WHY BOSTON GOT SERVED HUMBLE PIE

OK, I've been waiting to do this piece for months now. On January 2nd, a NESN.com writer wrote a piece on why the 2011 Red Sox could unseat the 1927 Yankees as the greatest team in the history of Major League Baseball. You can read the comedic gold HERE. Mind you, it was written before 1 pitch was thrown in spring training or even the season itself.

Casey was immediately outraged as well, and wrote WHY BOSTON SUCKS: PART II. Read it.

I saved the NESN piece the moment I read it. I knew at the time that this prediction would backfire on them easily and now, the season is over, the Red Sox didn't make the playoffs and, I just have to laugh. Who would dare suggest something so silly? Let's break it down. The piece started off saying: "The Red Sox have won 100 or more games three times in their 110-year existence. They will make it four in 2011."

We all know by now that he was way off in this prediction. The Red Sox finished with a 90-72 record and finished 3rd in the American League East. Meanwhile, the 1927 Yankees finished with an astounding 110-44 record. Can you say, EPIC fail? I can...oh, I did.

Next, the writer showcased the Red Sox lineup which looks like this:

CF. Jacoby Ellsbury- .321/.376/.552/.928 (BA/OBP/SLG/OPS), 32 Hrs, 105 RBI, 39 SBs
2B. Dustin Pedroia- .307/.387/.474/.861, 21 Hrs, 91 RBI, 26 SBsLF. Carl Crawford- .255/.289/.405/.694, 11 Hrs, 56 RBI, 18 SBs
1B. Adrian Gonzalez- .338/.410/.548/.957, 27 Hrs, 117 RBI
3B. Kevin Youkilis- .258/.373/.459/.833, 17 Hrs, 80 RBI
DH. David Ortiz- .309/.398/.554/.953, 29 Hrs, 96 RBI
RF. JD Drew- .222/.315/.302/.617, 4 Hrs, 22 RBI, 81 games
C. Jarrod Saltalamacchia- .235/.288/.450/.737, 16 Hrs, 56 RBI
SS. Marco Scutaro- .299/.358/.423/.781, 7 Hrs, 54 RBI
SS. Jed Lowrie- .252/.303/.382/.685, 6 Hrs, 36 RBI

That lineup looks pretty good, I mean, this team lead the majors in runs scored with 875, that's 8 runs ahead of the Yankees, but they're NOT the 1927 Yankees who scored 976 runs, 131 more runs than the second place Detroit Tigers... astounding. Also keep in mind that the 1927 Yankees had four Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, and Earle Combs, in their lineup.Speaking of the 1927 Yankees lineup, let's take a look at how each individual fared that season:

CF. Earle Combs- .356/.414/.511/.925, 6 HRs, 64 RBI
SS. Mark Koenig- .285/.320/.382/.702, 3 HRs, 62 RBI
RF. Babe Ruth- .356/.486/.772/1.258, 60 HRs, 164 RBI...WOW
1B. Lou Gehrig- .373/.474/.765/1.240, 47 HRs, 175 RBI... WOW
LF. Bob Meusel- .337/.393/.510/.902, 8 HRs, 103 RBI, 24 SBs
2B. Tony Lazzeri- .309/.383/.482/.866, 18 HRs, 102 RBI, 22 SBs
3B. Joe Dugan- .269/.321/.362/.683, 2 HRs, 43 RBI
C. Pat Collins- .275/.407/.418/.825, 7 HRs, 36 RBI

Pretty good, huh? A couple of things...One, the writer of the NESN piece had us look at the Boston bench. It looks like this:

OF. Mike Cameron- He got DFA'd from the team in late June after hitting .149/.212/.266/.477 in 33 games with the Sox.
OF. Darnell McDonald- He hit .236/.303/.401/.704 in 79 games. Certainly doesn't strike fear to me.
INF. Marco Scutaro- .299/.358/.423/.781 (above)
INF. Jed Lowrie- .252/.303/.382/.685 (above)
C. Jason Varitek- Hit .221/.300/.423/.723 in 68 games, but he's the Captain of the team and wears that "C" on his jersey!

Now, in all fairness, the Red Sox improved their bench with the call up of outfielder Josh Reddick (.280/.327/.457/.784) and trading for utility man Mike Aviles (.317/.340/.436/.775 in 38 games for Boston).

And finally, I just wanted to say this before we conclude this piece. It is very hard, if not impossible, to compare different players performances between two completely different eras, not to mention that that 2011 season hadn't started yet. Baseball was an entirely different game way back when, and a lot of changed. But, the writer for that NESN piece brought it up in the first place, so it's his own fault.

