Most would agree that Alex Verdugo is not a premium player.

That's why he isn't paid as if he were a premium player.

Net Present Value.

Literally, you can't even put an accurate value on Ohtani's contract.

We know it's a lot either way. Ohtani won't starve on $2 million per year.

It's just not a $700 million contract. Because a 2023 USD is worth a lot more than a 2043 (!) USD.

Name a player who played for the Chicago Bulls.

You thought of Michael Jordan. He hasn't played an NBA game in twenty years. The Bulls are still cashing in.

Celtics? Larry Bird.

Lakers? Magic Johnson.

LA Dodgers? Probably Jackie Robinson first. Koufax; Drysdale; Gibson with the home run; a few others come to mind.

Why is Ohtani worth $700 million? It's branding.

Ohtani is worth $700 million because the Dodgers expect to cash in on an international level until the end of time.

"I'd rather have two $35 million players than one $70 million players." As if this is about runs batted in, OPS, wins and losses. 

Of course it will help if he wins some rings, hits some iconic home runs, plays great baseball, etc. The expectations are that he will accomplish these things. Even more important is his ability to increase the value of the Dodgers franchise over time. The expectation is that he will accomplish this for a lot longer than ten years.

 

Fox signed Tom Brady to a $375 million contract to be an NFL analyst. Who knows if he will be a charismatic on-air analyst? Fox just wants to associate themselves with Brady. That is worth $375 million to them.

Perhaps the Dodgers were bidding against themselves and didn't have to go that high? It's fine. They've got the long game in mind.

This does not guarantee that the Dodgers will win a World Series title and it negatively affects their draft capital.

Also, the Dodgers still need pitching depth.

Just repeating some of the standard objections.

Juan Soto is such a drag.

"Short of watching every inning of all 162 games, it’s foolish to assign specific blame to an aggravating 82-80 season. Surely there might have been times Soto lost sight of a bigger picture for individual gain, but that could be said of any player, in any year and besides, by year’s end, his numbers spoke loudly.

Yet somehow, the formula was off."

The 2023 Yankees were also a disappointing 82-80 last season.

Maybe it was because Michael King and Kyle Higashioka lost sight of a bigger picture for individual gain.

Ever think of that?

Soto already has a ring. Soto batted about 1.000 in the World Series if you give credence to small sample sizes. Soto batted .299 with RISP last season and .304 with two outs and RISP.

Anthony Rizzo had one hit with two outs and RISP last season. Anthony Rizzo: The #3 hitter that you forgot was even on the roster when you heard the Yankees signed Soto.

This is just a typical lazy analysis.

"Since the acquisition of Soto doesn't guarantee a World Series title, the acquisition of Soto is a risk."

It's true!

"Wednesday, the Yankees threw Soto at the problem. A Yamamoto signing would give them a half-dozen players making at least $27 million. It is not quite a superteam, but that is the approach they are taking. To which the Padres say, good luck. They will try a different approach, and they don’t seem too broken up about it."

Good luck to the Padres as well.

The Padres, whose unerring approach has resulted in precisely zero World Series titles.

If the Yankees get Soto ...

 ... where is Verdugo going to get ABs?

Do you want a link to a statement by the Yankees on the passing of Henry Kissinger?

 If so, here is a link to a statement by the Yankees on the passing of Henry Kissinger.

Baseball salaries.

$13 million for one of the worst players in baseball. 

I can't say Passan is wrong, exactly: "... the free agent market has set the price of veteran starting pitchers at $10 million-plus a year -- and Severino's past success bought him slightly more ..." 

... but I'd take a 30% raise, and I wouldn't consider it "slightly more"; and

... where is the demand for Luis Severino that would command a premium, however slight?

Funny way to put it.

“When I was with the Orioles, you were intimidated to play them,” Britton told Ghroli. “They had so much talent. The way they carried themselves, you didn’t want to go to New York because they were so imposing, and I feel like we lost a little of that when I was there."

The Yankees were less imposing once they signed me.

Britton isn't incorrect. It's an obvious observation. He also isn't the proper messenger.

Volpe gets one third-place ROTY vote.

Also got a gold glove. The defensive metrics seem to back it up. I didn't really notice anything extraordinary defensively. I also don't keep track of the shortstops throughout the AL, so what do I know?

Not all Perfect Games acquire Baseball Immortality.

An unlikable player, late night when no one was watching, in a forgettable season vs. Oakland.

I want him.

A lot of the big salary teams missed the playoffs this year.

"The failure to install a salary cap system, though, has assured football at all levels continues to rule over the sport that once called itself the national pastime."

The NFL passed MLB a long time ago.

I don't even understand the purpose of making the comparison.

A salary cap will not allow MLB to catch the NFL. Nothing will.

 

"As MLB displays its version of the final four – the National League Championship Series and American League Championship Series – the teams still alive again represent exclusively plus-sized markets."

I thought the Final Four were Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.

