The past 15 offseasons.

Hello, my name is Mike Lupica. I am a sportswriter. I am a sportswriter who doesn't know who Carl Crawford is:

"The Red Sox will turn into the new Evil Empire when they spend the way they did during the past offseason for the next 15 offseasons, or so."

Why is is to important to the Red Sox, and the writers who carry their water, to push this phony small payroll narrative?

Here. Click on that. 30 teams in MLB. Here is a quick sampling of Boston's payroll rank:




Year      Rank
1999      5
2000      5
2001      2
2002      2
2003      6
2004      2
 ...
2010     2
2011     3
2012     3
2013     4
2014     5


The Red Sox have nothing to apologize for. The Red Sox have won three titles since 2004, in case you forgot. They spent a lot of money to do it. Not quite as much as the Yankees, but way too much to pretend they're underdogs.


"People sure seemed to forget fast that Michael Cuddyer was the National League batting champion in 2013."

He played for the Rockies that year. He hit .356 at home that year.

I mean, I'll go on the record right now and predict that Cuddyer won't hit .356 for the season at Citi Field.

By the way, is there any Mets free agent over the past 20 years ... from Jason Bay to Chris Young to Jeromy Burnitz ... that wasn't overhyped by Mike Lupica?


"For all the bonding talk we’ve heard out of the Yankees clubhouse, and all the talk about brotherhood with Alex Rodriguez, you wonder how comfortable at least some of the Yankees are having, well, a DEA informant in the room with them.

What, that doesn’t fit the narrative of the Disney movie Alex is trying so hard to write here?"

There's a DEA informant sitting next to me. He is in the room. His testimony, while certainly self-serving, helped put Anthony Bosch in prison.

I am confused what I'm supposed to be uncomfortable about.

Am I uncomfortable because I have illegal drugs in my locker? Am I uncomfortable because, similar to Anthony Bosch, I am a drug dealer, and I'm worried that ARod will testify against me? Am I uncomfortable because ARod took PEDs? Am I uncomfortable because, in general, ARod has proven himself to be a stupid person who lies and cheats?


If ARod can hit, he can play.

If ARod can't hit, then he will make everyone in the locker room very uncomfortable.