Red Sox - Angels, Angels - Red Sox

[jacksonianmarch]

Welcome to your first series. With the Angels losing 6-0 right now to Texas, they are about to fall 4 games back in the L column to the Guardians for best record in the AL with 6 to play. This implication looms large since the sox most likely will be taking the ALE crown. This means that, the only way the Angels and Yankees can square off is if the Angels have the best record in the AL or if the Yankees win the east. This is independent of where the sox finish. Case in point.

 

2 most likely scenarios...

1. Lets say the Guardians have the best record in the AL. They automatically get the #4 seed which would be the wild card. That would mean BOS vs LAA and CLE vs NYY

 

2. The Red Sox have the best record in the AL and the Guardians cruise in with the 2 seed. The Red Sox as the #1 seed would match up with the #3 seed since two teams from the same division cannot square off in the ALDS. The Yankees, then would face CLE in a 2 vs 4 matchup.

 

Hence, the only scenarios in which the sox and Guardians could square off are...

 

1. The Yankees overcome a 3 game deficit to win the division and the Guardians take the best record in the AL, making a CLE vs BOS series happen

 

2. The Angels overcome a 4 game deficit with 6 to play on the Guardians and take the 1 seed while we coast in with the wild card.

 

Needless to say, enjoy the late night action. And kick some ass. God knows the ALCS belongs on the east coast. And I want a rematch of 99, 03 and 04.

[SCM33]

Welcome to your first series. With the Angels losing 6-0 right now to Texas, they are about to fall 4 games back in the L column to the Guardians for best record in the AL with 6 to play. This implication looms large since the sox most likely will be taking the ALE crown. This means that, the only way the Angels and Yankees can square off is if the Angels have the best record in the AL or if the Yankees win the east. This is independent of where the sox finish. Case in point.

 

2 most likely scenarios...

1. Lets say the Guardians have the best record in the AL. They automatically get the #4 seed which would be the wild card. That would mean BOS vs LAA and CLE vs NYY

 

2. The Red Sox have the best record in the AL and the Guardians cruise in with the 2 seed. The Red Sox as the #1 seed would match up with the #3 seed since two teams from the same division cannot square off in the ALDS. The Yankees, then would face CLE in a 2 vs 4 matchup.

 

Hence, the only scenarios in which the sox and Guardians could square off are...

 

1. The Yankees overcome a 3 game deficit to win the division and the Guardians take the best record in the AL, making a CLE vs BOS series happen

 

2. The Angels overcome a 4 game deficit with 6 to play on the Guardians and take the 1 seed while we coast in with the wild card.

 

Needless to say, enjoy the late night action. And kick some ass. God knows the ALCS belongs on the east coast. And I want a rematch of 99, 03 and 04.

 

 

 

Why does this matter? Are you just stating fact? If the Sox play the Angels I will jump for joy since we have owned them in the playoffs, and we match up really well against them anyways.

 

2007: 6-4

2006: 3-3

2005: 6-4

2004: 5-4 Postseaon:3-0

-------------

Total: 23-15

.605% winning percentage.

 

I dont have the Indian numbers (bc im lazy) but my eyes/memory tell me that I want the Angels over the Guardians or Yankees.......and I sure as hell know you want nothing to do with the Angels since they seem to hand it to you guys.

 

BTW Jacksonian, thank you for your words of support and classiness. Hopefully we meet in the playoffs, as we should for another October dance.

[example1]

This is more a show of support from Jacksonianmarch; a "jump for joy" if you will, as he realizes his team gets to play the Guardians, while the two teams most likely to actually take down the yankees will spend their time battling it out. Oh well. One way or another the Sox are going to have to go through Anaheim or NY, so this makes sense.

 

It still seems a little weird that the 1st place team can't choose who they want to play, or have some other system. That said, though, the Yankees could very well get a double dose of Sabathia and Carmona, which isn't a whole lot of fun (though I feel the Guardians will crumble early).

[redsoxrules]

angels are down 10-2 , so it will be between boston and cleveland who will have the best record , its pretty much a safe bet that the redsox will face the angels in the first round and the yanks VS the Guardians

[jacksonianmarch]

Carmona doesnt scare me at all. He dominated us in his first start, then we hit him around a bit the second time. We all saw what he did in the "clutch" last season when Papi took him yard twice late in the yr. And he doesnt have the element of surprise anymore. Had we not seen him at all while he dominated everyone else, then his first start would scare the crap out of me. And in the first game, we get to send our ace to the hill vs theirs with a rested pen behind him. I think this series ends in NY in our favor.

