Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Since the 2002 season, the Yankees and Red Sox have played a whopping 90 times (postseason included) and have split those 90 games right down the middle, 45-45, with each team winning a seven-game ALCS. That's scary, especially when one considers the fact that there are just five Red Sox left from the 2002 team (Manny, Tek, Trot, tonight's starter Tim Wakefield, and his newly reaquired personal catcher Doug Mirabelli) and just six Yankees (the fab four of Jeter, Jorge, Bernie and Mo, Mussina and Giambi). Despite all that turnover these two teams remain deadlocked, which suggests that it's not just the men on the field who are of equal ability, but the men who run the team as well. Indeed, 2002 was John Henry's first full season as Red Sox owner and, after his team went 9-10 against the Yankees that year, he hired Bill James, Theo Epstein et al. the following winter.
Red Sox fans might argue that Epstein and company are smarter than their Yankee counterparts but their intellectual advantage is negated by the fact that the Yankees spend more money, but I don't buy it. John Henry is wealthier than George Steinbrenner. If he wanted to outspend George, he could. His decision not to is part of how he runs his business, just as hiring Epstein and James was. Yankee fans might counter by saying that Brian Cashman's hands were tied by George and the Tampa contingent until this past winter, and that going forward, the Yankees just might have the advantage. That doesn't quite work either. Equally disruptive office politics pushed Epstein out for part of this past winter, and he didn't join the team until November 2002.
Anyone looking for a reason that this rivalry has climbed to a, pardon the phrase, fever pitch over the past four seasons need look no further than the fact that this tie simply refuses to be broken. It's fitting, then, that the Yankees and Red Sox enter this quickie two-game series in Fenway tied for first place (the Yankees lead by percentage points and one game in the loss-column due to having played two fewer games) and very easily could emerge in the same position.
I, for one, find it exhausting, and not always in a good way. That said, I think the high rate of turnover has helped. I doubt there would have been 22 James Bond films if Dr. No was the baddie in every one of them. Variety is the spice of life and the Red Sox have did a lot to spice up this rivalry over the winter, turning over a full half of their roster. Out go old warhorses Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller, Bronson Arroyo and a couple of current Yankees (Johnny Damon and Mike Myers). Ended are failed experiments Edgar Renteria, Wade Miller and Matt Mantei. Gone are roster-fillers Tony Graffanino, Gabe Kapler, John Olerud, Chad Bradford, John Halama and Jeremi Gonzalez. In come ex-Marlins Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell and Alex Gonzalez. Given are expanded rolls to Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, and Lenny DiNardo. Filling things out are Coco Crisp (currently on the DL in favor of Willie Harris), Wily Mo Pena, J.T. Snow, Dustin Mohr, El Loco Julian Tavarez, Rudy Seanez and David Riske (also on the DL in favor of rookie Manny Delcarmen) and you've got a whole new ballclub, and that doesn't even count the rejuvinated Curt Schilling or the at least healthy again Keith Foulke.
Exactly what the result of all of this turnover will be for the Red Sox is hard to say at the moment. Their offense is scuffling (ninth in the AL in runs scored, 17th in the majors), but Crisp has been on the DL with a broken finger for most of the season and Manny got off to a slow start. That said, Varitek and Loretta have yet to hit and there's reason to believe they might not come around.
The pitching, meanwhile, has been no better (in fact it also ranks about mid-pack both in the league and the majors). In the bullpen, Papelbon has been nearly perfect as the closer (he has yet to give up a run), but Foulke and Timlin have been just good enough (Timlin's excellent ERA masks poor peripherals) and the imports have all been disappointing thus far. In the rotation, Matt Clement and DiNardo (filling in for the injured David Wells) have been terrible. Josh Beckett, has been no better than average. If not for the strong return of Schilling, this team would be in a very bad way on the hill.
