Cohen is going to try to buy a Championship with a team full of mercenaries.

Few things are more predictable than Mike Lupica's moral relativity:

"The most interesting sports person in town this year, Steve Cohen, didn’t officially get the Mets until six weeks ago. It seems he’s been around longer, because of all the drama of the sale, including the drama king and queen of that story, meaning Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, who ultimately had as much of a chance against going up against Cohen as you or me."

Alex Rodriguez.

Don't sell yourself short, Mr. Lupica.

The most interesting "sports person in town" ... whatever that even means ... is you.

 "But as soon as Cohen’s inevitable purchase of the team got locked down solid, at a price tag of $2.4 billion, something else became official, and pretty quickly. It was the stated position of most Mets fans I know on the subject of Steven Cohen, if not all of them

It went something like this:

He might be one of those Wall Street, 'Billions'-type robber barons but, by God, he’s our robber baron."

I don't think any Mets fans knew much about Steve Cohen until he bought the Mets.

"And were generally unbothered, or just forgetful, about the inside-trading charges once leveled against Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP, for which Cohen paid $1.8 billion — 1.8 billion with a b, enough to buy most baseball teams — in penalties. Part of the settlement for Cohen (at that time), a hedge fund legend of the first rank, was that he was only allowed to manage his own money. It must also be noted that he was never criminally charged. It frankly wouldn’t have bothered Mets fans if he had, no matter what kind of bad boy he’d been back in the day."

He sure has a lot of money, doesn't he? 

"In all ways in sports, especially if someone gives your team a better chance to win, any indiscretions in the past, or billion-dollar penalties in Cohen’s case, are simply viewed as the cost of doing business."

With whom are you arguing, MOTO?

"Seriously? Do you think a majority of Yankee fans were ever truly bothered that George M. Steinbrenner, the most famous owner in the history of the city, was kicked out of baseball twice, even though that is a world’s record that may stand for all of time?"

No.

I don't think a majority of Yankee fans were ever truly bothered that George M. Steinbrenner was kicked out of baseball twice.

You are among the few who criticized Steinbrenner, incessantly, about everything.

"You know what Mr. Steinbrenner is now? The biggest plaque in Monument Park. He was the owner when the Yankees got back on top, and he was still the owner when they became as great a dynasty as we’ve had in Yankee history, between 1996 and 2000, four World Series titles in five years and nearly five in six."

Well, I did some fact-checking, and it turns out Lupica is right about this one.

The Yankees won four World Series in five years between 1996 and 2000.

Who knew?

Is this going anywhere?

"The Mets haven’t played a game that counts yet. Long way from that. This is an old song lyric turned on its head: Will Mets fans love Steve Cohen in May as they do in December? We’ll find out. But for now there is one thing completely official about the official new owner of the Mets:

The guy who feels like the biggest player in town these days isn’t even a player."

I have no idea what you're even talking about.

There is a difference between stopping a column and ending a column, and this column just stops.

Steve Cohen is the owner of the Mets ... and George Steinbrenner used to be the owner of the Yankees, I guess, is the point.

Also, a reference to a song lyric I don't recognize. Which is fine. It would be embarrassing to the reader if they understood your outdated pop culture references.

Mets: good.

Yankees: bad.

 

 

Cohen isn't stupid.

Some Mets fans think Cohen is going to spend all of his money on the Mets. 

Sign Bauer, Springer, Arenado, LeMahieu, and that catcher from Philly.

Overpay for all of them if you have to.

Make a splash.

Set the market.

Like, he should waste money because he has a lot of it.

Well, how do you think he got a lot of money?

By being stupid?

Most of the people on Earth were not alive in 1961.

"You know what Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were going to be, in addition to being the biggest bookends the Yankees had ever had: They were going to be Mantle and Maris 2.0 or even more in a home run world."

Meh.

 

"It was in 1961 that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and Mickey hit 54. After that it would be nearly 60 years until the Yankees would enter a season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes. "

Actually, in 1962 the Yankees entered the season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes.

Those two guys were Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

So the Yankees had to wait one season.

Then the same can be said of every subsequent year until 1967.

Right?

Yeah, I know that's not what you meant, but it's what you said.

 

I got another one, genius: 2011.

Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones.

Again, I know this is not what you meant. You meant power hitters in their prime where the expectation was, quite possibly, 100 HRs between them.

But that's not what you said, professional writer.

"That was 2018. Judge was coming off a 52-homer season. Stanton was coming off a 59-homer season in Miami. So that was 111 home runs between them, at different ends of the East Coast, four fewer than Mickey and Roger hit in ’61."

Damn, man.

1961, 1986, 2004.

Even 2004 is ancient history and now you want to talk about a team from 1961.

I know all about the1961 Yankees. Johnny Blanchard with 21 home runs off the bench.

What does it have to do with anything?

 

"The big guys who combined for 111 home runs in the baseball season of 2017 have combined to hit 108 in their three seasons together in the Bronx."

I mean ... we know.

It's not easy to hit home runs when you're not playing.

 

"Three years later the most intense pressure on them isn’t to hit home runs, it is to stay on the field. I hear all the time that the various injuries they’ve suffered happen all the time to guys their size. Really? How come they didn’t happen to a power forward named David Winfield? You know how many games Winfield missed in his first eight seasons with the Yankees? 89. Judge beat that in 2018 and ’19 alone. Stanton over the last two years has missed 181."

I don't know why Dave Winfield was relatively healthy when compared to Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.

Neither do you.

I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who stayed healthy, and I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who were unable to stay healthy.

 

"It is why the idea that they are going to play together for a long time, and hit all the home runs we thought they were going to hit, seems less and less sustainable."

Ha ha. No kidding. 

 

"Maybe the Yankees win a World Series or two before a walk year for Aaron Judge. But if they don’t, and Judge is still here, we would be looking at three players — Judge, Stanton, Cole — taking up $100 million of payroll. How is that sustainable going forward, especially since all three of them would be past 30 by then?"

It's sustainable because the Yankees have a current net worth of $5 billion. 

You know this.

What is going on here?

"It seems impossible that the Yankees could find a taker for Stanton no matter how much of his contract they were willing to pick up, not after we’ve seen Stanton play a grand total of 41 regular-season games out of the 222 the Yankees played over the past two seasons, which basically means one-fifth."

Not at all.

If the Yankees pick up, say, ninety percent of his salary, then every team in baseball would want Giancarlo Stanton.

Think A.J. Burnett. 

"And Judge? After hitting those 52 home runs and becoming the face of the Yankees and one of the fresh faces of baseball in 2017, he has hit 63 since. He missed 50 games one season and 60 games the next and would have missed 100 at least if there had been a full 162 in 2020, not a 60-game season that saw Judge play less than half of those games."

Right.

Stanton and Judge are injury-prone.

Which is why they haven't combined for as many home runs as Mantle and Maris hit 59 years ago.

Got it. 

 

"The Yankees are stuck with that contract. For a designated hitter. Cashman said the other day that because they have Stanton locked up until the 12th of Never, they had no room for Kyle Schwarber, who would have been a dream — and left-handed hitting — DH at the new Yankee Stadium, an old-fashioned lefty hitter with home run pop on a team that is righty heavy."

Staggering logic.

An injury-prone left-handed hitter who hit .188 last year and is a career .230 batting average is a dream.

It totally sounds like a dream come true for Schwarber to play half his games at Yankees Stadium. In exchange for 5 additional home runs, you'll get 200 strike outs and 300 into-the-shift ground balls. The Giambi/Teixeira Highway to Hell.

Besides, the lefty/righty thing is outdated in the era of the Super Ball.

Most of Judge's home runs go to center field or right field. Stanton pretty much the same, I think.

 

"If Stanton even had a slightly manageable deal, which he sure doesn’t, maybe you could move him. He doesn’t have that kind of deal. It would be like moving the Stadium itself.

No one would have thought this possible a few years ago, but maybe one of these days — and soon — the Yankees decide that Judge is the one who has to go."

It's looking too far into the future.

Maybe Stanton is about to win back-to-back MVPs and Judge is going to win back-to-back World Series MVPs. If so, they're not going anywhere.

I don't know if Stanton and Judge can stay healthy. I am confident they will be productive on the field if they're healthy.

I know two things for sure:

1. Judge is very popular with the fans. If this continues, the Yankees will sign him.
2. The Yankees can afford to pay Stanton, Cole, and Judge at the same time. 

Just like the Ellsbury contract didn't matter and the ARod contract didn't matter, the Stanton contract doesn't matter.

 

 

Again with Voit.

