Early Season Observations of Yanks and Sox

I was hoping to get this up yesterday with the Yankees-Red Sox series fresh in everyone’s mind but I didn’t have the time.  After a few weeks of the baseball season and watching almost every Red Sox and Yankee game I have a few observations on these two teams so far.  You may not agree with them all, this is just what I have noticed this season.

-Both of these teams are very flawed teams, but then again, so is everyone in baseball this year.  I wouldn’t worry if I were a fan of either team yet because no AL team has gotten off to a very good start.

-The Red Sox need to fill the problems in the middle relief and the back end of the rotation.  Lester hasn’t been good at all (walks way too many people) and outside of Okajima and Papelbon I don’t tend to trust any of their bullpen arms (Delcarmen is far to inconsistent).

-This is a little dated now because Ian Kennedy threw much better last night but the Yankees need him and Phil Hughes to step it up.  They also need Damon, Cano and Giambi to give them something (again this is a little late because Damon had a nice night and Cano hit the game winning homer but they still have struggled).

-David Ortiz looks as bad as someone can look.  I know he had a couple base hits last night but if the Red Sox fans are excited about 2 bloop hits to the opposite field then they have gone crazy.  This man MUST begin to hit again, and he will.

-His battery mate Manny Ramirez continues to pound Yankee pitching.  I still don’t understand how any Red Sox fan could not see that this man is double the player Ortiz is and WAY more valuable to this team.  Manny is a machine, just ask the Yankees.  Why didn’t Joe Girardi walk him on Saturday?

-Speaking of Joe Girardi, this man looks lost.  It seems he is caught between managing NL style and AL style and just about every time he tries something it backfires.  Johnny Damon up, 1^st and 2^nd, no one out and he doesn’t bunt the runners over and take 2 chances at tying the game with Cano and Abreu up next?  That’s terrible.  Of course last night he called a hit and run that worked perfectly and pinch-hit Cano in the 8^th and he won the game so things look OK now but still, he was awful over the weekend.

-Again this point doesn’t look as smart after last night but you can’t put too much stock into one game over the course of a season.  The Yankees bullpen (before Traber and Bruney pitched awful last night) has been very good this year.  Farnsworth still sucks and Hawkins had 2 rough outing (but also 2 good outings) but outside of those two the bullpen seems MUCH improved.  Joba and Mo are the best 8^th, 9^th inning guys in baseball, sorry Sox fans.

-One man came to this country with all the hype in the world, the other as an unknown person and despite the records right now (both 3-0) Chien-Ming Wang is a much better pitcher then Diasuke Matsuzaka.  Dice-K needs to learn throwing strikes is very important.  For a man with a .165 Batting Average Against it amazes me he doesn’t attack the zone.  He has great stuff but he is walking almost 6 per 9 innings.  Because of this he hasn’t pitched 7 innings yet this season.  Wang on the other hand has a .156 BA against (which will definitely go up) but he only walks, over his career, about 2.3 per 9 innings.  Because of this Wang has averaged over 7 innings per start.

These two teams are good but not great.  It is too early to panic, no matter what the records are.  Now, back to baseball.

Until next time, I’m gone, like Golden State’s playoff chances.