A very large straw man. Like a straw man on steroids.

"For the last time:

Amphetamines were clearly performance enablers in baseball."

Why do I think this isn't the last time?


"But if they were performance enhancers, how come the record books never changed the way they did during the steroids era?"

Because they weren't as effective as steroids.


"If you want to vote for guys who juiced, have at it.

But you need more than greenies to help build your case for them.

A lot more."

Lupica is on a phony high horse. I don't speak for everyone who takes a more nuanced position, but that's generally the objection.

Cheater outrage is applied selectively. Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez, Jeff Bagwell, Gaylord Perry and others are already in the Hall of Fame.

The reason I'm certain Mike Piazza took steroids is because I have a brain. Nobody before or since regularly hit 450-foot opposite field fly balls. Nobody drafted that low in the draft ever made the major leagues, much less regularly hit 450-foot opposite field fly balls.

The Guardians of the Game laid off Piazza because he's a nice guy who graciously granted post game interviews.

Luipca uses his column and his votes/influence to promote people who assist his career.

So when people call out the hypocrisy, his weak retort is that the cheaters of the 1970s weren't as good at cheating.

We wish you a Merry Christmas.

"We all know who the best player was in New York in 2017, in any sport."

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.


"It was the big kid, Aaron Judge, All Rise Judge, around whom the rising of the Yankees was built in October, the kind of baseball October that was once as regular a pageant around here as the tree lighting at Rockefeller Plaza, or New Year’s Eve in Times Square."

As regular as a hack Lupica rehash column.

"And the best of it for me, the best moment, wasn’t the Yankees coming back after they were down 0-3 in the Wild Card game with the Twins before they ever came to bat; or the comeback against the Astros in Game 4, when the new Yankee Stadium finally sounded like the one across the street. No, the best of it was after Game 5, when the Yankees had gone ahead three games to two, and were as close to the World Series as they had been in eight years."

Lupica paid attention to about 15 baseball games in 2017.

Lupica couldn't name the Yankees' starting rotation.


"The best of it was walking out of the Stadium that night with Yankees fans flooding out of the place in this loud, exuberant wave, down the steps at Babe Ruth Plaza, everybody heading towards 161st St. and the parking lots and the subway station, yelling 'Let’s Go Yankees' and '---- Verlander,' "

I don't understand.

What is a Verlander?


 " ...meaning Justin Verlander, whom they knew their team was going to be facing in Game 6."

Oh!

Justin Verlander.

Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Baseball.


"It all went wrong in Houston, of course. Verlander did to the Yankees what the chants said the Yankees were going to do to him."

Verlander ----'ed the Yankees.


"Now they regroup, in such an expensive and showy and front-page way. They go get Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Jeters, and pick up the kind of contract they once lavished on Alex Rodriguez, everybody’s All-America."

It's a new record, folks: 250,000 consecutive columns with an Alex Rodriguez reference.


Who even cares?

It's all the same observation.

The Yankees might win the World Series and they might not.

I fail to see how adding Giancarlo Stanton, the NL MVP, is a bad move.

The Yankees aren't as "cool" as they were last year, a designation coming from Mike Lupica, a man who had Coldplay as his intro music during his short-lived afternoon radio show and who lists "Love Actually" as his favorite Christmas movie.

One man's stupid is another man's fun.

Bob Raissman criticizes ... well, I'm not sure what he's criticizing:

"Gee, now we have to look forward to hearing what Sterling’s Giancarlo HR call will be. This was actually a topic of fierce debate in the Valley of the Stupid, which is why it is called the Valley of the Stupid."

Too late.

Marvin Miller

But can the Yankees get Alex Cobb?

"That’s all fine — since when did the Yankees ever care about money? — as long as Stanton stays healthy and produces just reasonably consistent to how he did last season."

Yes.

I must agree.

Injured players who don't produce are not valuable to a baseball team.


"Unfortunately history — both his own and these monster contracts in general — suggests he won’t. It’s a fact of baseball life that players after the age of 32, start breaking down and Stanton, before last year, already had a number of concerning injury issues."

Sold.

That's five years and hundreds of homers.

The big question is, what will be Sterling's customized HR call?

Whatever he decides, it will probably be used more often than "the Ben Francisco Treat." Which Sterling may not have used. But he should have.


"He missed the final 17 games of the season after being hit in the face with a pitch in 2014. He missed 88 games in 2015 with a broken hamate bone from swinging too hard on a pitch, 44 games in 2013 with a hamstring strain and shoulder soreness, 36 games in 2012 loose knee bodies and abdominal strain, and another 11 games in 2011 with a quad strain."

He missed 11 games in 2011 with a quad strain?

Oh, no.

Then he hit 59 HRs and won an MVP award in 2017.

So he must have recovered from the quad strain.


"All these while he was in his early-to-mid 20s. What’s going to be the case when he hits his 30s?"

I don't know.

What will be the case with Robinson Cano? Bryce Harper? Manny Machado? Gary Sanchez? Aaron Judge? Greg Bird? Rob Refsnyder?

Should the Yankees pay $29 million per year for Rob Refsnyder or should they go after starting pitching instead?


"At least, even keeping Ellsbury’s onerous $21 million salary, the Yankees could make this Stanton trade and stay under the $197 million luxury tax threshold — which is all Hal Steinbrenner cared about in approving the deal. There is still enough wiggle room money to re-sign CC Sabathia and add a bullpen piece, but as far as the Yankees’ No. 1 target, Alex Cobb, that’s very problematic now."

Nobody cares about Alex Cobb.

Who the heck is Alex Cobb?


"With Jeter over the barrel, this was their one best chance of finally ridding themselves of Ellsbury’s contract — or if nothing else make the Marlins take Chase Headley’s $13 million for ’18 as well — to have plenty of remaining money to go after Cobb. Instead, they let the Stanton stars get in their eyes."

Gee, but what if Alex Cobb gets a quad strain? Should the Yankees take that kind of risk?

Cobb is 29 years old, has 48 career wins, and has never been on the DL, because he is immortal and omnipotent. Not a baseball player, really. More like an indestructible character from a M. Night Shyamalan movie.


"Nor could Yankee fans care less about four years from now. For them, it’s already a Merry Christmas with giddy visions for a Happy New Year. No longer are the Yankees those lovable over-achieving kids. Overnight they’ve been transformed back to Beasts of the East. For everyone in Yankeeland’s sake, especially Aaron Boone, they better win next year. Because the euphoria over this trade is almost guaranteed to have a short shelf life."


Madden may be looking for a tiresome narrative to chug-a-lug his columns for the next ten years, but fans want their freaking team to win a lot of freaking games.

Madden's entire argument is a fake. If the Yankees don't win the World Series right away ... and if Stanton isn't pumping 50 HRs per year in his late 30s ... then this acquisition will be designated a failure.

You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until the Yankees add Machado and Harper ... and who knows? ... maybe even HOF candidate Alex Cobb.

Lupica blows the layup.

You know he waited his whole life to write this column and, I dunno. Maybe he was distracted:

"So the Yankees are back in the big business of being the Yankees again, bigger than ever, now that they are making this kind of big deal for Giancarlo Stanton."

"Bigger than ever."


"Once, almost a hundred years ago, they got Babe Ruth here from Boston, and Ruth would eventually hit 60 home runs in a season, and first make the Yankees the Yankees and put them on the top of the world."

Oh, yeah.

Ruth, Gehrig, Murderer's Row.

I forgot about those Yankees one sentence ago when I wrote that the 2018 Yankees are "bigger than ever."


"Stanton hit 59 for the Marlins last season, and chased 60 all the way to the last at-bat he will ever have for the Marlins. Now Stanton is supposed to put the Yankees back on top of the world."

"Supposed to."

Only if he can survive the barbs of Daily News columnists.


"Now we all wait to see if putting Stanton with Aaron Judge will work out better for the Yankees than putting Alex Rodriguez, and all of his home runs, with Jeter himself once did."

