Boston Red Sox V: That’s The Magic Number
Posted on Sep 25, 2009 4:58 pm
By Cliff Corcoran
The Yankees went 2-12 against the Angels and Red Sox in the first half of this season. Since then, they’ve gone 9-2 against those same two teams. Tonight, they return home from Anaheim having taken two of three from the Halos despite spending most of that series auditioning borderline candidates for the postseason roster, which they’ll do again tonight with Joba Chamberlain making the start. So much for the absurd meme that the Yankees couldn’t beat the “big boys.”
The Yankees clinched a playoff berth in Anaheim and enter this weekend’s series against the Red Sox leading Boston by five-games in the loss column with just just nine games left on the schedule. That puts their magic number at 5 and sets the Yanks up to clinch the division with a weekend sweep. Not that I expect that to happen. Still, just one win in this series would reduce the magic number to 3 and a series win would drop it to 1. Meanwhile, even if the Red Sox sweep the series, the Yankees could clinch by simply splitting their remaining games if the Sox lose just twice in their remaining seven games against the admittedly weak Blue Jays and Indians.
So, once again, the Yankees’ goals in this series are to keep everyone healthy and sort out the final few spots on the postseason roster. Speaking of which, the Red Sox’s current roster is at the end of this post, but below the jump I’ll take a stab at projecting their likely postseason roster.
Let’s start the Red Sox’s postseason roster with the sure things:
The starting nine:
1B – Kevin Youkilis (R)
2B – Dustin Pedroia (R)
SS – Alex Gonzalez (R)
3B – Mike Lowell (R)
C – Victor Martinez (R)
RF – J.D. Drew (L)
CF – Jacoby Ellsbury (L)
LF – Jason Bay (R)
DH – David Ortiz (L)
Key bench players:
S – Jason Varitek (C)
L – Casey Kotchman (1B)
R – Rocco Baldelli (OF)
Guaranteed rotation members:
R – Josh Beckett
L – Jon Lester
R – Clay Buchholz
And top bullpen arms:
R – Jonathan Papelbon
L – Hideki Okajima
R – Dan Bard
L – Billy Wagner
R – Takashi Saito
R – Ramon Ramirez
That’s 21 men. The remaining four will include an infielder (either Jed Lowrie or Nick Green), a fourth starter (either Daisuke Matsuzaka or Tim Wakefield), the rejected starter as a long-man in the bullpen, and either a 12th pitcher Manny Delcarmen, third catcher George Kottaras, or the other infielder. With only pitchers on the disabled list, the Sox can’t loophole speedy outfielder Joey Gathright onto the roster as a pinch-runner as Gathright wasn’t called up until September 1.
As for who the Sox are bringing to the Bronx this weekend . . .
Boston Red Sox
2009 Record: 91-61 (.599)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 90-62 (.592)
Manager: Terry Francona
General Manager: Theo Epstein
Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Fenway Park (108/106)
Changes:
- Tim Wakefield, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jed Lowrie, Rocco Baldelli, and George Kottaras activated from DL
- IF Chris Woodward, OFs Joey Gathright and Josh Reddick, C Dusty Brown, and LHP Hunter Jones called-up
- Billy Wagner acquired from Mets
- Junichi Tazawa placed on 60-day DL
- Brad Penny released
25-man Roster:
1B – Kevin Youkilis (R)
2B – Dustin Pedroia (R)
SS – Alex Gonzalez (R)
3B – Mike Lowell (R)
C – Victor Martinez (R)
RF – J.D. Drew (L)
CF – Jacoby Ellsbury (L)
LF – Jason Bay (R)
DH – David Ortiz (L)
Bench:
S – Jason Varitek (C)
L – Casey Kotchman (1B)
S – Jed Lowrie (SS)
R – Nick Green (SS)
R – Rocco Baldelli (OF)
R – Brian Anderson (OF)
L – Josh Reddick (OF)
L – Joey Gathright (OF)
R – Chris Woodward (UT)
L – George Kottaras (C)
R – Dusty Brown (C)
Rotation:
R – Josh Beckett
R – Clay Buchholz
L – Jon Lester
R – Daisuke Matsuzaka
R – Tim Wakefield
R – Paul Byrd
Bullpen:
R – Jonathan Papelbon
L – Hideki Okajima
R – Dan Bard
L – Billy Wagner
R – Manny Delcarmen
R – Takashi Saito
R – Ramon Ramirez
R – Michael Bowden
L – Hunter Jones
60-day DL: RHP – Junichi Tazawa (groin), RHP – Miguel Gonzalez (TJ)
Typical Lineup:
L – Jacoby Ellsbury (CF)
R – Dustin Pedroia (2B)
S – Victor Martinez (1B/C)
R – Kevin Youkilis (1B/3B)
L – David Ortiz (DH)
R – Jason Bay (LF)
R – Mike Lowell (3B)
L – J.D. Drew (RF)
R – Alex Gonzalez (SS)
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but can they beat the big boys with their big boys? :}
i like that the red sox actually have a player named dusty. hopefully this will not lead to too much confusion.
oh and as for “key bench players,” quite rich to see the 1st player listed and his facemask on the bench.
