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October 31, 2007
Enjoyed reading colleague Steve Krasner's ''Dare to Compare'' piece in Wednesday's paper. Actually, my son read it to me as I drove him to school. I told him to let me guess how Kraz rated each position, comparing the 2004 Red Sox to the 2007 team. As it turned out, we differed on only two -- first base and starting pitching.
He called Millar/Youkilis a draw, giving Youk the edge as a player, but giving props to Millar as an emotional leader in the clubhouse. While not downplaying Millar's considerable contributions to the chemistry of the '04 club, if I had to choose between the two, I'd take Youkilis without having to think twice about it. He's a tougher "out" at the plate, and much better defensively.
As for the starting pitching, while Beckett deserves to the be the Cy Young winner this year, and was all but unhittable in the postseason, Schilling did win 21 games in '04 and also had the "bloody sock" win over the Yankees in Game Six of Boston's history-making comeback in the ALCS. But the big reason I give the nod to the '04 Sox in starting pitching, over this year's rotation, is that Pedro Martinez was 16-9 as the No. 2 starter and was much better than Schilling was as the #2 in '07. Derek Lowe was erratic during the regular season, but was lights out in the postseason, so I'd give him then nod over Dice-K, although Matsuzaka probably -- hopefully -- will be much better, long-term. I suppose Wakefield was better this season, before he developed shoulder problems, than in '04, but the '04 team also had Bronson Arroyo.
Anyway, such comparisons are fun for fans to think about and debate.
As for which team would have beaten the other, well, it's a series I would have paid to see. Steve chose the '07 team, but I'm inclined to go with the '04 aggregation, because it had better starting pitching, and because Big Papi and Manny were an awesome 1-2 punch in '04.
Posted by Jim Donaldson 
at 12:10 PM | Permalink
