This is the new company line.

"'That’s a serious punch in the mouth,' Aaron Boone said. 'We’ve had a number of times this year where you can say it even though it’s only June you got your backs up against the wall. We’re in the toughest division in baseball with some really good teams that are ahead of us in the standings and we’ve got to dig ourselves out and we’ve got to be more consistent and we’ve got to keep our foot on the gas.'"

The Yankees are in fourth place in a five-team division.

Is the AL East really the toughest division in baseball?

I think the NL West is the toughest division in baseball.

In any case, it's quite irrelevant. It's the most whiny, pathetic excuse I've ever heard.

I'm going to say that Phillies fans were not "stunned" when the Phillies bullpen blew a one-run lead in the ninth.

Error, walk, infield single, walk, sac fly.

Stirring example of tight, professional baseball on display in the NL East.

How far shall our local baseball teams carry us?

Mike Lupica has nothing to say about it:

"And now we wait to see what kind of run the Mets and the Yankees will give us. Football training camps are still a month away. It is baseball that carries us now.

The question is this: How far?"

That's always the question.

Before I read the rest of the article, I can guarantee that Mike Lupica does not provide an answer.

"Maybe the Yankees are set to mash again, as baseballs spin less than they were spinning even a month ago, and balls are starting to fly out of the park again. But they didn’t get a home run at Fenway on this night. And they were all righty hitters in the ninth with the game on the line against the Red Sox righty closer, Barnes."

Maybe lots of things, I guess.

"Of course the summer is still full of possibilities. We still have Jacob deGrom, if he can stay healthy. We have Gerrit Cole, if he can figure out how to pitch without being Spider (Tack) Man, or whatever it was he was using. The hope, still, is that the best part of our baseball season is just beginning, in the baseball boroughs of Queens and the Bronx."

 

Very insightful.

"Seriously: I want anybody who watched Gerrit Cole’s last start to tell me they think he’s the same guy we saw before all the hooptedoodle about a new kind of juicing with the baseballs."

 

Everybody agrees with you.

 

Cole was using Spider Tack and it's why he was dominant over the past, say, 2 1/2 seasons. He cashed in and now the Yankees have a long-term contract with a pitcher who will be almost certainly be slightly less dominant.

It's the same old story: Cheating works and GMs who sign players to long-term contracts ought to be aware of the smoke and mirrors.

 

With the crackdown (aka "hooptedoodle," apparently), Cole's ERA will go up, and hopefully the tradeoff for the 2021 Yankees will be an extra two runs per game for their horrific offense.

The intentional walk in the ninth inning was the worst managerial strategic decision I have ever seen.

"Chapman, who did not allow an earned run in his first 18 appearances, blew his third save in his last eight opportunities. He issued a bases-loaded walk to rookie back-up catcher Sebastian Rivero, who has yet to get a major league hit, to tie the game.

After a long meeting on the mound with the infielders, Yankees manager Aaron Boone made the decision to intentionally walk Carlos Santana. It was a decision that Chapman disagreed with, Boone admitted.

 'I just made the decision. You know, frankly, when I got back to the bench,' said Boone. 'I just felt like the matchup called for it and I didn’t want to get caught in a situation of pitching around and now all of a sudden you got a wild pitch scenario and we’re tied. So I just felt it was the right move. Obviously backfired a little bit, but I just felt like it was the right thing to do in the moment.'"

 Boone does not deserve to be let off the hook by his team's bottom-of-the-ninth comeback. As for Chapman, is a fraudulent Choke Job Walk Machine.

Hoy Jun Park probably couldn't hurt.

Gleyber is an unpleasant surprise. Odor and Wade are certainly replaceable. It's also an unpleasant surprise that it has come to this.

Deck chairs on the Titanic.

Yankee fans finally got what they were asking for: A re-arranged lineup!

Explain this lineup to me vs. a right-handed pitcher.

• Sanchez batting third.
• Frazier in the lineup.
• Urshela batting sixth.

It probably doesn't matter much. This lineup can't hit good pitchers and this team can't beat playoff-caliber teams.

I'm happy that strikeout machines Judge and Stanton are at least broken up ... but if you're just going to put Sanchez between them (batting third?), then you're just making it easy for the righty strikeout pitchers that come out of the bullpen late in the game.

