Maybe they're watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 reruns.

Hey, man, you're the clown who was talking about a Subway Series in June. "The '86 Mets 2.0" and all that nonsense.

Fundamentally, the reason your predictions are usually wrong is because you seldom know what you're talking about. 

Who will be the hero?

Funny, this is my pick as well:

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, INF

With Bo Bichette playing at less than 100 percent due to a compromised left knee, there’s a decent chance we see Kiner-Falefa in Game 7. And while he hasn’t hit well in this World Series so far, IKF did hit .333 with a pair of doubles in the seven-game ALCS victory over the Mariners. And he has some significant playoff experience, having played in 20 playoff games between the Yankees in 2022 and the Blue Jays this postseason.

Sans the power, Kiner-Falefa has demonstrated some of what has made the 2025 Blue Jays so successful at the plate -- he makes frequent contact (15.1% whiff rate during the regular season) and doesn’t strike out often (16.8% K rate in the regular season). If there’s one thing Toronto has shown during these playoffs, it’s that putting the ball in play and putting pressure on the opposing defense can pay dividends.

If it comes down to a big moment late in the game when putting the ball in play could be huge, Kiner-Falefa could find himself in the spotlight with a chance to etch his name into Blue Jays lore.

-- Manny Randhawa

 

"Shut up and ground out to the second baseman with runners in scoring position."

The Star-Ledger doesn't need to pay attention to Mark Teixeira. It isn't sports coverage.

Just my periodic reminder that Yankee fans ran Clay Holmes out of town.

Not to mention IKF, who starred in the ALCS turning confident doubles plays and delivering a pivotal two-strike hit in Game Seven.

Luke Weaver was a fun ride while it lasted. It was a mirage. He is the same as most relief pitchers. He is closer-quality unhittable for very brief periods of time. He's more Chad Green than Mariano Rivera.

Mr. Met Chris Bassitt finally gets a chance to get a ring with ... ummm ... let me look him up online to find out what team he's on.

Scherzer was with the Mets for 15 minutes.

Good article, though. 

They really changed their facial hair policy because of this guy.

"Where" is the least of my concerns.

Winning is fun. Losing is not fun. It really doesn't matter where it happens. 

Please don't talk about the Yankees. You don't know what you're talking about.

The 2025 Mets are going to challenge the 1986 Mets.

It's basically just a jinx. If Lupica has a prediction about a baseball outcome, bet the ranch on the opposite.

Bob Nightengale knows what is going to happen in a three-game series.

I think the Dodgers are sleeping giants and deserve the benefit of the doubt. But a few bad pitches to Soto or Alonso or Lindor and suddenly your entire season is sunk. A bad umpire's call. An unexpected fielding error at a bad time. A relief pitcher wipes sweat off his forehead with the bases loaded and it's a balk.

It would be funny. To me, it would be funny.

I don't even believe in the "Kings of New York" story line and I pay more attention to the Yankees than the Mets.

But with all the preseason and early season hype, it would be hilarious and just desserts if they missed the playoffs.

I also think they'll make the playoffs. Then they might even win the World Series. 

The Hall of Fame of Three-Pitch Strikeouts?

Stanton is playing much better this season than I expected and I look optimistically towards another season of Playoff Stanton.

But the Hall of Fame? 

The Hall of Fame of What?

The Hall of Fame of One-Trick Ponies? 

 

Indefensible.

For one thing, fans never need to relax.

Fans are fanatical and pro athletes should get down on their knees and thank the Lord we have an illogical passion for this stuff.

Furthermore, Sabathia's analysis is just provably incorrect:

" It’s hard to develop young talent here. Just because of the demand, right? We’re trying to win the World Series every year. You don’t have time for guys to go through growing pains.' "

Three full seasons is approaching veteran status. It isn't just growing pains.

 

"' If we were able to, as a fan base, as a city, let these kids go through whatever they’re going to go through.' " 

Players are judged by their performance on the field.

