Masahiro Tanaka – Page 7 – Keefe To The City

Feb 23, 2015

Yoan Moncada Proves the Yankees Are No Longer the Yankees

The Yankees chose not to sign Yoan Moncada in what is the latest of a trend that should have people questioning what their plan for the future is.

This is not good. This. Is. Not. Good.

I was thinking of sending in the lyrics to Pearl Jam’s “Black” instead of writing this since I am holding back tears and shaking, but I wasn’t sure if turning in Eddie Vedder’s work as my own counts as plagiarism since it’s a song.

Just over four years and two months ago, I started a column that same way. That column came after Cliff Lee chose the Phillies over the Yankees. Five months after Lee didn’t end up on the Yankees and cost them a trip to the 2010 World Series, the Yankees couldn’t get him again. For weeks, Yankees fans were told Lee would be a Yankee. The Yankees would offer the most money, the Yankees gave him the best chance at winning and his supposed best friend was CC Sabathia, who was a Yankee. But somehow Lee ended up in Philadelphia.

Last week I wrote, “Get Me Yoan Moncada on the Yankees“, which now is nothing more than a waste of 1,490 words explaining why the Yankees desperately need to sign the 19-year-old Cuban. This morning, I received a text from my girlfriend that said,”Moncada to the Red Sox” and my heart sank. It was the same feeling I had in December 2010 when Jon Heyman started reporting about a “mystery team” entering the Cliff Lee sweepstakes before it was leaked to be the Phillies.

Yoan Moncada on the Red Sox? I’m sure Eddie wouldn’t have minded if I just posted his lyrics to “Black” instead of taking the time to write this depressing column.

I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star
In somebody else’s sky, but why? Why? why?
Can’t it be, can’t it be mine
We, we, we, we, we belong together! Together!

It’s time to look back at how I felt that day when Lee chose the Phillies and compare it today with the Yankees choosing not to sign Moncada. And like that day, quotes from Michael Scott of The Office will take us through the decision because right now that is the person who most resembles our trusty GM and ownership.

Here we go. (Now playing: “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.)

“But I always thought that the day that Steve Martin died would be the worst day of my life. I was wrong. It’s this.”

I didn’t think I would feel the same way I did on the day that Lee chose the Phillies over the Yankees, but I do. Actually, I feel worse. Moncada didn’t choose the Red Sox over the Yankees, the Yankees just didn’t choose him and that’s what hurts more. If the Yankees upped their offer, he would be a Yankee. He was going to go to the highest bidder and they were outbid. They didn’t have to do anything other than give him more money. But nowadays, the Yankees apparently don’t have money. It’s time to change the team’s marketing campaign from “Our history. Your tradition.” to “Our history. Your tradition. We’re poor.” (Now playing: “All Out Of Love” by Air Supply.)

“How do I feel about losing the sale? It’s like if Michael Phelps, came out of retirement, jumped in the pool, belly-flopped and drowned.”

In the movie Heavy Weights, at the demolished go-kart track at Camp Hope, Gerry has this exchange with Pat.

Gerry: “Did this place always stink this much?”

Pat: “No, Gerry. This place used to stink very little. In fact … it didn’t stink at all.”

Gerry: “Well, it does now.”

There was a time when a player of Moncada’s potential meant that reports that other teams like the Dodgers, Red Sox, Padres and Brewers being involved in talks for him were just noise. No one would have believed that any team other than the Yankees would land a player like Moncada. That’s no longer the case. The Yankees have become Camp Hope under Tony Perkis.

(Now playing: “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness” by The Smashing Pumpkins.)

“My whole life, I believed that America was No. 1. That was the saying. Not, ‘America is No. 2.’ England is No. 2, and China should be like 8.”

The Red Sox have never signed a free agent the Yankees truly wanted until now. Yes, the Yankees wanted Curt Schilling back in the winter of 2003, but they didn’t really pursue him. They just figured they would get him and Schilling figured he would be a Yankee until the Red Sox front office flew to Schilling’s for Thanksgiving and changed his mind. This is the first time the Red Sox have gotten a free agent the Yankees wanted and it could have been avoided for a few million more dollars. The same kind of millions they wasted on Kei Igawa or Jaret Wright or A.J. Burnett or A.J. Burnett to pitch for the Pirates or any one of a number of bust free agents past their prime.