 

 

Intentional Ignorance

 "Baseball pitchers think they get to be the victims now on the sticky stuff?

 How does that work, exactly?

'It’s so hard to grip the ball!' Gerrit Cole said this week.

Wait, it wasn’t hard for Koufax and Gibson and Seaver and Pedro?

And I hope Tyler Glasnow comes back even better and healthier than ever after 60 days on the IL.

But if he can’t throw a baseball the way he was throwing it without putting some kind of substance on the ball, then he needs to find another way to throw it."

Well, Pedro was quite possibly on steroids, but he wasn't on the Yankees, so Mike Lupica doesn't really mind.

Aside from that, the ball has changed. It is more slippery. This article is from back in 2017, and while neither the article nor my google search qualify as in-depth, definitive research, it's better than Mike Lupica's research.

Aside from that, there's a good chance "Koufax and Gibson and Seaver and Pedro" -- nice nod to Hemingway with the lack of commas, you dork -- used substances on the ball. Some pitchers want a better grip, some want a slippier grip

All of it is a moot point anyway. MLB doesn't care about cheating and neither do the fans. The pitchers found something that works too well. The league is taking action because the games are boring.

"For Pete's sake."

Hey, guys. Time to step it up, OK?

"The Yankees (33-32) have lost seven of nine and 13 of 18. They are in fourth place, 8 1/2 games behind AL East-leading Tampa Bay, their largest deficit since September 2018."

They may not be used to losing ... but they're also not used to winning. Let's just put it that way.

"When asked if he felt there was anyone who was getting used to or accepting the team's struggles, Boone bristled when answering no.

'I know them too well and I don't think there's any getting used to freakin' losing. Hell no,' he said. 'Get the hell out of here with that.'"

He said the H.E.Double-hockey-sticks word.

That pottymouth must really be angry.

The Yankees are a disappointing .500 team.

I don't see any indication they will turn it around.

It isn't a short-term slump anymore.

Their run differential for the year is minus-four.

They are 6.5 games out of first place.

They are still in the running for a wild card, but not distinguishing themselves from, say, the Royals.

The pitching is good overall. The offense is bad, the base running is bad, the fielding is bad, the fundamentals are mostly bad ... and we've been complaining about these things for ten years.

It's hard to blame the umpire for a loss ...

... and there is certainly no guarantee that the next batter would have won the game.

But this is a big spot and this third strike call is embarrassingly awful.

I don't know what's going on the past three seasons, but it probably has a lot to do with the ball.

Chris Gittens won't save the Yankees.

"Combined, the Yankees have the second worst batting average (.176), OPS (.531), and slugging percentage (.231) at first base in all of the big leagues."

If this is second worst, I wonder which team is the worst.

I mean, sure. Give Gittens a chance over Mike Ford and Rougned Odor. I'm not expecting much.

Two words: Gary Sanchez.

MLB made such a big deal about its one millionth run, I remember it was scored by Bob Watson.

 No hype at all for two millionth run.

We need to talk about Clint.

.175 batting average.

7 runs batted in.

.115 with RISP.

.111 with two outs and RISP.

-0.9 WAR.

The batters will tell their grandkids about the time they struck out in single-A ball.

Matt Harvey and Jackie Bradley Jr. got bad in a hurry.

 5.93 ERA and .506 OPS.

I'm a fan of Ohtani and he is better than I thought he would be.

 It's fun sometimes when athletes live up to the hype.

Are you sure you're not a shortstop?

 Six-part Jeter documentary is this TV commercial on loop.

First-guessing in real time.

 I'd send Cole out for the ninth inning.

What happened to the Dodgers?

17-16 overall record?

I'll bet it's just a short-term bad stretch.

It still caught me off guard when I checked the standings.

Unsung for a reason.

League-wide batting average of .233.

2021 Yankee stats that will surprise you.

•  Giancarlo Stanton has a relatively high batting average (.269).
• On the up side, Gleyber Torres has been fielding well.
• On the down side, Torres's power has disappeared.
• His career162-game average is 31 home runs.
• Last year, in 136 at-bats, he only hit 3 home runs. This year, in 90 at-bats, he has 0 home runs.
  

