Hello folks. Jim Johnson here from The Bronx Block. I’m currently watching the Sox help the Yankees in their task of securing the Wild Card and I thought, “Hmm, it’s been a while since we’ve seen one another.” So I thought I’d come over and breathe a little New York into your lives.
What’s New?
It’s been over 2 months since the Yankees and Sox had last tangled and much has changed since then.
- Back then, the Yankees’ third starter was named Mussina, now he’s named Clemens.
- Their first base situation was a mess; a light-hitting defensive wizard more notable for claiming world series balls than hitting and a AAAA player who is struggling to find playing time on the Pirates. That has been corrected by the promotion of Andy Phillips, who is playing a sterling first base and hitting around .300. He has also made some very clutch plays and gotten some key hits in important situations. Time will tell if he regresses back to his career averages of if he has finally developed (at the ripe old age of 30) into a solid major league hitter..
- Cano and Cabrera were hitting a respective .265 and .248 back in the golden days of June. They now sport much more respectable numbers of .309 and .292.
- Abreu has been off and on all year. More off than on. His average has average has gone from .244 to .286 and his current status is “on”, having hit over .600 in his last 2 series. I fully expect that to last for quite some time; right up until the point when we actually need him hitting.
- Hideki Matsui absolutely tore the cover off the ball in July, hitting .345 with 13 homers, 28 RBI and 31 Runs scored. He still has a girly-arm, however.
- Jason Giambi: Last time you were around, Giambi had finally hurt something important and the Yankees were finally rid of him for a decent amount of time (When you have a team that has 4 or 5 DHs, the loss of one of them is always seen as something of a solution). At present time, after a walking boot, a steroid investigation, and most likely, a good amount of free time, Giambi is just on the verge of rejoining the team. He looks to take some at-bats from the current DH Johnny Damon, who is coming off a 0 for 6 with 3 Ks performance in his last game. If you ignore the fact that we have $34 million tied up in one position that doesn’t even play the field, and the fact that both of them are probably going to be rather pissed off with sharing at-bats, it DOES give Joe Torre and option for how he wants to present the team for each game: more power in the middle or (presumably) more speed and table-setting ability at the top.
- The Yankee bench has been vastly improved. Gone are Phelps and Nieves. Yankee fans are sad to see Nieves go because, frankly, he brought each of us a lot of hope (If that guy can make a major league roster, hell, I probably can too). Jose Molina is the new backup to Posada. Doug Mientkiewicz is still out since Lowell steamrolled him. With Andy Phillips replacing Phelps/Minky as a starter, Wilson Betemit is the new utility infielder (time will tell if Cairo will remain with the team). Johnny Damon now fills the role of part-time DH and fourth outfielder. The Yankees have also called up a young slugger named Shelley Duncan who has hit 5 home runs in his first 22 at bats… and could possibly strike out 200 times between now and the end of the year if given enough starts. He provides power from the bench, another 1B option and an emergency right fielder. He’s also incredibly goofy to watch when celebrating or giving an interview.
- Oh right, Phil Hughes is back. If nothing else, that at least means that Kei Igawa is banished to Baseball Purgatory.
- Back then, the Yankee leadoff hitter was hitting .251… oh wait… that’s exactly the same.
- Also the same is the fact that the sixth and seventh innings of the Yankee relief corps are kind of a mess. Proctor is gone, Farnsworth is public enemy No. 1, Myers is responsible for everyone else
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1). Wait, you’re happy with Andy Phillips’ .307/.346/.417 at first, with extremely below average defense at the easiest position? On a team with a $215m payroll? Also, in spite of his .346 BABIP?
2). Clemens getting cuffed around by a miserable white sox team fills you with… confidence?
3). Shelly Duncan: 29 ABs. Eric Hinske was hitting .450 after his first 30 ABs earlier this year.
4). Your weakest link is your bullpen, and the fatigue being placed on the arms. Your team’s response? DFA Myers, trade away Proctor. Why?