The Red Sox greatly (and thankfully) overpaid for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was supposed to come to the majors with an unhittable “gyroball” that was going to mimick Roy Halladay’s “palmball” in EA Sports’ MVP Baseball 2005. J.D. Drew? The Yankees didn’t want him or have a need for him. Carl Crawford? Aside from a dinner with Brian Cashman, the Yankees were never really interested. Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval? The Yankees were never in on them. Whenever the Yankees have gone head-to-head in free agency with the Red Sox, they have won. Until now. (Now playing: “Every Breath You Take” by The Police.)

“Here’s the sitch. Two weeks ago, I was in the worst relationship of my life. She treated me poorly, we didn’t connect, I was miserable. Now, I am in the best relationship of my life, with the same woman. Love is a mystery.”

When spring training starts, I start to worry about the Yankees. But near the end of spring training and as Opening Day gets closer, I start to feel overconfident about the Yankees. I think it will be a great year, even if it won’t be, and I talk myself into believing they will win the World Series.

Over the last couple of weeks as I started to think about this season and how it hinges on the health of Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda and how at any moment I can look at Twitter and read that one of them is hurt and POOF! the season is gone, and I’m left sitting on my thumb trying to find something else to do this summer. But then with the signing of Moncada appearing imminent and with the Yankees holding private workouts twice in the last few days, I started to gain hope that the Yankees would have the Next Big Thing in baseball and a potential superstar. Now I’m sitting here again waiting to hear that Tanaka has elbow discomfort or that Pineda has one of any of a long list of injuries he has had or could endure and the summer will be ruined. (Now playing: “With Or Without You” by U2.)

“You know what? I had fun at prom. [pause] And no one said yes to that either.”

George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees in 1973. In the 37 ½ years of his life that he ran the team (I know that number depends on when he technically stopped being in charge and you also have take away the years he was banned), no one except Greg Maddux turned down the Yankees, until Cliff Lee. Again, Yoan Moncada didn’t turn down the Yankees, the Yankees turned him down, but this is another example of life during the Hal (and maybe Hank?) Steinbrenner era.

The Yankees let the Mariners outbid them for homegrown start Robinson Cano. They didn’t care to pay to bring back their homegrown closer in his prime in David Robertson and he went to the White Sox. They let the Dodgers sign Brandon McCarthy and didn’t want to spend to enhance their rotation. They never even tried to get Jon Lester, Max Scherzer and James Shields. That’s right, the Yankees never tried to get any of the three best starting pitchers in a give free-agency year.

Sure, last year they went out and spent when they said they wouldn’t. But they got Masahiro Tanaka, who was Cy Young-worthy, but also whose right elbow is a ticking time bomb, overpaid for Jacoby Ellsbury, signed Carlons Beltran 10 years later than they should originally have and gave Brian McCann a five-year deal just in time to endure the catcher’s worst season of his career. (Now playing: “How’s It Going To Be” by Third Eye Blind.)

“You know what Toby, when the son of the deposed king of Nigeria e-mails you directly, asking for help, you help! His father ran the freaking country! OK?”

The only way I won’t feel like my dog got run over every time Moncada steps to the plate against the Yankees is if he becomes the Cuban position player version of Jose Contreras or if he is somehow lying about his age and is actually in his mid-20s right now. It was Theo Epstein in December 2002 who was trashing his hotel room after finding out Contreras had signed with the Yankees for four years, $32 million, so maybe this one will go the Yankees’ way? Or maybe Yoan Moncada is actually 29 years old?

1. Everyone who has ever seen a baseball seems to agree that Moncada is the real deal and could potentially be the best Cuban player to reach the majors yet.

2. The Yankees’ overspending in the international market means that they will not be allowed to offer an international free agent more than $300,000 for the next two years.

