Yankees: Aroldis Chapman and Gerrit Cole All-Star nods were hilarious

What self-respecting fan of the New York Yankees can’t appreciate a good, old-fashioned joke right about now?

Considering at least nine of them take the field everyday, we should be used to appreciating humor by now.

On Sunday afternoon, the Fourth of July, Gerrit Cole and Aroldis Chapman tag-teamed an effort to cost $350 million-ish in tandem and blow a seven-inning victory, one at a time.

First, Cole took the mound, staked to a 4-1 lead, and gagged it away, leaving the inning to Jonathan Loaisiga, who created a deadlock before working out of trouble.

Then, given a 5-4 lead, Chapman hilariously and predictably allowed a leadoff home run to Pete Alonso, then allowed to more men to reach base without recording an out in what eventually became a 10-5 loss.

Moments later, right after the game wrapped, both pitchers were named to the American League All-Star team.

Don’t get it. Not possible. Cole’s passable, but Chapman’s unforgivable. What, is the AL manager trying to “Producers” this situation and make more money with a flop than with a hit?

Aroldis Chapman and Gerrit Cole are Yankees All-Stars.

Without Spider Tack, Gerrit Cole looks more like Nick Pivetta. Without Spider Tack, Aroldis Chapman looks like mid-1940s Yankees fireman Spud Chandler trying to take the mound in modern times after being yanked out of the grave.

On the year, Cole has a 2.91 ERA with 135 strikeouts in 105 innings. We understand why he’s an All-Star, but the timing for the announcement could not have been worse, coming off a season-defining awful loss to the Mets that followed a season-defining awful loss to the Red Sox.

Chapman, though? The numbers are awful, they’re getting worse, and he’s blown a save every time he’s taken the mound lately. You might as well name Aaron Boone to the All-Star team right about now. A hilarious calamity…and maybe a troll on Yankees fans?

Sure, the All-Star Game is all ceremonial anyway, but shouldn’t we be recognizing baseball’s best and brightest instead of the face of the league’s latest cheating scandal (who’s regressing) and the biggest imploder in the sport in the month of June (16.88 ERA in his last seven games, which is quite bad!).

This shouldn’t be allowed to make it to the finish line. Change this. Please. It’s embarrassing.

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