This game proved the Yankees need better ... defense.

The Cy Young Award front-runner faces the Yankees' #5 starter (maybe #6 or #7, depending on how you look at it) and each of them allow one HR and that's about it. The other runs allowed by German were arguably not his fault.

But, yeah, even if he got bombed out of the park ... as mentioned in the article ... a better gauge would be Severino vs. Verlander.


The Yankees' rotation is not great. The Yankees should probably not be the favorites to win the World Series. But this particular game was not a great demonstration of the difference between the Astros' rotation and the Yankees' rotation.

Fast Forward to the Playoffs.

Other than #4, I wouldn't be surprised if all of these things are wrong:

"Even though the baseball season is barely two months old, it is not too early to draw some conclusions about this fun-to-watch (but otherwise possibly doomed) Yankee ballclub and they are these:

1. They will very likely win 100 games and, because of the extraordinary competitive imbalance in baseball, could even possibly surpass the team record of 114 set in 1998.

2. Presently leading the majors in homers, slugging and OPS, they are on pace for 272 homers, which would easily break the 1997 Seattle Mariners' all-time record of 264 homers in a season.

3. They are also on pace to become the first team in history with four players hitting 40 homers or more.

4. They are not going to the World Series with this starting rotation."

Let's see:

• The Yankees will probably not win 100 games, forget about 115.
• The imbalance of baseball is not extraordinary in any way. It's lame how everyone gets worried about this whenever the Yankees are good.
• They are not going to easily break the all-time homer record.
• At least one of the players on pace to hit 40 HRs will get hurt.
• Starting rotations may not even matter in the playoffs anymore ... and the other teams are worried about their lineups and bullpens.

No one knows what will happen in the playoffs, even if one can semi-accurately predict what will happen in a longer stretch of games (June - September).

What bugs me about this subject matter is that it's not really a baseball analysis, it's a pointless search for a problem. Which is what many fans like to do.

The Yankee starters are not great, but it may not matter. Or they may pitch great in October while Chapman sits on his hands in the bullpen.

"That means that I'm vey outspoken."

Teixeira just seems like one of those Hall Monitors who lack self-awareness. He rushed to dump on Girardi and Cano. I'm not sure what he's paid for, actually. He says he's paid to speak his mind, but I haven't heard say anything interesting or informative.

Thirteen hits, zero runs.

Brace yourself for this one ...

PED users are already in the baseball HOF. I am 100% sure of it. A lot of time is being spent discussing the potential future occurrence of something that has already happened.

 

Lupica tries to reconcile his hatred of the Yankees/ARod with his unwillingness to admit he was wrong:

"It is not as if Robinson Cano is the first Yankee or former Yankee to end up in a story, or even a suspension, about performance-enhancing drugs. Fact is they could start to think about fielding a team on Old Timer's Day for guys like Cano."

So could every team.

"He goes for 80 games now. Alex Rodriguez, who gets treated like the mayor of baseball on television now, went for a whole season once, after lying about his own use of baseball drugs from here to Cooperstown and back. Roger Clemens was one of the stars of the Mitchell Report. And Andy Pettitte says he used human growth hormone, but only to get better and be an even better teammate. Jason Giambi was one of the BALCO All-Stars back in the day."

I like how Cano is suddenly a "former Yankee" instead of a "current Mariner."

The Mariners gave this guy $240 million and hoped he would be the centerpiece of a resurgence of Seattle baseball. While he has played quite well in Seattle overall, they haven't even made the playoffs during Cano's tenure.

Aside from that, you can easily list all the Seattle Mariner offenders ... including ARod Himself, for cryin' out loud.

Remember when Bret Boone drove in 141 runs?

Remember when 37-year-old Edgar Martinez put up a .324/.423/.579 slash line and drove in 145 runs?

Jay Buhner had three straight 40-HR seasons which I don't consider legit, but which most holier-than-thou writers ignore as they gleefully pounce on the Yankees for the Ken Phelps trade.

Nelson Cruz?