When you know about these two things, how do you NOT sign Moncada? If his agent tells you, the Red Sox offered $31 million, you answer back that you’re going to $35 million just to be safe. And if he tells you another team went to $35 million. You go to $40 million. That is, unless you have another potential future face of the franchise/middle-of-the-order hitter in the system, who would easily be the No. 1 pick if he were eligible for the draft. There’s a better chance A-Rod gets a standing ovation on Opening Day than there is that a player of that caliber is currently in the organization. And even if the Yankees believe they have a player like that, they also believed Eduardo Nunez would be the heir to Derek Jeter’s shortstop and were never willing to trade him in a deal for Cliff Lee or others. He ended up getting traded for a minor-leaguer because career minor-leaguer Yangerivs Solarte took his spot. (Now playing: “The Heart Of The Matter” by Don Henley.)

“There are ten rules of business that you need to learn. Number one: You need to play to win. But, you also have to … win, to play.”

I have no idea what the Yankees’ strategy is the for the future. Wait until A-Rod, Teixeira and Sabathia come off the books and then spend wildly again? In a few years when that happens, Moncada will be in the majors and hitting third for the Red Sox, and the Yankees will be trying to find a player like Moncada. If your strategy is to spend and spend and spend then you can’t take years off from spending. Especially when you’re the Yankees. Especially when you sold part of YES to FOX for an amount that could put every senior in high school in New York City through college. Especially when you’re charging $12 for watered-down Coors Lights in plastic cup. Especially when ticket prices keep going up and it costs roughly $19,000 to sit between the bases for a regular-season game on a Thursday night against the Astros.

The Yankees are like the guy at the blackjack table that stays with a 16 with the dealer showing a 7, but only sometimes. If you’re going to do something like that, then do it consistently. Don’t sign Kei Igawa because of Daisuke Matsuzaka and then not be in on Yu Darvish because Matsuzaka and Igawa sucked. Don’t say you’re not going to spend money because of the $189 million luxury tax threshold and then spend nearly $500 million on four free agents (Tanaka, Ellsbury, McCann, Beltran) because you missed the playoffs and the Red Sox won the World Series. Don’t not go out and try to get the best free agents (Lester, Scherzer, Shields, Moncada) at areas of need (starting pitching, good young talent) because the free agents you signed the year before had bad years.

That’s how small-market teams operate. They can’t afford to throw money around and have it not work out because then they don’t have any more money to throw. The Yankees aren’t a small-market team with financial restraints. They are the effing New York Yankees. It’s time they started to act like it again. (Now playing: “Un-break My Heart” by Toni Braxton.)

“I miss the feeling of knowing you did a good job because someone gives you proof of it. ‘Sir, you’re awesome, let me give you a plaque! What? A whole year has gone by? You need more proof? Here is a certificate.’ They stopped making plaques that year.”

The five-year grace period for the Yankees is over. The five years following a championship is over. If you believe in the grace period, then this year you are free to act accordingly if the Yankees don’t win the World Series.

The Yankees have won one World Series in the last 14 seasons. That one World Series is because of A-Rod. The same person that some Yankees fans seemingly hate and want to boo and the same person the Yankees are so upset with for taking performance-enhancing drugs. They are mad that he put illegal substances and likely some with unknown short-term and long-term side effects to try to stay healthy and play baseball better. Without A-Rod, the Yankees lose Game 2 of the 2009 ALDS and maybe Game 3 too. They lose Game 2 of the 2009 ALCS and maybe don’t come back in Game 3 of the 2009 World Series and trail that series 2-1.

Luckily for the Yankees, A-Rod is still a Yankee. Because this week when he is at spring training, all of the lazy media members can give their attention to him and ask questions to the Yankees about A-Rod rather than ask why they are suddenly poor and operating the way that they are. (Now playing: “The Flame” by Cheap Trick.)

“Andy Bernard. Pros: he’s classy. He gets me. He went to Cornell. I trust him. Cons: I don’t really trust him.”

I’m supposed to like Brian Cashman, but I don’t. It’s not because of this or that he told No. 2 to test the market if he didn’t like the Yankees’ offer, but they are just the icing on the cake of a mountain of problems in the last decade. I have no idea what Brian Cashman is going to do now. No one does. I don’t even know if Brian Cashman knows what he’s going to do.