 

"Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia and Phoenix are the cities still alive in the baseball postseason, and it should surprise no one they all represent top-10 metropolitan areas. Because that is how it has been in baseball under the current regime, where small-market clubs content themselves with making money while hoping to get lucky and big-market teams embrace how it all tilts in their favor."

Six teams in the top three markets were shut out.

 

"The fan base of every team in the NFL perceives itself to have an opportunity because the results show they do, so long as their team’s management takes appropriate advantage. And the success of the smaller-market teams has not merely been the product of failing and then drafting an elite quarterback with the first or second pick in the draft. Kansas City got Patrick Mahomes by trading up from the 27^th overall pick to select him at No. 10. Green Bay was sharp enough to select Aaron Rodgers after 23 other players were chosen in 2005. The Bills got Josh Allen with the seventh pick in 2018."

The Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015.

The Oakland A's had a movie made about them.

The Detroit Lions may perceive they have a chance to win the Super Bowl every year, but that perception has always been wrong.

 

I mean, if you don't like baseball, then you don't like baseball.

Most people in American prefer football.

The deciding factor is not really the percentage of Final Four participants outside the top 20 markets.

I also can't believe this is still being discussed. I suppose some things never change.

 

 

Mr. 4 2/3 Innings had a better playoff game than I expected ... and a better year than I expected.

This whole exercise is always stupid and always used as a way to ridicule the Yankees.

Players move around all the time.

Sonny Gray, Aaron Hicks, Joey Gallo, Josh Donaldson, and many other ex-Yankees are in the playoffs.

Oh, and Nathan Eovaldi.

Who has also previously played for the Red Sox, the Rays, the Marlins, and the Dodgers.

Who cares?

Tell me that Jordan Montgomery would have somehow saved the Yankees vs. the Astros in last year's ALCS, then I would concede it was a horrible trade.

Bader had a 1.271 OPS in that series. The Yankees were still swept, so it was good for nothing.

The Cardinals missed the playoffs in 2023, traded Bader for Montgomery in 2022, and then dumped Montgomery for nothing.

No one in St. Louis is giving it a second thought.

That went south quick.

I don't subscribe to the Daily News and I don't have a twitter account, but it would be interesting to see if Lupica ate some humble pie on this one.

Very nice.

"After handing the ball over to Boone, Rodón brushed shoulders with the skipper, trudging off the mound. He was bombarded with boos from Yankees fans in the crowd at Kauffman Stadium as he walked slowly back to the dugout with his head down."

Volpe has a 3.2 WAR and his batting average is .207.

Last year, IKF had a 3.0 WAR and Yankee fans wanted him off the team.

Happy for Cole and an appropriate way to finish his Cy Young season.

My personal observation is that the pitch clock helped Cole because he didn't have a chance for his typical mental meltdowns.

He also seemed to pitch even better after the pressure was off.

But this is nitpicking for a well-deserved Cy Young season.

At least Dominguez can say he's a real Yankee now.

At this point, I think Aaron Boone just might speak a different language than the standard English we are used to hearing.

"Burnes was excellent," New York manager Aaron Boone said. "He maybe made a couple of mistakes where I thought we got some pitches to do some things with, but for the most part he was living on the edges."

If you read this quote without any knowledge of what happened, you'd think Burnes allowed four or five runs in six innings.

He threw a no-hitter for eight innings.

Boone is just lost in some sort of press conference corporate lingo.

I think I am the only Yankee fan who likes Harrison Bader.

So maybe they mean "fan" favorite quite literally.

Damn.

Where's the lie?:

"Count Rays' second baseman Brandon Lowe among those not buying the Yankee pitchers' explanations.

'Looking at it, it’s a last-place team against a team that’s in contention,' Lowe said. 'They’re just trying to ignite something over there. Whatever. Not worth our time at this moment. We’re focused on bigger things right now than worrying about a little on-field scuffle.

We need each game. They're not really in each game.'

He added: 'We need to focus up on what we need to do down the stretch. But if they lose a guy, it's not going to be quite as big of a deal as when we lose one of our guys.' "

The Rays have been embarrassing the Yankees for a while.

NYY hope for 2024.

The path to success is basically staying healthy, of course. I just think the starting rotation could be quite good if Cortes, Montas, and Rodon get healthy and perform up to expectations.

I was ready to give up on LeMahieu, but he may still have something left in the tank.

I don't know what's up with all the strikeouts this year, but he has been productive in the second half of the season, commensurate with less strikeouts.

This optimism also could be small-sample-size wishful thinking.

Nostalgia is a distortion.

Agreeing completely with C-Mac.

Jeter was a bad owner/GM for the Marlins.

Mattingly has never won a World Series as a player, manager, or coach. I don't think he has. But he was the answer for one of my cells in today's Immaculate Grid.

This has been a bad and disappointing season for the Yankees. Not the "worst" season of your lifetime, really, unless you're seven years old. 

It's accurate and appropriate, albeit tedious, to rhapsodize about the Jeter era.

It's also easy to forget about the Jayson Nix era and the Mike Gallego era. "Those teams never gave up and they had character!"

Sure. 

