Gom

THIS WAS AN UTTER DISGRACE. BASEBALL NEEDS INSTANT REPLAY RIGHT NOW. Imagine you were the Padres, or Padres fans. How would you feel knowing that your team got knocked out on a bad call at home plate? This is an utter disgrace. Baseball needs instant replay, as of yesterday.

If we had MDC on our team, Kilo, Jacko wouldn't trade him for Johan. Typical of most Yankee fans. Our s*** doesn't stink. That's why I come to Talksox. You guys constantly keep me grounded, and helps keep me objective. You know who's untouchable? No one. Not even Joba. If we had a chance of getting Santana for Joba, I would do it. [i know it would take more, but as a start]. Hughes, Kennedy, etc....all could be traded, maybe even should be traded if it can net the Yankees an ace in October. I've ripped you guys for the Beckett deal, but the truth is, where the deal will end up hurting you big time over the years, without that trade, you don't make the post-season this year [you could argue you would have made it last year if you didn't make the trade, fair enough], but that's what big market teams do...trade prospects for veterans. I think Jacko really believes every press clipping of every kid the Yankees sign, and loses sight of the fact that the majority of these players never make it, and sure as hell don't live up to anything close to their hype.

I'm not cheering for them or against them. I'm cheering for extra innings.

Their starting rotation is better than yours.

