6 straight wins, 3rd best record in the league - UGH! Yankees 67 42 .615 1.0 37-22 30-20 8-2
Posted by BurritoT

Yankees are surviving on smoke and mirror towards career high ERA from Colon and Garcia. Burnett is erratic, Hughes finally had a good start, and Nova has been erratic but better lately. It will come down to starting pitching, were Lester and Beckett is better than any 2 Yankee starters. But during the division race, the other starters are more important. So far, Yankees are getting the best of the 3, 4, 5 and spot/sub starter, but Bedard is the wild card. Bedard could be good, wilt to the DL again, or struggle to provide average start innings quality. If Bedard is good, barring a DL to an everyday player, I think the Red Sox win the division. If not, it will go down to the final few games of the season. Buch returning fresh, late, or for the playoffs is another needle changer. We'll see, but it's something the Yankees don't have as a possibility. Beckett                    Sabathia    no blood Lester                      Burnett      Red Sox Bedard?                    Hughes         ? Lackey                     Colon            Yankees for now  Colon might breakdown Wakefield                  Garcia       Yankees period Miller                        Nova         Yankees for now Pretty clear that the bottom of the rotation is where the Yankees have been superior to Red Sox. Lackey is an embarrassment, more than Burnett, and Wakefield is proof that going with one year deals on other veterans or using young talent is the way to go. Bedard is the key to the division battle, as I see it. If he's good, that is the tipping point. If he isn't, the Red Sox offense is good enough to still take the race to the last few days but the Yankees have a razor thin probability advantage. Let's hope we get the April, May and June Bedard, and not the one start post DL meltdown Bedard. 5 innings and change v. Indians and 1 or 2 runs would be a good sign.   My choice from a no value pitching market was to try and deal for Kemp, extend him for the long term, and simply wear down the best pitchers with Kemp, Pedroia and Youk, from the right side, and AGon and Ortiz from the lefty side, applying a powerful 2 sided vise force. Ortiz has been a gift from heaven v. LHP, but another slugging RH bat would have created a better than 2004 murders row that would beat any pitching staff almost 70% of the games played. Bedard might work, but it's more of a gamble. Hopefully, it works, but it's dubious.
Posted by softylaw

Yankees are surviving on smoke and mirror towards career high ERA from Colon and Garcia. Burnett is erratic, Hughes finally had a good start, and Nova has been erratic but better lately. It will come down to starting pitching, were Lester and Beckett is better than any 2 Yankee starters. But during the division race, the other starters are more important. So far, Yankees are getting the best of the 3, 4, 5 and spot/sub starter, but Bedard is the wild card. Bedard could be good, wilt to the DL again, or struggle to provide average start innings quality. If Bedard is good, barring a DL to an everyday player, I think the Red Sox win the division. If not, it will go down to the final few games of the season. Buch returning fresh, late, or for the playoffs is another needle changer. We'll see, but it's something the Yankees don't have as a possibility. Beckett                    Sabathia    no blood Lester                      Burnett      Red Sox Bedard?                    Hughes         ? Lackey                     Colon            Yankees for now  Colon might breakdown Wakefield                  Garcia       Yankees period Miller                        Nova         Yankees for now Pretty clear that the bottom of the rotation is where the Yankees have been superior to Red Sox. Lackey is an embarrassment, more than Burnett, and Wakefield is proof that going with one year deals on other veterans or using young talent is the way to go. Bedard is the key to the division battle, as I see it. If he's good, that is the tipping point. If he isn't, the Red Sox offense is good enough to still take the race to the last few days but the Yankees have a razor thin probability advantage. Let's hope we get the April, May and June Bedard, and not the one start post DL meltdown Bedard. 5 innings and change v. Indians and 1 or 2 runs would be a good sign.   My choice from a no value pitching market was to try and deal for Kemp, extend him for the long term, and simply wear down the best pitchers with Kemp, Pedroia and Youk, from the right side, and AGon and Ortiz from the lefty side, applying a powerful 2 sided vise force. Ortiz has been a gift from heaven v. LHP, but another slugging RH bat would have created a better than 2004 murders row that would beat any pitching staff almost 70% of the games played. Bedard might work, but it's more of a gamble. Hopefully, it works, but it's dubious.
Posted by softylaw

In Response to Re: yanks will not go away : I think if you're going to be a Red Sox homer, what better place than Boston.com on Red Sox: On the Front Burner?  There aren't even any other team boards on this site. Why would loving your team above all others be a negative thing here?  Shouldn't this be the place for it?  If posters don't like Sox fans who aren't neutral, why not just let them be instead of having rival team's fans hammer them here, and make it seem not acceptable?  It doesn't make sense to me, since I don't believe it's a negative on any other team board.

Posted by kimsaysthis

Pretty clear that the bottom of the rotation is where the Yankees have been superior to Red Sox. Lackey is an embarrassment, more than Burnett, and Wakefield is proof that going with one year deals on other veterans or using young talent is the way to go. Bedard is the key to the division battle, as I see it. If he's good, that is the tipping point----softylaw ---------------------------------------------------------------- A good take on the rotation strengths, but the assumption that Bedard is the tipping point is a bit of a one sided view. Hughes looked incredibly comfortable two nights ago shutting out the CWS hitting 95 and sitting at 92-93 all game with no walks. If that's a sign that his arm strength and comfort level is back, Bedard will really have to dial it up to keep up (assuming Hughes does). If he doesn't, RSN will have to continue hoping that "smoke and mirrors" Colon and Garcia will fall apart. If they stick to what they've been doing (and frankly, they smile a lot and don't ever really look like they're taxing themselves at all), there's a pretty big gap in the respective rotations that the Yanks can leverage. That's not even counting Nova who might have 13-14 wins if he hadn't gone down to the minors to allow Hughes to come up. He goes tonight, so we get another look.    BTW, Beantowne is also right that the rotation strength 1 thru 5 is not as critical in the playoffs, but those guys --Colon, Nova, and company--head for the bullpen which is a great card for the Yanks to be able to play.
Posted by mfymfy

I do.  I expect the Yanks to go away.  The Colon and Garcia fools gold gave them the false confidence to do nothing at the trade deadline.  To expect either to complete the year healthy and effective is a long-shot, let alone both.  29 - 26 the rest of the way.
Posted by slomag