MLB – Keefe To The City

Jul 15, 2025

2025 MLB All-Animosity Team

This year’s team has a few new players.

The All-Star break is here, which means the season is “half” over. For the Yankees, it’s actually 59 percent over with 66 games left.

Another All-Star break means another annual All-Animosity Team. I’ll always remember the teams which featured David Ortiz, Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Chone Figgins, Dustin Pedroia, Robert Andino, Carl Crawford, Manny Ramirez, Delmon Young, Jose Bautista, Magglio Ordonez, B.J. Upton (when he went by B.J.) and many others. But I also like having a new generation of players to have animosity toward.

Here is the 2025 All-Animosity Team.

C: Danny Jansen
If you’re wondering why a career .219/.308/.414 hitter is on this team, you must have missed a lot of Yankees-Blue Jays games over the years. And not just Yankees-Blue Jays games, but Yankees-Red Sox games and now Yankees-Rays games as well since Jansen won’t just go away and leave the AL East.

Jansen may be a .219/.308/.414 hitter in his career, but he’s a .255/.378/.497 hitter in 51 games against the Yankees with seven doubles, 10 home runs and 26 RBIs. As crazy as it sounds, if you were to ask me the Top 3 hitters I least want to see at the plate with the game on the line against the Yankees, it would be hard for me to not include Jansen in that group.

1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
In 96 career games against the Yankees, Guerrero Jr. is a .285/.352/.533 hitter with 23 doubles, 21 home runs and 70 RBIs. That’s a 162-game pace of 39 doubles, 35 home runs and 118 RBIs. Add in his public comments about how much he hates the Yankees (and rightfully so considering he plays in the same division as them) and it’s easy to see why he’s on this team. Now that Rafael Devers is out of the division and as far away as possible, Guerrero Jr. is the hitter I fear the most within the AL East.

2B: Jose Altuve
The captain of the All-Animosity Team and a future first-ballot All-Animosity Hall of Famer, this job is Altuve’s for as long as he plays in the league.

After hitting .320/.414/.560 with two home runs, four walks and a stolen base in the Astros’ 2017 ALCS win over the Yankees, Altuve hit .348/.444/1.097 with a double, two home runs, four walks and a stolen base in the Astros’ 2019 ALCS win over the Yankees. He’s responsible for ending the Yankees’ season with a walk-off, pennant-winning home run in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS. He’s responsible for a lot of bad memories for Yankees fans. Even when he had a down series against them in the 2022 ALCS, the Astros still swept the Yankees.

He’s the face of this era of the Astros, a team the Yankees have never beat in the postseason, and because of that, he’s the face of this team.

3B: Rafael Devers
It doesn’t matter that Devers is out of the division and off the East Coast. He could be playing in Japan and he would still be on this team. I know Devers no longer plays the field, but he does on this team because what better way to recognize him than to put him back at the spot he was moved off of that led to his dismissal from the Red Sox.

The moment Devers hit that two-strike, opposite-field home run off Aroldis Chapman in 2017, I knew I had a problem. I also knew the All-Animosity Team had a roster spot locked up indefinitely.

In 119 career games against the Yankees, Devers is a .270/.348/.533 hitter with 79 runs, 22 doubles, 31 home runs and 78 RBIs. That’s a 162-game pace of 108 runs, 30 doubles, 42 home runs 106 RBIs. Of course Devers had to hit one last home run against the Yankees as a Red Sox on the day he was traded to the Giants. Thankfully, Devers will only get to hurt the Yankees in three regular-season games each season instead of 13.

SS: Alex Bregman
I’m playing Devers at a position he no longer plays, so I have to play Bregman at a position he hasn’t played in six years. I wouldn’t be a Yankees fan if I wasn’t so willing to play players out of position.

The first thing I used to think about when thinking about Bregman was how hard it is to retire him at the plate. Now when I think of him, I think of him standing there at the Astros’ fan fest after the 2019 season and giving the same rehearsed answer over and over about the team’s sign-stealing scandal with that smirk on his face and that sarcastic laugh. Bregman was the easiest of players to root against and that was before he signed with the Red Sox, which took the level of animosity to another level.

LF: Randal Grichuk
Like Jansen, Grichuk seems out of place on this team, considering he’s not very good and also that he plays for the Diamondbacks and hasn’t been in the AL East in four years. The number of chances Grichuk has each year to hurt the Yankees may have lessened, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make the most of the opportunities he gets against them. His pinch-hit double in the April 2 game this year ignited a five-run eighth for the Diamondbacks in their 7-5 come-from-behind win over the Yankees.