Keith Law of ESPN Insider and his New York Yankees scouting report. Enjoy! The Yankees are in a transitional period as they try to incorporate a significant amount of young talent into their roster for the first time since their 1996 world championship. Having added Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Cano last year, they've now begun filling out their pitching staff with the products of their farm system rather than overpaying for the likes of Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, limiting their free-agent signings to one- and two-year deals. What that has meant in the short term, however, is a relatively young pitching staff complemented by a deep and powerful (not to mention expensive) offense. In the postseason, however, pitching and defense are somewhat more important than they are during the regular season, because of the higher caliber of competition. The Yankees' pitching and defense are, on paper, the worst of the four AL playoff teams, leaving them reliant on an explosive offense to win playoff games. How They'll Win • Their best chance to win is to bludgeon opponents, especially early, allowing the Yanks' starting pitchers to stay in the game even if they're a little shaky. • They'll also gain an advantage through their ability to wear opposing starters out, taking tons of pitches and then beating up their opponents' bullpens. • If the Yankees get to the seventh or eighth inning tied or with the lead, the Joba Chamberlain-Mariano Rivera combination is the best set-up and closer relief punch of any playoff team, although it's not clear just how often they'll use Chamberlain in October. Strengths The Yankees' primary strength is their offense, the best in the majors over the season's second half. Their lineup is deep, largely patient, with power from almost every spot, and they're capable of waiting almost any starting pitcher out. Their cleanup hitter, Alex Rodriguez, was the best hitter in baseball this year. He has excellent plate discipline and murders fastballs left over the plate, especially in the lower half of the zone. His bat is quick enough that he can adjust late and take balls the other way, and the only time you'll see him look bad at the plate is when he gets too focused on getting a fastball to drive. Their unsung hero this year is Bobby Abreu, who doesn't seem to fit the profile of the typical slugging corner outfielder, but who takes a ton of pitches -- ranking third in the majors in pitches seen per plate appearance -- and who keeps his head on the ball as well as any hitter in the league. They've also received tremendous contributions from Jorge Posada -- leading the team in OBP and squaring up every pitch, fastballs and off-speed pitches alike -- and from the surprisingly selective Cano. The left-handed hitting Cano was flailing at stuff out of the zone, especially breaking stuff well below the strike zone, through the season's first two and a half months, but hitting coach Kevin Long worked with Cano on his pitch selection and on keeping his swing under control, resulting in a .338/.392/.560 line from July 1 on. The Yankees' postseason bullpen is going to remind a lot of people of their 1996 pen, when Mariano Rivera came in for the seventh and eight innings, with John Wetteland closing it out in the ninth. This year, rookie Joba Chamberlain takes the setup role, working with a 94-98 mph fastball and a venomous slider that comes in around 83-85 mph with plus tilt and a very late break. He also throws an inconsistent curveball that flashes plus, and has a fringe-average changeup, but going one time through the order he'll work mostly by getting ahead with his fastball and finishing hitters off with sliders down or the occasional 98 mph heater up. Rivera fills the Wetteland role in the ninth inning, throwing cutter after cutter and trying to hit the corners, especially to lefties against whom he'll throw cutters in on the hands. This alignment actually puts the Yanks' better reliever in for more of the crucial outs in the seventh and eighth innings, and should help avoid situations where Rivera has to come in to get more than three outs. How They'll Lose • The Yankees have four starting pitchers who don't miss a lot of bats, and a defense that doesn't cover a lot of ground. A few bad bounces can lead to early deficits, and there's no defense for the home runs that Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens can serve up if they're not fine enough with their stuff. • Any game that requires the services of the Yankees' middle-inning relievers will lead to increased Zantac sales in the tristate area. • The one weakness of the Yankees' offense is its left-handedness; Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are all neutralized by left-handed pitching, and Robinson Cano's success against them over the last four months of this season is a new (and perhaps temporary) development. Their rotation as a whole isn't deep, but their top two starters are both superb. Wang has replaced his split-change with an average slider that flashes plus; he gets a lot of awkward swings from right-handers and will back-foot it to a left-handed hitter. His bread and butter remains his 91-93 mph sinker, generating ground ball after ground ball and hoping the Yankees' infield is up to the task. His biggest risk is that he occasionally will lose his feel for the sinker for a few pitches, and his fastball is very hittable when it flattens out. Andy Pettitte has been a revelation for the Yankees, who couldn't have realistically expected a season this good from him, given his age and up-and-down performance with Houston over the past three years. Pettitte's fastball, cutter and slider are all essentially one pitch; he just varies the shape and velocity by altering his grip (or the degree to which he "cuts" the pitch). He'll run it up to 92 mph with just a slight cut, will throw a slider at 80-82 mph with more of a two-plane break that runs hard down and in to right-handed hitters, and will throw various cutters in between those two. He also has a solid-average curveball with a tight 11-to-5 rotation to keep hitters honest. Weaknesses Unfortunately for the Yankees, the back end of their pitching staff is weak. Their third and fourth starters are likely to be Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina; Clemens has been plagued by minor injuries, first to his elbow (requiring a pair of cortisone shots) and then to his hamstring, while Mussina was completely ineffective until his last few starts in September. Outside of Chamberlain and Rivera, their bullpen is scary. Their next-best reliever is Edwar Ramirez, who has a Bugs Bunny changeup but has to use it very heavily due to his lack of a breaking ball and straight, average fastball. Behind him, it's Luis Vizcaino, Ron Villone and Brian Bruney, all of whom show a platonic relationship with the strike zone, and The Professor, Kyle Farnsworth, with nuclear-powered stuff and a watch-battery head. Question Marks • How healthy and effective will Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina be in October? • Can the team's questionable defense make enough plays behind their contact-oriented pitching staff? • Can their starting pitchers provide enough innings to keep relievers like Luis Vizcaino and Brian Bruney out of close games? They're also a shaky defensive club, which isn't ideal considering the fact that all four of their starting pitchers tend to allow a lot of balls in play. They're below-average defensively at shortstop and in left field as well as at first base when Jason Giambi plays there; Melky Cabrera has a plus arm in center but his jumps tend to be a step late; and despite his athletic ability, Rodriguez hasn't played well at third base. They do have a defensive whiz in Alberto Gonzalez, a shortstop who can play third or second, but they're not going to pull any of their starting infielders to play him (if he's even on the postseason roster). And finally, their reliance on left-handed hitters does leave them a bit more vulnerable to a left-handed starter; Giambi, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Cano are all left-handed and all show weakness against lefties with good breaking balls, while Cabrera can bat right-handed but will chase changeups away all day long.

