For the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox so far in the 2012 Major League Baseball season, not only are they not in first, they really are in last.
For the two teams that boast the MLB’s highest payrolls (the Yankees at $194 million and the Red Sox at $173 million, respectively), it really is World Series or bust every year.The Yankees are currently 5-5 and have had what can be best described as early season woes that caused them to get swept out of the Trop on opening weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Starting pitching remains a big question mark for the Yankees. Michael Pineda started the season on the disabled list, CC seems to have lost his slider over the offseason (and one of his chins, for that matter) and Phil Hughes is the most washed up 25-year-old pitcher in America.
Add an aging Freddy Garcia and mix-in a pitcher who’s never really pitched in a pennant race (Hiroki Kuroda) and a sophomore-slump candidate in Ivan Nova, Yankee fans may be screaming for Andy Pettitte to rush back by early May once they see the rotation turn over a few times behind Sabathia.
Fortunately for the Yankees, they have an offense that is peppered with current and future Hall-of-Famers that get on base at an unbelievable rate and will most likely finish somewhere near the top of the leaderboard in runs scored before the 2012 MLB season is all said and done.
Derek Jeter is off to a scorching start, already crushing three home runs in the first 10 games of the season with seven runs batted in and a scintillating .378 batting average (to put that start in perspective, Jeter hit just six home runs all of last year in 131 games).
Raul Ibanez has also contributed well so far in his first season as a Yankee, hitting two home runs, driving in nine and somehow stealing two bases already on 39-year-old knees (I’m assuming the catchers he swiped the two bags off of must have been literally sleeping at home plate.)
As for their bullpen, set-up man David Robertson is as solid as they come in the game and is coming off an All-Star season, Boone Logan can get plenty of big left-handed batters out over the course of the season and Mariano Rivera is once again up a ridiculous encore campaign of “You and everyone else knows what’s coming and you still won’t hit it.”
Needless to say, even if the Yankees do end up needing a key component, they’ll most likely rent one out at the trade deadline and should end up where they always do, playing postseason baseball in October. As for their hated rivals, the Boston Red Sox (4-6), I’m far less optimistic.
The Yankees starting pitching is nothing to write home about, but the Red Sox starting pitching has been historically atrocious of late. Dating back to last season and going into Wednesday, the Red Sox have managed just six quality starts in the last 32 games from their rotation and only four times did their starters manage to make it through the seventh inning.
However, the Red Sox did manage to have decent starting pitching over the weekend versus the Rays, with Lester, Beckett and Buchholz all going at least seven innings. To showcase how bad the starting pitching has been, that’s the first time that has happened since last June.
The first season without Jonathon Papelbon closing out games hasn’t really been the smoothest transition either. The acquisition of Andrew Bailey looked promising until he managed to sustain a thumb injury that looks like it could hold him out till the All-Star break.
Fill-in closer Alfredo Aceves has been in more 2-0 counts this season than Snooki’s been in health clinics in her lifetime and Mark Melancon has a WHIP (walks + hits per innings pitched) that’s hovering somewhere around 5.0.
Adding to their long list of problems is last year’s MVP runner-up and 30-30 man Jacoby Ellsbury landing on the disabled list for what should be two months with a dislocated shoulder, and first-year manager Bobby Valentine calling out proven players more than Peyton Manning calls out audibles during a playoff game.
The Sox did manage to take three out of four from a dangerous Rays team at home, but the makeup of the team kind of lacks inspiration at the moment. David Ortiz seems to be one of the bright spots of this team (.410, 1 HR, 10 RBI), and watching Big Papi go from first to third this season isn’t as painful to watch as in years past, but you’re likely to see the Red Sox struggle in 2012 in a division that’s only getting better.
The second wild-card spot in the American League is most likely what the Sox will end up shooting for in late September this season.
Shawn Ferris can be reached at sferris@spartans.ut.edu.