More than any other young player can remember, Volpe has been given a chance to prove himself.

 

" 'The game’s hard to play, man. It’s very difficult.' "

Correct. Playing professional baseball is difficult. Anthony Volpe has met his match.

He is unable to perform this particularly difficult task to the level of highly-paid professionals who are competing against him every game.

 

"Sabathia said that phenomenon — and the fact that it's impossible for Yankees shortstops to escape comparisons to Jeter — is what has fueled the negativity surrounding Volpe."

Nobody said it was easy to be a shortstop in the major leagues. The comparisons to HOFer Derek Jeter are foolish indeed. You may as well compare Greg Bird to Lou Gehrig.

As for the post-Jeter Yankee shortstops, that's also a cop out. It isn't the fan's fault. If you can't do it, then you can't do it. 

 

 

 

It's the umpire's fault.

"When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat,” Williams said. “Obviously, Correa hit the double, so I kind of had my back against the wall right away. Made some really good pitches to Sánchez, which [Walsh] missed two in that at-bat. You just keep going, right? But at the end of the day, that changes outcomes. I should have had Sánchez [who walked on five pitches] 0-2 instead of 2-1. ... The 2-0 pitch was a strike,” the right-hander said. “That turns into a 2-2 count instead of a 3-1 count.”

Frankly, given Williams's lack of professionalism, I'm surprised he understands the importance of throwing strikes. Though throughout his rant he displays a confusion about arithmetic, at least he understands the theoretical bedrock principle that strikes are good and balls are bad, from a pitcher's perspective.

From a pitcher's perspective, home runs are also bad. Runs. Hitting batters with pitches. 

So maybe there's a long way to go before he's a professional pitcher, but it's baby steps. 

He makes good pitches like Volpe makes good swings.

Volpe's 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts was one of the most promising 0-for-3s I've ever seen, just given the subjective quality of his swings.

Same goes for Williams. If you ignore the two hits, the four walks, the four runs, and the 5.60 ERA for the season ... if you are fixated on the outcomes rather than the artistic aesthetic ... you may miss out on the true greatness of Devin Williams.

You're thinking about it too much.

The Yankees deserve blame for continuing to play a bad ballplayer; for throwing good money after bad; for organizational delusions.

But I see no reason to think that a trip to the minor leagues would have made Volpe "much better."

I see no reason to think that a disciplinarian manager would have somehow given Volpe the ability to throw the ball to the first baseman. 

I see no reason to think that Volpe's psychological reactions to managerial scrutiny are a bigger problem than his basic physical inability to play major league baseball.

Also, it doesn't matter where you place the blame. No one is solely blaming Volpe. Every fan who's angry at Volpe is also angry at the Yankees for acting as if nothing is wrong.

Same goes for Wells, by the way.

These young players at shorstop and catcher are disastrously bad.

So much for committing to the young players.

Just really, really good swings. Like, the best swings I've ever seen in an 0-for-4 game by a player in a 1-for-32 slump and with a season batting average of .206.

A drill down on a bad play.

"It also included him laying down a questionable sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning with one out and the Yankees trailing by three runs."

I would love to see Volpe sacrifice more often. I've said this many times.

He has a preposterously low number of sac bunts in his career given his inability to hit with RISP and his position in the lineup.

If he's going to be in the starting lineup (less likely as his performance continues to diminish), then just bat him ninth and force him to sac bunt as often as possible. Stop swinging for the fences every time, little man.

The errors are bad. The on-base percentage is bad. The high number of strikeouts is bad.

If Volpe was a smart, clutch, instinctive player, then he may add value beyond the box score. The intangibles that Yankee fans claim to understand so well.

But he's one of the stupidest players I've ever seen.

A sac bunt in the fourth inning trailing by three runs ... WITH ONE OUT! ... is not "questionable." That's what pitchers did before the universal DH. Only pitchers and only before the universal DH.