I am utterly shocked, SHOCKED, that a Yankee fan came in here just to personally attack Sox fans. Just, beside myself with wonder. When you don’t have any way to refute statements, you go for the ad hominem. Mature.
…
Who personally attacked Sox fans, exactly?
If I wanted to read some shitty Yankee fan rant (which is typical by the way) I would have taken the time to find it myself. I came to Firebrand to get the latest Sox news, not such garbage.
Jim Johnson
weird. That last part was supposed to read “Jim Johnson
Okay it’s not working, please disregard that last comment.
To all all of you Red Sox fans and writers that are talking as if you’ve already won the pennant and the Series with almost 2 months left in the season.
Look into a mirror and tell yourself:
1)”I’m not worried about the Red Sox having a 7 game lead with 6 more games against the Yankees”
2)”I’m not worried about the Yankees winning the division”
3)”I’m not worried about the Yankees beating the brains out of our pitchers in the playoffs”
4)”I’m not worried at all about Wang, Clemens, Pettite, and Mussina all being big game pitchers”
5)”I’m not worried about the Yankees winning their 27th World Series”
To all all of you Red Sox fans and writers that are talking as if you’ve already won the pennant and the Series with almost 2 months left in the season.
Look into a mirror and tell yourself:
1)”I’m not worried about the Red Sox having a 7 game lead with 6 more games against the Yankees”
2)”I’m not worried about the Yankees winning the division”
3)”I’m not worried about the Yankees beating the brains out of our pitchers in the playoffs”
4)”I’m not worried at all about Wang, Clemens, Pettite, and Mussina all being big game pitchers”
5)”I’m not worried about the Yankees winning their 27th World Series”
Personally, I liked it. Overly optimistic, sure, but I think it was meant to read as “cheeky and fun”. It wasn’t particularly antagonistic, nor was it meant to say “The Yanks are stealing this thing”. It more just says, “the last 2 months have been better for this bohemoth, and here is why.” It was also rife with optimism, much like was the case with Gabbard and a few other recent examples around these parts. Whatever. Good post.
this is where a Mike Edelman post would have kicked ass. Starting the work week, a nice weekend, but I’m up at 6:30, I get into work at 8:30, and I’m hoping a nice article by one of the firebrand guys can get me going for the day and a week of Sox baseball.
Instead I get this horse shit.
I need more coffee.
Funny you mention Mike. Before I turned to Jim, I asked Mike if he could do it. Zach didn’t post today because he’s on vacation, and I will be in the same boat this Thursday … however, the replacement for me will be an old friend of us all. :)
This is the best post I’ve read on Fire Brand in a while! Haha
What is this crap? This guy sucks.
Glass-half-full kinda guy, is he not? If he’s not scared of the Sox’ rotation, he must be petrified at the Yankees’. Even in its current state of relative adequacy, it’s the worst rotation of any AL contender. And the bullpen is worse than that. (The Yanks are reduced to doing what most other teams chronically have to do: desperately hoping a couple of young arms magically step in to save the season.)
As for the “vastly improved” bench… so Shelley Duncan is this year’s Shane Spencer/Aaron Small. Even with his quick 5 HR, what are the odds he hits double figures? Andy Phillips is a career quad-A type. Congrats on adding a Molina — replacing a .160 hitter with a .200 hitter. And Betemit’s a nice pickup, at the cost of depleting an already-ravaged bullpen.
Thanks to the Yanks’ soft July schedule and the implosion of the Tigers and Indians, they are back in the wild-card hunt. But slo-pitch softball teams don’t do well in the playoffs. Even if the Yanks get to the postseason, anticipate a quick exit.
worst roation of any AL contender? I think the yanks have a better roation than clev…and seattle (they r both contending, right?) I think they can be better than the angels too w/ hughes. fyi we replaced a .160 hitter with 0 arm with a .200 hitter who can hold runners, big improvment, get ur shit right..
