Saturday, October 27, 2007

To Youk or Not to Youk....That is the Question


I ask myself this question most weekends after a long night of drinking and most times I choose not to Youk (or yuke). I guess Terry Francona is going along with me on this Saturday night being as Kevin Youkalis will be riding the pine tonight in Colorado. This is always a point of contentinon in the World Series as just about every American League team is carrying somebody that is a true defensive liability hell some teams carry more than one. Boston being no different had to choose between David "don't call me Junior" Ortiz or Kevin Youkalis both of whom are having phenomenal post seasons.


On one hand Youk is batting over .400 and made no errors while being a very dangerous number 2 hitter. On the other hand you have Ortiz who is the perrenial DH and is also batting over .400 for the post season. Ortiz has a greater lore about him with all the game winning home runs he hit to keep Boston alive in 04 and probably any good manager would find a way to keep him in the game. The problem is he has played a total of 27 games at first base since 2005 so he is probably a little rusty. I wonder if he even still carries a glove with him to the ball park.


The other defensive liability in Boston is Manny Ramierez. While he can play the monster as well as anyone he will probably be lost with all the real estate in left at Coors. I don't know if this will cost the Sox but just like they benefited from the friendly confines of Fenway expect the Rockies to benefit from their home turf too. The air is thin up there so Manny and Ortiz (I refuse to call him Papi in case you haven't noticed) could get a little tired although they could each hit a home run that lands in another zip code. I think the Red Sox still win the Series but they are going to have to do it in Boston because Colorado has a great advantage with no DH and a bigger field...not to mention they have great fans.

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