Mel Hall and Lenn Sakata were both highly regarded for their leadership skills and never-say-die attitude that permeated the clubhouse and inspired Joel Skinner to hit a home run every couple of months.

The fans want to start over. The fans want acknowledgement that something is very wrong. But I see no reason to think that the Old Timer's Day crew and a bunch of prospects is the best way out.

Play the kids!

Easy enough to dig up this gem from the past; ARod comparing Greg Bird to Don Mattingly; etc.

Yankee pitchers should practice fielding. I still haven't gotten over Mariano's throw into center field in 2001.

A google of "Clay Holmes fielding error" shouldn't have multiple entries for 2023.

Also, please drop this goofy idea that it's "instinct" to not get out of the way of a ground ball and let your second baseman field the ball for an easy double play. It's a matter of training. It's a matter of practice.

28 LOB in two games?

The buzz is that the "hit strikes hard" approach wasn't working and the Yankees are now getting back to the "work the count" approach. Wear out the pitchers, get more walks, stop swinging for the fences, stop worrying about launch angles.

Small sample sizes don't reveal too much, but the Astros beat the Yankees with nine runs on six hits. Launch angles worked for them.

Sure, the Yankees walked 20 times in two games, but then they can't hit with RISP ... and they can't hit sac flies with RISP, either.

Judge can't save this team and neither can Sean Casey.

The part that bugs me, frankly, is that every player should be 100% responsible for each of his at-bats. These entire team seems to be engaged in an alarming amount of blame-shifting.

Don't blame the umpire or the hitting coach or "analytics." 

If you don't know how to play baseball in the majors ... if you can't make adjustments after the league has adjusted to you ... then you're simply not an effective professional baseball player.

I knew it.

It may even be a plausible reason for his descent.

But if you get a debilitating concussion on May 28, then go on the IL on May 29.

The players have to play better.

"Despite having baseball’s second-highest payroll, the Yankees entered the season without upgrading their offense and with holes in left field and at third base. Those glaring deficiencies would have ultimately hurt this team even if the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu were playing to their standards.

And it’s not like the injuries are a surprise.

The Yankees are extremely reliant on players who are known to get hurt, in addition to ones who have shown signs of decline. The depth required to survive their absences has been inadequate, with the club often turning to career fringe major leaguers and playing people at less than comfortable positions."

Cashman is ultimately responsible for putting good players on the field. He naturally shoulders a lot of the blame for a bad season.

But the problem isn't depth.

Forgotten Jake Bauers is the second-best hitter on the team.

Forgotten Clarke Schmidt has as man wins as Severino and German combined.

The bullpen is really good.

Most people doubted Hicks and Donaldson before the season started. The doubters were proven correct. The Yankees can absorb two failures ... they can't absorb seven.

I will list the remaining problem players in order, which is not a strenuous task at all:

• German
  
• Stanton
• LeMahieu
• Severino, the worst pitcher in baseball.
• Rizzo, the worst position player in baseball.

The biggest problem is not the bottom of the lineup or the outfield depth. The bigger problem is the veterans who are being paid a lot of money batting right in the middle of the lineup.

Like, I see no circumstance where the Yankees would be in last place if, in fact, LeMahieu, Stanton, and Rizzo were playing up to their standards.

Using baseball-reference's WAR: Stanton is 0.1; LeMahieu is 0.2; Rizzo is 0.6.

Rizzo's elevated 0.6 is extremely top-heavy; all April and May. Didn't exactly step it up when Judge got injured. Also, Rizzo's WAR might be elevated if he is given credit for knowing precisely when to visit the mound to calm down the pitcher.

 

Seven runs, thirteen hits, a steal of home.

1. Keep Rizzo on the bench.
2. There seems to be an unusually high number of steals of home this year in MLB. I couldn't find the stats to verify this. First thought is that the pitch clock has something to do with it.

Where were you?

When Rizzo got his first hit with two outs and RISP?

No RBI, but it still counts.

1-for-31; and 1 for his last 1.

Outside of the 18 strikeouts, the Yankees had good at-bats

Get it?

I jest. 

Ba dum bum.

Also, the Yankees manager said the same thing:

“We’re behind the eight ball early, and that makes it tough,” Boone said. “Outside of the strikeouts, I thought the at-bats were building off of last night. I thought we grinded it out really well. We made it really tough on Kremer; we couldn’t finish it off.”

Judge walks three times, Rizzo makes the Orioles pay.

Just kidding.

Rizzo is now 0-for-29 with two outs and RISP for the season.

But he did get a single. His first hit since his breakout 4-for-4 game vs. the juggernaut Royals.

Prior to that game vs. the Royals, Rizzo felt different. Then, he hit his first home run in two months and this lifted a weight from his shoulders.

Since then, Happy Anthony has one hit in 13 at-bats.

If you count GIDPs as two outs, it's minus-one hits in 13 at-bats. That really ought to be a thing ... counting GIDPs as minus-one for one.

Rizzo batting cleanup this afternoon.

Not defending Boone. I always liked Girardi.

This isn't a big mystery.