Which brings us to tonight's starter, Tim Wakefield. Take out an ugly first start against the Rangers in Texas and Wakefield has a 2.20 ERA over his past four starts. The only problem has been that the Red Sox have scored a total of two runs in the last three. As the dean of the Red Sox, Wakefield has quite a bit of history with several of the Yankee hitters and has been successful against just about all of them, Matsui (who's in one of his annual lunging-at-the-ball slumps) and Giambi especially. Wakefield went 1-4 against the Yanks last year, but still held them to a .184 average. With Sheffield likely out of the line-up due to swelling in his wrist after his collision with Shea Hillenbrand on Saturday, the Yanks might be hard pressed to get much going against Wake tonight.
Chien-Ming Wang, meanwhile, will be making just his second career start against the Red Sox, having lost a well-pitched game to start the season's final series last year when his defense and then his control abandoned him. One wonders if Wang's control problems in that game were related to the problems pitching from the stretch that he demonstrated against the Orioles in his penultimate start. The Yankees have been working on that since and Wang looked in control in his last start, echoing his pre-Orioles outing by allowing just two runs in seven innings. Could be Chien-Ming is rounding into shape this season. Let's just hope the hard Fenway infield doesn't give his opponents the extra bounces they need to win.
Boston Red Sox
2005 Record: 95-97 (.586)
2005 Pythagorean Record: 90-72 (.556)
Manager: Terry Francona
General Manager: Theo Epstein
Home Ballpark (2005 Park Factors): Fenway Park (101/101)
Who's Replacing Whom?
Current Roster
1B – Kevin Youkilis (R)
2B – Mark Loretta (R)
SS – Alex Gonzalez (R)
3B – Mike Lowell (R)
C – Jason Varitek (S)
RF – Trot Nixon (L)
CF – Wily Mo Pena (R)
LF – Manny Ramirez (R)
DH – David Ortiz (L)
Bench:
R - Doug Mirabelli (C)
R – Dustin Mohr (OF)
L – Willie Harris (OF)
L – J.T. Snow (1B)
L – Alex Cora (IF)
Rotation:
R – Curt Schilling
R – Tim Wakefield
R – Josh Beckett
L – Lenny DiNardo
R – Matt Clement
Bullpen:
R – Jon Papelbon
R – Keith Foulke
R – Mike Timlin
R – Julian Tavarez
R – Rudy Seanez
R – Manny Delcarmen
15-day DL: S – Coco Crisp (CF), L – David Wells, R – David Riske, L – Hee-Seop Choi (1B)
Typical Lineup
R – Kevin Youkilis (1B)
R – Mark Loretta (2B)
L – David Ortiz (DH)
R – Manny Ramirez (LF)
L – Trot Nixon (RF)
S – Jason Varitek (C)
R – Mike Lowell (3B)
R – Wily Mo Pena (CF)
R – Alex Gonzalez (SS)
"Looks like Jesus, Acts like Judas, Throws like Mary"
Not bad actually. Funny how open to the truth they are as soon as he is out the door. That shirt has more of an official sanction from the Boston Archdiocese than "The DaVinci Code" I would imagine.
Typical RSN.
Any chance Phillips is playing 1B and Giambi DHing with Wang on the mound? And please, please tell me that if Sheff can't play the field, Bubba is in right? RF in Fenway is way too complicated for GOB and his rotting arm.
(How many of these were offered equal money by each team. Pavano, BTW, was offered more by the Sox, but chose to sign for less with his boyhood team.)
Cliff, Crisp has not missed 50% of the season to date, but 80%, having played in 5 of 25 games.
The Sox have played pitifully and are still effectively tied for first. The Pythagorean standings have them six back of the Yanks. They'll either start playing a lot better or wave bye-bye to the NY club.
Also, ESPN is reporting that Mirabelli hasn't arrived in Boston yet, and that Varitek will start if he can't make it in time.
And any one of those yokels wearing the Damon t-shirt would grab the extra $12 million too.
Are you still of the belief that the 2006 Sox are better offensively than the 2005 version?
Bad thing for Boston: Loretta inspires no confidence, and Alex Gonzalez is making Womack look like a hitter.
Varitek will probably put up better numbers. If he doesn't, then Boston is in trouble.