Next we'll try and break down the pitching for you, comparing the 2011 Red Sox and 1927 Yankees. Stay tuned.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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WHY THE YANKEES ARE A STATE OF MIND

The past 20 hours have been quite insane. When I watched the Yankees lose to the Tampa Bay Rays and saw the Red Sox’s Carl Crawford miss a liner and Jonathan Papelbon walk off the field, it may have been the greatest feeling of my life since the worst feeling of my life, that 2004 collapse of the Yankees when the Red Sox won 4 in a row. I still don’t know how that happened there. I just remember this… the Red Sox fans made every single one of us Yankee fans feel like shit and when I think about it, I still get pissed. Now, the payback is sweeter. I don’t hate 1 Red Sox fan. I hate the franchise and love my Yankees beating them, and if that means they don't make the playoffs, that's terrific... plain and simple.(Photo: Getty)
Then I got to thinking about last night’s Yankee game, you know the one where Joe Girardi single-handedly lost the game being cute using every pitcher we had, I realized that you can’t even blame Scott Proctor for that loss last night. He was throwing around 60 pitches at that point where Evan Longoria homered. You have to expect a homer to happen eventually. Even though that game didn’t matter to the Yankees, I thought about something interesting. If the Yankees were playing the Red Sox last night but were in the same position, meaning that they had already clinched, and already had the best record in the AL, would we have played the same way? Would Girardi had used all his pitchers the way he did? No. Would Mariano Rivera had come in to try and shut down the Sox? Yes. If last night we played the Red Sox, it would have been a must win.

It goes back to my theory, winning every ballgame counts. Look, the Yankees and Red Sox don’t mix, they’ve never mixed and trust me, if Dan Johnson was David Ortiz last night, the Yankees would have brought in the top closer in the world to shut him down.
(Photo: Getty)
You know me. I hate to lose and in my opinion, walking into a playoff against a potential Cy Young winner like Justin Verlander scares the everliving shit out of me. Why? Because we’re riding a 4 game losing streak. Now, the ALDS is a whole new season, this is true. Do I have faith in CC Monster and my Yankees? Yes, but losing is easy to do and once you do it a few times, it becomes easier and easier and all I’m saying is our Yankees need to and will have to turn it around tomorrow. We need to set the tone.

Luckily for us, this Yankee team is loose. This Yankee team forgot about last night, because, let’s face it, it was more of a celebration of the Red Sox being out of it than the Rays winning the Wild Card. Today is a workout day, tonight, a light dinner, talk alittle strategy, early bed of an early rise and my Yankees will be ready to go. They’re over it so I’m over it... I’m ready to see my Yankees do damage.

I wrote a piece simply titled WHY THE YANKEES WILL LOSE ALDS WITHOUT MOMENTUM. I was sick of losing the last few games of the season and was shooting from the hip. Luckily, you die-hards talked me off the ledge. @jenjeter2211 said it best. “Casey, we have momentum… home field, CC, Nova, Freddy... Jeter, Grandy."
She’s right. We DO have CC and the others. The Yankees CAN make their own momentum. Yankee Stadium during the playoffs is the best place in the world. We have the best fans in the world and the Yankees know that. They feed off that, they feed off each other. Can we win this ALDS? Yes, damn straight! Will it be tough? Yes, but there is one phrase that I forgot about in my 48 hours nervous insanity... “One game at the time.” We can do this, we WILL do this and we will advance… Why? Because we’re the God damn New York Yankees, that's why.

A few quick notes: Alex Rodriguez will be in the lineup tomorrow night for the start of the ALDS. Read about ARod HERE.

Jesus Montero’s X-Rays have come back negative and he’ll be ready to play. Read about it HERE.

Freddy Garcia will be the #3 starter in the ALDS behind CC Monster #1 and Ivan Nova #2.
The Yankees won 97 games this season. That’s no fluke, that’s not luck... that’s solid offense and solid pitching… and we were worried about our rotation all season...remember?

Get Ready Ladies & Gentlemen… here come our New York Yankees…Quest for 28 coming up!

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WHY GOD IS SMILING ON YANKEELAND

I feel like I'm getting Punk'd. I feel like I'm being watched, and I keep containing myself, not to get too giddy, like someone's about to jump out from behind a door in my house and point their finger at me and laugh hysterically. Then Ashton Kutcher will come out and tell me it's all a joke, that the Red Sox really aren't this bad. But the reality is... they are. Couple that with the Yankees just looking so good right now and it's the perfect recipe for Yankeeland.
David Ortiz said it best a few weeks ago and believe me, all of Red Sox Nation heard him and groaned. "Hell yeah, you've got to panic." To me, that's giving up. You never show your hand and never show doubt in your club publicly. That statement did both. Remember when I wrote WHY RUSSELL MARTIN HAS BALLS? That statement by Ortiz demonstrates no balls.
Today was a beautiful day in the Bronx. Seeing the number 61 on the field to honor Roger Maris, with no asterisk by the way, was awesome. I've always read about and appreciated Roger Maris for all he did in pinstripes and I'm so glad he's honored in the Bronx.

