[quote]therajraj wrote:
A few things w/ respect to the Red Sox DB:
What is your justification for saying Youkilis is done? He had a great year last year
Dice-K is out for the season he had Tommy John Surgery
John Lackey is not pitching this year either, he also had Tommy John Surgery.
Bard has moved to the starting rotation, not really sure how he’ll turn out, but he was a great setup man.
I don’t know anything about their other SP Felix Dubront but I’m guessing he’ll do better than Lackey’s 6.41 ERA in 2011.
Cody Ross is only the starting LFer until Crawford returns which is expected to be mid-April. Crawford may not be able to duplicate his numbers in TB, but I can see him noticeably improving from 2011. Most players have a down year at some point in their career.
[/quote]
Kevin Youkilis had a great year last year? He missed 40 games, hit 17 homeruns and batted under .260. He’s missed more than a hundred games the last two years and he’s an old 33.
I forgot about Matsuzaka’s surgery but I knew about Lackey’s. Bard has good stuff when he throws for one inning; jury is still out as far as starting goes.
I thought Crawford was a bit overrated, or at least overpaid. He only stole 18 bags last year and I know he wasn’t healthy part of the year, but he’s not healthy now either and he’s also getting older, not younger. It’s pretty rare for a guy to swipe 45+ bags every year for more than ten years. I don’t think he’ll steal more than 25 this year and I’ve never liked him much as a hitter. Injuries catch up with everyone, and for a guy like Crawford to lose half a step and maybe a little batspeed, it can result in a big drop-off in performance.
The Red Sox have questions at a lot of places. I like it better when a team has question marks surrounding young players with talent rather than older guys trying to bounce back from an off-year or guys trying to fit into new roles (Aceves, Bard).[/quote]
I agree with you about the Red Sox. They have a few bright spots, but other than that a lot of question marks.
I dont know how anyone cannot think that the yankees are not a favorite for a playoff spot.
I belive Ivan Nova is one of the star pitchers of in the league and will turn out to be pitcher of #2 rotation capability. a 95 MPH Fastball with movement plus 2 other quality pitches leads me to believe that. There is no reason not to think you can rely on him. While aside from Nova and CC there is no stud on the staff they make up for it in potential and depth. Kuroda, Hughes, Pineda, Garcia and lets not forget about Pettite will provide innings and quality. I believe this is the year Hughes will finally put it all together.
There bullpen with Mo, Robertson and Rafael Soriano is still solid…if their starting pitchers can bring them to the end of the 6th the yanks will win much more games than lose.
Why not think Granderson can duplicate or at least come close to last years numbers? Arod can still hit 25-30 homers and lets not forget about Robinson Cano who is one of the best pure hitters in the game. Terry fucking Francona thinks he will hit 370-380 this year. Texeira hit 39 homers last year, and hopefully will not look to pull everything. While Jeter is certainly slowing down he did hit over 300 in the second half and finished with solid numbers. Swisher and Martin are in contract years which usually means good results. Also keep an eye on Eduardo Nunez…the kid can flat out rake, unfortunately he is horror show defensively but with this lineup what I believe to be solid BP and a more than servicable starting pitching staff with hughes I predict winning 17 games this yankee team will 100 games this year.
Who knows about the playoffs, but my money is on the yankees at the very least being in it.
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
I dont know how anyone cannot think that the yankees are not a favorite for a playoff spot.
I belive Ivan Nova is one of the star pitchers of in the league and will turn out to be pitcher of #2 rotation capability. a 95 MPH Fastball with movement plus 2 other quality pitches leads me to believe that. There is no reason not to think you can rely on him. While aside from Nova and CC there is no stud on the staff they make up for it in potential and depth. Kuroda, Hughes, Pineda, Garcia and lets not forget about Pettite will provide innings and quality. I believe this is the year Hughes will finally put it all together.
There bullpen with Mo, Robertson and Rafael Soriano is still solid…if their starting pitchers can bring them to the end of the 6th the yanks will win much more games than lose.
Why not think Granderson can duplicate or at least come close to last years numbers? Arod can still hit 25-30 homers and lets not forget about Robinson Cano who is one of the best pure hitters in the game. Terry fucking Francona thinks he will hit 370-380 this year. Texeira hit 39 homers last year, and hopefully will not look to pull everything. While Jeter is certainly slowing down he did hit over 300 in the second half and finished with solid numbers. Swisher and Martin are in contract years which usually means good results. Also keep an eye on Eduardo Nunez…the kid can flat out rake, unfortunately he is horror show defensively but with this lineup what I believe to be solid BP and a more than servicable starting pitching staff with hughes I predict winning 17 games this yankee team will 100 games this year.
