further promotes the extremely valuable Brand of Jeter.

Gatorade sells more sugar water to idiots who also think that pro athletes eat anti-nutritional garbage at Subway.


I don't really have a historical scorecard of Chris Carlin's editorial comments.

I have a hunch that Carlin is the fraud here.

I have a hunch that, while Carlin is mocking NY fans and media for worshipping at the altar of Jeter, Carlin spends a lot of time masturbating to a David Wright poster while eating a couple of boxes of ring dings.

Some perspective as Tanaka starts a game for the first time since July 8th.

Tanaka leads the Yankees in wins.

In corporate speak, it's known as "optics."

Though optics has a very specific meaning -- it's the study of light -- the word is now widely used to mean, simply, how something appears.

If you fall for a PR attempt at good optics, you are an infantile fool.

Mike Lupica, unsurprisingly, in an infantile fool:

"When Major League Baseball’s Bud Selig and Rob Manfred wanted to suspend a dozen guys last year, and drop a richly deserved hammer on a drug cheat like Alex Rodriguez, they didn’t talk about a conduct committee or wait around for law enforcement to throw the first punch against Anthony Bosch, drug pusher to the stars. They went right after Bosch with a lawsuit for interference and you know what happened in that moment? They became real enforcers, not people simply posing that way."

Wow. "Real enforcers."

 It's incomprehensible to me that Selig's PR play worked so well.

We got ARod. Steroid era over.

 
By the way, here's a short list, Mr. Enforcer ... and this does not go back to the good ol' days.

The current AL MVP is a drunk driver.

Who knows how many cheaters helped Baltimore win the AL East and Buck Showalter win Manager of the Year? It's a number somewhere between 1 and 50. We know for sure it isn't 0.


Selig is hardly an enforcer. Selig is a corporate poser and Lupica is his water boy.

Ha! Day!

I have no idea what that means.

The Daily News has an allegedly humorous imaginary article about Alex Rodriguez. Because the Daily News would never pander.

This is what "Ha! Day" means, by the way:

"Blue Jays hold, 'Ha! Day' for A-Rod, commemorating the 2007 game in which baserunner Rodriguez shouted, 'Ha!' as if he were going to catch a pop-up, confusing shortstop John McDonald and third baseman Howie Clark.

Rodriguez takes a seat near third base. As clips of A-Rod’s press conferences are shown, McDonald and Clark shout, 'Ha!' at every one of his PED denials. Fans get to scream, 'Ha!' as well. Eventually, A-Rod is asked to join in the fun himself."

Hi-la-ri-ous.

You know, if I wanted to be exposed to unfunny Yankee-related stuff on the Internet, I can always go watch some Foul Territory episodes. At least Teixeira has a day job.

One of these players is probably inspirational to his teammates. One of these players is probably not.

Martin Prado played in last night's game while experiencing stomach pains. This morning, he had an emergency appendectomy.

Mark Teixeira is sitting out today's game with a sore wrist.

I thought Jeter was going to rebound in September.

Probably not at this point.

But what do you expect Girardi to do? Despite claims to the contrary, this season is the Jeter Farewell Tour.

Girardi doesn't have much to gain by embarrassing Jeter. I'm actually pleasantly surprised that Girardi moved Teixeira down in the order.

Now, I know the Orioles play in Baltimore, but Mike Lupica's moral outrage need not be limited to New York players.

So you just KNOW the prominent anti-ARod crusader is going to go after the Orioles in the wake of the Chris Davis suspension.

Duck for cover, y'all, this is going to be nasty:

"They should give Buck Showalter two Manager of the Year awards for his work this season with the Orioles.

He has lost his catcher, he has lost his third baseman, now he loses his first baseman, Chris Davis, on an amphetamine rap.

And the Orioles, who started out the season 0-4, have been 33 games over .500 since then, and will go into the playoffs with the second-best record in baseball.

Oh, and by the way, Buck had to give a kid who’d never been a closer, Zach Britton, a battlefield commission after the season started."

Dang.

That's cold.

Straight up moral crusader stuff right there.


"Mets fans have a right to wonder how this season would have gone if Matt Harvey had pitched this season and David Wright had hit."

