I think Torres deserved it, but no surprises for the New York teams.

DeGrom's record isn't too good, but, whatever. He's an All Star.

There are, like, 64 All Stars between the 2 leagues ... sas there really any doubt McNeil was going to be an All Star?

Let's check in with Tim Tebow. Is he batting is weight at AAA?

No, he is not.

.147/.230/.203.

That's a .203 slugging percentage.

One home run and 73 strikeouts in 177 at-bats.

Accomplishments matter compared to your contemporaries, of course ...

... but as every home run record falls, bear in mind that the ball is juiced.

The playoffs are a crapshoot.

"We hear a lot now about what a crapshoot the playoffs are in baseball. And there is something to that. Except that the Red Sox have been playing at the same craps table in this century, and won four Series in the last 15 years. The Giants won three Series in this decade."

The Giants leaned quite a bit on one superstar pitcher.

But, besides the uniform, what does the 2004 Red Sox team have in common with the 2018 Red Sox team?

Nothing.

They have nothing in common.

There is no reason to link the different Championship Red Sox teams in terms of strategy, roster, coaching, managing.

Other than the simple observation that, like, it often pays off to spend a lot of money on payroll. The Red Sox have enough money to survive some of the worst free agent signings in baseball history. Small payroll teams can't do that.

Believe it or not, there is really no reason to think the Red Sox have been smarter than the Yankees the past 15 years. They just came through more often in the playoffs.


"Since the Red Sox started their own winning in ’04, they’ve won the Series with three general managers, three managers, two team presidents."

Exactly.

In other words, it's a crapshoot.

Lots of Jose Devers fans out there in Yankee Universe?

Lupica's back at the Daily News just in time to put pressure on the Yankees to win the World Series.

Because if they don't win the World Series this year, then they'll endure even more ridicule from Mike Lupica next year.


He's back at the Daily News and just as out of touch as ever.

I'm not making this up: A Buck Showalter reference, a Phil Jackson reference, a shot at long-forgotten ARod, and ... get this ... even a gratuitous shot at Jacoby Ellsbury.

Get some new material, for cryin' out loud.


As for a brief mention of current players on current New York teams that are currently playing, he is predictably off the mark:

"How do you think the polling would go among Yankee fans if they got a do-over on the Stanton trade?"

Well, the Yankees traded Starlin Castro, Jose Devers, and Jorge Guzman for Stanton.

I'm not sure how the poll would go.

Smart fans would endorse the trade. Yankee fans, however, are not smart. Baseball columnists who write about the Yankees also are not smart.

So maybe a better question is, "How many professional sports columnists can name the players who the Yankees traded for Stanton?"

Or "How many professional sports columnists can name the Yankee starting rotation?"

Or "How many professional sports columnists are so ignorant of baseball, that they think Encarnacion strikes out a lot?"

Encarnacion does not strke out a lot.

This take is ignorant to the point of being irresponsible.

I mean, yeah, it's an annual ritual: The Yankees add players and Lupica rips them for doing so.

But even for Lupica, this is stretching it.


Encarnacion is cheap, he's effective, he's not that old, the Yankees gave up bupkus to get him, and they didn't even send down Maybin (yet).

Sure, the marginal value of a right-handed power bat is not particularly high for this team ... but the cost was very small ... and the Yankees kept Encarnacion off a rival playoff team.


"Strikeout percentage" is not an advanced stat.

It took me 30 seconds to look it up and dismiss the entire premise of Lupica's dumb article.

Name                    2019 K%     Career K%

Encarnacion            18.2               17.1

 

Frazier                     28.2               29.3

Maybin                     25.8               21.3

Gardner                   14.4               18.2

Judge                        29.2               31.5

Stanton                    33.3               28.0

MLB                         25.5                 ?

This date in Yankees history

"June 19, 2015: Alex Rodriguez became the 29th player in Major League history to collect 3,000 hits, hitting a solo home run off the Tigers' Justin Verlander. A-Rod joined Derek Jeter and Wade Boggs as the only players to homer for their 3,000th hit."

I have no recollection of this moment.

I remember when Jeter and Boggs did it.

Mike Lupica on Twitter

Lupica is suddenly a big Frazier guy ... and, I guess, anti-Encarnacion:

"The Yankees were going to home-run their way to the World Series last year, no matter how many times their big guys struck out. Now they're going to try it again."

 1. Oh, last year was the year the Yankees were going to home-run their way to the World Series.

Thank you for clearing that up.

I had a bet with a buddy of mine, and I kept saying it was 1927 or 1961, but he insisted it was 2018.

Yes: The Bronx Bombers, the team that moved the right field fence in 100 feet and basically invented HRs as a strategy ... the team that has home-runned their way to more championships than any other team ... yes, you are on to something. Just like last year and the previous 90 or so before last year, the Yankees are trying to get batters who hit a lot of HRs.

2. Frazier strikes out more often than Encarnacion.

Very nice comeback.

"Gagnon shot back, telling Desmond that the pitch was accidental, as players from both sides closed around the pair. No one threw a punch. No one did anything more than yell.

'I can see where they’re coming from, but I wasn’t throwing strikes all day,' said Gagnon, who threw only 13 of his 23 pitches across the plate. 'The ball slipped, a two-seamer. It was a complete accident.' "

Unwritten Rules

Getting this riled up about a multi-pitcher no-hitter in double-A.

Clint Frazier is not a leader. He's a individual contributor.

I suppose it puts an unfair burden on your teammates to "force" them to answer questions about your fielding mishaps

I also think Frazier is quite immature.

