IBC

Red Sox/Rays ZiP down. Positions may be wrong, but all 23 carded players as of today for the Rays are listed. Let's get a little rival showdown going.

Line up:

Red Sox...............................................................Rays
C: Brayan Pena - .281/.327/.413. 93 OPS+.........Brian McCann - .288/.353/.497, 125 ERA+
1B: Dan Johnson - .235/.326/.391. 91 OPS+.......Willy Aybar - .257/.332/.417. 100 OPS+
2B: Akinori Iwamura - .286/.356/.400. 99 OPS+..Orlando Hudson - .275/.346/.410. 104 OPS+
3B: Hector Luna - .267/.324/.416. 95 OPS+......Edwin Encarnacion - .233/.317/.397. 89 OPS+
SS: Ian Desmond - .270/.334/.388. 96 OPS+.......Stephen Drew - .265/.324/.444. 93 OPS+
LF: Jay Bruce - .251/.315/.459. 102 OPs+............Jacoby Ellsbury - .290/.344/.398. 94 OPS+
CF: Colby Rasmus - .260/.325/.411. 97 OPS+......Greg Golson - .229/.266/.312. 49 OPS+
RF: Dustin Ackley - .261/.348/.383. 96 OPS+........Delmon Young - .286/.324/.426. 97 OPS+
DH: Pedro Alvarez - .233/.311/.419. 88 OPS+.......Kurt Suzuki - .277/.334/.404. 98 OPS+

Bench: Right now I think I have the bench advantage - sheer numbers, more depth and flexibility.

UT: Ivan DeJesus - .271/.341/.357. 89 OPS+.........Chris Nelson - .251/.305/.373. 76 OPS+
IF: Ryan Strieby - .240/.310/.387. 85 OPS+...........Edgar Renteria - .280/.336/.388. 90 OPS+
C: Ramon Castro - .243/.305/.408. 88 OPS+

Starters: Rays kick my ass here, especially at the top of the rotation. My only plus is my guys all get a bunch of GB's and my park suppresses HR.

SP: David Price - 96 ERA+...................................Cole Hamels - 121 ERA+
SP: Clayton Richard - 96 ERA+.............................D. Matsuzaka - 103 ERA+
SP: Jay Jackson - 94 ERA+...................................Barry Zito - 97 ERA+
SP: Alberto Arias - 100 ERA+................................Gavin Floyd - 96 ERA+
SP: Trevor Cahill 89 ERA+...................................Oliver Perez - 88 ERA+

Bullpen:

CL: Billy Wagner - 151 ERA+.................................Jose Valverde - 119 ERA+
RHP: Jeff Stevens - 114 ERA+...............................Casey Janssen - 92 ERA+
RHP: Joel Peralta 107 ERA+....................................Kyle Kendrick - 91 ERA+
LHP: Cesar Jimenez - 107 ERA+..............................Dan Meyer - 105 ERA+
LHP: AJ Murray - 102 ERA+............................Ricky Romero - 86 ERA+
MR: Joel Hanrahan - 105 ERA+.............................Mitch Talbot - 84 ERA+
MR: Luis Perdomo - 101 ERA+..............................Merkin Valdez - 86 ERA+


Defense: Sox - 6 Vg, 2 Av. Rays - 1 Vg, 5 Av, 1 Fr, 1Pr. Also Strieby coming in at 1B in late innings w/Vg range.

C: Pena - Vg..................McCann - Av
1B: Johnson - Av................Aybar - Av
2B: Iwamura - Av...........Hudson - Av
3B: Luna - Vg.................Encarnacion - Pr
SS: Desmond - Vg..........Drew - Av
LF: Bruce - Vg................Ellsbury - Vg
CF: Rasmus - Vg............Golson - Av
RF: Ackley - Vg..............Young - Fr

UT: DeJesus - 2B/SS Av..Nelson - SS Fr
IF: Strieby - 1B Vg
C: Castro - Av................Suzuki - Av

Tally:
Line-up - Pick'em
Bench - Sox
SP - Rays
RP - Sox
D - Sox

2010, perhaps?

Doh!

I give the edge to Tampa Bay this season mainly based on the SP. I'm not a huge believer in the necessity of having a deep bullpen, and I think Valverde/Wagner will be close enough. The offenses as noted are pretty much equal.

Even though I started selling off my short term assets around the MLB trade deadline this was no contest. There are a lot of good baseball minds in the league, but only my man Pat B. believed in the Sox.

I'm also declaring the rivalry over. Hard to get one going with a guy who hasn't had a post longer than 8 words since last December.

Maybe its time to start up a rivalry with the beloved Bombers of the IBC!