Grichuk has a career .768 OPS, but it’s .825 against the Yankees. He has hit 18 home runs with 35 RBIs in 68 games against the Yankees.

My biggest fear for this trade deadline is that the Yankees will overpay for a third baseman who can’t hit or a third baseman who can’t field, or that they will part with George Lombard Jr. or Cam Schlittler. My second-biggest fear is that Grichuk will be traded to the AL and be an unwanted part of my life as a baseball fan more frequently again.

CF: Enrique Hernandez
My wife is a Dodgers fan, so since 2013 I have watched nearly every Dodgers game. I have watched Hernandez’s entire career, first when he was a Dodger, then with the Red Sox, and again back with the Dodgers. Never has an eight-percent-worse-than-league-average hitter for his career had such a lasting impact against Yankees fans.

The combination of Hernandez and Dave Roberts single-handedly gave the Red Sox the 2018 World Series. Hernandez went 2-for-15 in that series and Roberts kept batting him at the top of the order. (Roberts also used Ryan Madson in every crucial spot in the series as if it were 2009 and not 2018.) So after helping the Red Sox in a championship as an opponent, he nearly helped them win one as a member of the team in 2021, as he went 20-for-49 in the 2021 playoffs. Thankfully, the captain of this team ended the Red Sox’ season.

Hernandez rejoined the Dodgers where he helped beat the Yankees in the 2024 World Series. He led off the season-ruining fifth inning of Game 5 with a single. It was his presence on first base that somehow led to Aaron Judge taking his eye off the line drive he dropped. It was his baserunning that somehow led Anthony Volpe to make a wild throw to third base.

When I think of Hernandez, I think of he and every Dodger doing their dumb post-hit dance when they reach base. I look forward to the day Hernandez is out of baseball.

RF: Juan Soto
Do I actually dislike Soto? No. Watching his 777 plate appearances as a Yankee was as enjoyable as watching someone bat could possibly be. I miss knowing who will be batting second every day for the Yankees and I miss the Yankees having the best back-to-back lineup situation in the league. But he’s gone and he’s never coming back and because of where he went and who he plays for and who roots for him, I have had to create animosity toward him.

Whatever was wrong with Soto through the first two months of the season is clearly resolved. Since June 1, he’s hitting .311/.455/.659 with 14 home runs and 29 RBIs in 39 games. After no-showing the Subway Series Yankee Stadium portion, Soto went 4-for-11 with three runs, a double, a home run, three RBIs and a walk in the Citi Field portion.

I’m glad he’s at least out of the AL. Now I just need to pray he doesn’t win a World Series for as long as he’s a Met.

SP: Nathan Eovaldi
Never trust a pitcher to who throws triple-digit fastballs and has trouble striking hitters out, which is what Eovaldi was with the Yankees and has mostly been in his career. The Dodgers gave up on him and then the Marlins gave up on him. The Yankees thought they could be the ones to hone his incredible velocity, but they weren’t.

As a Yankee in 2015, Eovaldi pitched to a 14-3 record, so every idiot who relies on wins and losses to determine a pitcher’s success thought he had a great season. It didn’t matter that he received 5.75 runs of support per start or that he routinely struggled to get through five innings because he needed 20-plus pitches to get through each inning. In 2016, it was more of the same. Eovaldi pitched to a .476 ERA over 21 starts and 24 games before being shut down for another Tommy John surgery, ending his time with the Yankees as they let him walk after the season.

Eovaldi returned to the mound in 2018 and pitched well with the Rays and was traded to the Red Sox. He went on to shut out the Yankees in an important August series for the division lead and shut them out again in September. He did it again in October (even if he received more run support than any opposing starter had received in a postseason game at Yankee Stadium in history).

In 2018, Eovaldi beat the Yankees and Astros in the playoffs, mixed in a few relief appearances and then became a hero for his bullpen work in Game 3 of the World Series (even though he took the loss after giving up a walk-off home run). Eovaldi helped the Red Sox win the World Series and five years later helped the Rangers win it all after earning five wins in six starts in the 2023 postseason. “Nasty Nate” will be on this team for as long as he pitches.

RP: Aroldis Chapman
When I think of Chapman’s time with the Yankees, I think of three things. The first being him giving up the pennant-winning home run to Altuve in 2019. The second being him giving up the go-ahead home run to Mike Brosseau in Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS. The third being him being told to go home after he skipped a postseason workout in 2022.