I wrote that in the Cliff Lee column. Maybe this decision is on Cashman or on ownership or a combination of both, but it now applies to the entire untrustworthy front office.

There are Yankees fans that like to use the “If George were still alive …” rhetoric when things don’t go way they might have in different time, and those who don’t use that rhetoric make fun of those who do. But today, there’s nothing to make fun of. When George Steinbrenner was alive, the Yankees got the players they wanted. They didn’t always work out, but he was willing to pay to find out if they would. He was willing to make exuberant and at times reckless financial decisions to get the possible players for his team to give the Yankees the best possible chance to win. If a player or pitcher didn’t perform or live up to expectations, it didn’t deter him from investing in future players. He made sure the Yankees were the Yankees and every free agent and every team knew it. Now under his son (or sons), the Yankees are just another team.

If Moncada had signed with the Dodgers, it would have sucked, but at least he would be out of the league, out of the division, out of the rivalry and out of my life. But no, he signed in Boston. He signed with the one team he couldn’t sign and now if he is the player every scout and team seems to think he will be, I will be reminded of this day every time the Yankees play the Red Sox.

Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 19, 2014

Podcast: Ben Kabak

Ben Kabak of River Ave. Blues joins me to talk about the Yankees’ chances of making the postseason and the bullpen decisions Joe Girardi has made while fighting for a playoff spot.

Forty games to go. The Yankees begin their homestand on Tuesday night 7 1/2 games back in the division and 3 games back for the second wild card. It’s likely going to take somewhere between 25 and 27 wins for the Yankees to make the playoffs (or playoff in the case) and that would mean a 25-15 (.625), 26-14 (.650) or 27-13 (.675) finish. There hasn’t been anything to make anyone believe the Yankees at 63-59 (.516) are capable of going on a miracle run over the next six weeks, but if they are going to, it starts with a five- or six-win homestand.

Ben Kabak of River Ave. Blues joined me to talk about the Yankees’ chances of making the postseason, the bullpen decisions Joe Girardi has made while fighting for a playoff spot and what the Yankees are looking at when it comes to free agents for 2015, including their general manager.

Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 15, 2014

Podcast: John Jastremski

John Jastremski of WFAN joins me to talk about Joe Girardi’s recent bullpen management and what will happen to Brian Cashman if the Yankees miss the playoffs again.

The Yankees’ trip to Baltimore didn’t exactly go as I had hoped or planned. After the rainout gave the Yankees a needed off day to regroup after three straight losses, I thought the postponement of Tuesday’s game would only help the team for Wednesday. When the Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead and with Michael Pineda dealing in his return from the disabled list, I thought I would be right. But then in the eighth inning, the game unraveled and here we are one week removed from the Yankees’ last win.

WFAN host John Jastremski joined me to talk about Joe Girardi’s recent bullpen management, the emotions starting to build as we near the end of Derek Jeter’s career and what will happen to Brian Cashman if the Yankees miss the playoffs again.

Blogs • Yankees

Jul 22, 2014

The Joe Girardi Show: Season 5, Episode 2

Joe Girardi blew Monday night’s game for the Yankees with his bullpen management in the sixth inning and his decision making set up another episode of The Joe Girardi Show.

I can’t remember the last time I was this devastated, upset, frustrated, embarrassed, angry, disappointed, sad and pissed off over a regular-season loss. Looking back, I’m laughing at myself for calling the June 24 loss to the Blue Jays the worst loss of the season because when you put it next to Monday night against the Rangers, it’s about as close as comparing the willingness to play through injury of Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira.

Monday night had it all. It was like a never-ending diner menu for every kind of negative feeling baseball can emote from a person, featuring five Yankees errors, two runs against a pitcher with a 10.05 ERA, one disastrous inning of managing and one big loss to the worst team in the entire majors. But because I can’t do anything about the physical mistakes (the errors) and can’t make the Yankees score runs against a horrible pitcher, I decided to focus on what could have been changed to prevent the Yankees from losing the game: the sixth inning.

It’s now been over three months since the last episode on April 21, but I felt after Monday night that it was necessary to fill in for Michael Kay on my version of The Joe Girardi Show.