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Jason Giambi DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Hideki Matsui LF
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Miguel Cairo 1B
Bubba Crosby RF
Giambi DHing, check. Bubba in RF, check. Phillips...nope, Cairo.
Incidentally, I failed to mention the more interesting returning prodigal son story in my mind, which is Mike Myers coming back to face Ortiz and/or Nixon. The Yanks haven't had a LOOGY as effective as Myers since Graeme Lloyd in 1998. Meanwhile, Francona has set a trap for Myers by placing one of the best righty hitters in baseball between his two big lefties. Should make for compelling stuff in the late innings.
Wake always pitches the Yanks tough, losing record against them aside. They really could use a passed ball or two tonight.
2006 -- .206, .386, .324 in 43 pas.
2005 -- .236, .385, .527 in 195 pas.
That's a lot of pas to be just a blip.
His numbers against righties are much much better.
Bottom line: let Myers pitch to him as well as Papi and Trot.
I hate Sox fans.
I hate their stupid facial hair.
I hate Red Sox Nation.
I hate New England style chowda.
I hate Curt Schilling.
I hate these early May series being hyped like the World Series.
Giambi misses a homer by about five feet.
What a maroon Kay is. I hope his broadcast buddies stay on him the rest of the season on that.
I hate that tomato can. MVP my ass.
Cute checkout chick looks him over and asks, "Sox fan?"
Guy goes, "Yeah, how'd you know, because of my purchase?"
Young lady, "No, because you're f'in ugly."
Oh, and screw the Red Sox fans.
I hope whatever Giambi was seein' that had him all over Wakefield is something he can share with this teammates.
Tough tough call on the previous pitch.
Tim Wakefield is throwing a no-hitter.
There.
It sure looks freezing out there.
That wind coming in from center isn't hirting him either.
And ESPN says" we are going to talk about Curt Schilling and the other elder statesmen off to great starts," as opposed to, "we are going to talk about Moose, off to a better start than Schilling"
Maddux and Pedro are feasting off the NL. One of those stories actually played up John Smoltz.
And Oh My God, they just plugged Kenny Rogers.
Moose owns them all.
Chacon: 3-1, 4.56 ERA
Beckett: 3-1, 4.50 ERA
Hmmmm.
Cliff, just take a deep breath and repeat "he's not Hawk, he's not Hawk"
Now Harrelson I hate.
Hello shut-out?
Again, shut-out?
Shut-out.
And what a play by Cano!!
No matter how fast a guy is, if he doesn't take the right route on a ball like that, it's a hit, so he's gotta have some instincts out there.
That said, it was a nice play.
And then when he went headlong into Sheffield (and I think he hit Jeter at some point too) last year, it really made me wonder.
I can think of Wakefield, both Niekros, Candiotti, Wilhelm, Wilbur Wood, Charlie Hough, Steve Sparks . . .
Anyone got the other six?
Hey, tie game!
Imagine if knuckleballers were the norm. Baseball would be a very boring game, in my opinion.
I don't think he did anything wrong this time. He'd have made it easily if it wasn't a pitchout.
Oh, didn't the Astros have a knuckleballer? Jared Fernandez was it? Okay five to go.
164 Really? If I had to list the reasons the Yankees lost that series I'd put them like this:
1) David Wells aborts his Game 5 start
2) Yanks fail to get the go-ahead run home from third twice in Game 4 (donde esta el sqeeze bunt?!)
3) Torre goes to Jeff Weaver instead of Rivera in Game 4
175 I'm gonna say bad call.
178 But was it his primary pitch or just part of his arsenal? I gotta get the Neyer/James Guide out.
I credit
1. Weaver. Just Weaver.
2. Boone's bust which brought Weaver in.
3. A sudden and alarming inability to hit Brad Penny
Can we talk about '98 instead?
By the way, Wakefield's list of pitches is rather entertianing in the Neyer/James Guide:
1. Fast Knuckleball
2. Slow Knuckleball
3. Slow Curve (used as a change)
4. "Straight Ball" or "Non-Fastball"
5. Slider
Small's in for the first time this year in a tie game when the starter has 77 pitches? Bad move. Maybe terrible move.
