Facing the Red Sox Offense Is A Tiresme Affair

The Red Sox have long had a reputation for wearing down opposing pitchers. Their game plan is to drive up the opposing pitcher's pitch count early. That way the Red Sox can face the soft underbelly of pitching staffs - the middle relief. And this strategy is often effective, especially when facing the top members of a team's rotation.

But just how effective are the Red Sox at this strategy? Well, with the exception of Dustin Pedroia, every member of 2007's Opening Day Red Sox lineup was among the top 50 American League hitters in pitches per plate appearance. The nine members of 2008's starting lineup averaged 3.94 pitches per plate appearance last year. Here's how that breaks down.

Ellsbury - 3.67 PPA
Pedroia - 3.80 PPA
Ortiz - 4.10 PPA
Ramirez - 3.86 PPA (career average of 4.03)
Lowell - 3.80 PPA
Drew - 3.93 PPA
Youkilis - 4.27 PPA (career average of 4.40)
Varitek - 4.12 PPA
Lugo - 3.88 PPA

So how does that patience affect pitchers? At that rate, it would take about 25 plate appearances to drive up the opponent's pitch count to 100. And how long did it take the Red Sox to get 25 plate appearances in a typical game? Well, I'm pretty sure there isn't a figure available for that, so I'll attempt to get an estimate.

Red Sox hitters had 6,426 plate appearances last year. Opponent pitchers logged 1,422.2 innings against the Red Sox. So that means the average offensive Red Sox inning had about 4.52 plate appearances. And so it took about 5.53 innings for the Red Sox to drive up a starter's pitch count to the magic mark of 100.

And unlike other teams that drive up the pitch counts of bad pitching, the Red Sox wore out some of the American League's biggest workhorses. Royal Halladay, who averaged 7.27 innings per start, averaged just 6.66 innings against the Red Sox. Chien-Ming Wang, who averaged 6.64 innings a start, averaged just 6.14 against the Red Sox. And Andy Pettitte, who averaged 6.27 innings per start, averaged just 5.55 innings against the Red Sox.

Breaking News: Congress Would Like A Word With Clemens

According to ESPN, Congress is requesting a hearing with Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Brian McNamee. The hearing is to be held January 16th. And David Marin, a member of the committee has made it clear what Congress is looking for.

ESPN asked committee member David Marin if the hearings were meant to gets answers from Clemens and Pettitte while they're under oath. Marin responded, "that's a question goes without saying. Under oath is under oath."

If Congress then suspects Pettitte or Clemens of lying under oath, they would likely be investigated for perjury, just like Barry Bonds. Perjury is a felony of the third degree, punishable by jail time. For those who were upset over the speculative nature of the Mitchell Report, you may get some irrefutable answers soon.

Buchholz vs. Hughes

Sorry if that title's misleading. I don't mean for this post to be a pissing match between Red Sox and Yankees fans, each claiming that their pitcher is superior. I would encourage discussion regarding the two pitchers, but this post isn't truly meant as grounds for comparing the two pitchers So, in case you were wondering what inspired the title, here it is.

Keith Law had an open chat today. One of the participants was a Yankees fan from New Jersey, who wrote in with the following question.

"Merry X-mas Keith… Anyone who thinks bucholz is equal to hughes has never looked at anything but a box score… Their pure stuff is comparable, but before the injury, Hughes had a slight edge all around, but hughes is also three years younger and still developing physically. Bucholz is where he’s going to be physically, especially in terms of power (which translates to break on his secondary pitches). Scouts having followed them consider Hughes to be a more intelligent, polished pitcher, despite being younger. Hughes has no personality issues, and showed in the playoffs that he can step into a big spot and come up even bigger. Bucholz has already been arrested and is a spoiled rich kid who thinks he can get away with anything. Hughes mechanics are considered fairly sound, none of his pitches thought to be serious injury risks. Bucholz mechanics on his breaking balls are ‘whippy’ and put a lot of torque on his arm. there is a lot of question how, especially as thin as he is, if his arm will hold up. so… even if there stuff is comparable, age, polish, mechanics, body… all go in favor of hughes… it’s why he was the highest rated pitching prospect in baseball coming into 07."

Keith Law then responded with the following:

"Merry Christmas to you too. I have zero idea where you get any of this from. Buchholz’ raw stuff > Hughes’. When Hughes has two secondary pitches as good as Buchholz’ curve and change, you give me a call, OK?"

Now I've heard many Yankees fans tell me that scouts value Hughes more than Buchholz. But who are these scouts? To be honest, I don't care what scouts have supposedly said. When you read scouting reports it's often unclear when the scouts have done the reports or what organizations these scouts may be affiliated with. Anyone can go out and find a scout who thinks their guy is the real thing. I prefer to rely on my one eyes, not the eyes of some other, semi-anonymous person.

Keith Law seems to be equally confused by who these "scouts" are, and how their opinions are relevant, or accurate. He makes the point that Buchholz does have some incredible secondary pitches. Anyone who saw Buchholz pitch in the majors last year can attest to how filthy his changeup and curve looked.

And I found it humorous how quick the fan was to attack Buchholz' "character issues." Funny how a one time incident when the pitcher was in high school is indicative of character issues. If a one time incident by a high school student is indicative of character issues, then what does that say of Andy Pettitte? Did he not show a one time lack of good judgment ate age 30, when he was an adult major league pitcher who took hGH?

Furthermore, Yankees prospects have been infamously overrated for years. Remember when pitchers like Brien Taylor, Mark Hutton and Sterling Hitchcock were supposed to be the next big things in the early 90's? Not one of them turned out to be the top of the rotation starters they were billed as.