Why did Shane Greene face Geovanny Soto?
Shane Greene threw 113 pitches on Monday. One hundred and thirteen. In his last start on July 12 he threw 106 and on July 7, in his only other start in the majors before that, he threw 88. How unusual was it for Joe Girardi (Mr. Conservative) to let a pitcher throw 113 pitches in a game? Well, the Yankees have played 98 games this year and here are each of their starting pitchers with the number of pitches they have thrown in each of their starts:

Masahiro Tanaka: 97, 101, 107, 105, 105, 108, 113, 108, 114, 88, 118, 106, 104, 110, 104, 106, 116, 85, 99.

Hiroki Kuroda: 91, 92, 97, 99, 91, 94, 108, 95, 98, 100, 94, 93, 90, 93, 107, 102, 109, 105, 103, 99.

David Phelps: 87, 70, 100, 104, 109, 92, 93, 102, 115, 94, 101, 107, 103, 98.

Vidal Nuno: 69, 72, 80, 82, 78, 81, 101, 101, 92, 92, 75, 107, 91, 89.

CC Sabathia: 99, 93, 111, 107, 106, 98, 77, 107.

Chase Whitley: 74, 71, 91, 83, 87, 82, 95, 87, 81, 74, 68.

Michael Pineda: 83, 94, 89, 37.

Ivan Nova: 88, 61, 97, 80.

Brandon McCarthy: 101, 99.

Greene’s 113 on Monday night represented the fifth time in 98 games (5.1 percent) that Girardi has left his starter in long enough to reach that number.

With the Yankees leading 2-1, Greene retired the first two hitters in the sixth and then gave up a single to Jake Smolinski on his 105th pitch of the game. At that time I expected Girardi to come out to get Greene. He didn’t. Greene walked Jim Adduci on five pitches to put two on with two outs and then I was certain Girardi would come get Greene at 110 pitches. He didn’t. Instead Larry Rothschild came out and talked to Greene briefly and turned around and went back to the dugout. Girardi stayed in the dugout and the bullpen door never opened. Three pitches later, Geovanny Soto singled to left. Tie game.

Why is Matt Thornton still being considered an “A” reliever just because he is left-handed?
The obvious answer to this question is that Matt Thornton is the left-hander in the bullpen and will face left-handed hitters. Some would say, “If you’re not going to bring Thornton into the game in that spot, then why is he on the team?” And to that I would answer, “He shouldn’t be.”

Matt Thornton is not good. Once upon a time Matt Thornton was good, but the last time he was good was in 2010. Since 2010, he has been “OK” and the last thing you want your left-handed “specialist” who will only be called on for one hitter or maybe two hitters in huge spots is to be “OK.” This year, lefties are hitting .277/.340/.277 against him and he has only struck out eight of the 55 lefties he has seen (14.5 percent). There’s a reason the Red Sox left him off their postseason roster last year and there’s a reason the White Sox traded him to the Red Sox in the first place and there’s a Red Sox didn’t care to re-sign him: he isn’t good.

But there was Matt Thornton being called on to face to face two lefties with runners on first and second and two outs in the sixth. And there was Matt Thornton giving up an RBI single to 20-year-old Rougned Odor and his 197 career plate appearances and there he was giving up another RBI single one a 1-2 pitch to Shin-Soo Choo.

Thornton left the game after failing to retire either lefty he faced and allowing both inherited runners to score to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead. Only in Major League Baseball, where Thornton is getting paid $3.5 million this year (and next year!), is it OK to not do your job in any capacity and then leave your workplace without holding yourself unaccountable for your actions. And that’s what Thornton did as he was nowhere to be found in the Stadium when the media went to ask him about his horrible performance. If Thornton worked a real-life, 9-5 job, an equivalent work day to his Monday night effort would have been showing up to the office at lunch time, eating fish that smelled up the entire place, taking a dump in the handicap stall in the bathroom and then going home for the day.