It's like they were separated at birth or something.
Leiter on YES was worth Leiter the Yankee in '06.
And Small gets out of it! Phew!
No way was that ball landing behind Matsui. In front, possibly, but not behind. The balls are all falling short in left field.
Sorry, had to get that out of the system. Timlin in for the knuckleballer.
Nice walk, Cap'n! As much as I miss seeing Sheff in the lineup, having Giambi bat 3rd and A-Rod 4th is good for now.
Did he just walk Cora?
It's kind of grating.
STURTZE?
CUT HIM.
Maybe Joe will realize that when he can't get out a guy hitting at the Mendoza line, he doesn't belong in these situations...
Joe just made bad choices with the bullpen tonight.
Joe has just made bad decisions in the bullpen for three years straight!
Tonight, it was Small + Sturtze. Tomorrow, it'll be someone else. It's the same stuff. This is a loss for Joe Torre. And don't be so quick to absolve him.
Would the ESPN guys at least TRY not to sound so excited?
"3-2 score, tied in the bottom of the 8th, and Big Pappi..."
Honestly. You can't.
364
Sorry bout that.
If we won 150 games, would we be calling Torre an idiot 12 times?
So take that off Torre's books and the Yanks have Rodriguez, Matsui and Posada down one against a young closer who'd due for a bad outing. I can't get too upset at Joe here. If Farnsworth didn't go long yesterday, maybe I'd be more upset.
So maybe Torre deserves a cookie?
You're right about Myers. If Ortiz takes him deep than so be it. I still say we never should have signed him and brought up a lefty from AAA, or grab one in a trade later in the year.
However, why pay a guy 18 Mil. if not to use him in exactly those types of situations? Isn't tonight's game exactly why we singned Farnsworth?
Give Arod until the end of May. If he is still a bum, Joe should be shit-canned if he doesn't move Giambi to 4 and Arod to 6 behind Matsui.
Easy man, its not just a high fastball, first you throw a slider, then a change up, and then you strike out Soriano, I mean Arod, with a high fastball.
But it's all the rest of it. Torre left Small in for a third inning. Then, he left him in after he gave up a baserunner. Then, he brought in Sturtze with two on.
I'll repeat what I said: Farnsworth and Rivera should not be sitting on the bench in the bullpen for another Yankee loss. Torre's been making this same mistake since the 03 World Series when Weaver came in to pitch. That's why I blame Joe for this loss.
Who was it in St. Louis who got all the death threats for using his bullpen just like this in the World Series when he had his ace in the pen?
Joe reminds me of him, utterly and completely.
At least Robbie looked great, and we still have tomorrow's dismantling of Beckett to look forward to.
It's like the fish in water thing, they don't realize they're wet.
That's all I can really say.
There is no reason to be optimistic while Joe Torre is in that dugout, none! The grass may not always be greener, but at least it isn't the same grass. I say again, there is a reason Joe couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag before signing with the Yankees.
For the same ass-backward by the book managing thinking that goes into facing Matsui with a lefty when he hits them better by .100 points! Fortunately for the Red Sox and White Sox, their managers don't have that problem.
Wang had fewer than 80 pitches when they lifted him. Unless he asked to be pulled, he should have been left in.
If Torre is so dead set on using Small, I advocate replacing Jaret Wright in the rotation.
With two on in the 8th, unless they are tired you have to go to Farnsworth or even Mo with that piece of the order. As others have said, I can't fault the move to Myers but going to Sturtze when Villone, Mo, Farnsworth and Proctor were available is just flat out wrong.
Also, I'm still upset about the Bubba steal early on. They keep running themselves into outs. This is not a smallball team, stop trying to make it something its not. Its like having Joe Montana and insisting on playing a grinding running game because its more "fundamental." I'm sure the manager and coaches are much more skilled than me in many aspects and there's no way I could manage a team, but I can see wrong decisions when they are made, and those are wrong.