Without a doubt.

For, like, the 5th or 6th season in a row, the Mets are totally the best sub-.500 team ever.

If their bad players played better and if their good players remained healthy, they'd be a lot better. Probably 120 wins or so?

That's assuming Eric Young scores 120 runs and that injured closer guy gets 45 saves.

As for the Yankees, I wonder the same thing. If nobody got hurt and everybody hit, I wonder how the season would have gone.

"Better."

The season would have gone better.

I'm trying to imagine a newspaper's obsession with Alex Rodriguez. I wonder what that would be like.

Daily News columnist Bob Raissman anticipates a pre-occupation with ARod in 2015:

"In the middle of the Ray Rice/Roger Goodell media scream, this amounts to hardly a whisper. It is the name Alex Rodriguez.

Yet as the Yankees’ season, and the Summer of Jeter, heads towards the finish line, with playoff possibilities slim, that name is beginning to appear in columns. In the Valley of the Stupid, there are brief discussions, too.

One baseball scribe went as far as to write A-Rod was again a candidate to become 'The Most Interesting Man in the Baseball World.' We agree. And as fall turns to winter — and if the faucet doesn’t freeze — the name A-Rod will drip, drip, drip, some more."

"One baseball scribe" is Joel Sherman at the New York Post. I googled it.


 "It does not matter if you like him, love him, or loathe him. It does not matter if you believe he is psychologically addicted to PEDs and can’t play without them. It doesn’t matter that he is 39 and has had two hip surgeries and could be shot.

None of this will stop the media, even those who want him gone forever, or rooting for him to fail, from once again becoming obsessed with Rodriguez, whenever he surfaces. We all want a good story to cover. This is also about reality — including the Yankees’ business reality."

It sounds like an apology for lazy reporting.


"No matter what side you take, if Rodriguez makes it to spring training he brings the kind of excitement, uncertainty, and chaos that was missing this season. It’s a story with the ability to jump-start the baseball season — something to actually look forward to.

And here’s hoping he doesn’t sit down for one of those lengthy soul-cleansing interviews. Just show up in Tampa, Mr. Rodriguez. And let the fun begin.'

Just so you know, one newspaper recently ran a story about ARod's LinkedIn account.

Very uninteresting.

As uninteresting as Raissman's column warning us that uninteresting ARod commentary is on the way in 2015.

September

Just a hunch the Yankees are ready to tank in September, rather than show some pride and stay above .500 and out of 4th place.


Jeter is 0-for-his-last-20.

Teixeira is down to .217, worse with all the clutch stats.

1 run in 20 innings yesterday, and that was a HR from a Mets castoff.


It seems like a bunch of disinterested veterans with nothing to prove.

Of course, the problem might not be attitude ... the problem might simply be deteriorating skills.

Stephen Drew is not passing his audition.

With Yankees: 100 AB, 13 H, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs, .130/.214/..250.


August: .153/.225/.306.

September: .071/.188/.107.

Chris Davis cheated and got caught.

Three national columnists expressing their opinions regarding Chris Davis's suspension. None of them use the word "cheat," except in the context of "cheating is not his worst crime."


First up is Bob Nightengale. Cheating is not Davis's worst crime, stupidity is:

"You couldn't help but feel sorry for Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis last year."

 Poor Chris Davis.

  
"He had the mother of all breakout seasons, hitting a major-league leading 53 home runs, and all of the while, fending off the insinuation and constant questions that he must be cheating."

I insinuate that Tuesday follows Monday.


"Well, on this day, you can't help but feel sorry once again for Chris Davis, wondering how a man can possibly be this stupid."

Well, I am chock full of compassion, generally speaking. I don't feel too sorry for Chris Davis.


"He should be suspended for sheer stupidity.

Davis, diagnosed years ago with attention deficit disorder, did not bother seeking an exemption for at least the last two years, according to a person close to Davis with direct knowledge of the condition. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about Davis' condition.

Davis simply believed he didn't need the medication any longer.

Yet, when Davis started to struggle this year, what does he do?

He turned to Adderall."

I don't believe his problem is attention deficit disorder.

I believe is problem is hitting the curve.

Adderall helped him hit the curve. That's why he started using Adderall again.