Four players got old quick.

Donaldson wasn't a shock and he was a bad signing. Stanton has always been a one-trick pony, and now he's more like a pinch-hitter than an MVP candidate. The sudden declines of LeMahieu and Rizzo are devastating and shocking.

I like how Peraza goes in to pinch run for Rizzo and gets an RBI hit with two outs and RISP. For the season, Peraza is 1-for-4 with two outs and RISP.

For the season, Rizzo is 0-for-26 with two outs and RISP.

Halfway through July.

Rizzo's July is worse than his June.

He hasn't homered in two months.

He is 0-for-25 with two outs and RISP this season.

He apparently hurt himself a bit a couple of months ago ... strained his neck or whatever.

Without researching the situation with any rigor, I think he might be the worst starting first baseman in the major leagues. His WAR for the year is 1.1.

(I was wrong, by the way. I researched the worst teams in MLB and quickly found Nick Pratto of the Royals with his WAR of -0.3.)

So Rizzo is not the 30th-worst. He's the 29th-worst. Yeah, yeah, and some teams may have platoons, so ... whatever.

Rizzo is garbage this year, he has been garbage since Judge went on the IL, and if Rizzo dare to use an injury as an excuse for this performance, it will be an unforgivable sin in Baseball According to Felz. 

If you're injured, go on the Injured List.

This nugget dropped at the end of an article about the new hitting coach:

"The Yankees headed into the break with Giancarlo Stanton hitting .203 and Anthony Rizzo hitting .168 with no homers and seven RBIs since hurting his neck in a collision May 28. Josh Donaldson is batting .152, while DJ LeMahieu is hitting .220 after slumping last September because of a toe injury and then missing the playoffs."

I don't wan to hear about the Rizzo's injury or LeMahieu's injury.

Just hear me out ...

I think it's true that perhaps Ohtani's June 2023 was the most remarkable month in MLB history. 

But I'd also like to make a case for New York's own Anthony Rizzo, whose June 2023 flew a bit under the radar, but was also quite remarkable:

AB: 75

R: 9

H: 13

RBI: 5

2B: 4

3B: 0

HR: 0

BA: .173

OB%: .311

SLG%: .227

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.

Let's not get carried away because he had a good week, but I root for the guy.

I root for him specifically because he was unfairly lumped in with Hicks and Gallo in 2022. In 2022, IKF was better than Hicks and Gallo combined ... for a fraction of the cost.

I've been meaning to talk about DJ.

An OPS of .737 is bad. It's the third year in a row he hasn't been too great offensively, but last year was dismissed due to presumed injuries.

But I really wanted to mention the strikeouts.

What's up with all the strikeouts?

He is striking out about 1/3rd of the time, which is about twice his career average.

Every WFAN caller for the past thirty years finally got the bunt they've been asking for.

 It didn't work.

The Pulse of New York Sports

No one cares about the home run race between Judge and Alonso. If they stay healthy, they'll hit a lot of them in the regular season.

Also, no one is worried about Volpe's batting average:

"For anyone worried about Anthony Volpe’s batting average right now:

When Capt. Jeter was a rookie, he took a .261 average into June, on his way to finishing at .314.

He ended up hitting 10 home runs that year.

Volpe already has seven."

For anyone worried about Volpe's batting average right now:

When never-Capt. Andre Robertson was a rookie, he took a .214 batting average into June, on his way to finishing at .220.

He ended up hitting two home runs that year.

Volpe already has seven.

Jordan Montgomery isn't any better with the Cardinals.

He is a .500 pitcher (at best) who manages about 4 2/3 innings per start.

The reason you heard stories about how great he is since joining the Cardinals is because lots of people want to whine about Brian Cashman.

I don't think Aaron Judge was accused of cheating.

In fact, MLB reviewed the matter and quickly concluded Judge didn't cheat.

Also, stealing signs isn't cheating.

So even if Judge was accused by ... the Toronto broadcasters, I guess? ... of looking into the Yankees dugout for help ... the thing they're accusing him of isn't cheating.

 

German is another matter.

That's two times in a month his use of sticky stuff has been questioned ... and it's quite possible his effectiveness will plummet once he returns from his suspension.

A warning track fly ball that would have tied the game if it had been a home run. Which it wasn't.

The Rays still could have won the game, by the way.

Abreu seemed like a very bad choice with the bases loaded:

"... Albert Abreu -- who had entered the game in relief of starter Clarke Schmidt -- yielded a grand slam to the first batter he faced on the fourth straight changeup he threw, allowing Taylor Walls to cap the Rays’ five-run fifth and give them their decisive advantage.

 'It was a big situation in the game, and my job is to go in there and minimize damage,' Abreu said through the club’s interpreter. 'Unfortunately, we missed location. … We execute that pitch, I think we get the result we want. But unfortunately, it ended up in his power zone, and we paid a high price today because of that.' "

"We."

This play didn't dissuade the Mets.

Move over, Joey Gallo. We have a new Champion.