After leaving the Yankees, Chapman ended up with the Rangers and helped them win the World Series in 2023, alongside this team’s starter in Eovaldi. Now he’s with Red Sox, where at age 37 he was named an All-Star for the first time in four years and has posted a career-best 1.18 ERA, a career-best 0.763 WHIP, a career-best 2.4 walks per nine (4.7 as a Yankee) and a career-best 5.80 strikeouts per walk (2.96 a Yankee). He has allowed only 19 hits in 38 innings with 58 strikeouts this season. He has 17 saves and two against the Yankees.

If you haven’t had a vision of Chapman striking out Volpe to eliminate the Yankees in the postseason and Chapman standing on the mound raising his arms in the air as the Red Sox win their fifth championship since 2004 then you must not understand how things go for ex-Yankees after they leave the team.

Blogs • MLB • MLB Bets

Apr 10, 2022

MLB Bets: Sunday, April 10

Here are the bets for Sunday, April 10.

The first loss of the season came on Saturday (thanks, Tigers!) and the first losing day of the season was Saturday (also thanks, Brewers and Dodgers!). Thankfully, we can turn the page like Aaron Boone reminded everyone every single day last season, and Sunday is a new day with a new slate of games.

Here are the bets for Sunday, April 10.

White Sox -125 over Tigers
It’s not often you get a matchup as favorable as the White Sox have on Sunday against Tigers’ lefty Tarik Skubal.

Tim Anderson (11): .500/.546/1.200
Luis Robert (1): .000/.000/.000
Jose Abreu (11): .455/.455/.546
Eloy Jimenez (2): .000/.000/.000
Andrew Vaughn (8): .286/.375/.286
Josh Harrison (3): .333/.333/.667
Adam Engel (3): .667/.667/1.667
Reese McGuire (0)
Danny Mendick (7): .500/.571/.500

Sure, it’s not the greatest of sample sizes. It’s pretty much the smallest of sample sizes. But it’s something, and the White Sox are going to roll out eight right-handed hitters against Skubal, and righties have an .824 OPS against him in his career (lefties have a .620).

The Tigers handed me my first loss of the season on Saturday and now it’s time to get it back.

Braves -170 over Reds
Hunter Greene makes his major-league debut on Sunday. He was outstanding in seven Double-A starts in 2021 and solid in 14 at Triple-A. But the former second-overall pick won’t be facing Double- or Triple-A lineups in his debut, he’ll be facing the World Series champions.

I love Ian Anderson. Since his 2020 debut when he nearly no-hit the Yankees, I have been a fan. In his first start of the season he gets the exceedingly weak Reds lineup at home. It’s a perfect way for a starter to begin a year.

This line was at -235 on Saturday and now it’s down to -165 on Sunday morning. I thought maybe the entire Braves roster went on the injured list and they were playing an all-minor-league roster. But no. Just a crazy money line swing in favor of the lowly Reds.

Brewers -130 over Cubs
I’m going back to the Brewers well. Even though I wrote on Saturday that I’m not as high on the Brewers as nearly every other baseball fan and observer, and every projection, I can’t fathom them getting swept by this Cubs teams to begin the season. Saturday’s game was a debacle with the Brewers getting shut out 9-0, a day after blowing a two-run lead.

Marcus Stroman is really good and is probably the reason the line has dropped from the -130 I took it at down to -120. Then more money realized the Cubs really suck and their 2-0 record is a mirage, and the line has been bet back to -130. Freddy Peralta is also really good (and to me the Brewers’ true No. 2 and at times even a 1A to Corbin Burnes), though this game is more about the overrated Brewers offense being due to break out. Coming off a shutout loss, no better time than today.

More to come for the late afternoon games!

Braves -170 over Reds
Dodgers -190 over Rockies
Those are the lines for this parlay today. When I took this parlay yesterday, both money lines were over -200, which I why I put the two together. Now that the Braves fell to -170, I took them straight up as well. (Again, not sure what’s going on there. Yes, Greene could be lights out in his major-league debut, but even so, I don’t know how the Reds are scoring.)

I may just have to take the Dodgers straight up as well depending on how the early Braves game plays out.

Yesterday: 2-3 (-1.95u)
Season: 7-3 (+3.31u)

Blogs • MLB • MLB Bets

Apr 9, 2022

MLB Bets: Saturday, April 9

Here are the bets for Saturday, April 9.

Yesterday was a good day. No, a great day. The Yankees beat the Red Sox, Aaron Boone showed some semblance of intelligence, and the bets went 4-0.

Here are the bets for Saturday, April 9.

