I’ve been a die hard Red Sox fan ever since I was a small child. And the one thing I loved was seeing us Red Sox kick the Yankees asses. And it gives me great pleasure to see the hyped up Yankees in second and the Red Sox in first. But then again, we all know that the Yankees have a good enough team to contest with us, and that if we slow down the Yankees could easily steal our title from our slippery fingers. So today, I’m going to analyze our team versus the Yankees, because let’s be real, the Rays, Orioles, and Blue Jays suck some major ass. Let’s hop into it.

Starting Rotation:

Let’s kick off this comparison with something we definitely have the Yankees beat at. The Red Sox have Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, and David Price at the helm of the rotation, with both Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz as the 4th and 5th spots. Now obviously Sale has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past many years, and despite having a terrible 2017 Porcello has been matching his 2016 stats so far. The only pitcher on the Yankees who can compare to the Red Sox starters is Luis Severino, and C.C. Sabathia is washed up as heck. So I think it’s quite obvious that the Red Sox have a better rotation.

Relief Pitching:

The Yankees have Aroldis Chapman, and pretty much nobody else. Chapman is nearly unhittable as a closer, but their main setup man Betances has been struggling, and the rest of their bullpen lacks the depth it needs. The Red Sox have both Craig Kimbrel and Rick Porcello to batten down the hatches during the later innings, and Hector Velasquez, a former starter, will perform well in the middle innings. Again, I feel like the Red Sox have a superior pitching staff in general to the Yankees.

Infield:

The Red Sox have Mitch Moreland at first base, who is having a great start to the year batting over .300 while providing consistent defense at first base. Moreland represents a more defensive first baseman, but has had some incredible offensive seasons as of late. The Yankees don’t have a consistent first baseman, with Neil Walker and Tyler Austin splitting the position, and both men have done well defensively, but struggle with the bat. Again, I feel like Mitch Moreland is a better first basemen than the platoon that has occurred on the Yankees team.

The Red Sox have Eduardo Nuñez at second base this year. Pedroia has been out, and Nuñez has done a pretty crappy job in his place, hitting and defending much worse than Pedroia, having a -0.7 WAR this season. Meanwhile, the Yankees have Gleyber Torres, who has hit well thus far, and is sporting a 1.7 WAR in just 29 games, less than half off what Nuñez has played. Step it up my dude.

At shortstop, the Yanks have Didi Gregorious, who has shown power this year with 11 bombs but has struggled hitting only .234 and failing to match his prior season’s numbers so far. Xander Bogaerts on the other hand is having another solid year, hitting .280 with 7 homers and 27 RBIs and 1.2 WAR despite missing 8 games due to injury.

Finally, the Yankees have Miguel Andujar at third base while the Red Sox have Devers. Both players have been quite mediocre, with Devers showing the power and Andujar showing the consistency. Overall. I feel like the Red Sox have a slightly better infield, mainly because all the infield starters have been consistent enough in both the field and with the bat, and because to be frank the Yankees’s infield sucks.

Outfield:

Both the Yankees and the Red Sox have a star studded outfield. Let’s start with the Yanks. An outfield with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Brett Gardner is most definitely a good outfield. Both a Judge and Stanton have put up solid, but not elite numbers so far, with Judge hitting .290 with 14 bombs. Stanton has been less impressive, hitting .246, and Gardner has been like Stanton except with no power whatsoever. Both Judge and Gardner are tremendous fielders, and Stanton, well he needs to start hitting ASAP. But hey, atleast he has a positive WAR. That’s something right?

The Red Sox have Mookie Betts, Andrew Benentendi, and J.D Martínez in the outfield. And unlike the Yankees, all of these three guys have been tearing it up. Mookie already leads the league in both BA and slugging percentage. And J.D. ain’t doing half bad, bash I got out 16 home runs and driving in more than Mookie so far. Benintendi is the sloucher here, only garnering 1 WAR. 3.1 WAR less than Mookie. And I’d like to believe that both Mookie and Benintendi are better defenders than Gardner and Judge respectively. And, well, J.D. at least you know how to swing a baseball bat good sir.

Catchers:

This is where the Red Sox struggle the most. The platoon force of Sandy Leon and Christian Vasquez have a combined -0.7 WAR despite playing incredible defense. Gary Sanchez of the Yankees has been struggling by his standards but still has a 1.2 WAR and 12 home runs, along with an OPS+ of 122, 97 points higher than Christian Vasquez. So yeah, I think the Yanks have us beat here.

Final Analysis:

Overall, I’m kinda pissed of that the Yankees are so close to us in the contention for the AL East. Our players so far have completely outperformed the Yankees in every aspect of the game, and although the Yankees have a higher possible level to reach, our team has consistently outperformed them in both the bullpen and on the field. So I think our chances are quite good to win the AL East, and that if our pitching staff along with David Price and Drew Pomerania begin to fire, we should be set to win. Unless the Orioles come roaring back…