How does an already stacked Red Sox team manage to grab rocco Baldelli, Brad Penny, Takashi Saito, not to mention John Smoltz. I am not even including their pick-ups such as Ramon Ramirez. So do you guys think anyone will be able to beat them this year, or do you think they will be all hype like the tigers of last year?
Money isn't everything, even having good players isn't everything...you need great chemistry and you need luck Sure, I think the Red Sox will make the playoffs again, but I don't expect them to win. High profile teams have a very tough time, especially in recent years.
That is true, like the dodgers of last year, once Manny arrived in town, the team chemistry was amazing, and that is when they made their run to get into the playoffs. And it is definately true, the teams that spend all the money are not nearly as successful recently. The mets, angels, yankees, and red sox were all beat by the Phillies and the Rays, so i think you are right about team chemistry
To be honest, I kind of stopped paying attention to the moves the Red Sox were making after Texeira (?) fell through, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had signed Baldelli and Penny. They're both high-risk, high-reward players. I Baldelli can recover from whatever illness he actually has, our outfield of Bay, Ellsbury, and Baldelli would definitely be one of the best in baseball. I can't wait to watch Ellsbury and Baldelli play together, because they're both amazing fielders. If Penny can pitch like he did a couple years ago (when he started the all-star game), it would make our rotation downright solid. For some reason though, I think that was more of a fluke than normal for him. Especially now that he's in the AL, and will have to face at least 9 more batters per game. I think he relied on velocity too much and got away with it in the weak hitting NL. I had mixed feelings when I saw we had signed Smoltz. I know he's a great pitcher, but again, it's an NL pitcher coming to the AL, and he's old. I don't really know his style of pitching, so I don't know how he'll adjust, but hopefully he'll be just like Maddux with control and mixing speeds. P.S. Yankees
You will be pleseantly surprised by Penny. I live in L.A. and i know when he is throwing well he is as effective as anyone, but last year he was unable to adjust to not having his normal 97-98 MPH fastball. And you didn't even mention Saito, who is a guy that the east coast probably has barely heard of, but he was effective as any relief pitcher i ahve seen for the dodgers since Gagne's steroid days
You hit it right on the nose. I've heard his name, but I have no idea who he is or how good he is. Pretty soon our pen's gonna all Asian leading up to Papelbon (who probably doesn't even know where Asia is). You can never have too many relief pitchers anyway, so if Saito is as good as you say then he should be great.
Yeah the Red Sox have definately taken advantage of players from Japan and yeah Saito brings a good fastball around 95 with a sit down curveball. He should definately add depth to the bullpen. The dodgers could use some of that depth lol, they decided to keep someone by the name of Jonathon Broxton. They only kept him because he throws 101
Yanks are the team to beat in the AL East. However, my cubbies are still the team to beat in the league.
yanks are not the team to beat at all, they are essentially the same team as last year, but with an aging teixera, and Sabathia and Burnett. Sabathia cannot be as effective as last year, and it just will not be enough to make them great. Many of them are getting old and they will just not be too good
Bullsh- I respectfully disagree. The Red Sox and Rays both have much younger, much more dynamic teams. I can't wait for the Yankees to be last years Tigers. Both made all the big offseason moves, and had all the big expectations, and both will have the same big failure. The only proven pitcher in the Yanks rotation is Wang. Yes, I just said Sabathia is unproven. You can talk about how he dominated last season, but that was against the AL and NL central, which are both pretty light-hitting when you look at the AL east. The Red Sox have always given Sabathia trouble, and I can't imagine a team harder to pitch against than the Rays. Go Cubs! My second fav team :yup:
go Boston! they have great teams in the past 6 years... i dont expect any different from their performance this year. I hope they go as far as they can but being Canadian I'm still cheering for the Jays lol...
I definately agree, Sabathia has only proven that he was able to pitch to weak-hitting teams, but when facing the red sox, rays, and even the blue jays, Sabathia may not be as effective as the yankees would hope