Tigers +115 over White Sox
The Tigers’ starting lineup on Saturday has crushed Dylan Cease with an .876 OPS in 75 plate appearances. The White Sox’ starting lineup has only hit for a .717 OPS against Casey Mize. When I originally saw this line, the Tigers were at +130. By the time I bet it, it had dropped to +115.

The Tigers stole the first game of the series when A.J. Pollock couldn’t cleanly catch a Javier Baez ball off the wall to give the Tigers’ a walk-off win after replay review. Kendall Graveman, Aaron Bummer and Liam Hendriks combined to throw 76 pitches, and I’m not sure if any will be available back-to-back games to begin the season when it will be 40 degrees with a feels like of 33 at first pitch in Detroit on Saturday.

Brewers -150 over Cubs
This game and this matchup was supposed to take place yesterday. I’m still on it with some added value as it was -160 when I took it yesterday.

I’m not as high on the Brewers as most, especially projections, because their lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, they have a very strong rotation and a solid bullpen, but the only hitter to fear is Christian Yelich, and it’s going on three years since he has last been feared. Unless you fear ex-Yankee legend Jace Peterson who started at third base for the Brewers in their season-opening loss to the Cubs.

That season-opening loss to the Cubs is why I’m on the Brewers in Game 2 of the series. The Cubs are awful. They used their one good starter in Game 1, and used a Nico Hoerner two-run home run to help lead them to an unexpected win in a game started by Corbin Burnes. (Of course, Clint Frazier went 1-for-1 with a double in his Cubs debut. I will miss Frazier.) Back-to-back wins for the Cubs over the Brewers? I don’t see it. Especially since no one outside of Andrelton Simmons (5-for-7) hits Brandon Woodruff. I don’t expect Justin Steele to give the Cubs length on Friday (five innings would be his ceiling in an ideal scenario), so the Cubs will need at least four innings from their bullpen, and the Brewers will have many opportunities to win this one.

Yankees -155 over Red Sox
The first batters in the Yankees’ lineup on Saturday are a combined 12-for-41 (.292) with five home runs against Nick Pivetta. The current Red Sox roster is miserable against Luis Severino. J.D. Martinez has a .921 OPS in 19 plate appearances, but that’s it. Jackie Bradley .533 (30 plate appearances), Xander Bogaerts .200 (25), Rafael Devers .143 (14).

I never feel confident picking these Yankees against these Red Sox, but the numbers suggest I’m foolish to feel this way. It’s Severino’s first start since Game 3 of the 2019 ALCS, and he will likely be held to even less of a pitch count than Gerrit Cole was on Friday at 75-80. Even so, I think a Yankees offense that struggled on Opening Day and got all of their runs via the home run and the automatic runner will bust out on Saturday. With Aaron Hicks sitting, Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield and Aaron Boone suddenly turning into a reliable manager in a one-game and two-day sample size, it’s lining up for a 2-0 start to the season for the Yankees.

Dodgers -145 over Rockies
The Dodgers’ lineup doesn’t have very good numbers against German Marquez, but the Rockies’ lineup has abysmal numbers against Tony Gonsolin in a limited 30 plate appearances. But it’s the Dodgers against the Rockies, and there’s no reason the Dodgers shouldn’t be at least -200 every time they play the Rockies. It doesn’t matter that it’s Marquez and it doesn’t matter that it’s on the road. The Rockies suck.

Dodgers-Rockies Under 12 -115
The Dodgers-Rockies under 11.5 was cruising on Friday with two runs scored heading into the fourth. Then the Dodgers scored five times, forcing the Rockies to go to their bullpen and I figured the wager was lost cause. Needing 33 outs at Coors Field and only being able to give up four runs? Not a spot you want to be in. Thankfully, both teams put up zeros all the way until the bottom of the ninth when the Rockies scored a run.

I’m going back to the well on Saturday with the over/under increased by half a run. The Dodgers have a lesser pitcher going on Saturday in Gonsolin than on Friday in Walker Buehler, but the Rockies have a better pitcher going on Saturday in Marquez than on Friday in Kyle Freeland.

Yesterday: 4-0

Blogs • MLB • MLB Bets

Apr 8, 2022

MLB Bets: Friday, April 8, 2022

It’s Opening Day! (For the Yankees that is, and that’s all that matters, right?) OK, so it’s Opening Day 2.0. (To me, it’s the real Opening Day.) There are 13 games on the Friday schedule before we get our first full 15-game slate of 2022 on Saturday.

It’s Opening Day! (For the Yankees that is, and that’s all that matters, right?) OK, so it’s Opening Day 2.0. (To me, it’s the real Opening Day.) There are 13 games on the Friday schedule before we get our first full 15-game slate of 2022 on Saturday.