LeMahieu is acknowledged as team's best player.

A lot of this value comes from his versatility in the field, sure, but also his excellence at playing third base and second base.

First base, not so much.

Some stats suggest Voit is a bad fielder at first. He seems pretty good to me when he's healthy. Surely good enough for the guy who led the majors in home runs, no?

So keep Urshela at third, move Torres to second, move LeMahieu to first, and put Unnamed Free Agent Signing / Voit Trade Result at shortstop.

So now you've got a gold glove second baseman playing first and a bad shortstop playing second.

Who knows who's playing short, but he'd better be Ozzie Smith.

One of my personal favorite players, but ...

 ... he just isn't a great pitcher anymore.

His well-earned reputation as a playoff stud took a hit this year, though I felt he was a little unlucky in the playoffs.

If the Yankees can get LeMahieu for $60 million, that would be great.

"In 50 games this year, LeMahieu led the majors with a career-high batting average of .364. He also won the National League title while with the Rockies in 2016, hitting .348.

Now, with his ability to play first, second and third having been demonstrated, LeMahieu’s versatility and having proven he can hit outside the hitter-friendly confines of Colorado’s Coors Field, the 32-year-old is going to get about $20 million a year for at least three years, two American League executives and two agents agreed. 

And LeMahieu has many more suitors than when the Yankees took advantage of his down market in 2018.

With the Yankees having made clear that they wanted to get under the $210 million luxury tax threshold even before managing partner Hal Steinbrenner publicly claimed the team lost the most money in baseball with the coronavirus pandemic-abbreviated season, that doesn’t give the Bombers much payroll flexibility to work with."

We all agree he's the best player on the Yankees.

We all agree he's in demand.

Now compare 3/$60 to the other players on the Yankees. 

Compare 3/$60 to similar players throughout baseball.

Something in the logic is not synching up.

I wouldn't trade Zach Wheeler for dead players or retired players.

A weird solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

The Yankee infield: Urshela, Torres, LeMahieu (cross your fingers), and Voit. It's a great infield.

Voit led the majors in HRs and played through an injured foot.

You move LeMahieu to first base and you lose one of his best skills -- his ability to play spectacular defense at an important defensive position.

Yeah, I guess Voit's trade value is high; maybe he's just good.

When players are good, your keep them on your team, because a good team is composed of good players.

Trade everybody who's good for bullpen pitchers. 

Move Torres back to second base because ... why? 

All the genius armchair GMs have the some dopey solution.

You don't know what you don't know.

I laughed out loud when I saw David Ortiz on this list.

This really isn't a useful list. It lists a bunch of great baseball players you already knew were great.

Did any of them take steroids? Probably.

Did all of them take steroids? Maybe.

Mets fix their bullpen again.

Truly horrible 60-game season.

The Yankees may even choose to replace him. His descent seems to be irreversible.

Having said that, there is no reason to DFA him or trade him. He has no trade value whatsoever.

Sorry, Yankee fans, but that's how that works.

At some point, all things culminate.

I tend to agree that the Yankees would outbid the Mets, if necessary.

My gripe with most of the coverage is that it's nothing more than the wishful thinking of Met fans and the overwrought reactions of Yankee fans.

Just play him as shortstop and his defense will probably improve.

"But" seems to be the wrong conjunction.

"After his best offensive season in years, a second drug suspension confirmed what Robinson Cano didn’t want us to know.

Barring a plot twist only JJ Abrams could conceive, the second-base icon’s brilliant season, and, on a pure X’s and O’s-basis, Hall of Fame-worthy career is likely to be overshadowed by the fallout from his positive Stanozolol test.

...

Cano’s suspension without pay will last the entire 2021 season, and with that, the Mets are down a productive hitter. Exactly why he was the most productive 37-year-old in the game? Well, that’s between him, his doctor, and, potentially, his other doctors. (Or 'doctors.' As of writing, Cano had yet to issue a statement about his positive test.)"

I don't think it's going out on a limb to connect the dots regarding Cano's surprisingly productive season.

But, Cano hit .316/.352/.544 in 2020, and his .896 OPS was third best on the team, mashing in a lineup that had the third best OPS in baseball. He can still stroke the ball with authority, as his exit velocity remains in the top quarter of all big league hitters, so there’s no reason to think Cano is fluking his way into good stats.

There's no reason to think Cano is fluking his way into good stats?

Other than the positive Stanozozol test that led to a year-long suspension? 

"Beyond the numbers game, Cano has been respected as a high-character leader for nearly a decade, both with the Mariners and Mets."

This is starting to sound like a fake article.

"Without an A-Rod like third act, the Cano era might be over in Queens, if not in a contractual sense — he’s signed through 2023 — almost certainly a spiritual one. Wednesday may have been a dispiriting day for Cano and the teammates and rivals who loved him, but his inglorious departure is an open door the Mets are uniquely prepared to seize."

Maybe some teammates are sad to seem him go, but it's obviously good news for the Mets.

They're off the hook for a bad contract for a player who had a PED-fueled pretty good return to form in a sub-200 at-bat season.

Sure, baseball teams kinda want to make the playoffs ...

 ... inasmuch as playoff baseball generally creates a quick infusion of cash:

"The era of opportunity cost in baseball, the chapter we’ve lived in for the past quarter-century, is dead. Several years ago I made the case that it was time to stop considering player salaries when conducting transaction analysis, both because of its devaluation of labor and because of the difficulty of understanding what, exactly, the lost opportunity of an albatross contract presents when we lack access to trustworthy financial information. Now, I repeat this request, because the consideration of baseball players as commodities is no longer simply distasteful, it is also meaningless. Teams no longer operate under the constraints we’ve long assumed.

Thirty teams had the opportunity to employ relief pitcher Brad Hand for a single year at a price of $10 million. Thirty teams could pencil in a league-average, in-their-prime second baseman in Kolten Wong for $12.5 million. None did so. The idea of large and small markets, that some teams can afford the best players and others can’t, the philosophy that underpinned the seminal cliche of modern baseball, Moneyball, is now a myth. Your favorite team could improve its chances of winning. It won’t, because it doesn’t believe it’s worth it. Franchises are no longer forced to rely on winning to create profit. The era of baseball as pure competition is over."

Fleetwood Mac has released two albums in 25 years, and you can't name one song from either of them.

Because Fleetwood Mac doesn't sell music. 

They sell the idea of Fleetwood Mac.

 

MLB fans have been duped for a long time, not only with regards to the "value" of players, but the entire relentless fan-as-GM nonsense: "Move DJ to first base and trade Voit for some starting pitchers."

What a genius idea that everybody else thought of.

If Joe from Metuchen were the Yankees' GM, they undoubtedly would have won 12 Championships over the past 20 years.

It may be disheartening to realize that your fandom is taken for granted, but it is.

 

 

Robinson Cano.

"I was walking with Robert Kraft across a parking lot in Foxboro one morning a long time ago, watching him interact with Patriots fans, when he stopped and said, 'No owner owns the fans. We’re all caretakers of a public trust.' Kraft was the first I ever heard use the expression. He was right, of course. That’s what Cohen sounded like the other day, when he didn’t just sound like the richest Mets fan on the planet, one who instantly made Mets fans think as if they’ve already scored the biggest free agent in baseball."

I was spritzing with Buck Showalter and Tony Larussa in a Lake Tahoe sauna talking about Mookie Wilson, Bob Gibson, and the time Dave Roberts stole second base against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS ...

  

"But then along came Derek Jeter on Friday, the most famous Yankee since Mickey Mantle, to remind you all over again that everybody better pay attention to him down in South Florida now that he is running the Marlins. Steve Cohen, new Mets owner, said a lot of good things. Capt. Jeter, who runs the show with the Marlins, did something great when he hired Kim Ng to be his general manager."

That's ... cool? I guess?

Did Jeter just beat Cohen in the competition for coolest MLB owner?

"And if you think that somehow Jeter only chose Kim Ng because she is a woman, as if he wanted to make a statement instead of an incredibly intelligent hire, than you have missed the arc of Ng’s career. 

Of course I missed the arc of Kim Ng's career.

Why would I follow the arc of the careers of MLB executives?

Your Sunday columns are boring enough.

 

"She has been preparing herself to get this kind of opportunity for over 20 years, with the Yankees and the Dodgers and working for Major League Baseball in the essential area of baseball operations. If she were a man, people would look at the road she took to this moment and say, 'Okay, it was her time,' and think nothing more of it."

Ummm ... I'm already thinking nothing more of it.

