I don’t know. The Yankees are clearly a better team right now. The offense has been stagnant for the Red Sox for a long time now and the starting rotation outside of Beckett and Lester is very tenuous. The Sox should focus on the Wild Card. They’re tied with the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Rays are only 2 games behind them.
Glad you see what I see. Boston is not at full strength, Ortiz isn’t playing like himself, and being 6 1/2 games back in the middle of August doesn’t look too good w/how the Yankees are playing right now. However, I do think they will retain the WC and go to the playoffs, which they are still a dangerous team.
i’m pretty sure ortiz is playing like himself. in 03-07 he wasn’t playing like himself but then he maxed out his GNC credit card and went back to himself last year
their offense is the same as the year, the problem happened with the pitching IMO
wakefield went down and might never come back, dice k never recovered even though his 18-3 last year was a fluke, penny wasn’t good and lost alyssa milano as a result, smoltz bombed, buchholz has been good but inconsistent and not going deep which taxes the bullpen more, etc.
bullpen held them together for the first couple of months but now they’re beat up from coming into too many games so they’re not as good. then they really did nothing at the trade deadline except get victor martinez.
they still got no bench and didn’t improve on their pitching [btw i thought everyone says they’re loaded on pitching in the minors, if so where are there?]
Matsuzaka bombing this year, combined with Wakefield’s injury really kills the Red Sox. They only have Beckett and Lester now, and only having two good starters isn’t going to carry you past the Yankees for the division.
Wakefield is criminally under-appreciated by Red Sox nation, that guy has held countless rotations together for relatively no money.
Sucks for them too, because their bullpen is better than ever - they’re just being overworked all the time.
I disagree a little. Jason Bay is no Manny.
The offense is weaker than it’s been in a while and there is no sign it’s going to improve from their minor league bats in the future. They still have no bench depth. Long term, the Sox have a serious problem with hitting coming up when their old players and bad contracts like Ortiz, JD Drew, Varitek, Lowell, etc. end, and NO ONE in the minors to replace them.
They’ve had young arms in the minors. They just brought up Bard finally, but no chance Bowden comes up this year I think, though he’s probably their best pitching prospect at the moment.
The pitching depth they have in the minors might have to traded for some bats in the end.
Epstein probably still regretting that Hanley trade at SS for Beckett and Lowell.
Curse of the HanRam at SS. Julio Lugo, Lowrie? nah.
Jeez all this doom and gloom is a bit premature. The Red Sox have had all kinds of problems and still have one of the best records in baseball. They’ll be in it until the end of the season. They’re a bit old in some positions but they have the savvy and the payroll to change that in the future.
Hanley Ramirez is a great player but in return the Red Sox got Josh Be’ckett an ace pitcher who’s led them to 2 ALCS appearances and a championship. It’s probably one of the most mutually beneficial trades I’ve ever seen.
Yeah, I definitely won’t count Boston out and I think there offense is still very, very strong, just in a bad slump. This offense won’t/can’t stay this way for long.
Why? They got a championship out of it - Lowell was their World Series MVP.
Ever since 2004, I never ever count out Boston. I miss the days where they used to beat themselves. Now, they are the Yankee’s greatest fear every year whether we admit it or not.
Now that title belongs to the Rays
Epstein didn’t make the trade. That was during the short period he left the Sox. He would have never approved the deal had he been in charge.
The championship made the deal worthwhile in the end, but my statement really was trying to see it from Epstein’s POV and with long term team management in mind.
In raw numbers, Hanley under control in Boston for at least a decade would’ve been Epstein’s wet dream given his love of prospects, especially given their horrendous SS situation since. And given that a daily position player’s value is much more than a starting pitcher’s, this would still probably have been Boston’s decade from a pure statistical perspective.
I don’t agree with this. All things being equal a pitcher is more valuable than a position player. That’s why teams are hesitant to give them up.
A great SS like Hanley playing everyday is more valuable to me than a pitcher playing once a week.
But Boston won a champion so it’s a wash.
red sox were probably banking on the marlins just giving them back in a year or so for more prospects.
who thought the marlins would actually sign him to a long term contract
Sometimes it’s twice a week and it’s balanced out by the fact that a hitter only comes up to bat maybe 3 or 4 times a game. A great hitter faces a pitcher over 600 times if he’s good in a season but a quality pitcher faces hitters much more often.
For example Albert Pujols has gone up against a pitcher 483 times this season. In contrast Tim Lincecum has gone up against a hitter 658 times this season. So the pitcher has had more impact on the game. Look at it this way if Albert Pujols has a bad game the Cardinals can overcome it but if Tim Lincecum doesn’t play well, the Giants are basically screwed. Pitchers have a higher overall impact on the game even if they’re playing in less games than position players.
It’s a timeless saying but it’s true. Good pitching beats good hitting. Almost every team has a guy that can hit .300 and 30 home runs. The amount of guys who can get you 15 wins and 200 innings and 200 strikeouts with a low ERA is much lower. That premium along with the impact is why pitchers are more important than hitters.
Alex Rios and his huge contract to the Whitesox. Ughhhh…
Alex Rios:
“I GOT PAID!!!”
Not gonna get into an argument about win shares on srk, but Hanley beats out Beckett every time here by a significant amount.
The best argument you probably could have here isn’t the way you usually try to cherrypick stats to compare, but pointing out that in the postseason, clutch SP has a greater effect, but the numbers universally bear out that over the course of a regular season, premium position players are worth more… I mean, you just tried to argue that Lincecum is more valuable than Pujols.
Dear God man.
Wow, and your sad by this? What kind of White Sox fan are you?
He isn’t overpaid btw, and if he is, he is only very slightly. 11.5 mil over the next 5 years is what he is valued at. Not to mention his numbers should get a boost coming to Chicago. He is a 5 tool player and I know he hasn’t completely put it all together but I feel good about this trade no doubt.
toronto made some bad signings that gonna screw them. plus the team is bad trouble since the canadian dollar sucks
they still owe bj ryan 15 mil, vernon wells ridiculous contract, scott rolen which they luckily traded away [tho they didn’t sign the contract they traded for it]
i’m surprised they could move so much money off of their roster in the past month though.
Troy Tulowitzki cycle. Weeeee.
imo.