All eyes will be on a trio of AL East matchups today, as the Rays take on the Blue Jays while the Yankees and Red Sox play a split doubleheader in the Bronx. By the end of the day, we could see a massive swing one way or the other in the Wild Card race. If the Sox sweep the doubleheader and the Rays fall to Toronto, Boston would clinch at least a tie of the Wild Card. On the other hand, if the Rays beat the Jays and the Yanks win a pair at home, Tampa Bay and Boston will be tied heading into the season's final series. While we look forward to today's slate of games, let's check out the latest links from the division….
- The Rays asked the Mets about Jose Reyes' availability in June, according to Newsday's Ken Davidoff. Reyes' stock was incredibly high at the time – he was healthy and hit .352/.397/.529 through the season's first three months – so the Mets turned away the Rays' inquiries.
- Within Davidoff's piece, Rays GM Andrew Friedman said his team won't feel the need to trade any starting pitching this winter: "We can't be cavalier about the depth that we have right now."
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports takes a look at Terry Francona's future in Boston, wondering whether the skipper will be the scapegoat if the Red Sox miss the playoffs.
- The Yankees should give Jesus Montero a chance to catch the season's last few games to see if he's a viable option behind the plate, argues Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News.
Francona shouldn’t be the scapegoat. Epstein would be the one at (most) fault. This team has very little pitching depth.
Can’t really blame Theo for Buchholz going down and Dice-K needing Tommy John.
watch them
I can blame Theo for DEPTH. You know, his job?
Obviously injuries are the scapegoat. Red Sox clearly would have won last year, and this year if they didn’t have all the injuries…
I kid. But in all seriousness, they have had a lot of injuries the past two years, which, like you say, is disastrous when you lack the depth to fill in the gaps. Maybe they should take a look at their training regimen? Despite what many fans would like to believe, it can’t all come down to hard luck.
No, you can have a training regimen employing fairy’s with magical healing powers and a baseball team will still have notable injuries. The Sox thought they were high and mighty with their offensive signings and were banking on Dice-K and Lackey to have rebound years and I’m assuming some guys in their vast farm system of pitching depth capable of spot-starting. Well none of those things worked out, period. This one is on Theo.
“were banking on Dice-K and Lackey to have rebound years and I’m assuming some guys in their vast farm system of pitching depth capable of spot-starting”
I don’t think thats such a crazy thing to assume. Looking at the situation beforehand, you could say the only way for them to get screwed is if everything goes wrong. And everything went wrong.
Right, I’m agreeing, that was the Sox game plan. The real issue is in the event Dice-K (who really had not had a stellar season since 2008) and Lackey both did not turn it around, then you’re assuming full health….UNLESS you thought your farm could step up. The big thing here to me is the Sox had literally not one guy (Miller, Weiland, Tazawa due to injury) they could call on once anything happened to that rotation.
Slot Montero as your full-time DH. Better option than Chavez and Posada.
You are right, Posada and Chavez wouldn’t be the first choice, but they could simply swap Martin into DH to rest him without losing at-bats, and give Montero a turn to catch.
I think he meant just to see if he is good enough behind the plate to be the full-time catcher next year. If they think he is close enough and will improve, they can put him behind the plate next year, then go after Fielder or some other big bat for DH next season. If he can’t handle it, continue having him as DH moving forward, or they could possibly go after Fielder and trade Montero for a #1 or #2 starter since his stock is high right now.
why does everyone keep saying the yankees can sign fielder?
news flash: ARod has FIVE (-5-) years left on his deal and hasn’t been able to stay healthy the last two years. the DH spot is already clogged with $100mil
Oh man, I wonder what the Mets could have gotten for Reyes. Moore would have been amazing, though I doubt the Rays would have done that.
They might have.
Do you think you could have been traded earlier this year, Matt?
Mets wanted pitching i’m sure period if they did pull a deal at the deadline (like Wade Davis or Hellickson probably and 2 more guys as well probably would of been a fair package).
I would have dealt Reyes at the deadline. With the way he was playing, they probably could have gotten a better return than a couple draft picks (which isn’t even certain considering Reyes’ borderline Type-A/Type-B status in addition to the possibility of a team with a protected 1st round pick signing him).
I agree. Why was great start a deterrent to trading him? I thought ‘selling high’ always gets a better return. Too bad the Mets couldn’t get some real value for him, instead they held on to save face with the fans in New York, like they had a shot in the NL East.
Their place in the standings wasn’t much of a deterrent to trading Reyes. Hell, they dealt Beltran anyways which pretty much sunk any slim chance they might’ve otherwise had.
Their interest in re-signing Reyes was the deterrent, they didn’t want to do anything that could possibly harm their chances of re-signing one of their franchise cornerstones for the long haul.
“If the Sox sweep the doubleheader”
^…
haha screw off disqus. kind of appropriate though that even red sox fans are failing at everything right now
Montero should be the full time dh, and then next year, catch 3x a week. If he shows signs of ability midway through the year, trade Martin.
So glad Montero and Nova were not traded. Especially for Ubaldo…yuck
Agree. The old Cliche comes to mind. Sometimes the best trades are the ones that are never made. Here’s another example, think back to last year, when the Yanks refused to include Nunez in the Cliff Lee deal with the Mariners. Just think where NY could possibly be without Nunez’s play this year.
seriously hope you’re kidding
oh i suppose you think replacement level players can just be found anywhere huh
Not at all. Nunez, after a shakey start defensively, played 4 positions. Took over for Jeter went he was on the DL, played an adequate 3B for a-Rod with Chavez as well as 2B and RF . Stole bases and hit better than Ramiro Pena would have done. You didn’t notice because there was no apparent drop-off in results.
i agree, Nunez has been way more valuable than Cliff Lee.
The Rays asked the Mets about Jose Reyes’ availability in June…
Interesting anecdote. Alderson can file it under “Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda.”
Why? He knew then they weren’t going to compete. The idea was to get rid of Beltran and KRod’s contracts and hope to entice Reyes to resign – he’s done that.
Why? He knew then they weren’t going to compete. The idea was to get rid of Beltran and KRod’s contracts and hope to entice Reyes to resign – he’s done that.
The Yankees are smart to not put Montero behind the plate. He’s doing fine as a DH. If he lets a couple of pass balls through it could affect his psyche. They should just forget about him as a catcher until he improves on it. Right now he’s only a DH.
Montero on the postseason roster?
you’re supposed to have backup AL East-caliber third & fourth starters dummy, just like the rest of the league
Kind of an amazing statistic on the YES-telecast of game 1 this afternoon: Lester leads the Sox with eighteen quality starts this season. Beckett is second on the team with sixteen. …And TIM WAKEFIELD is third, with *EIGHT*.
The pitching has been worse than disgusting, especially recently, but you don’t go into the season expecting it to shake out this way, and having 11 potential starting pitchers should have been able to keep it from being this way.