Yanks vs. Sox 2006 Position Player Comparison: Scrabble Edition

Since YF offered one inane breakdown, I thought I'd go him one further and look at the player by player matchup in a different way.  So herewith is the first ever (as far as I know) Sox vs. Yanks Scrabble Breakdown.  No double or triple word scores involved.

• C: Varitek vs. Posada - Varitek takes this 14 to 9, thanks to a V and a K. Though we're pretty sure who will have more Ks by year's end.
• 1B: Youkilis vs. Giambi - The GGoW with the 4 point edge, 15-11.  We love those wacky languages!
• 2B: Loretta vs. Cano - The girly man takes the raker, 7-6. Sophomore slump, of course.
• SS: Jeter vs. Gonzalez - Two "z"'s? Are you kidding?  A-Groid takes it 27-12. Total domination of the alphabet.
• 3B: The best player on earth returns the favor to the Beantowners, pounding Lowell 20-9. He's not just a pretty face, you know.
• LF: Ramirez vs. Matsui - Another "z"! Manny zzzzzs his way to an 18-8 throttling.
• CF: Crisp vs. Damon - We prefer the newcomer. More bang for the buck. 9-8 in an equal 5 letters.
• RF: Nixon vs. Sheffield - 19-12 to the aging grump, but we think the Yankee rightfielder might have used one of those clear tiles, perhaps unknowingly.
• DH: Ortiz vs. Williams: Please.  We could shorten it to "Tiz" just to give Bernie a chance and he'd only barely scrape by. 14-13 Papi.

So there it is - 7-2 Sox, in an easy win, and through an analysis ever more objective (but just as useless) as YF's.

UPDATE:  Promoted from the comments, BoSoxBob continues the analysis with the pitchers:

Why stop with the lineups? Let's look at the rotations:

• #1: Johnson over Schilling (16-15): A tough battle of old warriors.
• #2: Beckett over Mussina (15-9): Youth is served.
• #3: Wakefield over Pavano (20-11): The Yankees never could handle the knuckler (excepting AFB, who was never a real Yankee anyway).
• #4: Chacon over Clement (13-11) - Yeah, Clement sucks, but at least he's better than Wells (8).
• #5: Papelbon over Wang (14-8) - YF may argue that this is Arroyo's spot, but he would still beat Wang 9-8.

That's a 3-2 Sox edge in starters. Now, for the pen:

• Closer: Foulke over Rivera (13-9) - Yet another sign that Foulke will return to his former level of dominance.
• Set-Up: Farnsworth over Timlin (19-8) - You have to give Cashman credit for this signing, replacing the weaker Gordon (8).
• Swing Man: Arroyo over Small (9-7): Should we be expecting huge fall-offs from these two guys in 2006?
• LOOGY: Myers over DiNardo (10-9) - Yet another sign that non-tendering Myers was a mistake.
• 7th Inning(1): Sturtze over Seanez (16-15): Now we know why the Yankees keep this guy around.
• 7th Inning(2): Tavarez over Villone (19-10): The Sox answer the Farnsworth signing with one of equal value.

Looks like it's a push here at 3-3. BTW YF, don't expect much help from Dotel (6) this season.

Comments

[YF]

A dubious analytical tool, to be sure. But this result does seem apt:

Yanksfan = 18
Soxfan = 16

[SF]

Yes, but I have a far superior 2.67 per tile average to your lowly 2.25!

[Beth]

now i am in awe.

[Sox Fan in VT]

Brilliant.

[Hudson]

I see that YF is no big hurry to post about Pavano's aching back.

[YF]

RECOUNT! With the 50 point bonus for using all of our letters...

Yanksfan = 68
Soxfan = 16

Also, we've put it down on a triple word score, so you're going into the season already down 204-16. Ouch.

[tom yf]

Check this out from yankees.com's fantasy breakdown:

"And on the seventh day, God rested. Having created the heavens and the Earth, the seas and all they contain, He ceased all labors. But the seventh day being a Sunday, and with all of His fantasy teams playing, He needed a shortstop. So God created Derek Jeter, and blessed him, and said unto him, be fruitful. And Jeter was good. Jeter held dominion over opposing pitchers (.309 average in 2005), was plentiful in power (19 homers and 70 RBIs), and moved over the earth (14 steals) and across home plate (122 runs). And God blessed Jeter, and sanctified him, and said to Roto owners everywhere, make Jeter your No. 1 middle infielder."

[SF]

No double or triple word scores involved

Like the Boss, YF just can't seem to follow the rules of the land. Presidential Pardon, anyone? Or should we just start calling YF "Scooter"?

[Ben Zimmer]

Well, with this line of analysis the lowly Royals would blow away the Yanks and Sox-- they've got Mientkiewicz AND Grudzielanek!

[YF]

Good point Ben. Sounds like they're going to need Vanna White to coach 3rd.

[Scott Janssens]

You can't spell "Gonzalez" in Scrabble. There's only one "z" tile.

[BosoxBob]

You can't spell "Gonzalez" in Scrabble. There's only one "z" tile.

You can with a blank tile. So even minus the extra 10 points, AGonz still beats Jeter 17-12. (BTW, this is just further proof that it's ARod, not Jeter that should be at short. Then, the Yanks would have a 20-17 win at SS and a 12-9 win at 3B.)

Why stop with the lineups? Let's look at the rotations:

• #1: Johnson over Schilling (16-15): A tough battle of old warriors.


• #2: Beckett over Mussina (15-9): Youth is served.


• #3: Wakefield over Pavano (20-11): The Yankees never could handle the knuckler (excepting AFB, who was never a real Yankee anyway).


• #4: Chacon over Clement (13-11) - Yeah, Clement sucks, but at least he's better than Wells (8).


• #5: Papelbon over Wang (14-8) - YF may argue that this is Arroyo's spot, but he would still beat Wang 9-8.

That's a 3-2 Sox edge in starters. Now, for the pen:

• Closer: Foulke over Rivera (13-9) - Yet another sign that Foulke will return to his former level of dominance.


• Set-Up: Farnsworth over Timlin (19-8) - You have to give Cashman credit for this signing, replacing the weaker Gordon (8).


• Swing Man: Arroyo over Small (9-7): Should we be expecting huge fall-offs from these two guys in 2006?


• LOOGY: Myers over DiNardo (10-9) - Yet another sign that non-tendering Myers was a mistake.


• 7th Inning(1): Sturtze over Seanez (16-15): Now we know why the Yankees keep this guy around.


• 7th Inning(2): Tavarez over Villone (19-10): The Sox answer the Farnsworth signing with one of equal value.

Looks like it's a push here at 3-3. BTW YF, don't expect much help from Dotel (6) this season.

[Nick]

impressive analysis, BSBob, but I think Wright would fill the role of swingman instead of Small, and thus swing the advantage to the Yanks in the bullpen.

By the way, this definitely explains why both the Sox and Yanks both wanted Javier Vazquez over Schilling.

[anil]

Hi, there is an excellent site for getting help with words.Check it out at

www.wineverygame.com

It provides oppurtunity to gather information and to talk about literacy.