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.