Biding Our Time

A pedestrian start for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees has left each team at five wins and five losses as we look toward this evening's battle, the first of three over the weekend and eighteen over the regular season. Following in the extended are a few links and points of interest. Consider this thread your place to comment on what you will as we wait around for game time.

The current projected starters for the three game series are:

Friday: Chien-Ming Wang (2-0, 1.38) vs. Clay Buchholz (0-1, 5.40) 7:05pm
Saturday: Mike Mussina (1-1, 3.09) vs. Josh Beckett (0-1, 9.64) 3:55pm
Sunday: Phil Hughes (0-1, 5.00) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-0, 1.47) 8:05pm

Injured:

New York
Derek Jeter - day to day
Jorge Posada - day to day

Boston
Mike Lowell - 15 day
Mike Timlin - 15 day
Bartolo Colon - day to day
Alex Cora - day to day

We're talking about only ten games, so no need to go overboard reading too much into any of the following categories.

Highlights:

Boston
- J.D. Drew .440/.483/.720 and seven runs
- Kevin Youkilis .324/.415/.529 no dingers but 5 extra base hits
- Jason Varitek .290/.333/.548 solid start from the Sox captain
- Daisuke Matsuzaka 3 ER in 18 and a third innings
- Manny Ramirez .275/.326/.525 Manny's historically a slow starter but slow for him is superb for most - he leads the team in RBIs
- Has trained raptors in the rafters

New York
- Melky Cabrera .320/.393/.560 and a few flashes of brilliance with the leather
- Bobby Abreu .333/.389/.515, team-high 6 runs scored
- Chien-Ming Wang: 2 earned runs in 13 innings
- Hideki Matsui: .314/.351/.514 (has reached base every game, soaked 1G from Jeter and Abreu)
- Yankee pitchers: Team ERA 3.68 (4th out of 14 teams)
- Is 5-5 despite being outscored by eight runs and not having any trained birds of prey (what's worse is the closest they have is LaTroy Hawkins)

Lowlights:

New York
- Jason Giambi: 1 hit in 23 plate appearances
- Derek Jeter: Hitting .211, .240 OBP
- Johnny Damon: 8 for 38 with 5 walks
- Yankee baserunners: zero stolen bases (last) and two CS
- Yankee team runs scored: 31 (13th)
- Plate discipline; Yankee team walks: 24 (11th)

Boston
- David Ortiz: 3 for 36 (but he does have a team-high 9 walks)
- Mike Lowell: .200 with no extra base hits
- Julio Lugo: 4 errors in the last five games (3 were in 1 game; one led to a run)
- Boston batters: league-high 73 strikeouts
- Boston pitchers: team ERA 4.55 (12th)
- Like the Yankees, their PR is 4-6

Back later with the game thread.

Comments

[IronHorse (yf)]

Thanks AG - nice to see the comparitive stats, though you forgot another key lowlight for the Yanks. We still have a guy name Farnsworth on our team.

[attackgerbil]

Good to see you round these parts again IH.

Believe me when I tell you the lowlights section for the Yanks wrote itself and got too long too fast; Farnsworth was one of the cuts.

[IronHorse (yf)]

"Farnsworth was one of the cuts".

How I'd like to hear those words from a Yankee official.

Good to "see" you again too.

[walein]

should be interesting...have Manny and Damon and Wang on my fantasy team...also Bruney and Delcarmen...I'm fantasy conflicted though I want the Yankees to win obviously.

[rootbeerfloat]

C'mon - you guys need to keep Farns. I really really hate that guy. Makes me feel better about cheering against the Yanks.

[IronHorse (yf)]

Good call on Bruney. I know it's early but he is looknig sharp, not to mention about 20 pounds lighter, which can't be a bad thing...

[IronHorse (yf)]

The only thing Farnsworth would be good for is being an enforcer - high tight 96+ mph fastballs followed by employment of his black belt martial arts skills in the ensuing brawl. Come to think of it, maybe I'm happy to have him still on the team, if only for this weekend's series...

[Lar]

Manny/Ortiz is killing my fantasy team.. =(

[Brad]

I'm fantasy conflicted though....

aaahhh. The classic "hope they do great in a losing effort" sentiment. This is why I have such an issue with having Yanks. It's hard not to, given the potential numbers, but for all I try, I can't bring myself to give even the slightest happy emotion for performance. In fact, this year, I took Jenks when I most certainly could have taken Mo. Will it cost me? probably. But, I don't end up feeling bad for being happy.
ha.

