TheRivernator

I hear ya yeszir, but this is basically an official declaration of war, which in and of itself, should necessitate its existence in this forum. s***, sticky it if I am wrong so you can throw crow at me. But this belongs here, and I truly hope some sox fans can come on and dispute my numbers. You know I love the back and forth, and I think I fired the first shot over the bow....

Disregarding Papelbon, the sox bullpen's era is a solid 5.00...

I meant to put our of April or into May, but you get the idea...

Man, as a yankee fan, I am licking my chops thinking about the AL East this yr. The Red Sox look ultimately vulnerable in that they dont have that fear factor that their offense brought to the table the last 3 yrs. During that time, playing the red sox meant hard fought back and forth action with tons of runs scored and way too much clutch hitting. Winning the season series was a war in 2003 and 2005 and we werent even close in 2004. This yr, the sox team is built on pitching, but that can be neutralized as they don't have the "outstanding" pitcher that they once had in vintage Petey. They have 2 aces who are not lights out 90% of the time like Petey was, hence the sox will really rely on the back end of their rotation which in and of itself is horrible. The offense is the big story though. After having the most feared lineup in all of baseball, they are 17th in runs in the MLB and 9th out of 14 in the AL. They are also 9th out of 14 in BA in the AL and 8th in OPS and have given up 10 more runs than they have scored. But, the biggest story is that they are 12th in the AL in BAw/RISP at .235 (add 0 for 8 today and it is much lower). The lineup is 2 men deep and can be manuevered around to a point that Manny and Ortiz are forced to go get their pitches instead of waiting for them to come. Many people will harp on the loss of Coco as being the main reason for the demise, but look at how the lineup is shaking up. Youk has been a great leadoff hitter to this point and if he is moved to the 2 hole when Coco returns, then you add Loretta's .219 BA and .577OPS down in the order with the likes of AGon (.179BA and .497OPS) and the slow starting Varitek who is at .718 in OPS. Also, for those of you who want to harp on the additions, take a look at this stat. Mike Lowell, Mark Loretta, and Alex Gonzalez, the 3 biggest offseason acquisitions not named Coco are batting a combined .238. The guys they let go (Graf, Mueller, and ERent) hit a combined .289 last yr and a whopping .303 to start this season. Of those 3, Lowell is the only one pulling his weight, but he is still low on the power scale with only 2 HRs in his first month of the fens and a pedestrian .250 w/RISP which is what he needs to do batting after Manny or Trot. I wont even bother making a Damon to Coco comparison because of the injury. Overall, bring on the sox, and I won't even be arrogant enough to call a 2 game sweep as I think our 3 and 4 will split with your 2 and 3 at your house. But, the sox lack of offense is a welcome surprise coming from a yankee fan who has watched the sox completely dominate both mediocre and great pitching the past few yrs. I hope they keep it up. Happy May all....

Great game all around. Mussina got jipped a little with the balls/strikes, but we got it back with that call at 2nd, bout time. He was a bull. Farnsworth was absolutely NASTY and Mariano was vintage. Giambi is seeing the ball really well. Jeter and Damon stay hot. Hopefully sheff is okay. The yankees go to Boston on the heels of 3 straight series wins while the sox have dropped 3 straight series. I like our chances, although I have a feeling we split these 2 games...

he is fit to pitch BP, that is his problem...

We Just Caught A Huge Break!!! Rios Was Safe By A Mile....

If both pitches were strikes we'd be saying we finally got ours....

did you read my post? Both pitches were 3-4 inches off the plate. The catcher was set up off the plate....

gotta love that. Damon is on f***ing fire. 3 for 3 today, 3 for 5 yesterday. Heat it up Johnny!!!

I love how the catcher puts his mask over his face for a second, cause you know he is holding back laughter. Then he goes out to see the pitcher. That was classic...

there seems to be a problem with a few threads. The schilling to retire thread and yesterdays yankee game thread are getting error prompts. There may be more issues as well.

I also pitched and would have returned the favor. I threw hard bro, and I was wild. I once hit 6 batters in a game but threw a no-hitter. Man, to play again....

It could also be due to the fact that Manny has the 4th most HRs hit in Trop history. And that includes former and current Devil Rays, how funny is that....

they did, but we are now 6-1 with immature post titles. I used to wear high socks, eyeblack, have a long strange routine as I got into the batters box and leap over the foul lines. Posting an immature title is a whole lot less than that....

Mussina vs Chacin. People may think the titles are immature, and they are. But I am superstitious and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Mussina is one of our aces, but our surefire ace against this team as RJ cannot seem to miss their bats. The funny thing is, our RH pitchers have dominated the Jays. Wang, Mussina, and Chacon completely owned them last yr and the first part of this yr, while RJ has been owned by them. That's baseball I guess. GO YANKEES!!!!

todays games should be good. The current aces of our respective teams are throwing against 2 young lefties. Should be fun to watch....

these are the type of games that bring teams together. Figures, you'd have one right before we play...

seriously, how does this coach keep his job after allowing this inning to take place. Pathetic...

walker living up to his name....

Joe Maddon should lose his job for this one...

how bout the rays give the sox the game...

this walker guy sucks...

Loretta will hit a HR...

bad start...