Correction: Four-Time Champ

He may have been on the 1996 postseason roster, but he did not play in the entire postseason.

Also, Bernie was better:

"MLB Network's Brian Kenny presents a case for Posada using OPS+, a metric which adjusts for era and park effects. From 1998 through 2009, Posada's 125 OPS+ ranked second only to Piazza's 132 OPS+, ahead of Victor Martinez (121 OPS+) and Ivan Rodriguez (113 OPS+).

What's more, over Posada's 10-year career peak from 2000-09, his 129 OPS+ is comparable to the peaks of Hall of Famers Johnny Bench (132 OPS+, 1970-79) and Berra (130 OPS+, 1950-59), while edging those of Gary Carter (128 OPS+, 1977-86) and Carlton Fisk (125 OPS+, 1972-81)."

Who knew it was all OPS+?

He walked a lot and hit a lot of HRs, particularly for a catcher.


"Though Posada was never a Gold Glove defender, his value to the Yankees was immense after moving from his original position of second base, helping him get to the Majors and develop into a power-hitting threat from both sides of the plate. Rivera said that Posada's impact on those championship clubs may even have been underestimated."

"Never a Gold Glove defender" is a nice way of putting it. It's an important point when most of his values are his offensive contributions "as a catcher."

I find the Posada-for-HOF conversation so weird. He went from underrated to overrated as soon as his career ended.

Here's a guy who got a handful of MVP votes in his career ... 3rd place one year and 6th place one year ... and now he's the second coming of Yogi Berra?

2016 NL MVP

BBWAA

Name	Points
Kris Bryant	415
Daniel Murphy	245
Corey Seager	240
Anthony Rizzo	202
Nolan Arenado	199
Freddie Freeman	129
Joey Votto	100
Yoenis Cespedes	45
Justin Turner	44
Max Scherzer	39
Paul Goldschmidt	18
Brandon Crawford	15
Jean Segura	14
Buster Posey	11
DJ LeMahieu	8
Madison Bumgarner	7
Jeurys Familia	6
Wilson Ramos	6
Addison Russell	5
Noah Syndergaard	5
Christian Yelich	5
Yasmani Grandal	4
Kyle Hendricks	2
Ryan Braun	2
Yadier Molina	2
Charlie Blackmon	1
Johnny Cueto	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Kris Bryant	23
Daniel Murphy	10
Anthony Rizzo	6
Nolan Arenado	4
Freddie Freeman	4
Corey Seager	4
Joey Votto	4
Ryan Braun	2

2016 AL MVP

BBWAA

Name	Points
Mike Trout	356
Mookie Betts	311
Jose Altuve	227
Josh Donaldson	200
Manny Machado	150
David Ortiz	147
Adrian Beltre	135
Robinson Cano	79
Francisco Lindor	56
Miguel Cabrera	56
Zach Britton	11
Kyle Seager	10
Brian Dozier	9
Edwin Encarnacion	7
Nelson Cruz	6
Chris Sale	3
Jose Ramirez	2
Justin Verlander	2
Adam Eaton	1
Corey Kluber	1
Evan Longoria	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Mike Trout	18
Mookie Betts	13
David Ortiz	9
Jose Altuve	6
Josh Donaldson	4
Mark Trumbo	4
Adrian Beltre	2
Robinson Cano	2
Brian Dozier	1
Edwin Encarnacion	1

The Yankees don't need Mike Trout.

The Yankees already have what's his name ... Clint Frazier.

2016 NL Cy Young Award

BBWAA

Name	Points
Max Scherzer	192
Jon Lester	102
Kyle Hendricks	85
Madison Bumgarner	46
Clayton Kershaw	30
Johnny Cueto	19
Jose Fernandez	18
Noah Syndergaard	15
Jake Arrieta	2
Tanner Roark	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Max Scherzer	20
Madison Bumgarner	18
Kyle Hendricks	9
Jon Lester	8
Jake Arrieta	3
Johny Cueto	3
Bartolo Colon	1

2016 AL Cy Young Award

New faces on the AL Cy Young Award list this year. The voters wanted change.

BBWAA

Name	Points
Rick Porcello	137
Justin Verlander	132
Corey Kluber	98
Zach Britton	72
Chris Sale	40
J.A. Happ	14
Aaron Sanchez	6
Masahiro Tanaka	6
Andrew Miller	3
Michael Fulmer	1
Jose Quintana	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Rick Porcello	18
Masahiro Tanaka	9
Corey Kluber	8
Chris Sale	7
Justin Verlander	6
Zach Britton	5
Felix Hernandez	3
Aaron Sanchez	2
Cole Hamels	1
David Price	1

... and we officially ran out of baseball topics.