The Mets catcher is also no good.

 Nobody talks about it and I just noticed it.

I remember Jason Giambi had a grace period of one at-bat.

I was thinking why did it take so long?

Don't tell grown-up fans that they're doing it wrong.

As long as they're not crossing a line - ethical, legal, safety, inappropriateness, attacking the player's family - they should do what they want to do.

I'm also quite sure they don't need a lesson in small sample size or a list of MLB players who turned it around after a slow start.

They'll cheer Lindor when he plays well, I'm sure.

Until then, they'll boo.

I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I'm surprised to see Tauchman go.

Ace Cole.

 I'm not sure if the ball is deadened, but it might be. It makes a big difference with fly ball pitchers such as Cole.

I like how deGrom is also batting .545.

That means the Mets will contend for the World Series. Clearly.

 The Yankees will contend for the World Series ... and the Mets are better than the Yankees.

K:BB Ratio.

 "After Sunday, the Yankees had a collective .642 OPS, the worst in the majors; They scored 55 runs, tied for the least in the American league with the Tigers, who have played one more game than the Yankees. Their slugging percentage (.346) was second to last in the big leagues and their 16 home runs were tied for 19th.

'They strike out too much, they are hitting too many ground balls and I think the main culprit (of their offensive problems) is they are horrible in situational hitting,' one scout said."

I'm not sure this is fixable.

I think it's possible that the Baby Bombers may have fraudulently pumped up their numbers vs. Baltimore over the past few years.

Good pitchers now have to book on these guys and, while everyone in the ballpark knows that Gleyber is getting set up for an off-the-plate off-speed pitch, he gets fooled by it anyway.

 

The prototypical players who strike out a lot ... Giambi, Dunn, Jack Clark, etc. ... they usually had power and patience. A lot of strikeouts, a lot of home runs, a lot of walks. Makes sense if you think about it.

This is the situation with the current roster:

• Frazier: 14 Ks, 4 walks.
• Stanton: 18 ks, 4 walks.
• Judge: 15 ks, 5 walks.
• Hicks: 14 ks, 4 walks.
• Even Urshela: 13 ks, 3 walks.

Small sample size? Perhaps.

Also could be a sign of a broken approach.

 

We know how this will end because we have seen this before.

Yankees bullpen gives up the lead in the top of the ninth, Bruce wins it with opposite field hit in the bottom of the ninth, endless camera shots of his parents celebrating in the stands, fans go crazy and get ready for the next phase: Monument Park and Cooperstown.

Defend Aaron Boone while you're at it.

"One of the best early-season lines about the Yankees belongs to Yogi, just because so many of them do. It was April of 1998, and the Yankees were coming off losing a heartbreaking division series to Cleveland the year before, when Joe Torre’s Yankees couldn’t defend the title they’d won in 1996. Mariano Rivera couldn’t close out Game 4 and then they lost Game 5 and went home.

Now they started ’98 by losing their first three games. I was with Yogi at a television taping, and asked if he had any advice for his friend Torre.

'Yeah,' Yogi said. 'Tell him to win some games.'"

I've bailed out of this article after one paragraph..

1998 Yankees.

1986 Mets.

Willie, Mickey, and the Duke.

Darryl, Dwight, and Mookie.

Alex Rodriguez broke up with Jennifer Lopez.

I get the gist of it, and of course it is true. 

A bad team is worse when judged against high expectations. The entertainment value and narrative of the Baby Bombers is dreadful. The gutlessness this team displays is undeniable and not an illusion.

I also already know Lupica won't show any guts. "This might happen, that might happen, the Yankees have time to turn it around."

Right.

Things will happen and even more things might happen.

If they Yankees win the AL East, Lupica told ya so. If they don't, Lupica told ya so.

The fans angrily calling WFAN show more guts when they prematurely claim the season is over. 

At least they take a stand.

Oh, and the manager undoubtedly avoids all criticism.

Why?

Just because it's Lupica Land and he decided that Boone is a good manager.

Maybe he also needs access, but that doesn't seem likely in the modern era.

Is Mike Lupica really attending postgame Zoom calls?

"He was obviously very upset, and rightfully so."

