Jaylach said:
This is where I'm at, though probably a different place on the line.
So much of a team's success (in any league) depends on player health. The Red Sox were able to stay fairly healthy last year. How? Not their incredible medical staff but by having a lot of young (younger players typically get injured less) talent on the 25 man roster and then having a lot of young talent stashed away to deal with the inevitable injuries that will happen.
I don't see the Yankee's having any young talent nor all that much young talent stashed away in the minors. Fielding a starting 9 of 30 and over, with little to no real young talent to fill in when they get hurt, seems like a Red Sox fan's dream come true.
Not sure I would call a 30-34 yo old players that much more susceptible to injuries than 20 something players unless they have poor injury history.
I think WMB was the only starting position regular I would call young after Iggy moved on. Salty, Ellsbury who has had an injury history, and Pedroia were all 28-29. Napoli was 31 with a bad hip, Drew 30 coming off a bad ankle injury, Gomes 32 and Papi 37 off a bad achilles injury and Victorino at 32. They were not old but there were some players with a recent injury history.
The Yankees certainly were an older team, but 2 of their most serious injuries in season were to Granderson and Teixeira at age 32 and 33. Neither had a history with significant injuries
The Yankees in 2014 certainly have some older players in Beltran (RF) , Jeter (SS), Roberts (2B) and Soriano (DH). and Tex is coming off wrist surgery, while McCann has had some injury issues recently, as has Ellsbury . Neither Jeter nor Roberts going down is the end of the world IMO since their replacements may be as good if not better than I expect either to be, Yankees acquired a young guy in Dean Anna who could surprise at 2B. 410 OBP and 73 SB in AAA, albeit in the PCL last year, and Brendan Ryan at SS is not hard to take defensively. Ichiro as backup for Beltran is not great, and they don't really have much in terms of backup for Soriano or Tex. Gardner could move to CF if something were to happen to Ellsbury but that moves Soriano to LF. Yankees do have some young C prospects that could step up if McCann goes down. They are not in a good position to trade for help during the season though, not like the Red Sox
The Red Sox probably could not replace 38 yo Ortiz or 30 yo Pedroia, and injury prone Sizemore seems to be the back up for JBJ. I don't think XB is easily replaceable at SS with Iggy not around. However, they could pull off a trade in season by parting with some prospects or surplus pitching
Pitching wise, the Red Sox look a bit older than the Yankees, but they have plenty of depth. Yankees would be in trouble if either Kuroda (39) or the shrinking CC
go down. However, Pineda and Banuelos could be young depth that can help if they are fully recovered.
Some injuries can be anticipated or expected, others just come out of nowhere. Red Sox may be better positioned to handle injuries than the Yankees, but as we saw in 2010-2012, too many injuries can bring down any team.