In part two of our Yankees vs Red Sox series we examine the outfield between both teams. You can see our infield comparison here. We will be judging each outfield starter on their defensive and offensive contributions this year.
Brett Gardner/Randy Winn vs. Jacoby Ellsbury
Offensive Edge: Ellsbury. Gardner in a small sample last year didn’t light the world on fire and Winn came off a bad season. With as much speed Ellsbury possesses, he doesn’t need to hit the ball far to create havoc. If Winn rounds back into pre-2009 form (.300 BA, 10-20 HR, 60-80 RBI) and Gardner continues to have success with his speed, the platoon of Winn/Gardner could be better than Ellsbury by himself.
Defensive Edge: Slight edge to Ellsbury. Ellsbury (minus taking weird routes to flyballs) was a good CF’er in 2009. With a smaller field to work with in 2010 he should have similar success in Boston’s 5 sq feet of left field. Winn is a serviceable outfielder however, he is getting older and we have seen the effects of age (see Damon) on older players. It is possible that Gardner could be just as good as Ellsbury and time will tell.
Curtis Granderson vs Mike Cameron
Offensive Edge: Granderson. Granderson has potential to be a .280, 30 HR, 100 RBI hitter with 30+ stolen bases while Cameron has never hit above .272 in his career. Cameron has 25+ HR power and ability to drive in runs in buckets, but that doesn’t over come his .250 lifetime batting average.
Defensive Edge: Slight edge to Cameron. What Cameron lacks in batting average, he makes for fielding ability. He is a three time Gold Glove winner. The only question is how long can his 37 year old legs allow him to defend well? Granderson is also a good fielder in his own right, however he had a down year in 2009 and looks to rebound in a smaller ballpark.
Nick Swisher vs J.D. Drew
Offensive Edge: Slight Edge to Drew. Drew and Swishalicious have comparable stats, however, Drew has a higher career average and consistently hits .270-.280.
Defensive Edge: Negligible. Another one that I had to go to the stats for. From what I can tell, these two won’t light the world on fire, but they will get the job done.
Overall Edge: This round goes to the Red Sox, unfortunately. However, I feel that the differences between the two outfields are so small, that any change or injury could swing the difference either way.
Kevin Rozell
M. B. Rozell
Ray Rothfeldt
Eduardo Perez
Fuck the Red Sox
[...] February 5, 2010 by Rob Bradley In the part three of our Yankees vs Red Sox series we look at the pitching for both teams. While we may not be able to predict with 100% accuracy which slot everyone fits into the rotation, we feel the assessments are generally inline with past history with both teams. You can see part one here and part two here. [...]