Odds are pretty good duncan can hit double figures with about 2 mo left, he can hit 5 more homers its not that crazy to say. Now 20 hrs? thats crazy to say
Better than the one-two punch of Sabathia and Carmona? I don’t think so. Better than Lackey, Escobar and Weaver? No. While both Cleveland and Anaheim have weak starters at the back of the rotation, so do the Yanks. And the front-end for those teams is much better than New York’s.
It’s sad, really, that Yankee fans are reduced to such straits. Yep, Chris, I have to admit, your “roation” is better than Seattle’s. Good rallying cry, that.
Yeah, your new batless backup catcher has an arm; given how often Posada’s backup plays, Molina will probably throw out a couple extra base-stealers. Major upgrade, sure.
Yeah, I have to admit, Duncan probably will hit 5 more home runs in two months, as his average plummets toward the Mendoza line.
Yeah, Phil Hughes, if he plays up to his potential, is an upgrade over Kei Igawa. But it just proves my point: the Yankees are reduced to hoping that their minor leaguers can breathe new life into an aged team — that Shelley Duncan can make up for the decrepitude of Damon and Giambi, that Joba Chamberlain can replace Proctor AND Farnsworth.
During their recent glory years, they had a core of in-their-prime position players and a bulletproof rotation: Clemens, Pettitte, Cone, El Duque, Wells, etc. They didn’t have to hope that a brace of phenoms would rise up and save their season.
Thanks Mark.
To be fair Phil Hughes is hardly any old ‘minor leaguer’ he is the number one prospect in baseball, and should be a major upgrade as the Yankees fifth starter.
Andy Phillips’ defence at first base is above average – and better than Josh Phelps, Jason Giambi or Miguel Cairo, the other options in the field, and at least he can hit for average unlike Mientkiewicz. In fact Youkilis is only hitting 2 points higher than him .302 compared to .300.
As for backup catcher, Molina is hitting .222 this season compared to Mirabelli’s .208.
Regarding starting pitching and ERA’s:
Beckett – 3.31, Dice-K – 3.70, Schilling – 4.20, Wakefield – 4.55, Lester – 5.09
Wang – 3.49, Pettitte – 3.97, Clemens – 4.23, Mussina, 4.66, Hughes, 5.87 (3 starts)
These figures are hardly worlds apart, Schilling has been on the DL for a while and Hughes is coming off a bad outing in his third career start which inflates his ERA.
Regarding Clemens, he’s not the pitcher he once was but he’s still a front end of the rotation kind of pitcher, he only surrendered three earned runs to the White Sox, Cano’s (who’s defence has been outstanding) error led to 5 unearned runs.
I liked it too. Come on guys, It’s not like if we’re not biased also.
I’m going to agree with Mark. And it’s not like Jim hacked onto the site and posted the article, Evan asked him to submit something. Disagree with his points, that’s what the comment section is for, but the article isn’t shit just because he’s a Yanks fan.
1)
27th World Series? This year? Seriously? Just because the 2006 Cardinals won the WS with an extremely mediocre team doesn’t mean it’s going to happen every year…
I didn’t mind this article at all. He makes some good points. It’s not like he’s saying his yanks are lock to win the series or something. The whole point of the article is that we have some good baseball coming up over the next few months, and that is spot on.
I don’t think we needed to pile on like that. That’s pretty shitty.
“Beckett is still Beckett.”
What the hell does that mean?
what’s a rivalry without a rival and its fans? i thought it was a fun article that raised some good points. There were no cheap shots (well maybe a couple), but not more than i would expect myself to make if i were guest blogging on a Yankees site.
Perspective is good. It keeps us from getting complacent. Nice piece Jim.
MR
Aubrey: If you think this is piling on, you haven’t spent much time in the flame wars of the blogosphere. This is pretty tame stuff, really. I tried to keep my own comments relatively fact-based, like for instance…
Anyone who thinks the Yankees’ rotation is equal to the Red Sox’ is being, shall we say, extremely selective in evidence presentation. With the exception of Wang, the Yanks’ starters are well past their prime. They would have been the best rotation in baseball about seven years ago, but not now.
