Some links from the East – both AL and NL..
- After disappointing in the first year of his five-year, $82.5MM deal with the Red Sox, John Lackey is looking forward to putting 2010 behind him and meeting expectations, writes Rob Bradford of WEEI.com.
- More from Bradford as Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez recognize that the paths of Jayson Werth and Mark Teixeira helped lead them to Boston.
- Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey doesn't take his new found security for granted, writes David Waldstein of the New York Times.
- After dealing Dan Uggla to the Braves this winter, the Marlins are counting on catcher John Buck to help replace some of his power, writes MLB.com's Joe Frisaro.
If Lackey has a decent season it won’t be because he pitched good, but because he had massive run support.
lackey already had a very decent season and it had nothing to do with run support
A very decent 2nd half, but not a very decent season as a whole. Or maybe, an “un-Lackey” type season lol
Aj Burnett
Right, if you only measure a decent season by wins and not you know the real stats for a pitcher….
To be entirely fair, Lackey had a decent season win-wise last year too. Ironically, he posted a better win percentage in the first half (With his absolutely garbage overall numbers) than in the second half (When everything else improved dramatically).
Agreed. It’s not like he fell off the planet!!!
I’ve watched him for years. His numbers are falling off and he’s due for some injury. It always happens. I wasn’t talking about wins. But check his K/9 and BB/9. Heading the wrong way. You’ll see. Sox fans will be pissing and moaning all summer long.
His Babip was above .315 for just the second time in his career and his strand rate was below 70% also for the second time in his career, which means he was at least marginally unlucky. As you said his K/9 was down and his BB/9 was up, but one years does not a trend make; the year before last both of those stats were right in-line with his career averages.
He’s due for some injury? Unless that is some sort of threat I don’t see how that is a reasonable part of the argument, or is being “due for some injury” a skill now?
A-Rod is due for an injury before Lackey, just saying.
Lackey started ’08 AND ’09 on the DL. Even going by law of averages, he’s not really due for injury.
As for his numbers, his first half last year was awful, but his second half was right in line with his career numbers and is more indicative of an adjustment period to pitching in a stronger division than a pronounced decline.
30 wins and a 6.5 ERA is not a decent season.
LOL @ John Buck. Just another product of Toronto.
I like how he said that he doesn’t think about how many HR’s he’s gonna hit, then declares that they lost 30+ from Uggla, but gained 20 and 10 from himself and Infante….lol
But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Buck hit 20 again. He’s not gonna provide anything in the on-base department, but he hit 18 with the Royals a few years back in 347 AB’s, so his power is real. It’s just that he doesn’t make a whole lot of solid contact. So I expect something like a .250, .300, .435 line with 15-17 HR as long as he can get into 100-115 games.
Lots of people sleeping on the Marlins, and I guess it’s understandable with the Phillies and Braves in the division. But their rotation is very solid, but a lot has to go right. Sanchez has to stay healthy again, Vazquez has to have some sort of rebound, and Nolasco needs to stop throwing so many strikes. His peripherals are excellent, he’s just too hittable because he rarely misses the strike zone.
Their offense has a lot of potential. Stanton is probably the strongest player in the game already. Morrison has all the tools for success. Sanchez is solid. Hanley is at worst the 2nd-best SS in the game. Coghlan has a nice skillset at the top of the order, just needs to stay consistent. He’s going to suck in CF though. Buck isn’t the best hitter in the world, but he’s going to give them above-average production at the catchers position……something they haven’t had in a while. Losing Uggla will hurt, and I’d be shocked to see Infante repeat his 2010 performance.
The pen, which was what killed them the most last year, has been improved. Not sure how much, as it’s a very young bullpen. Can’t possibly be worse than last years though…
Having said that, they better hope their core players continue to progress(Stanton, Morrison, Sanchez, Hanley, Johnson, Nolasco) because they may have the worst farm system in baseball right now. Not that they’re not good with scouting, their one of the best. It’s just all of their top guys have been promoted to the bigs over the past 2, 3 years. They’re gonna have to restock it somehow and continue to do well in drafts and international scouting. If these guys do pan out and payroll continues to rise, they could be dangerous for 6 or 7 years. A LOT has to go their way though….
