Red Sox vs. Yankees

I've been meaning to do a Yankees vs. Red Sox comparison but Lyford beat me to it. He relies mostly on OPS+ which I don't think tells the whole story but Lyford makes up for it with some excellent observations.

When I compare line-ups in my head I give the Red Sox the edge at the following positions:

1st Base - Millar's edge in hitting just barely gives him the nod over Tino who is a much better glove. This one's so close that if you wanted to call it a tie - I wouldn't argue (much).
2nd Base - Tony Womack just ain't that great
Left Field - Matsui is very good but Manny will go down as one of the best right handed hitters in history
Centerfield - everyone is puzzled why the Yankees did not upgrade here. Bernie Williams is atrophying in front of our very eyes.
DH - Ortizzle

I give the Yankees the edge at the following positions:

3rd base - Mueller is good and an excellent value but A-Rod is the best 3rd baseman in baseball
Right field - I keep waiting for Sheffield to fall apart but until he does he has a big edge offensively over Trot Nixon

The following positions would be toss-ups:

Short - I know Yankee fans want to give this to Jeter hands-down but it is a tie (and if Renteria returns to 2003 form offensively - then it becomes another one in the Red Sox column)
Catcher - Jorge may hit a few more HR but Varitek makes up for that the way he handles the pitching staff

That gives the Red Sox a 5 to 2 edge (with 2 ties). This is why I don't understand the ESPN guys always going on about how great the Yankee line-up is.

Lyford makes some points which I would like to highlight:

Another thing is that the Yankee bench is really, really...uh, how to put it...well, it's not good. As I was looking at it, I was trying to figure out who was missing, but that appears to be it, according to all of the rosters that I was able to find. There's absolutely no offense on the bench, not much speed or defense or anything else. Ugh.

And neither of these teams is young. But the Yankees have got four starters that are 35+ to the Red Sox 0. When looking for potential reasons for problems, that jumps out at you.

Excellent point on the bench. Mirabelli and Youkillis are the best back-ups at their positions in baseball. Jay Payton could start for 75% of the teams in baseball and Vazquez looks so good that he might replace Bellhorn at 2nd. The Red Sox have a better bench hands down (advantage Epstein). The Yankees do have some old guys. What's their plan B if Bernie, Sheffield or Tino go down wth injuries? If I was a Yankee fan - I'd be concerned with this (I'd also be about 40 IQ points dumber but that's another story).

More Lyford:

First base - Both of these teams are iffy at first base. Millar had an excellent second-half of the 2004 season, when it looked like he was done as a Major League hitter. Tino Martinez was never great, and still isn't.

Yankee fans will definitely take issue with the Tino comment.

Bernie Williams used to be a great player. He isn't any more. One of the shocks of the off-season is that the Yankees, with their payroll, are going into 2005 with a 36-year old center fielder who can't throw, has no range, has been in a significant offensive decline, and has no plausible back-up. How much better would the Yankee bench look if Jay Payton were sitting in their dugout instead of Boston's?

Like I said - advantage Epstein. Cashman may have megabucks to spend on the starters but one of the true tests of a GM is how they fill out the rest of the roster. Color me unimpressed with both the Yankee bench and their GM.

Both Varitek and Posada are reaching a stage when decline has got to be expected. With Doug Mirabelli, the Red Sox are certainly better poised to rest their catcher. Whether they will or not is, of course, another story.

This is one of the reasons I would like to see Wakefield as the fifth starter instead of Arroyo. Every fifth day Mirabelli could rest Varitek and the team would not miss a beat and Varitek would be kept fresh.

How's the defense? Certainly, Martinez can still play first while Millar's probably below average. Bellhorn/Womack is probably a wash. Renteria's better than Jeter, his Gold Glove last year notwithstanding. Mueller and Rodriguez appear to be pretty close. Matsui's better than Ramirez, and Sheffield's probably a little better than Nixon. But the advantage for the Yankees at the two corner positions is dwarfed by the Sox advantage in CF. On the whole, neither of these is a great defensive team, with probably a slight advantage to Boston, with the Red Sox stronger up the middle.

I wouldn't say that Mueller is close to A-Rod defensively. Mueller has more heart than anyone in baseball but he's no Gold Glover. I also would have reversed Sheffied and Nixon. I think Nixon's a much better defender than Sheffied and that defensive advantage for the Red Sox is even greater when Payton plays against lefties.

Lyford also compares the pitching for the two teams and that is also a subject I'll take a swing at later.