 

"So it's not just a former teammate of Cano's like Mark Teixeira saying he's not surprised by what happened to Cano. No one should be surprised about Cano. Or anybody else. As one big baseball executive said to me once, 'They use this stuff because it works.'
 
Now he loses $12 million of that. You'd have to be a dope — literally, figuratively — not to make a deal like that for yourself."

Ha ha, right. Lupica is such a punk. Suddenly, out of nowhere, when the circumstances change, Mike Lupica is the Voice of Pragmatic Reason rather than the Hand-Wringing Keeper of Baseball's Soul.

The same goes ARod, Clemens, Giambi, Pettitte, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Bonds and all the others ... at least they're not dopes.

Which also means Lupica has wasted column space on this topic for the past 20 years.


"[ARod] went to Bosch and Biogenesis for the same reason that Cano surely went to whomever he went, here or in the Dominican Republic: He went looking for something that would work for him. He ended up with a $270 million contract with the Yankees. Cano ended up with a $240 million contract from the Mariners after the Yankees wouldn't give him the years or the money he wanted. A-Rod lost a 10th of that money, or thereabouts. Cano loses a fifth of his contract with the Mariners. Again: You'd have to be a dope not to make a deal like that, in a game Cano now says he wouldn't cheat for anything"

12 divided by 240 is 5 percent, not a fifth, you squid. A fifth is 20 percent.

But it doesn't matter, anyway, does it?

Math isn't Lupica's strong suit. Neither is ethics. Neither is sportswriting.


Lupica got caught, simple as that.

He was wrong about Cano. The Yankees were smart to avoid signing Cano.

So that's the first thing that's impossible for Lupcia to admit. The Yankees were right, which means Lupica was wrong.


It's also impossible for Lupica to admit the obvious truth about his decades-long dismissal of the "BALCO All-Stars": He is not really upset about PED use at all.

He just picks and chooses based on his personal tastes and uses his column to hammer out personal grudges.


Lupica hates the Yankees.

In particular, Lupica enjoys ridiculing Yankee decision-makers.

So Cano was "supposed to" embarrass the Yankees by leading Seattle to the Promised Land while the Yankees descending into irrelevance in a Mets Town Renaissance.

It didn't work out that way and, to add insult to injury, now Cano is revealed as a PED fraud.

Lupica's only way out?

Immediately soften his stance on PED users.

 

The Red Sox are paying JD Martinez $24 million this season.

"Through the first quarter of the season, adding J.D. Martinez to the middle of the Red Sox lineup has been way more important than adding Giancarlo Stanton to the middle of the Yankees lineup."

J.D. Martinez is not an unknown entity.

He wasn't first in NL MVP voting 2017, and the expectations for his offensive output are certainly somewhat lower than Stanton's.

But Martinez was 14th in NL MVP voting, despite playing half the season in the AL

Perhaps that demonstrates typical boneheaded inconsistency by the voters ... I don't feel comfortable using MVP votes to support of reject any argument ... but it also demonstrates general awareness of Martinez's abilities.

Has Martinez been way more important than Stanton?

Probably a little more important.

Stanton has been kinda underwhelming, but also kinda productive in terms of HRs, RBIs, runs,

I think for $24 million, the Red Sox were expecting a great player.

It's May and we're talking about the Yankees' playoff rotation.

Things must be going really well.

"Is this the kind of rotation you'd love in the playoffs? Against Boston? Or Houston? Or even Cleveland? The three starters with the American League's lowest ERA -- Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton -- all pitch for the Astros, with Dallas Keuchel (3.10) ranked 12th. The Indians also have three starters -- Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger, and Trevor Bauer -- in the AL's top 10 in ERA. (Severino is the only Yankee with at least 40 innings pitched who is in the top 30 in ERA.)"

Five months from now, we have no idea if the Yankees will make the playoffs or who will be in their rotation. Injuries or unexpected ineffectiveness could suddenly affect all five Yankee starters.

The best news, though, is that, if the Yankees make the playoffs, their opponent will be another professional baseball team in the American League.That team also has weaknesses in their starting rotation.

