CC threw off 3 consecutive games of 3 days rest beofer he had his poor post season showing…maybe that had somethin to do with it being so poor. I wonder how many of the rays pitchers or red sox pitchers could’ve have accomplished the same. As far as catching goes …who does boston rely on for that position? oh yeah …. Vtech ! Even if the yanks plit the season with molina the offense from that position will still be better. As for the Rays well… hopefully everthing in their world works out perfectly like it did last year and navarro is an Allstar with no pop again, If not the he’ll bat 227 like he did the year before. Does anyone else worry about the hands down faith in David price, I mean I know he’s got great stuff but so did alot of can’t miss prospects. I could write a page of my disputs to this claim but it’s so rediculous it’s not even worth it.

I would expect from SI. I’d rather get my baseball commentary / opinions from TV Guide.

One bad start at Philly proves CC can’t pitch in big games, but the way he carried the Brewers through September doesn’t count for anything?

They have been doing this for years, so its really tough to take what they say as gospel. The Yankees are the clear-cut favorites everywhere else, so SI just wants to be different. Maybe they are tired of the Free agent signing talk and the A-Rod story and are trying to change the subject.

till Burnett can haunt boston’s lineup.
till Price can’t find a constistant changeup and barely gets passed the 5th.
till vtech hits like a pitcher all yr.
till dice K’s walk totalls finally catch up to him and cost him more than sweat.
till JD drews back stiffens up weekly and lowell rocks a cain at 3B.
till baseball starts and yanks win it all!

That writer is retarted. It’s the same guy who changed Joba’s stats to make a point. In that article he tried to claim that Joba had a 4.something ERA during starts. More like 2.73 ERA.

He also said the biggest question they have to answer this spring is whether joba starts or comes out of the pen. Excuse me? To a man, every person in the organization has said he is going to start. He’s a starter. So how is that their biggest question.

How about who’s the right fielder? Or will Posada stay healthy.

I also believe, in the very same article, he knocked the Yankees bullpen, which was tops in the game last year.

That SI writer doesn’t know a thing about baseball, everyone except him I think has the yanks as favorites to win the east.

they judge the Yankees by worst case scenario- Burnett goes to the dl 2x and CC is bad in the playoffs. But then for the redsox they are judged by best case scenario- Brad Penny miraculously makes their rotation the deepest in baseball and john smoltz of course is gonna come back and be awesome. GTFO sports illustrated you suck.

it’s smart to pick against the favorite.

What did they say? " They’re going to struggle to get into the playoffs." If the Yanks make the playoffs. OK, they didn’t say they wouldn’t. The only way their wrong is if they run away and hide in the regular season or win it all.

This is why they actually play the games.

Last year I spent most the season at a sports bar that had the extra innings package so I literally watched 6-7 games a night, one trend I noticed was the broadcasts starting to abandon wretched conventional wisdom and go more SABR….now if only SI and ESPN catches on…

you know i used to like reading some of what they had to say but i dont know they have just become horrible, and you know what as far as arod goes and media and everything im sick of it .. like honestly these reporters are paid to ruin peoples lives some stuff that should never go public and private stuff .. jus it disgusts me and SI has become like the TMZ of sports .. and when the yankees win all this year everyone is going to bite their tongues ..

i defy anyone to find a publication that had tampa as AL champs last year. ‘nuff said. let’s play ball..

Jayson Stark had an interesting piece the other day about how rare it is for teams to sustain greatness after making such a huge jump in wins.

We thought the Tigers were here to stay after the 2006 season and ditto with the Indians after the 2007 season. None of that happened.

I think they are going to be a better offensive club this season but their pitching will regress a bit – at least enough to finish third in this tough division.

One thing to keep in mind is that the rotation was remarkably durable with five pitchers combining to make 152 of their 162 starts. That’s phenomenal – and also very rare – which is a big reason why I think the rotation will regress a bit because rotations don’t often repeat that.

They had some pretty good luck on their side in that department. Maybe they ’ll need to start carrying four leaf clovers in their pockets.

It’s also a different game to be the hunter rather than the hunted. TB isn’t going to sneak up on anybody this season and they are now going to feel some pressure that they’ve never dealt with in the past.