We have not needed Fausto or Victor Martinez in the last half of this season. Our “backup” catcher leads the AL in home runs for catchers (with 150 less at-bats than the NL leaders) and Carmona is 8-7 on the year with a 5.19 ERA. Our hot players are Choo, Cabrera, Shoppach (the backup catcher) and Sizemore. And Hafner is back - wobbly, but back.
So don’t worry about our chances against the Sox. If we’re destined to lose to them, it’ll be with or without Carmona and Martinez.
It does make me uneasy that beating the Sox gives hope to the Yankees. :mad: Let’s go, Jays!
This occurred to me last night, while seeing part the White Sox game in a bar – there’s a pretty fair chance the postseason will have the 2 LA teams, the 2 Chicago teams, and the Mets, but not the Yankees. Odd. They’re not the team most people would have left out of that collection in April.
Except people that were worried the team was too old and had many question marks on the starting staff. Moose, Kennedy and even Pettitte were question marks and Hughes was unproven. Losing players among the Giambi, Abreau, Damn, Matsui and even Posada group seemed likely.
Who knew Moose would be great and Wang would be out for the season. Kennedy and Hughes a complete failure.
Having Cano and Cabrera have bad and very bad years was an unpleasant surprise and A-Rod having his worst late inning year and missing a good chunk of time hurt a lot.
The odd part is the old player that fans and critics were most worried about overall did well and the youngster all failed for various reasons.
Then there was the Posada injury that really hurt the team. Yes I was fearful he could not repeat last year and would miss some time, but he missed most of the year and that was a big blow.
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Yanks while challenging for the playoffs. It was largely a failure in this respect as none of the young players made the progress the Yanks were hoping for on the Major League level.
Now the Yanks roam into an off-season with over $80 million coming off the books and no sure plan for the future. They will probably over pay for Texeira and C.C. and hopefully bring back Moose. Other than that, I have no clue what the will do. Girardi will be back and Cashman will probably be back but with a loss of some power.
The other thing about the Yankees this year was the abysmal defense. All of their below-average defenders (Jeter, Cano, Abreu) decided to become the worst in the league this year.
Speaking of defense, that’s the part about the Rays that’s surprised me the most this year. I expected them to break .500 and maybe contend for the wild card, but in no way was I prepared for the simply incredible turnaroundfrom one of the worst defensive teams in the league to one of the better ones.
It’s not like they replaced everyone with Ozzie Smith-equivalents, either: their regulars are pretty much the same guys as last year, aren’t they? What happened? Did they get new coaches? Or did everyone just get better by a year? I wouldn’t have thought defense was something that matured in the same way hitting did. Maybe some things that presumably get better with experience, like reaction time or judging a ball off the bat, but I wouldn’t have thought that kind of thing would become so much better in just one year. I don’t know anything about fielding statistics, though, and I haven’t seen them play very often, either this year or last. Does anyone else have a clue?
Many players do, indeed, mature as fielders, in much the same way as any other discipline. Tony Gwynn entered the majors with a reputation for being a good hitter and a defensive liability, but he worker hard at it and won five Gold Gloves before he won five batting titles, IIRC. George Brett and Wade Boggs both won their Gold Gloves later in their careers. That list is fairly lengthy. And then there’s Manny Ramirez, who has never bothered to learn how to field, as far as I can tell.
Anyway, my point is, that yes, players, or an entire team, can make significant improvements defensively over a single year.
Congrats to the Cubbies for making the playoffs! I saw my first-ever game at Wrigley this year, so it’s cool to see them succeed. It’s just going to make it that much sweeter when they collapse and maintain their century-old World Series drought in October.
Bit of a mix. Catcher Dioner Navarro has blossomed, for one. He has a rifle with laser scope arm and has done a great job of calling games and throwing out runners. Evan Longoria is a fantastic defensive third baseman who also hits for power.
Maybe most importantly the Rays traded, at the end of last season, Delmon Young and a couple of other guys for Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza. Bartlett has had a team MVP kind of season at shortstop and Garza has become perhaps the Rays best pitcher, at least at home where has been dominant.
I have to imagine a great deal of credit goes to Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey, who has brought along Scott Kazmir and James Shields, Garza, plus Andy Sonnastine and Edwin Jackson. They also have pieced together a pretty damned good bullpen.
I’d say the outfield is still there most suspect area, especially with Carl Crawford out with a wrist injury. BJ Upton will probably be a premier outfielder somewhere down the road, and I also suspect that Fernando Perez and Gabe Gross might be capable of very good things in the future.
What 2 LA teams? There aren’t 2 LA teams. There is ONE, repeat, ONE LA team. What you are thinking of is an Orange County team with delusions of grandeur.
Red Sox beat the Jays 3-0 today, so the Yanks get eliminated by a single Red Sox win or Yankee Loss now. I just hope it is not tonight. I think even Yankee haters can understand that much.
have already clinched. The Dodgers will probably choke away the NL West and the D-backs will go to the playoffs.