March 2, 2009

Poll results: Red Sox scare us more than Rays

My last poll had one of my best turnouts so far (21 votes), keep the voting coming!  I asked which team scared the Yankees more, the Red Sox or the Rays.

Red Sox:  76.2%
Rays:         23.8%

A pretty clear-cut response here, despite some possible biased Red Sox fans voting.  However, I too voted for the Red Sox.  I think with all of the offseason moves the Red Sox have made, plus with their previously loaded team, they are definitely the scariest team besides us in the AL East.  

For the Rays, they lose their element of surprise that they had last season.  Teams will know to watch out for them from the beginning.  Also, I will be interested to see how David Price fares as a starter this year.  I  know he was excellent for them in the September and the playoffs last year, but I see him as a two-pitch pitcher, which might not hold up when he faces batters for the second time around.  

Joba Chamberlain has made noticeable adjustments in his conversion from Starter to setup man back to starter.  

However, look out for Pat Burrell on the Rays (pretty much their only significant offseason move).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Rays will have better starting pitching than the Red Sox. Starting pitching is the most important part of baseball. Both teams are equally dangerous, and neither team should be targeted as the team to beat. As the team that did not make the playoffs last year, the Yanks need to be weary of both teams, and if they ignore the Rays like they did last year, Yankee fans will be treated to another disappointing season

Lenny Neslin said...

The Rays will have a solid rotation, but so will the Red Sox and the Yankees. The Sox have seven starters worthy of a rotation spot (Beck, Dice-k, Lester, Wake, Penny, Smoltz and Buchholz). In terms of the best five starting pitchers, I believe when healthy, the Yanks have the most talent. Red Sox have the most depth, and the Rays might have the most potential.

I agree that we have to watch out for both teams, but the point of the poll was to essentially figure out who is better of the two competitors.

Anonymous said...

Rays are the better competitor by far...they played tough baseball all year last season and they only lost Cliff Floyd and Hinske...they added Burrell and Matt Joyce to replace them both...They traded Edwin Jackson (who i believe had a .500 record) and are replacing him with David Price, who is not a two-pitch pitcher. He has more pitches but was not using them as a reliver..which sounds similar to Joba in 2007. He only threw two pitches because he was the set-up man (which Price was last September), and Price will now show his entire arsenal of pitches.

Lenny Neslin said...

What other pitches does he have?

Anonymous said...

I dont know, im not a Rays fan..but im pretty sure he didnt make it all the way up to the big leagues (dominating the minors as a starter) with just 2 pitches in his arsenal

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