Anyone who thinks Andy Phillips is a major-league quality first baseman because of an empty .300 average in 127 at-bats is ignoring his career numbers: .252/290/399 in almost one full season’s worth of major-league at-bats.
Anyone who thinks it makes a dime’s worth of difference whether your backup catcher is hitting .222 or .208 is really, really reaching for any statistical support they can find.
Which proves my point once again: when the Yankees are reduced to this kind of hope-based optimism, it’s a sad day in the Bronx.
Now, for an absolutely gratuitious shot: God, I hope Jim Dolan buys this team.
“
OK, no offense here but i hate when we get articles like this. I don’t really care about the Yankees right now. They are playing great, but playing awful teams. Can they come back? Yes but it is a LONG shot. If the Sox play .500 ball the Yanks need to win 33 of their last 51. That is no easy task. When you think that the Sox have an easier schedule than the Yanks, i doubt the Sox will play .500 ball and the Yanks will play .650 ball. The Yanks can sweep the Sox in both series and STILL have to play better than them in the other 45 games.
Can we just not here from Yankee fans? We aren’t playing you guys, so why are you here. Continue to play great ball and make a real race of this. I would enjoy that. I would also enjoy the Blue Jays to come back. I would rather the Jays to be honest. At least than we wouldn’t have stupid fans coming to this site talking bad about the team that the site is for.
Oh okay, Jim, I took it the exact opposite way haha
It seems odd to me that he failed to mention Matsui…I don’t have any #’s at my finger tips but I think he is killing it right now…I think he is up to 23 home runs after a very average first half. Seems to have been the hottest Yankee just from watching highlights and reading box scores. Anyways their bullpen is still junk…Joba Chamberlain is converting from a starter to reliever scares me…but he has a history of ar troubles and Torre has a history of ruining bullpen arms so that should work itself out by mid September or so
Typical yankee arrogance. They pound some weak teams and they feel they are already champions.
The yankee offense has been playing TOO good lately. ABERRANTLY good would be a better expression. I know their decrepit lineup has no future but its still dangerous in the present; but I also know they are not gonna score 15 runs and 8 homers every night. And when they stop scoring ridiculously, and came back to reality, they are gonna have to face the fact that their pitching is HORRENDOUS, and is incapable of winning a though matchup.
The rotation is mediocre. Petit, Mussina are clearly on the decline and even when they win, they cannot domminate anymore. Every yankee starter is beatable. And the walking fossil of Clemens is just patetic. I’m so happy that he is playing for the yanks now. It would be horrible to pay 28 millions for someone who, in his better moments, is an average pitcher.
And the bullpen it’s completely pityfull. And their front office weakened even more trading Proctor for a bench player. Let me repeat that: They trade an arm for another bat. An incomprehenssible (moronic) move for a team with an already overcrowded offense, whose major weakeness is clearly lack of pitching.
Thanks to the yankee’s GM for weakening their team before the trade deadline.
Dave,
How exactly was I talking bad about the Red Sox? Granted, haven’t not seen them in a few months, my views might be pretty rudimentary, but I was trying to be objective as possible. I had orginally just planned to write about New York, but I thought I would include my uneducated views on the Sox because I knew it would generate a whole lot of comments telling me what an idiot I was. That part was pretty much for self-entertainment.
I’m here because Evan asked me to write a piece. Seeing as how our teams are forever linked and are mortal enemies, I thought my best chance at writing a good piece would be to basically give Sox fans an update on the team they hate most since it had been a while in between meetings.
Frankly, I’d be happy for one of the Sox writers to come over to The Bronx Block and say “Hey evil-doers, good guys here. Here’s the cliff-notes version of the Red Sox status for you in preparation of our upcoming meeting.” As you can see my article, I haven’t been all that clued in as of late to the doings of the Sox… I would appreciate the knowledge, biased or not. Know thy enemy.