Framing ARod's Yankees career as a failure? Mike Lupica?


"They figure they can find enough pitching to make this work. Maybe Stanton can pitch and hit the way Shohei Ohtani is going to for the Angels. First the Yankees wanted Ohtani. He told the Yankees he didn’t want them. Ohtani ends up on one coast, Giancarlo Stanton ends up on 161st St."

Maybe Stanton can pitch and hit? Well, no, but it was a seamless segue into Ohtani. 



"There really have only been three other star, home run plays like this in all of Yankee history:
Ruth.

Reggie.

Rodriguez."

And a dozen others off the top of my head.


"Only for all the hitting the Yankees did this season, they couldn’t hit once the ALCS went back to Minute Maid Park."

You win some, you lose some.


"They stopped hitting in the ’03 World Series a few months before they brought A-Rod, who had hit 50 home runs twice in Texas, to town."

"... who had hit 50 home runs twice in Texas, to town."


 "Now they are bringing Giancarlo Stanton and his 59 to town."

Yes, we know.


"They are the Yankees. At the end of October they came up small. Now they go for a real big home run hitter."

Riiiight.


"And hope it works out better with him over the next 10 years than it did when the big deal in the big town was A-Rod."

Phfffft.

That's all you've got?

As far as I know, Stanton is not particularly unpopular or unlikable.

But I know for sure that "lovable losers" is a very overrated brand. Give me "unlovable winners" every time.

Maybe he's truly once-in-a-lifetime player ... I will believe it when I see it.

Surely an unusual and exciting player. I would be shocked if he's the Angels' ace or a .300 hitter. Go ahead and prove me wrong and it will be exciting for MLB.

I can't follow the logic here.

I still think Girardi got a raw deal simply because Cashman didn't like him:

"Essentially the Yankees felt Sanchez performed better behind the plate when first called to the majors in 2016, in no small part because he had been drilled regularly in the minors by former organizational catching instructor Josh Paul, especially in blocking balls in the dirt.

Paul used a pitching machine to pump high-velocity fastballs, as well as breaking balls, in the dirt at Sanchez, and the Yankees believe it made a difference in what is the young catcher's biggest weakness.

However, sources say that Sanchez grew tired of doing the drills and expressed that to Girardi going into last season. The manager, perhaps wanting to keep his young catcher happy or simply avoid a conflict, told him he didn't have to do all the extra work.

That may that led to more problems with passed balls, as Sanchez's total of 16 was the highest the American League."

Sanchez's defense is a problem. Practice and effort would help. If Boone can get Sanchez to resume these drills, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

But ... this is seriously the reason why Girardi is no longer the Yankees' manager?

Practice?

Somebody praises Ellsbury on an Yankees website.

Lupica and Costas, a two-fer.

"And while we’re on the subject of false narratives, how about the one that you hear at this time of year around baseball, equating amphetamine use out of baseball’s past with steroids, as if both of them are exactly the same.

Well, yeah, just not on this planet.

Here’s what Bob Costas said on this subject the other day:"

They're not exactly the same, but they're similar in the following way: Both are illegal performance-enhancing substances.


" 'Steroids are performance enhancers. Amphetamines are performance enablers…(Amphetamines) do not, and did not, transform them, as steroids did.' "

Correct.

Amphetamines are not as effective as steroids.

If you look up "enhance" in the thesaurus, you will see "enable." You're just letting guys off the hook because they played in the '70s and you like them.


" 'That doesn’t mean they should not have been banned. One effect has been that older players on the back end of lucrative long term deals, can’t play 150 games anymore, or be as generally effective as the season and seasons roll on. So, along with the ban on PEDS, and emphasis on analytics, it has changed contract calculations. All reasonable. But not at all reasonable to remotely equate amphetamines to steroids.' "

It’s not.

Costas is right."

If a baseball player took amphetamines without a prescription, then that baseball player was cheating.

Amphetamines "enable" superior baseball performance, just like steroids, only less effectively than steroids.


"You want to defend the right of steroid users to get into the Hall of Fame, have at it."

"The right" to get into the Hall of Fame, as if this was a matter for the Supreme Court.

Besides, we all know steroid users have already been voted into the Hall of Fame.

Unless you're intentionally burying your head in the sand. Why would a baseball fan, baseball journalist, or voting member of the BBWAA want to intentionally bury their heads in the sand?


"But if you want Bonds and Clemens in Cooperstown, you’ve got to bring a lot more to your side of the debate than greenies."

Easy.

Bonds and Clemens were among the greatest players in baseball history before they took steroids.

No one cares if you throw away your ballot ...

... But I actually agree with the arguments here.

2017 NL MVP

BBWAA

Name	Points
Giancarlo Stanton	302
Joey Votto	300
Paul Goldschmidt	239
Nolan Arenado	229
Charlie Blackmon	205
Anthony Rendon	141
Kris Bryant	132
Justin Turner	43
Cody Bellinger	38
Max Scherzer	34
Tommy Pham	24
Bryce Harper	21
Anthony Rizzo	17
J.D. Martinez	11
Kenley Jansen	8
Marcell Ozuna	8
Clayton Kershaw	6
Corey Seager	6
Daniel Murphy	3
Archie Bradley	1
Zack Greinke	1
Ryan Zimmerman	1

Felz

Name	Points
Giancarlo Stanton	4
Nolan Arenado	3
Paul Goldschmidt	2
Joey Votto	1

2017 AL MVP

BBWAA

Name	Points
Jose Altuve	405
Aaron Judge	279
Jose Ramirez	237
Mike Trout	197
Francisco Lindor	143
Mookie Betts	110
Corey Kluber	101
Andrelton Simmons	60
Chris Sale	56
Nelson Cruz	44
Brian Dozier	25
Jonathan Schoop	19
George Springer	17
Jose Abreu	16
Eric Hosmer	16
Justin Upton	12
Carlos Correa	9
Byron Buxton	7
Marwin Gonzalez	6
Edwin Encarnacion	4
Didi Gregorius	4
Khris Davis	1
Josh Donaldson	1
Gary Sanchez	1

Felz

Name	Points
Jose Altuve	4
Aaron Judge	3
Mookie Betts	2
Nelson Cruz	1

2017 NL Cy Young

BBWAA

Name	Points
Max Scherzer	201
Clayton Kershaw	126
Stephen Strasburg	81
Zack Greinke	52
Kenley Jansen	22
Gio Gonzalez	18
Robbie Ray	6
Jacob deGrom	2
Jimmy Nelson	1
Alex Wood	1

Felz

Name	Points
Max Scherzer	4
Clayton Kershaw	3
Stephen Strasburg	2
Kenley Jansen	1

2017 AL Cy Young

Due to diminishing interest in the MVP/Cy Young poll, I only polled myself. So here is the first of four awards comparing the BBWAA votes to my half-hearted, off-the-top-of-my-head votes.

BBWAA

Name	Points
Corey Kluber	204
Chris Sale	126
Luis Severino	73
Carlos Carrasco	43
Justin Verlander	32
Craig Kimbrel	27
Ervin Santana	3
Marcus Stroman	2

Felz

Name	Points
Corey Kluber	4
Chris Sale	3
Carlos Carrasco	2
Luis Severino	1

Girardi had to go?

I get the feeling they were rooting for the Yankees to lose Game Seven of the ALCS. Steinbrenner actually says that Girardi would have been fired (he was fired, for all intents and purposes) if the Yankees had won the World Series. I find this completely impossible to believe. Firing a manager while he still has ticker tape in his hair?:

“ 'You’ve got to consider the fact that you’ve got a young team, and that maybe a different type of leadership perhaps is needed for a younger team than it is for a veteran team,' Steinbrenner said. 'I think if you ask Cash, it’s important for the next manager to have an understanding of analytics because it’s such a big part of the game. If they don’t, at least a willingness to learn, right? We all need to learn, we all should learn. I think that’s going to be part of it, too. Everybody’s going to have their pros and cons. Nobody is going to have all positives. It’s just going to be a long process sifting through all the intel that he’s getting in these interviews and make the best decision we can.' ”

1. Girardi's 10-year record was 910-710.

2. Girardi just managed the AL Rookie of the Year. So whatever inability Girardi had communicating with young players, let's hope the next manager is similarly unable to communicate with young players.