 

For the sox, the angels are most certainly playing the rest card right now. You'll get a healthy dose of Lackey, Escobar and Weaver. Like I said before, I hope you guys go 5 games and take care of them. They are the only team that I think can knock us off right now. No matter how hot we are, they always know how to beat us.

[schillingouttheks]

Carmona doesnt scare me at all. He dominated us in his first start, then we hit him around a bit the second time. We all saw what he did in the "clutch" last season when Papi took him yard twice late in the yr. And he doesnt have the element of surprise anymore. Had we not seen him at all while he dominated everyone else, then his first start would scare the crap out of me. And in the first game, we get to send our ace to the hill vs theirs with a rested pen behind him. I think this series ends in NY in our favor.

 

For the sox, the angels are most certainly playing the rest card right now. You'll get a healthy dose of Lackey, Escobar and Weaver. Like I said before, I hope you guys go 5 games and take care of them. They are the only team that I think can knock us off right now. No matter how hot we are, they always know how to beat us.

 

lol, if you're not scared of Carmona because of how he's pitched against you, then I'm not scared of any of those Angels' pitchers that you just listed.

[See Red]

You're discounting Carmona because of what he did as a rookie relief pitcher last year? His ERA ain't hovering around 3 even for nothing, Jacko...

[TheKilo]

Carmona doesnt scare me at all. He dominated us in his first start, then we hit him around a bit the second time. We all saw what he did in the "clutch" last season when Papi took him yard twice late in the yr. And he doesnt have the element of surprise anymore. Had we not seen him at all while he dominated everyone else, then his first start would scare the crap out of me. And in the first game, we get to send our ace to the hill vs theirs with a rested pen behind him. I think this series ends in NY in our favor.

 

For the sox, the angels are most certainly playing the rest card right now. You'll get a healthy dose of Lackey, Escobar and Weaver. Like I said before, I hope you guys go 5 games and take care of them. They are the only team that I think can knock us off right now. No matter how hot we are, they always know how to beat us.

 

lol

 

You have fun starting the series in Cleveland and having to face CC and Carmona twice.

 

Besides, the Yanks are holding Wang for game 3 anyway.

[example1]

Carmona doesnt scare me at all. He dominated us in his first start, then we hit him around a bit the second time. We all saw what he did in the "clutch" last season when Papi took him yard twice late in the yr. And he doesnt have the element of surprise anymore. Had we not seen him at all while he dominated everyone else, then his first start would scare the crap out of me. And in the first game, we get to send our ace to the hill vs theirs with a rested pen behind him. I think this series ends in NY in our favor.

 

For the sox, the angels are most certainly playing the rest card right now. You'll get a healthy dose of Lackey, Escobar and Weaver. Like I said before, I hope you guys go 5 games and take care of them. They are the only team that I think can knock us off right now. No matter how hot we are, they always know how to beat us.

 

Lackey, Escobar and Weaver don't have a ton of success against the Sox. The Red Sox tend to play well against the Angels, I think they are similar teams but the Sox have more weapons. That's not to say I think the series is a lock... it isn't. The Angels are a very good team and could win a WS this year. I just like the Sox chances against them as much as most other teams.

 

The Sox are well rested and have come to life offensively with the re-addition of Manny and Youkilis to the lineup. I think the Sox need to find a way to keep Ellsbury in the lineup and they will have a great lineup with Tek and Lugo at the bottom. Crisp is mysteriously 'ill' right now, which sucks, but hopefully he'll be feeling better in a few days.

[TheKilo]

I don't know why ANYONE would prefer to see CC and Carmona in a short series.

[example1]

I don't know why ANYONE would prefer to see CC and Carmona in a short series.

 

Here's the list of likely SPs in the AL:

 

CC Sabathia

Fausto Carmona

Jake Westbrook

Josh Beckett

Curt Schilling

Daisuke Matsuzaka

Chen-Ming Wang

Andy Pettitte

Roger Clemens

John Lackey

Kelvim Escobar

Jared Weaver

 

It's a great mix:

 

There are the proven veterans: Clemens, Schilling, Pettitte

The current generation of dominant starters: Wang, Beckett, Sabathia, Lackey

Potential big-time stars, eager to prove it: Matsuzaka, Weaver, Carmona

And the solid but unspectacular starters of the group: Escobar, Westbrook

 

Every team that is in the playoffs has a starting 3 that is quite solid. There isn't a team whose 1 and 2 I would want to see repeatedly. Beckett and Schilling or Dice-K twice in a week? Wang and Clemens/Pettitte? Lackey/Weaver? CC and Fausto? Despite their pitching recently CC and Carmona are still going to have to shut down a Yankees team that just doesn't get shut down. They will both be out of the game by the 7th (on a good night) and the rest of the team is going to have to play a huge role in any win against the Yanks. They are a scary duo, but the more I look at it I really don't think any team has a marked advantage in terms of matchups. It's all very hard.

