yankees228

Pettitte has made over 30 starts the past five years, and has had an ERA "near" 4 in three of the last four years. Obviously he's a year older, but similar production wouldn't surprise me. As for Vazquez, he has been a hot topic on this forum, but I consider him a question mark, rather than a locked in 4.5 ERA like many are assuming. Obviously he's not going to come close to last year's production, but considering what he did do last year, I don't think it's fair to just pencil him in for that 4.5 ERA. Like Jacko, I think an ERA near 4 is reasonable.

Aceves pitches tomorrow, which will go a long way into determining if he can start the season with the big league club.

I should have made myself a bit clearer. My comment wasn't directed towards the starting rotations, only the bullpens, where I think it's a wash as of right now, with Joba having the potential to give the Yankees the edge.

I think it's closer than you're making it out to be.

I appreciate the compliment, however, to an extent, I disagree. Jacko comes off as a homer, without a doubt, but so do a ton of people on this forum, and they don't have nearly the reputation that Jacko has. Thing is, he posts a lot here, and all his posts get responded to in the same matter (regardless of their content), so it really takes us away from just being able to talk about baseball.

This is a reasonable point. I think the possibility is undeniable, the only question being how big of a possibility is it. However, Jacko, even if you make a good point, if it's laced with a personal insult, that's all anyone's focus is going to be on. We are all here (maybe with the exception of a few) to talk baseball. Lets do that, and drop the insults. And to everyone responding to Jacko, respond to the post, not the poster. Sure Jacko has said some crazy things on here, but so has everyone. It's pretty annoying that every time he makes a point, people rarely respond to it with legitimate discussion, but, instead, they tend to go after Jacko and claim he is just being biased. I can understand his frustration. Now, I apologize for getting involved, but I felt compelled to speak my mind on this issue. There's just way too much of this crap on the forum, and every thread seems to fall victim to it. Also, I realize that this isn't necessarily the appropriate place to vent these feelings, but this was where the specific actions I'm referring to occurred, and I wanted everyone to see this. Now, in an effort not to drive this thread off course, if you have a specific problem with what I wrote, or just want to discuss it more in-depth, I'd request that you PM me.

Do you mean all pitching, or just starting pitching? Because I think you need to separate bullpens from starting pitching when evaluating a team.

Injury updates on Teixeira, Aceves, and Posada: http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2010/04/01/injury-updates-2/ Additionally, according to the same blog, Cervelli has a grade one strain, which will keep him out for the last two spring training games. The Yankees are hopeful that he'll be ready by Sunday, and won't have to go on the DL.

Spud makes a good point. When you're talking about how good a batter is compared to the league, you have to compare him to his peers, and that would be his positional group. However, when you're trying to compare two entire lineups, I think the best way to do this is by batting order. With that being said, I do think Dipre is correct, that the OP was referring only to offense. However, it really doesn't matter, as we can easily make this thread about either one, or both.

I'd probably give Teixeira a slight edge over Youkilis, Pedroia a slight edge over Cano, Granderson an edge over Cameron, and I'd say the DHs are about even (so many question marks). With that being said, while the overall lineups might look even the way you put it, the gaps at shortstop and third base are quite large. The Red Sox don't enjoy gaps of that size at any position. *Talking strictly about offense.

Outside of home runs and RBIs (understandable when comparing the two lineups), Drew has Swisher beat across the board. And, while this thread is only about offensive production, Drew is by far the superior defender.

Well he probably shouldn't have taken Bonser out while leaving Aceves in, but I would also prefer the Yankees' bullpen.

Here's some info on Teixeira, including an interview... http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2010/03/29/notes-from-monday-3/ Apparently it was decided that an x-ray was unnecessary altogether.

Beckett swearing in his post-game interview reminds of me this gem. I love this response.

Looks good, but no X-Rays were taken and they'll reevaluate tomorrow. We'll see. Heyman says he's OK.

Apparently Teixeira was hit on the elbow and came out of the game, and was quite upset about it.

For what it's worth, this was a solid discussion, and hopefully with the season beginning, we can have more of these that involve more of the members.