example1

It WOULD be like us losing Drew and Varitek, if we had Damon playing CF, another Drew playing RF, a former MVP playing 3rd, a batting champ/gold glove/HOF SS, and a beastly roid head hitting at DH. Instead, we don't have a Damon. We don't have an A-Rod and we don't have a Jeter. So far this season manny and Abreu have been comparable and Posada is hitting about like Youkilis is. It's the relative equivalent of us missing Crisp and Lugo. Our 5th best hitter and our 8th best hitter. Best hitters, in order, in my opinion: A-Rod Jeter Abreu Damon Matsui * Giambi Cano Posada* Minky Ortiz Manny Drew Youkilis Lugo * Lowell Varitek Crisp/WMP * Pedroia Just because Matsui and Posada have more power doesn't mean anything. Your whole team has power. I think you need to look at it as a relative loss to the team. Drew is our 3rd best hitter. If you lost your 3rd best hitter it would be like losing Abreu or arguably Jeter. It is so hard to tell, because your top 6 hitters are all as good as our top 1-2 hitters. What is different is the pitching, where the Sox have invested in getting younger through Matsuzaka and Beckett, while the Yankees have not as much.

Yeah, that's what we've all been saying. You can't buy a guy like that, you get lucky and get him and then you don't let go. Without Mariano the yankees are a decidely overpriced and only above average the past ten years. With him they have been an 8 inning team who can focus on its offense above pitching due to that fact. Get a lead, win the game. That's oversimplifying it a bit, but its true. Papelbon is a very, very special pitcher and he proves it with each and every appearance. You could see it from his first few starts for the Sox in 05, THEN he learned his splitter and has been untouchable since.

Well, if Jacksonian is going to do a recap I will too. Very typical Fenway game. Lots of runs, lots of Monster homeruns. If anyone is wondering what the whole point of giving some protection to Manny was, or why we spent so much money on JD Drew I think you can see it now. Drew was 2/4 with a BB and an RBI and an SB. We missed having that guy last year and he is a tremendous bridge from the top to the bottom of our order. Matsuzaka pitched at about 70% of what he is capable of. It looked to me like he was preferring to throw hittable strikes rather than walk guys, though he made some sellable pitches which were called balls (and which actually WERE balls). However, the offense picked him up and he threw 7 strong innings. He also showed tremendous balls, hitting A-Rod with the very first pitch and later hitting Jeter. I hope people who ridiculed me for comparing this guy's demeanor to Pedro's are regretting the ridicule. He is brash and cocky and has good enough stuff to work out of jams. It is funny that hitters are allowed to have games where they go 0/5 and make an error or two and people write it off; but Dice has one bad outing and people are calling him overrated and saying they are "very concerned". I'm not. He'll K 8-10 in his next start. This guy K'd, in order: Abreu, A-Rod, Cano, Abreu, A-Rod, Damon, Abreu. despite all the complaints about the bottom of the order, you're talking about Damon, Abreu (3), A-Rod (2) and Cano. He was able to get the heart of the order out via the K and I think he let his guard down a bit with one guy in particular: Giambi. Of course, Giambi does that to lots of people. That's why he's a former MVP (although people forget because he's just another Yankee loser). Pedroia's glove was amazing on that liner. That saved the game. 4 HR in a row, how often will you see that? Unless you watch a WHOLE lot of baseball probably never. Overall, a great sweep. If I were the Yankees fans I would stop making excuses about these pitchers, since you simply don't have pitchers, despite the extra 50m your team is spending. But I digress. It was fun. Back to the mundane tomorrow: Toronto, I believe?

No catcher and LF. The Yankees actually started the game without a LF or Catcher even playing. The Ump caught for the first inning or two, and the Sox let the Yankees borrow Manny to play LF.

Jesus, that's depressing. *169

Ditto pal. The Yankees haven't looked scarry for a number of years, as their starting pitching, EVEN WITH MUSSINA (snicker!) WANG (snicker snicker) and the other chumps healthy. You're supposedly most dominating pitcher against us, Mariano Rivera, has looked like a BP pitcher and we have treated him as such. Don't get too cocky. Your 195m team just got swept by our 145m team. The Yankees will certainly win some gainst against the Sox this year, but we gained 3 games on y'all tonight. So that's that. And I hope any discussion about Papelbon being "lucky" or any s*** like that is over. This guy is probably the most dominating pitcher in baseball right over the past year +.

So, upon further assessment: DiceK did EXACTLY what I would have wanted. He didn't pitch as well as I would hope, but he hit Jeter and he hit A-Rod and A-Rod was ineffective afterward. A-Rod K's two times. The hottest hitter in history gets hit in the first and K's 2wice. He pitched well enough to win this game, which he did. A great effort by the sox against a Yankees team that really wanted to win.

Sox pitchers not as good as touted? That seems like a strange conclusion to draw from one game.

f*** YEAH!!! Great job Sox. Way to pull it out. A yankees sweep at Fenway. Great job. Way to pick up Dice-K when he needed it (this time).

The fastball moves. Oh, it moves.

I sure hope not. That could be tragic.

how can you not hit a cutter right down the middle of the f***ing plate? Mariano went for a decade with 1.5 pitches. Get used to it (no matter how this game ends).

It is AMAZING that someone can throw a ball from 60 '6 and make people miss like that.

LOL! YOu touch yourself?

You're probably right. 92 would be more accurate. But it doesn't matter. He makes people look absolutely silly with it. (and leaves Jeter guessing on the first pitch).

In the words of the annoying "Hawk" Harrilson: He GONE!!

Small sample size: Damon: 0/5, 1 K Jeter: 1/5, 2 K Abreu: 0/2, 1K A-Rod: 0/2 2 K

No. no Jason Johnson. I would rather have Pavano. I kid of course. Johnson had diabetes, that's enough of a reason to like him more. EDIT: by which I mean to "depussifyhim" relative to CP.

Sigh. I'm nervous about this inning. Papelbon better have his A+ control here, and Varitek get his calls right.

He is an ENORMOUS, UGLY, MALFORMED Pussy. I'm so glad he wasn't impressed when he visited with the Red Sox a few years ago. I like Beckett better. (And Wakefield, and Schilling, and Dice-K, and Tavarez, and Snyder, and DiNardo--even when he pitches in Oakland--and just about anyone else).

Now we have a 1 run lead, and Papelbon warming up. that's all I could ask for. Here we go Papelbon, no big flies.

Because if he puts someone in who gives up the lead the same people would be jumping all over him. He can't possibly win. Neither can Torre.

Oh, now the announcers start poo-pooing the Sox performance. They've "only" outscored the yankees 21-17. They have had to come back each game. That is what baseball is all about fellas. You get 27 outs, so if you use them you shouldn't be penalized.

I think fall is the operative word there. They will fall into place and pull something in the process.

Come on JD. Just one more rip, let's get a run in here. PLEASE!!