Mainstream media punching bag Bill Madden attempted to strike fear in the hearts of ill-informed and bridge-jumping Yankee fans this weekend, using his weekly soapbox to extol the virtues of Boston's admittedly impressive starting rotation.While it's all well and good to point out a strength of the Yankees' chief rivals, calling it a reason for the Yankees to worry is pointless sensationalism. Hey Bill, remember when the Sox had seven aces coming into the season last year? That worked out really well. Also, since Boston has something we don't, we clearly have no business even thinking about repeating as World Champions. It's not like you can win the championship with only three reliable starting pitchers. Oh wait.
UPDATE: I didn't even realize two of my fellow bloggers had also rightly taken Madden to task prior to my authoring this post. Check out Moshe's take at TYU and Brian's at Bronx Baseball Daily.
I saw this as well. I'm reminded of the scene in The Fugitive when Tommy Lee Jones and his entourage say, "what about us? We're pretty smart too."
ReplyDeleteCC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Javier Vazquez and one of like four dudes competing for number five is pretty sweet. Shouldn't the Red Sox be worried that we have the deepest pitching since the dynasty?
I agree with you gentlemen. Bill seems to be under the impression that you need 6 aces to win the World Series - Didn't the Diamondbacks win it with 2 in 2001? Who was their 3rd starter? i can't remember... I doubt he was as good as Andy Pettitte or Javier Vazquez. So, without even looking at numbers, I'm willing to concede that the Red Sox 1 and 2 starters are better than the yankees 1 and 2 starters - but not significantly better. And the Yankees offense and bullpen is better than the Red Sox. The Yankees offense is so much better than the Red Sox offense its not even worth talking about. And I tend to believe that Jonathan Paplebon's best days are behind him, and not just bc of his performance in the ALDS, either.
ReplyDeleteSo fine, lets hope for a Red Sox v Yankees ALCS - if the Red Sox lose it in 6 games and end up loosing a few of those games 2-1, whats the difference? the Sox still lost. great starting pitching is important, but the Yankees and Sox starting pitching isn't separated by a significant amount the way their offense and bullpens are.
Advantage: Yankees
~jamie
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you, Mike and I are going to have to get together at a bar for a game and some beers this season.
I am down for that!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
jamie
Same here. I'm always a fan of beer, Yankees and Yankee fans.
ReplyDelete