Back for more

Okay, so my computer broke... and I left all 3 of my faithful readers with nothing... So here I am... instead of ranting about the last month I'm just going from now... but the now hurts... Fear of the Sox tanking it is setting in "The Nation."

Have I gotten to why I hate the term "The Nation." yet? Guess not... but I'll get right on that have no fear...

OK anyway, - we all know what happened last night. All I can say is wow our bullpen and starters are about as good as I've been saying they are! Heaven forbid I have a realistic attitude about my team - I still maintain we are 2nd or 3rd best in our own division...

BUT even being 2nd or 3rd the Red Sox are in first. If they make a move watch your back Yankees fans..

May I remind you in '04 they were 10 back and still almost won the division. Never mind the ALCS and World Series.

That also brings to mind... Just look at the past five years... what happened to the division leader going into the all-star break? They won in the end.

So if history repeats itself (like Yankee fans like to say given the past 10 years and overall 26 championships....) the Red Sox, not the Yankees, have the edge, even if they go into a tie sometime soon...

So I am going to go back to my opinionated writing... less game by game ... more angry kind of crazy statements... todays topic? Varitek.

Everyone chill. I KNOW you love him... and you KNOW I have some major problems with him... but I've been looking through it all attempting to back up the fact that he is overrated, which I will stick to until the day I die... Here's why:

Common view: "I don't think Tek's that overrated. He's got a good bat - he can put it out, switch hit, control the team, and the pitchers. He's the Captain."


Reality:
1. Ranking and stats. He's the 15th best catcher in the majors... middle of the pack at best... yet this leads to him almost winning an all-star selection? He is somewhere around 350th ranked overall (though he started the season at 150... hey OVERRATED right there!!!) He is batting .241. He has 3 errors. In comparison Josh Bard has 1 and is batting .368. Mauer has 3 but is batting .373. McCann -3 and .343. Mauer and McCann are hands down better.Mauer has played in 78 games. Martínez (second highest ranked catcher) has played 85. Varitek? 73. which spans out to a 10 game and 24 game difference respectively. So in the end... Varitek doesn't have the defense everyone thinks he does... and certianly is missing any pop in his bat to make up for that.

2. He is the Derek Jeter of Boston. They see his intangibles and think he is THAT guy. But his numbers do NOT match up to famous or great catchers. You cannot make this gap up simply on intangibles. Something has to be THERE. Are you telling me you REALLY trust him with bases loaded? Come on people!!!! He has what 2 grand slams? One coming in the WBC

3. Sure he's the quiet leader of the team and pitchers love him and he works hard. But this doesn't change the fact that say, he doesn't have a great arm, his defense isn't like it is the best in the league, and he definitely isn't there offensively.

4. Sure he brings a great attitude... but it would be nice if he brought his bat as well. And his 47 strike outs this year are beautiful. He puts the K in teK. Don't even get me started on when he had a higher k/ab than Bellhorn.... right now it is sitting somewhere around 1 K for every 4 at bats....which is a VAST improvement from some past years... This year Manny almost has double Tek's strike outs... but at least he's put a few over the fence... Tek needs more than 9 homers at the break if he wants to K so much and carry such a low average...

The truth is numbers don't lie. He's a great guy, just not the best catcher. He does his job and I love him for that, but he's still overrated.

That being said... he does have 222 doubles, 9 triples, 128 HRs, 529 RBI, 24 stolen bases, .269 BA and a .451 slugging percentage. Over 9 years. Not hall of fame numbers... but a solid every day player. So next time he comes up think: he's a solid every day player... not he's the savior of "The Nation."