3. It's just flat-out deplorable to see so many vultures picking at Girardi's skeleton.

I will also refuse to accept the Yankee managerial job if offered.

Brian Cashman doesn't rule out MILEY CYRUS as Yankees manager.

Tanaka had a mediocre regular season.

Severino, Sabathia, Tanaka, Gray, and Montgomery.

I'd say it's good, but not great. Lots of "question marks," as they say.

Tanaka's 2017 playoffs were great, but didn't erase his entire mediocre 2017 season.

I can think of no logical reason for Tanaka to opt out.

"Prior to the season, the Yankees were inclined to let Tanaka walk if he opted for free agency. And their history with Sabathia could influence their decision-making process. Tanaka could be well worth it for three ears at $22-23 million a year, but would the Bombers give him more years? It could be a gamble."

If Tanaka opts out, the Yankees will let him walk for sure.

Pretty sure zero of these games will be against the Dodgers.

... "after" his departure.

While we all had a sense that Girardi wasn't an avuncular teddy bear over the past ten years, very few of the turncoat commenters were saying this stuff to his face (or publicly, on the radio).

910-710 speaks for itself.

One unsatisfying ring in a decade also speaks for itself.

He was good in some respects, better than most. He wasn't a legend by any means.

I think I am recoiling at all the sudden negativity because it's another example of a society that values style over substance.

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Girardi led the Yankees to within one game of reaching the World Series, but New York decided to go in another direction when his contract expired after his 10th season in the dugout. Reports of friction between Girardi and his bosses at Yankee Stadium emerged soon after Girardi’s departure announcement, and Teixeira suspects his former manager’s personality isn’t best suited to lead the Yankees’ young, talented roster into the future.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2017/10/mark-teixeira-knows-why-joe-girardi-is-out-as-yankees-manager/

Funny, I was thinking the same thing ...

... and I don't even think he did a good job with the Mets.

The Simple Truth.

"Although Joe Girardi was a good manager for the New York Yankees during his decade on the job, it was time for him to go -- for his sake and, to a lesser extent, for the franchise’s."

This is an introduction to an exposition.

What will follow is a detailed argument to support the proposition, then a final paragraph in which the proposition is referenced.

Say what you're going to do; do it; then say what you just did.


"A dynasty is perhaps on the horizon at Yankee Stadium, and Girardi could have done a good enough job to lead it. A manager makes a difference, but never forget, Joe Torre became a genius only after he connected with the Core Four."

Also, the shamefully forgotten Bernie Williams, the most prominent member of the dynastic Yankees who is not included in the Core Four. Maybe because Core Five doesn't rhyme.


"This is probably a good move for Girardi; he's a man who always stresses family first, and he's leaving a job that has ground him down and kept him away from his loved ones for most of the year."

I pretty much disagree with all of Marchand's observations, but I surely don't think the employed should speak on behalf of the recently unemployed.


"Interestingly enough and perhaps tellingly, this year Girardi seemed a bit calmer, more at ease. Maybe he knew this was it for him. He might be harder to replace than it appears. But this was the right time for him to go."

And so it concludes.

I read the whole thing and didn't see any reasons why this was a good time for Girardi to go.
Girardi will never catch Torre, his overall record is mediocre if playoff success is the criteria, and his overall regular season record is fantastic (910-710). He's sort of boring and terse with the media. He isn't particularly beloved by the fans.

Still, all the time he gets to spend with his family? Throwing batting practices to his son? Four million dollars per annum eases the separation anxiety.

I think the current team is particularly geared around Girardi's strengths, so the 2018 - 2020 Presumptive Dynasty might not come to fruition if the new manager doesn't handle the bullpen or handle the young superstars.

They Showaltered him.

One of my favorite players.

Got rid of the tee shirt when he joined the Mets, but I always liked him on and off the field. I'm surprised he can't help out the team as a pinch-hitter.

Funny how this works.

This is why everybody wants to be an underdog. All the Judge strikeouts will not be ignored if the Yankees fall short next season.

For crying out loud, the Yankees are playing clean baseball ... other than the hitting.

Bird is slow as molasses on his best day. He missed most of the season with an ankle injury. The hi-fi, 4-D, super slo mo instant replay analysis doesn't do justice to human scale and human biology. Yes, it was a bad slide with his foot to the inside of the plate. It's asking a lot to expect him to be agile and dexterous enough to nimbly wisp across the inside corner of the plate ... he isn't Gumby.

Judge missed the cutoff man. But even that decision clearly didn't cost the Yankees a run because the throw home was in plenty of time. Sanchez missed a short hop and the runner scored. If the Yankees were hitting, no one would have paid it any mind.

Gardner can be properly criticized for making the third out at third base, but the guy hitting behind him is hitting approximately .000 ... it's time to be aggressive perhaps? It's time to hope for a wild pitch instead of a base hit? Not that he or the third base coach analyzed it to that degree in the heat of the moment, but maybe if the team was hitting he wouldn't feel the need to force the issue?


That's it?

Over the course of two games, that's the evidence for inexperience or sloppiness?

I've seen the Yankees make far more misplays in a playoff series. In fact, I've seen the Yankees make more misplays in one game. In fact, I've seen Championship-caliber Yankees make more misplays in one inning. In fact, I've seen Tommy John make more misplays on one play.


2017 ALCS: No errors, no wild pitches, no passed balls, no bad throws, no runners picked off, no botched bunts, no ground balls to the pitcher thrown into CF, no errant pick off throws rolling down the first base line, no hit and runs where somebody missed the signal from the third base coach, no fly balls dropping between two outfielders who are both yelling, "I got it."


The Astros totally made two REALLY GOOD throws from the outfield. Nothing I haven't seen before, but amplified for sure because it's the playoffs and the games are close.

The Astros also made about 250 consecutive really good throws from the pitcher's mound towards home plate and that's why they're up 2-zip.

Or Judge can throw to the cutoff man.

Or somebody can get a hit.

Sanchez blows the game, the headline screams!

This analysis of the final play doesn't even properly identify the cutoff man. It wasn't Didi, it was Castro.

But, whatever.

In two games, the Yankees have scored 2 runs with 10 hits and struck out 27 times.

Sanchez is not a good fielder, in case you hadn't heard. Most catchers probably make the scoop and apply the tag ... extending the game for at least one more batter. Why would anyone presume the Yankees would have won the game in extra innings? Or Chapman would have gotten the next batter out?

Judge and Sanchez have already combined for 109 HRs in their short careers.

That's whey they're on the field.

Bird's a champ.

1.001 OPS in the playoffs, .286 batting average, and 3 HRs already.

Now he's getting criticized for his secondary lead off second base, he inability to accelerate as quickly as Rickey Henderson, and for an imperfect slide into home plate.

The Daily News with an article about ARod.

I mean ... is there anything else going on in New York City baseball?

Reminder to praise forgotten hero Tommy Kahnle from Game Four.

Mopping up Betances's mess.

Declines a start?

In the playoffs?

Because you're feeling under the weather?

You can do that?

The Yankees have proven me wrong all year.

A win in Game Five would sure be a feather in Girardi's cap.

Chapman didn't surprise me ...

... I am still surprised that Sanchez was catching in a late, close playoff game.

Easy target, I guess.

Jeering Girardi after the season he had?

Why would he even want to come back?

Barring an unlikely playoff comeback, I think Girardi might get fired. He will be rehired by another team in about three seconds.

Yankees have to win 3 games in a row.

Three different Yankee starting pitchers will have to start all three of those games.

The starting pitchers will be Tanaka, Severino, and Gray.