Let's start with AJ Burnett today. The guy looked good. They guy looked like he can handle another game and he looked like he's the "good" AJ right now. Although, I noticed a "look" while he was coming off the field today. It wasn't a look of a dominant pitcher. It was a look of a pitcher who was still uncertain with himself. A pitcher who clearly still has confidence issues. Look at it, tell me what you think:This was after the 4th inning.

2 stories today, the Yankees offense continues to be great and AJ Burnett. Burnett will give Girardi a headache I'm sure, now Joe must decide who follows Ivan Nova in the rotation; AJ Burnett, Freddy Garcia or Bartolo Colon.

Today Burnett went 7.2 innings, he allowed 5 hits and only 2 runs. He had 6 strikeouts and allowed 2 homers today. Ultimately, he did good. Enough to think maybe he'd be in the running for the 3rd man in the rotation in the ALDS. Personally though, if it came down to me deciding, I'm choosing Freddy Garcia because of his veteran grittiness and that Burnett picture doesn't excite me. That's my bottom line.Jorge Posada had his 14th homer today and 2 RBIs. I love Posada at DH from the left side and it's clear, Jesus Montero will be in against lefties, so that DH platoon seems to be working out nicely, wouldn't you say?

Derek Jeter was 3 for 4 today and is batting .300 Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm just saying. Oh Captain, my Captain...lead us.

One play stood out and spoke volumes today. There was nothing better than watching Carl Crawford miss a ball he should have caught off of Jeter's bat today. But this is what was really telling; As the ball bounced, he swatted at it and missed, and as the ball continued to the wall, he actually looked at his glove like someone put a hole in it. I'm not kidding. I had to take a picture of this play because it was laughable. This is a guy that has a monster contract and he can't do a thing right right now. So why is this play significant to me? Because Jeter came around to score on an Alex Rodriguez hit. Runs win ballgames.

David Robertson came in and closed out the game nicely. Houdini does it again. The future New York Yankees closer? I don't mean to sound like I'm pushing Mariano out, I'm not. I'm just saying, the future's exciting.

Final Score: Yankees 6 - Red Sox 2

Game 2 tonight, keep rolling Yankees!

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THE CASHMAN QUESTION

Since Brian Cashman has been with the New York Yankees, there have been some pretty significant developments. The Yankees have won championships with some great pickups and have also fell short with some real flops in players like Carl Pavano. We’ve praised Cashman when things go well, but just as fast, we’re ready to turn on the guy as soon as we get a loss. One thing Cashman has never done though is second guess himself. In fact, when the promotion of Jesus Montero happened, did you notice how fast the media went into full effect giving Cashman credit for not trading off Montero, Ivan Nova and Eduardo Nunez to Seattle for Cliff Lee at the 2010 trade deadline? Read HERE.

Brian Cashman doesn’t have a contract for 2012 Ladies and Gentlemen. While we haven’t won the World Series yet, we’ve won the AL Eastern Division and Cashman deserves credit. Patience was his word of the winter and spring and bringing in players like Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and Russell Martin have proved genius. Larry Rothschild on the pitching beat was clearly a better selection than Dave Eiland too. Bob Klapisch has a stat I didn’t know. Since Rothschild has come over, there is a significant difference in ERA. “…the Yankees went from seventh to third in the American League in ERA, dropping from 4.06 to 3.66 entering Thursday.”

But let’s go deeper into something that has proven significant this season. Carl Crawford. Crawford has done absolutely bunk with the Red Sox this year and he’s getting paid a boat load of money. No one could have expected Crawford to perform this way, but remember the winter and remember how arrogant Carl Crawford was about the Yankees not signing him. Read WHY GARDNER TRUMPS CRAWFORD from February. I like Brett Gardner instead of Crawford. Bottom line, Cashman won that battle, he stuck to his guns and he didn’t cave. Yes, the Yankees have a lot of money and the Yankees can sign anyone they want. But the Yankees didn’t sign Crawford. We dodged a bullet. And in a story that came out today Cashman admits he faked wanting to sign Carl Crawford so the Red Sox would pay more. Genius. Read HERE. Cashman says:

"I actually had dinner with the agent to pretend that we were actually involved and drive the price up... The outfield wasn't an area of need, but everybody kept writing Crawford, Crawford, Crawford, Crawford. And I was like, 'I feel like we've got Carl Crawford in Brett Gardner, except he costs more than $100 million less, with less experience.' "

I love that.

How about giving Ivan Nova a shot this season. Nova’s provided surprising stability this year in the Yankees rotation. He’s matured and him being given a chance stems back to Cashman’s belief that Nova could improve. He has, and that goes back to Patience.