Aaron Hicks has one RBI in 89 at-bats, an OPS of .357, and an OPS+ of 3.

OPS+ is a scaled metric, where an OPS of 100 indicates a league average OPS.

Also, he's a bad outfielder.

Be Nice

It actually is amazing how many fans think they can do better than the professional GMs, coaches, players, and announcers.

I'm not particularly a fan of Kay, and I certainly habitually criticize all of the above compared to their peers and also compared to expectations. That's what fans do.

But think about Kay's job.

How is he going to become a play by play announcer for the Yankees if he isn't polite to the Yankee players and personnel?

If you work for the YES Network, you work for the Yankees. Cashman is a GM and SVP of Yankees, Inc. Cashman is one of the senior executives of a corporation whose net worth is over $7 billion.

He is going to expect a certain level of deference and decorum from his own employees.

Go ahead and publicly criticize your boss, Twitter Hero.

I'm quite sure Cashman's skin is thick enough to endure a lot of criticism. On occasion, Kay will mention a trade that "didn't work out." 

But do these lunatic fans really expect professional announcers to behave like Vic Dibitetto?

Bader off IL, Cordero optioned ... Hicks starting in LF?

Bad managerial decision for sure.

Just let German finish the game. The Yankees probably would have won.

Also:

• Boone jumped the gun with his defensive replacement. (Hicks as a defensive replacement?) Which put Hicks up at bat with two outs in the ninth.
• The pitcharound walk by Peralta to load the bases. Don't you know the possibility of a HBP or walk with the bases loaded? Have we learned nothing from the lessons of Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman?
• Rizzo with his zero RBIs since Judge went on the IL. Way to step up, superstar.
   

Enough already.

Aaron Hicks has one RBI in 46 at-bats, a .380 OPS, and 15 Ks.

OK, but did Chandler Redmond pull his hamstring while jogging around the bases?

Hitting a baseball isn't easy.

This didn't age well.

Everyone has a bad day once in a while.

Yankees are seven games back in April.

 I can't say I saw that coming.

Rizzo is a better player, but I always liked Voit.

 The Star-Ledger tracking an ex-Yankee who isn't Joey Gallo.

Next lesson for Brito: Compile a comprehensive list of IHOPs and Denny's in the Scranton Wilkes-Barre area.

My problem with Gleyber remains the same.

Sure, he's off to a good start and he might have turned it around permanently.

What bothers me is the strong implication that, at the age of 26 years old, he finally decided to take his trade seriously. 

I understand the 2019 season may have distorted the young man's opinion of himself. Also, everyone else's opinion of him. I thought he was on his way to being an MVP candidate instead of a Joe Charbonneau flame out.

My observations are that he got "fat and happy," entered the 2020 COVID season out of shape, didn't work on his defense, then spent two years swinging for the fences.

Now he seems to acknowledge all of this.

So what were you doing the past two seasons?

Why do the fans know what you're doing wrong the whole time?

Potential!

It's not even that I disagree. It's just that I've heard it before.

 

Clint Frazier had legendary bat speed and was compared to Mike Trout.

Greg Bird was going to win a batting title.

Kevin Maas just needed to fix that one hole in his swing.

Josh Satin batted .400 for the Mets for about three weeks in 2013. I only remember because Lupica proclaimed it wasn't a fluke.

Heck, even quickly-forgotten Gary Sanchez was on the fast track to Cooperstown after about 100 at-bats in the big leagues.

 

So, yeah. Volpe seems to be the real deal with poise, smarts, power, speed, and good fielding.

But potential is just that ... and, in the history of baseball, most of it goes unrealized.

If you're betting, you're not thinking.

We've had this discussion before ...

... as Japan wins its third WBC title (out of four ... I looked it up).

It would appear that Japan takes it more seriously than the US (no excuses; it's the point of the article) and, while it's fun to celebrate the immense baseball talent throughout the world, no one can seriously conclude that the best pro baseball is being played on a daily basis in Japan.

It isn't the point of the WBC and it shouldn't be the conclusion.

The WBC exceeded all expectations in terms of fan interest and player commitment.

But as for the style of play?

The final game had four solo home runs and 13 pitchers.

Let's face it: Tampa Ball has taken over the world.

Players and fans seem to enjoy the WBC very much.

I'm not sure how a beatdown of Team Canada enhances Trout's legacy, but the whole thing seems to be beneficial for the sport in general.

Last year, Trout his 40 home runs in 438 at-bats. An OPS of .999. Yawn.

I have trouble believing that MLB players were unaware of Trout's greatness. Like most observers, they may have become used to it.

Damn, Cap'n.

Aaron Judge thinks he's the GM.

While some may see this as noteworthy praise for a young player, one can also see it as an insult to Kiner-Falefa, your teammate and starting shortstop.

I'm over here now.

I'm a professional:

"Lindor has not found the restrictions difficult to adjust to, and even said they’ve even been enjoyable to work with.