And yes, I hate the Marlins.
Thank you Texiera and Werth. Glad Tex snubbed us.
Why are you glad Tex snubbed the Nationals and why are you thanking Jayson Werth after your teams GM handed him 7 guaranteed years and at least $126 million?
Unless the ‘dc’ in your name has nothing to do with the Nationals and that you’re a Red Sox fan…..If so, disregard the first paragraph. I’ve been drinking for a few hours after having a big dispute with Carlos Silva earlier.
“Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez recognize that the paths of Jayson Werth and Mark Teixeira helped lead them to Boston.”
He’s a Boston fan.
WOWWWWWW LMFAO. Good job reading the article.
Me too. Tex > A Gon
not since 2008 (before the yanks signed him)
I seriously doubt any Gm would take Tex over AGonz!
Tex didn’t snub you, the Red Sox were told he would sign with them but they would have to match the offer that was made at 180 million, the Red Sox called the Orioles who probably said something like “we didn’t say 180, we said 160, didn’t you guys say 170? yeah that out bid us” and went back to Boras and said no one is bidding 170, we are staying at 170 so whoever bid 180 can have him, and the next day he was a Yankee.
Gonzalez played in a WEAK lineup in SD in one of the biggest pitchers parks in the game. Now he’s playing in a small Fenway in the middle of a pretty formidable lineup.
lackey is still pitching? ha,ha!!!!
better than league average? ha,ha!!!!
damn, I didn’t know idiots could graduate from Stanford. Maybe I should’ve applied there.
as always, love ya disqus.
There are some really oblivious New York fans on this forum.
It is pretty funny reading all the of the Red Sox/yankees arguments. Both sides are able to vastly overstate every single one of their players/prospects while giving little to no credit to the oppositions.
As a Braves fan I am giving the nod to the Red Sox. Their offenses will put up similar numbers, the SP for the Red Sox is better, and I like the Yankees BP better. SP > BP imo so it is the Red Sox for me.
and before you argue divide 56 by 162. it is 0.346 and then divide 1 by 3. Which number is greater (bigger)..huh?
you have to admit sox fans arent making themselves look bad! we so far have been very reasonable and polite considering what has been said!
i can’t stop laughing at the internet tough guys who still use 2nd grade stats as the end all
not to say BA/Hr/rbi aren’t important, if they weren’t they wouldn’t be tracked, but they are far far from the end all.
Tanzilonia is giving us Ivy leaguers a bad name…….
Stanford Grad phht….
Tanzilonia: Do u think ur smarter than me?
Average Sox fan: You mean starter than I?
At age 32, Lackey’s is coming out of his prime. No reason to think last year was a fluke.
’08 and ’09 were in-line with his career averages; no reason to think last year wasn’t a fluke. One year is not a trend.
Regardless- if 4.0 WAR is the “new/declining” Lackey, count me as a content Sox fan.
Awwwwww. Reading all these comments they seem so funny I would’ve loved to see what Tanzilonia said. I could’ve used the laugh, but I came late.
Uhh, I’m mad I missed all of this on what he was saying. I’m sure it was something Pro-Yankee Anti-Red Sox correct? lol
It started off when he was comparing the Red Sox line-up to the Yankees, and when someone called his opinions biased, he immediately went to “don’t you know who I am!? I’m a Stantford graduate! GGGGGGGGRRRAAEAAAGAGHJKGJKHJGA!!”
He also typed as if he was 12. Pretty much the jist of it hehe.
R.A. Dickey.
That is all.
“u wrote 4 paragraphs about them having a chance. I dont call that hatred.”
I’m sure Yankees fans(or at least the reasonable ones) admit that the Red Sox have a chance, doesn’t mean they hate them any less.
