Premature? Probably. A lot can happen between now and then. CC could show up to spring training weighing 400 pounds. Posada, Jeter, Pettite, and Rivera could all remember that they are closer to death than to being fresh faced youngsters. Burnett's right arm could actually detach from his body. There's even a strong possibility A-Rod could get a sex change and become Lindsay Lohan's lesbian lover and renounce baseball forever.
However, as of this day, there is a clear divide between the Red Sox and the Yankees.
This was supposed to be a post about how excited I am for the Mike Cameron age (our first good black baseball player since before Troy O'Leary got happy feet). But this is much more pressing.
Today, the Yankees re-acquired Javier Vazquez, coming on the heels of their re-acquisition of Nick Johnson. Both of these moves have a very similar flavor and both are players I happen to really really really like.
Javy and Nick are not exactly household names. But each is a superstar at doing what they do best: striking out batters and getting on base, respectively.
Javy last year struck out 9.77 batters per 9 innings, ranking 5th in the league. This was definitely a career year for him, and if you regress him a bit and transfer him over to the AL, the rate goes to about 8.25 or so, but this is still a top 20 pitcher. The Yankees just added a 200 inning top 20 pitcher to their rotation. This just vaulted their rotation above the Sox. And even though there is a huge disparity in each teams defense, the Yankees top 3 pitchers strike so many guys out, defense doesn't matter as much for them
Johnson ranked third in baseball last year in OBP with a modest average. Jesus. A guy who gets on base over 40% of the time in front of Tex and A-Rod. I know this has been said a lot of times in this past decade, but they are gonna push 1000 runs, something the Sox can't even come close to competing with.
The Yankees just got a whole lot deeper and now have only one real weakness in LF. Good thing there are no available LF on the market right now. I don't know what would...
What? Holiday, Bay, and Damon are all still available? Shit.
Thank god for the wild card and Sexy Burger.
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