The Yankees play in New York City, their prospects will always have more hype surrounding them, especially in times when the major league team hasn't brought home in a championship in a while. But the reality of the situation is, regardless of how great a name Melky Cabrera has, he still barely outhit Coco Crisp last year, by .006 points in OPS and he's an average defensive player. Maybe it's just me, but I find it hard to be excited about anyone who hits like Coco Crisp.

I think it's rather mundane to try to claim either pitcher is better than the other. They're in their low 20's and neither one has pitched even half a season at the major league level. Both are works in progress and fans of either pitcher will only see what they want to. The issue of which pitcher is better is one that we will all have to wait to observe.

Mitchell Report Damning of Yankees

One important issue to remember, is that this report only sheds light on the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED's) in baseball over the last 20 years. Even so, the report is still rather damning towards the Yankees. Over 15 former and current Yankees were named, including Kevin Brown, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Jason Grimsley, Glenallen Hill, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Josias Manzanillo, Hal Morris, Denny Neagle, Andy Pettitte, Gary Sheffield, Mike Stanton, Ron Villone, Rondell White, and Todd Williams.

Many of those players played key roles in the Yankees dynasty years of last decade. Roger Clemens pitched well with the Yankees during the 1999 and 2000 playoffs, winning two World Series games and a game against the Red Sox in the 1999 ALCS. Clemens is the only Yankees player listed, who is accused of using steroids throughout his entire tenure with the Yankees.

David Justice was traded to the Yankees in June of 2000. He then hit .305/.391/.585 with 20 home runs and 60 RBI in 78 games with the Yankees, to help them win the division over the Red Sox by 2.5 games. Later, Justice would go on to be the 2000 ALCS MVP with the Yankees.

Pettitte was with the Yankees in all four of their dynasty World Series years. He spent most of that time as the Yankees Game 2 starter and was a solid force in the playoffs. Although the Mitchell Report doesn't trace his use of PED's back any further than 2002, he may have been using them earlier.

Chuck Knoblauch hit .375/.500/.563 in the 1998 World Series. He also hit .333/.429/.389 against the Red Sox in the 1999 ALCS, and .313/.353/.563 in that year's World Series. His use of PED's was traced back as early as 2001, although he may have been using them earlier.

The Yankees also got considerable help from PED's when they played the Red Sox in the 2003 ALCS. Both Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte received wins in the series with Jason Giambi hitting two home runs in the deciding Game 7, which went to extra innings. Mitchell claims that all three players had already taken PED's prior to that year.

Four Reasons the Yankees Will Not Advance

The Royal Rooters spent quite a bit of their time engaged in debate about the rival Boston Braves. The Braves are now long gone and have been replaced by an even more bitter rival - the New York Yankees. So, in the spirit of The Royal Rooters, I thought I'd take a moment to put the Yankees in their place. Here are five reasons why the Yankees won't see the ALCS this year.

1. Lions In September, Mice In October - The Yankees have had some offensive trouble as well lately. Both Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera have hit below the Mendoza line in September. It's hard to predict even how their hottest hitters will do in October however.

Last year, A-Rod's best month of the year was September. He hit .358/.465/.691 for an OPS of 1.157. Come October however, A-Rod hit under .150 for the second postseason in a row. A-Rod has posted his highest strikeout total of any month this September, striking out more than once every four at bats. Could it be a sign of things to come?

The Yankees have lead the major leagues in runs scored, each of the past regular seasons. Come playoff time however, they haven't been able to average more than four runs a game in either one of the last seasons. 2006 was an especially horrendous series for the Yankees offensively, as they compiled a batting average of .246.

2. Bullpen Inferiority - The Yankees bullpen has been an issue for them all year. It's not really fair to compare the two team's bullpens. The Indians have one of the deepest bullpens in the league. Some of the bullpen arms they can trust include Betancourt (1.47 ERA), Perez (1.78 ERA), Lewis (2.13 ERA) and Fultz (3.03 ERA). Fultz is the only one of those pitchers who does not have more strikeouts than innings pitched.

When it comes to the Yankees however, they essentially only have two bullpen arms which they can trust. One of them is Mariano Rivera, but the other one is rookie Joba Chamberlain, who has never pitched in the postseason. Former Yankees set up man Luis Vizcaino, has really struggled lately. Perhaps his 77 appearances have caught up with him as he's had an ERA over 10 in September.

3. Sabathia and Carmona - Sabathia and Carmona are arguably the best 1-2 punch in the league. Both pitchers were in the top 10 in the league in wins, ERA and WHIP. Sabathia could be especially tough for the Yankees. The Yankees have done poorly against lefty starters this season (19-19). They also haven't faced Sabathia in years. The Yankees will have to face those pitchers on the road, where they've gone 42-39 this year.

4. Starting Woes - Outside of Chien-Ming Wang, every member of the Yankees playoff rotation is a question mark. Pettitte, typically one of the best September pitchers in baseball, has really struggled down the stretch. In September, he's had an ERA of 5.86, a WHIP of 1.67 and a BAA of .324. That's good for his worst September in over nine years.

By the time Clemens gets the ball in game three of the ALDS, he will have gone 20 days without pitching. There have been jokes that Clemens will be pitching with his arm on a thread. His real issue however is his hamstring, which is an infamously pesky injury. The last time Clemens pitched in the postseason with a hurt hamstring, the results were disastrous. He blew up in the ALDS and then again in the World Series, lasting only 2 innings. His postseason ERA in that year of 2005, was 5.63.

And finally, we arrive at the Yankees fourth starter, Mike Mussina. Mussina lost his rotation spot after completely falling apart in August. After stringing together two quality starts in a row, Mussina again got lit up, allowing six runs on 11 hits in his last outing. He didn't get out of the fifth inning.