Why did Adam Warren relieve Matt Thornton instead of Shane Greene?
Who comes in to relieve Matt Thornton? Why it’s Adam Warren! You know him. He’s the supposed seventh-inning guy — the first reliever to be used in a big spot after David Robertson and Dellin Betances. The guy Girardi trusted more than Betances earlier in the year because he had been in the league longer despite having inferior ability and numbers to Betances (which is odd since Girardi didn’t trust Betances to be his setup guy earlier in the season because he’s a rookie while Warren and Shawn Kelley ruined games, but here he is trusting rookie Shane Greene to throw 113 pitches in his third career start).

So Warren, who Girardi didn’t turn to for either of the two right-handed hitters Greene was allowed to face at 105 and 110 pitches, comes in to face right-handed Elvis Andrus in an inning where the game has already changed and the Yankees have already given up the lead.

This entire inning was part of a much bigger problem, which is set innings for relievers because in real life (which is where games should be managed), the game needed to be saved in the sixth inning. Worry about the seventh and eighth innings (where the bases will be empty) when you get there and worry about how you will protect the lead in the ninth when you get there. Girardi went against his own formula by bringing in seventh-inning guy Warren in the sixth inning after he already let the game get away by overusing his starter and calling on a “B” reliever. So now, the same way Betances was likely unavailable on Monday night because of his 1 1/3 innings on Sunday, Warren is now likely unavailable for the following game after being wasted to hold a deficit rather than protect a lead or keep the game tied, which are both things he could have and should have been asked to do on Monday.

I always hope that my latest version of The Joe Girardi Show is the last one I will ever have to do because it would mean he wouldn’t have given me a reason to write another one. Unfortunately, I know that won’t be the case.

Blogs • MLB

Jul 14, 2014

The 2014 All-Animosity Team

With Major League Baseball ready for the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, It’s time to announce the 2014 All-Animosity Team.

The Midsummer Classic is this week and that means it’s time for the four longest days of summer: the four days without baseball. I mean real baseball and not the Home Run Derby or the All-Star Game because without real baseball to watch and talk about, the baseball world becomes talking heads spending Monday and Tuesday debating who should and who shouldn’t have made the All-Star Team and how the All-Star Game can be fixed. And then those same talking heads will spend Wednesday and Thursday spewing meaningless “second-half” predictions and giving us their “midseason” awards for Cy Young and MVP.

Instead of complaining about the Home Run Derby format or Chris Berman’s broadcasting techniques and instead of debating if the Home Run Derby messes up a hitter’s swing or if the All-Star Game should determine home-field advantage, I thought now would be the best time to announce the one midsummer roster that matters: the 2014 All-Animosity Team.

It’s the Fifth Annual All-Animosity Team and once again the team consists of one player at each position, along with a starting pitcher, a closer and a manager from around the league. The standards to be considered for the team are simple and only one of the following three requirements needs to be met.

1. The person is a Yankee killer.

2. The person plays for the Red Sox.

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.)

So, here is the 2014 All-Animosity Team with the winners from the previous years also listed.

C – Mike Napoli
(2013 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 2012 – Matt Wieters, 2011 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 2010 – Jason Varitek)

Jason Varitek hasn’t played baseball in four years, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is in Miami and Matt Wieters had Tommy John surgery. Usually if I’m having trouble, I can always turn to the Red Sox, but A.J. Pierzynski just got cut and David Ross isn’t worth giving the time of the day to. With a limited number of unlikeable catchers, it was hard for me to not break my own rule of not putting any Yankees on the team and put Brian McCann in this spot. So while Napoli has never caught in any of the 214 games he has played for the Red Sox and hasn’t been a catcher since 2012, I’m penciling him in here.

Even with David Ortiz saving the Red Sox’ season against the Tigers in the ALCS and then hitting .688 in the World Series, Napoli was the face of the 2013 Red Sox. With his Duck Dynasty beard, he became the face of a team built on the notion of “We can win a championship if every single thing goes our way” and every single thing did go their way for the whole season as they got bounce-back seasons from their entire roster and overachieving seasons from several players who had become perennial underachievers.

After agreeing to a three-year, $39 million deal and then having that deal voided because of a failed physical, Napoli was almost not even part of the 2013 Red Sox. He signed a one-year, $5 million contract with $8 million of incentives and then went on to hit .259/.360/.482 with 23 home runs and 92 RBIs, which isn’t very impressive, but what is are his 2013 numbers against the Yankees: .375/.453/.804 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs. This year, Napoli has cooled off a little against the Yankees (.306/.405/.667), but he still has three home runs against them and one game-changing home run against them when he got a two-strike fastball from Masahiro Tanaka in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium a few weeks back before calling Tanaka “an idiot.”

