The Yankees officially cinched both a postseason berth and the AL East by sweeping the doubleheader from the Tampa Bay Rays in one of the best days of the season in a season that included Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit and Mariano Rivera becoming the all time saves leader. The 8th inning was key in both games as the Yankees took the lead on Robinson Cano's booming double that put the Yankees ahead after Eduardo Nunez had tied the game up on a solo shot off James Shields and in game two Posada pinch hit for Montero and broke the tie by hitting a solid two run single that let the Yankees clinch the division., interesting note Posada said after the game that he thought it was the 9th. This could not have been accomplished if the Red Sox had not been humiliated by the fighting show alters aka the Baltimore Orioles who out small market underdoged the Red sox who are the ultimate small market scrappy underdog team by taking 3 out of four from them. I thought the Yankees 2010 September was bad but the Red Sox have not had a quality start all month and are currently 5-16 with only 6 games left in the season and this is the team that somebody said would be the greatest team ever....back in January and again in august. Everybody and their cousin, including Yankees fans and all 45 ESPN writers ,I'm looking at you Aaron Boone, bought into the hype about the 2011 Boston Red Sox and the biggest question wasn't if the Red Sox would make the World Series but if they could beat the Phillies. I did however find an article written by Eric Wilbur from boston.com who wrote an article called "The Great Red Hype", its a great article especially in retrospect and back in march he makes the bold claim that not only is it too early to declare the 2011 Red Sox world champions and the greatest team ever but it may be too much to be ensured of at least 100 wins. He pointed out the taboo topic that the 2010 Red sox who won 89 games overachieved and he points out the real reason why the Red Sox ownership made these moves which was declining viewership that has become inflated by pink haters. He also brought up the question of whether or not the Sox can stay healthy and if they can be the bets team ever with 3 erratic starters in Lackey, Matsuzaka and Beckett, which is something that nobody wanted to talk about in March. I love what he wrote to end the artilce which was this:
"The Sox are re-loaded, but how much different are they really from last year? Instead of Adrian Beltre and Martinez, they have Gonzalez and Crawford. While Gonzalez is a perfect fit for this team and this ballpark, is Crawford? Or is he here mainly for flash and ratings?
The bullpen is vastly improved, but what are the Sox going to get out of John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Daisuke Matsuzaka? Can the best team ever have a trio of erratic starters in its rotation?
The team won 89 games last season, so popular thought is that with the returning players and the additions, 100 is an easy goal. Then again, you could argue that Terry Francona's team over-achieved last year; that they were more an 80-win team based on the Triple-A roster that spent much of the summer at Fenway Park.
But that's not what we've been sold. And in the end, World Series win or not, that's really all that matters. Just remember that hype can be an evil component.
Favorites? Sure. Best team ever? Just...stop."