“And wat the hell r u talking about. They have no chance against the Phillies and no one is expecting them 2 do that bad, I mean jeez the Mets r in the division”
Not really talking about the division, The Phillies are the heavy favorites for the division, Braves have a slight, outside shot. I was referring to them competing for the WC if things fall in place. I mentioned the Braves and Phillies to point out that there are two very good teams in their division, so it’s going to be tougher for them to compete for the WC more than say, the Brewers because the NL East is the tougher division.
I love how people keep will saying Crawford will suck in a few years because he will lose his speed. How long did Ricky Henderson play? Wasn’t his game built on speed as well? I know its only one example but you never know.
Also you say Buchholz=Garcia? Are you out of your mind? Buch was the 2nd best pitcher on the Sox last season, and Garcia is a guy that has to try and make the team in ST. I’ll also take Bard and Papelbon in a walk year.
I don’t really understand how you think the Yankees are set up for the long run based on 3 catching prospects. Felix also just signed a new deal in Seattle recently, he won’t be available at least for another few years.
DH Posada=Ortiz
come again?
Your rotation does not match up properly. Many would say the rotation looks like this:
1) Lester
2) Buccholz
3) Beckett
4) Lackey
5) Dice K
Even still, who in their right mind would think Freddy Garcia projects to have a better season than Clay Buccholz?
Your lineup comes out in the wash for the most part, though I don’t particularly agree with about half of it (going both ways). One major exception, however: there is no way that Jorge Posada is comparable to David Ortiz. I’ll echo what blackcourt said. It really doesn’t seem like you are very familiar with the Red Sox lineup.
Buccholz=Garcia? …..What?
The Yankees called themselves underdogs and to quote Tito,” a $200 million dollar payroll doesn’t seem too underdogish.”
Also, Pedroia, Youk and Ellsbury were injured last year, yet the Sox still finished 2nd in SLG, 1st in OPS, 2nd in runs scored and 2nd in wOBA. This year will be like the Sox added Gonzalez, Crawford, Pedroia, Ellsbury and Youk.
LOL BUCHHOLZ = GARCIA
Boy are you way off, first of all, lets just get to Gonzalez and hope you realize that Gonzalez hit at PETCO, they already analyzed all of Gonzo’s hits at Petco and compared the dimensions to Fenway and the guy had 60 extra base hits and 10 or so more home runs, and he hit damn near 40, gonna add 10 to that? Yeah real smooth, then you go on a rant about Crawford as if he is a fluke, the Red Sox know who they signed, and know he isnt going to hit 35 home runs, Ty Cobb didn’t hit home runs he got on base and was driven in…and then look at your comparisons, the Red Sox are better position by position 6 out of 14 times, and you think Jeter is going to be good? man ask any real Yankee fan and they will tell you it will be sweet to watch him get his 3,000th hit but after that they are done with him and his limp wrist calling for time each and every at bat…. and on to the catching, Saltalamachia or howver you spell it isnt a big deal, they have a mentor in Veritek that should be passed on to him, but this is’nt that worst part of your post, the worst part is you made a scenario in which someone can get 2 of Betances and Banuelos, if there was ever an untouchable tag on some prospects, its those guys, not for Liriano or King Felix who by the way you, not every Yankee fan because they understood it, but you need to get a grip on, is signed to a terribly low contract to his standards, so you can put him in the when hell freezes over section on never being made available, learn something more about the Yankees and then post, how about how old do you think Derek Jeter is, and then ask yourself is it Beckett compared to CC or is it Lester, because I can spin it the other way when you go by who is number one, Lester and CC are equal, Beckett over Burnett, Bucholz over Hughes Nova is unproven so Dice BB gets the win by default and Beckett over Garcia how about those apples?
How? There isn’t a single available pitcher that is better than Buchholz.
Most of the players that make the core of the Yankees are on the wrong side of 30 and declining.
what the heck is a Type A prospect? do i get 2 compensation picks for them?
