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?