There is no reason to completely give up on Bird.

He's young, cheap, and actually has good power numbers for his career.

But I'm ready to give up on him for the remainder of 2018.

That did not last long.

Voit injects energy into previously lifeless Yankee lineup.

Yankee lineup lifeless vs. White Sox.

Sonny Gray isn't bragging nor is he delusional.

He is explaining the hyper-positive mindset which he is trying to maintain as he attempts to rebuild his career.

Hi, Mike.

If you want to talk about a player on the Mets, then talk about a player on the Mets. You don't write for any New York newspapers anymore, so there's no reason to talk about the Yankees:

"The ace of the Yankees staff, Luis Severio, threw 100 pitches on Saturday, didn't make it to the sixth inning and got his 16th win anyway."

You make it sound like a bad thing.


"Because of the lousy month Severino just had, it was treated as if Severino was back on the road to Monument Park."

"It was treated" this way by whom? Where?

Nobody did this anywhere except in Mike Lupica's head.


"By the way, it's worth noting that before Severino hit the skids around the All-Star break, a lot was being made of the fact that Pedro Martinez had helped Severino become a better pitcher -- helped him out with 'stuff.' "

If this is "worth noting," then you either don't understand the meaning of the word "worth" or you don't understand the meaning of the word "noting."


"On the same Saturday, the ace of the Mets and the whole sport right now, Jacob deGrom, pitched a complete game against the Phillies, struck out nine and lowered his ERA to 1.71 while picking up just his eighth win of the season to go with seven losses. Forget about the won-loss record. deGrom isn't working on his 'stuff' with Martinez. He's been pitching like Martinez all season."

This is accurate.

Everyone knows that deGrom is the best pitcher in the whole sport right now.

I don't have any idea why this obvious observation presents an opportunity to disparage Luis Severino. I surely don't know what Pedro Martinez has to do with anything.

I also don't know why the word "stuff" is in quotation marks.


"Even if deGrom ends up winning just 10 or 12 games this season -- Felix Hernandez once won the AL Cy Young Award at 13-12 in 2010 -- he is producing one of the great pitching seasons in Mets history. deGrom has pitched like an heir to Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden."

R.A. Dickey, how soon they forget.

Also, when a last name begins with a lower-case letter, that letter should be capitalized when the name is the first word in a sentence.

This is not good "writing."


Then the rest of the article makes a bland Cy Young case for deGrom ... a rather interesting debate only in the sense that it's an extreme test of the importance of wins in the minds of the voters ... but no further mention of Severino.

So what was the point of ripping Luis Severino?

You really just can't help yourself?

I think the all-or-nothing game has gone a bit overboard, but I also think baseball will be fine.

Baseball is always in trouble ... and the players are always paid too much ... and there is never enough pitching.

I also don't think hit-and-runs are going to save the game, nor bunting, nor eliminating the shift, nor the effective marketing of Mike Trout.

If kids don't like baseball, then they don't like baseball.

It's not an action sport. It's potential energy, not kinetic energy. I'm into each pitch because it sets up the next pitch and builds the tension or breaks the tension.

I agree that the Three True Outcomes have gotten out of hand and made the game more boring, but if you read this in-depth article, a lot of it is old men yelling at the kids to keep their skateboards off the sidewalk.

No mention of Irabu.

I didn't see the ceremony, but I hope the Yankees paid some homage. Irabu is ridiculed and dismissed by a large portion of the fan base, but he won 13 games that season and deserves some recognition at a team reunion.

The Yankees have a better chance of winning the World Series than they do of winning the division.

This should be plainly obvious, but most analysts don't seem to be able to figure this out.

"Andy Pettitte knows a little bit about how Luis Severino was feeling the last month. The former Yankee ace felt the weight of New York’s expectations on his shoulders before. He has struggled under the brightest spotlight and he has come through.

So the big lefthander who helped carry this organization to four World Series titles and was part of another in 2009 had some empathy for the Yankees current young ace, who is going through the worst month of his young career.

'It’s gonna happen. He’s got great stuff. He’s a No.1,' Pettitte said before the Yankees’ 11-6 win over the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

'He’s gonna be just fine. Sometimes it builds up and in New York you get an awful lot of attention and a lot of media coverage, so he just has to keep his focus as narrow as he can and things will turn around,' Pettitte added. 'He’ll be fine.' "

"... as long as he takes human growth hormone, he'll be fine."


"And while Pettitie was encouraging, his presence was a reminder of how urgent it is for Severino to get back on track. The Yankees celebrated their 1998 World Series championship team before Saturday’s game. Jorge Posada, Joe Torre and Mariano Rivera reminded everyone that the key to long runs in the playoffs and winning a World Series is good pitching."

Ha ha ha.

Thanks.

Because if it wasn't for the presence of Andy Pettitte at Yankee Stadium on an August afternoon, I would have forgotten about the Yankees' number one crisis at the moment.

I also would have forgotten about the importance of ... good pitching.


"Whatever the main issue is, the Yankees have to get him right. Saturday, they watched as the ’98 team celebrated a reunion. Pettitte, David Cone and David Wells were there on the field to remind everyone that the only way the 2018 Yankees have a long postseason run in them is if they get their pitching in order."

I could say the 1998 Yankees prove you need bench strength to win the World Series ... or a high team on-base percentage ... or a flawless bullpen ... or lots of other things.

We all know the 2018 Yankees are not nearly as good as the 1998 Yankees.

The good news is that they don't have to be as good as the 1998 Yankees to win the World Series.

Not too much to argue about in this analysis of Yankee retired numbers ...

... but a glaring omission in the category of "HOFers who are not properly honored."

Dave Winfield.

The Greg Bird dream is dying.