Buchholz=Garcia? Lol, you’re out of your mind. Those speedy left fielders age well. Those aren’t facts, and you still don’t know what you’re talking about
You went to Stanford University? When? For a 4th grade field trip?
With the way you contract the simplest words i.e. ‘you – u,’ I would have thought you graduated from high school.
You graduated from STANFORD and can’t spell knowledge? Hilarious and if you want to flaunt that you went to a big wig school, learn how to spell, we aren’t text messaging here so there should be no excuses for spelling words shorter, especially since in today’s age you should be able to type words as you speak them, so it should take you just as long to type You’re than it would be to type “ur” see? my computer has a red squiggly line under “ur” because the computer is telling me that is an illiterate word.
I’m reasonably sure competent spelling is a prerequesite of Standford admission, unless their standards have dropped dramatically (Or your parents are simply loaded). I don’t think I would trust you to feed my cat properly, much less give you admission to a school whose name didn’t end in “community tech.”
and that has what to do with his point?
Youk went down with 56 games left in the season or over a whole third of the season if you struggle with basic fractions too
umm, no. SF won more games than Boston
all i heard was “Yankees blauer buef gh ebluef h g RULEESSSS!!!!oneoneone11!!!”
Nova qualifies on a list of top prospects? Yeah gotta love those back-of-the-rotation upside starters.
They don’t have any in the top 5 or 10 because they were drafted so well you see them in the starting line up genius, as far as top anything goes remember prospects are a crap shoot, they are never a for sure thing or the Royals would be on the verge of a world series championship by now, Lars Anderson is a bust but the other prospects named are really upstart prospects who are shooting through the system, Iglesias is already going to be tabbed at AAA, he is going to skip A and AA ball, you think an average player can do that? Lavarnaway was on the AFL Championship team as a staerting Catcher, you think he was just handed that?
WOW GOLD GLOVES WOW COUNTING STATS WOWWWWW BAATTTTINGG AVEERAAAGGGEEE
you MUST be a Stanford graduate.
player – wOBA – wRC+ – Adjusted Batting Runs – Total Average
teixeria .367 127 23.2 .851
ortizzzz .380 134 28.1 .913
Why can’t you compare the two in terms of body types? Freakish athletes like Crawford and Henderson that hit a lot of line drives don’t fall off like most players do. They keep themselves in great shape so their bodies don’t break down.
EVERY GOOD PITCHER WILL GO TO THE YANKEES!!! BOOK IT!!!
The Sox had no interest in Soriano, not even your own GM did, the Sox bid on Mo to have the Yanks add more years to his deal, enjoy him at 45….Bard is a great pitcher and Paps has always wanted FA, so you can bet he is going to be ridiculously good this year as he enters FA, the Sox also bid on Jeter, remember that? As if they were going to sign him, it ended the biggest soap opera ever and for that I thank the Red Sox…. Felix will never be traded, ever, and Carl Crawford to Rickey Henderson is a very comparable view, look at the career Home runs of rickey Henderson 297 is what damn near 30 years in baseball? Isn’t that your argument that Crawford won;t hit home runs? he can steal like no other though, kind of like Rickey.
wait, so it does have something to do with your win totals? My, doesn’t that contradict your previous point, Mr Stanford Graduate?
It’s not a question if it bothers me, but that no one takes you seriously when the egocentricity of your supposed intellect transends all belief, especially when 2-3 lettered words are so stressful for you to type.
Better luck next time though.
You forgot the period after “K.”
Lol, because your comment has ANYTHING to do with this forum. Learn some baseball before you go making unbelievable comparisons. Also, the Phillies haven’t outmatched the entire division. There’s a team called the Braves, who could match them this year. Watch your baseball, rather than just the Yankees.
For the love of god, please learn how to type too.
Ha, you sure showed him! LULZIES!
UMAD!?!?
No one will believe you even graduated middle school WEN U TLK LIK DIS
Quit liking your own comments, Stevie Wonder can see no one agrees with what you typed there buddy.
kind of like texiera?