Who knows about the playoffs, but my money is on the yankees at the very least being in it.[/quote]
One word, pitching. They ain’t got it. They got bats galore, but the arms aren’t all that. That’s why I don’t see them killing it. I see them making it to the playoffs, but they won’t make it past the second round.
Further, nobody wants to deal with them because all their players are to expensive.
They are a good team, but they are short of greatness.
But it’s baseball, anything can and does happen.
My bold prediction is the Rays are going to win the AL east and win the WS. Joe Madden will be the manager of the century. I really think he is the smartest manager in baseball. They could score 10 runs, but they will still scrap for another. He has his team prepared to play 10 innings every game.
I got a serious man crush…
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Every year we seem to hear “this is the year the Yankees are too old and going to fall apart,” but it never happens.
I picked them as the Wildcard, I still think Boston will do great now that expectations have plummeted.[/quote]
I agree. Yeah, their a little older, but they have astronomical talent. They will win on sheer talent if nothing else.[/quote]
Sooner or later it will catch up to them. Where have they imporved from last year? Pineda was supposed to be their big move but that doesn’t look like it’s turning out, and who knows how he will handle the Yankee pressure.
[quote]pat wrote:
My bold prediction is the Rays are going to win the AL east and win the WS. Joe Madden will be the manager of the century. I really think he is the smartest manager in baseball. They could score 10 runs, but they will still scrap for another. He has his team prepared to play 10 innings every game.
I got a serious man crush…[/quote]
Actually the prevailing opinion is that the TB Rays will win the division or get the WC at the very least.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Sooner or later it will catch up to them. Where have they imporved from last year? Pineda was supposed to be their big move but that doesn’t look like it’s turning out, and who knows how he will handle the Yankee pressure.[/quote]
It’s really too early to make a call on Pineda.
They don’t need to improve their offense, they finished 1st in total runs scored last season.
They added Kuroda who is solid, Pineda who I think will be very very good eventually (probably not this year) and in all likelihood Nova will improve upon last year.
Believe it or not Freddy Garcia actually pitched pretty decent last year - 3.62 ERA, he isn’t a bad 5th starter. The main question mark is Hughes, but if Pettite can pitch decently in his attempted comeback, they’ll be in pretty good shape.
I think you guys are making their starting piitching staff alot worse than it actually is, CC is the obvious stud and you guys arent giving Nova enough credit as he is/going to be a solid #2 as long as the yankees do not fuck with him and send him down for no apparent reason. after that the staff can be solid, and again if they get it to the 6th inning with Soriano, Robertson and Mo, they will win a ton of games.
Other than the Rays in the East I dont see a pitching staff that is clearly better than the Yanks starting staff.
That would be a quite an improvement off last year’s performance if he pitches like a #2 this year.
Generally pitchers do not progress in a linear fashion, Lee, Halladay for instance didn’t. Based on his major league experience, the division he is pitching in, and the fact hitters have faced him a few times, I see him just as likely as improving as regressing this year.
This is not shitting on him, I just think in all likelihood he won’t reach his potential for another year or two. Pitching takes time to develop especially in the AL East.
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
I think you guys are making their starting piitching staff alot worse than it actually is, CC is the obvious stud and you guys arent giving Nova enough credit as he is/going to be a solid #2 as long as the yankees do not fuck with him and send him down for no apparent reason. after that the staff can be solid, and again if they get it to the 6th inning with Soriano, Robertson and Mo, they will win a ton of games.
Other than the Rays in the East I dont see a pitching staff that is clearly better than the Yanks starting staff.[/quote]
Nova could very well become a solid #2 one day, but he isn’t right now. Lester, Cain, those are solid #2’s, like rajraj said All-stars. You could put a question mark by every starter in the Yanks rotation not named CC. Their bullpen does look solid though, robertson is a stud.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Sooner or later it will catch up to them. Where have they imporved from last year? Pineda was supposed to be their big move but that doesn’t look like it’s turning out, and who knows how he will handle the Yankee pressure.[/quote]
It’s really too early to make a call on Pineda.
They don’t need to improve their offense, they finished 1st in total runs scored last season.
They added Kuroda who is solid, Pineda who I think will be very very good eventually (probably not this year) and in all likelihood Nova will improve upon last year.
Believe it or not Freddy Garcia actually pitched pretty decent last year - 3.62 ERA, he isn’t a bad 5th starter. The main question mark is Hughes, but if Pettite can pitch decently in his attempted comeback, they’ll be in pretty good shape.
Oh and they have CC Sabathia lets not forget.[/quote]
Yeah Pineda could get called up and do well, but being sent down is not a good sign. You’re right it is too early to tell. I hope he does well though I have him on my fantasy team. Hughes is a huge question mark, horrible showing last year and the year before had a era over 4 (though he won 18.) It’s a crapshot whether he turns it around.
As far as them not improving I was wrong. They got rid of Burnett, huge imporvement right there.