I'm a bit impressed that Boone did this before another inevitable loss to Tampa. The rule is to chew out your team the day before they face a last-place team.

Boone's team is full of gutless under-performers, who are therefore difficult to root for.

This isn't because of a 5-8 start. This is a continuation of last season. An inability to win big games, endless strikeouts, no hitting with RISP, bad fielding, bad baserunning, a dying dream for the Baby Bombers.

Four games out and in last place for a team that was hyped as the Dodgers of the East.

Fans are back!

Tip of the cap to Terry Francona

I also liked this bit:

"I can promise you we will never make a lineup out from somebody's tweet the night before."

An assortment of Mike Lupica puns to follow.

You called him out, then you changed your mind.

"After the game, Kulpa, in the pool report, acknowledged he made the wrong call, saying, 'that guy was hit by the pitch in the strike zone. I should have called him out.'"

Baby Bomber Update

Bird - Long gone.

Judge - Injured again.

Sanchez - Didn't hustle.

Gleyber - Made another bad error.

Severino - Injured.

Don't call him Frankie.

Do not read this article by Mike Lupica.

I thought numerology, bad puns, and stupid pop culture references were the lowest of the low. Now Lupica is comparing ballplayers based on biological data:

"He is nine inches taller than the late, great Joe Morgan. He is nearly a foot taller than Jose Altuve. Rogers Hornsby was 5-foot-11. Robinson Canó, whom we thought was on his way to the Hall of Fame once, is 6 feet. Bill Mazeroski was 5-foot-11, and Nellie Fox was 5-foot-10. Jackie Robinson was 5-foot-11. Robbie Alomar was 6 feet. Jeff Kent was 6-foot-1. I am probably excluding other star second basemen. But you get the idea."

You have lost your mind.

Matt Harvey still has a grip on NY media.

Only player less intimidating is Tim Tebow.

It's Mr. Lindor to you.

"If I I’m Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson, I don’t let a new contract for Frankie Lindor become a thing."

Aside from the abominable construction of that sentence ... think about how that reads ... I don't think anyone calls him Frankie. Maybe they do and I'm unaware of this. I have never heard it anywhere else.

Also, well ... let's just say you're hyping the guy because he signed with the Mets.

You're spending someone else's money. 

Is Lindor worth, way, $400 million?

When Mike Lupica talks about Aaron Judge, he's really talking about Pete Alonso and Alex Rodriguez:

"We all know what Judge can do when he can stay on the field. He hit 52 home runs and set the all-time rookie record for home runs that Pete Alonso would break two seasons later. To put that in some perspective, you know how many other hitters in Yankee history not associated with performance-enhancing drugs — we’re talking about you, Mr. On-Again with Jennifer Lopez — have hit as many as 50 homers in a season?"

Yes. I do know.

 "Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris."

Easy Yankee Trivia for $200, Alex.

"We do keep hearing chatter about Aaron Boone, because that comes with the territory. We are talking here about the Yankee manager who became the first in the history of the team to win 100 or more games in his first two seasons. Now we hear about how much money is being spent on the players he manages, as if that is some sort of marker on the job he is doing. Really? The Yankees have probably spent around four billion dollars on baseball players since the ’01 World Series and have played in two since then and won one."

I'm not hearing many complaints about Aaron Boone. I have some of my own. 

"And if you think it was Boone’s decision to pull Deivi Garcia after one inning of Game 2 against the Rays, you also believe that Alex and Jennifer are going to make it to the altar someday."

Alex Rodriguez joined the Yankees in 2004. Seventeen years of this.

"Maybe this is the season when they are healthy together all season long and dangerous together all season long. Here is another thing to know about Judge and Stanton: Before them, there was only one time when the Yankees ever had two players on the same team with 50-homer seasons on their resumes, because the same year that Judge hit 52 in New York Stanton hit 59 in Miami."

Andruw Jones and Alex Rodriguez were Yankee teammates. 

"Stanton came here from somewhere else. Yankee fans look at Aaron Judge as their own. Not so long after Jeter left the stage, he came along to turn all of 2017 into a Home Run Derby. The next two years after that he combined to hit 54. Still plenty of time for him to punch his ticket to Monument Park. Not sitting next to the Aaron who manages the team."

