ENOUGH WITH THE MINI-GAMES. JUST PLAY BASEBALL

Maybe I'm showing my age here, but I'm getting tired of watching baseball games turn into something that feels like a night playing Borderlands 3 on the Xbox One.

If you've played Borderlands 3, you know what I'm talking about. You're moving through the actual game, trying to accomplish the main objective, and suddenly there are these little side missions and mini-games distracting you from what you were doing in the first place.

That's basically what Major League Baseball has become.

Pitch clock. Batter clock. Warnings. Violations. Who looked at whom? Was the hitter ready? Was the pitcher ready? Did the umpire warn him? Did somebody take too long getting to first base? Can we trick the pitcher into starting his motion? Can we manipulate the clock?

Enough already.

The object of the game is to win the damn baseball game.

And lately, the Yankees seem a little too interested in winning the mini-game.

José Caballero has become the poster child for this stuff. He's constantly pushing the pitch-clock rules to the edge, trying to use timing to his advantage and testing exactly what he can and cannot get away with. And now we've reached the point where Aaron Boone is once again arguing with umpires over how the rules are being enforced.

In Saturday's 5-4 Yankees win over Atlanta, Caballero was hit with another pitch-clock violation. Boone defended him afterward, arguing that Caballero hadn't received the warning he was supposed to get before the violation was called. Caballero eventually walked anyway, but the situation still became another production.

And that's where I'm lose interest. Could Boone technically have a point about how the rule was enforced? Sure.

Could Caballero technically have a point about how MLB has handled the enforcement of his routine Maybe. I don't care anymore.

That's the problem. We're spending way too much time debating the technicalities of the mini-game instead of talking about baseball.

This isn't what I want the Yankees focused on. I don't want them trying to outsmart the pitch clock. I don't want Caballero trying to squeeze every possible advantage out of when he looks at the pitcher. I don't want Boone spending half his night screaming about warnings and seconds and interpretations.

Beat the other team. Hit the baseball. Catch the baseball. Throw strikes. Run the bases. Score more runs than the other guys.

That's baseball.

Look, I'm old school. I understand the game has changed. Analytics aren't going anywhere. The pitch clock isn't going anywhere. Baseball wants games moving faster, and that's fine. But there's a difference between adapting to a rule and becoming obsessed with exploiting it.

Caballero has made this pitch-clock routine part of his game, and MLB has clearly noticed. The league hasn't simply ignored it, either. His timing tactics have created controversy before, and enforcement surrounding his behavior has already become a story this season.

At some point you have to ask: Is all of this actually helping the Yankees win? Because that's the only question I care about.

It's like spending 25 minutes playing some ridiculous side mission in Borderlands 3 while forgetting you were supposed to be saving the damn planet. Congratulations. You figured out the mini-game.

Meanwhile, there's still an actual game to win. And that's what bothers me about the Yankees sometimes. This organization has become fascinated with finding tiny advantages. Matchups. Percentages. Rest schedules. Pitch counts. Clock manipulation. Every little analytical edge gets dissected like somebody at MIT is trying to split an atom.

Sometimes baseball isn't that complicated. And with Caballero, I'm officially tired of the pitch-clock act. He's an energetic player. He's aggressive. He brings an edge.   But this?

It's annoying now.

When your little battle with the pitch clock starts creating distractions for yourself, your manager, the umpires and even the hitters around you, maybe it's time to stop trying to prove how clever you are and get back to playing baseball.

The Yankees don't need to outwit the clock. They need to outplay the opponent.

Because nobody gets an extra win in the standings for winning an argument with an umpire.

There isn't a column for Pitch Clock Gamesmanship. Forget the side missions. Forget the mini-games. Put the controller down and stop screwing around with the clock.

Just play freaking baseball.