I totally concur on the smallball, although Wakefield is generally a good guy to run on and they just guessed right.
A-Rod and Matsui getting some hits would really help things. I'm not thrilled about Matsui at all this year, I don't think he was worth what he was paid at all even though I love the guy.
I can see it now, the batboy has a Tanyon Sturtze rookie card, which would be worthless if Sturtze had been sent down to the minors 2004, but if he goes down as the worst everyday reliever of all time...
It amazes me to this day that baseball above many other sports seems to be a holdout in terms of not believing simple and straightforward facts merely because they disagree with "baseball sense". Its even more frustrating because baseball is easily the most quantifiable sport of any out there.
I am at the point where I really think that Joe is actually hurting out record. I am convinced that Jeter could manage this team to the same record, and this team with NO manager could win 90 games. But Joe's in-game managing seems to take away wins...
But honestly any other combination of pitching move (leaving Wang in for the 7th, Getting Proctor to start the 8th, getting Farnsworth out.. using Villone etc) is better than putting Tanyon in a tied game against a good team in the 8th.
Wang wasn't spetacular today but i think he did more than his share of the job, giving up a opposite field bloop single against David Ortiz on a very well pitched low and away ball is nothing to be ashamed of. in fact he gave up 6 hits but none of them came anywhere close for being extra bases (although the Bubba catch was definately scary)
His high hits allowed isn't a problem as long as he keeps such a low longball/extra bases against hits ratio on . (As oppose to Struze.. who is giving up more than 1/3 of his hits for extra bases or long balls, Wang is serving up less than 1/10 of his hits for extra bases and 1/40 for longball)
I think Wang need to be credited with the fact that he have never really blown a game for the Yankees this year (and almost none last year too) he might not pitch well on some days, but he will almost always keep the team in the game.
Another minor observation on Wang, he doesn't seem to warm his hands much almost no puffing hands and very little rubbing too ... and in such cold night games... with his control problem... it's hard to not link these together somehow... that and perhaps he isn't warming up enough on cold games.. AND linking this to the fact that his best game so far was indoor....
If this observation was true though, he should be just fine as it's only going to get hotter from here on.
No mention of his zero strike outs? I'm much more concerned about that.
Ben, it is a concern yes, but my observation seem to be that it has a lot to do with his feel for the pitch.
Like I meantioned at 434 , his control problem so far seems inexplicablly tied with his inexperience in dealing with cold weather. combine that with the fact that all of his strike out pitches are feel pitchs (Slider, Changeup)and it's not hard to see the conenction.
Remember he had 8k and 0 BB in the start against the Twins, granted that Rondell White certainly padded that number a bit but the Twins are still a pretty good ballclub in at least making contact, I think that shows at least he is more than capable of striking people out... IF he can feel his pitch.
My conclusion is, if he continues to not striking people out in hot day games and/or indoor games, then we might be worried, but other than that, my current guess is that it's simply the inexperience of dealing with cold weather pitching that's really hurting him. (all his other outting so far have being cold outdoors game save for the Twins game)
-Some fascinating and imaginative sign-making at Fenway tonight. Apparently, Damon is a "Trader." Classic.
-Matsui is one of the streakiest hitters I've ever had the privilage/agony of watching.
-I've never seen A-Rod look so reticent at the plate. When he does get the bat off his shoulders, he appears sheepish and awkward.
-Joe Torre is mentally handicapped.
Then I guess you missed sutcliffe saying "if jeter thinks he was safe I believe him" stan.
And I guess you also missed the 15 minute worship segment to jeter (never makes a mental mistake, then, ironically, does).
Cliff, I'm guessing your review of the sox season so far was done from reading AP reports. That was pretty bad. Yes, the sox relief could be better, but foulke has been a surprise. As far as their problems, it's been getting hits with men in scoring position, period.
And please quit with the spinning of the yankee payroll. They spend almost twice what the red sox do. Tons more than other teams. You ARE the house. You're built to win, and have a huge advantage. No way you can spin it.
They follow the money, duh. And schilling.
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