Aaron Judge has the same first name as Aaron Boone.

Get it?

As we learn firsthand various economic theories.

Supply and demand, conspicuous consumption, sunk costs ... in other words, it's a step in the right direction, but it's going to be too expensive for normal people.

The word hype is a derivation of the word hyperbole.

Am I the only person not bothered by Frazier's attitude?

A seemingly bad concussion derailed his ascent ... and he probably strikes out a bit too much ... actually, he strikes out way too much ... but his status as a starter in Major League Baseball is way overdue:

"Reflecting recently on his journey, Frazier said he wasn’t ashamed of what he said or did in the past because they were relatively trivial and those moments shaped him. He said he felt that he had grown up — also with help from people like his girlfriend or the Yankees outfield coach Reggie Willits — and that he was truly part of the team.

Although Frazier said he toned down his personality because he grew tired of being the topic of conversation for reasons unrelated to his performance, he said he still kept some flair. 'A little bit more of a mild version rather than like a Tabasco hot sauce,' he said."

What did Frazier do that was so bad?

I don't think Duke Snider belonged in the conversation with Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle in Terry Cashman's iconic song from forty years ago.

"In the 50s in New York baseball, of course, the debate was about center fielders. It was about Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider, “Willie, Mickey and The Duke” in Terry Cashman’s iconic song,  'Talkin' Baseball'"

You sound like every Sunday morning WFAN caller

 "And by the way? If you don’t think Duke Snider belonged that in that particular conversation, go look at his stats, and see that he was the one who was the home run king of the city in that time, and by a fair amount, averaging 41 homers a year between 1953-57."

I stand corrected. 

"Now, all this time later, we have a different kind of debate, built around two pretty remarkable starting pitchers -- Jacob deGrom and Gerrit Cole -- one that makes you ask this question:

Who’s the ace of New York?"

I think deGrom gets the benefit of the doubt. 

I also don't think anybody cares.

"It happens to be the kind of conversation we haven’t had a lot with the Yankees and the Mets over the years. When Tom Seaver was at his most brilliant, the Yankees didn't have a comparable ace. When Ron Guidry was 25-3 for the Yankees in 1978, it was after Seaver had been traded to the Reds. But it is worth noting that when Dwight Gooden was 24-4 seven years later, the 34-year old Guidry was still around, and still had enough arm and stuff to go 22-6 that year."

 

Dwight Gooden mentioned in a Mike Lupica column. Huh.

 

A prominent pairing I can easily think of is Mattingly/Hernandez. 

 

Jeter vs. Reyes (and even Ordonez, believe it or not), though Jeter easily won the war.

 

I actually think an interesting present-day comparison, for those interested in that kind of thing, is first base. Voit led the league in HRs, though no one seems to care. 

 

If you compare their overall statistics ... meh ... does anyone do this anymore?

I didn't read the rest of the article, but I expect Cole to have a great year. Maybe win the Cy Young. Still, deGrom gets the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

 

 

Yankees are worried about the guy coming off a season with a WAR of -0.1 and an ERA or 5.89.

"'We are excited about O’Day and we’re excited about Justin Wilson. And we’re excited about obviously having Gardy returned as well and we’re hoping those players can help Aaron Boone and our staff hit that win column a lot,' Cashman said.

But he knows that having to potentially face Ottavino with the Yankees’ predominantly right-handed lineup, there is going to be a game where the pitcher he traded will hurt them."

So pinch hit a lefty and guess what?

Career OPS of .792.

You just made Mike Ford an all star.

 

I am quite confident Aaron Hicks will get 500 at-bats. Who's with me?

You lost me at Rotary Club.

It's time to burn it down all the old ways and start over.

Things nobody said.

"Wait a second, Yankee fans, if your team doesn’t make it to the Canyon of Heroes this season, it’s Aaron Boone’s fault?

Got it."

Not sure anyone is saying this. 

However, Boone has not done a particularly good job during his tenure. Please don't forget the main reason he was chosen over Girardi ... because Boone supposedly could communicate better with the young superstars.

How did that work out with, say, Gary Sanchez and his negative WAR?

 

"I’m still loving the idea of yoga turning everything around for Aaron Judge.