What difference does it make when they pitch?:

"So how does Joe Girardi redeem himself for that indefensible decision not to challenge the now-famous missed call in Game 2?

I’m not sure he can, to be honest. Certainly he took an important step on Saturday at his press conference by taking responsibility for it, saying, 'I screwed up,' a dramatic shift from the excuse-making on Friday night in Cleveland."

A very important step, yes. The Yankees won the game after the umpires reviewed Girardi's postgame press conference.


"In his heyday The Boss might well have fired Girardi before Game 3 over such a preventable misstep, and while Hal Steinbrenner has shown no such impulsive behavior, the outcry among fans and media is such that you have to wonder if he’ll feel the need to act."

Ridiculous.

George fired managers in the middle of a playoff series?

That would help the Yankees defeat a superior Indians team?


"Girardi’s contract expires when the season ends, and the Yankee brass is well aware that he’s not terribly popular among fans - though that shouldn’t be a basis for evaluation."

No. John Haper's column in the Daily News should be a basis for evaluation.


"So how does the comeback begin?

Here’s where I think Girardi has already missed another opportunity: I’d start Luis Severino in Game 3 and push Masahiro Tanaka back to Game 4.

Sure, they both have to pitch if the Yankees are going to get this thing back to Game 5, but I wouldn’t want to lose the series without ever giving the ball to my best starting pitcher.

And I have to believe Severino has a gem in him after what happened in the wild-card game, when he clearly was overwhelmed by the moment, pitching his first post-season game.

You tried to explain why Severino should start Game Three, but you didn't give any good reasons why Severino should start Game Three.


"If nothing else, the Yankees should want to find that out because if Severino somehow were to struggle badly again, it would be cause to wonder about his ability to handle big-game pressure."

Right.

That would be important to know because ... ummm ...


"Tanaka, meanwhile, didn’t pitch against the Indians during the season, but he hasn’t fared particularly well against them in his career, going 1-2 with a 4.63 ERA.

More significantly, with Tanaka you never know what you’re going to get, especially this season. When he was on his game he was brilliant, never more so than in his final start of the season, striking out 15 Blue Jays’ hitters while pitching six shutout innings."

This is all true.

So are the Yankees going to trade for Justin Verlander prior to Game Four?

I am reading it and kind of not believing it. Like Girardi is going to get a parade down Fifth Avenue when the Yankees lose in four games instead of losing in three games.


Girardi's job security is another matter.

He had a great season, once again showed his knack with young players and with the bullpen, had a nice game in the Wild Card, then a disastrous game in the ALDS, is not a very charismatic guy. Like most Yankee fans, I could take him or leave him. Ten years, if you can believe it.

As for this series? The Yankees are sunk. The Indians are better at just about everything, including managing. I think we all knew that before the series started.

Girardi admitted he was wrong.

Now his soul can be released to Heaven and the Indians can sweep in peace.

Also, the Yankees get the grand slam back, so they win the game.

"Ineptitude and arrogance."

Just be honest here. Girardi's real crime is arrogance.

Chad Green blew it. A pitcher who has allowed 0.5 HRs per 9 innings this season.

Girardi is blamed for a quick hook with Sabathia when, earlier in the week, he saved the season by pulling his Cy Young candidate after 1/3rd of an inning.

Also, note the lack of arrows directed towards everybody's favorite li'l utility man getting picked off second base. Nice play, "To." Are you a secret agent playing for the Indians, or something?

When a team loses 9-8, it's isn't one pitch or one bad umpire's call or one managerial screw-up.

Bad ump call, bad managerial decision to avoid the (very stupid, horrible, awful, get rid of it) super-slo-mo instant replay.

Deal with it.

Strike the next guy out and get Tanaka ready for the first game in a best-of-three.

Winners get the next guy out.

The Indians are winners. The Yankees are not.

Feeling down? Need a laugh?

There is an entire John Harper article prior to the punchline:

"Gardner's not Jeter but he's as much as captain in every respect. Maybe more so."

You had as many RBIs this season as Rob Refsnyder.

Throw Strikes

Girardi has worked wonders with the talented pitchers in his bullpen. I thought Chapman was totally shot and now Chapman is back. Betances was given a very long leash ... until crunch time in September.

Other than referring to a grown man as "Chappy," I tip my cap to Girardi.

.239 batting average with 0 HRs in the World Series.

Naturally.

I know, I know, it's an honor for his career accomplishments.

Any other questions?

"Joe Girardi is placing his faith in Gary Sanchez behind the plate for the team’s likely do-or-die AL wild-card game on Tuesday night against the Twins.

'This is my catcher,' said Girardi, who has been critical of Sanchez’s defense — specifically his inability to block pitches in the dirt — this year.

But the manager defended Sanchez, 24, who has an MLB-high 16 passed balls along with 13 errors, on Friday. 

In the fifth inning of Thursday’s 9-6 loss to the Rays, Sanchez was charged with a passed ball and an error, both on plays in which runs scored. Tampa Bay ultimately scored seven runs in the frame, turning a 4-1 Yankees lead into an 8-4 deficit."

Sanchez starts, he will probably be replaced if the game is late and close.

Bird starts at first base.

Ellsbury starts.

Betances is benched.

I don't know who is DH.

Proved me wrong.

Ellsbury in September

.429/.543/.625.

"Diabolical."

"Even though the era of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds is thankfully long since over, and even though Stanton had nothing to do with them and their diabolical cheating, and even though he himself presumably is not doping now, Stanton is stalked by them, linked to them and even diminished by them.

As the 2017 season reaches its final 10 games for the Marlins, Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in 162 games in 1961 is most definitely within Stanton’s reach. This should be one of the seminal achievements of the 2017 sports year.

But Maris’ record is buried under a mountain of syringes, pills and lies. Bonds is credited with the single-season MLB 'record' of 73, followed by McGwire with 70, Sosa with 66, McGwire with 65 and Sosa again with 64 and 63, all reached between 1998 and 2001, one of the most shameful periods in baseball history."

Are you saying Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa took performance enhancing substances?

Stop the presses! Stop the presses!

"Had MLB owners and players cared to at least try to catch their cheaters back then and instituted the drug testing and other protocols they should have had at the time, we could presume the notorious trio of McGwire, Sosa and Bonds would have gone the way of Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones: caught, punished and purged from the record books.

Had that happened, Maris would have moved from seventh place on the list back to first, where he belongs. And then, all these years later, along comes Stanton.

Can you imagine how we would be viewing his march toward Maris in that case? It would be a national quest transcending sports, bringing new glory and interest to the game throughout American life."

Nah.

In 2017, MLB has already set an all-time record for HRs and there are still two weeks to go.

The only discussion that would transcend sports would be accusations of a juiced ball.


I'm not rooting against Stanton. I'm rooting for him. I also hope he isn't taking steroids. But I don't know for sure that he isn't.

Gardner is one of the top 25 keys to Yankee playoff success.

Craftwork

Very nice sentence by Mike Lupica:

"If the Yankees don’t win the division, they will kick themselves all the way to the wild-card game for the games they kicked away after the trade deadline, one in particular, the worst lost of the season, after Chapman let the kid, Devers, take him out of Yankee Stadium, the opposite way, one Sunday night."

I dare any English teacher to attempt to diagram that monstrosity.

Didi RISP

RISP: .315/.333/.472

RISP 2 outs: .333/.368/.537

I don't know what Yankee fans are complaining about.

After Francona, Girardi might be the 2017 AL Manager of the Year. I thought the Yankees were going to be a last place team. Girardi’s two major strengths (bullpen management and handling youngsters) came to the fore this season. It blows my mind that he’s pulling starters with a lead after 4 2/3 innings … it’s the opposite of Torre, that’s for sure … and it’s absolutely working. Ride the hot hand of Chad Green and win September ball games. This is what we’ve been waiting for.

Can't rely on the pitcher who is 5-5 with a 6.14 ERA.

