New York Yankees versus Boston Red Sox 2018: Strength against strength
By Cory Claus
The Yankees and Red Sox start their season-long fight for AL East supremacy tonight. And the winner will be born from whichever GM did a better job constructing his roster.
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have currently constructed rosters that are diametrically opposed. Whereas the strength of the Sox is Cy Young-level left-handed pitching, the Yankees main asset is the most powerful right-handed line-up in recent memory.
And this season fans of both teams will be treated to 19 contests to see which GM built the better club. What is most surprising, though, is that neither super-team was built to beat the other.
When the Houston Rockets drafted 6’11” center and future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984 to go with 7’4” power forward Ralph Sampson, they created the Twin Towers. The perennial powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers felt the need to respond.
So, they immediately added 7’5” center Chuck Nevitt to give the Lakers other big man, future Hall of Famer 7’1” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, some help in the middle. Teams are often built for these kinds of reactionary reasons.
It might be natural, therefore, to assume that either the home-run hitting righties for the Yankees or the flame-throwing lefties for Boston were added to counter the other; not true.