ESPN Insider's Keith Law and his scouting report on the Guardians. Enjoy. Cleveland came close to the playoffs two years ago with many of the same stars on the current roster, but a revamped bullpen and a couple of newcomers have made them stronger and deeper than the 2005 squad that just missed. This year's crew features a deep roster where almost everyone contributes in one significant area, and their two-headed monster at the top of their rotation will make them very tough to beat in a short series. What's remarkable about this club is how it was built. Of the nine regular everyday hitters, only Ryan Garko was drafted and developed by Cleveland; three were free agent signees in Latin America, four came via trade, and Casey Blake was signed as a minor league free agent. Starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia is the only one of their four regular starters who was drafted and developed by Cleveland, and Jensen Lewis is the only Cleveland draftee among their six primary relievers. Despite a reputation for process, their drafts haven't produced many big leaguers for them; the trades of Bartolo Colon and Einar Diaz and the team's work in Latin America are the major reasons they're headed to the postseason. How They'll Win • Two wins behind C.C. Sabathia and one or two behind Fausto Carmona are the easiest formula for a series win for Cleveland. • Their deep, patient lineup will score a few runs early but will use their discipline to get opposing starters out of games early. • Close games in the late innings will give Cleveland an opportunity to use their three-man setup corps to shut opponents down in the seventh and eighth innings. Strengths Cleveland actually enters the postseason with the fewest runs scored of any AL playoff team, although some of that is due to players who are no longer playing every day, including Trot Nixon, David Dellucci and Josh Barfield. Their lineup as currently assembled is deep in power with five hitters at 20 or more homers, and Franklin Gutierrez at 13 in under a half-season's worth of at-bats. Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore are particularly dangerous, as both are very patient hitters with plus power; Hafner's power output was down this year, in part due to an assortment of aches and pains, but the raw power is still there. Garko isn't far behind, although he has a long swing and will chase hard stuff out of the zone, especially up high or down and in. Cleveland's hitters are also disciplined; they're one of the two best teams in baseball (along with Boston) at working the count, seeing just under four pitchers per plate appearance, running up opposing pitchers' workloads and giving them a chance to hit against weaker middle relievers. Their front two starters are also a tremendous strength, with Sabathia, the probable AL Cy Young Award winner, followed by Fausto Carmona. Sabathia is a classic power left-hander, with a 92-95 mph fastball and a toxic 80-82 mph curveball with a very sharp two-plane break. He's a rarity in today's game in that he uses the high fastball as an out pitch, working up and away to right-handed batters when he gets ahead and getting a lot of swings and misses. With those two pitches and a changeup that flashes plus, he's very tough to beat when he's getting ahead in the count -- and he's not easy to beat any other time, either. How They'll Lose • Joe Borowski is the most likely postseason closer to blow a save, and the back end of the Cleveland bullpen behind their top three relievers are also a threat to let a close game get out of hand. • Carmona, Paul Byrd and Jake Westbrook all rely heavily on the team's defense, which isn't a strong point, and too many balls in play could easily lead to too many hits behind any or all of these arms. • Despite their patience, Cleveland does have several hitters who'll chase stuff out of the zone, including Asdrubal Cabrera, Jhonny Peralta and Ryan Garko, and an opposing pitcher with command and a good pitching plan -- get ahead with hard stuff and then work out of the zone -- will give Cleveland trouble. Carmona's emergence this year was one of the season's biggest surprises, especially given his struggles in relief last year for Cleveland. He works primarily off of a 93-95 mph heavy sinker, leading all AL starters with a 77-percent groundball percentage, but also gets swings and misses on his fastball, complementing it with a hard mid-80s slider. Their likely third starter in the playoffs, Paul Byrd, has marginal stuff and lacks a real out pitch, but survives by throwing strike after strike (just 25 unintentional walks this year in over 180 innings); his susceptibility to contact makes him a shaky bet against the better offenses he'll face in the postseason, meaning that winning games behind the big two is extremely important for Cleveland. Cleveland also boasts the strongest middle relief corps of any playoff team. While their closer, Joe Borowski, is ordinary at best, the men who get the ball from the starter to Borowski are outstanding, led by the two Rafaels, Betancourt and Perez. Betancourt -- one of the first players suspended for using a performance-enhancing drug -- has outstanding control and a lot of deception in his delivery, but also has a solid-average fastball at 90-93 mph that he commands well. He occasionally mixes in a slider, but really works off the heater, moving it around the zone and getting swings and misses, even in the upper half of the zone. Perez didn't even come up to the majors for good until May 29, but he's become their primary lefty out of the pen. He shuts down lefties with an average fastball with late life and good run, and a plus slider at 84-85 mph with a big, sharp break down and away from lefties. Because he can also throw it at a right-handed hitter's back foot and he commands his fastball, he's effective against righties and doesn't fall into the specialist bin. Joining those two is Lewis, a recent callup who works very quickly with average stuff but who has excellent command and control and a somewhat herky-jerk delivery that makes it hard to pick the ball up. All three are strike-throwers and all three go after hitters aggressively. Question Marks • Can Joe Borowski be trusted with a small lead in the ninth inning against one of the best offenses in baseball? • Will the shaky gloves of Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez, and Ryan Garko cost Cleveland games, or can the team give Wedge the leads he'll want before he uses defensive replacements? • Can Travis Hafner hold his body together to give Cleveland a big power boost in the middle of their lineup? Weaknesses Cleveland's biggest weakness is its defense, which isn't a surprise for a team that has favored offense both in its player-acquisition and in its roster-construction strategies. Their typical lineup has below-average defenders at shortstop, both infield corners and behind the plate. Their best defender, Asdrubal Cabrera, is playing out of position at second base, and their best defensive center fielder, Franklin Gutierrez, mostly plays right. Jhonny Peralta is a particular problem at shortstop, as he has limited range and doesn't have the soft hands a good shortstop needs. He also plays with a decided lack of urgency, which might work on a daily basis but often leads to mistakes, especially in tight spots. Kenny Lofton has good range in left, but has one of the weakest outfield arms in the big leagues. Since Cleveland only features one starter who racks up large strikeout totals, converting balls in play into outs is critical for their other starters to hold good opposing offenses down, and they're not well-equipped to do that. The aforementioned Borowski is their other Achilles' heel. Borowski has 41 saves, but he also has a 5.23 ERA, the highest of any major league pitcher with more than three saves this year. He works with an 88-89 mph fastball with little movement and a soft-breaking slider, neither of which is going to miss many bats when he's facing the best lineups in the league. He's also homer-prone, due to his fringe-average stuff and tendency to work up in the zone. Manager Eric Wedge would do well to forget about the save rule in October and focus on getting the right guy in the game to get the next few batters out, and in some ninth-inning situations, that won't be Borowski.

