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September 21, 2005
The Final Head-To-Head
I was just looking at some of the Win Shares (WS) data over at The Hardball Times site, which is as of 9/15, and was matching up the WS "values" of some of the Red Sox and Yankees. This I found:
That the combined value (in terms of WS) of A-Rod and Sheffield is 60 whereas the combined number for Ortiz and Manny is 55. Further, the combined WS total for Jeter, Giambi, and Matsui is 65 whereas the number for Damon, Varitek and Mueller is 58.
Continuing, Posada and Williams combine for 28 compared to Nixon and Renteria who pair for 27. Also, Tino and Cano add to 15 versus Olerud and Millar who total 17.
What about the starting pitchers? Schilling, Wells, Clement, Arroyo, and Wakefield total 53 Win Shares. For the Yankees, Johnson, Mussina, Wang, Chacon and Small total 39. But, it should be noted that Schilling, Chacon and Small have not made as many starts as the others here.
In the bullpen, it's not close. TanGorMo is at 30 and Timlin/Foulke/Myers/Bradford are at 18.
Two fairly equal attacks here in terms of position players. To me, when these teams go head-to-head, it's going to come down to the pitching.
For the Yankees, their starters are going to have to step up and out pitch the Red Sox starters, for New York to do well. On the flip side, for Boston to do well, they're going to need their pen to get big outs and prevent add-on and/or comeback runs.
It should be fun to see what happens.
Posted by Steve Lombardi at September 21, 2005 02:55 PM