I used to think he was a right-handed Andy Phillips. Now I think he's a right-handed Chris Carter.

• Bird 2018, still starting: .211/.302/.396, 227 AB, 9 HR, 24 RBI, 67K.
• Carter 2017, run out of town: .201/.287/.370, 184 AB, 8 HR, 26 RBI, 76 K.

I'm not sure how he'd get fatigued. It sure isn't from running the bases, ha cha cha.

Get rid of the Wild Card altogether and see how the Yankees like it.

"Here goes: Major League Baseball is proceeding with a playoff system that is just not fair to the New York Yankees. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and fans of all ages: The system is holding the Yankees down.

This is the seventh year of the current postseason format, but the potential Yank-apocalypse has spawned a wave of East Coast commentary about how the system must be changed. The Yankees could win 100 games, so the argument goes, but their terrific season could come down to one game: the sudden-death, wild-card game. How about some RE2PECT for the Yankees?"

You're protesting too much.


"Oh, it’s not about the Yankees? We did not hear all these insistent cries for reform three years ago, when the Pittsburgh Pirates won 98 games, and their postseason experience was one and done."

Yes.

But no one remembers because no one cares about the Wild Card in the first place.


So the conclusion that the postseason format is unfair to the Yankees is, indeed, "poppycock."

The Yankees, assuming they lose their division, shouldn't be in the playoffs in the first place.

Panic!

Chapman is slumping, Torres is slumping, Tanaka had a bad game, questions arise! Arise, I say, like a zombie from the grave:

"As the ball left Ronald Guzman’s bat, the Yankees righthander never looked up or turned around to watch the ball. Tanaka’s head dropped, his shoulders drooped as he stared at the ground for a few seconds while the Rangers’ first baseman rounded the bases.

After being the Yankees’ best pitcher over the last month, Tanaka could not find it Friday night, getting lit up for six runs on six hits in five innings. He took his first loss in 15 starts, dating back to April 17, with the Yankees’ 12-7 loss to the Rangers at the Stadium."

"First loss in 15 starts" sums it up quite nicely.


By the way, Porcello and Eovaldi got rocked back-to-back against the lowly Orioles.

So you know what that means when October rolls around?

It means the Red Sox are in good shape when they score 19 runs.

The AL will have a Wild Card game. This is true.

I wouldn't say it's inevitable that the Yankees will be one of the participants in the Wild Card gamge:

"Starting Monday, they need to begin finding some answers.

They have the second fewest innings pitched by their starters since the All-Star break, behind the Rays — who purposely don’t use a starter on some days. Miguel Andujar’s two errors on Sunday night and Gleyber Torres’ mindless plays over the last week bring up concerns about the young Yankees’ focus and defense. The lineup was silent for most of the weekend without Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez and it needs to find a way to score while they mend.

Sunday night also had to raise concerns about the bullpen, which has allowed at least a run in 12 of the last 15 games. Aroldis Chapman walked three, and then J.D. Martinez’s single scored two runs before Andujar’s error on Xander Bogaerts’ grounder to third — his second error of the night — allowed the Red Sox to score the tying run.

So right now, the Yankees leave Boston needing to change their focus."

Aside from the emotional turmoil and realization that they're not as good as they thought they were, I don't know what they're going to do differently strategically.

Some of the young players are going through growing pains, but that was one of the objectives of the 2018 season.


"Instead of expending all their energy on chasing the Red Sox, the Yankees need to put their house in order and prepare themselves for a fight in the Wild Card game.

They have time to get themselves ready."

I don't know what this means.

Like, Bird hits another ground ball to second base. Does he jog to first base because the Red Sox are 9.5 games up?


"Before you bemoan the myth that the Yankees cannot beat losing teams, their actual record is 36-19 against teams below .500. They have struggled against the Orioles, going 6-6 and do have seven games remaining against them."

Well, yeah.

Most people understand that the Yankees didn't get to 30 games over .500 by losing to everybody. The observation is that the Red Sox built a divisional lead by playing even better than the Yankees against bad teams.

 

"They can give their starters extra rest and maybe that will help get Luis Severino back on target and it would certainly keep CC Sabathia healthier and sharper down the stretch.

Most importantly, however, they can start by being cautious with the returns of Judge, who said Sunday he still had pain in the bone in his right wrist that he fractured, and Sanchez, who is on the disabled list with a groin injury for the second time. There is no rush now; it’s most important to make sure they are ready for September and October."

At least Ackert suggested something concrete, but I still don't see it. The long-term health and effectiveness of their players is a primary objective regardless of the AL East standings.

This was the biggest series of the season, a make-or-break series which broke the Yankees.

The Yankees didn't strain their starting pitchers or rush their players back from the DL.

Maybe it will be good in the long run to knock these guys off their pedestal. Maybe Torres and Andujar need to eat some humble pie and this will all be forgotten as they parade down the Canyon of Heroes in early November. Or maybe they get knocked down and can't get back up.

This team faces some challenges, both mentally and physically.

Everyone can acknowledge that the Red Sox are better ... if that somehow helps the Yankees play better in August and September, then I'm all for it. I fail to see how this realization changes anything.

Field better, work the counts, play some fundamentally strong baseball, get Judge and Sanchez healthy (and Ellsbury ha ha ha), and perhaps the young players need to adjust to the grind of a long season.

The focus and expenditure of energy should be the same as always. Each game and each at-bat is the focus.

Of course the Yankees can't concede the division.

I'm not even sure what it means to concede the division.

They're all privately aware of the reality, but there are a lot of games to play, and you may as well try to win them.

Boone went as far as to say Boston is the best team in the AL.

Just how much honesty are you expecting from the Yankee players and manager?

The Real Yankee Crisis.