I think Torres deserved it, but no surprises for the New York teams.

DeGrom's record isn't too good, but, whatever. He's an All Star.

There are, like, 64 All Stars between the 2 leagues ... sas there really any doubt McNeil was going to be an All Star?

Let's check in with Tim Tebow. Is he batting is weight at AAA?

No, he is not.

.147/.230/.203.

That's a .203 slugging percentage.

One home run and 73 strikeouts in 177 at-bats.

Accomplishments matter compared to your contemporaries, of course ...

... but as every home run record falls, bear in mind that the ball is juiced.

The playoffs are a crapshoot.

"We hear a lot now about what a crapshoot the playoffs are in baseball. And there is something to that. Except that the Red Sox have been playing at the same craps table in this century, and won four Series in the last 15 years. The Giants won three Series in this decade."

The Giants leaned quite a bit on one superstar pitcher.

But, besides the uniform, what does the 2004 Red Sox team have in common with the 2018 Red Sox team?

Nothing.

They have nothing in common.

There is no reason to link the different Championship Red Sox teams in terms of strategy, roster, coaching, managing.

Other than the simple observation that, like, it often pays off to spend a lot of money on payroll. The Red Sox have enough money to survive some of the worst free agent signings in baseball history. Small payroll teams can't do that.

Believe it or not, there is really no reason to think the Red Sox have been smarter than the Yankees the past 15 years. They just came through more often in the playoffs.


"Since the Red Sox started their own winning in ’04, they’ve won the Series with three general managers, three managers, two team presidents."

Exactly.

In other words, it's a crapshoot.

Lots of Jose Devers fans out there in Yankee Universe?

Lupica's back at the Daily News just in time to put pressure on the Yankees to win the World Series.

Because if they don't win the World Series this year, then they'll endure even more ridicule from Mike Lupica next year.


He's back at the Daily News and just as out of touch as ever.

I'm not making this up: A Buck Showalter reference, a Phil Jackson reference, a shot at long-forgotten ARod, and ... get this ... even a gratuitous shot at Jacoby Ellsbury.

Get some new material, for cryin' out loud.


As for a brief mention of current players on current New York teams that are currently playing, he is predictably off the mark:

"How do you think the polling would go among Yankee fans if they got a do-over on the Stanton trade?"

Well, the Yankees traded Starlin Castro, Jose Devers, and Jorge Guzman for Stanton.

I'm not sure how the poll would go.

Smart fans would endorse the trade. Yankee fans, however, are not smart. Baseball columnists who write about the Yankees also are not smart.

So maybe a better question is, "How many professional sports columnists can name the players who the Yankees traded for Stanton?"

Or "How many professional sports columnists can name the Yankee starting rotation?"

Or "How many professional sports columnists are so ignorant of baseball, that they think Encarnacion strikes out a lot?"

Encarnacion does not strke out a lot.

This take is ignorant to the point of being irresponsible.

I mean, yeah, it's an annual ritual: The Yankees add players and Lupica rips them for doing so.

But even for Lupica, this is stretching it.


Encarnacion is cheap, he's effective, he's not that old, the Yankees gave up bupkus to get him, and they didn't even send down Maybin (yet).

Sure, the marginal value of a right-handed power bat is not particularly high for this team ... but the cost was very small ... and the Yankees kept Encarnacion off a rival playoff team.


"Strikeout percentage" is not an advanced stat.

It took me 30 seconds to look it up and dismiss the entire premise of Lupica's dumb article.

Name                    2019 K%     Career K%

Encarnacion            18.2               17.1

 

Frazier                     28.2               29.3

Maybin                     25.8               21.3

Gardner                   14.4               18.2

Judge                        29.2               31.5

Stanton                    33.3               28.0

MLB                         25.5                 ?

This date in Yankees history

"June 19, 2015: Alex Rodriguez became the 29th player in Major League history to collect 3,000 hits, hitting a solo home run off the Tigers' Justin Verlander. A-Rod joined Derek Jeter and Wade Boggs as the only players to homer for their 3,000th hit."

I have no recollection of this moment.

I remember when Jeter and Boggs did it.

Mike Lupica on Twitter

Lupica is suddenly a big Frazier guy ... and, I guess, anti-Encarnacion:

"The Yankees were going to home-run their way to the World Series last year, no matter how many times their big guys struck out. Now they're going to try it again."

 1. Oh, last year was the year the Yankees were going to home-run their way to the World Series.

Thank you for clearing that up.

I had a bet with a buddy of mine, and I kept saying it was 1927 or 1961, but he insisted it was 2018.

Yes: The Bronx Bombers, the team that moved the right field fence in 100 feet and basically invented HRs as a strategy ... the team that has home-runned their way to more championships than any other team ... yes, you are on to something. Just like last year and the previous 90 or so before last year, the Yankees are trying to get batters who hit a lot of HRs.

2. Frazier strikes out more often than Encarnacion.

Very nice comeback.

"Gagnon shot back, telling Desmond that the pitch was accidental, as players from both sides closed around the pair. No one threw a punch. No one did anything more than yell.

'I can see where they’re coming from, but I wasn’t throwing strikes all day,' said Gagnon, who threw only 13 of his 23 pitches across the plate. 'The ball slipped, a two-seamer. It was a complete accident.' "

Unwritten Rules

Getting this riled up about a multi-pitcher no-hitter in double-A.

Clint Frazier is not a leader. He's a individual contributor.

I suppose it puts an unfair burden on your teammates to "force" them to answer questions about your fielding mishaps

I also think Frazier is quite immature.

But it doesn't bother me too much and I actually agree with just about everything he said about Sunday night's debacle:

• His mishaps in the field speak for themselves.
• He probably didn't want to talk to reporters because he was ticked off and embarrassed. Maybe it's a good idea to avoid reporters when you're ticked off.
• People don't like his attitude and they want to tear him down.

Jacoby Ellsbury is the 10th-best CFer of the decade.

What? You don't believe me?