 

"I think the Yankees would be nuts to lose DJ LeMahieu, who has been their best player for two years.

And I frankly think the Mets would be nuts not to go after him hard.

I am going to keep asking this question about LeMahieu:

When was the last time the Yankees let their best player just walk away?"

The last time?

Robinson Cano.

Lots of things might happen.

"DJ LeMahieu is one of the best free-agent signings the Yankees have ever made. Now they might lose him to free agency."

Are you going to present any new information in this article?

 

"It is as good a place as any to start talking about what LeMahieu has been to the Yankees, and what they might lose if they decide they can’t afford to keep him, even though he has been their best player since they got him for $24 million and two years after he left the Rockies."

It's as good a place to start as any to start talking about something that everybody already knows. 

But you do you, Lupica.

 

"Once it would have been unthinkable that the Yankees would allow somebody who is now a finalist for the American League Most Valuable Player Award to walk away. It might happen."

"Might."

 

Also, what about Robinson Cano? 

There might be others ... they traded Rickey, who would win an MVP shortly thereafter ... they traded Winfield in 1990, when he was 4th in MVP voting in 1988.

Reggie Jackson.

They lost Reggie to free agency a mere two seasons after his near-MVP 1980 season. Yes or no?

Cano was fifth in MVP voting in 2013 and signed with Seattle in the off-season.

That's four times I can think of off the top of my head. The parallels aren't precisely the same, they never are. But, in each case, they let MVP-quality players walk away.

Which is a lot for something that is unthinkable and never happened.

 

"LeMahieu is every bit the MVP candidate that fellow AL finalists José Abreu and José Ramirez are. Whether he wins the award or not – and I honestly believe he should -- you have to know that a Yankees team that many felt was good enough to win the World Series wouldn’t have even made the postseason without him."

Ha ha.

There is no reason to exaggerate.

I'm just being honest here. The Yankees only needed, what, 28 wins to make the playoffs?

Eight AL teams made the playoffs. The Yankees had a very disappointing season with only 33 wins. I have trouble believing they would have missed the playoffs entirely if it weren't for DJ LeMahieu.

 

"LeMahieu doesn’t make a lot of noise. He just came to New York and quietly became the best Yankee. The Yankees never lose a player like this. Now they might. It is, in the words of 'The Princess Bride,' inconceivable."

OK, so here's the problem: There is zero information in this entire article.

Everyone loves LeMahieu and everyone knows his value.

Sure, he was a surprise and a bargain, but he's no longer a surprise and, despite his laconic personality, he won't settle for being a bargain much longer.

So it's like every other decision.

The Yankees "might" sign him. 

Maybe the Yankees offer 5/$120 and LeMahieu gobbles it up before Christmas.

But what if the Philliles offer 8/$300? 

Then the Yankees "might" not sign him, and the inconceivable is suddenly quite conceivable.

 

 

Now he doesn't even wait until Spring Training.

"The team to watch in New York."

Maybe the Mets will also get the "backpage" for the four people who still read newspapers"

"If there's one team to watch more than any other in baseball this offseason, it's the Mets.

That's right, the Mets are trying to make themselves the team to watch in New York once again. It has happened before, the two times the Mets won the World Series -- first in 1969, when they were the Miracle Mets, and then in '86, when the Mets of Doc and Darryl and Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter felt like the greatest show on earth."

I mean ... 

For what it's worth, I heard the same thing about Dellin Betances.

 

"At this time of year -- and at any time of the year -- the Yankees have long been the team to watch. They don’t always make the biggest moves or sign the biggest free agents the way they did last winter with Gerrit Cole, or two years ago when they traded for Giancarlo Stanton, fresh off his NL MVP Award-winning season."

That's funny, because in Mike Lupica's World, the Yankees are never the team to watch. Only the Mets.

 

Good call by Giancarlo.

Manager of the Year is a symbol of baseball's destruction.

Please, I beg you, don't bring up Bob Gibson:

"In all likelihood, Cash will be a runaway winner of the American League manager of the year award. He guided the Rays (payroll $74.8 million) to an AL East title over the Yankees (payroll $165.7 million). But throughout the course of the season, during the playoffs and most especially in Game 6 of the World Series, Cash made no bones about the fact that he manages strictly by the plan set up by the Rays' analytics department."

It worked.

 

"With one out in the sixth of that fateful game, Cash came to get his ace Blake Snell, who was pitching the game of his life. Snell had just given up his second hit of the game, to the Dodgers' No. 9 hitter, Austin Barnes, and it was evident just how thoroughly the soul of the game has been destroyed."

I don't fully disagree ... I've complained about the same thing ... but it worked.

How many pitchers did the Dodgers use in Game Six?

Seven. 

"Meanwhile, a direct contrast to the Snell pulling was Dusty Baker, one of the few remaining old-school managers in the game. In the sixth inning of Game 5 of the ALCS, the red-hot Randy Arozarena was coming up with two men on, one out. Baker strode to the mound, had a brief conference with his ace, Zack Greinke, and elected to leave him in.

After Greinke struck out Arozarena, the Rays were able to load the bases with an infield single by Ji-Man Choi and still Baker, managing with his gut and trusting Greinke’s heart, didn’t make a move. His confidence was rewarded when Greinke struck out Mike Brosseau to end the inning."

This is some cherry-picking nonsense right here.

Not one starting pitcher in the World Series pitched into the seventh inning. Maybe the playoffs.

"It is no coincidence the five highest paid managers in baseball — Terry Francona ($4M), Joe Maddon ($4M), Bob Melvin ($3.25M), Joe Girardi ($3.25M) and Baker ($3M) — are all what you call their own men, mostly old school, who are able to manage as much with their gut as by the numbers. Joe Torre was the first old school manager to sound the alarm when Yankee GM Brian Cashman began intruding on his turf. 'You can’t remove the human element from the game,' he said."

Ummm ... look, there's a balance to be found. 

But Cash outperformed all of these highly-paid managers.

Except Baker, I guess, if you really want to ignore the payroll differential hammer that you've pummeled Cashman with for twenty years.

 

My other gripe is this:

The strategy worked, worked, worked, worked, worked, worked, worked, worked, worked, didn't work. 

Sorry, but this rather ground-breaking bullpen strategy works. It worked all season, it worked all the way to the World Series. The Rays even got two games on the Dodgers.

In Game Six, the Rays scored only one run ... against SEVEN Dodgers pitchers.

Don't you see it?

Don't you see what happened?

While you're focused on Cash's failed strategic move ... maybe ... this presumes that Snell just goes on to pitch, what, a complete game shutout? ... you're missing the fact that Baker beat him with the same strategy.

Why didn't Baker show more confidence in Tony Gonsolin?

 

You can't even name the Dodgers' closer, can you?

They don't have one, do they?

If their closer isn't closing during the World Series, then they don't have a closer.

A bunch of interchangeable pitchers with undetermined roles whose usage is based on matchups and other analytics.

Julio Arias has four saves in his career, and there he was getting the save in Game Six of the World Series.

That's the Dodgers using the Tampa Method to beat Tampa.

 

 

 

Experts.

Which is better?

Your heart or your lungs?

It's a stupid question in the first place.

 

Do MLB execs really know more than you do?

I'm sure they have more in-depth knowledge of, like, the players in the Seattle bullpen ... but no more than a typical fantasy team owner.

Betts is hardly an unknown entity. The guy recently won an MVP.

Trout is better, even if his brilliance is old news.

I'll give mulligans in 2020 to Trout, Bellinger, Yelich, all MLB players, the entire world.

Of course Game Three seems like Game Seven when you're down 2-0. No one comes back from 3-0 except ... wait a minute ... no way ...

In the NLCS between LA and Atlanta, Mike Lupica finds a way to connect it to?:

"If the Dodgers lose on Wednesday night, it is as good as losing their season, unless you see them as the second coming of the 2004 Red Sox. The Yankees were really good in ’04 on their way to getting ahead 3-0 in the American League Championship Series that is a part of baseball legend now. They were 6-1 that October before the sky came crashing down on them."

The Yankees lost Game Five.

There's no need to get defensive. There's no need to jump into the debate about the value of analytics. There's also no need to question the courage of the Yankees.

I'll make it easier:

• The Yankees would have lost Game Two anyway.
• The problem with the Game Two pitching move is that it jeopardized Game Four ... which the Yankee won anyway.

Why did the offense seize up in Game Five?

No one knows.

The same offense looked sharp all through the playoffs and even played some "small ball" throughout the playoffs. If sac flies count as "small ball."