Depth, Injuries and Offense, at the end of the regular season both teams had offense and injuries but only the Yankees had depth. Its surprising that we did not talk more about how despite the fact that the Red Sox had two starters who missed significant time in 2010 with injuries they only had Tim Wakefield as a starting pitcher depth option. That didn't seem to be effecting the Red Sox too much going through the summer but then Buchholz went down, Lester and Beckett both missed time and Lackey continued to be bad. Red Sox fans will likely blame the injuries as J.D Drew and Dice-K were lost for the season and numerous others including Youkilis, Lester and Crawford spent time on the DL. However the Yankees had more players spend time on the DL than any other team in the MLB and they were still able to win because they had depth. The Yankees lost A-rod and Eric Chavez and Ramiro Pena and they still had Eduardo Nunez and Brandon Laird to play 3rd. The Yankees had so much bullpen depth that injuries to Feliciano, Soriano and Joba while inconvenient haven't slowed them down as they acquired Corey Wade off waivers and they have acquired more depth over the course of the season in people like Brian Gordon, Buddy Carlyle, Aaron Laffey, Raul Valdes and Scott Proctor and more guys like Kevin Millwood and J.C Romero were let go by the Yankees and are now pitching with the Rockies. The Yankees acquired depth even when they didn't need it and were always prepared for somebody to go down which is why they sent down Ivan Nova instead of cutting Fredy Garcia and while that may seem trivial now imagine if they had and now that Hughes has back spasms and may not pitch before the end of the season they would have to go to a 3 man rotation or start Burnett in game 4. The Yankees have aggressively sought out depth and since Girardi came in the Yankees depth has gotten better each year especially in the bullpen and the rotation. The Red Sox had to make acquisitions at and after the July deadline and while Mike Aviles and Connor Jackson have been decent acquisitions, Erik Bedard has been effective when healthy but has only made 7 starts since he was acquired at the July deadline and only 2 in September. The Red Sox have wined about not getting enough off days but it seems even the media wont give them that one as the Yankees have managed to somehow win the AL East with only one off day in September and playing a double header and that crazy two days where they played 3 games over about 36 hours against the Orioles. The Red Sox spent big this off season with their attempts to upgrade their offense and bullpen while the Yankees biggest deal was resigning their veterans. The Sox assembled a team of all stars and hoped they would make it through the year okay and when they started to break down they just hoped that everybody would be healthy and the offense would carry them. They actually talked about this on ESPN baseball today and were straight to the point when they said "You can't spend 160 million and not have enough depth". If the Red Sox continue to slide and are overtaken by the Rays then the big name guys will take the heat and rightfully so, but not because of a disappointing Lackey or Crawford because the Sox overcame those, the real fault is with The Red Sox organization for failing to acquire any depth and for their farm system for failing to grow any real depth, especially pitching depth, in the last decade.
The Yankees went almost the entire year without A-Rod and so everybody else picked up the slack especially Curtis Granderson who nobody thought would be as hot as he was closing out last season. Posada was a disappointment but he came through at some good times, which makes us forget all those times he didn't and the batting 9th issue that nobody is talking about anymore. Everybody thought Jeter would just limp to 3,000 but then he came back from the DL red hot and had a day that nobody will forget. Mariano broke the all time saves record and everybody had a big moment this season. The Yankees only big name signing was Soriano and he went down early and was replaced by Dave Robertson, Jesus Montero didn't come up until September and the Yankees didn't trade for a starter and in the end they didn't need to. Fans weren't enthusiastic about this year but the Big Bart, D-Rob, CC and the Grandy man helped us forget about all the flash of the Red Sox.
The Red Sox and Red Sox fans problem is that they keep trying to pretend that they are these gritty underdogs but the Sox and Boston sports as a whole expects championships now and having a good season is no longer just a season where you win more than you lose, you have to win it all. The Red Sox nation has been overtaken by pink haters who demand wins but try and still pretend that their team is somehow different because they play with heart and are underdogs. This year pink hater nation was hyped up as hell with the big signing and while they had a bad April they were kicking the Yankees around and dominating all summer and were debating who on the Sox would win the MVP. But the Yankees kept grinding and not just with evil home runs but with every facet of the game. Everybody on the Yankees stepped up at some point this year including disappointments like Burnett, Posada and Soriano. In 2009 the Yankees had the year of the walk-off and in 2010 it was the Grand Slam Year, this year is what? We did have 9 Grand slams including that 3 grand slam game, but we didn't walk off very much and in fact were awful in extra innings games winning only four, we just played the game and won. The Red Sox had their flash and dash but what do they have to show for it? their losing money, may not make the playoffs, probably wont go far in the playoffs if they do make it and they really don't have any excuse for why they didn't make it this year.
The Red Sox collapse isn't complete yet and the Rays are still 2 1/2 games behind the Sox as are the Angels and anything can happen in the playoffs just ask the 2010 Giants but this team had so much hype and all its really done is expose both the Red Sox organization's terrible farm system and poor planning, as well as the fair weather Red Sox nation. The Curse was broken ,so whats the excuse now?
No comments:
Post a Comment