Because, let’s face it, if there’s a way to pull an oblique doing Downward Dog, No. 99 is going to find it."

Classy.

Again, no one is saying this. "Turn everything around." Never get injured again.

But it also sounds like a good idea to work on flexibility instead of size.

It sounds like a bad idea to act like nothing is wrong.

 

 

 

The three-batter rule ruined his career.

He's only good against righties. The splits bear this out.

I find it hilarious that the author remembered this tidbit about Babe Ruth:

"The Yankees had signed the Brooklyn native, who had boasted he’d strike out Babe Ruth every single time, to a three-year, $27 million contract in an effort to bolster their bullpen."

Lupica remembered to send a Valentine on Valentine's Day.

The headline should not say "no competition," because, even if deGrom is the best of the best, there are many pitchers in the discussion:

"First Matt Harvey, the Dark Knight of Gotham City, was supposed to be the great star of that rotation. Then along came Noah Syndergaard, with all that hair and another comic book nickname -- Thor."

I say something is "supposed to" happen.

When it doesn't happen, a normal person says "I was wrong," rather than "it was supposed to happen."

 

Also, as I've mentioned before, the only reason deGrom was largely ignored by the press, is because the press elevated Harvey and Syndergaard (among others) ahead of deGrom.

Why?

I don't have any idea why.

You tell us, Lupica.

Cool nicknames? 

Which you now mock?

 

"Dwight Gooden, of course, was spectacular when he was a kid, especially in 1985, when he finished 24-4 at the age of 20 and had a Bob Gibson-like ERA of 1.53."

No way. Dwight Gooden and Bob Gibson in the same sentence?

Do you know how long ago 1985 was?

Stop and think about how long ago 1985 really was.

I was on the phone with Sid Fernandez and Mike Scott; I was golfing with Mookie Wilson and Rick Honeycutt; I was spritzing in a sauna with Juan Beniquez and Teddy Higuera ...

Where was I? Oh yeah: Jacob deGrom is great. Which you already knew.

Current Champions and favorites to win World Series are ...

 ... in a position to win.

"Early Friday afternoon, before Trevor Bauer announced he would sign with the Dodgers, I texted manager Dave Roberts to take his temperature on what he thought might happen with Bauer."

Oh.

Hey, that's cool, man.

That's really cool.

You have the cell phone number of the manager of the Dodgers.

I was wondering what the purpose of this article could possibly be, and now I know. It's just a name drop.

There is no "title" of America's Biggest Sports Star.

On to baseball:

"If Noah Syndergaard is healthy by the summer, the Mets still might have a better team than the Yankees this season."

I don't think the Mets will win more games than the Yankees this season ... if that's what you mean by "better team."

Who cares, anyway?

I know how this works.

All the Mets get healthy and play well. All the Yankees stay injured. Mets win back the Big City. Mookie Wilson.

 

"It doesn’t change the fact that Trevor Bauer, in the end, wanted Los Angeles and the Dodgers more than he wanted the Mets and the big, bad city."

"If I’m the Yankees, I don’t extend Aaron Judge until he shows me he can stay on the field for about 150 games one of these years.

I’m starting to get the idea that only Stephen Hawking was more of a genius than Eric Cressey, the Yankees’ director of player health and performance."

Hmmm ... it will take a while to unpack that logic.

If Noah Syndergaard gets healthy and the Mets are better than the Yankees, then Trevor Bauer wouldn't want to go play for the current World Champion Dodgers?

It reminds me of the recent golf game I played with Noah Syndergaard Mookie Wilson Doc Gooden Madison Bumgarner Tony Lasorda.

 

"Incidentally? Give him and his agent all the credit in the world.

They played their hand about as well as it could be played.

They win and the Dodgers win.

 And baseball wins.

Because the Dodgers now officially become the Big Team, in all ways, that the sport hasn’t had since Torre’s Yankees."

For real?

From reading your columns, I would have sworn it was the Collins-era Mets.

 

"If I’m the Yankees, I don’t extend Aaron Judge until he shows me he can stay on the field for about 150 games one of these years.

I’m starting to get the idea that only Stephen Hawking was more of a genius than Eric Cressey, the Yankees’ director of player health and performance."

a) Thank the Lord you're not the Yankees.

b) We get it. Yankees injured, Mets healthy.