Remember that time the Red Sox beat the Yankees?

The LA Dodgers winning streak reminded Mike Lupica of the time the Red Sox beat the Yankees.

The Cleveland Indians winning streak reminded Mike Lupica of the time the Red Sox beat the Yankees.

Fake news.

In one sentence, Mike Lupica is 100% wrong:

"If Masahiro Tanaka and Jacoby Ellsbury — more than $300 million in Yankees — are ever going to act as if they were really worth the money, now would be a good time."

1. Tanaka: 50-27, 3.54 ERA, 12.7 WAR. So he has already earned his salary for 3+ years, despite stumbling in his most recent start.
2. Ellsbury: .263/.327/.384, 39 HRs, 197 RBIs, 257 R, 97 stolen bases, 8.6 WAR. Average player who has been paid too much money.

But lately? If "now would be a good time," please note that Ellsbury:

• has hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games.
• is hitting .440/.517/.560 in September.
•  is hitting .333/.415/.526 with 2 HRs, 13 RBIs, and several "big hits" in the last 28 days.

Unreliable.

"Masahiro Tanaka has failed to make it through the fifth inning seven times this season compared to three times in his first three years in the big leagues, according to baseball researcher Katie Sharp."

Weird.

"The Yankees will start Jordan Montgomery in Monday’s series opener in Baltimore. Jaime Garcia will skip a turn in the rotation and possibly be used out of the bullpen, according to Girardi, who favored Montgomery as a matchup against the Orioles."

Nobody asked why?

Other professional baseball teams also play professional baseball.

"Three hours before first pitch in the Bronx on Sunday night, the Orioles were celebrating a 12-inning walk-off win in a game against the Blue Jays they had tied in the bottom of the ninth with a home run by Wellington Castillo.

Yes, just in case you're thinking only about trying to catch the Red Sox, it should be noted: the Orioles are smoking hot, 9-2 in their last 11 games and swinging home run bats up and down the lineup.

Simply put, they're chasing hard in the wild-card race, not to mention getting a good night's sleep at home Sunday night, waiting for the Yankees to roll into town in in the wee hours, not long before Monday's 2 p.m. start at Camden Yards.

All of which is a way of saying:

While the Yankees were focused on an important swing game with the Red Sox Sunday night that would go a long way toward determining whether they had a realistic shot at winning the AL East, they were facing another reality as well:

That is, they are heading on a nine-game road trip that looms as the toughest part of their remaining schedule and figures to be equally pivotal in their chase of a division title -- more so in at least solidifying a wild-card spot.

...

 
So as big as Sunday night's win over the Red Sox was for the Yankees, one way or the other, they have to know they can't sleep-walk into Baltimore, no matter how little shut-eye the schedule afforded them, to start this crucial road trip.

Because no matter where they stand with the Red Sox, the wild-card race is far from settled."

I think the best strategy for the Yankees is to win as many games as possible by outscoring their opponents.

Sabathia had the last laugh in the sense that he won the game.

Sabathia is also having a good season, rather unexpectedly.

Is it OK for him to use the word "faggot" when it's not OK for others? Nunez is the player who's apologizing? For helping his team win a baseball game?

Thirteen years ago, close to 100% of Yankee fans wanted the Yankee batters to bunt on Schilling. Congratulations to the 2004 Yankees, who lost the game, but upheld their manliness.

A nice kid from Tom's River.

This "aw shucks" profile borders on journalistic negligence:

"In some ways, Todd Frazier is still that 12-year-old kid who seemed to get every big hit in leading his team from Toms River, N.J. to the Little League World Series championship. He has a Derek Jeter-like confidence, in fact, that oozes out of him even when he’s hitting .209 for the season.

...
  
Frazier indeed delivered a line single to left against Kluber to put the Yankees ahead at the time, yet he’s only hitting .188 with runners in scoring position this season, and his overall numbers have major-league scouts scratching their heads, wondering what happened to the guy who as recently as 2015 looked like he was going to be an All-Star for years to come."

...

The thinking among at least some baseball people, including the aforementioned scout, was that Frazier would be better after escaping the losing environment around the White Sox, and raise his game on the big stage in the Bronx, essentially a homecoming for him.
Yet he’s hitting only .214 since coming over in the trade six weeks ago, with five home runs (21 for the season, a double and a triple).

On the other hand, Frazier has played brilliant defensively at third base, and he has taken enough walks to have a .345 on-base percentage. He just hasn’t hit the way the Yankees hoped, and with Greg Bird back at first base, there will be days Joe Giardi will have to choose between him and Chase Headley, who has swung the bat well lately."

The writers pick players they like and warp reality rather than say a bad word.

Brilliant defense? Confidence he'll play better?

Just say he stinks.

Sanchez can't field, Romine can't hit.

Romine has an OPS+ of 52.Pitcher-esque slash line of .221/.278/.300.Two HRs in 190 at-bats.

Sanchez's defense is bad and it isn't getting better. No chance that Sanchez will be behind the plate in the late innings of a close game in the playoffs. Which means Romine is going to get a big at-bat in the ninth inning of a playoff game. He will not get a hit.

Next season, the Yankees need an upgrade at catcher and Sanchez is going to have to DH.

This guy stinks at baseball.

.217/.301/.337 with 121 strikeouts in 406 at-bats ... in the minor leagues.

All the players better than Chris Carter.

2017 Carter: 184 AB, .201/.284/.370, 8 HR, 26 RBIs, 20 R, 35 BB, 99 Ks.

2017 NYY Todd Frazier: 114 AB, .211/.345/.368, 5 HR, 15 RBIs, 19 R, 18 BB, 35 Ks.

Is Frazier better?

A little better.

Frazier is also paid 4x the salary.

So this is basically an annual occurrence now.

Shot.

"Chapman surrendered a solo home run to slugger Yonder Alonso in the 11th inning and the Yankees couldn't recover. When he walked off the mound, he did it slowly, and he was showered with boos.

Alonso hit out a 100.1-mph fastball. Alonso became just the third lefty to ever hit a home run off the southpaw Chapman. The last was Red Sox rookie Rafael Devers on Aug. 14. Before that? It was 2011."

Interesting information about HR record.

So Dave Kingman is the real single season HR record holder?

Everyone who's better than Ellsbury isn't any better than Ellsbury.

Hicks had a nice game in the second game after he came off the DL. It was exciting. It was a spark.

Made a memorable throw when Nunez tried to tag up to third base on a fly ball to left field.

Guess what?

Since coming off the DL, Hicks is 7-for-49 (.143).

... and I didn't get past the first sentence.

"They're the St. Louis Cardinals, as big a name as we have in sports" 

They are?

Curt Schilling says he still supports Donald Trump.

Because, baseball.

Try again next year.

Maybe Chapman is just having a bad year, maybe he's just tired from overuse in last year's playoffs, maybe he hasn't fully recovered from his injury.

Girardi is being foolish and contradicting his own willingness to bench prominent players.

For example, let's use one example to slag on Ellsbury again:

"The Yankees are in the midst of a fight to stay in the American League East race. They also want to hold on to the Wild Card. The Yankees couldn’t afford to keep playing Jacoby Ellsbury when Clint Frazier came up. They can’t continue to be unsure what they’re going to get from their closer every night."

Ellsbury has won a couple of games recently with big hits. Not that he's making a run for the AL MVP or anything. But the narrative is bogus ... the Yankees "couldn't afford" to play Ellsbury instead of a rookie with a .274 on-base%.

One way to fix the Subway Series.

Better teams.

I thought Sunday night would be his final game.

Funny thing is, Romine's defense hasn't been too good either ...

It's good that the Yankees are trying to nip this in the bud.

"Girardi said that Sanchez was told point blank that his defense must improve after he permitted his Major League-leading 12th passed ball in Friday's 7-2 loss to Cleveland. The manager said that Sanchez is 'physically fine,' but his issues blocking balls prompted backup Austin Romine to catch Sunday's day game following a night game.
 ...