Here is an article about Tim Tebow not answering a question about Donald Trump.

.216

Montero, 33, slashed .216/.327/.357 in 242 at-bats in the regular season, but watched as Willson Contreras handled most of the catching duties in the three postseason series. Also, David Ross appeared in eight games and had more at-bats (16) than Montero.

Montero was happy, however, to be behind the plate for the final two innings of Game 7.

"Catching the last two [innings] of the World Series made it sweet," Montero said. "Otherwise, it would have been nice because I'm part of it but maybe I didn't help as much as I wanted to help. To be more involved ... I would have felt bad to go home with the trophy and not even catch one inning in the World Series. That would be the tough part."

He even inspired himself to strike out with the bases loaded.

The dumbest story line to emerge from Game Seven:

"Heyward hit .104 with one RBI in 16 postseason games, yet his words in that weight room during the brief delay served as a turning point for the Cubs, who went on to score two runs in the 10th before holding on in the bottom of the inning to win their first World Series in 108 years."

The writers sure love this guy for some reason.

Someone is thinking too hard.

Winning is better than losing.

It's why you play the game.

I'm quite sure most Cubs fans/players/coaches would take a ring over mystique.

I doubt Chapman is coming back to the Yankees.

"In addition to rescuing the Cubs’ season on Sunday night, Aroldis Chapman probably raised the bidding on his impending free agency with his first-ever eight-out save.

And if you’re a Yankee fan hoping Chapman winds up back in the Bronx this winter, you should probably root for the Cubs to pull off this comeback and win the World Series.

Because if they lose, they’ll be under enormous pressure to pay whatever it takes to keep the Cuban star in Chicago to continue pursuing that elusive championship."

I don't know why he would come back to the Yankees. Well, there's money, of course. So maybe the Yankees will lure him with a lot of money.

In any case, there's a lot of presumptions here with two games to go. What if Chapman blows Game Seven and is suddenly a weird combination of Steve Bartman and Blair Walsh? What if he's carried off the field as World Series MVP ... that scenario would increase his chances of returning to the Yankees?


"I can vouch for such a sentiment because as I was getting back to my hotel in the early morning hours after Game 5, I got a text from Marc Malusis, who was hosting the overnight show on WFAN, and as a lifelong Yankee fan, he was as fired up as those on the calls he was taking.

'Tell you what,' he texted. 'If I’ve gotta watch Chapman and Miller dominate the World Series, then Gleyber Torres better be the next Derek Jeter and Clint Frazier better at least be Bernie Williams.' "

That's not how it works.

Maybe things will click sooner than expected, but the Yankees are a long way from the World Series.

 Yankee fans are going to have to get over the 2016 World Series matchup ... and the weird attachment to Chapman, who was in pinstripes for a whole 31 games.


" 'I’m just saying he better be right about those kids he got because one of these teams is going to have Cashman to thank for winning a championship.'

I couldn’t argue with that. The Cubs’ win in Game 5 on Sunday night not only saved them from elimination but also evened the score a bit between the dueling ex-Yankee relievers, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman."

"The battle between ex-Yankee relievers."

Have you ever seen such a myopic statement?

The Yankees were Miller's fifth team and, after serving his suspension, Chapman was in the Bronx for about three months.


I mean, sure: Cashman had better be right about some of these young players or the Yankees are headed for many years of mediocrity.

Same prognosis for the Yankees if the 2016 World Series happened to be Los Angeles vs. Toronto.

A lot of teams are better than the Yankees right now. A lot of those teams happen to be in the AL East. It is going to get worse before it gets better.

As Cashman is quick to point out, it's not bad to see your ex-players perform well. It helps with your future credibility when you're at the bargaining table.

That's a mild complaint.

Sometimes, two Yankee bullpen pitchers were warming up at the same time.

No fair ... we should have lost 10-3.

I think he was out. His hand was hovering above the plate.

1-for-17.

Not much going on in NY baseball.

Phil Mushnick cares about the batting title.

"Even the golden goodies — the old standards — no longer apply, lost to modern standards, which means low standards or none at all.

Remember, 'Winners never quit and quitters never win'?

But quitters now win, so much the 2016 National League batting title was won by sitting out the season’s last 4 ²/₃ games. Yet, that barely made a sound from a media who have lost their ability to identify cheap and cheesy while surrendering their tacit responsibility and public trust to distinguish right from far less."

The media was not paying attention to the Rockies or the batting title.


