angryty {l Wrote}:But that's the problem. The Sox look like the late 90s Yankees out of the bullpen compared to the trainwreck that is the Phillies' bullpen.
I love the cockyness of Sox fans--it is amusing if nothing else. The Sox brief, early century resurgence can be traced to the Yankees getting away from being a fundamentally sound baseball team and replacing that with a rotisserie line up. The Yankees have fixed that problem and in turn have fixed the Sox. I for one will enjoy it when that realization hits the collection of donkey faced downie types who make up a vast majority of Red Sox Nation--if panning across Fenway during any given telecast is to be believed.
You sure seem to find a lot of problems with a 95 win AL team that pitched John Smoltz and Brad Penny, had their SS's season ruined by a wrist injury so was forced to play NICK GREEN for like 100 games, got NOTHING from their DH for 2.5 months, and got historically bad production from the catching position before the trade deadline. All problems that have been fixed, leaving the Red Sox with superior starting pitching, superior bullpen pitching, and superior defense. The Red Sox offense was second in the league, so it's not as if they are wanting in that department either.
The Red Sox have the best bullpen in baseball. Period. So offering backhanded compliments seems trite coming from a team that is jogging out Coke and Aceves in key situations. The cokiness you find so amusing can be turned right back around. The Yankees haven't won a fucking thing in 9 years, yet their fans are already anointing their team as the best in the world after beating the shitty Twins and their shitty #4 starter. The Sox emergence as the premier team in baseball has everything to do with them signing and developing a better team than the team in the bedpan, not a result of the Yankees doing things horribly wrong.
It's my opinion that at this moment, the Red Sox are better equipped to win a 7 game series than the Yankees are because of their depth in pitching. All the talk in the world won't prove anything, so the best idea is to just wait 7 days and watch the series happen. In the meantime, laugh with me at the dismal NL. The shortstop on the Cardinals looks like a CPU generated player from a mid 90's Atari game. With such a gulf in talent, it's amazing that the NL can ever win a WS 40% of the time. I can't believe just how poor the quality of play is... the Cardinal infield has to be one of the sorriest collections to ever play a post-season game.
*I respect you
Edit: The panning of the Red Sox fanbase would need to be focused on the bleachers to see the stereotype-driving yahdoods. The infield crowd isn't what it used to be, which to me is a good thing.