[attackgerbil]

Bruney probably should have been on the highlights list; he was on but I removed him. He's faced twenty batters, struck out eight, and allowed only two base runners, both in his start against the Royals on Wednesday. The walk was with two away in the first; he then struck out Guillen. Billy Butler doubled to lead off the Royals' second, and Bruney went on to strike out the side. He was lifted for Traber. Then Farnsworth came on to kick the wheels off the cart.

[Brad]

Plus, I've already been burned with huge negative points by "Franchise" or whatever you guys are calling the kid these days...
In fact, for those of you not in our league, here's what I left on the message board the next day...(there was an error in trades)

The fault can be placed directly on my shoulders.
I'm the one who drafted him anyhow, agasint my own desire to leave him undrafted and floating around in fantasy free-agency-land with the likes of Jarod Saltalawhatever and Nomar.

But, alas, having thought I rid myself of the Golden Child, or Phil Franchise, or whatever Yankee fans are calling the 89mph wonderkid these days, he's still on my team, creating far more problems there than he's likely to create in real life for the hitters residing within the American League (we're pretty confident he'll do okay in the NL).

The huge hole that all my pitching points fell into yesterday (Thanks, Phillip) should belong to the guy that actually wanted this phenom on his team in the first place!

Hopefully, before he gives up counteless more hits to the likes of Johnny Right Hand Batter from Nowhere, USA - he'll be comfortably situated on our commisioner's roster, where he should have been last night!
:)

Oh, John is our commish. ha.

[Brad]

and of course, I'm joking.
Before anyone comes back at me with "well how did Clay"...

It was only a joke to stir the pot, but a perfect example of how a larger power punishes me for drafting Yankees.

[Paul SF]

I never draft Yankees for fantasy teams. Can't bring myself to root for them, so why bother?

I like how the Sox have their rotation lined up for this series. Definitely the three pitchers I want on the hill against the Yanks. Almost makes me glad Colon had that side strain, to keep any possibility of starting against the team that owns him off the table...

[sf rod]

IPKs making a mockery of my fantasy team. i personally want to thank girardi for that masterful use of him late against KC the other nite.

oh yeah, he's available for trade if anyone's still interested (trisk, i'm looking at you). or just check the waiver wire next week.

[IronHorse (yf)]

I religiously avoid all fantasy leagues altogether. Baseball in particular sucks up so much of whatever free time I have that if I entered into the fantasy world I'd basically be in a hole for 6 months of the year.

[Paul SF]

For the record, here's a combined ranking of hitters for the Sox and Yanks by OPS+:

J.D. Drew -- 218
Melky Cabrera -- 159
Kevin Youkilis -- 152
Alex Rodriguez -- 148
Bobby Abreu -- 147
Hideki Matsui -- 135
Jason Varitek -- 132
Sean Casey -- 127
Manny Ramirez -- 124
Jose Molina -- 121
Morgan Ensberg -- 107
Coco Crisp -- 98
Kevin Cash -- 89
Jorge Posada -- 87
Dustin Pedroia -- 84
Julio Lugo -- 83
Jacoby Ellsbury -- 75
Johnny Damon -- 70
Derek Jeter -- 46
David Ortiz -- 20
Jason Giambi -- 13
Robinson Cano -- 12
Wilson Betemit -- 3

Sox' OPS+: 106
Yanks' OPS+: 92

That's pretty cool. Starters, by ERA+:

Chien-Ming Wang -- 290
Daisuke Matsuzaka -- 289
Mike Mussina -- 130
Andy Pettitte -- 130
Tim Wakefield -- 130
Jon Lester -- 95
Philip Hughes -- 80
Clay Buchholz -- 79
Josh Beckett -- 44
Ian Kennedy -- 30

Sox' ERA+: 94
Yanks' ERA+: 109

Hehe. I guess 10 games isn't a very good sample size.

[LocklandSF]

Ok fellas, on my way to the airport, can't stand missing this game.

GO SOX!!!!

[Jackie (SF)]

I have refused to play fantasy ball for the last few years in part due to the time-suck factor and in part to the conflict of allegiances it invariably creates (my tiny brain cannot handle the "my pitcher really needs a win but this batter could use an RBI" rooting paradox).

Of course, this year, my husband got recruited into a fantasy league, and since my knowledge of teams other than the Sox (meager though it is) is greater than his, I got suckered into helping him with the draft, aaaand now am basically managing the whole thing. We did decide early on to forgo any Yankee players, to avoid that conflict, but the team we're playing head-to-head this week has a couple Red Sox and Thursday night I found myself screaming at Youk for getting RBIs instead of striking out. It's been very traumatic.