"To think he could’ve told them he chose to risk losing the title by trying to win it rather than to win it by quitting. To think his legacy might have been as a man who wouldn’t exploit circumstances to win rather than one who did."

He really doesn't have a legacy. 


"On Sept. 28, 1941, Boston’s Ted Williams, just 23 — five years younger than Reyes and LeMahieu when they won their titles — was batting .3996, which rounded to .400, before the last two games of the season — a doubleheader, Red Sox at the Philadelphia A’s.

He was given the option to sit them out and finish at .400 — the first since Bill Terry hit .401 in 1930. 

It wasn’t as if the Red Sox, 17 games behind the Yankees, were in a race.

But Williams insisted on playing both games, with, 'If I can’t hit .400 all the way, I don’t deserve it.'

Williams went 6-for-8 to finish at .4057 — rounded to the now unapproachable, known-by-heart-head .406. No one since has come close."

The go-to Ted Williams story, huh? God Bless America.

Technically speaking, Brett came close in 1980 (.390). Gwynn came close in 1994 (.394). Carew came close in 1977 (.388).

Manly McManly would have probably hit .400 back in the Good Ol' Days, but he strained his back Fixing America during the off season.

Writers simply dislike Ellsbury for some reason.

"AL Anti-MVP: Jacoby Ellsbury, Yankees

 

Look, it would be easier to pick an Alex Rodriguez/Mark Teixeira tandem, since they went from carrying the offense last year to burdening it in 2016. But they were baseball geezers at the end."

Look, it would be easy to be accurate.


"Ellsbury is not the worst player in the AL or even on the Yankees. But is there anyone more invisible for the money (well, maybe Joe Mauer)"


Yes.

I can think of several on the Yankees.


"Brought to New York to be a catalyst, Ellsbury on Thursday registered his second steal since June 19. How is that possible?"

I also don't understand why Gardner and Ellsbury stopped stealing bases.



"Did anyone notice a lot of veterans who might have been in play for this award vanished, never to return: A-Rod, Prince Fielder, Omar Infante, Desmond Jennings and Jimmy Rollins?"

Yes, I noticed. But ... vanishing means they're adding even less value than Ellsbury.

Whatever. It's not something to get too hung up about (the LVP isn't even a thing).

The problem is, taking the totality of the 2016 season, Ellsbury is not worse than any of the other Yankee non-pitchers. Which isn't saying much. Sanchez didn't do it long enough, Beltran is gone, Castro leads the team with an astonishingly low 70 RBIs.

Ellsbury was paid too much, of course, but not compared to ARod, Teixeira, Headley, McCann ... if you're taking salary into account when you figure out your LVP.

It's not a defense of Ellsbury. The signing is no longer defensible. The Yankees paid a premium for an ordinary player. But what gives with the sportswriters who fixate on Ellsbury's deficiencies and then get all teary-eyed when Teixeira finally takes a hike?

It was fun while it lasted. A jolt of energy. A beacon for future success.

But the so-called Yankee MVP in this un-scientific poll has batted .222 in September (down the stretch!).

It's actually insulting to the Yankee players who grinded it out all year.

No offense to Sanchez and best wishes for 2017 and beyond. He had a great debut. He was insanely productive, even in the month of September. 

The lack of appreciation for Betances ... who has been Mariano-esque for three years, if not better ... while being asked to pitch 250 innings ... it's just a shame that he's underappreciated and overshadowed by the New Kid in Town.

I am going to attempt a measured response to Andrew Marchand.

Sports writers offer no value to understanding baseball. They simply use their column to hand out merits and demerits depending on how much they like the player:

"Stand up and cheer.

That is what Yankees fans should do over the next three nights when Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz walks to the plate during his final appearance in the Bronx. Ortiz deserves this respect as arguably the most important figure in the game's greatest rivalry since George Herman Ruth."

You forgot about Roger Clemens and arguably some others, but, whatever. The key here is that HE PLAYS FOR THE RED SOX.


"So if Yankees fans want to jeer Ortiz until the bitter end, it's their prerogative. But it's not right. To boo Big Papi based on his alleged involvement with performance-enhancing drugs, for one, would be heaping with hypocrisy. Some Yankees fans will point to the New York Times report that Ortiz failed a PED test during what was supposed to be an anonymous phase of Major League Baseball's drug program. Given Ortiz’s lack of an explanation, and the arc of his career from castoff to superstar, it is easy to understand how a reasonable person might label Ortiz guilty.

Still, it shouldn't prevent fans from honoring what Ortiz has definitively done -- not what he might have done."