Here are the bets for Friday, April 8.

Yankees -170 over Red Sox
If I weren’t a Yankees fan, I would be all over the other side of this pick. But I am a Yankees fan and it’s Opening Day, so there’s no way I’m sitting this one out, even though I don’t have a good feeling about this game (just like I didn’t have a good feeling about the same matchup in last season’s wild-card game), and I’m going against my own rule of taking a team straight up at -170 just because it’s the Yankees. I’m setting myself up for a very depressing Friday night if the Yankees lose since they will not only lose on Opening Day, but they will lose to the Red Sox of all teams, and cost me financially. Oh well!

Cole has always had trouble with the Red Sox dating back to his time with the Astros, and as a Yankee, whether he’s been using sticky stuff or not, his troubles have continued against them. (To make matters worse, the Yankees’ ace also has a problem pitching well against the Rays and Blue Jays. No big deal.) The last time he pitched against them was just over six months ago when he single-handedly ended the Yankees’ season four batters into the first inning. Cole was thoroughly embarrassed in the last game the Yankees played, and injured hamstring or not, he chose to take the ball and has to live with the fact that his performance, both in September and in the one-game playoff ruined the Yankees’ season. It was his September collapse that forced the Yankees into playing that one game on the road, and it was his one-game playoff performance that ended the season.

“Sick to my stomach,” is what he said following the Yankees’ elimination a little more than six months ago. He has had to wear that effort for the last half-year and now he has a chance to begin redeeming himself against the Yankees’ rival. It doesn’t mean he will, it just means he can, if he pitches well. And with his knack for deep counts and elevated pitch counts, and with an expected pitch count of about 75-80 on Friday, it’s not hard to see Cole lasting only four innings in this game. Not great! (Again, this is a very ill-advised wager.)

I despise Nathan Eovaldi. He is the face of my last few All-Animosity Teams after a bust of a Yankees tenure that has led to him becoming the pitcher the Yankees thought they acquired from Marlins, except for the Red Sox. He has dominated the Yankees as a Red Sox, while also playing an important role in the Red Sox’ 2018 championship. It makes me sick. Not metaphorically “sick to my stomach” like Cole said after Eovaldi outpitched him to end the 2021 season, I mean actually, violently sick. I get hives thinking about Eovaldi and body aches and fatigue watching him mow down the Yankees.

These Red Sox have owned Cole, and Eovaldi has owned these Yankees. It’s foolish of me to know all of this, write all of this and still wager actual money on the other side of everything I think about this matchup, especially at -170 and especially with Cole supposedly not being allowed to get close to 100 pitches. But like I said, it’s the Yankees and it’s Opening Day, and I can’t sit this one out, even if that’s the sensible thing to do. If Cole only lasts four or five innings, at least the Yankees’ bullpen is the biggest edge they have over the Red Sox.

Brewers -160 over Cubs
I’m not as high on the Brewers as most, especially projections, because their lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, they have a very strong rotation and a solid bullpen, but the only hitter to fear is Christian Yelich, and it’s going on three years since he has last been feared. Unless you fear ex-Yankee legend Jace Peterson who started at third base for the Brewers in their season-opening loss to the Cubs.

That season-opening loss to the Cubs is why I’m on the Brewers in Game 2 of the series. The Cubs are awful. They used their one good starter in Game 1, and used a Nico Hoerner two-run home run to help lead them to an unexpected win in a game started by Corbin Burnes. (Of course, Clint Frazier went 1-for-1 with a double in his Cubs debut. I will miss Frazier.) Back-to-back wins for the Cubs over the Brewers? I don’t see it. Especially since no one outside of Andrelton Simmons (5-for-7) hits Brandon Woodruff. I don’t expect Justin Steele to give the Cubs length on Friday (five innings would be his ceiling in an ideal scenario), so the Cubs will need at least four innings from their non-Mychal Givens/David Robertson relievers, and the Brewers will have many opportunities to win this one.

Mets -160 over Nationals
The Mets were the first bet of the season, and I wish I had wagered more. Sure, the Nationals have the best hitter in baseball in Juan Soto, but after Soto and Nelson Cruz (who I will always fear even if he’s still playing at age 50), that’s it. They are a really bad team destined for an abundance of losses and a last-place finish in the NL East. I will enjoy betting against them all season.