Do the math. Runs scored in playoff games: 12, 10, 9, 5, 4, 5 ... and 1.

Of course, this optimistic evaluation ignores the ridiculous amount of strikeouts.

 

Gary Sanchez was very consistent in 2020 ...

... in fact, I don't think he was ever over .200 in terms of batting average.

No; LeMahieu; No. Any more questions?

Said no one.

Lupica on twitter:

"People treated Gerrit Cole like he was Bob Gibson for pitching 5.1 innings on three days rest last night. Josh Beckett went on three days rest against the Yankees in Game 6 of the '03 Series and pitched a complete game shutout." 

"People" is multiple, yet I'm certain Lupica can't find one person who "treated" Gerrit Cole like he was Bob Gibson.

I know he's using hyperbole and this is not to be taken literally, but it's not even close.

2003 was a different world. Pay attention to what's right in front of your eyes, baseball fans.

I know the list in the foggy memories of old men:

• Jack Morris was 29 years ago, pops.
• Bob Gibson was, heck, I don't even know ... are we talking about '67? ... 53 years ago?
• Schilling, Unit, and even Bumgarner ... a lot has changed in six years, forget about sixty.
  
• In 19-aught-3, Iron Joe McGinnity pitched 400 innings in one day. He was the starting pitcher for all the teams in the league. His W-L record for one day, with all the double headers, was an astonishing 16-8.
  

Look, I know you don't like Yankee players generally and, in particular, you don't like highly-paid Yankee free agents.

Cole pitched great last night. Not as good as ... who was it you brought up? Josh Beckett in 1993?

You are correct.

Cole pitched great, and yet it certainly does not take its place among the greatest playoff pitching performances of all time. 

Which is why no one ever said it did.

 

Wait until Lupica gets a look at the upcoming ALCS. 

Each game, at least one team will score double-digits and Lupica will compare MLB  scores to NFL scores (har-dee-har-har).

Forget about Josh Beckett in '93.

The ALCS will make Lupica pine for the playoff excellence of Kenny Rogers or George Frazier. 

Why isn't anyone blaming the Yankee offense?

The offense scored one whole run.

In nine innings.

In a decisive Game Five.

With a Steroid Ball and a Little League ballpark.

Against a pitching staff they'd seen 15 times in a month. 

Yeah, but ... think about what you're saying and why it isn't correct. Also, don't listen to Alex Rodriguez, huh?

The goofy Game Two pitching decision was misguided. It didn't work out. Happ was shellacked and one might argue it was largely because his manager didn't optimize his ability to succeed.

Blah blah blah.

It was also a self-conscious attempt to beat the Rays at their own game.

It was a move that made the Yankees' brass look silly and maybe even intimidated.

But ... please remember the situation.

The Yankees had won Game One.

Cole was going to pitch Game Five.

The strategy with a thin starting staff is to get one win in Games Two through Four.

They got that win, didn't they?

Montgomery bailed out Boone in Game Four, simple as that.

There is no particular reason to suspect that Garcia was going to cruise through Game Two if they'd kept him in the game. His first postseason short sample size experience leaves him with a stellar postseason ERA of 9.00.

Most envisioned Happ starting Game Four, but no one can tell me in retrospect that he would have pitched better than Montgomery. 

All the disastrous moves or genius moves cancelled each other out and got the Yankees back to square one with Cole on the mound in a winner-take-all Game Five.

Cole pitched great and the bullpen also pitched great.

The offense scored one measly run.

That's why they lost.

That's not because of Boone's shenanigans in Game Two.

 

"That time."

"They had Gerrit Cole, on whom they had lavished a $324 million contract, the richest in history, to start the game. They had their closer, Aroldis Chapman, on whom they have lavished the richest closer contract in history, on the mound in a tie game in the bottom of the 8th."

Both of whom lived up to their contracts. 

Regular season, postseason, and Game Five. 

Is this even a point of contention? 

  

"And they lost to a team from Tampa that, compared to them, at least payroll-wise, is a Mom and Pop operation."

Tampa is smart and tough.

They put a premium on defense.

They played with an edge and took it to the Yankees.

They are better than the Yankees.

Brousseau got his revenge in the regular season and again in the postseason.

The Yankees lost the division by 7 games in a 60-game season, for crying out loud.

As for the payroll discrepancy, it's not too difficult to field a great team on the cheap. The players just have to be young. Pre-free agency.

While I realize we're grading on a curve, it may be a good time to remind Lupica that the Rays have as many Championship rings as I do.

Besides ... the Yankees lost the whole series by what ... one run?

The Yankees went 4-3 in the postseason.

They clobbered Bieber and Snell in the postseason, demonstrating they can hit good pitching.

Happ got shelled, Tanaka got shelled (with a bit of bad luck), and whether it's inability to perform under pressure or a general inability to close out a series ... it's a small sample size, don't you think? ... the offense was shut down in Game Five.

It's fair to judge this team poorly ... it's fair to ridicule Stanton for keeping the bat on his shoulder in the ninth inning ... it's a thin line between winning and losing, that's for sure. Between being a hero and a goat.

"They have the rest of another $300 million contract, the one belonging to Giancarlo Stanton, on the books nearly to the end of this decade."

Right.

The guy who hit six (forgotten) home runs in five playoff games. 

"And not only do they lose an elimination game this October the way they did last October — Chapman giving up a season-ending home run to Jose Altuve that time — they do it one round earlier. "

I love this.

Lupica spends a whole year ripping the "Trash Can Asterisks" every chance he gets ... then glides on by Altuve's (supposedly bogus) home run.

I don't love Chapman, but give me a break.

It simply isn't his fault. Not last year and not this year.

 

"They back up. They lose another big October series for the same reason they lost the last two games of the American League Championship Series to the Astros three years ago, when there was that baseball rising in the Bronx and they seemed to have become the Yankees again:

When they stopped hitting home runs, they lost."

The last part is true. That's the game in 2020. It's aggravating and downright boring.

The first few playoff games had some encouraging signs ... sac flies?!?!?!

But the same can be said for the Rays. When they stopped hitting home runs, they lost. The same can also be said of the A's and the Astros.

I wish I foresaw a different future for the Yankees and MLB, but every team is like this.

Every postseason home run record is falling. 

I feel the itch, I wish the genie would go back in the bottle. I have visions in my head of Willie Randolph and Roy White and Lou Piniella. Let's get more players like that! Except there aren't any. They already have a couple of the few remaining ... Urshela and LeMahieu ... neither of whom did themselves proud in the 2020 playoffs.

The trick is to keep hitting home runs.

As for Boone and the Judge-era Yankees, maybe it will be all the sweeter when they finally close the deal.

Some self-examination can be worthwhile.

I'm going to watch the Yankees with an emotional commitment. I'm a longtime fan and it's a habit, a pleasure, a hobby.

But this Game Five was not exciting.

It's a typical 2020 all-or-nothing stylistic disaster.

• 17 innings pitched.
  
• 6 hits.
• 3 home runs (all cheap-o).
• 100% of the runs scored on home runs (did I mention they were all cheap-o)?
• 24 strikeouts.

Remember when baseball players displayed various offensive skills?

Remember when the game was dynamic?

Remember when ... I don't know quite how to explain this ... when players were different from one another?

One guy had a good eye and could steal bases; another guy swung for the fences but struck out too much; another guy was good in the clutch and could hit the ball to the opposite field; you could identify players by unique batting stances.

There are some exceptions, of course. DJ LeMahieu and Tim Anderson come to mind.

But 2020 MLB is a league of 500 Danny Tartabulls.

A parade of indistinguishable .220 hitters who try to hit a home run every time up and, due to small ballparks, juiced balls, and endless 95 MPH fastballs supplying the power, they are able to do so every 15 at-bats or so.

Gary Sanchez hits .150 and Freddie Freeman hits .350. So Freeman is undoubtedly better. But they both have the same power numbers, because just about everyone has the same power numbers.

If you aren't striking out, you're hitting a home run.

Fly balls are home runs, and home runs are upper-deck home runs.

 

Game Five wasn't a classic at all. I'm not lashing out just because my team lost. 

It's supposed to be exciting when you reach the late innings of a Game Five and the score is tied.

This was just a tedious exercise of waiting to see who was going to get one over the fence first.

It was the Rays this time.

What shall we do when data contradicts our pre-conceived conclusions?

I know what to do.

It's the only intelligent and mature way to handle this situation. It's a three-step process:

1. Ignore the facts.
2. Deny the facts.
3. Get very angry, in public, on the Internet.
   

Is he still on the payroll as an advisor?