Thought you guys might like this. From ESPN Insider Keith Law. Enjoy. The Angels' team construction is about as old-school as it gets. They're built around pitching and defense, with a "small ball" offense that puts the ball in play and tries to "manufacture" runs without such niceties as homers and walks. They have a handful of players who run and do so effectively, and they're aggressive about taking extra bases. Their pitching staff is built around power arms who throw strikes, and they've had one of the deepest bullpens in baseball over the past six seasons. Strengths Their rotation is by far their biggest strength as long as they align it properly for the playoffs. John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar and Joe Saunders are a very strong 1-2-3, while Jered Weaver can be valuable if he's used in the right way. Lackey is one of a handful of bona fide No. 1 starters in the game today. He has outstanding command of a 90-93 mph four-seam fastball and works off that pitch very heavily, burying it inside to righties, cutting it slightly at 90 mph to get it in on lefties and adding a two-seamer at 89-90 to give hitters an extra thing to think about. His best secondary pitch is a curveball at 78-81 mph with good two-plane break, which he uses to get both righties and lefties out, even using it in changeup counts against lefties. Saunders brings a combination of three solid-average pitches, with his fastball one grade above average, and outstanding command of his entire repertoire. He's very effective against left-handers, a potential advantage given the strong left-handed bats on some other playoff teams this year. How They'll Win • Against high-contact pitchers or poor defensive teams, the Angels can put lots of balls in play and run the bases with near-impunity, allowing them to put up plenty of runs for their pitching staff. • The Angels' top three starters of John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar and Joe Saunders, with Jered Weaver pitching at home, are all capable of holding even high-powered playoff opponents to one or two runs over seven innings, at which point the bullpen's role becomes more manageable. Escobar, when healthy, is only a shade behind Lackey in quality; he has slightly better stuff but doesn't have Lackey's command. Escobar, however, has struggled with two injuries this year -- patellar tendinitis in his left knee that has bothered him all season and shoulder inflammation that showed up at the end of August and that may or may not be resolved, although the Angels have given him extra rest this month to try to get him fresh for October. When he's on, he works primarily as a three-pitch pitcher with a 91-94 mph fastball (mostly 93-94), a tight, short-breaking slider at 85-86, and a straight change around 81-83, although he'll also show an occasional split, which was his best pitch when he closed for Toronto in the early 2000s. His success comes down to how well he commands his fastball, which he hasn't done well late in the season, but had done extremely well prior to the shoulder issue. And while his performance for most of this year has been disastrous, Ervin Santana has No. 1 starter stuff, with a 91-96 mph fastball that he also runs in hard to right-handers, a tight 82-85 mph slider with good tilt, and an upper 70s curve that looks like his slider rotated 45 degrees for more downward break. There's no way he can be trusted with a regular spot in a playoff rotation, but should the Angels choose to carry him, he's an intriguing weapon as someone who gets used once or maybe twice a series as a multi-inning reliever or as a long man to replace a starter who gets knocked out early. The Angels' infield defense is another area of strength. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera and second baseman Howie Kendrick both have above-average range and first baseman Casey Kotchman has good range and excellent hands. Only third baseman Chone Figgins, who's been moved around quite a bit in his career and doesn't have the actions of a third baseman, is below average. The Angels have further bolstered their defense by playing a natural center fielder, Reggie Willits, in left field, where he can also help Gary Matthews Jr., whose ability to make the highlight play masks fringe-average range in center. (Willits may end up playing more center field if Matthews' recent string of injuries limits him to DH duty in the playoffs.) How They'll Lose • Mike Scioscia, like