I actually don't think taking Adderall is a stupid decision. He would be in the minor leagues without Adderall. Even after getting caught and suspended, the benefits outweighed the costs.


"He can't be in the Orioles celebratory clubhouse when champagne is doused when they clinch the AL East - as soon as next week, thanks to their 10-game lead.

He can't be with the team during the American League Division Series.

If the Orioles reach the second round, he can't be with the team at the start of the American League Championship Series, and probably not at all.

And, if the Orioles make the World Series, why punish any player who helped the Orioles get to the final round, taking him off the roster to play Davis, who won't have seen live pitching for a month?"

I think I'm going to cry.


Well, that was unsatisfying.

Let's see if Jayson Stark sticks it to a cheater:

"I've spent the morning hearing people say that Chris Davis was selfish, getting himself suspended for 25 games in the middle of a September pennant race.

I've spent the morning hearing people say that Chris Davis was stupid, taking a substance like Adderall, which he knew he couldn't take without getting nailed.

Well, there's certainly an element of truth to both of those labels. But there's a part of this I haven't heard anyone talk about.

Chris Davis has a problem. In his apology statement on Friday morning, he indicated the problem is with Adderall. And if that's true, his problem is actually shared by thousands of people in this country -- quite a few of them athletes, by the way."

Of course this is true.

Lots of people do lots of illegal or unethical things -- and quite a few of them are athletes.


"It's easy for all of us to say that guys like Davis should just stop taking it if they know they don't have a league-approved, therapeutic use exemption. Obviously, that's what they should do.

But Davis' suspension Friday was just one more reminder that it's something many of them can't do."

Of course this is true. Same could be said for steroids, HGH, alcohol abuse, wife-beating, and gambling.

Hitting HRs is probably addictive, as is financial success and national prominence. I'm sure it's better than playing in the minor leagues.

Adderall is probably also addictive.

I hope Davis stops taking Adderall and resumes his rightful baseball career in the minor leagues rather than his bogus near-MVP performance.


"So think about this. If Davis got suspended for using Adderall, it means he tested positive previously, knew he tested positive, knew he was going to be tested at least eight more times in the next year and . . .
Kept taking it anyway.

If you think this through logically, you know what that suggests. It suggests he didn't keep taking Adderall because he thought he could somehow beat all those tests. Maybe he kept taking it because he couldn't stop."

Whichever.

Couldn't stop, wouldn't stop.

He's a fraud and a cheater. This is certainly not a surprising revelation.


So maybe Jeff Passan can bring some "moral clarity" to the situation:

"Chris Davis knew exactly what he was doing when he started popping Adderall again. More than any sport, baseball’s relentless toll can ruin a player’s psyche, cause him to forget who he is and what he’s done, send him into the sort of spiral that makes him look for something, anything. Davis sought answers in a pill bottle."

Baseball's relentless toll ruined his psyche and caused him to forget who he is and what he has done.

Hmmm.

Maybe he remembered what he had done while taking Adderall.


"Long a proponent of playing clean – just last year he called Hank Aaron and Roger Maris the all-time and single-season home run champions – Davis found himself ensnared in the complex world of amphetamines"

Never a proponent of playing clean. Long a proponent of talking about playing clean.

I don't know, maybe it's just me. I was always lucky enough to avoid getting snared in the complex world of amphetamines.

How about you?

Did amphetamines ever jump out of the bottle and ensnare you?


"The difficulty manifests itself with players trying to get through the grind of a 7½-month spring-to-fall season, with constant travel, day games after night games and injuries sapping energy. They believe amphetamines help, so every spring, dozens of players apply for exemptions, hoping a league-appointed doctor will grant it. Though rejections exist, they’re not altogether prevalent."

Yeah, the grind of the baseball season must be demanding.

Especially when you can't hit.

Which Chris Davis can't.

Unless he is taking Adderall.


"And it’s more stupid than selfish, because certainly the intent was to help the Orioles overcome those losses, to play like he believed he should. A 53-home run, MVP-type season morphing into a Mendoza Line mess (.196/.300/.404) is enough to make any player question himself."

That's it. I'm done.

"Trying to help the team" is all I can take.

