Three Baseball Predictions

Now that the regular season has wrapped, we can start turning our interest not towards next year, as we have in years past, but towards the POST-SEASON!  I, for one, am quite excited, as every win feels like upside after last year, and every game builds the hope.  Unfortunately, we have to wait until Friday to see the Sox play their first post-season game.  In the meantime, I'll make 3 predictions about roster changes involving the Sox and/or Yankees for next year:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury will sign with the Yankees.  

2. Robinson Cano will not sign with the Yankees or the Red Sox.

3. Curtis Granderson will sign with the Red Sox.

I don't think the Sox will cough up the money Boras is going to ask for (for Ellsbury) and I think the Yankees will.  Granderson will likely sign a short term, highly-paying contract with the Sox to fill the CF role as the Yankees shift their focus to Ellsbury.  I think Cano wants out of New York and that the Sox won't want to offer him a contract long enough for his liking.  Some other team will add this massive weapon to their roster and possibly make him the highest paid baseball player of all time.

Sabatha vs. the Sox

Two thoughts on last night's Yanks/Sox game:

1. Sabathia was lucky to get out of the jams that he got himself into. It's not often that you'll be able to hold the Sox to 2 runs if they get 13 hits. After all, they left 16 men on base last night!
2. Lackey sure has pitched much tougher recently. He'll never be lights out, but he's pretty gritty these days, and I no longer automatically assume a loss when he takes the mound (unlike poor Wake).

Bedard and Closers

In our email exchanges last night, we were crapping on Bedard a little bit, bemoaning the fact that he was pitching like crap to the Twins. However, according to JoS, he may not have been pitching that badly, it's just that the umpire was calling balls and strikes irregularly. In true JoS fashion, he writes: "Home plate umpire Tim McClelland was squeezing Bedard as though the Boston lefty had defiled his daughter or run over his dog (or defiled his dog and run over his daughter)" and notes that "...even the Twins announcers were raising their eyebrows at McClelland's shitty calls." Click the link to see his computer analysis of the balls and strikes.

Moving to the other end of the game, I noted with pleasure this morning that Mariano Rivera gave up the winning homer and, according to hardballtalk.com, has "now allowed as many hits in 44 1/3 innings this season (39) that he did in 60 innings last year. His current batting average against of .241 would be his second highest mark in his 16 years as a reliever." Could the robotic Sox-killer finally be slowing down? I still don't want him to be up in a situation where it counts, but at some point the guy just has to start showing his age.

Finally, i'd be remiss (esp. considering how much i've been busting on the guy) if I didn't note that Papabalon has been lights out lately. He hasn't allowed a run in his last 12 appearances and in that time, as hardballtalk.com notes, "he's allowed just two hits and posted a 12/0 K/BB ratio. Papelbon hasn’t walked a batter since July 10, and he has a 64/8 K/BB ratio for the year." Here's hoping he can keep it up!

Sox-Yankees

I have no idea how Yankees caught up with the Red Sox AL East, but the Red Sox know it and they are ALIVE on defense tonight. Lester throwing K's, Salty gunning down runners, Crawford making sliding catches in the 'field. They're playing this game like they want to take back the lead. Now their bats just need to get to Colon.

Sweep!

I missed last night's game due to damned mother nature and her 3.5 hour rain delays, but a sweep is a sweep - and one against the Yankees is that much sweeter. Despite all of this team's shortcomings over the season so far - disappointing starting pitching, slow starts for key players (CarlCrawford, Yooook, Pedroia), bullpen inconsistency - this is now a team with the best record in the AL and in first place in the AL East. It's fixing to be a fun summer!

Nostalgia

Remember those days when the Yankees were in their prime and the Red Sox were a bunch of upstarts, and you'd get nervous every time the week in the schedule arrived when we had to play them, and then, somehow, the Red Sox would get ahead of them in a game, and it would be the most unbelievable, exciting, edge-of-your-seat event?

Do you miss those days?

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the entire Red Sox team for a sterling performance at Yankee Stadium this weekend. It was an awesome effort with everyone contributing, but in particular:

Congratulations to Josh Beckett, for fanning 9 Yankees and going a third game in a row without giving up a run. You now have an AL-leading ERA of 1.75.

Congratulations to the entire Boston bullpen, for giving up only two runs over eight innings.

Congratulations to Adrian Gonzalez for two more home runs. The New York Post has dubbed you "the newest Yankee killer."

Congratulations to Jarrod Saltalamacchia for your first home run of the season.

Congratulations to Kevin Youkilis and Jacoby Ellsbury for hitting safely in all three games.

An amazing weekend.