many managers, clearly has his favorites in the bullpen, and if he continues to work Scot Shields, Justin Speier and Francisco Rodriguez hard, he's increasing the chances one or all of them will hit the wall in October. • Vladimir Guerrero has been limping around for months, and if the leg problem continues to bother him, he won't hit for power and might even have to sit games out. • Pitchers who miss bats will neutralize a big part of the Angels' attack, as will defenses that convert a lot of balls in play into outs. Los Angeles' offense isn't built to fit the latest fashion, the spreading disease of so-called "Moneyball" offenses built around patience and power, but instead relies heavily on high-contact hitters who put the ball in play and most of whom run well. It works when enough of those balls in play fall in for hits, and this year, enough have, with the Angels fourth in the league in runs scored despite playing most of their schedule in pitchers' parks. Their top four base stealers -- Willits, Matthews, Cabrera and Figgins -- have combined for 91 steals and a 78 percent success rate, and the Angels also utilize that speed in taking the extra base, helping them squeeze more runs out of their baserunners. And no discussion of the Angels' strengths would be complete without mentioning Francisco Rodriguez, whose electric stuff supersedes his sometimes shaky control and has made him one of the most reliable closers in the game. Manager Mike Scioscia's best option for late-game relief work other than K-Rod is Justin Speier, who missed some time earlier in 2007 with an illness, but whose arm may be fresher now as a result. Speier is effective when he's spotting his fastball in the bottom third of the strike zone, and in his best years he puts everything right at the hitter's knees. His fastball is just average at 90-91, but he uses that briefly to try to get ahead, turning to an 84-85 mph slider with a short, tight break and good tilt, even using that in lieu of his solid-average splitter to get left-handed hitters out. Weaknesses That high-contact offense has some downsides. Foremost among them is the Angels' relative impatience at the plate, as only the Royals and Mariners have seen fewer pitches this year than the Angels have, and the Royals have actually seen slightly more pitches per plate appearance. The result is that the Angels are particularly susceptible to good command/control pitchers, and can't rely on running up an opposing pitcher's pitch count to get him out of the game and the other team's bullpen involved. Question Marks • Will Vladimir Guerrero's knee/leg problems continue to hinder his power through the playoffs, or even take him out of a game or two? • Will years of heavy workloads finally catch up to the rubber-armed Scot Shields? • Will the better pitchers on playoff teams use the Angels' lack of patience at the plate against them? The Angels' run of success over the past six years was built to some degree on outstanding bullpen work, but this year's pen is showing some cracks. Scot Shields, a workhorse set-up man for four years now, has slipped this year, perhaps the inevitable result of some very high workloads during 2004-2006. Shields now works with only an average fastball, and in one outing in August when he was working on one day's rest, his fastball started out at 86-88 and didn't touch 90 until his eighth pitch of the inning. His delivery has a lot of effort in it and his arm action is long, so it's to his and Scioscia's credit that he has provided so much quality work over the past five years, but Scioscia is going to have to cut his reliance on Shields in October unless there's a sudden revival of his stuff. Finally, the Angels' lineup against left-handed pitchers is weaker than it is against righties. Although the team's performance against lefties this year has been identical to its performance against righties, there are a few reasons to think that this won't continue. Garret Anderson, who has struggled against lefties for much of his career and whose bat speed has slowed to the point where he cheats noticeably on fastballs, still gets regular playing time in left. Matthews plays almost every day, but he can't hit lefties at all. Kotchman has yet to homer off a lefty in the majors, and didn't hit them for power in the minors, either. And the Angels still don't have a solid right-handed DH option on their roster, with Maicer Izturis filling that role in some August contests.

