This catch made the highlight reel on MLB.com.

Ummm ... yay?

Stanton Ovation.

Get it?

I feel ashamed that I support MLB.

This is how you save America's pastime?

This is shameful.

Cashman's Worst Nightmare

As foreseen by Mike Lupica.

Now the Orioles will make a run for fourth place in the AL East.

Way too early to say he's a bust.

But I'm saying he's a bust.

Don't pay the man. He just writes the same thing over and over.

For decades, Lupica has written the exact same thing about the Mets during Spring Training.

Change "Callaway" to "Randolph" or "Collins" or "Valentine" or "Howe."

Change "Conforto" to "Bay" or "Burnitz" or "Agbayani" or "Cuddyer."

It's not baseball analysis. It's Mets PR:

"Does a lot have to break right for the Mets? Yeah. A lot has to break right. Is it crazy to think the big things might break right? Somebody has to explain to me why, or how."

I can say this about any team, any year, any sport. "If a lot breaks right, it's not crazy that this team can compete."

That empty observation does not qualify as analysis or a prediction.


"There is a famous line out of the city’s baseball past, from a season 40 years ago exactly. It was after Bob Lemon replaced Billy Martin and the Yankees came back from being 14½ games behind the Red Sox and Lem was explaining, in his wry way, about the secret of the Yankees’ success after he took over for Billy.

'I just try to keep the pitching straightened out, and hope Reggie hits,' Lem said."

The 1977 Yankees. The 1986 Mets. The 2004 Red Sox. The 1980 US Olympic hockey team.

So, now that you've brought up a 40-year-old quote from a Yankee manager, what does that have to do with the 2018 Mets?


"Mickey Callaway is the one entrusted with getting the pitching straightened out, with Thor and deGrom and Harvey and Matz and everybody else. Then he hopes Cespedes hits. There are other things that need to happen, you bet. They need to get a solid year out of Todd Frazier at third. And it wouldn’t hurt if Adrian Gonzalez were even close to what he used to be on the other side of the infield. Nobody is suggesting they’re great. You don’t have to be to make a great baseball summer again in National League New York.

Mets fans just want a chance. I believe they might have one. New York Mights. Hope might not be the best possible business plan in baseball. What else are you supposed to do at this time of year?"

What a waste of time.

Once again, I truly wonder if Lupica is employed by the Mets and just conning the Daily News.


This entire article provides zero information to its readers. Lupica is just a pea-brain hyping up the Mets and slagging on the Yankees.

You wouldn't know that the Yankees won 21 more games than the Mets did last season. Oh, and the Yankees added the NL MVP.


"How come I keep thinking Stanton is going to do waaaay more DH-ing this season than he thought he was signing up for with our kids on 161st Street?"

Is this supposed to be a slag on Stanton's fielding abilities?

Yeah, no one cares.

Stanton is the Yankees' DH. Stanton is essentially replacing Matt Holliday. Hooray for the Yankees.


"You turn on these early-round games in March Madness and sometimes see so many empty seats, even close to the court, you think for a second you might be watching a Yankee home game."

Zing!

Lupica in mid-season form. Look out, Cashman.

For what it's worth, do you know what the attendance was at Yankee home games last season?

3,146,966.

Not the ARod heydays, but hardly an empty stadium.


"By the way?

You know what the Yankees might be sort of and kind of hoping?

That Alex Cobb doesn’t end up pitching for the Red Sox this season."

Well, it's like Bob "Lem" Lemon told me forty years ago, chomping on a cheap cigar and using a fungo bat to scratch his scrotum. Lem sez to me he sez, "I'm gonna put a lineup out there every day and hope they play good."

Because Hope is the currency of Spring Training.

Even if five-time Cy Young Award winner Alex Cobb ends up pitching at the Fens, Yankee fans still have Hope and Grit, and they can dream of the playoffs if a lot of things break right this year.

Start the inning with a runner on second base.

I would like to find a single baseball fan who endorses this idea.

I would also challenge anyone to read the following clarification without laughing:

"For purposes of calculating earned runs under Rule 9.16, the runner who begins an inning on second base pursuant to this rule shall be deemed to be a runner who has reached second base because of a fielding error, but no error shall be charged to the opposing team or to any player."

Thanks for clearing that up.

Since the minor leagues no longer take the game of baseball seriously, what are the precise rules for ghost runners, "Indian rubbing," and do-overs?

What "shall be charged" to the pitcher's ERA if the runner on second base has to abandon the base because the game is being played in the middle of the street and a car drives by and "time out" was called but "time in" was not called by the same person?

Not that I put too much stock in Spring Training performances ...

... but this is the Matt Harvey performance being described as "solid":

"Harvey allowed five runs on six hits. He hit a batter, walked one and struck out two in 4.2 innings work. 

...

The top of the Yankees’ lineup -- Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge and Stanton -- had four of the hits against Harvey and he dominated the rest of the lineup, which admittedly were largely fringe players.

But, if Saturday is how a bad day is going to go for Harvey, then the Mets rotation is going to be fine."

If the Yankee lineup scores a run per inning, they're also going to be fine.

When Erik Kratz talks, people listen.

Yes, the Mets are more "selective" when they retire player numbers.

Nice try, Mets.

I don't even know why the Mets spend so much energy comparing themselves to the Yankees.

Funny thing is, if you walk around Citi Field, half the alumni have a plaque or a banner. I like to take a stroll and add up the cocaine addicts and steroid cheats.

There's a reason no one remembers Spring Training stats.