Ted Keith wrote a column on CNNSI.com re: the above topic, which you can find here, and he pretty much makes an unholy mess of it. He writes this article like Jackson Pollock paints, hurling random cause after cause against the wall to see if anything sticks. At one point, he pretty much gives up the ghost of any actual analysis or support and starts randomly naming nearly every player on the Red Sox and every facet of the game as being superior for the Boston side without any actual regard for fact or reality:
With a deep starting pitching staff and bullpen, playoff-tested veterans with recent postseason success and a deep bench to boot, the Red Sox have the edge over the Yankees in almost every area. The Sox have developed a core of homegrown players smartly and spent money wisely, but the Yankees have not been able to match them in either category over the past few seasons. In fact, with a top of the order multi-dimensional threat who mans an essential up-the-middle defensive position (Jacoby Ellsbury, Derek Jeter), a dangerous middle of the lineup batter who can hit for power and average (Kevin Youkilis, Bernie Williams), a crafty left-handed starter (Jon Lester, Andy Pettitte) and a hard-throwing closer (Jonathan Papelbon and Mariano Rivera) the Red Sox have built their team by all but swiping the same blueprint the Yankees used to build their championship dynasty of the late 1990s.
Wow!! It’s no wonder the Red Sox have a 20 game lead on the Yanks in the A.L. East, huh? What’s that? They’re one game apart?? If the Red Sox are better than the Yankees in every single aspect, then why are they virtually tied, Mr. Keith? I mean, how ridiculous is the overall message of this statement?
When you break it down into individual parts, it becomes no less ridiculous. Mr. Keith spends much of his column deriding the Yankee starting pitching as being so much worse than the Red Sox. A simple fact check into this reveals that their starting pitchers actually have THE EXACT SAME ERA (4.93)!!!
Looking further, we see that, Oh you did NOT just equate Jacoby Ellsbury to a young Derek Jeter!! Another quick fact check reveals that Mr. Keith’s fanciful ideas have no actual basis in reality. With a .713 OPS in his second full season (.730 last year), Ellsbury is Brett Gardner (.729 OPS), not Derek Jeter, who had an .800 OPS in his second season and has never IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER sported an OBP anywhere near as low as Ellsbury’s .336 last year. You’re comparing a perpetual All Start to a guy who is barely a major league starter.
Dahmer psp Not only that, every single guy he named as the core of the current Red Sox “juggernaut” is reproduced or bettered by the Yankees CURRENT team, not by their dynasty teams. Ellsbury = Brett Gardner; Youkilis < Teixeira (thought they’re very similar), Lester < Sabathia, and Paps < Rivera (or equal to, but they’re both still great). Comparing this Red Sox team’s core to the Yankee dynasty teams is absurd. That team won FOUR championships, this Sox team’s core has won zero. The core of those two Red Sox championships were Schilling, Manny, Ortiz, and Varitek. Those guys are either gone or are a shell of their former selves. Don’t make like this is the same core, because it’s not.
Why are the Yankees 0-7 this season versus the Sox? I’m not sure. Maybe they do have a bit of a psychological edge. Sometimes one team wins a couple close ones and gains confidence while the losing team tightens up. While the Yanks were winning, they were very loose and they don’t seem that way, now. These psychological edges, though, can come and go pretty quickly with a big win or two.
The Red Sox bullpen has certainly been better so far this season, as well, so that could be part of the cause. Bullpens go up and down, though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees closed that gap by the end of the season, with guys like Aceves, Robertson, and Melancon maturing into bigger roles.
I’m not freaking out about anything yet. I think all this is fixable. There certainly aren’t multiple, across-the-board discrepancies between the two clubs, like some deluded pundits want us to believe. What do you guys think the problem is? Why can’t the Yankees beat the Red Sox this year and is the problem fixable?
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14 Responses to Why Can&amp;amp;#039;t We Beat the @#$@#$ing Red Sox?
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TIQ IQ
Eh, I think it is just one of those anomalies that tend to crop up here and there. If the Sox were really fundamentally better, why are they worse against everyone else?
Well, that doesn’t rule out a psychological edge for the Red Sox – it is possible they have a little extra confidence against us while we are pressing too much – impossible to prove, but it’s possible.
True. All it takes, though, is one win to break that.
exactly – glad we’re agreeing on something :-)
It is no fun to agree. The blog is better served when the writers disagree. On that note, I am going to start being a contrarian like Steve at WAsWatching. here is my first one: I think OJ was innocent. you? (Ok, dont answer that).
OJ Mayo – No he definitely took the money from USC
Touche.
I think it is psychological, even though it has been years since that ALCS meltdown on the Yankees end, I think Boston believes they can’t lose to the Yankees in a series, although they have. This year just happens to be one of those things you can’t put your finger on. The lineups match up pretty even, both defenses are about the same. The pitching, that’s where the edge comes in for Boston, but it’s not like the Yankees haven’t ripped these pitchers before. What I find weird is watching Boston lose a series to a sub par team, then face teams that are hot or with winning records and bring it up a notch, then they face the Yankees and bring it up about 5 notches. Like I said ” psychological ” but on the Red Sox not the Yankees. I can see the Red Sox believing they can’t lose to the Yankees but I can’t believe the Yankees would think they can’t beat Boston, that’s just crazy. When the curse was at its peak, it was the Boston fans (not the players)who believed they could not beat the Yankees.
I just keeping thinking of a couple of summers ago when the yanks and sox were a game apart and the Yanks went into Boston in August and swept a five game series. The Sox collapsed as a team after that and finished in 3rd place. That brings a smile to my face. The Sox have not done that to us this season (even though they have won 7 straight), although a loss tonight will really hurt with C.C. getting the start. Yanks will beat Boston at least once this year they just have to get the monkey off thier back and play loose.
I would tend to agree. Let’s hope CC beats that monkey to a pulp tonight.
The Yanks and Sox have the same starters’ ERA and that is with Wang having a historically awful 5 starts. When I saw that article, I couldn’t believe that the SI editors let that go. I could understand if NESPN ran it, but come on. It’s an abysmal article. Yeah, Ellsbury is Jeter’s comp. Yep. That’s not ludicrous. I’m not even going to get into the rest of it.
In the words of the great Wallace Shawn, “Incontheivable!!”
FJM would have had a field day with this article.
Just for the record, I may go postal if this series becomes the spring board for Ortiz to go on a tear. After hitting 2 freaking HRs all year he’s now got 2 against the Yankees in this series. Meanwhile, A-rod is now hitting .230 give or take. Sorry, I don’t want to hear any more apologists for A-Rod and talk about his OPS, the guy needs to start producing consistently. He’s got over 100 ABs now and is playing every day. If he’s healthy enough to play every day, when do we start asking the question of whether this is all he’s got until he gets the full surgery on his hip or, god forbid, this is just all he’s got in the post steroids era. I’d much rather see Nick Swisher batting cleanup and put A-Rod down in the 6 or 7 hole until he shows he deserves to hit further up in the order.