I thought you guys might like this. From ESPN Insider Keith Law. Enjoy. The Red Sox have been keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to spending, but they have also received some contributions from the products of their farm system this season. (They hope that the recent infusion of homegrown talent is the beginning of a long-term trend.) They've built a powerful offense that finished third in the league in runs scored and second in on-base percentage, a pitching staff that led the league in ERA (including a 3.14 ERA from their relievers that led the league by a substantial margin) and one of the majors' best defensive clubs. Boston's roster is a balanced one with a long list of strengths and no glaring weaknesses. Strengths The Red Sox spent a substantial amount of money in the offseason, but no single expense was bigger than the cost to sign Daisuke Matsuzaka, including more than $50 million for the rights to negotiate with him. The idea was to build a rotation around three potential No. 1 starters -- Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, and Curt Schilling -- with Tim Wakefield providing good performance and bulk innings in the fourth spot. How They'll Win • Expect to see the Red Sox's offense try to grind out their playoff games, taking pitches early, putting men on base, and hitting enough singles and doubles to carry leads late into games. • Strong starting pitching performances from Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka will give the Sox a big leg up in any five- or seven-game series, leaving them less reliant on Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield. • If the Sox have a lead after seven innings in any playoff game, they should win it, with a shutdown combo of Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon and the hope that one of their other quality relievers can step in when either of those guys isn't available. By and large, the plan has worked. Beckett has been one of the league's five best starters, and Matsuzaka was effective for most of the season before struggling in late August. Matsuzaka has the almost-standard Japanese repertoire of six different pitches; his primary weapons are his 88-94 mph fastball -- a four-seamer he commands well and that gets in on hitters quickly -- and an 82-87 mph slider/cutter, which has a sharp break in toward right-handed hitters. He also throws a 12-to-6 curve, a splitter with good bottom (a pitch he should use more often) and a straight changeup. Matsuzaka's delivery features a big twist that makes the ball very tough for hitters to pick up, but he loses this out of the stretch and has been less effective with men on base. It also should be noted that Matsuzaka was a horse this season -- he is able to throw 120 pitches in a game more easily than most other starters in baseball. If he keeps his pitching plan simple and can keep his composure better when he ends up with a couple of men on base, Matsuzaka will be an asset. Beckett's profile is closer to that of the traditional front-of-the-rotation power arm. His fastball is an easy 94-97 mph, mostly straight with an occasional bit of cut to it, and he commands it well. He throws a hard changeup at 87-90 mph, with little fade but with decent arm speed. His best secondary pitch is a 76-81 mph curve with a sharp, deep, two-plane break; he can throw it for strikes or put it in the dirt as needed. As long as he moves his fastball around and avoids throwing it up in the zone in obvious fastball counts, he keeps the ball in the park. With him and Matsuzaka, the Red Sox have two of those three No. 1 starters they hoped for, and they have gotten those bulk innings they expected from Wakefield, whose knuckleball is as good as ever but his back is not. The front end of Boston's bullpen is another strength for the club. Jonathan Papelbon is one of the two or three best closers in the game, with outstanding command of a 93-95 mph fastball that he uses heavily to get ahead in counts, finishing hitters off with an 88 mph splitter. His slider tends to flatten out and is more of a show-me pitch. Before he was shut down for two weeks in mid-September with a tired arm, Hideki Okajima served as Papelbon's primary set-up man. Although Okajima's fastball is only 86-88 mph, he fools hitters with his so-called "okie-dokie" split-change (82-84 mph with good bottom), which makes him even more effective against right-handed hitters than against left-handed hitters. (Unsettling stat: Okajima has allowed 17 earned runs this year, nine to the Yankees.) How They'll Lose • The playoffs tend to bring better competition, both because your opponents are the best teams in the league and because you don't face fifth starters or sixth/seventh relievers, so the Sox's patient approach at the plate won't work as well against pitchers with good control and good fastball command. • There's a soft underbelly in Boston's pen, especially if Eric