His advice is, "take steroids ... and don't get caught."

I mean, of course the silly Happ move didn't work. Happ got shelled and, in the next game, Tanaka got shelled. Now Montgomery starts a must-win Game Four.

I also agree that it was an embarrassing, self-conscious attempt to beat the Rays at their own game.

Everyone knows this, including ARod. 

No great insider insight here.

There never is with this guy.

I didn't know Aaron Judge was the de facto team captain.

The Subway commercials should have been the giveaway.

I think he's a great player when healthy. He strikes out too much. He talks too much for a player who hasn't really backed it up in the 2020 playoffs, or in the playoffs in general. The "when healthy" part can't be ignored, either.

The guys I would think of first for the 2020 Yankees would be Gardner and LeMahieu.

Surprise!

Straight talk with Aaron Boone:

"Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the early hook for Garcia wasn't a preplanned bait-and-switch tactic against the Rays. Rather, Boone said it was his intention to have a short leash for Garcia and use Happ afterward.

'Their roster is built to take the platoon advantage. Felt like I was going to go to J.A. pretty early and aggressively if they went with a lefty-heavy lineup, and that was the reason,' Boone said. 'It was a little lineup-based, but [Garcia] kind of labored a bit in that first inning. But that was the plan all along. We were going to go short with him all along, knowing we would have Deivi available [later on] in the series if need be.'"

It wasn't a preplanned tactic ... but it was also the plan all along.

It isn't worth the effort. 

The bottom line is that your strategy is always going to be suspect when it relies on J.A. Happ.

We all get a mulligan in 2020.

 

"The upcoming revenge matchup with Tampa Bay in the ALDS will give the Yankees a chance to recapture the kind of buzz that has escaped this storied franchise.

The Bombers are in need of a sizzle vaccine.

Going into the pandemic postseason, evidence of their Big Fizzle is provided by looking at the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network’s final viewership numbers for the abbreviated regular season. Compared to the 2019 season, the average total viewership was down an un-Yankee-like 4%.

YES averaged 261,000 total viewers over 54 games this season compared to the 271,000 total viewers over 131 games during the 2019 season."

What happened to the YES Network viewership?

I have a possible answer.

Ten thousand potential YES Network viewers died.

Of COVID-19.

The global pandemic you may have heard about.

I'm more interested in MLB than any other sport, and it's difficult for me to get excited about this season, including the 16-team playoffs.

The NBA I keep an eye on, but it's October. It doesn't feel right. 

From a wider perspective, 2020 is tough. For everyone. It's really hard to care about baseball or TV.

I think baseball is in trouble in the long-term. I don't know if it can come back from this dip. 

 Modern-day baseball is a boring War of Attrition. 

Instead of using an array of offensive talents to defeat the opponent's pitcher, the strategy is to get the pitch count up and get him out of the game. Then hit home runs against the bullpen.

A 4% dip in ratings sounds like a victory to me. It's all relative. 

I surely wouldn't expect Rays/Yankees to move to grab the attention of a lot of people. Read the headlines.

 

Giancarlo just hit a sacrifice fly.

In a playoff game.

The world doesn't make sense anymore.

Sanchez is playing and he is batting ninth.

It's a compromise.

As long as he plays adequate defense, I don't see the problem.

Roy Campanella isn't sitting on the bench.

Even Giancarlo hit a home run.

 So happy to be wildly wrong about the outcome of a baseball game. Pretty close with my Cole box score prediction.

I think it's fair to judge Cole by today's performance. I just want people to put numbers around it.

I'll make a silly, pointless prediction: 7 IP, 1 or 2 earned runs, several unearned runs due to a deficient defensive baseball team, 5 hits, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts, loss.

Ottavino adds fuel to the fire as Boone chooses to save his reliable bullpen pitchers (Green? Britton?) for the next game.

Yankees get shut out since half their team has sub-.200 batting averages. Then they collectively cross their fingers that Tanaka has another big playoff performance in him.

If you want to blame this loss on Cole ... if you really expect a shutout every time he takes the mound ... then you're just dumb.

Cole is heralded as the final piece of the puzzle, this is true. He isn't the whole puzzle.

Just stop already.

Gary Sanchez is going to talk about working hard to improve his defense until the final day of his career.

He has been a starter in the big leagues since 2016.

He has been the catcher for almost 3,000 innings in the big leagues.

You know how some people devote so much physical and intellectual effort to a chosen field that it seems like they have magical intuition?

Gary Sanchez and catching is the opposite of that.

For the record, the 2020 MLB season exceeded my expectations ... but my expectations were quite pessimistic, based on anticipated pandemic complications and excessive player opt-outs.

The Mets were probably the most disappointing team in the 2020 season.  

Of course, the Nationals went from World Series Champs to last place ... but ... but ... what am I even talking about?

But the Mets are not embarrassed about the 2020 season.

No one gives the 2020 season any validity.

So no one should be embarrassed.

It's just 60 games.

Sorry, it wasn't the exciting turbo race to the finish that optimists envisioned ... it was just a distraction for diehards, more entertaining than another round of pandemic-fueled Law & Order marathons.

I don't know what to make of the Marlins. I'm not surprised that the Orioles and Marlins rebounded from disastrous 2019 seasons.

The Marlins are a whoop-de-doo 2 games over .500 and -39 in run differential.

Do it again next year; you might get dragged into the 162-game deep end of the pool.

Or what?

I don't think the Yankees are going to win the World Series. There, I said it:

"There are no excuses for the Yankees the rest of the way."

No team as any excuses. Only one team will win the World Series. Smart money is clearly on the Dodgers, but who knows?

 

"After all the talk about injuries the past couple of years, about all the stars on the injured list and the Brian Cashman irregulars who have stepped up to replace them, the Yankees will be as healthy as anybody competing for the World Series once the preliminaries are over and we are into the wild card round of the playoffs." 

 

"All the talk."

"This is their team. It means this is the team they all thought they could win with. If they don’t, there might just be a reckoning after the season with the owner, after Year 4 of Cashman’s reimagining of the Yankees after the 2016 season."

A couple of obvious observations:

1. The reckoning should have already happened. This is an overrated all-or-nothing offense which can't beat good pitchers. I denied this for a long time, but now it has completely taken over this team and most of the league.

2. If the Yankees somehow win the World Series ... I guess relying on Cole and a suddenly-effective bullpen? ... there still should be a reckoning:

• Why can't anyone on this team get a sac fly when they need one (other than LeMahieu, Urshela, and maybe Voit)?
• Why hasn't the farm system taught any of the young players how to field or run the bases?
• Why can't they stay healthy?
  

If this fraudulent team somehow wins the World Series, the move is to trade a bunch of players while their value is artificially high, don't you think?

Pull 'em right off the virtual floats on the virtual parade and sent them to Cleveland for some prospects.

 

"The Yankees go into the playoffs without James Paxton."

You forgot Severino. Why would you forget Severino?

  

"But look at all the pitchers who went down for the Rays this season, the first-place Rays, the ones who just waxed the Yankees in the season series between the two teams. There is no point, at this point, in discussing the payroll discrepancy, even in a short season, between the Rays and the Yankees, not after the way Kevin Cash’s team rolled Aaron Boone’s."

There is no point in discussing any of this.

The Rays are smarter and more athletic than the Yankees. The Rays try harder. The Rays play baseball better. The Rays seem to have more depth, but I don't really know because I don't care about the injury report of the Tampa Rays. The standings speak for themselves. The Yankees should be embarrassed and shouldn't be allowed near the bogus playoffs.

 

"Just putting Judge and Stanton and Torres with DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit ought to give them enough stick to make it from here, and the desultory way they ended their regular season after winning 10 games in a row, to the last week of October, and their first Series in 11 years. Now we’ll see how much game they really have."

I mean, for whatever reasons ... injuries, lack of Spring Training, general over-ratedness ... Judge, Stanton, and Torres are not currently playing like MVP candidates they're presumed to be.

Can they turn it around starting Tuesday?

I doubt it very much.

"The Yankees are all in now, eleven months after Altuve turned them into the heartbreak kids again. They have the ace in Cole who was supposed to make all the difference. They still have some bullpen. They’ve got two guys — Judge, Stanton — finally back on the field three years after they both hit 50-plus home runs in a season. They’ve got a breakout star in Voit."

They have a breakout star in Voit, this is true.

The rest in not true. Lupica knows this team isn't very good. He can't be that dumb.

We know what it is. It's a setup is what it is.