Dodgers -210 over Rockies
Braves -180 over Reds
Yeah, yeah, I know parlays are for suckers. Well, I’m a sucker on Opening Day. After six-plus months without Yankees baseball, five-plus months without any baseball and a three-plus month lockout that nearly destroyed this season, I’m putting together a parlay. I don’t care.

The Rockies’ roster is atrocious, like 90-plus losses atrocious. Charlie Blackmon has had exceptional success against Walker Buehler in 56 plate appearances (.385/.411/1.045), and Brendan Rodgers (.308/.308/.769) and C.J. Cron (.429/.429/.571) have done well against the right-hander in a limited 27 plate appearances, but that’s it. The rest of the current Rockies team hasn’t hit Buehler. Buehler hasn’t pitched well in 65 career innings at Coors Field (4.98 ERA), but a lot of those innings came against a Rockies team that had Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story and still-in-his-prime Charlie Blackmon. The innings on Friday won’t come against that Rockies team.

Kyle Freeland is a solid pitcher, who has a remarkable 4.20 career ERA in 654 innings given that he’s only ever pitched for the Rockies. The problem for him is his inability to record strikeouts. It’s not that a career 7.0 K/9 is something to scoff at (7.8 last season), it’s that it’s 2022 and in this era of baseball, not having a 1-to-1 strikeout-to-inning ratio as a starter is shocking. The Dodgers’ collective team numbers against Freeland aren’t anything special (.731 OPS), but the right-handed hitters have done well against him, and you can expect a right-handed heavy lineup against him. At most, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger will be the only lefty starters, and Bellinger has an .821 OPS against Freeland.

Even if Freeland is able to hold down the Dodgers’ two times through the order, the hooks are going to be quick on all starters because of the shortened spring training and their inability to be fully stretched out. That brings in the Rockies’ X-factor of manager Bud Black, who is arguably the worst manager in all of baseball. He makes Aaron Boone look like Joe Torre, and Black coupled with a bullpen that flat-out sucks at Coors Field is how you get a run total sat at 11.5 in a game started by Cy Young contender Buehler.

As for the Braves-Reds games, I have never liked betting on Braves game. They (along with the Cardinals) are the team that will screw me either way I go. But after losing their first game of the season to the Reds, I don’t think they lose back-to-back to a Reds team that is horrible simply because their front office is actively trying to lose this season.

Dodgers-Rockies Under 11.5 -115
It seems like no Coors Field under is ever a good idea. I have been crushed many times on 13.5s there, but 11.5 is a lot of runs in a game in which Buehler will start. The Dodgers could cover this on their own against the Rockies’ bullpen, but there’s too much value in being able to 1.28 runs per inning with someone as good as Buehler pitching against a lineup as bad as the Rockies’.

Yesterday: 1-0

Blogs • MLB • Yankees

Jul 13, 2021

2021 MLB All-Animosity Team

The All-Star break means the announcement of this season’s All-Animosity Team.

The All-Star break is here, which means the season is “half” over. For the Yankees, it’s actually 55 percent over with 73 games left, and they likely need to win 50 of those 73 games to have a chance at the division and might need to win that many just to play in the one-game, wild card game. Don’t tell Aaron Boone that though. He thinks the season is endless without a finite number of games to be played. At least that’s the way he talks after each loss, and there have been a lot of them.

Another All-Star break means another All-Animosity Team. I’ll always remember the teams which featured David Wright, Josh Beckett, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Adrian Gonzalez, Chone Figgins, Kevin Youkilis, Robert Andino, Carl Crawford, Manny Ramirez, Matt Wieters, Delmon Young, B.J. Upton (when he went by B.J.), Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jose Bautista, Magglio Ordonez and many others. But I also like having a new generation of players to have animosity for.

The standards to be considered for the team are simple and only one of the following three requirements needs to be met:

1. The player crushes the Yankees.

2. The player plays for the Red Sox or Mets.

3. I don’t like the person. (When I say, “I don’t like the person” or if I say, “I hate someone” I mean I don’t like the person who wears a uniform and plays or manages for a Major League Baseball team and not the actual person away from the game. I’m sure some of the people on this list are nice people. I’m glad we got that out of the way since I can already see Player X’s fan base in an uproar about me hating someone who does so much for the community.)

Here is the 2021 All-Animosity Team.

C: Danny Jansen
If you’re wondering who Danny Jansen is, you’re not alone. Jansen is the Blue Jays’ catcher with the career .201 batting average, .290 on-base percentage and .358 slugging percentage. He’s as light of a hitter as you can be in the majors and still be in the majors. So why is that no Yankees pitcher can get him out?