'It’s fun,' he said. 'I know I can’t go past second base. I don’t have to look at the card. Before I was looking at the card, like, "Am I gonna be on the other side? Am I staying on this side?" So now it’s like, I got my limits that I can’t go to. So I know lefty and I know he’s gonna pull the ball, I play behind second base a little bit more to the right.'”

Seriously, people. These changes aren't difficult.

Pitchers pitch and batters bat.

It's "the unknown," like that Matthew McConaughey movie where he went into a black hole and found a man-made tesseract which he used to communicate to his daughter back in time but the robot didn't survive the trip into the black hold and then his daughter solved time travel and saved humanity.

"Yet preparing hitters for this change is tricky. They’re used to being able to call time whenever they desired. A particularly stressful plate appearance might have previously entailed stepping out of the box several times. Adjusting their uniform. Taking a few deep breaths. Undoing and redoing the Velcro on their batting gloves. Maybe repeating all of the above."

When you write it down that way, it sure sounds exciting.

 

"Which, of course, is exactly why this rule was put in place: MLB wanted to cut out as much of that dead time as it could. But it means there’s a lot for batters to change—as much psychological as physical."

Get over it.

 

"And given the reactive nature of hitting, it’s more difficult for hitters to know how the clock will feel than it is for pitchers, who have been practicing with the timer all spring. Of course, there’s no replicating the environment of pitching in a real game, with all the attendant stressors that might cause someone to need more time. They can’t simulate a real game even with a sim game—and certainly not with a bullpen or live BP. By using the timer in all of those contexts, however, pitchers can still get a feel for how their delivery works (or not) against the clock."

It all sounds so very stressful. My advice is shut up and hit.

"For hitters … it’s tricky. They can’t set the pace of any given plate appearance the way a pitcher can. While a pitcher can work quickly or slowly, a hitter can only slow him down, and now, he won’t even be able to do that. That’s a hard dynamic to practice. Of course, hitters can use the timer in live BP, too. (Many teams are.) But most hitters already know they can take swings without stepping out of the box in BP. It’s specifically the context of hitting in a faster game situation that feels tricky—and that can’t truly be replicated in any practice or drill."

None of this sounds tricky.

Whatever your job is, anywhere in the world, I can almost guarantee you are faced with trickier challenges on a daily basis. In all likelihood, you've climbed the learning curve and have figured it out by now, but that's my point. Five or six at-bats to figure it out, tops.

Heck, I think a lot of retired people are facing trickier decisions this Monday morning.

The easiest task I can imagine in a workplace is, if I was a batter in a baseball game, standing in the batter's box. They even outline it with chalk.

Still a lot of discussion about a very bad baseball player.

“The Minnesota market is different than the New York market. The Texas market is different than the New York market. I always just wanted to play baseball, have fun, hang out with the boys. That’s my goal, just to play baseball and win games. I don’t really like it being more than that. I guess this is more my vibe, you know what I mean?”

I remember last year when Gallo said the same thing about the Dodgers. Had an early two-HR game, or whatever. Then he hit .159 with the Dodgers.

More from the referenced article about Gallo:

"I took pride in the fact that I still played. I was still diving for the Yankees, running into walls for the Yankees, running hard for the Yankees. I knew I was getting traded. But I still had the pride, the integrity for the game, the respect for the fans, respect for the organization. I’m still going to go out here and bust my ass. I’m not going to just cash it in."

I mean, I guess it's accurate. I don't recall any behavior that qualified as quitting. He was the worst player I've ever seen intentionally given a starting role on a team for an extended period of team. I also think when one examines his career, there's no reason to think he's going to rebound in Minnesota. But if he wants to pat himself on the back for not literally quitting, I guess that's better than nothing.

 

 

Tom Verducci has nothing to do.

I'd say Judge's breakout season was 2017 and I don't think he will ever have a better season than he had in 2022. It's a very high benchmark.

Baseball players are graded on a curve.

IKF was not great in 2022. I would say he was a disappointment in the field. A slick-fielding shortstop who hits .260 with 20 stolen bases, 66 runs, and 48 RBI is not bad at all. He just wasn't good enough in the field. Not bad in the field, but not great.

Having said that, he was better in every way than Donaldson (besides home runs) ... and IKF was paid 1/4th Donaldson's salary.

Good usage of his time from September 16th to February 21st, though.

To my knowledge, I have never met a person who has ever watched the WBC.

For one thing, it's not a big stage because not a lot of people are going to watch. More than a regular season Angels game for sure, but not a lot relative to entertainment events.

Furthermore, I can't imagine that anyone watching would be unaware of Trout's excellence. Like, I'm enough of a baseball fan to watch the WBC, but I  am mostly unaware of the decade's best player.

I suppose Trout keeps a relatively low profile, and in some ways this inhibits his worldwide popularity, but still: How is the WBC going to change his legacy or X Factor in any way?

The rest  of the article is just "Trout is great" and, for different reasons, comparing Trout to Ernie Banks and LeBron James.

The unmistakable rhythms of baseball.

 What else are you going to talk about in the off season?

"Necessity."

 No baseball player is "necessary."

Ah, yes, the question everyone has been asking: Should Billy Wagner be in the Hall of Fame?

