Rob Neyer's blog today revealed Ken Rosenthal and Brian Cashman's take on the Rays chances in 2009. While the Yankees have certainly improved their pitching staff and the Rays have great young players and good pitching and defense, the Red Sox are still the team to beat.
Let's face it, the Red Sox got smarter faster than any team in baseball. The Oakland A's under Billy Beane had a good start on valuing contracts, but his teams didn't quite get there. The Red Sox hired Bill James for crying out loud. They outsmarted everyone else. They had the knack of getting the right pieces at the right time. The Schilling acquisition was brilliant at the time. Mike Lowell worked out really well. David Ortiz was stolen from the Twins.
The Red Sox have become the super power in baseball and out flanked and out foxed the Yankees. They have won two World Series in five years. They have great pitching and more on the way. They have a chemistry that works really well for them. They have the right manager and they have marketed the team better than anyone. As much as "Red Sox Nation" has become as hated in the country as the Yankees, it was a stroke of genius. That's what this team seems to have, a genius in concept and in practice. Is it really fair that New England has that same genius in two different sports?
Before 2004, the Red Sox were the little guys that couldn't. You could have all the Pedro Martinez swagger you wanted, but they couldn't figure out a way around the Yankees. Now the roles have reversed. The Yankees can't out think their rivals so they still have to out spend them. The Yankees are Phil Mickelson and the Red Sox are Tiger Woods. Mickelson has man boobs and the Yankees have men that are boobs.
Yes, the Rays won the division last year and the American League Pennant. That was a wonderful and beautiful story. They caught the Red Sox a little banged up and still in a post-Manny daze. But all it will take is a few Big Papi homers and a couple of those 2-0 wins and the swagger will be where it has been for five years now.
Maybe the Cubs still haven't won a World Series because they didn't have a rivalry like the Yankees/Red Sox. The Red Sox knocked on the door so many times and failed, they had to get smart and they did. It doesn't yet appear that the Cubs have gotten much smarter. Just better. But it hasn't been enough. The Yankees are still paying for years of not being smart.
The Rays will be really good. The Yankees will be really good. But the Red Sox are still the ones to beat.
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