As the 2010 season is coming to close(well, at least for the green and gold) there are several questions for next year. However, before I get into that(this is part 1 of a 2 part season wind down) I just want to recap what has been an absolutely phenomenal season for me and my hatred of all things New York and Boston related.
The acquisition of John Lackey, extension of Josh Beckett, progress of Clay Buchholz, and retaining of Jon lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka had many people in anticipation of this season's potentially historic Boston Red Sox starting rotation and a Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz led dominant Red Sox lineup. It was thought that the Sox had enough firepower and strong arms to topple the stronger Yankee lineup now with Curtis Granderson. The Tampa Bay Rays didn't have enough pitching to win but were sure to be a strong plus .500 third place.
Well, with just over a month to go till the layoffs, the Rays and Yanks are tied in an awesome first place battle and Tampa has the top Cy Young contender as well as two AL MVP candidates.
The Yankees have perennial MVP type sluggers Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira but, neither is having the season anyone thought. Javier Vazquez has been up, but mostly down and certainly not the fifth starter/ace that anyone thought he'd be and Andy Pettite has been out since mid july. Phil Hughes has been rocky for the last two months and AJ Burnett has been, well, I'm not sure what he's been but he's been it since game one. CC Sabathia has been truly been the workhorse that he always is but better. But why is this all-star cast headlining year two of the new Yankee Stadium not as good as advertised, but still winning?
How come Tampa Bay, though overcoming injuries to two rising young pitchers and without the power production of Zorilla(Ben Zobrist) still in a great spot to win the division?
The answer is simple really, but before I go any further I need a promise from the Boston Nation not to over react. The Red Sox as "stacked" as they seemed in spring have never really been that good this year. Jon Lester overcame is yearly early season struggles to emerge the best pitcher in the AL, but he hasn't been enough. As a matter of fact, Lester and the steady Clay Buchholz are two of the AL pitchers I would want on my staff if I were starting a franchise today. David Ortiz has quickly been labeled a late spring/early summer bloomer and Youk has been broken all year long. John Lackey has been the New England version of AJ Burnett, just not as bad. Not to mention the injury and inconsistency of Josh Beckett. The one early bright spot was Boston keystone man Dustin Pedroia. He was having a start amazingly rivaling that of the other MVP caliber second baseman Robinson Cano of the Yankees, but like every other Red Sox, he succumbed to injury as is currently on his second DL stint this year. Jacoby Ellsbury sings the same song. He is on his second DL stint and is possibly out for the rest of the year.
I hate to say I saw it coming, but come on! The Red Sox just haven't been any good and I never thought they would be this year. Ortiz just started too slow like he did in '09 and Youkilis has been like every other year, hurt too often to be a consistent threat. Yeah, he's got great numbers when he plays, but he's in and out of the lineup too much to produce to full capacity.
Basically, the East and Wild Card races will be either the Rays and then Yankees, or the other way around because of the Red Sox shortcomings.
-J. DeClercq
