- It’s funny how the perception of this Boston Red Sox team has changed. Before the season began we heard about how they were an unstoppable juggernaut, with no chance to be caught and no real weaknesses. They were picked unanimously to win the AL East. Now though, everyone is throwing up their hands and proclaiming their doom due to the pitching deficiencies. For instance Joel Sherman today declared that the Yankees deficiencies were less alarming than the Red Sox. More moderate minds correctly pointed out before the year began that the Red Sox were favorites and rightly so. They did however have a few soft points and one of those happened to be their pitching which has certainly underperformed to this point. The Yankees meanwhile were slated as underdogs precisely due to their starting pitching but have fared a bit better so far. The problem of course is that it’s the first week of the season. Nothing about these teams has drastically changed. The Yankees have serious problems of their own if you haven’t noticed. CC Sabathia is about the only sure thing in the rotation at this point. AJ Burnett has had 2 nice starts so far but it’s entirely too early to consider him “fixed” especially since we’ve seen this before. Phil Hughes is a mess. Ivan Nova has had 2 nice starts as well, teetering on disaster a few times but managing to work out of trouble. Due to a rainout and some early season scheduling quirks, Freddy Garcia, who is actually in the rotation, has yet to appear in a game. So while it’s nice to revel in some early schadenfreude, don’t lose grasp of the larger picture. There are still 5 and half months to go.
- Manny Ramirez’s retirement was a shock to many people this past week. While he was so eminently detestable on the Red Sox, I actually grew quite fond of him as a Dodger. Of course if you enjoy stamping your feet around, frowning and grumbling about the sanctity of sports I’m sure you had another opinion of him. I do however hate him for feeling the need to cheat several times over the past 10 years apparently. I’m no steroids witch hunter- I’m not in favor of keeping them out of the hall of fame or striking their numbers from the record books. That doesn’t mean though that I’m okay with cheating. I think both sides of the steroid conflagration tend to overlook that point- you can find cheating and steroids reprehensible without pretending those guilty of partaking should have their contributions to the game ignored and their legacies rebuked. Is Manny Ramirez’s career tarnished forever? Yes. Was he an outstanding, once in a generation seminal baseball talent? Yes. Does he belong in the hall of fame? In my opinion, yes.
- Eric Shultz wrote a great preview of the Tampa Yankees team on Friday. He correctly points out that Brett Marshall is probably the most exciting player to watch at this point on the team. Marshall had a bad debut this week but he’s the best pitching prospect to keep an eye on after Banuelos/Brackman/Betances.
- Would you be okay if that recording of Kate Smith “accidently” got lit on fire? I would be. They should either scrap God Bless America entirely or go the route of the Dodgers who have a quick, live performance of the song every game. New York certainly has a talented enough pool of musicians to draw from for that. If they’re going to keep God Bless America, the Yankees have got to find a better way to do it.
- I’ve said it a few times on Twitter, but nothing for me is as enjoyable in sports as Masters Weekend. I guess I love how they control the television rights so strictly that they only have 3 sponsors, mandate that CBS not promo any of its own shows during the coverage and show 56 minutes out of every hour of golf. Could you imagine this in baseball? No more promos for Center Stage or the awful NJ Nets, an end of the dreadful text polls and most importantly no more Ford Edge commercials with Derek Jeter? That would be great.
Anyway, here’s an open thread until game time, enjoy your afternoon.
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Nova’s had two nice starts? Try one: his first one. He 4.1 IP 7 H 4 R 3 BB sucked yesterday. He couldn’t get out of the fifth to qualify for the win with a 7-4 lead. Yeah, Cano prolonged the inning to set up Nova to give up two more runs to make it 5-4 Yankees from 5-1 but Cano is only human and has wayyy more credit than Nova who crumbled. Nova could’ve got out of it.
Enough with God Bless America, period! I am sick of constantly being reminded of the attacks on 9/11/01, which the playing of the song began after and because of when I don’t / none of us need to be reminded. Time to move on. Not everyone believes in God and how did God Bless America on 9/11/01? This will be the tenth full season this song is being played in the Seventh Inning Stretch. How ’bout “Take Me Out To The Ballgame?” or something festive instead of this funeral like downer which it is. Again, I don’t need to remember 9/11 moreoever need the Yankees to tell me to.
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Nothing like a small sample size to make the media start scrambling for hindsight. I think the main issue with the disparity between the Yankees and Red Sox is that the Yankees have started off hot offensively, while Boston (except against the Yankees) have largely struggled with the bat. Additionally, Boston’s pitching has been horrendous, while the Yankees’ has been merely mediocre. I don’t really expect either trend to last.
I’m not confident that AJ is “back” yet, as he got off to a good start in 2010, and we all know how things ended up with him. Bottom line, there’s a lot of baseball still to be played, and pretty much anything could happen. I can’t deny, however, that I have gotten a fair amount of schedenfreude from watching Red Sox Nation in full bridge-jumper mode after all this talk about winning 100 games.
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Oh yeah, me too. I’m definitely enjoying it. I am trying to remain somewhat level and calm about it though because it just is ONE week, you know? Nothing about this Boston team makes me think it would be unlikely for them at some point to rip off 5-8 straight wins with no problem.
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On “God Bless America,” the Yankees have failed to realize that like every ritual that is repeated mindlessly day after day, it simply loses its meaning. Real patriotism calls for honest thought and reflection, not public posturing in the form of songs or lapel pins. Just out of curiosity, I wonder how many members of the Yankee hierarchy ever served their country in uniform.
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Sean P Reply:
April 10th, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Yeah I agree with you on that Scout. I’d prefer though if they’re going to keep doing it to change it up a little bit. Kate Smith must go
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