jacksonianmarch

Montero just went deep.

might be as early as next week.

Dont go all Man. U on me now. This isnt soccer. Gloating is allowed. We wont murder the goalie and start a moshpit that kills 11 children. If the sox retake 1st, I will expect the same

Not right now. There are times when we have been close where all reason would assume the sox would pull away. And over the last 2 yrs they did because they were the healthier and better team. This yr, I think the yankees are better. And they are getting healthy

Montero 2 for 2 today. Romine has his 5th homer. Montero's BA is up to .349

5-0 with Tex and a chance to get more

4-0 with a chance to score more. Looks like we got a break too. Break this open and allow CC to relax.

Lets break em down one by one... Kevin Youkilis had a .395/.505/.697 line in April for an OPS of 1.202 His May .340/.458/.574 for an OPS of 1.032. His delta OPS is -.170 Julio Lugo only had 6ABs in April, so that doesnt count. His May is .271/.329/.371 for an OP of .700. For reference, Nick Green's OPS in May is .759 and his in April was .782. Jason Bay put up a line of .324/.490/.634 for an OPS of 1.123 in April. His May is .260/.339/.600for an OPS of .939. His delta OPS is -.184 Mike Lowell put up a line of .310/.341/.571 in April for an OPS of .912. His May is .295/.315/.476 for an OPS of .791. His delta OPS is -.121 Jacoby Ellsbury put up a line of .287/.320/.351 in April for an OPS of .671. In May, his line is .319/.353/.398 for an OPS of .751. His delta OPS is +.080 Dustin Pedroia put up a line of .281/.369/.393 for an OPS of .762 in April. His May is .374/.452/.455 for an OPS of .902. That is a delta OPS of +.140 Jason Varitek put up a line of .250/.348/.533 for an OPS of .881. His May is .247/.296/.548 for an OPS of .844. His delta OPS is -.037 David Ortiz put up a line of .230/.290/.333 for an OPS of .623. His May is .146/.293/.244 for an OPS of .537. His delta OPS is -.086 JD Drew put up a line of .234/.347/.500 for an OPS of .847. His May is .265/.384/.470 for an OPS of .854. His delta OPS is +.010 As you can see, there are your improvements: Dustin Pedroia Jacoby Ellsbury There are your about sames: Jason Varitek JD Drew Then you have your dropoffs Jason Bay Kevin Youkilis David Ortiz Mike Lowell What is happening to the sox is interesting. Of the guys who dropped off, Youk and Bay still have had great May's. Thing is, their April's were just superhuman and nobody has been able to pick up the slack from their dropoff back to what may be their baseline level. Lowell is playing at a level that seems consistent with his ability as is Ellsbury IMO. Pedroia is red hot. Drew is underachieving a bit, but not by much. The only significantly large improvement I could predict for the sox would be Ortiz if he is able to snap out of this. if not, then the May sox may be about what to expect, and if Varitek slows down then the May sox could be better than what they will be going forward. When you look at it this way, an acquisition should be on the horizon since there is no obvious underachiever aside from Ortiz in May.

example, a lot of other clubs would not have him in high A right now. The sox are interesting in that they seem to bypass the lower levels and let their kids mature in AA and AAA for a few yrs. Cant mess with the results, though. Most teams go level to level with HS phenoms, unless you are Porcello in a system that lacks any sort of pitching depth that is.

I actually made this thread expecting to see a big jump in offense from our end with an improvement on the pitching end and thinking the sox would be seeing a marginal drop in both offensive and pitching stats. But that wasnt the case. I am dumbfounded that the yankees would hit as well as they did without ARod. 5.8 runs per game is ridiculous. Granted, Cano and Swisher were hitting near .400 for 3 weeks, which helped. I was also surprised to see the sox ERA be pretty much the exact same and that their O dropped so much.

So this thread is meant to shed some light on the surge in NY and the swoon in Boston. And to be honest with you, it surprised me a bit when I actually looked up the numbers. Lets start in April... Offensive Stats April 2009 The Boston Red Sox were 5th in the majors in runs scored with 126 (5.7 runs per game). They were third in OPS (.827) and 4th in OBP (.364) The Yankees were a lot better than I thought. They were 4th in the majors in runs with 128 (5.8 runs per game). They were 6th in OBP (.362) and 2nd in OPS (.835) so how has that changed.... Offensive Stats May 2009 The Red Sox are 13th in the majors in runs scored with 130 (4.8 per game). They are 8th in the majors in OBP (.349) and 6th in OPS at (.794) The Yankees are 5th in the majors in runs scored and 4th in runs per game with 141 runs scored and an average of 5.4 per game. They are 9th in OBP at .348 yet 1st in OPS at .844. That is based on the amazing SLG they have in May which sits at .496, 21 points higher than the next best club. So the offensive analysis from the first two months sees the sox dropping in RPG by 0.9 runs per game and the Yankees dropping 0.4RPG. On to the pitching... April 2009 pitching stats The Red Sox were 17th in ERA in April with an ERA of 4.52. They were 8th in K's at 162 and 21st in WHIP at 1.48 The Yankees were 29th in ERA in April with an ERA of 5.79. That is deceiving, though, since Wang was really the difference maker there. Subtract him out, and our ERA is 4.88. We were 10th in K's at 156 and tied with the sox in 21st for WHIP at 1.48. May 2009 pitching stats The Red Sox are 19th in ERA at 4.50 in May. They are 5th in K's at 198 and 21st in WHIP at 1.44. The Yankees are 12th in the MLB with a 4.22ERA, 8th in K's at 192 and 20th in WHIP at 1.43 Overall, the Red Sox have really stayed pat in the pitching department in terms of runs allowed and WHIP. While the yankees have seen significant improvement in the ERA department. So overall, both teams actually scored runs better in April than they did in May. The yankees are scoring about 0.4 runs per game less than what they did in April, but they are allowing 1.5 runs per game less for an aggregate differential of about +1.1 runs per game. This has been the major impetus in their 16-10 record for the month. The Red Sox OTOH, have gotten about the same out of their pitching staff as they did in the first month, but are scoring 0.9 runs per game less, leaving them with a differential of -0.9 runs per game. This is the major impetus to their 14-13 record and a big reason why they are in second place at this juncture.

Sox lose!!! 2 games up in the L column

its what people who were good at baseball do to stay good. you wouldnt know anything about that.

those pink shirts are not representative of Massachusetts. They were really homely.

Man, if Downs closes this out, that would be sweet. We have CC on the hill tonight against an awful team with a chance to extend the lead.

Youk is finally hitting a skid

I go to the cages and now the sox are losing. NICE

Wells was pretty good

they are resting Barajas, Rolen, and Millar vs Penny. Are you kidding me? Rest your guys when you arent playing the sox.

what kind of lineup is this scrub team employing?

not sure if you want to run up the pitch count. Do you really want him out of the game?

note to Jays, stop starting this douche vs the sox