 Part of the issue may be that Sanchez has gained some weight, with general manager Brian Cashman telling the New York Post that Sanchez had put on eight-to-12 pounds of muscle over the offseason while keeping his body-fat percentage the same. That may be limiting his flexibility, with Cashman saying it was a matter of 'good intentions and bad results.' "

The Yankees sure are streaky this year.

"You know who nobody wants to play in the first round of the playoffs? The Yankees, with or without Sonny Gray."

The White Sox would sign up right now for that matchup.


"This year’s Yankees now have as much bullpen as the Indians did when they made it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series last year, and you may have noticed they have more stick."

All the way to Game 7!


"It seems these Yankees are hardly ever out of a game. By now it’s clear there is some magic to them, especially when they’re down, even when they go more than a month of baseball without winning a single series."

A lot of clutchiness for a team that is 11-19 in one-run games.
 

"The Yankees come from behind. A lot. The Yankees tie games in the ninth inning or later or win them. They get down 9-1 to the Orioles in April and come back and ring up 14 runs of their own and win the game. They are down to the Cubs at Wrigley in the 9th and Brett Gardner hits a home run and they come back again and beat the Cubs this time. They are down to the Red Sox at Fenway after Chris Sale has pitched like as much of an ace as there is in baseball, but then Matt Holliday hits one off Craig Kimbrel in the 9th and the Yankees finally win in 16.

Clint Frazier hits a walk-off home run to win a game against the Brewers three weeks ago. The Yankees are down 5-3 to the Rays on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium and get it to 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th and then Gary Sanchez sneaks a ball through a shift and they tie it with two outs in the bottom of the 9th and then Gardner goes deep again and they win again."

Great wins. They've also lost a lot of games they "shoulda won."


"We talk all the time about starting pitching. Guess what?"

I give up. What?


"After Sale, you tell me which starting pitcher scares you for the Boston Red Sox? Rick Porcello? Take a look at his record. He’s 4-14 and has pitched like a scrub this season."

Oh. I thought you were going to say, "Chicken Butt."


"Do the Yankees need another starter? You bet."

You bet!


"After 21-9 they went 27-36, you bet."

You better, you better, you bet.


"The rest of the division had six weeks to put them away. Didn’t. Or couldn’t. Look out for the Yankees the rest of the way."

Sounds like a jinx, but I can't slag on a team that's in first place and on a winning streak.

Also, the Yankees are currently one half game up on Boston. After reading this article, you'd think they were 15 games up and playing .700 ball for the season.


After praising the Yankees on their roller coaster trip through the 2017 season, I'd just like to highlight a gratuitous, out-of-nowhere slag of Lucas Duda:
 
"Two things on Lucas Duda:

One, he was a terrific pickup for Tampa Bay.

Two?

So far, anyway, I’m not missing him nearly as much as I thought I would."

 Maybe I'm missing an anti-Duda subtext ... or a joke?

"So far" is, like, three whole games.

But what's up with the unnecessary rip on Lucas Duda, of all people?

Sold!

I will be the first in line for tickets to Clint Frazier Bobblehead Day.

Clint Frazier growing pains.

The author lists 4 options -- DFA, trade, release, and demote -- and assigns a probability of 0% to all 4.

That leads us to option #5:

"5. KEEP

As one baseball insider put it Monday, 'Ellsbury is not a bad backup option to come off the bench or if the Yankees suffer another injury to an outfielder.' Hicks (oblique) will reportedly come off the DL in two to three weeks, but if that schedule changes, Ellsbury is still an above-average player to have on the bench.

The Yankees’ best option appears to be the status quo one — as long as they are paying Ellsbury the big bucks, they are best served having him available to play when the need arises."

It really requires a baseball insider to acknowledge that Jacoby Ellsbury is a worthwhile baseball player? Even as a backup?

Clint Frazier has been pretty good. A red-headed flash who has a lot of extra base hits. He also has one whole walk and an on-base% slightly better than Chris Carter's. Along with 18 strikeouts, but, whatever.

I am genuinely willing to turn over the team to the youngsters. But I also know what's going to happen in the next 70 games. Frazier is going to slump, he's going to make a couple of bad throws at inopportune times, and he's going to get thrown out at third base with two outs in the ninth inning of a tie game.

His current .295 batting average may be a 2017 peak and, like I mentioned, a .300 on-base% sounds like a #9 hitter and not the next "Mike Trout" (remember that?).

So give the kid a chance. He may learn something that pays off down the road. Or maybe he's, like, the second coming of Fred Lynn, ready to dominate out of the gate and lead his team to the World Series.

I just think that Yankee fans (and players and coaches) are star struck once again. They don't like Ellsbury and Ellsbury has not lived up to his contract. I still think the piling on is kinda dumb ... he isn't that bad.

Another partial defense of Ellsbury.

"Ellsbury used to be younger, more athletic, more dynamic. That’s how he got paid $153 million over seven years in the first place. Plus, there was that whole Robinson Cano ordeal …

But the 33-year-old veteran is no longer that player — now the fifth-best outfielder in the organization behind Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner and Frazier. He just happens to make way more money than the other four players combined.

And that’s a problem for the Yankees, who would be best-served cutting Ellsbury loose when Hicks returns from his oblique injury in 2-to-3 weeks. Only it doesn’t work that way. Brian Cashman has said that when Hicks comes back, Frazier will likely be sent down because he has minor-league options."

Contract aside, I wouldn't state definitively that Ellsbury is worse than Hicks, Frazier, or even Gardner.

Gardner is a clubhouse leader and has more power (only in 2017). Their overall games are almost identical. Gardner hits a slump and Ellsbury gets hot for a couple of weeks and, next thing you know, the fans will be clamoring for Ellsbury to bat leadoff.

Frazier and Hicks? To move them ahead of Ellsbury on the depth chart requires a couple of leaps of faith. One player who has 60 major league at-bats and another player whose career batting average is .233.


Frazier is young and Hicks is sorta young. Since the Yankees know what Ellsbury is worth ... an average player ... it's probably worthwhile to use the 2017 season to gather more information on Frazier and Hicks. So that's a good reason to move them past Ellsbury (and maybe Gardner, while we're at it) on the depth chart.

But, with 56 games to go, I wouldn't be shocked if Frazier slumps badly and Hicks reverts to his pre-2017 form. Average Ellsbury might be an upgrade.

It was stern.

I'm pleased this has been noticed by somebody and publicly acknowledged:

"Overall, Sanchez is slashing a respectable .270/.350/.480 with 14 homers, but in his last 20 games he’s slashed just .213/.281/.313 with one homer.

The 24-year-old catcher has also had some issues defensively. Girardi was seen speaking sternly to Sanchez in Chicago over his inability to block balls in the dirt. Sanchez has nine errors and has thrown out 36 percent of potential basestealers."

Both Sanchez and Romine have done a crummy job blocking pitches.

That's mostly a lack of willingness to get dinged up. Hey, man, it's a tough job.

They don't make blockbusters like they used to.

"The Evil Empire is back, and, oh, don’t the Boston Red Sox know it."

Meh.

"The New York Yankees pulled off a blockbuster seven-player trade Tuesday evening, seizing three players from the Chicago White Sox who the Red Sox also desired.

The Yankees acquired former All-Star closer David Robertson, former All-Star third baseman Todd Frazier and reliever Tommy Kahnle from the White Sox for prized outfield prospect Blake Rutherford, veteran reliever Tyler Clippard, minor-league pitcher Ian Clarkin, and minor-league outfielder Tito Polo."

"Former" all-stars. 

Tyler Clippard made a couple of all-star games, too.

Who hasn't? 

"The Yankees, who had lost 17 of their last 24 games, slipping to 3 ½ games behind the Red Sox in the American League East, now have a three-headed monster in late innings with closer Aroldis Chapman, Robertson and Dellin Betances.