No.

Billy Wagner should not be in the Hall of Fame.

I know it's symbolic for the Mets and Cohen to pump up the payroll.

But I'm going to engage in a little thought experiment.

When you thought Correa was signing with the Giants, did you think it upset the balance of the NL West? 

Or did you think the Giants were a third-place team who would maybe battle for a wild card?

The Mets were already a good team, in a surprisingly tough division if you think the Phillies are legit. I'm not so sure they are, but who knows?

I think Correa is better than Escobar and the Mets are hoping Correa comes through in October.

It's not that big of a deal in the scheme of things.

I would be very surprised if the Mets won more games in 2023 than they did in 2022.

Is $1 million a lot?

The over-reaction on both sides to the Correa signing is bizarre indeed.

The Mets didn't sell one million tickets in one day, the sold $1 million worth of tickets.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 single-day tickets. Just guessing $100 average ticket price. No big mathematical analysis here.

Not 10,000 season tickets, just 10,000 single-day tickets. Like, more than you'd expect to sell probably in the middle of December, but it's not like you have to rush if you're planning a family outing in May.

The Other Team in New York

We weren't even talking about the Yankees: 

 "What really just happened for Mets fans, like '’Twas the Night Before Christmas' a few nights early, can be traced back through 50 years of Mets history, all the way back to when Yogi Berra was their manager and once said this, famously and for all times in baseball:

'It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.'"

 Yes, Yogi Berra is probably most well-known for being a manager of the Mets.

Also, next time you write a story, just re-read it first. Now imagine the story without the opening paragraph.

Better? When the opening paragraph doesn't add anything? It's just, "it's almost Christmas, am I right?"

 

"Once George Steinbrenner, on the other side of New York baseball, became the most flamboyant owner in all of sports in the 1970s after he signed Catfish Hunter on New Year’s Eve and signed Reggie Jackson to what felt like the biggest deal in the world before the 1977 season -- $3 million over five years -- and then signed Dave Winfield to a 10-year contract after that. Steinbrenner was the one in the center of the baseball bullseye."

Let's talk about the Yankees from 35 years ago.

 

"The Yankees went deeper into the playoffs this past October than the Mets did, making it to the American League Championship Series before being swept by the Astros. The Yankees then spent with both hands and brought back Judge, their big man, on the biggest deal they’ve ever made, and just signed left-hander Carlos Rodón . Even with all that, the Yankees feel like the Other Team in New York, at least for today, because of what just happened with Correa."

I think Lupica is the only person keeping score of the Battle of New York.

Notable, of course, is the lack of derision in paying luxury taxes, hiring mercenaries from all over the world, treating the rest of MLB like a farm system, it's not how much you spend, it's how ... but that's very typical.

No one really wants to dismantle the Yankees. They want to emulate the Yankees.

The man with the six-year slump.

"Jason Heyward, the former All-Star and five-time Gold Glove Award winner who has struggled offensively for most of the last six years, has signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team announced Thursday. The agreement includes an invitation to spring training."

I think we should all get past these childish analyses.

Aaron Judge is a movie star. He will move massive amounts of merch and put fannies in the seats. He's the only Baby Boomer who made it (no offense to Severino). He's the face of a $billion corporation.

Also, he's earned it.

When you're casting "Taken 3," you would be a fool to replace Liam Neeson.

I truly don't know why these analyses of a contract's "worth" don't take these factors into account.

I know the hardcore angry fans who point out the subpar playoff performances and the unfortunate tendency of modern-day fans to take of the role of Comptroller for the Yankees: "They could have spent this money on two mediocre starting pitchers and a lefty reliever. This 'asset' will be de-valued by year seven."

I'm not even sure that's accurate.

In 2030, I'll bet half the fans in sold out Yankee Stadium will be wearing #99 jerseys.

 

 

Revisiting a prediction from September.

 

I'm going to guess eight years, $350 million, not the Yankees.

Nine years, $360 million, yes the Yankees.

Mike Lupica's lack of ethics is predictable and tedious.

This is Mike Lupica a couple of weeks ago, elevating the status of Jacob deGrom in the free agent pool, particularly vis a vis Aaron Judge.

Lupica acknowledges the risks associated with age and health, but basically concludes that you want this dude throwing effortless 100 MPH fastballs at awestruck batters.

He quotes his lone remaining MLB source Buck Showalter at length.

Then when the news of deGrom's signing blazes across the twitterverse (when is the last time Lupica has been first with breaking MLB news, by the way? Like, 1988?), Lupica instantly dismisses the signing.

Tweet number one points out that the Mets won 101 games in2022 and deGrom only won five (the Mets actually won six of his starts, which isn't much of a difference, but it's at least comparing apples to apples).

Tweet number two elevates the previously mentioned risks and mocks the Rangers for the size and length of the contract.

We already know how Lupica would have reacted if deGrom had re-signed with the Mets. It would be the 30th year in a row the Yankees need to look out for the superior Mets.

Have you tried ebay?