[example1]

Can someone tell me what is up with Manny batting 2nd recently?

 

Is it just so that his spot in the lineup is a more flexible one when he is inevitably substituted-for early in the game this week? Or, is it something more than that? If the Sox were thinking about protecting Manny even in the playoffs (and going with the "plus defense" lineup) then it might make sense to continue with this type of lineup. It will get Manny his 4th AB as early as possible so Ellsbury could play in LF for defensive purposes (assuming that 4 Manny ABs is enough to get a lead), setting up Pedroia, Ellsbury, Ortiz, etc., and also keeping the speedy Crisp and Lugo at the bottom where they can run more.

 

It is probably just for this week anyway.

[BoSox21]

Can someone tell me what is up with Manny batting 2nd recently?

 

im guessing its so he gets as many ABs in as possible before the playoffs.

 

and I'd rather play Anaheim anyway. Although the travel sucks, we seem to own their pitching staff.

[das11209]

I think playoff matchups are interesting.

 

This is what conventional wisdom tells me based on regular season:

 

Angels : Red Sox - advantage Sox.

 

Angels :Yankees - advantage Angels.

 

Cleveland :Red Sox - advantage Cleveland

 

Cleveland :Yankees - advantage Yankees

 

Red Sox : Yankees - advantage Yankees.

 

Conventional wisdom could be wrong because of at least two reasons:

 

1. Playoff match ups tend to be different.

2. Law of average.

 

I am happy we are playing the Angels even though I think they could have knocked the Yankees out. Personally I would rather take the chances of Sox advancing than the Yankees being out of it.

 

I think there is a better than 50% chance of Yankee/Sox ALDS.

[Paradisecity]

There is a 0%, ZERO percent chance of a sox yanks ALDS.

[das11209]

There is a 0%' date=' ZERO percent chance of a sox yanks ALDS.[/quote']

 

 

OK - I meant ALCS - thanks.

[elsrbueno]

For what it's worth, the Angels' pitchers against Red Sox' hitting this year. (Courtesy of ESPN)

 

http://www.18eaststreet.com/laastats.JPG

 

What's strange is that it looks like Escobar hasn't faced the Sox this year. My memory isn't what it used to be, so I'll have to trust ESPN on this one. What does show up pretty plainly here though is that the Angels' starters haven't had a ton of success against the Sox this year. Lackey's 0-2 with an ERA over 8 and Weaver's 0-1 in 2 starts with an ERA of almost 7. Shields and Speier haven't faired well against Boston and it looks like the only pitchers with any kind of success are K-Rod (obviously) and Joe Saunders. I imagine Saunders is the #4 pitcher (maybe the Angels will pitch him in game 3 given his success against them this year)? and if the Red Sox get to K-Rod they're probably in trouble anyway.

 

Limited sample sizes here but the Red Sox' players don't seem to be intimidated by the Angels' pitching staff.

[Paradisecity]

He was scheduled to start but I believe he was a late scratch.

 

That is unfortunate because the sox have a history of struggling against pitchers they haven't seen much.

 

We own the Angels. Lackey's career numbers flat out suck against us. Finishing second to the tribe might actually be a very very good thing, as they could decide how many days their series is over and set up the schedule so that CC and Fausto BOTH pitch twice against the yanks.

[TheKilo]

I think playoff matchups are interesting.

 

This is what conventional wisdom tells me based on regular season:

 

Angels : Red Sox - advantage Sox.

 

Angels :Yankees - advantage Angels.

 

Cleveland :Red Sox - advantage Cleveland

 

Cleveland :Yankees - advantage Yankees

 

Red Sox : Yankees - advantage Yankees.

 

Conventional wisdom could be wrong because of at least two reasons:

 

1. Playoff match ups tend to be different.

2. Law of average.

 

I am happy we are playing the Angels even though I think they could have knocked the Yankees out. Personally I would rather take the chances of Sox advancing than the Yankees being out of it.

 

I think there is a better than 50% chance of Yankee/Sox ALDS.

 

 

FWIW the Red Sox were 5-2 against CLE this season, and they beat Sabathia.

[das11209]

Gary Mathews might miss play-offs - don't think that swings the pendulum in our favor.

 

http://fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/22556