Joba? Joba. jobaJobaJObajoBA..JobaJOBAjobA?
I am Jack Torrance this morning..all Joba all the time makes Mr. OK Jazz a dull boy…
Least Favorite Current Sox (Sock?): it’s close between Tek and the Grinch but..I vote Tek..
Everyone vote please!
[0] So much for the absurd meme that the Yankees couldn’t beat the “big boys.”
I so miss that meme. Well, actually I don’t. And reading through the recent game threads, I am not sure that it has left us.
Things change, but that doesn’t make them absurd at the time. That’s some kinda ex post facto mumbo jumbo. The numbers were stark, we can see that from this post – they couldn’t beat the “big boys”.
Psyched. Pumped. Scared.
Must be a Sox series.
Here’s another meme: Joba Chamberlain stinks. May he render it absurd starting tonight.
[4] they couldn’t beat the “big boys”.
Well, strictly speaking, they didn’t beat the big boys (and more strictly, the didn’t beat only one of them)…whether they couldn’t beat them is another issue.
i’m wearing my Joba Rules t-shirt and am gonna watch the game on tbs…
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
LET’S GO YAN-KEES!!!
[6] Be nice if they let him pitch more than 3 innings…
[8] hey man, 6am start here today so am a little loopy, but got coffee ans scones ready for the 8am start!
You see the Miles clip in the News of the Day?
[9] be nice if he pitches well enough to deserve to stay in longer than 3 innings. he can throw 147 pitches in 2.2 innings!
[10] i didn’t watch it. late Miles isn’t my favorite.
[2] i think i vote for facemask too
why are the wasting cone in the studio with bob lorenz?
[11] Me neither, though this was the band playing a classic, no Cyndi Lauper tunes :) He was also barely playing by that point, health was too poor..
Man, the whole Joba thing is so tedious..I’m still so perplexed as to why the Yankees treat their young pitchers in such an odd manner but..anyways, let’s get to the game chat now! A-Rod will whiff three times tonight but in between those will hit a 450ft tater off of WonderBoy…
[10] hey man, i found that Blue Mitchell CD on Blue Note! it’ll be a week or two before i have it in the mail, but i’m really looking forward to hearing it. it wasn’t super cheap, but it did not cost anywhere close to what i was expecting or willing to dish out.
Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock are on it. so is Horace Silver’s rhythm section – Roy Brooks & Gene Taylor. Leo Wright plays alto – i’m not sure i know who he is.
it’s Blue’s first BN record, from 1963.
petey said dave robertson threw yesterday and felt great
[2] Papelbum. Smug SOB.
[14] Oh that’s great man! What a lineup there..hope you enjoy it! I’ve been told that there will be no more cd purchases until our finances get in order..a painful rule but necessary for now. Been getting lots of freebies through the jazz site though which is cool.
thelarmis, check this out: http://tinyurl.com/y8esgn6
4 yrs old!
here we go…
great, i get to spend my friday night with chip caray. fucking tool.
I hate Joba Day
man, Joba’s a BIG dude.
[21] and cc makes him look like a lost little boy
nice.
[22] speaking of midgets…
curve. slider. 95 mph heat.
13 pitches.
13 pitches…are the Red Sox trying to win this game??
can’t complain about that inning
[25] trying to get francona fired!
[23] I’m telling you, I’m like 30 percent sure he’s shrinking
Jeter!!!
Derek continues to rake it!
YEAH JETER
i love Derek Jeter!
Must be a wild pitch, surely Tek did a great job on an awful pitch..
Yo dudes.
And dudette.
I’m very disappointed that Joba didn’t strike anyone out.
that’s 29 SB’s for Cap.
[33] Captain Facemask!
2 strikes…. BUNT!!! ; )
boo.
fuck it, steal 3rd!
36 He should have ;)
Aw Damon, come on.
No, he should have taken the pitch. Oh well.
The strike zone is shifted way to the left (that is, inside to righties). Weird. Maybe it has something to do with the movement on Lester’s pitches?
that had to hurt
what are you swinging at, Tex?!
[41] will you be fasting? i never do anymore. speaking of which, i need to go cook dinner now.
how ’bout a 2-run job for A-Rod?!
[44] Fasting?
Lester is really really good…
YEAH!!!
BOO-Yah!! A-Rod with the great swing, it’s A-Clutch!!
[44] Oh, definitely not. I don’t do any real rituals. I’m just, you know, ethnic.
[45] tomorrow is Yom Kippur, at sundown.
[45] But not quite good enough!