But it doesn't bother me too much and I actually agree with just about everything he said about Sunday night's debacle:

• His mishaps in the field speak for themselves.
• He probably didn't want to talk to reporters because he was ticked off and embarrassed. Maybe it's a good idea to avoid reporters when you're ticked off.
• People don't like his attitude and they want to tear him down.

Jacoby Ellsbury is the 10th-best CFer of the decade.

What? You don't believe me?

One takeaway.

Stop walking Billy Hamilton.

Billy Hamilton has walked 16 times this season. It is unwise to walk Billy Hamilton. The Yankees have walked Billy Hamilton 6 times this season.

The modern-day ballplayer.

Cano runs hard every game and has always run hard his entire career.

Robinson Cano didn't run hard to first base.

"Cano was immediately anguished at first base after he realized his mistake. The All-Star second baseman thought there were two outs instead of one when he hit the grounder. He took his helmet off and grimaced at his mental lapse. 

Callaway later told reporters the scoreboard at Marlins Park incorrectly read two outs when Cano was at the plate. Cano, a 15-year big-league veteran, trusted the scoreboard and ran, or rather crawled, with it.

'I have been running hard the whole year,' Cano told reporters on Saturday. 'In that situation like anybody I made a mistake, but it’s not my mistake. There were two outs on the board. That’s why I didn’t run it out.

'If I know it was two outs, it’s a different story for me. I would’ve run my ass off. I will be the first one to motivate this team and the last guy not to run it out.' "

In related news, Greg Bird was moved to the Forever IL.

Can't say he's having a good year, that's for sure.

It's just odd that Bryce Harper is leading the league in strikeouts and walks.

"Right now" can mean just about anything.

Hey, look! It's Mike Lupica on Yankees.com:

"For now, it looks like a tweet that should have been heard ‘round the world -- or at least the world of Yankees fans, considering that it involves the best player they’ve got right now."

The best player the Yankees have right now is Aaron Judge. Some would argue Didi Gregorius.

So I'm assuming Mike Lupica is not writing an article about either of them because there isn't much to say about them while they're on the IL.

So it's active players ... best players so far this season. Best Yankee players for the first 40 games of the 2019 season.

Who could it be?

Off the top of my head, Top Five, in order: German, LeMahieu, Sanchez, Chapman, and Kahnle.


"The Yankees were on their way to 100 wins and they were still chasing the Red Sox hard last August, so hardly anybody noted or long remember the news we got that day on Twitter from @BlueJaysPR:

'Minor league trade: Gio Urshela has been sent to the Yankees for cash considerations.'"


I'm sure you were on top of it at the time, Mr. Twitter.

Whenever Lupica is wrong, it's "we."

But this is incorrect..

While Urshela has obviously far exceeded expectations and might be the Value MVP of the whole league ... no, I have not researched the rest of the league ... he is not the best player on the Yankees right now.


"So nobody paid much attention to Urshela -- now 27, out of Cartagena, Colombia -- who, in a season when the Yankees tried to line up guys on the injured list the way they line up Old Timers on Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, has turned out to be more important and indispensable than anybody they have."


I simply don't consider him the most indispensable player on the Yankees.

His replacement wouldn't field as well and obviously wouldn't be hitting .341 ... but a lot of people not name Tyler Wade could have been almost as productive.


"Even the guy who knows everything on 'Jeopardy' couldn’t have seen this coming."

Jesus.

If I may, let me put a [sic] on Jeopardy ... I think it's customary to include the exclamation point.

Good pop culture reference, though. I'll check out the Sports Reporters podcast to hear it 20 more times this summer.


"There have been other unlikely heroes in the American League so far. Michael Chavis, who had five RBIs for the Red Sox on Sunday as they were sweeping the Mariners and has injected life and pop into Boston’s batting order when it badly needed it, comes right to mind."

Does he?

Does Michael Chavis come right to mind?

You had to look that up on the Internet. You're not fooling anyone.


So you've got two unlikely heroes in the AL so far.

Name a few more and then you can pretend you pay attention to the entire AL and not just the Red Sox and the Yankees.


"But there has been no more unlikely hero in baseball so far than Urshela for the Yankees."

Domingo German.

Urshela has 15 RBIs and 2 HRs. 11-for-27 with RISP is AMAZING ... and it's also only 27 at-bats.

German is a #6 starter who leads MLB in wins. I'd say that's unlikely for a player whose under/over for 2019 wins was probably 1.5.


"And understand: It’s not as if he just fell into Cashman’s lap. The GM had first tried to get him away from the Indians when the Indians had him. Could not. Liked his defense."

Content notwithstanding, that is some outstanding writing right there, chopping up one simple thought into 4 choppy sentences and one unnecessary colon. Well done.


"The Yankees shouldn’t be as close to first place as they are after all the injuries they’ve had, to Stanton and Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks and Luis Severino and Dellin Betances and everybody else. "

Agreed.


"There have been other guys who have hit. But their best hitter and their biggest star has been Urshela, who grew up worshipping a soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo, as a kid in Colombia, and dreaming of being one himself. Now he’s a baseball star in the spring of 2019 at Yankee Stadium. Obviously his manager recognizes an unlikely star like this when he sees one. Takes one to know one."

I have no freaking idea what Cristiano Ronaldo has to do with any of this ... and I guess describing Boone as an "unlikely star" is referencing a HR he hit 16 years ago? ... but Lupica just jinxed Gio Urshela.

It was nice knowing you, Gio.

Say hi to Tony Womack, Sonny Gray, Josh Satin, and every Mets team since 1986.

The game has really changed.

Listen to this guy and this guy.

These pitches were practically strikes, for cryin' out loud.