It will provide Lupica with plenty of anti-Yankee material in between anti-ARod musings and joyous memories of the 2004 ALCS.

 

The only hope is to ... how do I phrase this? ... hope that your own disadvantages are less disadvantageous than your opponent's disadvantages. (Nailed it.)

It's like the value of the $US. It's all relative.

Just like the Yankees can't rely solely on Cole, and there isn't much reliable pitching once they get past Cole ... their opponents are in the same situation. 

No days off, no depth in the rotation, an overused bullpen, a juiced up ball, small ballparks ... the precise conditions where the Yankees can hit a lot of home runs and overwhelm their opponent. 

If things work out, the home runs will occur with runners on base.

 

Giancarlo getting ready for the playoffs.

Zero hits in his last ten at-bats, with seven strikeouts.

I wish I could agree with Mike Lupica in this case.

"If Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are healthy when the first round of the playoffs begin for them next week, it means both of them get a do-over on the short season with an even shorter one. No one will care that through Tuesday's 12-1 win vs. the Blue Jays, the two of them combined had played just 44 of the Yankees’ 55 games. Nobody will care how much time they spent on the injured list last season, when Stanton missed 144 games and Judge missed 60 after missing 50 the year before."

I just think no one cares.

I don't expect much from the Yankees, Judge, Stanton, or MLB.

We'll hopefully get a complete do-over next year.

Lupica is talking about Reggie and Mickey, but 2020 is the year in which legends will not be made. I'm going to watch the playoffs just because it's more interesting than Outer Limits reruns. But no one is giving the champion any legitimacy.

Everybody gets a statue.

I can only say that I'm not really current on the KC Royals zeitgeist:

"When the statue is made of Royals legend Alex Gordon -- and it will be made and placed outside Kauffman Stadium some day -- it no doubt will depict him raising his right arm toward the sky as he rounds first base after hitting a game-tying home run in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series."

He would join George Brett and Frank White as the other KC Royals players with statues.

As the article points out, though Gordon isn't Top Three in most KC offensive categories, he is first in career Hit By Pitch.

I wasn't expecting Happ to suddenly become an ace.

Sixteen years ago.

"Over the last three games of their series against the Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers looked like the Yankees did at the end of the Red Sox series in ’04."

Why?

What happened in the Yankees/Red Sox series in 2004?

Do you mean the ALCS?

For those of us not versed in baseball history, can you remind us what happened in 2004 between the Yankee and the Red Sox?

Another Mets pitcher who is a complete bust.

For some reason, it always takes a while for reality to sink in.

Not sure about the Islanders ... you'll have to run it by Mike Lupica.

 Though Lupica has been quixotically giving the Mets the crown for the past 15 years or so.

A lot changes in one week.

The Legend of Bob Kammeyer resurfaces.

My father always told me about the guy who had an ERA of infinity for one season.

Didn't get anybody out, made a ruckus when angrily leaving the mound (if I recall correctly), and never pitched again in the big leagues.

Note to Adam Ottavino: It's not good when you're compared to Bob Kammeyer.

 

I also think it's funny how the oddsmakers and pundits don't seem to get the message. 

I sometimes pay attention to the odds, and this is the first game I can recall the Yankees being labeled as underdogs just about the entire season (correctly, as it turns out). I could have cleaned up picking the Yankee opponents all season.

The Yankees have a .500 record and a .500 "expected" record.

Yet they're still given, like, a 94% chance of making the playoffs.

Nice to see Yankee bullpen rise to the challenge of a high-pressure game.

                 IP   H  R  ER BB  K     

Green      0.1   1   4    3    2    0

Ottavino  0.0   4   6   6    2     0

Ottavino was garbage in the playoffs last year ... and that was before the three-batter minimum rule.

His ERA balloons to 7.82 for the 2020 season.

The Yankees might miss the playoffs.

I'm a numbers guy ultimately, and it's no surprise that the Yankees' wOBA is ranked low, but this is the first time Boone has faced adversity. 

 

he closest he has come to a rah rah speech is this?:

" 'We've got to be in the mindset that tomorrow's an important day. We have a tremendous opportunity in front of us. I do think that's crystal clear, not only with myself but our entire team,' Boone said. 'The opportunity still that lies in front of us, that's very much attainable and very much in our grasp. But we gotta go play well. And if we play well, with our group, I'm confident that we'll get to where we need to be.

'But it starts with playing well [Monday],' Boone said."

I truly wonder, what was the game of the 60-game season that wasn't important?

As a fan, it seems like you're just verifying what I've been accusing you of.

 

I'm a Yankee fan. I root for the Yankees. Everyone else in baseball is rooting against the Yankees.

These young, hungry teams in the AL East are taking it to them, simple as that.

The Blue Jays I haven't really paid attention to, but the Rays are athletic and play smart. They said they were going to be the Yankees head to head and that's what they did.

The Yankee identity in 2020 is fat and lazy.

Miguel Andujar's fielding at third base.

In 2018, Andujar's fielding percentage was .948, with 15 errors in 286 chances.

In 2019, Andujar's fielding percentage was .700, with 3 errors in 10 chances.

In 2020, Andujar's fielding percentage is .750, with 3 errors in 12 chances.

Tim Anderson seems like a player from a different era.

 When people cared about batting average.

Firing Aaron Boone is not a crazy idea.

If the Yankees were in first place with 20 games to play, holding a slim 3-game lead on the second-place Rays, I think it would be a surprisingly uncomfortable position for the supposed juggernaut.

Instead, the Yankees are holding a slim 3-game lead on the fourth-place Orioles.

If the Yankees choose to dismiss 2020 as a pandemic mulligan, that's their prerogative. I'm astonished by the lack of flexibility and urgency. Also, the lack of roster depth.

Also, one of the reasons Girardi supposedly lost his job following the 2017 season is because of his inability to communicate with the young superstars, namely Judge and Sanchez.

 Uh huh.

Is Gary Sanchez trying?

Is he angry at the Yankees?

Going through the motions?

Subconsciously sabotaging his at-bats?

Intentionally sabotaging his at-bats?

Is he just not enjoying himself and ready to quit baseball altogether?

I know strikeouts are more prevalent each year, but Sanchez has 48 strikeouts in 100 at-bats, and he only has 13 hits.

He has struck out 7 times in a row.

By my count, he has started 29 games this season, and he has struck out at least once in 27 of them.

I know he hits a HR every now and again. He has a couple of big HRs, too. The grand slam against the Mets.

But it's not happening this season, and he may never get it back.

Since I'm assuming he's out of options, it's time for a benching. You lost your starting job. It is appropriate when you play this poorly for a long time.

A lot changes in two weeks.

Lupica is right when he says no excuses. Their attitude is downright embarrassing. The Yankees knew it was a sixty-game season. They knew they were susceptible to injuries. Two weeks ago, they were MLB's elite, along with the Dodgers. Now they're relying on an NHL-style playoff format just to make the playoffs:

"The great homegrown nucleus of Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres that was supposed to sustain them with championships for years to come? Flawed, all of them. Judge will seemingly always be felled by assorted muscle pull injuries and seldom be on the field. Sanchez, for whom the Yankee brass has stubbornly held such high hope, is in the opinion of many scouts now one of the worst players in baseball — a strikeout-prone, defensively-challenged catcher who has also been continuously plagued by groin injuries. And Torres, who is down with a hamstring injury, has proven to be barely adequate at shortstop at the same time he’s mysteriously having problems finding his way with the bat this year."

Torres is probably going to rebound. May be headed for MVP candidacies in the future.

But the fielding problems for Torres, Andujar, and Sanchez are inexcusable. It's just a matter of practicing.

Sanchez doesn't look like he's going to rebound. He's one of the worst players in MLB at a time in his career when he should be peaking. This year, he has 44 strikeouts and 13 hits in 96 at-bats.

Judge is always injured.

Flawed, all of them.

This should be an interesting explanation.

Nobody is saying that Garcia should have kept pitching. But this is a failure no matter how you look at it:

"The Yankees couldn’t go to Zack Britton, Aroldis Chapman or Chad Green. Each of them had pitched in the earlier game. For Britton and Chapman, it was their second straight day of work. For Green, it was his third. If Boone turned to Adam Ottavino, it would have been his third straight day. The Yankees rarely use a reliever three days in a row during the regular season."

Yes, I expected Ottavino to pitch three days in a row. If he was successful, he would have only had to pitch to one batter to close out the inning.

Two innings to go.

Green for the second time in one day, then Chapman for the second time in one day.

I'd skip Britton because he has walked 7 batters in 12 innings and this annoys me.