And, considering the Yankees’ ineptitude at first and third base this season, Frazier, who is earning $12 million in the final year of his contract, is a welcome addition. He’s hitting just .207 but has 16 homers, and is a solid infielder."

Lost 17 out of 24.

In third place, 3.5 games out of first place.

Added a player hitting .207.

Evil Empire. 

"Yet, while the Yankees firmly established themselves as contenders, the biggest winners of the trade deadline have been the White Sox."

I just think Bob Nightengale is a nice guy. 

Everybody wins and everything is terrific.

"As for the Red Sox?

It's back to the phones, knowing they badly need a third baseman, while hoping to acquire another reliever.

And, oh yeah, just in case anyone wondered, that war between the Yankees and Red Sox has been rekindled, loud and clear for everyone to see."

We'll see. 

I'm not feeling it before or after the trade.

The Dodgers are on a roll. Which reminds me of the time the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

Lupica's anti-Yankee obsession is downright disturbing, but if you want to read a moment-by-moment replay of Mariano's fateful blown save in Game Four, 13 years after the fact, this article, supposedly about the LA Dodgers in 2017, is your chance.


I will limit my retort to one sentence:

"The Red Sox were loaded that year, not just with talent, but with grinders."

... not just with talent, but with steroids.

Where would Yankee fans be without Mike Lupica's analysis?

A month ago, Mike Lupica declared the Yankees to be the most complete team in Major League Baseball. The only question mark was Masahiro Tanaka.

It doesn't qualify as baseball analysis.

It's just a writer looking for a narrative and performing minimal research (looking at the standings?) to provide some backup.


So a month goes by (a bad month or the Yankees), and there is actually still some hope. Who knows? 

The Yankees are still +100 in run differential (ranked 4th), but there is no chance they are the most complete team in MLB, and they never were.

The long term plan is still in its initial stages. The realistic best-case scenario is a Championship in two or three years (wishful thinking aside).


So how does Lupica reassess the Yankees after a bad month?:

"The Mets don’t have Noah Syndergaard, don’t have Matt Harvey, don’t have Jeurys Familia. The Mets haven’t had David Wright for a while, have only had Yoenis Cespedes for half a season, during which he has occasionally looked like half the hitter he used to be at Citi Field. With the Mets, you talk about all those things before you start talking about the bullpen issues they’ve had and are still having.Then you looked at the standings Saturday night and saw that they had six more losses this season and six fewer wins than the Yankees have had."

So the Mets stink and the Yankees are six games up on the Mets.

The Yankees are in the AL East and the Mets are in the NL East, but, whatever.


"It means the Yankees now have played a lot more bad baseball this season than good."

Well, that isn't right, is it?

The Yankees are +100 in run differential and 5 games over .500.

The Giants, for example, have played a lot more bad baseball this season than good.


" ... the Yankees are 24-31 since that real fast start of theirs. It is a third of a baseball season, and thus an even bigger sampling than the first quarter of it for them. Even with the way they came back against the Brewers on Saturday afternoon, they have lost 17 of their last 24 games."

Oh.

That's not how it works.

A 24-31 stretch trends bad, but it doesn't eliminate a 20-5 stretch, even if 55 games is more games than 25 games.


"After 85 games in 2016, the Yankees were 42-43. With one game to go before the All-Star Break, then, they are a grand total of three games better than they were one year ago, for all the noise they made in April and May."

So now we know the 2017 Yankees are better than the 2017 Mets and the 2016 Yankees. 

What does all this really mean?


"What all of this really means is that Aaron Judge so far, who hit No. 30 on Friday night, breaking Joe DiMaggio’s rookie home run record, looks more like the MVP in major league baseball than ever. Because right now the big kid is the biggest reason the Yankees aren’t the Orioles or the Blue Jays. The big kid doesn’t just provide cover for some of the guys hitting around him in Joe Girardi’s batting order. These days he is providing cover for just about everybody."

Seriously?

I could have taken all of this and replaced it with one sentence: "Aaron Judge leads the majors in WAR."


Which everybody already knows.


"None of this is terminal, of course. We’ve seen the possibilities from the Yankees. We can see how much young talent there is not only in the chute, but currently on the field. It’s not as if the Red Sox have run away from them. But if they start the second half of the season the way they have finished the traditional first half of the season, then they might find themselves getting passed by the Tampa Bay Rays.

...

The Yankees have struggled lately. The Yankees still have enough talent in the room to come out of the way they’ve played over the last 50-plus games. The Yankees ought to be fine. They’re sending all those guys to the All-Star Game. Sending a couple of strong young guys to the Home Run Derby. Still seeing the Red Sox right there in front of them."

They might be good and they might be bad.

How should I know?

I'll check back in next month and tell you more things about baseball that you already know.

Net Positive

Gary Cohen dutifully and minimally acknowledges Daniel Murphy's destruction of the Mets.

Murphy has the highest OPS vs. a former team in MLB history.

A time bomb.

I am not saying Aaron Judge isn't the Rookie of the Year and MVP. Last season, he struck out a ridiculous 42 times in 84 at-bats.

This year, his strikeouts are way down. He has still struck out 100 times in 283 at-bats.

I did a double-take when I looked it up.

It reminds me of Betances and all his walks, fielding problems, inability to hold runners on. The flaws are covered up until they aren't.

Yankee bullpen: choke and choker.

Betances has now walked 21 batters in 26 innings.

Carter/Austin

2017 Chris Carter: 167 AB, .204/8/23, 70 Ks.

2017 Tyler Austin projected to 167 AB: .154/13/26, 77 Ks.


I'm not really judging Austin based on 13 ABs.

I'm just amused.

The Power of Marketing

Increased exit velocity ...

"Though Tebow was batting just .222 with a .651 OPS in 63 games for Columbia, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said the team has been impressed by his increased exit velocity, among other advanced metrics."

Tyler Austin saves the day.

I just find it amusing that Chris Carter's replacement went 0-for-3 with 2 strikeouts and a GIDP.

Austin will probably be better than Carter, but not much better.

Carter was low-risk/low-reward the whole time. He wasn't supposed to start at first base. He probably can contribute some power to a major league team as a pinch hitter vs. left-handed pitchers, play a little backup first base.

So I'm certainly not crying about his departure ... I am baffled by the negative attention he received in the first place.

Gary Sanchez's fieldings stats.

Six errors and six passed balls in 38 games as catcher.

The Yankees have to prove themselves?

Five games out of last place.

One title in past 17 years.

Worst losing streak in 10 years.

Reliance on players with 100 major league games under their belts.


I disagree that they have to prove themselves. I'm already cutting up ticker tape for the parade.

Girardi must be smarter than I am.

I remember prior to the home stand vs. Boston and Baltimore. A very successful home stand.

At that time, Girardi said he was more worried about the let down on the road trip that followed. Which was not very successful.

Net negative

Daniel Murphy has a 28-game hitting streak vs. the Mets. I did not verify this info, but I hope it is true.

Of course Hicks will continue starting.

Be a little wary, however, of a player who is batting 100 points higher than his career average.

The question is not whether or not Hicks takes Ellbury's spot in the starting roster. The question is whether Frazier will take Ellsbury's roster spot ... and whether Torres will take Headley's roster spot.

The YES Network propaganda machine surely seems to be setting the stage with its startling focus on minor league players.

The thing that will surprise most Yankee fans is that Ellsbury really has not played all that poorly.

Seattle vs. NYY

The odd thing about the Cano signing is that the Yankees have had a better record than Seattle in the 3 1/3 seasons since. Quick math says the Yankees have been 10 games better. Not a huge difference over 3 1/3 seasons.

But the really odd thing is that, so far in 2017, the Yankees have a better second baseman.

Gaping Hole

"Former Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira returned to New York Wednesday, but unfortunately not to fill the gaping hole at first base in the Bronx."

Chris Carter is batting .200 with 7 HRs. Teixeira couldn't do any better. Carter is late-career Mark Teixeira at a fraction of the cost.