Maybe Cressey can get to work on Syndergaard ... so the Mets will be better than the Yankees ... and you can get an interview with Mookie Wilson.

Injured Stanton and Judge, along with a healthy Syndergaard, and the Yankees will still clear the Mets by ten games.

Yankees starting pitching ranked #4 by this guy, which I suspect is higher than most rankings.

His Top Sox list does not even include Severino. 

The Yankees may have the best starting pitcher in the league.

I am pretty sure they have the most starting pitching depth.

Unintended consequences, huh?

Opportunity cost is certainly a thing, and all contracts involve risk.

I'm just tired of 120 years of shock and outrage over player salaries:

"The first winner is Bauer, who turned brash self-promotion and two strong seasons into the two highest annual salaries in MLB history. This deal is the validation that baseball’s Mark Zuckerberg has craved all along. It’s a giant middle finger in the faces of all those who questioned his methods, the perfect mic drop for all those who dared to doubt him.

The second is the Padres, the pesky title-less franchise two hours down the coast (without traffic, anyway). Their brilliant moves this offseason baited the rational Dodgers, three months after winning the World Series, into overspending for a starting pitcher they don’t need. Even if the Dodgers are still the better team this season, such a deal could prove restrictive for them and give San Diego the advantage moving forward."

Sure.

Lots of things could happen.

I could use the same logic and say the real winner is the Colorado Rockies because both the Dodgers and the Padres overspent in the offseason.

Even though the Rockies lost Arenado, they got a lot of minor league players in return, and they probably also have a lot of the ever-so-popular "draft capital."

 

"None of this comes as a surprise to the Dodgers. Their willingness to tolerate Bauer will depend on how well he pitches and whether they win, neither of which are guaranteed."

I personally guarantee the Dodgers win the World Series the next ... let's say ... five seasons in a row.

 

"The Dodgers are making a lucrative investment in an iconoclastic 30-year-old with an inconsistent résumé. He better be worth it."

Or what?

They give someone else a lucrative contract and continue to win a lot of baseball games?

 

A baseball writer who still thinks a five-man rotation is a thing.

"There is a possibility that four-fifths of the Yankees starting rotation this year might be Corey Kluber, Luis Severino, Jameson Taillon and Domingo German.

Those four guys combined to pitch a grand total of one inning last season."

We presume Cole is the #1 starter.

Kluber, Severino, Taillon, and German are competing with Montgomery and Garcia for the other four spots ... maybe even Schmidt ... or maybe the Yankees go with a six-man rotation ... or maybe they prefer to start Green and Cessa like they've done in the past ... or maybe injuries and the coronavirus wreak havoc and they don't even have a starting rotation.

But, yeah.

If the Yankees could settle on a five-man rotation of Cole, Kluber, Severino, Taillon, and German ... it means talented players are healthy and they are pitching well.

If these players weren't pitching well, then they wouldn't be in the starting rotation.

Thanks, Mike Lupica! You've made me very optimistic with your assessment of the Yankees' pitching depth.

You're not helping, Bob.

Self-indulgent, quasi-poetic nonsense.

Hawkins is known in NY for briefly "stealing" Paul O'Neill's uniform number.

Except not even that, because that's mostly forgotten:

"My line of demarcation is clear:

If you were suspended for steroid use after 2005, once MLB actually implemented a rule it was going to enforce, you don’t get my vote. You got suspended and you damaged your team’s chances of winning."

Hey, everybody!

Bob Nightengale has a line of demarcation with regards to HOF voting!

LaTroy Hawkins has somehow ended up on the right side of that line, but it's hard to pay attention to any of it.

Schilling is a borderline candidate.

I think this is an accurate take. I think Schilling's personality and outrageous tweets are keeping him out of the HOF.

But Schlling is hardly a shoo-in.

He's Kevin Brown with memorable playoff performances. 

On the other hand, why isn't Orel Hershiser in if we care so much about memorable playoff performances?

 

I'll put this another way.

I tend to agree that Schilling had a better career than Brown and crossed a HOF threshold that Brown didn't cross. This is mostly based on Schilling's superior performance in playoff games. Small but important sample size.

