Friday, May 9, 2008

Youkilis Remains Red Hot

Kevin Youkilis hit his fourth home run in the series, and Josh Beckett had another solid outing for Boston as they took 3 of 4 from the Tigers as my brother, Joey, predicted. This is not a bad way to start off the road trip.

I don't think it would be far fetched to see Kevin hit 30 homers and get to 100 RBI this season. He only continues to improve, and his versatility in the field makes him invaluable. Certainly he gets more accolades by playing in Boston, but luckily for Sox fans he isn't toiling in anonymity in Kansas City or Pittsburgh.

The Red Sox were able to knock around Justin Verlander and should have scored more than five runs off of him. No one is really sure what his issue is. I haven't seen him pitch much this year, but there is no question that his velocity is down. Still, even if his fast ball is around 93 mph instead of 96, he should be able to find a way to be effective. He just hasn't been able to reach back and throw in the triple digits when he needs to. The media has speculated that he may be hiding some kind of injury. Verlander has denied this, but it wouldn't be the first time a player has tried to dismiss injury rumors only to confirm the injury later.

On a side note, Josh Beckett recorded his 1,000th career strike out last night. He'll likely get to 100 wins sometime next season.

4 comments:

Joe said...

Youk is a great player. Could we get him on the All-star team this year please. Good offensive numbers and the best 1st baseman in baseball. Can I get a yoooooooook!

Dan said...

By that I hope you mean, best defensive 1st baseman. There is this guy named Pujols in St. Louis after all. I love the guy, trust me, but for a first baseman the power numbers aren't there. Perhaps they will be one day. The reason he's so good defensively is because he's not the lumbering clod that Jason Giambi and Big Papi are. He can also play third or the outfield as we know. If he were in KC like I said, he's not making any all-star team. He is a great all-around player to have on the roster though, and he's rapidly becoming my favorite player.

Joe said...

Yes. I was speaking purely from a defensive standpoint.

Dennis said...

Verlander was consistently at 97-99 mph with his fastball last year and the year before, and he never had great secondary stuff. So to drop from 98 to 93 is not as extreme as Zito dropping from 93 to 84, but possibly more difficult for Verlander, because he was so reliant on that 99 mph fastball.