Put on your big boy pants and play major league baseball.

It might not have worked out. Nobody in the bullpen has been reliable lately.

But maybe the Yankees should start trying. Get a professional roster and try to win the games. You've only got 22 games left. Stop whining about the schedule and the circumstances.

 

 

Most Yankee fans don't see it ...

Depends a little on which website you look at, but the Yankees are still given about a 98% chance of making the playoffs.

Even John and Suzyn were noticeably disgusted.

Look at this box score and ponder what the heck has happened to baseball. 

Walks, strikeouts, errors, baserunning blunders.

It's just three hours of waiting to see who hits the most homers with a juiced up ball.

The Rays are better than the Yankees.

 Can't say I saw this coming, 60-game season or 162-game season.

Michael King and Brooks Kriske?

In a seven-inning game?

In a sixty-game season?

I know the fecund IL creates some difficulties in filling out a roster ... but you're still the New York Yankees.

I also know that quite a few of the regulars not named Judge, LeMahieu, or Voit are under-performing ... some are under-performing at a level that makes them a candidate for the Worst Starting Player in MLB.

But if you're going to ask for your fan base to pay attention while experiencing the trauma of a pandemic, unemployment, and social unrest ... you should return the favor and give us something worth watching.

Pretend you're trying to win.

Act like you are embarrassed and distraught when you're 5 games out of first place and in danger of missing the expanded playoffs.

The nonchalance really shows.

Probably the biggest compliments a fan can pay a player is to describe the player as "tough" and "clutch."

It isn't just "finishing games off" and it isn't just injuries.

• If Chapman isn't ready to pitch in the major leagues, then find someone who can.
• Mike Tauchman is a cute underdog story until he grounds into a double play with the bases loaded against a rookie pitcher.
• The season is now halfway over and it's time to bench or demote Sanchez. Boone batted Sanchez fourth. Sanchez left six runners on base by my last count. He did manage a walk with the bases loaded ... so there's that.
  

The Yankees are soft and stupid and bad fielders. They are 1-5 in one-run games. The Yankees struck out 13 against the Mets ... in a 7-inning game ... and deGrom wasn't pitching. The Mets' first run scored on the Yankee Patented Unearned Run: HBP, error, wild pitch.

So, yeah, the injuries are part of the sad story.

But Boone didn't prepare his team for a sprint, and he still hasn't.

Each games counts like 2.6 games. A 7-game losing streak is really an 18-game losing streak.

This is going to keep happening, isn't it?

• 2.5 games behind Tampa.
• Can't beat Tampa.
• Can't beat good teams.
• Can't win close games.
• Can't stay healthy.
• Keep getting injured performing common baseball maneuvers, such as jogging to a base or sliding into a base or standing in a batter's box.
• Bad fielding.
• Bad situational hitting.
• Boring.
  

The Rays back up their big words.

I'm sure it's not just the Yankees, but ever since the 2001 World Series, I've been traumatized by the inability of the Yankee pitchers to field their position.

The playoffs are a long way off, but the Rays have guts and can win close games.

The Yankees? A lot to prove.

ESPN's Marly Rivera in 280-character hell.

"ESPN Stats & Info: Gary Sánchez has 92 HR in games in which he appeared as a catcher, tying Hall of Famer Mike Piazza for most such HR in MLB history by a player in his first 400 career games, at any position."

Huh?

"Such HR" is in games you appear as a catcher ... at any position?

 

"Sánchez, through 1 HR Tuesday, has 110 total HR in 391 career games."

As a catcher?

I read it multiple times and I can't figure out what Gary Sanchez tied Mike Piazza for.

My best guess is this:

First 400 games of a career (who cares?). 

You divvy up the games by position played, and both Sanchez and Piazza hit 92 HRs in their first 400 career games in which they played catcher, which is also the most anyone every hit in their first 400 career games at any position.

Which I'm pretty sure isn't accurate (Mark McGwire?), but maybe it is.

Bottom line: Gary Sanchez hits a lot of HRs ... and so did Mike Piazza.

You already knew that, didn't you?

 

God Bless Fernando Tatis Jr.

Because he's fat.

Put Alex Rodriguez in front of a mic, and you get what you ask for.

34-for-68.

Maybe I've seen a higher batting average over an extended period of time ... check with Elias ... but I sure don't recall anything like this.

So much for the idea that each game counts more in a 60-game season.

After a victory in the first game of a double header, with a fresh bullpen and a close score in game #2, so far the Yankees have pitched the following nobodies through the first five innings:

• Michael King
• Luis Avilan
• Albert Abreu

Again, I feel the need to bring up Chien-Ming Wang.

I mean, what is there to say anymore?

We're talking about "starting pitching" as if it's 20 years ago. 

Then we start talking about all the pitchers from 20 years ago:

"The Yankees haven’t had enough starting pitching for years and years. You can go all the way back to 2004, and remember that when it was all on the line for them against the Red Sox in Game 7, they had to start Kevin Brown, who had become a bust-out case by then, and then follow him with Javy Vazquez (whom they even brought back to the team in 2010)."

You could go all the way back to 2004 ... or you could stop living in the past. 

I mean, a Javy Vazquez career retrospective sheds little light on the first 13 games of 2020, wouldn't you say?

 

"You know how that worked out."

The 2004 ALCS?

Not sure how that worked out.

Can you please explain it for the 10,000th time? Since it was the highlight of your life?

Even David Ortiz is over it by now.

"When Randy Johnson became a Yankee, he absolutely did win 17 games twice. The second time he did, his earned run average was a smooth 5.00. It is always worth remembering that the last great starting pitcher the Yankees signed and developed was Andy Pettitte."

Pettitte was a PED cheat and you always forget the greatness of Chien-Ming Wang. I understand why you forgot ... why everyone forgets ... but it was only a stupid injury which derailed his career after 2 1/2 years of 46-15 flat-out greatness.

It's too early to crown Severino, but same thing. They might have a flash in the pan, but they might have a champ.

 

 As for 2020, I totally trust Cole, Tanaka, Paxton, and Montgomery.

Montgomery had one bad game, Paxton has to get his velocity back up. If Paxton can't get his velocity back up, then it's a problem.

Happ is garbage, the Yankees should banish him and start Green or Loaisiga instead.

 

More importantly, the 2020 Yankees don't have to outpitch the 1998 Yankees or the 1970 Orioles or the 2004 Yankees. They just have to beat the other 2020 teams.

With the steroid ball and no DH, good luck finding a team with a reliable starting staff.

If the Yankees play sharp defense and their stellar bullpen holds, they are going to cruise, and Lupica knows it.

 

"Starting pitching."

Chapman goes on the DL and Britton steps right in with 5 saves in 5 save opportunities.

Half the relief staff has an ERA of 0.00, the other half under 2.00.

Sorry, that's the way baseball is played in 2020.

If Happ can get through a mere 4 innings, I'll take it, and the Yankees are going to win a lot of games.

Walk, walk, wild pitch, sac fly.

Ottavino gave the game away. 

Not sure if Ottavino can survive the new world of 3-batter minimums.

Tauchman made a bad baserunning play and Lemahieu had an ineffective at-bat.

Does anyone think Judge would have avoided the strike out and gotten Tauchman home?

Sanchez with bases loaded and two outs strikes out on three pitches.

When you lose 1-0, every play was pivotal.

 

"Almost."

 A YES Network highlight of a warning track fly ball. The last out of the game in a Yankee loss. Very nice highlight.

I relent.

Baseball games take too long and move too slowly and the season is too long. I wouldn't expect this rule to continue into the playoffs, but I will no longer complain if MLB tries desperately to get young people to pay attention.

Just like that, out of nowhere, Ron Davis is out of the MLB record books.

Suzyn Waldman is a shockingly good singer.

"Waldman, a former Broadway actress renowned for her singing voice, has sung the national anthem many times before, including many times before Yankees home games. But this one was special. Not only was it keeping a long-held promise to the Yankees’ new ace, but it turns out that Waldman had never sung the national anthem in the new Yankee Stadium"

Cool story, too.

What virus?

I'm enjoying the return of MLB, but it's very noticeable how often the players violate social distancing protocols, despite the fact that the virus has hit very close to home.

In the non-existent Battle for New York between Judge and Alonso ... Judge takes an early lead.

It's time the U.S. started celebrating Christmas on December 25.

"There was a time with the Mets, briefly, when we talked about 'Harvey Day' when it was Matt Harvey’s turn to pitch."

Matt Harvey.

You're talking about Matt Harvey again.

