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Not worried about the Jays, but worried about the makeup of their own teams?

What needs fixing for both teams?

Sox: Nothing....they'll snap out of it.

Rays: Losing Crawford clearly hurt a lot, without Pena they lose another home run threat and losing Longoria for extended amounts of time is a bummer. I think they're offensive numbers are going to go way down and I have a feeling they won't be as dominant as the past few years.

The Rays could be in some trouble. Obviously, they won't hit .139/.201/.216 (their current line) over the course of the season, but in the AL East they won't have long to figure things out before they're in a serious hole...their margin for error is considerably smaller than the Sox or Yanks, and they can't really afford to have a bad first two weeks.

Boston will be fine, so long as their pitching staff gets its **** together. If it doesn't (and a staff with Beckett and Lackey does come with risks), things will get interesting...but I'd hesitate to say that the door is open a crack unless they end up 2-10 or some such.

The Orioles are 4-0.
The Royals are 3-1.
The Pirates are 3-2.

It's early.

About the only thing that has happened so far that should happen is the Houston Astros being an abomination of a team.

Theo Epstein should be worried, about me. Because if I ever see him in a secluded alley, I will tell him that I do not much care for him or his baseball club, and quite frankly I wish them to be evaded by success.

No, it's four games. That's 2.5% of the season. Simmer, Boston's still the 1st or 2nd best team in the division.

Tampa should be worried because they play in a division with Boston and New York and are quite clearly the 3rd best team in the division.

It's a 162 game season

Boston absolutely has reason to worry because 3 of their 5 starting pitchers are garbage and Buchholz is due for a large drop from last year's fluke season. This will still be a good team even with questionable pitching; but it is absolutely not the best team in baseball as they have been hyped. Hell, their bullpen is shaky too.

Yeah their pitching staff stinks, everyone except for Lester is at a serious risk of regressing and putting up well below average numbers and they don't have any starting pitching depth in the minors ready to step in. They'll still make the playoffs but there's no way they'll win a 100 games like most people are predicting.

Tampa Bay's lineup looks horrendous without Longoria and even when he comes back, its probably below average. I still they think they got a legit shot at the playoffs with that rotation but they'll need some some serious contributions from the 40 somethings Damon and Manny and that's not a given.

We've been talking about the Yanks/Sox/Rays looking beatable for several Aprils in a row and they always end up with 90+ wins and ahead of us.

I still think Boston will win the division with room to spare. TB is overrated and I think will fall in the standings. Still, this division is stacked.

Boston will miss the playoffs.

I'm still sticking to my early prediction of the Rays finishing last in the AL East this year, not to say I'm judging their fate on 4-5 games but I just don't think they'll have what it takes to finish high in the division this year

I think the Rays are coming down to earth. They lost 3 of their top 5 bats last year and replaced them with Manny and Damon. I could see them only winning 85 games this year.

Boston will be fine. They're going to get 90-95 wins and be in the thick of it.

baulderdash77 wrote:I think the Rays are coming down to earth. They lost 3 of their top 5 bats last year and replaced them with Manny .

And to think everyone on the board wanted Manny.

I said at the time that the Red Sox were stupid not to trade the farm for Halladay. I know they ended up trading some of those prospects for Gonzalez, but they probably could have done both. They certainly have the money and (overhyped) prospects to do it. Trusting Lackey, Dice-K, and Beckett moving forward is a pretty risky proposition, even with an offense that should mash eventually. They'll still be good though. The Rays are more of a question mark losing Crawford, Pena, Garza, most of their pen, etc, but they should still have very good SP. I see this more as a transition year for the Rays. They still have a top farm system that should churn over some talent in the next few years and bring them back to where they were (assuming they can afford it). I don't see them as a 90+ win club this year, but who knows.

Is Crawford all that good? Maybe it doesn't matter because the Sox don't care what they pay a player. I just don't feel like he's a difference maker. Maybe a stat guy can chime in.

J-Roc wrote:Is Crawford all that good? Maybe it doesn't matter because the Sox don't care what they pay a player. I just don't feel like he's a difference maker. Maybe a stat guy can chime in.

He was a 6.9 WAR player last year, and 5.7 the year before. That's pretty much the definition of a difference maker.

There are questions about how his game will age once he hits 31-32, but he's undoubtedly an excellent player now.

luvtheteam wrote:

baulderdash77 wrote:I think the Rays are coming down to earth. They lost 3 of their top 5 bats last year and replaced them with Manny .

And to think everyone on the board wanted Manny.

They still should want Manny. The Jays are hitting Encarnacion and Rivera at the DH spot.

Why do fans look at four games and think that kind of sample size matters at all?

Randle McMurphy wrote:

luvtheteam wrote:

baulderdash77 wrote:I think the Rays are coming down to earth. They lost 3 of their top 5 bats last year and replaced them with Manny .

And to think everyone on the board wanted Manny.

They still should want Manny. The Jays are hitting Encarnacion and Rivera at the DH spot.

Why do fans look at four games and think that kind of sample size matters at all?

Heh, for the same reason that Jo-Jo Reyes was our second ace coming out of Spring Training: jumping to conclusions is EXCITING.