Verlander sure seems to have the Yankees' number. Last year, the hero was what's-his-name ... the guy whose father pitched for the Yankees ... Lance McCullers.

Verlander is intimidating, but maybe he has a bad game ... or maybe he's the one who's suddenly ineffective after too many innings.

"ERA on May 15th" is not much of a predictor of October performance.

Giancarlo Stanton has made one error this season.

He has played eight games in the outfield.

That's because he's a DH.

Maybe all the sportswriters will remember this simple fact when Stanton loses a few balls in the Florida sun during next year's Spring Training.

David Price.

Mike Lupica talks about David Price a lot. He has mentioned David Price is almost every Sunday column he has written since the baseball season started. I'm not sure why. I'm not even sure why Lupica is talking about the Red Sox so much in the New York Daily News. But Lupica has some sort of unusual infatuation with David Price.

The Reds have a .270 winning percentage, so you have to bring your A game when you play the Reds.

In related news, the Mets unveiled a new theme song.

Felz Stat of the Day.

Jason Vargas has an ERA of 13.86.

Maybe the Mets can take a chance on Matt Harvey after he clears waivers.

Why not? Start with a 7.00 ERA.

Feinsand joins the parade of fools, explaining dubious rationale for the Yankees acquiring Matt Harvey:

"Jordan Montgomery could be out as long as two months with his left elbow strain, and while Domingo German might be an adequate fill-in, the idea of Harvey taking his act across town to the Bronx is too juicy to ignore. There's nothing Harvey would love more than to prove the Mets wrong by thriving with the Yankees -- and there's nothing the New York media would love more than the ex-Met and tabloid staple remaining in the Big Apple. Doc and Darryl did it; why not the Dark Knight?"

Robin Ventura did it, too. Mike Stanton. Shane Spencer. Rickey Henderson.

Lots of players played for the Yankees and the Mets. Probably 100+ players have played for the Yankees and the Mets.

I don't know why I randomly picked those four, they just popped into my head ... I also don't know why Feinsand randomly picked Doc and Strawberry or what they have to do with Matt Harvey -- just another NY sportswriter living in the past.

"There's nothing Harvey would love more than to prove the Mets wrong by thriving with the Yankees ..."

How about just thriving with the Mets?

That would have been easier.

Be better than this.

Peter Botte imagines a scenario where Matt Harvey signs with the Yankees, regains his pitching prowess, and helps the Yankees win the World Series ... this year.

I mean, I could conceivably imagine a team taking a chance on him, sending him to the minors, and then perhaps he figures something out and re-creates himself as a modern-day Scott Proctor or something like that.

No Dark Knight or $100 million contract, just a (dubious) "veteran presence" in the bullpen as he battles Brian Boehringer for a mop-up job.

Who knows? That could even be with a future playoff team, so he finds himself pitching in important October games ... and I suppose, at some point, it could even be with the Yankees. Strange things happen in the business of baseball.


But the New York Yankees in 2018?

So ridiculous, it's unprofessional to float the idea.

The Yankees have no reason to pursue Harvey. Cashman isn't focused on playing games with Mets fans.


I also think Botte is misinterpreting a fundamental point: "Harvey Day" is no longer a thing in Queens any more than "Joba Day" is a thing in the Bronx.

Most Mets fans have already disengaged emotionally from Harvey ... Harvey's DFA is not a nightmare ... the Yankees can have Harvey if they really want him,

The Braves will pick him up and he'll win 20 games.

Nah, but that would be kind of funny.

Tim Tebow Update.

At AA, Tebow is batting .242 with 1 HR and 8 RBIs in 66 at-bats.

33 strikeouts in 66 at-bats.

My statistical analysis reveals that, when extrapolated to the major-league level, Tebow would strike out 175% of the time.

Gardner 2018.

I know it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Ellsbury is paid too much, isn't well-liked, hasn't built up slack with the fan base, etc.

But imagine the outrage if Ellsbury had Gardner's stats on May 1st.

If I told you the Braves had 15 hits in a game ...

... how many runs would you think they scored?

They scored three runs.