Gagne continues to struggle with his control and under-utilize his changeup and if Manny Delcarmen sacrifices command for power, or if they have to give highly-leveraged innings to Mike Timlin or Julian Tavarez. • If Daisuke Matsuzaka has a start where his control is a little off and he has to work with too many men on base, he'll become a five-inning pitcher who'll give up five or six runs and force the Red Sox's offense to put up a big number against a good opposing starter. Boston's strengths don't end with the team's pitching staff. The Red Sox's offense, while not performing up to preseason expectations, has still been very good, largely because of their exceptional patience at the plate. They see more pitches per plate appearance than any team in baseball (3.95, 0.01 ahead of Cleveland), and only the Yankees have put more men on base. As a result, they're third in the AL in runs scored despite a relative power outage this season -- more on that in a moment -- and they get to an opponent's bullpen quickly even if they don't score off of the opposing starter. The lineup's anchor, David Ortiz, has overcome knee and shoulder injuries to finish strongly, hitting nearly half of his homers in the season's final two months; he's a very difficult hitter to attack because his weak spot, inside just above or below his hands, is so close to a spot where he murders pitches, middle-in. Finally, the Red Sox arguably boast the best defensive club in the American League, particularly when Alex Cora is on the field. Coco Crisp has gone from a below-average glove in center to one of the best center fielders in the game, at least when it comes to range. They typically start a center fielder in right in J.D. Drew. Mike Lowell is one of the best, if rarely discussed, defensive third basemen in baseball, with extremely sure hands and surprisingly good range in either direction. Kevin Youkilis is Lowell's analogue at first. Boston's only weak in left field, and to some degree at shortstop, where Julio Lugo's range has slipped noticeably from his days with Tampa Bay. Weaknesses Boston really hasn't received the contributions they expected from the two guys who hit behind Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Drew. Ramirez has battled an oblique strain late in the season, but even earlier in the year he looked like his bat had slowed down a tiny bit. So, although Ramirez will still crush a fastball anywhere in his hitting zone, his adjustments to off-speed pitches haven't been up to his usual standard and he can be beaten with soft stuff, especially breaking balls down or down and away. Drew has had to deal with his son's medical issues, which may be part of the reason for the five-month slump that preceded his strong September. He's still passive at the plate; Drew will watch his fair share of called third strikes and is hard-pressed to hit even mediocre breaking balls from left-handed pitchers. When he's on his game, Drew shows good power to left and right-center and adjusts well to off-speed stuff from righties, but this year he hasn't been driving the ball to right field like he used to do. Drew has been taking a lot of hittable pitches the other way and getting under balls middle-up; pitching him hard in and then soft away is the approach to get him out. Question Marks • Can David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew stay healthy and produce more power in October? • Can Curt Schilling gut out a few five- or six-inning starts and keep Boston's offense in games? • Can Eric Gagne and Manny Delcarmen step up and provide critical bridge innings to get the ball to Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon? The Red Sox's other big weakness, oddly enough, is Schilling, the third No. 1 starter from their offseason plan. Since coming off the disabled list, Schilling hasn't had the same stuff, particularly not on his fastball, which is now a lifeless 85-90 mph and doesn't miss bats at all. Schilling still has a plus splitter and good command, but when your fastball is soft and straight, your ability to throw it for strikes is compromised by its increased hittability. Boston's middle relief corps could go either way, given some of the talent that resides there, but for the season's final two months, they've been more of a hindrance than a help. Eric Gagne has been mostly awful since the Red Sox acquired him on July 31, struggling with his control, with an over reliance on his fastball (92-94 mph, but straight, and not his best pitch), and some tenderness in his right shoulder. Manny Delcarmen has outstanding stuff, running his fastball up to 97 mph and throwing a hard changeup with a screwball-like fading action that makes him effective against lefties, but his fastball command is well below-average. Mike Timlin is a strike-thrower, but isn't a guy the Sox can bring in to a tough situation with men on base because his stuff results in too much contact.

