The Yankees are definitely playing over the heads. Their pitching will not keep up their recent performance is not sustainable.
As for our offense, we are going to have a big down tick losing Big Papi. That HOF bat does not leave without it hurting. People who think otherwise are kidding themselves.
Young, Not me/it's them and Xander have slugging % close to their BA.....our propensity to hit into double play negates what little offense we are producing. We're playing tee ball and everyone is playing man's game.
I really hate watching this offense. It's not Red Sox offense I'm accustomed to.
Lots of talk about how we are going to be okay because we have so many good hitters. I hope it is true, but I have observed enough games so far to have draw some conclusions.
1. JBJ said he had done a lot of work in the off season and expected to hit much better. To date it looks like he isn't seeing the ball well and still has that long looping swing that limits his value at the plate. Good thing for him he is an exceptional center fielder. I hope he gets hot again this year but right now he is showing little at the plate and if we are counting on him for serious production, we may be overly optimistic.
2. To date Vasquez is a better hitter than Leon and should be the principle catcher since both are a toss up defensively. When you compare a 180 BA with a 400+ BA and the general appearance in the box I would limit Leon to right hand pitchers who he has hit in the past and hope for the best. Unless he shows more, Leon won't help us as he did last year.
3. Hanley has been and is likely to continue to be erratic at the plate. Without Ortiz to keep him straight he could well have a fall off in homers and RBI's
4. Comparing Pablo to Marco as far as hitting is concerned, Pablo is a free swinger with more power but likely to have a significantly lower BA and on base % than Marco, who is a more disciplined hitter. Marco is also at least Pablo's equal in the field so when Pable gets healthy again, how short a least do we have.
Like others, I think Betts, Bogaerts, Beni, Pedey and Moreland are solid hitters but unless Betts can recreate his power of last year we have no big home run threats. JBJ, Leon,Hanley and Pablo were a hope in that area but don't appear to me to be a relaible source.
I think a lot of fans might also be underestimating the impact of the flu. The influenza virus can be deadly in cases and can have lingering effects. Most people don't realize this because the "flu" they had that time was probably not the actual flu, but some other weaker virus with"flu like symptoms"..
Sitting at the Cubs game last night, I saw what we are lacking. They have 2 aircraft carriers in their lineup-- Bryant and Rizzo surrounded by nice good professional hitters. We are missing the centerpieces who make everybody better. The pitcher's have to approach those guys differently to keep them in the park. We don't have those threats. Losing Papi will have a cascading effect. We will not have 3 guys with 30 fingers this year. We will probably have 1.