You all are cowards who should demand the immediate revocation of ARod's suspension.

Nobody perceives the Yankees to be relevant in 2014.

Neither team is relevant in terms of the 2014 playoffs. I don't think anyone perceives anything contrary to this fact:

"So the Mets, who have not even finished above .500 since they moved into Citi Field for the 2009 season and who will now be without David Wright for the remainder of the 2014 campaign, would have to gain a chunk of ground on a bunch of clubs to pull off their minor miracle.

That’s not likely to happen. Nor will it be easy for the Yankees to move past either Detroit or Kansas City (one of them will finish first in the A.L. Central and not end up as a wild-card contestant), Seattle, Toronto and Cleveland (we’re running out of breath, here) and sneak into the postseason as wild card No. 2.

Still, let it be said one more time: The Mets are right there, right now, with the Yankees. As for what it all means, well, it does challenge the perception that the Yankees, even in a flat year, usually manage to remain relevant while the Mets simply do not."

The perception for the majority of the past twenty years? Yes.

The perception for this year? No.

$200 million sure doesn't buy as much as it used to ... because the Yankees spend $200 million on their baseball team ... and their baseball team isn't very good ...

Aside from a template tribute to Jeter (wherein Lupica reminds everyone that he's personal friends with Joe Torre), there isn't much positive to say about the New York baseball teams.

How can one express the poor return on investment for the Yankees?:

"Once the Yankees, even after they stopped winning the World Series, still felt like the greatest show on earth, and could draw 50,000 a game to the old Stadium. Now they’re grinding away for the second wild card in the American League, which makes you believe, more than ever, that a $200 million payroll officially doesn’t buy you nearly what it used to in baseball.

It just seems so unfair."

Let's say you're a man.

A man who writes columns and these columns get published in a newspaper.

You have a joke.

It's not a great joke, it's a so-so joke. It's a snarky joke.

The joke is, "$200 million doesn't buy as much as it used to."

You use this phrase to demonstrate the Yankees' recent lack of success (2001 - 2014), especially compared to the Torre Dynasty years (1996 - 2001).


How many times can you use this joke?

You have been using this joke since 2001.

Is the voice in your head telling you this is a funny joke?

Or is the voice in your head telling you that a joke retains its dubious hilarity despite overuse?

Either way, the voice in your head is wrong.

Balance?

Not winning on one side of the scale.

On the other side of the scale, an active player wearing a patch of himself.

Mark Teixeira dropped to 5th in the batting order.

Not exactly a tectonic shift, but you wonder why it took until September for a small light bulb to go on above Girardi's head.

May as well keep Jeter batting second and not embarrass him.

Starting pitcher gets bombed, Beltran embarrassing base running blunder, Gardner (batting third!) gets ejected from the game.

Girardi remains unfazed:

"What Jeter has become is clear. He's 40-year-old doing something almost no 40-year-olds do in baseball: holding on to a starting job, in only by the tips of his fingers.

That's impressive. But it's not enough to warrant a top-of-the-order spot for a team who's mantra has been championship or bust since the start of the Steinbrenner era.

The problem: We're past that point. It's too late. The buzzards are circling, eying the meat beneath the pinstripes.

Nothing Girardi does from today through Sept. 28, the Yankees' last regular season game, is going to turn their offense into a playoff-caliber force. Especially not moving Jeter and putting someone else in his No. 2 spot.

Notice I said his No. 2 spot. That's because it is and it's been Jeter's since 1998, when he batted there in 145 games. In 1996, his rookie year, he mostly hit No. 9 and he was the leadoff man in 1997.

He's got 1,982 more plate appearances in the second position more than his next most frequent lineup spot, at the very top. This season, he's hit there in 117 of the 121 games he's played — three others were spent leading off and one was in the No. 4 hole."

Pile on Bo Porter.

"Two springs ago, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow gathered his players to introduce his new manager, Bo Porter.

That very day, some players foresaw trouble.

'It was extremely uncomfortable being in that room,' one remembered.

Players and coaches remember a weird dynamic between the two men.

'Bo kept interrupting Jeff,' one player said. 'He seemed to think he was the boss. If you'd been there, you would have known it wasn't going to work.'