If he was bunting for a hit and missed, sometimes that happens. It makes no sense given his 0-for-career success rate bunting for base hits (as far as I know).

If he didn't know how many outs there were, that's a ridiculous trademark of the 2025 Yankees.

But what seems most likely is that he knew how many outs there were, he knew the score, he knew the game situation, and still thought it was a good idea.

It's not "questionable" and it's not "aggressive." It's stupid. It's really bad. I might refer to it as Little League stupid, except I think the Little Leaguers are smarter than this.

Also, it adds up when it's day after day and every routine ground ball to shortstop is a stressful adventure for everyone. It's rare to see the starting Yankees shortstop charge a routine ground ball, field it cleanly, rhythmically step into the routine throw to first base and hit the first baseman in the chest.

So it's not even the throw itself, which is a physical error that is going to happen from time to time.

It's not even the frequency of these ridiculous physical errors which indicate that this guy just isn't cut out to play in the major leagues.

It's the 50 or 60 bad plays throughout the season that don't count as errors.

It's this "fielder's choice" that had the Red Sox baserunners openly laughing at him.

"Every once is a while, Coney, you just out-think the play."

Who?

Who's "you" in this offhand comment? 

Who does this, Paul O'Neill?

I don't have to reflexively compare Volpe to the HOFer Jeter. I know you did that right away, yes? "Jeter would have never made a mental error like that."

This is true.

A high school backup shortstop would not have made a mental error like that.

Maybe wiffle ball in the backyard where you could get an out by throwing the ball at the baserunner? You aggressively try to peg the baserunner in the back before he or she gets back to the lawn chair that is second base?

This is the level of baseball aptitude we're dealing with, and this guy has been the starting shortstop for the Yankees for three seasons. 

 

 

That's a made-up stat.

Betcha don't know the record for number of Red Sox rookies to hit a home run vs. the Yankees in one season:

"He became the fourth Red Sox rookie (Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell and Carlos Narvaez) to homer vs. the Yankees this year, Boston's most in a season since 2014."

So ... two pitches. In two games.

"I’m trying to throw it down and away there, and missed middle -- and obviously, he did what he did,” Williams said. “This game and the last one, it was really one pitch that hurt me. But that’s the difference between winning and losing sometimes, and I can’t let that happen.”

I mean, if you take away three or four bad plays ... let's say three ... if you took away three bad plays that everyone noticed just because he plays on the Yankees, Anthony Volpe is a gold glove winner in 2025.

If you eliminate all the bad pitches he threw, Dale Mohorcic is in the Hall of Fame.

If you took, like, ten losses and turned them into wins, then the Yankees have the best record in baseball.

Volpe rules, Devin Williams rules, and the Yankees rule. 

Just no.

At first, I thought Jazz forgot how many outs there were. I was mistaken. Instead, Jazz was anticipating an intentional drop and then a 4-3-rundown double play.

But here's the problem, Jazz and Boone and anyone else who defends this ridiculous baserunning.

If you think the second baseman is going to drop the ball on purpose, then your job is to just stay at first base.

In what scenario were you getting to second base?

I don't think you know the meaning of the word inexcusable.

It seems far-fetched, but I think there's a possibility that the players dislike their manager and subconsciously embarrass him.

It's more likely just bad modern baseball.

A fixation on home runs and strikeouts at the exclusion of all other skills.

While I don't defend Boone and believe the "nice guy" experiment didn't work, I also don't see how he can punish his players for mental gaffes. There are only 26 players on the team, right? Who's the error-free Charlie Hustle on the roster who's left?

So let's say Paul Goldschmidt has his head in the game, throws to the proper base, tries not to strike out with runners in scoring position, always knows how many outs there are, doesn't lose the ball in the lights, can field pop ups and ground balls, doesn't make the third out at third base, and slides when he is supposed to slide.

Paul Goldschmidt can't play all nine positions on the field.