1B – Chris Davis
(2013 – Chris Davis, 2012 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2011 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2010 – Kevin Youkilis)

I wasn’t going to put Chris Davis here with a .199 average at the break, but after his two-run home run against the Yankees in the bottom of the fourth inning on Sunday Night Baseball gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead in an eventual 3-1, rain-shortened win, I had to. Eff you, Chris Davis. And eff you, rain-shortened losses in a huge division game that is the difference between being three games back or five.

2B – Dustin Pedroia
(2013 – Dustin Pedroia, 2012 – Dustin Pedroia, 2011 – Dustin Pedroia, 2010 – Dustin Pedroia)

For as long as I have an All-Animosity Team and for as long as Dustin Pedroia is the second baseman of the Red Sox, he will be in this spot. So as I have done the last few years, I will just put down what I have about Pedroia.

Pedroia is like Tom Brady for me. He has that winning instinct that you just don’t see all the time these days, he plays hard and he’s the type of guy you want on your team. But if I didn’t put him here again it would just be weird.

3B – David Wright
(2013 – David Wright, 2012 – Robert Andino, 2011 – Kevin Youkilis, 2010 – Chone Figgins)

David Wright is the face of the Mets. And for that alone, he gets this spot.

SS – Jose Reyes
(2013 – Jose Reyes, 2012 – Jose Reyes, 2011 – Jose Reyes, 2010 – Jose Reyes)

Sometimes I miss the days of the Jose Reyes being the Mets shortstop when Mets fans would try to engage me in fights about Reyes being better than Derek Jeter. And sometimes I miss the days when Mets fans would call WFAN and talk about how Reyes is “the most exciting player in baseball” as if there were any true way to measure a statement like that. But I always miss the days when Mets fans would call and say the team has to re-sign Reyes before he hit free agency after the 2011 season. Since Reyes left the Mets for free agency and signed a six-year, $106 million deal with the Marlins (and was then traded to the Blue Jays), he has played in 332 of a possible 420 games and has become a shell of his former self offensively, even playing for an offensive power like the Blue Jays.

I can only dream about the state the Mets would be in right now if they had Reyes playing shortstop a $16 million per year for an under-.500 team trying to rebuild and can only imagine the types of calls that would be flooding the sports radio phone lines with the trade deadline looming and Mets fans waiting on hold for hours to share their fantasy trades for Reyes. I miss the days of the Jeter-Reyes debates, even if they were one-sided and ended the same way as all the Jeter-Nomar debates, and I miss Reyes being a Met and giving that fan base years of false hope.

LF – Wil Myers
(2013 – Carl Crawford, 2012 – Delmon Young, 2011 – Manny Ramirez, 2010 – Manny Ramirez)

Here is what Wil Myers has done this season: .227/.313/.354 with five home runs and 25 RBIs.

Here is what Wil Myers has done against the Yankees this season: .375/.429/.813 with four home runs and 14 RBIs.

That means 12 of Myers’ 45 hits (27 percent), four of his five home runs (80 percent) and 14 of his 25 RBIs (56 percent) have come against the Yankees. Excuse me while I throw up.

I watched Myers round the bases on his inside-the-park home run from Section 203 at the Stadium on May 4 and watched him encourage all of 203 to continue to taunt him as he continued to beat the Yankees. Unfortunately, he is 23 years and will likely taunt me for years to come.

CF – Adam Jones
(2013 – Ben Zobrist, 2012 – Josh Hamilton, 2011 – B.J. Upton, 2010 – Vernon Wells)

I was shocked to realize Jones hadn’t been been part of the All-Animosity Team before, given his knack for killing the Yankees offensively and defensively. This year Jones is hitting .324/.359/.514 with two home runs against the Yankees and it’s usually Jones in the middle of any Orioles rally against the Yankees or the one killing a rally with a Web Gem. I miss the days of a young Adam Jones, who hadn’t realized his power yet and could easily be struck out in a big spot.