Yeah, you didn’t know? Buchholz’s arm fell off.
Not to mention the fact that Werth will be 32 in May, Crawford wont be 32 for three more years.
which is to say better than jeter last year
Scutaro is not the best but is good, wait until Iglesias is up, not to take away from the fact that Lowrie was a better player just got fluke illnesses, I mean Mono? come on…. You don’t think now that he is back he isn’t going to try to remind the Red Sox of who he was?
*more dumb*
The irony of your post burns.
I’m not even a sox fan but whatever. Just keep asuming that everyone who bashes yankee trolls are sox fans, ok?
he orders prospects by blood type. it’s better that you don’t inquire further
thurr*
rite?
but wait…”When r u gonna realize it is all about winning”
please type one of you posts on stats and shut this kid up…
hey stanford grad….its actually more than a third. one third = 0.33 youk missed 0.34 which is greater than 1/3.
That means it is “over a whole third” just as he said. They don’t teach maths at Stanford?
“Well first of all 56×3 is not 162. it is 168. not a whole third”
………..I’m being punked, right?
are you wearing a helmet right now don’t lie
you WOULD live there.
Who liked this? Your mom? that was the lamest comment ever made and the worst come back, come to my house on the corner of get a life and screw off retard? How old are you?
Your use of poor grammar makes it painstakingly obvious that you did not go to Stanford. Your banter doesn’t help your case either. It is amusing that you think you can fool people into thinking that you went to a top university.
Says the guy who misspelled every other word in his post……
Wouldn’t work.
he ‘liked’ this comment. terrifying
whoa whoa whoa… Numbers? Come on, man, he graduated from Stanford, not MIT
stanford county elementary
funniest post so far…there should a liked, reply, and ownedf button!
He’s gotta be wearing a tinfoil hat.
You’re not seeing it: there’s winning and then there’s WINNING. The Red Sox don’t WIN they just win. Get it now?
i was just about to say
guess they don’t teach sarcasm at Stanford either
I lol’d
oh ok gotcha…i was so confused!
Charlie Sheen, is that you?
Blast!
I was thinking North Carolina. I mean, all they teach there is how to dribble a basketball.
68% sure stanford is the name of an asylum on long island
Go Jays! (only slightly irrelevant, it fits, and hey, I even spelled it in actual English too!).
u made me roflcopter!
Maybe, but I think they lost him at dribble.
Tell me something: does it hurt?
What is spelled with an “h” its a silent letter.
Sorry?
However, I am not responsible for any mess that may or may not need to be cleaned up…
Apologies. I tried my hardest to use one of these pointless acronymns that are ‘hip’ to the kids these days. I guess I failed..
*hangs head in shame*
I’ll clean up the mess.
I actually, quite literally, laughed out loud when I read “roflcopter”.
Don’t try to tell him Buchholz was sixth in CY Young voting, Nova is surely a better pitcher with his what 6-7 innings in the majors?
Hey genius, who won the home run derby at last years ALL STAR GAME? answer Ortiz,David or maybe you can’t see with the pin stripes over your eyes.
Call me when you can spell words properly with that STANFORD education of yours.
You can’t even spell kindergartener? It’s with a “T” LOL they aren’t plants.
The Irony that he logs into a different disqus name and likes his own comments burns more than the sun, seriously he has to be the most ill informed baseball person ever and if he is what is graduating out of our elite colleges, then the mystery on why our country is going to hell in a hand basket has finally been solved.
Seriously. If you want to trick someone into thinking that you’re educated SPEAK LIKE YOU ARE EDUCATED!!!
What do I know, though, I only went to Princeton (P.S., I’m lying, but how would you know? I can spell).
I doubt that. I imagine he excels at that.
And if anyone knows dribble, it’s me. I spent half of last night drooling after a trip to the dentist.
Says the man who said Beckett’s numbers are almost dead even with Sabathia’s numbers.
I have no idea what the guy said since his comment was removed, but I’m sure it was pathetic and Yankee-biased.