Granted, this article probably would’ve been better placed had it been closer to our Aug 28th meeting, but Evan needed something now, so here it is. Sorry if you guys thought there was any insult or antagonizing meant in the article; I have a sarcastic writing style and I poke fun at both sides, always with friendly intention.
Jared,
You’re right. While I was writing, I had to refresh my browser and I’m just noticing some the things I had added had been eaten. I’m going to make a quick update.
I think the Yanks have the tougher part of their schedule yet to come and see them being farther out then 7 games when we meet in the Bronx.
That all knowing , uncoverer of truth shall tell what becomes of the sox this year.
And that entity is time.
So we can all talk trash, act like 6 year olds and insult our rivals, or be grown up and admit this piece was an opinion, not an attack on anybody.
And yall gotta admit, tho he is playing great baseball, your 2nd baseman is about 5′9″[?]and can be called sawed-off?I would think, for his size, he plays an excellent 2nd base, better than some taller folk.And, from what I understand, his offense aint shabby either.
Getting back to the beginning, time WILL tell.
As much as it pains me to say it, the Red Sox should still walk the division. The Yankees have already played the easiest part of their schedule and the upcoming months will show if the team is a true contender. However, the Yankees have a great shot at the wildcard and the two will probably meet up in the ALCS.
As for the pitching: Wakefield is 41, Schilling 40, Beckett 27, Dice-K 26 and Lester 23. An average age of 31.4. As for the yankees, granted Clemens is 45, but Mussina is 38, Pettitte 36, Wang 27 and Hughes 21. An average age of 33.4.
The Yankees rotation isn’t as old as people make out, with the exception of Clemens they’ll all be around next season (and you never know with Roger, he could turn up in June again). People forget how old Wakefield and Schilling are. I don’t see the Yankees rotation being a problem, the bull-pen on the other hand could well be unless some rookies make big splashes – Chamberlain, Ohlendorf, Ramirez.
The point about Molina outhitting Mirabelli wasn’t me ‘reaching for statistical support’, it was showing how the Yanks bench has been upgraded, perhaps not majorly, but Molina is an above average back-up – who is comparable to Mirabelli – compared to Nieves, who makes me still think I could have a MLB career.
As much as a team with the Yankees payroll could probably do better at first base, Andy Phillips is not hurting the team in anyway. The price for Teixeira was too high (as was the price for Gagne). To be fair to Phillips, I think his line this year reflects his true ability, he was hampered by irregular playing time and by various family illnesses.
I’m 5′9″, I can call Pedroia “sawed-off” if I want to!
Jim
I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about the comments that came from your article. I hate the Yankees as much as anyone, but i hate a lot of teams. I think it is retarded that everything has to be linked between the 2. That is why i am against this and all Yankee things on this site. It makes zero sense to hear about this when we don’t play for another 2 weeks. If i want to read about how the Yanks are doing, i’ll go to RLY or something like that. It is not a huge thing. I am not going to stop coming here or reading the info, i just think it is stupid to hear “the our rivals.” I don’t care what the Yanks or their fans are doing/thinking. Talk to me in 2 weeks and my mood will change. For the next 2 weeks i want to be able to enjoy my life without annoying Yankee fans trying to justify them being in 2nd and how they are going to win the WS.
Chris
Gabbard, Beltre, and Murphy is nothing for Gagne. Gabbard is a 12th pitcher on a good team, Beltre is 17 and atleast 3 years from making any real name for himself (even in the minors), and Murphy is a 4th OFer. Maybe the reason why the Yanks didn’t end up with him wasn’t that the Rangers were asking too much, but rather the Yanks have very little after Hughes, Joba, Kennedy, and Tabata. Maybe all those guys are a hype of NY and aren’t really highly regarded among baseball people?
Meh, could do with it, could do without it. Not worth getting worked up over. Just ignore the article if it bothers you that much.