The rest of the article details Teixeira's contributions to his new career as baseball analyst:

• Aaron Judge is big and powerful
• Luis Severino is playing well
• Greg Bird will come off the DL and play first base for the Yankees

New York is a Mets Town

He shouldn't be allowed to write about the Yankees anymore after promoting the Mets for decades.

 Were you expecting a recap of Shane Spencer's career? Well, you got one:
 
"There was a time in the 1990s ... "
 AKA 1998.

" ... when Shane Spencer showed up at the old Stadium in September '98, joining one of the greatest Yankees teams of them all, and proceeded to hit eight homers in 14 games, including three grand slams. A shooting September star if there ever was one, with an OPS of his own over 1.000. Spencer hit a home run his first time up in the playoffs against the Texas Rangers before fading ..."
Well, he hit another HR in the very next game against Texas, so ...

" ... and eventually playing out his career in places that were not New York City."
  I guess the Mets are not New York City.

Drastic Measures

"With that in mind, I’d try putting Tanaka on the 10-day disabled list simply as a timeout of sorts, to see if some rest and time to clear his head would make a difference.


It could be tricky, because Tanaka might not like the idea of being sat down, but he didn’t protest when asked afterward if it might help him to at least skip a start."

I wouldn't consider a bogus trip to the DL to be a drastic measure.

I thought he was going to suggest:

• Benching Tanaka
• Moving Tanaka to the bullpen
• Trading Tanaka

Betcha didn't see this coming.

Taking him out after a mere 62 pitches might set him up better for his next start. Not sure how you can ignore his track record and remove him from the rotation.

It seems a lot longer than five years ago.

Maybe because Johan Santana's career quickly went downhill afterwards.

Only time will tell if they stand the test of time.

It's amazing how much time baseball fans spend talking about the past and the future.

The Yankees need to add Gerrit Cole in July so they can make the World Series. The 2017 World Series, in case you were wondering.

It's Mike Trout's trip to Flushing.

"When Magic Johnson was still playing for the Lakers, and the Lakers would make their one trip to New York City and to Madison Square Garden to play the Knicks, he always described it the same way.

'My one night a year on Broadway,' Magic said.

...

But now, because of Interleague Play, Trout gets another trip to New York this weekend, when the Angels play the Mets. It is a very big deal, because of Trout's big talent for baseball. The city receives a most honored baseball guest."

If I can make it at Laguardia Airpot / I can make it anywhere / It's up to you / Flushing, Queens / Flushing, Queens


"It is an occasion because of a Jersey kid named Mike Trout, who comes to the East Coast and gets to show everybody that he does things on a baseball field that Mickey Mantle did when he was the age that Trout is now, which means 25."

"... he does things on a baseball field that Mickey Mantle did when he was the age that Trout is now, which means 25."

This man is paid to construct sentences such as the sentence you just read.

"Certainly there is so much baseball to be played. So much can happen across the last three-quarters of the season, with the Astros and everybody else. For now, manager Mike Scioscia continues to have a front-row seat to the kid's genius or magic, none of which are ever lost on him. He never takes the kid for granted. You worry sometimes that everybody else does.

'It looks like he's doing things easier,,' Scioscia said the other day.

Then Trout hit another one against the White Sox before heading for the airport and heading East. At least the kid gets to play close to home this weekend. At least the new Mantle gets an extra weekend in New York this season."

I am sure at least 15,000 fans will bring the buzz at CitiField tonight.

Starlin Castro is not going to win the batting title.

I'd gladly sign up right now for top 20 or anything above .295.

But may as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Houston has the right stuff.

Lupica at the top of his national game with a reference to a 34-year-old movie.

Alex Rodriguez is neither articulate nor intelligent.

There is no reason to think he'll be a useful guest judge on Shark Tank or a worthwhile color commentator.

He is well-known, so maybe his presence will increase viewership. That's not my gripe.

My gripe is that he's still on the Yankee payroll. So consult or something. When you're not consulting, maybe you can do something useful for your $21 million, like alphabetize the helmets in the locker room. For the players on the field who get paid to play baseball.

I noticed the players on the other team would swing at the pitches and then the ball would travel very far.

Yeah, it's early, but here's the problem ...

... The Four Horseman of Queens when the Mets have the worst starting ERA in all of MLB. Now they just look like four bloated idiots who need to put down the forks and pick up an electric razor:

"The Mets currently are without their best hitter, their best starting pitcher, and now their closer, and I’m just wondering what other team in baseball has encountered anything like that this season."

I don't want to use injuries as an excuse.


"So the Mets came into Saturday two games under .500."

And left Sunday four games under .500 ... ha cha cha.


"The Cubs, champions of the world, destiny’s darlings, with pretty much all of their main guys?

They were one game over .500."

Yes, the Cubs are disappointing as, errr ... "destiny's darlings" ... so the Mets are therefore playing well? Because the Cubs are also playing poorly?

Also, the Cubs are the World Champs. The current World Champs. Mission: Accomplished.

So I don't see the point.

Most disappointing teams so far are the Giants, Blue Jays, Cubs, Mets ... maybe the Mariners and Pirates, too?

The season isn't over. Is that the point?

Or are the Mets supposed to keep their chins up by comparing themselves to the under-performing Cubs?

Or are you just a sad cheerleader for the Mets?
 



"Matt Harvey is now a lifetime .500 pitcher, 31-31, at the age of 28.

Ron Darling never had Harvey’s talent, at least the talent Harvey once showed at Citi Field.

He certainly didn’t have Harvey’s fastball.

But by the time Darling was 28, his record in the big leagues was 73-41.


And Darling won 14 more games, more than Harvey’s ever won in a single season, the year he turned 29."

Yes, Matt Harvey is mostly hype, though still kind of young, so maybe he'll turn it around.

Can you think of any NY Daily News columnist who has largely fed the Harvey hype?

Not to mention Josh Satin hype.

In fact, I beg Mike Lupica to never say anything positive about the 2017 Yankees. Don't jinx it.

1-for-4 with an RBI (on catcher's interference).

With two outs in the ninth, as the tying run, a single and a stolen base:

"The much-maligned 33-year-old Ellsbury needs a mulligan after his blunder-filled performance against the AL West-leading Houston Astros on Thursday evening.

It all began in the bottom of the first inning, as the Bleacher Creatures were still going through roll call. ‘Stros No. 2 hitter, Josh Reddick hit a dying quail headed for shallow center — Didi Gregorius did what all good shortstops do, and started for the ball.

Turning his back to the infield, Gregorius sprinted onto the outfield grass, hoping that the center fielder would take charge and call him off. Problem is, Ellsbury never did.

Perhaps the $153 million man didn’t get a good read on the ball off the bat, or maybe he thought Gregorius had a better angle to the popup than he — whatever the reason, Ellsbury never went full speed, and the ball fell in for a single.

Two batters later, Carlos Correa slammed a game-changing two-run homer."

One blunder.

Ellsbury didn't give up the freaking HR.


"Offensively, Ellsbury wasn’t much better, as he struck out in his first at-bat, and then weakly grounded into a double play in the third inning."

Dallas Keuchel has an ERA of about 0.00.


"However, in the fifth inning, he did drive in the Yankees’ first run, by doing something he’s done 28 times before — draw catcher’s interference.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Ellsbury’s backswing made contact with former teammate Brian McCann‘s glove to erase starter Dallas Kuechel’s shutout.

Unfortunately, the rally soon came to a halt when Gary Sanchez bounced out to third."

Gary Sanchez blunder.

For a blunder-filled evening, I only count one Ellsbury blunder.


"Fast forward to the final frame. With runners on second and third and two outs, Sanchez slapped a single to left field. Running on contact, Ellsbury was wheeling around third base, but Jake Marisnick, who came into the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning, gunned down the fleet-footed Ellsbury at home to put the game to rest."

 Not a blunder.

Almost tied the game in the ninth.

Clutch.