Don't tell people what to pay attention to.

No one closely followed Judge's home run pursuit until the last month of the season.

Also, outside of New York, was it really that big of a deal?

I think Verducci is intentionally misremembering:

"The Marlins play game No. 81 on Wednesday at Fenway Park—halfway through their season—and Luis Arraez still is making a realistic bid to hit .400. On the difficulty scale in today’s game, it is harder than hitting 61 home runs."

Except it isn't a realistic bid.

Arraez is going to have one bad week and then then run out of time.

The numbers are going to get more and more impossible. Like, "if he bats .440 in his last 200 at-bats, he can still finish the season at .400."

 

"It’s just not as highlight-friendly to see the Marlins second baseman carving out his hits with an average exit velocity of 91.3 mph as it was to see Aaron Judge smashing home runs at an average speed of 109.0 mph last year."

Judge had a mammoth first half last season which set the stage for the AL record-breaking season.

But I distinctly remember at the All Star Break that 62 home runs was just a vague idea ... and even then, about half the crowd still gave deference to Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa.

 

"2. Hitting .400 is harder than hitting 61 home runs.

Nobody has hit .400 since Ted Williams in 1941.

In those same 82 years, 61 home runs have been achieved eight times by five players (Roger Maris, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Judge)."

Sure.

Aside from the obvious PED retort, we're only halfway through the season.

 

"3. Forget .400. Hitting even .380 would be amazing.

Nobody has come within 20 points of .400 in a full season since 1980, when George Brett hit .390."

Forget .400?

So forget the whole reason I'm reading this? 

Look, it's amazing. I think Arraez is getting a lot of attention, actually. I'm not sure who Verducci is arguing with.

I personally hope Arraez does it because some of these Mount Rushmore players should get challenged once in a while.

But he isn't going to.

Arraez is probably going to finish the season over .350, which is amazing enough.

The only way he's going to bat .400 for the season if he he gets hot, creeps over .400, and then stops at the minimum number of at-bats.

The players who replaced Judge are doing fine.

McKinney is batting .302 with four home runs in 53 at-bats.

Bauers isn't going to the All Star Game or anything, but he has a worthwhile .492 slugging percentage in June.

Meanwhile, Rizzo has zero home runs in June in 88 at-bats.

In addition, Rizzo is 0-for-22 this season with two outs and RISP.

It's a big mystery.

“Sometimes it happens,” Germán said through an interpreter. “It’s hard to figure out where the issue is; if it’s mechanical, the release point. Are they adjusting or seeing the pitch well? You’ve got to keep working. It doesn’t stop. You’ve got to find what kind of solution you can apply and put it to work.”

He needs the spider tack. No one wants to say it out loud.

Chris McMonigle is right.

Over the past 15 days, Stanton and Rizzo each have just three hits for a combined 6-for-71 with one home run. They’ve struck out 19 times in that span. LeMahieu’s bat has cooled off as well with a 5-for-27 (.185) stretch.

“It is a cop out to just talk about how Judge is the only reason why they win. Because it’s not true. As great as he is, Rizzo had a good year last year,” McMonigle said. “He’s a good player and he’s absolutely lost out there… He is in a funk. He is killing them.

“Stanton is going through his normal not only the month he’s gone but the month it takes to get back into his groove. There are guys on this team.

“I’m sorry. I refuse to just believe the blanket statement that they’re just a 4-8 team. They’re one of the worst offenses in baseball. They’re one of the worst teams in baseball without Aaron Judge. I refuse to believe it. They’re playing as such, at the moment, because their guys who need to step up haven’t just not stepped up, they’ve been in absolute fogs and it’s hard to explain.”

Felz Stat of the Day

Inspired by Rizzo's bit two-run hit with RISP when the Yankees were down 13-1, I decided to examine his "clutch" stats in 2023.

Two outs, RISP: 0-for-19.

Even better than Kimberly Akimbo.

"The Mets and Yankees play their first Subway Series games of this season at Citi Field starting on Tuesday night, a few days before the 26th anniversary of the first Interleague game between the two teams at the old Yankee Stadium on June 16, 1997. A Met journeyman named Dave Mlicki shocked himself and the world by throwing a complete-game shutout that night, and a rivalry that had existed only in the imaginations of New York baseball fans was finally joined in a game that counted."

Dave Mlicki shocked the world, didn't he?