I really love the ‘Yankees are playing weak teams so their recent performance is meaningless’ rallying cry. Weren’t these the same ‘weak teams’ the Sox were playing a mere month ago? Didn’t the Sox lose 2 out of 3 to the Royals, and merely split a series with the always-mediocre Toronto? If it means nothing that the Yankees have been scoring over 9 runs per game for the past two weeks, what does it mean when the Red Sox score less than that against the same competition?
Bad teams don’t go 19-7 in one month or score an average of 9 runs per game over two week periods. Just doesn’t happen, no matter the competition. Good teams win the games they have to, and that’s just what the Yankees did. Heck, they even beat the good teams, then-contenders Oakland, Minnesota, and the always-contending Angels, before they started beating the bad teams. And boy did they beat them.
The next few weeks will be a nice test for the Yanks. They will go from having the easiest schedule to pretty much the hardest schedule in baseball. If they succeed there, well, I think we can make some definite conclusions about the nature of this team. It’s not much use disregarding their great performance in July and the beginning of this month. No matter how you slice it, they played some truly great baseball to thrust themselves right back into the mix. It’s almost hard to think that this was a team that was toast in May.
Chris,
You can’t really call Wakefield “old.” I know he’s 41 but in knuckleballer years, he’s only approaching his early to mid 30’s. He could be around for years if he wanted to and as long as he puts up those wins each year, I’ll welcome him back.
it all comes down to this…yankees defense is one of the most solid in the major leagues, i think they have the second fewest errors in the league. phillips is as good a youk at first. the major differences in the teams now comes down to 2 things, lineups and bullpens. yanks lineups is much better than the red sox, no one can argue that. yet bostons bullpen is much better than the yankees. we all know good pitching shuts down good hitting. so that is where the big disadvantage is with the yankees. yet, if the yankees can get a boost from these unproven, yet very high potiental prospects in the bullpen that will be coming up soon, then the balance of power will shift, if it doesnt work out then the sox have the advantage…so for the yanks its bullpen or bust
I just don’t get this line of thinking. All they need to do is improve the bullpen? They still need to make up 7 games with only 51 left. They need a hell of a lot more than just Joba. They need Hughes to pitch lights out like he can, Moose and Clemens to not show their age, find some middle relievers and set-up guys, and their line-up needs to stay at this pace. 50 game is not a lot AT ALL and people don’t get that. The Yanks need to play a minimum of .650 ball here on out to even have a shot. Even if they do that they still have to hope the Sox play down to their weak competition.
Money Mike, I think you’re missing the point. The Yankees don’t have to be just as good as the Red Sox from here on out, they have to be BETTER. Significantly better. Sure, they’ve been 7 games better than the Sox from June 1st on (39-21 vs 32-27), but they’ve been stuck at this 7-game deficit for awhile now.
Are the Yankees better than the Red Sox RIGHT NOW? I personally think so, but it really depends on the vitality of Curt Schilling and Gagne (two injury-prone veterans) on the Sox side, and Hughes and Chamberlain (two untested rookies) on the Yankee side. I have been looking forward to a Yanks/Sox ALCS matchup all season (more, really, because that meant the Yankees would have made the postseason after being 9 games below .500 at one point), and these two teams could be very evenly matched. It could be like the NFL 2006 season, where the semifinals (Pats vs Colts) are more exciting and noteworthy than the championship (Colts vs Bears). And, hopefully for me and other Yankee fans, the Peyton/A-Rod parallel could stick as well. :)
MoneyMike: I have no idea how the Yankees rank defensively, but the Red Sox are… 3rd? 4th? In the majors in defense.
I’m sorry, Phillips is no Youkilis on defense. When Phillips matches Youk’s 146 (and counting) straight errorless games at first, I will entertain that line of thinking.
The Red Sox have 57 errors, the Yankees 61.
Sorry Mike, but I don’t think Yankees are catching the Sox, unless something drastic happens.
