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Friday, December 26, 2008

A Christmas Present for ReyesDaMan!!

Just because he made some yappy comment about how "The Yankees are all hype and no substance."


So why don't we go position by position here... and obviously, teams aren't finalized yet.  But this is just for fun.  And I'll make some guesses when I feel confident.

Catchers - Jorge Posada and Jose Molina vs. Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro

Posada, even coming off surgery, is by far, the best offensive player here.  Molina is the best defensive guy here.  Castro is the better catcher on the Mets, and he doesn't even start.

Advantage - Yankees.

First Base - Mark Teixeira vs. Carlos Delgado

Teixeira is the second best player at his position in the game (behind Pujols).  Delgado is like... the second oldest player at his position.  Aside from a fluky month and a half... where Delgado hit like Bonds (and was probably taking some form of drug), Carlos was a complete stiff.

Advantage - Yankees.

Second Base - Robinson Cano vs. Luis Castillo

Cano is in his early 20's, coming off a bad year.  Castillo is in his mid-30's, coming off a worse year.  And he walks with a limp.  And he's supposed to be a speedster.  And barring a rules-change, you still can't steal first base.

Advantage - Yankees.

Third Base - Alex Rodriguez vs. David Wright

David Wright is the best third baseman in the NL.  There's no doubt about that.  Sadly for him, Alex Rodriguez is a 3-time MVP, and one of the top 3 players in the entire game.  A-Rod outdoes Wright on offense and defense.

Advantage - Yankees.

Shortstop - Derek Jeter vs. Jose Reyes

Yankee fans are going to jump straight up my ass about this, but I'm going to be honest here.  Jeter's aging.  And I'm not the type to salivate over his calm eyes and intangibles.  I'm a stats guy.  Reyes has better stats.  He loses points for being an immature hot dog though.  And everybody knows you can't get a hot dog at Shea in October.

Advantage - Mets

Left Field - Johnny Damon/Hideki Matsui/Manny Ramirez vs. Fernando Tatis?

As it stands, Damon and Matsui are better, more proven, and probably equally defensively inept to Tatis.  In the event that Manny ends up in the Bronx, this becomes an even more ridiculous advantage.  Tatis had a fluky couple of months before getting hurt.  He hasn't been even decent in about 10 years.

Advantage - Yankees.

Center Field - Melky Cabrera/Brett Gardner/Nick Swisher vs. Carlos Beltran.

Although, if Manny comes to the Bronx, Damon will shift to Center.  Regardless, Beltran is one of the 3 best defensive CFs in the game.  And he's capable if not overwhelming on offense.  He's better than anybody the Yanks will stick in Center this year.

Advantage - Mets.

Right Field - Xavier Nady vs. Ryan Church

Nady went for 25 homers and 97 rbi last year between Pittsburgh and the Yanks.  Church was surprisingly better than decent for the Mets, except for those repeated concussions.  Church is better on defense.  Nady is probably better on offense.  Neither one has fully proven themselves.

Advantage - Even.

Starting Pitching - Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Chamberlain & Hughes
vs. Santana, Maine, Pelfrey, Niese... and... Oliver Perez!  Or Derek Lowe.

Do we need to get in-depth about this?  You can argue all you want about Santana vs. Sabathia... but after that, it's all Yankees.  Wang, Burnett and Chamberlain are so much better than Maine, Pelfrey and any of those other four names... that it's not debatable.  And whether the Mets get Lowe or Perez, again... this isn't even close.

Advantage:  Yankees.

Bullpens:  Jose Veras, Brian Bruney, Edwar Ramirez, Damaso Marte, Phil Coke vs. J.J. Putz, Dr. Von Heimlich, Gag Me Sidearm, and the Chokin' Twins.

Point is... the Yanks bullpen was solid last year.  Actually a little better than solid.

The Mets pen was the worst in baseball.  I don't have stats to prove this.  But does anybody want to argue about it?  What?  No?  Mmkay.  Putz is the only significant new piece.

Advantage:  Yankees.