Lets go Rock..er...Padr...umm....hmm. Let's see a 16 inning game.... Stupid Mets. If they had won, we would have had a four team tie.

Thank you Red Sox for picking the long series. Now we only have to face Sabathia twice, not both Sabathia and Carmona. WE SALUTE YOU!

We'll see if there is a parade in Manhattan if the superiority has fallen, and how far.

Congrats Red Sox fans. Now to return the favor of 2004, when you were the wild card. I hate the Sox. I really, really do. However, I would absolutely love to see us and you guys in the ALCS, the way it should be. No matter what I say later on, here's to game 7 in Fenway, Yankees at Red Sox, tie game going into the seventh. f*** it, why not? Who's with me on this one?

It's hysterical.

Youk has too much motion in his swing. He is extremely vulnerable to change of pace. I think Lowell is your MVP. Gold glove defense, picked up protecting Ortiz, great overall numbers. Without Lowell in the lineup, Ortiz would have been walked all season. Remember who's been protecting Lowell all year. Drew. Big difference fellas.

Agreed. Basically, they need to replace Mussina and Pettitte in the next two years. I doubt that Giambi and Mussina will come off the books and the Yankees will do nothing with that money. With Giambi, Mussina, and Pettitte coming off, that 47 million a year coming off the books in two years. With the young players on the payroll, and not eligible for arbitration, the Yankees can basically afford to sign a superstar player or two. I wonder when Pujols contract is up.

So, substitute Kennedy for Brackman or Sanchez. Look, I'm not saying that this deal will get done, or anything like that. What I'm saying is the framework is there for a possible deal. The Yankees have a commodity that most teams want, which is young, high-ceiling starting pitching. The Yankees essentially traded Sheffield and Randy Johnson for Sanchez and Ohlendorf. Now that they've stockpiled, they are potentially overstocked soon. Look for them to turn some of those excess arms into upgrades.

You're frightening me.

No, but they'll probably make the loser of the Kennedy/Mussina competition the long man in the pen. These days, you need six starters due to projected injuries. On the radio. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Right now, within two years, the Yankees have Chamberlain, Hughes, Wang, Kennedy, Ohlendorf, Alan Horne, and quite possibly Brackman and Sanchez all set for the Majors. I will give you Horne, Brackman, and Sanchez as iffy, but every one of the other pitchers has been in the majors this year. Basically, that means that the Yankees conceivably give up three of those pitchers for Santana and still have five starters. The Yankees have an abundance of young starting pitching prospects in their system. I'm not one of those Yankee fans who believe that we can get Pujols for Andy Phillips and Ron Villone, but trying to look at it from the Twins point of view, it would be an interesting proposition, one that you can't dismiss out of hand, if you got back a package of Sanchez, Horne and Ohlendorf for Santana, considering you won't resign Santana and you potentially get 60% of your rotation in one trade inside of 2 years. You can substitute any of the names except for Wang, and you can start to see what I'm talking about.

Pettitte won't hang them up at all. He will not only play next year, but he will also play a few more years after that. This talk of Pettitte retiring is ********. Secondly, Joba will be a starting pitcher next year. The Yankee rotation will be, in no particular order, Wang, Pettitte, Chamberlain, Hughes, Mussina/Kennedy. Mussina will eventually be replaced by Kennedy, and Pettitte, more than likely by Alan Horne or Ohlendorf. If Chamberlain falters, he will be back in the pen, but considering he doesn't have health issues, I see him as a starting pitcher next year. The is some rumbling that Kennedy, Ohlendorf/Horne may be center pieces for Santana in the off-season. Just rumblings, but gaining steam.

Who cares? The real season starts next week.

What the hell happens if you have a three way tie for the wildcard? Or even better...a four way tie? Lets say the Phillies tie the Rockies and the Padres for the wild card. What the hell do you then?

Thank you. Halos rule.