The point is, you can say what you want about Cashman, but some of the moves he’s made this year are dead on and he needs to come back to the New York Yankees. We need to offer him a contract, bottom line. He’s contributed to 5 championships by getting talent we needed to win. In this re-emergence of Moneyball, Cashman does it his way… Brianball.

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WE'RE HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Hurricane Irene has hit and BYB Headquarters is temporarily closed. As part of our vow to you, we will get back to work as soon as we can, but of course, family comes first. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite posts on Bleeding Yankee Blue...enjoy:



EXCLUSIVE: WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT PHIL RIZZUTO



WHY MANTLE & MARIS ARE STILL INTRIGUING TODAY



WHAT CASHMAN WAS REALLY SAYING



WHY I SMELL A TREND



EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: KIMBERLY JONES



WHY GOD MADE YOGI A YANKEE



WHAT GARDNER TRUMPS CRAWFORD



WHY IT'S MONTERO'S TURN



WHY JETER IS EPIC FOR 1 GOOD REASON



QUEST FOR TURKEY LEGS!



2000's MOST EXCITING PLAYER: CANO OR SORIANO?



WHY IT'S JUST BASEBALL SUZYN



WHY THE 2011 AL MVP PLAYS IN THE BRONX



WHY G.G.S. IS A.O.K



EXCLUSIVE INTERVEW: HIGH SOCKS FOR HOPE



Back soon.



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THE STATE OF THE YANKEES

The evil Red Sox are the team the world picked to run through the season, the playoffs and become World Series champs in 2011. The National League team was the supposed to be the Phillies. So, I find it to be absolutely outstanding that our team, the team no one really expected to be in the running, is a half game up, ahead of the mighty Red Sox for first place in the AL.

The Red Sox have had 1 problem, the superstar they signed, Carl Crawford, is just now starting to hit. I’m sorry, but if you’re making that kind of money and you’re signed the be the lead off man, you have to deliver. Crawford puts a bad taste in my mouth for all the lip service he gave the Yankees for not signing him this past winter. As you can see, signing him would have been a disaster, the Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter combo at the top of the lineup has proved that.

The Yankees on the other hand have had plenty of problems. From an inconsistent AJ Burnett, to an unstable rotation to lack of hitting by some of our stars. We’ve seen come and go Brian Gordon (remember him?), Nick Swisher and his lack of power mostly from the first half and a constant debate over whether or not aging stars Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada have enough in the tank any more. We’ve seen injuries from our top star Alex Rodriguez and watched gold glover Eric Chavez and 8th inning guy, now 7th inning guy, Rafael Soriano take forever to come back from injury.

One thing is for sure though, through all the frustration and aggravation, the New York Yankees have managed to grind out wins and take a series from their opponents almost all season. Winning every series, be it 2—0 or 2-1 will get you to the playoffs. I hate using the expression of "playing one game at a time", but it’s true. You can’t think about Boston if your playing the Twins, you just need to go 1 game at the time and it’s clear the Yankees mentality are in the right mindset.

(Photo: Getty)

With all that going on, the New York Yankees are breathing down the Red Sox neck. And to me, it means one thing, we never say die.

• Curtis Granderson has been a huge surprise this season, it may be the best season of his career...34 home runs... are you kidding me?
  
  

• CC Monster is rolling through the season to prove he’s the top ace in the major leagues.

• Robinson Cano has demonstrated leadership more so than in the past.

• Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia have provided their veteran talents to scrape together wins… the top story of the Yankees season as far as I’m concerned.

• David Robertson has emerged as a true 8th inning guy and All-Star to boot

• Derek Jeter, our Captain is batting .290 today and hot as hell this second half. He may be old, but he still can lead. Where's the New York Media now... the same media telling us Jeter was over...hiding, that's where.

And just when you thought it was good, it just gets better. Us fans have been chomping at the bit for months about the coming of Jesus Montero and some of the Killer B's and here they come... Manny Banuelos may be up in September and Dellin Betances told us all on Twitter he was advancing to AAA. Things are happening, careers are advancing and wins keep us hungry for more Ladies and Gentlemen.

So, what’s the point of this post… well, I think it’s clear, the Yankees are coming and no team like the Red Sox is going to try and take us down. Yes, they have the upper hand in our head to head meetings, but it’s what counts now that really matters and everything in the past is past. The bottom line is the Yankees are winning, through all the turbulent rotation stuff, we’re winning with great offense and an incredible bullpen. When it counts the most, the Yankees do not roll over and if you don’t believe me, think about what these guys have accomplished this season…. CC Sabathia, Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, Ivan Nova, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Brett Gardner, Robinson Cano.

(Photo: Getty)

Bottom line… we have the AL East by the balls, we just need to get to the finish line, so let’s do this thing. It’s our time… again.

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