In 228 career games, Jansen is a .201/.290/.358 hitter with 26 home runs and 80 RBIs. In 25 games against the Yankees, he’s a .316/.416/.605 hitter with six home runs and 15 RBIs. On a team with Vladimir Gurrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez, Cavan Biggio and Rowdy Tellez, I would rather have any of those players up in a big spot against the Yankees than Jansen.

1B: Pete Alonso
I will never get over Pete Alonso breaking Aaron Judge’s rookie home run record in a season in which the actual baseball was manufactured so differently that Brett Gardner hit 28 home runs. Alonso never should have hit 53 home runs and never should have broken Judge’s record of 52.

To be honest, I like Alonso. I like his personality, I like how he loves competing in the Home Run Derby, and I like how he won the 2021 Home Run Derby when I had him at +600 to win. I just don’t like that he plays for the Mets.

2B: Jose Altuve
Jose Altuve used to be my favorite non-Yankees player. That was before October 2019 and the uncovering of the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

After hitting .320/.414/.560 with two home runs, four walks and a stolen base in the Astros’ 2017 ALCS win over the Yankees, Altuve hit .348/.444/1.097 with a double, two home runs, four walks and a stolen base in the Astros’ 2019 ALCS win over the Yankees. He’s also responsible for ending the Yankees’ season with a walk-off, pennant-winning home run in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS.

I used to enjoy watching Altuve play (when not playing the Yankees) and admired his ability for his stature. Now I watch him hoping he will fail, though he rarely does, and certainly doesn’t against the Yankees, as his two three-run home runs this season of Chad Green are responsible for the Yankees’ only two losses to the Astros.

3B: Rafael Devers
The moment Rafael Devers hit that two-strike, opposite-field home run off Aroldis Chapman in 2017, I knew I had a problem. I also knew the All-Animosity Team had a third baseman for the next decade.

After his impressive 58-game rookie season in 2017, Devers looked lost last in 2018, batting .240/.298/.433 in 121 games and I got ahead of myself thinking the 21-year-old might be a bust. In 2019, he hit .311/.361/.555 with a league-leading 54 doubles to go along with 32 home runs 115 RBIs. He already has 10 career home runs against the Yankees in only 58 games, and has driven in nine runs against them in six games this season.

Devers is going to be on this team for a long, long time. That is, until he’s set to free agency and the Red Sox cry poor and trade him like they did Mookie Betts. I can only dream that will happen.

SS: Carlos Correa
While Altuve and Alex Bregman were hiding behind their prepared statements and vague responses to questions about the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal following the 2019 season, Correa was busy talking to anyone who would listen. The only problem was a lot of what he said was outrageous.

Add in his ridiculous .939 career OPS against the Yankees in the regular season, his .913 OPS against them in the 2017 ALCS and his two home runs in the 2019 ALCS, including his walk-off in Game 2, and Correa is an easy fit to pencil in at short on this team.

LF: Trey Mancini
After being left off the 2020 roster, so he could beat cancer rather than play baseball, it’s good to have Mancini back on this team because it means he’s healthy and it means he’s playing baseball again.

Since the Manny Machado trade and until the emergence of Cedric Mullins, Mancini was the only actual major leaguer playing for the Orioles. Despite this, the Yankees would still allow Mancini to beat them. He’s the last person I want up in a big spot when the Yankees play the Orioles as he always seems to find a gap at the most inopportune times.

CF: Kevin Kiermaier
Kiermaier is a career .247/.306/.408 hitter, but against the Yankees it seems like he’s Ken Griffey Jr. Thirteen of his 73 career home runs (18 percent) have come against the Yankees, and in 2020, Kiermaier drew game-changing walks, hit big home runs against Masahiro Tanaka and Gerrit Cole and continued to play Gold Glove defense to help the Rays easily win the division.

Normally, I want Yankees pitching to face as many hitters with Kiermaier’s numbers as possible, but not Kiermaier. I’m looking forward to his contract with the Rays ending in 2022, and hopefully the team option for 2023 isn’t picked up.

RF: Randal Grichuk
How, for a second straight year, did Randal Grichuk end up on this team full of All-Stars, award-winning players and ex-Yankees? Well, in 2018, he hit five home runs in 16 games against the Yankees. In 2019, he had two doubles, eight home runs, 15 RBIs and a .938 OPS in 19 games against the Yankees. This season, he’s added another two home runs and four total extra-base hits, including his 10th inning double on Opening Day to give the Blue Jays the lead in a game they would win to launch arguably the worst Yankees’ season in nearly 30 years.

