Well, John Lackey missed the 1st month of the season, Kelvin Escobar has been out, so take that into account also. When healthy, the Angles have the best pitching staff by a good margin. The offense is very average.
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Well, John Lackey missed the 1st month of the season, Kelvin Escobar has been out, so take that into account also. When healthy, the Angles have the best pitching staff by a good margin. The offense is very average.
Matsuzaka missed a month when he was going great too and the Red Sox lost Schilling for the season, who, given isn't on the same level as Escobar anymore, is a big loss. Both teams have had their share of injuries to their pitching. And the Angels offense isn't "very average" its pretty well below average.
The Angels have a very good pitching staff. They have a poor offense. The Red Sox have a very good pitching staff (slightly below LAA), and a very good offense. Sure, there's that "cliche" that "good pitching beats good hitting", but the fact of the matter is, good pitching plus bad hitting will lose to good pitching plus good hitting, more often than not.
The Red Sox have outscored their opponents by 72 runs. The Angels have outscored their opponents by 7 runs. The Red Sox are clearly the superior overall team and it's not even close.
Exactly what I was trying to say :).Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
1. Actually, 20% would be the figure I would use. point one doesn't tell us much. Of course, that's you twisting stats.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alloutwar
2. You can keep trying, but it's not working at the moment. Funny is not your gig.
3. Could be someone on my ignore list. Also, dude, fukken stop with the insults. Or at least hide them.
4. Not funny. You may think it's funny, but no.
Also factor in the Angels superior defense. The Angels bullpen is much better, also. The only thing that the Red Sox beat the Angels in, is hitting, and they beat 'em by a lot.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
C - Tie (Both catchers suck offensively and are good defensively)
1B - Youkilis/Red Sox
2B - Tie... Both hit for average, that's about it.
3B - Lowell/Red Sox
SS - Tie... Both are below average players.
LF - Man Ram/Red Sox
CF - Hunter/Angels
RF - Vlad/Angels (Though Drew has been better than Vlad, but Vlad is way more proven)
DH - Ortiz/Red Sox
Using ESPN's depth charts
SP - Lackey/Angels
SP - Lester/Red Sox
SP - Garland/Angels (Though, you could argue for Wakefield here)
SP - Saunders/Angels
SP - Santana/Angels (Though you could argue for Dice-K)
CL - K-Rod/Angels
SU - Shields/Angels
RP - I'll take the Angels relievers
Final Score:
Angels - 9, Red Sox - 5
Now, as you see, the Angels seem to matchup well, and even beat the Red Sox in many categories; it is just a matter of the Angels preforming up to expectations and not underperforming like they have been.
The Red Sox power VASTLY outweigh the Angels power, which is why the Red Sox score more runs. Not to mention that they also are a pretty clutch team, which I hate to admit. The Red Sox also seem to have more proven battle tested veterans, and definitely have more playoff experience.
I would actually probably take the Red Sox over the Angels for this season, but I think that the Angels definitely compare with the Red Sox. Like I said, it is just a matter of preforming up to your talent level (something the Red Sox have done, and the Angels have not).
The Angels are performing above their heads, and 90% of that is Scioscia being very disciplined.
If you want one stat to showcase that: The Angels are 16-11 in 1 run games.
Their 7 games above their Pythag wins record as well.
As a lifelong Angels fan, I'm loving the comparisons. However... reality gets in the way. The A's are pounding on the back door, and if the Angels slip up at all then it's very likely that they won't make the playoffs this year.
:(
The Angels offensive talent level is still far below that of the Red Sox, whether or not they're performing up to their capabilities right now or not. You can't simply go on a position by position basis and see who has more better players, because that ignores the MAGNITUDE by which each team is better than the other. For example, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz alone are better than any hitters the Angels have, and save for Vlad, it's by a wide margin.Quote:
Originally Posted by koolzach1
The team is only as good as the sum of its parts, and the sum of the Red Sox parts is far better than the sum of the Angels parts.