Ancient rivals, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, face each other for the first time since last season.
Sportsbooks had opened with the Yankees as the -130 moneyline favorites, but early MBL betting action has already pushed that number down to -125. While this is not a regular season matchup, the history between these two teams means that we could witness one of the more competitive preseason matchups tonight.
Boston Red Sox
The 2012
edition of the Boston Red Sox are 6-2 thus far in spring training and only hope
they can duplicate last year's 12-6 record against their bitter rivals, the New
York Yankees. Yesterday the Sox took a
5-3 decision over the new look Miami Marlins and got a solid dinger from
recently signed Pedro Ciriaco to win the
game in the 10th inning for Boston.
Imagine that Ciriaco is hitting
.545 while Lars Anderson checks in at .455, Nate Spears .400 and the legendary
Will Middlebrooks is making pitchers pay with a .375 average. I believe the total combined salary of those four
is approximately equivalent to Kevin Youkilis's Gatorade allowance. New
manager Bobby Valentine is saying all the right things but we all know every
one of those guys will be playing in a Pawtucket uniform this season no matter
what they do. As for Lars Anderson, the
guy is already 24 years old and the Sox are still telling him they like his
potential.
The Sox have a bad habit of
"nurturing" their players until they are practically middle
aged. Remember Wade Boggs? They didn't think Boggs was ready for prime
time until he was 25 years old. Their 22
year old whiz kid Jose Iglesias may be able to turn triple plays all by himself
but until he shows a bit more with the bat then... Look, if I've got the second coming of Ozzie
Smith in the field I don't care if he imitates a statue at the plate just as
long as he doesn't get hit. Take pitches
and hope you walk I say but let the kid do his thing in the field and do it
now, not in 2015.
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are 5-6 in spring
training and already Bombers fans are calling for manager Joe Girardi's
ouster. They're a tough bunch in New
York. The Pin Stripes lost yesterday to
the Astros 4-3 yesterday in a game most have already forgotten. But the real story is when will Father Time
realize he's lost track of two guys playing a kid's game in the Bronx? That's right Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera,
come on down!
Apparently the Yankees will be
starting Ivan Nova who is only as good as his slider allows. The kid was considered excess baggage last
year until he was called up and performed admirably down the stretch for the
Yankees. Nova should be a lock for one
the five spots in the rotation this season but if his money pitch betrays him,
he could be ticketed for the minors.
Analysis:
Felix Doubront is slated
for the Red Sox and hoping to claim the 5th spot in the rotation for the
Sox. Ivan Nova will breeze against
Boston's collection of minor leaguers if, as stated previously, his slider is
hopping. In a spring training game all
bets are not off, but they should be drastically reduced because let's face it,
hitters are trying new approaches and pitchers are experimenting with new
pitches. It's a crapshoot but we will
roll the dice and give a tepid nod to the Yankees because they are home (for
whatever that's worth) and they have ostensibly the better starting pitcher.
Yankees -118 is the play.