Trying too hard.

"There is always the same, mythical, two-team division in baseball. Call it the 'New York Division,' one that only includes the Yankees and the Mets. It means, especially in a year like this one when the two teams have the two best records in baseball, that they are always fighting for the mythical city championship."

It's a weary, mythical two-team division of my own creation. I'm so tired of talking about it for the past forty years, that I'm going to have to talk about it again.

 

"For now, the Yankees look to be running away with it. But it is fair to wonder, even at this point in the season, what the respective records of the two teams would be if, say, Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes, the Yankees’ two best starters, had combined for just eight starts the way Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer have. And how things might look between the two teams, and not just when they get around to playing each other, when deGrom and Scherzer are back at the top of Buck Showalter’s rotation."

Yeah. It's a fair point. The Mets might be better than the Yankees if deGrom and Scherzer return to form.

But it's fair to wonder, even at this point in the season, if the Yankees had kept Dellin Betances and he had regained his dominance; and if Clint Frazier was their everyday left fielder and hitting 45 home runs per year; and if Greg Bird had stayed healthy and won a couple of batting titles; and if Rob Refsnyder had a slash line of .300/.400/.500 and was their everyday second baseman. That team would be even better than the current team. 

"Which New York slugger is going to end up being the MVP of New York this season, Aaron Judge or Pete Alonso?

And, by the way, I ask the question knowing that come September, as we’re coming down the stretch, Francisco Lindor (who came out of the weekend with more RBIs than Judge) might want a word.

All Rise or the Polar Bear?"

I don't know what the future will bring, either.

Right now, Judge is by far the most valuable of these three.