Grichuk is barely a major leaguer when he plays against the 28 other teams not named the Yankees, but a Hall of Famer against the Yankees. He essentially hits against the Yankees the way Ortiz, Evan Longoria, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Manny Machado used to.

DH: Alex Bregman
The first thing I used to think about when thinking about Bregman was how hard it is to retire him at the plate. Now when I think of him, I think of him standing there at the Astros’ fan fest after the 2019 season and giving the same rehearsed answer over and over about the team’s sign-stealing scandal with that smirk on his face and the sarcastic laugh he kept giving the media. The easiest of players to root against.

SP: Nathan Eovaldi
Never trust a pitcher who throws triple-digit fastballs and can’t strike anyone out and that’s exactly what Eovaldi is. The Dodgers gave up on him and then the Marlins gave up on him as a 24-year-old with incredible velocity because he didn’t have an out pitch and didn’t know where the ball was going. So the Yankees gave up Martin Prado and David Phelps because of the glamour of Eovaldi’s fastball, thinking they would be the ones who could fix him. They weren’t.

Eovaldi pitched to a 14-3 record in 2015, so every idiot who relies on wins and losses to determine a pitcher’s success thought he had a great season. It didn’t matter that he received 5.75 runs of support per game or that he routinely struggled to get through five innings and qualify for a win because he needs 20-plus pitches to get through each inning. In 2016, it was more of the same. Eovaldi pitched to a 4.76 ERA over 21 starts and 24 games before being shut down for another Tommy John surgery, ending his time with the Yankees as they let him leave at the end of the season.

When Eovaldi returned to baseball in 2018 and pitched well with the Rays, many Yankees fans started to think about a reunion, having not learned their lesson from the last time Eovaldi was a Yankee. When he was traded to the Red Sox, I laughed with excitement, envisioning him destroying the Red Sox’ chances at winning the division. Instead, he shut out the Yankees in the all-important August series (even if faced a JV lineup) and then shut them out against in September. I never thought he would be able to beat the Yankees in October in the Bronx, but he did, after getting more run support than any other pitcher against the Yankees in the team’s history.

Eovaldi beat the Yankees and the Astros in the playoffs, mixed in a few relief appearances and then became a hero for his bullpen work in Game 3 of the World Series, even though he took the loss after giving up a walk-off home run. (Only in Boston could a losing pitcher become a “hero.”) Now Eovaldi is a World Series champion, continues to beat the Yankees’ poorly-designed, all-right-handed lineup and I’ll never get over it.

RP: Adam Ottavino
I actually like Ottavino. I don’t like what him being on the Red Sox symbolizes, and him being on the Red Sox symbolizes the Hal Steinbrenner Yankees, who are so petrified of the luxury tax they would rather pay players to play for their rival than exceed the luxury.

I have enjoyed watching Ottavino embarrass the Yankees all-right-handed lineup this season, while being paid by the Yankees to do so. Rather than keep Ottavino in the last year of this three-year contract, re-sign the reliable Tanaka and sign Darren O’Day, Justin Wilson, Brett Gardner and Corey Kluber, the Yankees chose only to sign the latter players. In return, they have received 10 2/3 innings from O’Day, 14 2/3 innings from Wilson, a .614 OPS from Gardner and 10 starts from Kluber.

Manager: Aaron Boone
No Yankees player is allowed to be on the All-Animosity Team, even though there have been a lot of players over the years who have been deserving of a roster spot. A manager on the other hand …

Boone doesn’t play for the Yankees, and since I have often said Boone is the Yankees’ most difficult obstacle to winning the World Series, moreso than any other team, why shouldn’t he be on the team?

It’s hard to envision the Yankees ever winning a championship with Boone as manager. He has managed the team to one division title in three seasons, two first-round exits and an ALCS loss, in which the Yankees won one of the last five games of that ALCS. He has the Yankees buried in the division standings this season and needing to pass two teams in the wild card standings just to be the first team outside the postseason picture.

With each mounting loss, Boone talks about needing to overcome adversity, even though the word “adversity” means “misfortune” and the Yankees haven’t experienced any misfortune. They have been healthier than they have been in four years, are greatly underachieving and being managed like a dive bar that needs to be shut down, rebuilt and rebranded by Jon Taffer. The Yankees haven’t experienced any adversity.

Either the Yankees go 50-23 and reach the postseason or Boone is no longer the manager of the Yankees and I’ll need a new manager for the 2022 All-Animosity Team. Either way, the result is a good one. (Unless the Yankees don’t reach the postseason and the team keeps him as manager, in which case I will no longer watch baseball.)

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