That's a straw man.

Yankee fans are not anti-steroid activists. They are pro-Yankee activists.

Again, HE PLAYS FOR THE RED SOX.


"Did you cheer Andy Pettitte upon his return, post-Mitchell Report? Did you applaud Alex Rodriguez in 2015 when he hit 33 homers? If you answered 'yes' to either of those questions, how can Ortiz’s supposed use prevent you from acknowledging him during his final at-bats in the Bronx?"

Difference being ... THEY WEREN'T PLAYING FOR THE RED SOX.


"On the other hand, Ortiz has never failed a test that wasn’t anonymous. He has never been caught up in a BALCO or a Biogenesis scandal. That doesn't make him innocent, of course, but it doesn't make him guilty, either. The PED issue remains relentlessly complicated when it comes to honoring players from the last quarter century."

That's it? He might be guilty and he might not be guilty?

Of course, Marchand wouldn't know if it's "relentlessly complicated" because he hasn't relentlessly pursued the truth.

Maybe so, maybe not, I dunno. Journalism!


"His infectious smile, his ability to build friendships with seemingly anyone and everyone in the game, and his exploits at the plate in clutch moments will be a part of rivalry lore forever."

Infectious smile? This is embarrassing, yet revealing.

Nobody as ESPN is going to proclaim that we can't believe in Ortiz because he couldn't believe in himself? No?

Oh, you're welcome, don't mention it.

"The other day, one of my teammates comes over to me in the clubhouse and says, 'Hey, you see what they’re gonna do to you in New York?'

I don’t know what he’s talking about.

I’m like, 'What’s up? They gonna give me a pizza or something?'

He says, 'Nah. Your last game, the fans are gonna pull their pants down.'

I’m like, 'Nah, bro. Come on. Be serious.'

Then he shows me an article on his phone about some guy who’s trying to get everybody in Yankee Stadium to moon me.

This dude even made a whole website: moonbigpapi.com.

Bro.

Bro.

Come on."

OK, I think we're finished here ... bro.



"Playing against the Yankees was just different. It was war.

You gotta understand what it meant to me, Pedro and Manny — three guys from the Dominican Republic. In our country, the Yankees are huge. Back in the day, they were pretty much the only big league club on TV. When you walked around Santo Domingo in the ’90s, you would see so many Yankees caps."

XXL Yankee caps for these three ... their heads are swollen for some reason.

Thank you, John Harper.

"First things first: If Yankee fans want to give David Ortiz ovations this week at the Stadium in appreciation of his remarkable career, then great, I’m all for showing that type of respect to an opponent.

I just don’t think the Yankees should be forcing that notion upon the fans with a going-away ceremony on the field that feels like a politically correct response to what the Red Sox did for Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter."

No one has ever satisfactorily explained to me why the Sox (or any team) would officially honor Jeter and Rivera.

Fans know what's up. They can stand up and cheer for 15 seconds when his name is announced, a tip of the cap. That's about the extent of it.


"Ortiz, after all, has played the role of hated villain in the famed rivalry with the Yankees, and willingly so with his bat flips and leisurely strolls that passed for home-run trots over the years.

In short, he’s not Jeter, he’s not Rivera, the two most universally admired players of their era. Ortiz may be well-liked by his peers, but it wasn’t long ago that David Price, before he signed with the Sox, essentially called out Big Papi for thinking he was bigger than the game, in part because of his home-run celebrations.

No, Ortiz doesn’t mind agitating the opposition, and so in regard to The Rivalry he’s a lot more like Alex Rodriguez than Jeter or Rivera."

I think we can just make this easier on everybody and eliminate the practice entirely.


"As beloved as Joe Torre was as manager, in fact, it drove fans crazy that he wouldn’t insist that his pitchers at least try and intimidate Ortiz — and the same for Joe Girardi.

Finally, when the outcry reached such a level that CC Sabathia felt compelled to plunk Ortiz with a fastball one night, the Red Sox DH further annoyed Yankee fans by complaining publicly about it.

As for the steroids? Ortiz has tried to shoot down the issue by denying he ever took PEDs, even though his name was leaked to the New York Times in 2009 as being one of the 104 on the list who failed drug tests in 2003, the year the Players Association did survey testing as a prelude to MLB’s mandatory testing program.

Those names were supposed to remain anonymous, but a few were leaked. When A-Rod was outed in February of 2009, he admitted to using PEDs; but months later Ortiz denied his usage, and while he promised at the time that he would find out which substance caused his positive test, he later insisted he was unable to obtain that information."

What he said.