Will there be too many Boston fans at Anaheim Stadium tomorrow?
It’s a pretty safe bet that there will be more than zero, so the answer is yes. These people are awfully good at just blending in during the average day. Then as soon as the Red Sox are in town, the a-hole quotient rises exponentially. The air becomes even more unclean. You go home and you feel like you need to take a shower. Such is the affect of Red Sox Nation (chief exports: hot air and bandwagons).
How bad is it that Lackey/Santana got shelled last week?
I think it’s bad, but not terrible. I don’t think you ever want to get hit around like that, and especially not before your biggest start of the season. These guys are professional pitchers and they’ve experienced stuff like this before, but it could still be a hit to their confidence. I think it will definitely affect Lackey more than Santana. Lackey tends to get pretty emotional. The first two innings are going to be the key. If Lackey can get through those having given up only a single or two, I think he’ll forget about last Friday awfully quickly. If he gets roughed up a little bit, I think his confidence will be shaken and he’ll start nibbling – which is NOT the pitcher we want Lackey to be. He needs to be aggressive with his fastball and feel comfortable throwing his slurve for strikes. Santana, on the other hand, isn’t as emotional. I think he’ll be able to put it aside better than Lackey will.
How will Teixeira do in his first playoff experience?
I think he’ll be fine. He doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who gets too nervous (although his Angels debut wasn’t great and he said he had butterflies). True, he’s never really been in any pressure-packed games with the Rangers or the Braves, and you can’t really say that any of the Angels’ games were meaningful, since they had a 55 game lead in August. Still, he’s shown a tendency to get better as the season goes on, and he doesn’t seem to care whether he’s facing the Rangers’ fifth starter or Josh Beckett – the dude just rakes. He was hitting late inning go ahead grand slams in Yankee Stadium a couple games after he joined the team. He also came in second in the league in WPA* which is incredible, considering he was only in the AL for 54 games.
*WPA means Win Probability Added. Basically, it’s a measurement of how a player’s at bats either added or subtracted to his team’s chances to win games. The higher the number, the better chance of wining your at bats gave your team (conversely, a negative number means your at bats actually made your team more likely to lose). So in aggregate, Tex’s at bats had a better positive effect on his team than everyone in the AL but Joe Mauer. That’s a pretty good indication this guy can perform in the clutch.
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I disagree about the Lackey/Santana thing. I am not at all worried that they got shelled in their last starts. I suppose it isn't desirable but I don't think that it will affect their confidence in anyway during the Sox series. If anything, I think it will be the Red Sox' prolific offense that has their confidence shaking.
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