Leave It To The Daily News To Take Brian Cashman's Quote And Blow It Completely Out of Proportion

So Smitty just blogged this because The Daily News (Not the Yankees) stole the Philly Eagles Dog Mask picture and dubbed the Yankees as underdogs heading into the 2018 season. Just the most ridiculous headline/picture combo I’ve seen in quite some time. This all stems from Brian Cashman’s quote yesterday regarding the Red Sox as still the team to beat:

“They are the American League East champs so we are not on equal footing,’’ the Yankees’ general manager said Wednesday during a team workout at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “We were a wild card. They are the American League East champs and we are not. We are not on equal footing until we take it away from them.’’

If you read that quote yesterday and took it seriously, you are an idiot. The Yankees are World Series favorites for Christ sake. They are no underdog and not one person within the organization believes that. The term underdog got throw out in May of last year with this team when they stormed out of the gates as the best in baseball. What Brian Cashman did yesterday was something Bill Belichick does every Sunday. Give a false sense of confidence to your opponents and make them feel good about themselves. You think Brian Cashman believes a team that was one win away from the World Series that also just acquired the NL MVP isn’t on equal footing with the Red Sox? I mean come on.

Do I believe we’re going to blow away the Sox in the division? No. It’s going to be a dog fight till the very end because Boston is solid all around and returns a team that won 93 games last season. They didn’t get worse. They got better. They added 40 home run threat J.D. Martinez and look forward to getting two relievers back from injury, Caron Smith and Tyler Thornburg, that can really make a difference in the late innings. All Brian Cashman was saying here is that there’s no reason to anoint the Bronx Bombers the AL East champs just yet and he’s right. They’re not underdogs by any means and we’re certainly not rocking those Philly Dog masks that the Eagles made their calling card in the playoffs. I gasped when I saw that cover page. Be better, Daily News. Be better.