I think New York is very capable of winning the Wild Card and there’s a pretty good chance New York and Boston will be meeting in the ALCS. But winning the East? Ehhh…. that’s a tough one. Not when they have 15 games to absolutely pound on the Devil Rays.
The Yanks aren’t exactly done with 2 months of baseball still ahead. Granted as a member of Red Sox nation I must root against the Yankees, Jim Johnson’s article was entertaining. He seems very fair actually, I didn’t see him attacking the Red Sox. It seems like he enjoys the rivalry, so that’s cool. Here’s hoping the Sox storm to the World Series and end up facing Milwaukee!!!!
and Beckett is still Beckett… Awesome!! Good call J.J.
Come on Jim, you gotta do better than that. Beckett is still Beckett? If you mean the Beckett that pitched a complete game shutout against the Yankees in the 2003 World Series then you’re dead on. If however, you’re trying ti insinuate that Beckett’s anything like he was last year, you’re in complete denial. Beckett’s pitched far better than any pitcher on the Yankees and if the season ended today, Beckett would probably finish #2 in the Cy Young voting. And he pitches in Fenway Park!
And is it supposed to scare anyone that Clemens is your 3rd starter? He’s 3-5 with a 4.23 ERA. And your best pitcher at the time, Andy Pettitte? His ERA has gone from 2.96 to 4.00.
Don’t kid yourself. The Yankees still aren’t as good a team as the Red Sox. The Red Sox pitching staff is better than that of the Yankees across the board.
Rotations
Beckett (3.31 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) vs. Wang (3.49 ERA, 1.24 WHIP)
Schilling (4.20 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) vs. Pettitte (4.00 ERA, 1.45 WHIP)
Matsuzaka (3.70 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) vs. Clemens (4.23 ERA, 1.32 WHIP)
Lester (5.09 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) vs. Hughes (5.87 ERA, 1.30 WHIP)
Bullpen
Papelbon (2.04 ERA, 0.91 WHIP) vs. Rivera (2.83 ERA, 1.01 WHIP)
Okajima (1.00 ERA, 0.81 WHIP) vs. ???
Gagne (2.55 ERA, 0.93 WHIP) vs. ???
Delcarmen (2.45 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) vs. ???
Do the Yankees even know what their bullpen set up is past Rivera? They just released Myers, who although he’s struggled lately, lead the team in ERA and has arguably been their most consistent reliever all season long and they dealt Proctor who has been their bullpen workhorse the last two seasons. They both had ERA’s of 2.88 and 3.81 respectively.
And just those numbers make the pitching staffs seem even closer than they really are. The strikeout rates of Yankees pitchers (even when you exclude Wang) are not even in the same league as that of the Red Sox. Not to mention, the Yankees pitch at home in one of the best pitcher’s parks in the majors while the Red Sox pitch in well, Fenway Park. Good, power pitching is usually what wins in the playoffs (if the Yankees do make it there).
It would be hard to argue that the Yankees are even as good a team as the Tigers, who they’re chasing for a Wild Card spot. The Yankees are have gone 14-4 over their last 18 games while the Tigers have gone 2-11 over their last 13 and the Yankees STILL wouldn’t be in the playoffs if the season ended today. Neither one of those teams are going to continue to play at that same pace. Wait until the Yankees come back to earth. This is a marathon, not a sprint and the Yankees have been sprinting, only to lose steam and fall back again, all season long. I’d put their chances of making the playoffs at 50/50. Even if the Yankees do make the playoffs however, they’d almost certainly be facing the Red Sox (who have had the major’s best record almost all season long) or the Angels (who the Yankees have historically struggled against) in the first round. And I think both are clearly better teams than the Yankees at this point.
There’s a couple months left however. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens and I’m glad the Yankees have gained enough ground on the Wild Card to make the remaining games against them interesting. It certainly puts the Red Sox in a position in which they’re capable to knock the Yankees out of the race, in the same way that the Yankees did to the Red Sox last year.