It really never did.

That Porter held the job for 300 games -- he was dismissed on Monday -- reflects the fact that Luhnow simply had other priorities."

....

"Luhnow said the team's won-loss record -- 110-190 under Porter -- was his responsibility, which is damning to Porter on several levels. In other words, he didn't dismiss Porter for losing too many baseball games. Luhnow dismissed Porter because he no longer respected his leadership skills and his ability to be a team player in the organization.

From the beginning, there was a disconnect. In that first Spring Training, Porter did things that struck the front office as silly.

For instance, Porter had the walls papered with motivational sayings and placed mirrors in each locker to remind players to look at themselves first before blaming a teammate. He had players turn their chairs away from their lockers, his way of telling them to look forward.

If Porter had been managing a Little League team, that stuff might have played well. Adults? Not so much. When one coach left the big league staff, he went directly to Luhnow and said, 'You had better get that guy away from your young players.' "

That's quite a talent evaluator.

A scout whose qualifications are owning a television and watching Yankee games:

"The lineup poses two distinct problems for Joe Girardi in particular. He has no everyday replacement for Teixeira, yet watches his first baseman struggling to make contact, let alone drive the ball into the gaps. Over the last month, Teixeira has been striking out once every three at-bats, a decline so steep one talent evaluator said, 'It feels like I’m watching a totally different player' than the one the Yankees signed in 2009.

'[Teixeira] only seems to hit mistakes now,' said the scout. That’s what’s so demoralizing to ownership: Teixeira is owed another $45 million through 2016, which means the Yankees are stuck with him, just as they’ll be left to figure out what to do about Carlos Beltran, who’s also signed through ’16."

Jeter plays shortstop and bats second.

The Yankees made this decision 10 years ago, when a 'roided-up ARod was moved to third base.

With a month left on the Jeter Retirement Tour, nobody is going to mess with the captain now.

"Now some may ask, what’s the alternative at this point in the season?

We actually came up with one based on a simple premise: ranking the Yankees hitters by their August OPS.

That produces a lineup of Jacoby Ellsbury (CF), Martin Prado (RF), Carlos Beltran (DH), Mark Teixeira (1B), Chase Headley (3B), Brett Gardner (LF), Stephen Drew (2B) and Jeter (SS)."

Guess who I'm about to mention?

At this moment, the Yankee first baseman -- who goes by many nicknames -- Nails, Iron Horse, Solo HR, AL MVP, Foul Territory -- has an actual batting average of .226.

So bat Prado fourth and send Fatso to the bench.

Jeter is past his prime. He hits into too many double plays and always has. He doesn't walk enough perhaps, though he can still handle the bat, so to speak. He is also in a midst of a slump, which he'll probably break out of soon. You could have said the same thing about Ellsbury a week ago.

The problem with the Yankee offense?

It really isn't Jeter.

Ice cream sandwich diss.

Yankees scored more runs than a bowlful of puppies.

I'll admit that's a nonsense metaphor, but no worse than George King's:

"As one hit off David Price followed another and Yankees’ runners moved around bases like marbles set free in a bathtub, the architects understood how rare the scene was."

You're free, marbles.

Let's simplify your mission statement.

It doesn't look good, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt with the injuries. He seems like a man who isn't particularly committed to physical conditioning or proactively fighting the effects of aging or making sure he's always on the field. But you never know. Maybe he's a tough guy and his body is sending cautionary signals.

In any case, he overestimates his contributions when healthy:

" 'Physically, this has been a very difficult year for me,' Teixeira said. 'The only consolation I take is that when I am healthy and feeling good and can get a nice stretch of games, I’m still driving in runs and hitting home runs and that’s what I’m here for.' "

This is the problem right here.

He thinks his job is to hit home runs, and that's a complication. His job is to drive in runs.

If he scores 100 or so, that would be fine, too. Can't discourage walks.

Bu this fundamental misunderstanding is precisely how you end up with a cleanup hitter with 14 solo HRs and terrible RISP stats.


Also, if you project his stats for 700 plate appearances, it's, like, 35 HRs an 91 RBIs. Still nothing special for a cleanup hitter playing home games at Yankee Stadium.