The Yankees have completed their trade for Javier Vazquez today. Vazquez was 15-10 with a 2.87 ERA for the Braves last year. After struggling with the Yankees in '04, Vazquez has won 62 games in 5 seasons elsewhere.
It's not earth-shattering news, but it does give the Yankees rotation something it lacked: depth. Vazquez fits nicely as a #4 starter for them, which they literally did not have last year.
Red Sox Nation is about to panic. After New York won it all, we as fans were desperate to close the void with the Yankees. But that talent gap has merely widened.
The Sox have added John Lackey, giving their own rotation depth, but they missed out on Halladay, and left-field is still a looming question mark. The Sox made a sideways kind of deal (not an upgrade or downgrade), replacing Alex Gonzalez with Marco Scutaro at short-stop. The Sox line-up, as of now, looks like this:
1. CF Ellsbury
2. 2B Pedroia
3. C Martinez (who hits better as a 1B)
4. 1B Youkilis
5. DH Ortiz (hit .238 last year)
6. 3B Lowell (coming off surgery)
7. RF Drew (we all know the on-and-off love affair he has with the DL)
8. SS Scutaro
9. LF Mike Cameron
Not exactly murderer's row. Parts of it are more like Send in the Clowns.
Meanwhile, the World Champion Yankees have added Granderson and Vazquez.
This is what Theo meant by a "Bridge Season." It's going to be a long, cold off-season, Sox fans.
Sources:
Bloomberg
ESPN
Baseball-Reference.com
No comments:
Post a Comment