Closers:  Mariano Rivera vs. Francisco Rodriguez

Mo's coming off surgery and says he'll be fine.  He's up there in age, but he's coming off a good year.  Rodriguez set the saves record last year.  His velocity was down for most of the season.  And he allows a ton of baserunners.  Paired with some suspect defense, those baserunners could be dangerous for the Metsies.  But we'll see.

Advantage:  Even.

So in closing... the score is 7-2 for the Yankees.  Which could also very easily be the final score of every game the Yankees play against the Mets in the coming season.  Especially when the Yankees get Manny.

9 comments:

Cephster said...

Don't let yourself get trolled by Reyes. He's a regular poster on the official yankee forum boards who constantly makes an ass of himself. He only posts after the Mets win, after they collapsed (again) he was nowhere to be found. He's a complete hypocrite to make fun of the Yankees when the Mets have more problems than you can shake a stick at, and their Latin-biased GM hasn't done jack this season. Trust me, I learned a long time ago responding to him isn't worth the effort.

Anonymous said...

Today's chemistry nonsense-

Look at this "chemistry" BS in reality.

Show me the losing team with great chemistry. Where are the stories about how great chemistry is on a bad team. Here's an example of the fallacy of wonderful chemistry-the 2008-09 New York Rangers. Oh, they go out to dinner, but their power play sucks, their defensemen don't hit and they lead the NHL is shorthanded goals allowed. But they have great chemistry!- http://www.nypost.com/seven/12282008...ery_146193.htm

Show me the championship team that doesn't get along.Suspect whether you win short season A ball championship or the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup, everyone's going to get along great while the champagne is spilling. But does that mean every loves each other? C'mon. It's a wrokplace like any other.

I'll tell you what you'll find-those "chemistry" intangible things are stuff sportwriters like Lupica attach to good teams after the fact.

Think of it like this-a team of Scott Brosiuses, for all their wonderful intangibles, is over the course of a full season or 7 game series, is going to lose to a team of a-hole Manny Ramirezes. And that is reality.

Mister Six said...

You're absolutely right Bugg.

The fact of the matter is... that a team full of gritty, hearty, undersized dirt dog David Ecksteins would create 4.6 runs per game.

And they'd get subsequently trounced by the 10.6 runs per game produced by a team full of asshole, me-first, media hating, big-headed, non-hustling Barry Bondses. Or is it Bondsi? How do you pluralize Bonds?

Anonymous said...

You guys are wrong. It is extremely important for a team like the Mets to get along. That way, when they are choking they can get together and form nice comforting support groups with lots of group hugs.

Mark said...

And Bob, you're overlooking one of the most important elements to the Mets' success: closed-door, "Player-Only" team meetings (usually brought on after losing 5 of 6 to the Nats and the Pirates, where the only thing more exchanged than the love are the fluids.

I'm waiting for some Met (Beltran, perhaps?) to go Ewing and say "Get me my ring!"

Anonymous said...

Where have you been?

ReyesDaMan said...

Daniel Murphy is starting in left field for the Mets, but that's not my reason for leaving this comment. I have two reasons for commenting. First, thanks for dedicating a blog entirely to me. That is very much appreciated! Secondly, I also find it funny that you included Manny Ramirez as the possible guy in left field for the Yankees.

If only Cashman had known Ramirez was going to get himself in trouble the first month of the season which got him a 50 game suspension, Manny would have been a Yankee faster than we could have said the words hokey pokey! Too bad, because Manny would be a perfect fit with A-Roid, HGH Pettitte and all the other Yankee cheaters of the past 13 plus years! :}

Speaking of A-Roid, how's he doing? LOL at the Yanks for being stuck with a cheating fraud until the end of the 2017 season and knowing he'll only be getting worse the next few years! The Yanks should get rid of him because if they're lucky enough to make the playoffs, they'll be doomed once they get there with A-Fraud in the lineup. No doubt our GM is stupid, but it's sad that the Mets are better off with their current stupid GM than they would be with Cashman :}

ReyesDaMan said...

And come on Ross, I never made any bigger an ass of myself on that forum than a majority of the Yankee fans did!

Anonymous said...

how come here has been no updates on this website since december?