Say it ain't so Andy.

The way Pettite has been treated by the Boss over the years, I can't say that I blame him.

Still, if one is a Yankee fan (unlike you Andrew), it hurts.

"...the Yankees are no longer looking quite so formidable in the AL East, while Boston's rotation of Martinez, Schilling, Lowe, Wakefield and Kim should be more than a match for the evil empire in 2004, barring injury."

Let me take this apart.

Martinez - He don't scare Yankee fans none. No siree. Take a look at his W-L record against the Yanks. Not so stellar is it.

Schilling - He's done, baby, cooked. Who gave up the tying home run to Soriano in the 2001 WS? He's no Rocket.

Lowe - Not as good as the knuckler Wakefield in the ALCS. Yanks owned his ass.

Wakefield - Aaron Boone.

Kim - Yanks fans jumped with joy when we found out he was gonna close for the Sox. 2001 WS. Up by two runs with two outs in the top of the ninth and he couldn't close it out. Twice, kid. Twice.

One more thing Andrew. The Cuban Missile.

Robert, are you are saying that a lineup that replaces Suppan and Burkett with Kim and Schilling scares you less than the one that was one out away from beating you last year? And that losing Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens doesn't make the Yankees less formidable?

All you did was compare the starting pitchers and say that the Yankees fared well against them. I think Andrew is commenting that a) our starting pitchers will be better than the Yankees over the full season -or- b) the Red Sox starters will have an advantage over the Yankees in a playoff series. I can't see how that is not the case.

You say Aaron Boone when looking at Wakefield, but he stymied the Yankees offense for the rest of that series, including two innings in game seven. You say that the Yankees don't fear Martinez, but he pitched 7 innings of 1 run ball in Game 7 of the ALCS. I'll give you Mussina, but the only other guy you had that continually stymied the Red Sox was Andy Pettite. That guy owned the Red Sox.

I was going to counter Robert's comments myself, but Enrak has already done so handily. In a short series, anything can happen. But I'll take Martinez/Schilling/Lowe/Wakefield/Kim over Mussina/Contreras/Vasquez/Weaver/Wells any day of the week. Your belief in isolated data points is touching, but over a full season the Red Sox starting five is now clearly superior (on paper) to that of the Yankees. If the Yankees pick up Brown they're in better shape, but I think the Red Sox still hold a slight edge. The real question in this race will be hitting, as a number of Red Sox had career years. So how each team fills in its lineup card remains a key question for next year.