Just one iceberg sunk the Titanic.

"Five hundred sixty-nine home runs, 3,020 hits and one positive steroid test. That is the Hall of Fame candidacy of Rafael Palmeiro in one sentence."

I think PED-heads wll eventually make the HOF because a lot of them are already in. But I read "one positive steroid test" as "hundreds of false negatives because cheaters find ways to evade capture."

 

"He is infamous for wagging a finger at Congress two months before he flunked the drug test.

'If I could do it over, I would have handled the Congress situation differently,' he says. 'The pointing of the finger ... that was not my personality. That was not me. That was the advice I was given.'"

You sound like an unrepentant cheater who doesn't really take responsibility for any of his own behavior.

 

Without an infield shift, Rizzo is going to bat .300.

Because he's short. Get it? "Big" is an ironic description in the headline.

I mean, Jose Altuve certainly plays baseball for the Astros and the Astros make the playoffs a lot. So there's that. 

In the 2022 playoffs, he has not come up big:

"Altuve, who has been such a terrific postseason player in his career, somehow started the ’22 postseason by going 0-for-25."

"Somehow."

 

"He hit in a big October game the way he has so many other times in his career, and he reminded everybody of something, as if anybody needs reminding at this point in Altuve’s career:"

And yet, here we are.

 

"He has been one of the best players of his time, and one of the great second basemen of all time."

I guess you can sit on an article for a couple of weeks and wait for Altuve to finally get a hit. Which he did. Truly compelling stuff.

 

"Listen, everybody knows what happened with the Astros in 2017, even as they keep winning. Altuve and his teammates are always going to hear it in New York, and they’re sure never going to love the Astros in Los Angeles. But the team is the same as the guy who leads off for Dusty Baker and is still out there at second: They don’t go away."

Everybody knows and nobody needs reminding. 

Maybe the Daily News could therefore make better use of their resources by reminding their readers that the clocks are turned back next Sunday.

 

I think I understand Manny's sense of humor.

No, he isn't actually planning a comeback. He is saying that the Yankees offense was so bad vs. Houston, he couldn't possibly be any worse.

Congratulations on your participation trophy.

There's something noticeably unsettling about the players on this team who are positive to the point of being delusional. I don't know why he's so proud of himself for not pouting and the bench ... and whatnot:

“I thought I bounced back from being benched,” he said. “It’s a tough, tough place. And I was able to make the routine plays and whatnot. I could have folded and let things beat up on me or could have just sat on the side and not worked. But after I got benched, I was out there early every day. Just wanted to help the team in any way possible. I had an opportunity in Game 1 and Game 4 and I was able to play good defense — way better than the LDS — and swing it when I had the opportunity.”

The 28-year-old Kiner-Falefa has one more year of team control left but he knows he may have fallen out of favor in the Bronx. The club has Peraza and Anthony Volpe coming up and they may choose to go in another direction with someone like free agent Carlos Correa.

Though fans might remember him for the October defense, Kiner-Falefa is happy with the character he felt he displayed in what could have been his final game in pinstripes.

“I’m definitely happy with not giving up and still working, even though I could have just quit and sat on the side and just been a grump and, and whatnot,” he said. “I was just happy that I kept my head up and just waited for another opportunity and didn’t botch any balls tonight.”

I don't see a strategic way out. Find players who come through in the playoffs.

That's why the got Rizzo and Donaldson.

Build a team around Judge and Oswaldo?

Hope that Oswaldo gained some experience and the .083 postseason batting average is not indicative of future performance?

Maybe that happens. I'll believe it when I see it.

A catcher who can get a hit once in a while would also be a change for the better.

Because I don't think it's impossible that Cashman, Boone, and Judge are all gone for the 2023 season. The Yankees won't be better, but the expectations will be lower, and in a perverse way, that will provide the fans with some relief:

"The more immediate curiosity is what Hal Steinbrenner does with the damning data. This will be the Yankees’ sixth failed attempt at a world championship in the Boone/Judge era. Something has to give. The blowback from fans will be unlike anything the Yankees have experienced in years.

You didn’t have to be an expert in public relations to know why the crowd started heading for the exits in sixth inning on Saturday. Yes, sixth. The fans were voting with their feet.

The Astros had just taken a 5-0 lead, but the Yankees still had 12 outs to manage a comeback, two more chances for Judge to hit a monster home run. But the ticket buyers had seen enough.

They knew the Yankees weren’t rallying against a team that’s beaten them 8-of-10 times this season."

I think there is an organizational arrogance and stubbornness that manifests itself negatively. The same can be said for the players who make unbelievable and endless excuses.

The Astros have beaten the Yankees eight out of ten this season, including a no-hitter. The Astros have not lost a single game in the playoffs this year. 

It's not the ump, the wind, bad luck, the banging of trash cans five years ago.

"Woulda"

Has a warning track fly ball ever garnered so much attention?

It was a 345-foot fly ball, for crying out loud.

Maybe lots of things. Maybe the Astros "woulda" pitched him differently if he was playing at Yankee Stadium.