Opening Day!

Here are my predictions for the 2011 Baseball Season.

American League

East: Red Sox
Central: Tigers
West: Angels
Wild Card: Yankees

Pennant: Red Sox

National League

East: Phillies
Central: Reds
West: Giants
Wild Card: Braves

Pennant: Braves

World Series Champs: Red Sox

Being an unabashedly biased Sox fan, I am sure my predictions might seem self serving.  But I believe, on paper, they have by far the best all around team in the Bigs this year.  Some may have stronger starting rotations (and despite my cousin and teaching partner's fondness for the Phils, I think that is their ONLY strength right now) but in overall performance, it is the Sox this year.

And being the Yankee hater that I am, I will not be surprised to see some Yankee names when it comes time to start discussing individual award winners this year.

Mike Lupica Sums Up The Yankees Loss

Mike Lupica, Daily News:

The end of it for the Yankees, the end of a four-game sweep that just happened to take six games, was the bat on Alex Rodriguez's shoulder against a kid closer named Neftali Feliz. It was 6-1 for the Rangers in Game 6 by then. The Yankees hadn't just been beaten. They had been bounced around most of the last week, Arlington to the Bronx and back, and finally been embarrassed. So there really was no need for A-Rod to take the bat off his shoulder. The Yankees had stopped playing an hour ago. ...

This wasn't as bad an AL pennant defense as we got from the Yankees in 2004, when the Red Sox came back from 0-3 down. It was bad enough. ...

One out away. A-Rod. Of course. Of course it had to be him. Took a called third strike. They paid him $252 million once to put the Rangers in the World Series. Now he had.

(via Joy of Sox)

Yankees Infield Earning More Than 16 Teams

The Yankees' starting infield will earn $85.2 million this season.

That is more than the entire payroll of 16 teams: Atlanta, Rockies, Orioles, Brewers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Blue Jays, Nationals, Cleveland, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Rangers, Athletics, Padres, and Pirates.

New York also has the four highest-paid players in the game this year: Alex Rodriguez ($33 million), CC Sabathia ($24.2), Derek Jeter ($22.6), and Mark Teixeira ($20.6). John Lackey ($18.7), at #12, is the only Boston player in the Top 25. Last year, the Yankees had six players in the Top 25, while Boston had none.

(copied from Joy of Sox, the BEST Sox blog out there)

Opening Day

Game 1: Yankees at Red Sox: Tonight at 8:05 PM

A-Rod: Yankees need Jeter

Alex Rodriguez can't imagine life without Derek Jeter in pinstripes. "Derek Jeter was born to be a Yankee and he was born to wear pinstripes," Rodriguez told a gathering of media. "He's our captain and we need him here. I envision he'll finish his career here. I can't envision him wearing any other uniform."

That's a far cry from Rodriguez's 2001 comments to Esquire when he said the Captain "has never had to lead. He can just go and play and have fun." He drew from the Yankees' past glories when he also told the magazine, "You go into New York, you want to stop Bernie [Williams] and [Paul] O'Neill. You never say, 'Don't let Derek beat us.' He's never your concern," he said.

From New York Daily "News"

Yankees Can't Sellout Playoff Game

from Boston.com via DUELING COUCHES

"The Yankees are in the ALCS for the first time since — ahem — 2004. But Yankee Stadium may not be sold out tonight for Game 1 against the Angels. That would be embarrassing for the business side of the organization. Whether it's the economy or the outrageous ticket prices, there were still 6,000 seats available as of last night through the team. Just a few minutes ago, to see what was out there, I pulled up four tickets on Yankees.com for section 221. OK, so they were $431 each. But they were there. The Yankees trumpeted their postseason ticket prices a few weeks ago, proudly saying they had held the line on prices. But apparently they didn't go far enough."