RF – Nick Swisher
(2013 – Nick Swisher, 2012 – Jose Bautista, 2011 – Magglio Ordonez, 2010 – Magglio Ordonez)

Before the Yankees started a four-game series in Cleveland last week, Nick Swisher was hitting .197/.287/.317 with five home runs and 39 RBIs in what was becoming a disastrous season for the Indians’ highest-paid player making $15 million this season. Swisher’s struggles this season brought a smile to my face the same way I was smiling when he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the one-game playoff last season.

But during the four-game series against the Yankees, Swisher went 5-for-18 with two home runs and five RBIs, including the two-strike home run against Tanaka in his last start before he hit the disabled list. And since the start of the Yankees series, Swisher is 9-for-10 with three home runs and seven RBIs. There’s nothing quite like the Yankees letting a sub-.200 hitter in July get hot and start to turn his season around againts them, especially when it’s the hated Nick Swisher. OK, maybe “hated” is the wrong word to use when talking about Swisher since he is extra sensitive.

SP – John Lackey
(2013 – Josh Beckett, 2012 – Josh Beckett, 2011 – Josh Beckett, 2010 – Josh Beckett)

I never thought any pitcher other than Josh Beckett would earn this spot, but Lackey had been knocking on the door for a few years and finally busted it open this season.

Let’s put aside his personal life issues and even his double-fisting beers in the clubhouse and even his belittling of the media, who do sometimes need to be belittled, and let’s talk about Lackey’s contract status.

Lackey signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Red Sox from 2010-2014 with a club option for 2015 at the league minimum is Lackey misses significant time with surgery between 2010-2014 for a pre-exisitng elbow injury. Lackey did miss time because of surgery and missed the entire 2012 season and is now saying he will never pitch for the league minimum ($500,000) and will retire before doing so.

John Lackey is pure scum on top of scum and I’m not sure how he has a single fan. He signed a five-year, $82.5 million A.J. Burnett deal before 2010 and in the first two years he went 26-23 with a 5.26 ERA. Then he missed the entire 2012 season. Last year he went 10-13 with a 3.52 ERA on a division-winning and World Series-winning team. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that he is upset that he would only make $500,000 next year, but it’s a little ironic that he didn’t think he should only be making $500,000 when he had a 1.619 WHIP in 2011 or when he threw zero pitches in 2012. Poor John Lackey.

CL – Fernando Rodney
(2013 – Fernando Rodney, 2012 – Jose Valverde, 2011 – Jonathan Papelbon, 2010 – Jonathan Papelbon)

It was actually hard to fill the closer role this season, but watching Rodney celebrate saves over the years and then turn in an ugly line (1.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP) in two appearances against the Red Sox in the ALDS en route to their third championship in 10 years was enough to put him back on the team.

Manager – Mike Scioscia
(2013 – Mike Scioscia, 2012 – Bobby Valentine, 2011 – Mike Scioscia, 2010 – Joe Maddon)

I really wanted to put Mike Matheny here for his managerial decisions in the World Series, especially his decision to bring in Seth Maness and his awesome pitch-to-contact stuff to face Jonny Gomes in Game 4. Thanks, Mike! But I don’t care enough about Matheny or the Cardinals for this spot considering how many choices there are from the American League.

This spot has gone to Joe Maddon and Mike Scioscia and the legendary Bobby Valentine (whose Stamford, Conn. restaurant I ate at on Saturday and it was actually good) in the past and once again it goes to Scioscia, whose Angels are finally playing up to their payroll for the first time since 2009. And because the Angels are looking like a lock for either the West or the first wild card, that means we are going to have to hear about how great of a job Scioscia did in 2014 despite having Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols in his lineup. Don’t forget, no team goes first to third and plays fundamentally-sound baseball better than Mike Scioscia’s team!

Tag: Masahiro Tanaka

Yoan Moncada Proves the Yankees Are No Longer the Yankees

Podcast: Ben Kabak

Podcast: John Jastremski

The Joe Girardi Show: Season 5, Episode 2

The 2014 All-Animosity Team