Plenty Of Intrigue, As Always, To The First Yanks-Sawx Series Of The Season

(Courtesy of whoever did this originally.  Thing is baller)

The best rivalry in baseball heats up again tonight when the Yankees and Red Sox hook up for the first of what will be a 4-game weekend series.  Both teams are 4-5 to start their respective seasons and both teams have some disappointing and unexpected results that put them there.  The Yankees lost 2 of 3 to the Astros and lost the last 2 games at home to the Orioles heading into this series.  The Sawx got swept by the Brewers in their home-opening series.  Needless to say, neither of these teams is off to the start they were hoping for.

What adds to the importance (as important as an early April intra-league series can be) of this series is the vastly different offseasons each of these clubs had.  The Yankees are coming off a high-spending offseason in response to their failure to make the postseason in 2013, part of which included signing former Red Sock Jacoby Ellsbury to a very lucrative 7-year deal.  The Sawx had a relatively quiet offseason, losing more guys than they replaced externally and instead trying to re-up this year through prospects and returning internal young players.  They're still trying to find their footing, but they're also still the 2 big swinging dicks in the AL East, no matter what Tampa Bay has to say about it.  tarting tonight we get our first idea of how much each of them is still swinging...

P.S.- I'm really hoping somebody on the Yankee pitching staff remembers the A-Rod beaning from last year.  Last time I checked, they still owe Boston one for that nonsense.