"But now we have "Jake Day" with the Mets because of Jacob deGrom, who has been the best starting pitcher in baseball the past two years, with back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards to prove it."

Is that right?

Strange.

I'm a baseball fan who lives in the NY metropolitan area, and I have never heard of this ... who was it again? ... Jacob deGrom?

Huh.

"In Gooden’s two magic years when he was a kid, 1984 and ’85, he was 41-13 with that 2.00 ERA and struck out 544 batters in 494 2/3 innings. He was the NL Rookie of the Year in ’84 and the NL Cy Young Award winner in ’85. Seaver in '72 and ’73 had a record of 40-22 to go with a 2.48 ERA and struck out 500 men in 522 innings. He was fifth in the Cy Young voting in ’72, won it in ’73. And deGrom? In addition to the win-loss record, he has struck out 524 batters in 421 innings."

Harvey, Seaver, Gooden, deGrom.

Great stuff.

You should give Evan and Joe a call in the afternoon.

I mean, look, there's not much here to argue with.

Everyone knows deGrom is great and, because he's a Met ... I guess there are parallels between deGrom and other great Met pitchers.

So what?

DeGrom has been great for a lot longer than two years, but if Lupica has never gotten psyched about "Jake Day" until now, that's because of his own ignorance.

DeGrom was Rookie of the Year way back in 2014, and has been various degrees of great ever since.

On the field, deGrom has never been overshadowed by Harvey, Syndergaard, Wheeler ... Jon Niese, Dice-K Matsusaka, Bartolo Colon.

In Lupica's columns, on the other hand, deGrom has been given short shrift.

Not suddenly.

Still hoping for the best, but this season has always had the Sword of Damocles hanging over its head.

The headline reminded me of a talking head who briefly infiltrated my attention span, screaming that the pandemic is unprecedented and unforeseeable.

The details change, but the pandemic is neither of those things.

Seventh of the depth chart? He's better than that.

At some point, the Yankees just need to trade him and get something valuable in return.

Maybe I'm just mellowing in my old age.

"Now, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the Astros won't be booed, either. This year's rescheduled Opening Days will be played in front of nobody -- nobody cheering and nobody booing, the only possible way to have baseball in a pandemic. We all have a good sense of what the game misses when there is nobody cheering. But what does the game miss when there's nobody booing? Quite a lot."

LOL.

Core Five

Healthy and empowered, huh?

Britt and Chappy

I had forgotten how much I missed baseball's childish nicknames.

For a long time, I just assumed Whitaker was in the HOF.

Giancarlo Stanton is the DL Midas

Lojack

Everyone Loses

It really does seem MLB owners and players don't pay any attention to the fans. Few are excited to see the return of baseball for 60 games.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

"The 30 Major League Baseball owners want to play 60 games this year. The players want to play 70. Here’s a better idea: How about 0?

On Monday afternoon, the players voted against the owners’ most recent proposal, leaving it to commissioner Rob Manfred to mandate a season. He will likely try to set a schedule of 50 or so games. It doesn’t matter. This isn’t safe anymore. It probably never was.

Many of us have been distracted in recent days by calculating teams’ EBITDA when we should have been calculating states’ coronavirus case rates. I wrote last week that the owners are being intransigent. They are. But the news on Friday of COVID-19 outbreaks in Phillies camp, in Clearwater, Fla.; and in Blue Jays camp, in Dunedin, Fla.; and in Giants camp, in Scottsdale, Ariz., have made it clear: The labor issue is not the problem. The virus is."

Crisis Management

Manfred gets a failing grade.

Even though some factors are beyond his control, he is ultimately responsible for this disaster.

He doesn't even seem like an interested party. He doesn't even seem excited for the return of baseball.

The Commissioner of MLB is doing a great job.

He doesn't even seem to care if MLB has a 2020 season.

A great article by Mike Lupica about Hank Aaron.

“I see kids out there,” he said. “I see black and white. But I see those kids. You know where the social change everybody’s talking about is going to come from? It’s going to come from them. Black or white. They’re the ones who are going to make the change that we need in our country.”

Finally the great Hank Aaron said this:

“I’m not able to move around much anymore. But if I could, I’d be out there marching. I’d be right there at the front of the line.”

Yes, I hope they play baseball this season. This is encouraging.

The commissioner of baseball announces the return of his sport with the enthusiasm one might expect when reviewing the findings of an internal audit.

Living in the past.

Matt Harvey's best season was probably 2013. A long time ago in MLB years.

He did not get a lot of wins in 2013 (9), but he was fourth in the Cy Young Award voting and made his only All Star appearance.

For a few years, Harvey struck out a lot of batters and had an excellent SO/W ratio.

Those days are long gone.

He has not been a good major league pitcher since 2015.

I have never heard anyone refer to Gary Sanchez as "El Gary."

Gary Sanchez's 162-game average is .246, 46 home runs, and 114 RBIs ... and this writer is questioning whether the Yankees should sign him.

If that production was cut in half, even with his defensive troubles and seemingly lazy attitude, Sanchez would be one of the top catchers in baseball.

I think MLB will have a season.

"If that doesn't happen -- if they can't agree on a deal to play in 2020 -- baseball will become a loathed presence on North America's sporting landscape, scorned by many fans. The labor fight will merely be deferred, with escalation in some form all but assured because of the unresolved issues.

Next spring, with only months remaining in the current collective bargaining agreement, the players are more apt to use the threat of a strike. Owners, already damaged by the money losses this year, could be more inclined to dig in and wait out the players, aiming for a lasting reconstruction of baseball's financial model. The labor fight could go on and on, and by the time it all plays out, it's impossible to know how many fans, feeling alienated or disgusted, will leave baseball behind once and for all.

The only sure thing is that the owners and players will lose, unless they settle this standoff that risks mutually assured destruction.

So they have to make a deal. Right?"

We'll see.

I think fans are angry when forced to confront the truth about pro athletes.

Pro athletes are not your friend. Neither is Matt Damon. Neither is Flo from those commercials.

I enjoy baseball as much as anybody, but baseball isn't going to save you and baseball isn't going to save this country:

"Over 100,000 deaths in the United States from the coronavirus. More than forty million unemployed workers. Brutal discrimination flooding news feeds. Protests in Minneapolis. Presidential tweets being censored for glorifying violence. Beloved sports bars and restaurants shutting their doors for good."

Right.

Puts some perspective on a silly diversion like baseball, no?

Also, the President's tweet was not censored. Twitter is a private company and ... oh, forget it ... my goodness, I have tried to explain this on the Internet for over twenty years.

"Baseball can be the first sport to provide a sense of normalcy; a dosage of healing and vital change during these uncertain and tragic times. Instead, players and owners, millionaires and billionaires, are squabbling about pay cuts and how to make up for lost profit — ensuring that baseball fans, their community of consumers, feel like they’re the last thing on their minds."

Fans are not the last thing on the minds of baseball players and owners.

The last thing on their mind, technically, is the Star Games episode with the stars from Gimme a Break. Remember those shows?

"Fans, having accepted they will likely not be attending games at ballparks this year, want baseball, at the very least, to return to their daily lives through their television screens. Fans have seen, read and heard enough about the public back-and-forth between Major League Baseball and the Players Association to understand how this will play out

Money could end up being the reason baseball doesn’t return in 2020."

Oh no! Not money! Players are greedy? Owners are greedy? In 21st Century America? I'm shocked.

Listen up, poor people ... "middle class" people ... sub-millionaire front line  losers. Rich people don't care about you other than your value as a consumer.

"The feud between MLB and the players may go on for another week, maybe even another month. It will go on as long as it takes for both sides to reach an agreement on salary and, to a smaller degree, health protocols. Major league players are the best at what they do, and they perform in a system that greatly rewards them for those talents. But the longer the groups squabble, the more they have to lose. For now, fans are following along closely. But the clock is ticking on the longevity of their enthusiasm for the sport."

I think they're going to play baseball this year.

The feud will be quickly forgotten; a short-term unnecessary PR hit. Forgotten until the next contract negotiations.

They'll play, alright. Half a season, goofy scheduling, empty ballparks, bad TV ratings after an Opening Day surge, and general difficulty trying to attract young fans, speed up the game, compete with other entertainment, and legitimize the results of an 80-game season.

Ultimately, it doesn't even come down to money. The virus will make the final decision.

At this point, it looks optimistic that the health concerns of the players can be mitigated. But we still don't know much about the virus and it could have a second surge throughout the planet, throughout the country, and surely throughout a baseball locker room.