So it's not that Schilling will make the HOF and Brown won't.

It's that Schilling gets to be outraged at receiving only 74% of the vote ... while Brown received 2% of the vote.

The sock game was worth 72 HOF percentage points?

Heck, clear the way for Hideki Matsui and David Freese.

 

Ultimately, it's hard to fit any HOF voting patterns into a narrative, because the votes are all over the place.

This is what happens when you let Jack Morris in; when you let Harold Baines in.

David Cone, Ron Guidry, Dale Murphy, Fred McGriff, Al Oliver, Jeff Kent, Lou Whitaker, and dozens of others are pounding on the windows and screaming that they have never even used twitter.

 

The Baseball Hall of Fame is a nice place to visit.

“Never have I been more uncomfortable voting for the Hall of Fame,” Rosenthal tweeted on Jan. 5, adding: “Right now I’m considering everything, including whether I still want to continue voting for the Hall of Fame.”

I think a lot of people feel the same way.

Just about the way the voters act, the inconsistencies, etc.

It's probably still the best HOF, but it has lost its luster.

Hank Aaron seemed literally immortal.

 Widely acknowledged as one of the best players ever, and may still be somehow underrated.

Skeletons in the closet.

Gary Sanchez seems depressed.

Sanchez is 28 as he enters 2021. By the time Rodriguez was 28 he had won eight Gold Gloves and an American League MVP Award. Rodriguez likes Sanchez and believes in his ability to bounce back.

“He’s a good kid,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a really good kid. He listens, he likes to be better. He wanted to be better. He wanted to come back and be the Gary Sanchez that a lot of people know, the player that he can be. But the first thing that he needs is to take that pressure part of the game away…and then let his ability take over.”

Optimistic, but I hope so.

"Ever."

Why would a national audience be interested in this recycled story about the Battle for New York?:

"It has been awhile since Cohen’s team has felt as if it were in the same league with the Yankees, even if the Mets have been to a World Series more recently than the Yanks have."

Facts don't matter.

Feelings matter.

 "Suddenly it feels as if Mets vs. Yankees is a fair fight again, as they get set to battle for the mythical city championship."

Ha ha ha. 

That really cracked me up.

It's mythical, alright. Indeed, it is.

If it's so "sudden," why do I read the same column every April?

"Mets fans feel the same way. There have been few times since the Yankees became the Yankees again under Joe Torre, in the mid-1990s, when the Mets have felt like anything other than the 'Other Team' in New York. They did make the 2015 Series, and they were a pitch away from the Series in ’06, when Carlos Beltrán took a called third strike to end Game 7 of the NLCS against the Cardinals, after the Yankees had lost an AL Division Series to the Tigers."

So ... it's not "never" that the Mets were in the same league as the Yankees. I didn't think so.

"But the last time the Mets owned New York in baseball, truly, was all the way back in 1986, when they were as big for that one season as any Yankee team had ever been."

Waaaaay back.

Imagine bringing it up in practically every column.

 

The acquisition of Lindor is great for the Mets. I see no down side.

But when Mike Lupica is talking about the Mets, you can expect him to be ... optimistic.

 

Is Lindor as good as Mookie Betts? No.

Is Lindor instantly the best player in New York? Well, no.

Better than deGrom? 

Better than Cole? 

Better than LeMahieu (free agency asterisk attached)? 

Better than a resurgent Gleyber (crossing fingers on that one)?

Better than Judge (if Judge stays healthy, of course)?

Lindor might be the best player on the Mets; the best player in New York; the best player in the National League.

His WAR last year was 1.1. Half an Urshela.

He hit 8 home runs in 236 at-bats. 29.5 AB/HR. A real Tyler Wade.

He had 6 stolen bases. As many as Mike Tauchman.

 

Lots of good players had bad years in 2020. It was a weird year. I totally expect Lindor to get back to relative greatness.

But if I was to use last year as a guide, Lindor was merely mediocre.

 

As for Lupica's prognosis ... best all-around Met ever? ... I'll bet the Fanboy "Frankie" stuff was similarly applied to Jason Bay and Jeromy Burnitz.

I also guess Lupica's just ignoring pitchers for some reason?

Can he do that?

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.