A Series of Things

No team wins all of its games. In fact, teams almost never win two-thirds of their games. So, given the expectation that you will lose some games, a good indicator of how you do in a season is how many series you win or lose. This year the Red Sox had 18 series wins, 10 losses and 2 splits before the All-Star break. The Yankees were 18-10-2 in the same period, which explains how the teams stayed close for the first half of the season. After the break, though, the Sox went 12-9-2, while the Yankees were 17-5-1, pulling eight games ahead in the AL East.

There will be no more Wedgies in Cleveland as manager Eric Wedge was fired effective at the end of the season. The Indians blow out all their good players every few years and get prospects to start rebuilding all over again. They did it in the late ’90s with the Lofton/Manny/Thome/Vizquel/Travis Fryman/Bartolo Colon teams, getting players like Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore in return. This year, the Indians started the season with players like Mark De Rosa (now with the Cardinals), Victor Martinez (now with the Sox), Ben Francisco and Cliff Lee (gone to Philly), Ryan Garko (Giants) and Rafael Betencourt (Rockies). Now, it’s back to the youth movement with Matt LaPorta from Milwaukee last year, Andy Marte, Lou Marson over from the Phillies, Michael Brantley and Luis Vanbuena. It’s pretty tough to have to rebuild all the time, and the manager often takes the blame.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, General Manager J.P. Ricciardi was tossed after eight years. Being from Worcester, Ricciardi was interviewed a lot in the local media and always seemed to say the same thing, “We don’t have the money to compete with the Red Sox and the Yankees.” And he was right. The Jays could put together enough talented players to be competitive, but were never able to go after the big free agents. They always could get the Lyle Overbays and B.J. Ryans of the baseball world, but were never able to bring in a game-changing player. He did sign A.J. Burnett and Frank Thomas, but Burnett was inconsistent for his first two seasons and Thomas was a bust. The club developed some excellent players in Adam Lind and Aaron Hill, but there weren’t enough good players around them. Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and David Purcey are all developing into good starters, but it will be the next GM who will reap the benefits. Then there were the injuries to Jesse Litsch, Shawn Marcum and Dustin McGowan, who were all hurt this year. Now it’s up to the new GM to sort out the pieces but, in the end, it all comes down to payroll, and unless the Jays can find lightning in a bottle for a couple of years like the Rays did last year, this same story will be written again a couple of seasons from now. Another example of how baseball needs a salary cap.

John Smoltz has come down to earth in St. Louis, where he is 0-3 with three no-decisions in his last six starts. Brad Penny, on the other hand, is 4-1 with the Giants and pitched a six-hit shutout in his last start. But the best former Sox pitcher out there right now is Pedro Martinez, who is 5-1, 3.63 ERA in nine starts for the Phillies.

Whether the Sox begin the postseason on Wednesday or Thursday, get ready for some 10:00 starts.