Residents of several sub-Saharan countries still remember where they were the day Dave Mlicki shut out the Yankees.

I'm not going to read the rest of this.

The talk of the town is that this is the least interesting Subway Series ever, espeically with Alonso and Judge on the IL.

If a couple of fourth-place teams want to talk about bragging rights, fine by me. Grown ups can spend their money as they wish. I encourage everyone to enjoy baseball on a beautiful Tuesday evening in mid-June.

But if Lupica wants to post articles on a national website while posing as the Voice of New York, he can't say the 2023 Subway Series has juice ... and start the whole stupid thing by brining up Dave Mlicki.

I'm Mike Lupica and I'd like to say: Mookie Wilson, Buck Showalter, Alex Rodriguez. Mike Piazza, Roger Clemens, Dae-Sung Koo, Brett Gardner.

It's just a foul ball ... what is this?

Gleyber also almost hit a home run in the ninth inning the other day. Then he popped up. Then the Yankees lost.

Don't look now ...

The Yankees are 9.5 games out of first place.

They're snakebit, Mike.

"They are 16-25 since they came back from their West Coast trip on April 23. It’s as if the dark air afflicting New York City had followed them all the way to Atlanta. Considering the expectations they brought with them from last season’s 101-win campaign to this one, they are as much of a disappointment in the National League East as the Phillies, a World Series team that is a half-game worse than the Mets at 29-32."

No mention of payroll?

"You'd think $110 million would be worth one half of a game."

I mean, in some ways, Lupica deserves credit for finally addressing the subpar Mets. But he also tips his hand for the millionth time. The lack of snark from King Snark is quite noticeable.

Lupica dutifully lists five reasons that are nothing more than a ten-minute perusal of the team stats ... but Lupica just won't admit that maybe he was Wrong About Everything.

"$300 million doesn't buy what it used to, huh? Am I right, everybody?"

"It was Bill Parcells, Showalter’s old friend, who famously said you are what your record says you are. The Mets are two games under .500. Still a long way to go. It won’t matter if the Mets aren’t a lot better over the next 100 than they have been over the first 62. The snakebit team needs to start biting back."

My pal Showalter said they are unlucky, so they must be unlucky.

Major League Baseball Games are Played for Nine Innings.

"The Mets were well on their way to defeating the Braves in Atlanta on Tuesday night, but one inning dashed those hopes."

If it wasn't for that one inning where the Braves scored four runs, the Mets probably would have won.

Also, if it wasn't for that one inning where the Mets scored four runs, the Braves would have shut out the Mets.

But if you don't count those innings, and you don't count the other two runs by the Braves, the score was actually 0-0.

 

"After starter Carlos Carrasco gave up a second-inning solo home run  to Ozzie Albies, the veteran was cruising through the Braves lineup. Two two-run homers from Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso put the Mets up comfortably 4-1, and Carrasco was on the verge of his third straight dominant start when the sixth inning started."

A three-run lead in the sixth inning in Atlanta in not a comfortable lead by any means.

Sign stealing isn't working. You said so yourself.

"The battle between the pitcher and the hitter is the ancient core of baseball. Everything in this team sport emanates from that one-on-one duel at 24 paces contested an average of 76 times each game. The odds are stacked in the pitcher’s favor. The pitcher initiates the action. The hitter does not know what is coming. Measured by keeping the batter off base, the pitcher wins 68% of these duels."

So with all the pitch stealing, the league's on-base% is .320.

"But what if the hitter knows what’s coming? The ancient balance flips. Such knowledge can be gained legally, such as a runner at second base relaying signs to the hitter, or illegally, such as the 2017 Astros misusing in-game technology to steal and relay signs."

The ancient balance flips, I guess is that happens.

 

I don't care.

I don't think it makes much of a difference.

I think it's fair game if you use technology to identify patterns and then ask a batter to figure out those patterns.

It's also easy to combat. The pitcher can use the same technology and wait for a big 2-2 pitch to switch it up.

"'It’s a rather slippery slope,' says the club executive. 'I fall on the side of if it’s something you’re picking up in real time, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s fair game. But this method just doesn’t seem fair to me. And my concern, even if it’s, quote, unquote, "legal now," is that someone’s going to take it too far.'"

I don't think when the person says "quote, unquote" that you have to write down the words "quote, unquote." You just put the subsequent words in quotes.

 

The mighty have fallen.

 An OPS of .697 and 59 Ks.