Stat of the day: facing the Bombers

By Matthew PouliotAug 26, 2011, 4:40 PM EDT
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61 pitchers have started at least five games versus the Yankees since the beginning of 2007.  Here are the best and worst of the results, ranked by ERA:

Best
1. A.J. Burnett: 4-1, 1.35 ERA (seven starts)
2. Felix Hernandez: 6-1, 2.04 ERA (eight starts)
3. Cliff Lee: 4-1, 2.55 ERA (six starts)
4. Brian Matusz: 2-3, 2.56 ERA (five starts)
5. Roy Halladay: 9-3, 2.85 ERA (15 starts)
6. Jon Lester: 8-2, 3.06 ERA (14 starts)
7. Jarrod Washburn: 1-3, 3.06 ERA (five starts)
8. Jeff Niemann: 3-0, 3.10 ERA (five starts)
9. Francisco Liriano: 1-3, 3.22 ERA (six starts)
10. Scott Kazmir: 6-3, 3.36 ERA (12 starts)

Worst
1. Brian Bannister: 1-3, 13.26 ERA (five starts)
2. Trevor Cahill: 0-4, 10.95 ERA (five starts)
3. Brad Bergesen: 0-4, 9.25 ERA (five starts)
4. Marc Rzepczynski: 1-2, 8.86 ERA (five starts)
5. Derek Holland: 0-4, 8.78 ERA (five starts)
6. Chris Tillman: 1-3, 8.71 ERA (five starts)
7. Jason Vargas: 0-3, 8.14 ERA (five starts)
8. Fausto Carmona: 1-5, 7.52 ERA (eight starts)
9. Jose Contreras: 0-5, 7.52 ERA (five starts)
10. Paul Byrd: 2-3, 7.36 ERA (five starts)
11. Tim Wakefield: 3-4, 7.27 ERA (10 starts)
12. Gio Gonzalez: 1-4, 7.27 ERA (five starts)
13. John Danks: 2-3, 7.11 ERA (six starts)

Josh Beckett, the winningest pitcher against the Yankees with an 11-5 record the last five years, doesn’t make either list with his 4.78 ERA in 22 starts.

Honorable mention goes to Oliver Perez, who was 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA in his four starts against the Yankees.

Red Sox employees “livid” over team pay cut plan

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By Craig CalcaterraMay 30, 2020, 7:09 AM EDT
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Even Drellich of The Athletic reports that the Boston Red Sox are cutting the pay of team employees. Those cuts, which began to be communicated last night, apply to all employees making $50,000 or more. They are tiered cuts, with people making $50-99,000 seeing salary cut by 20%, those making $100k-$499,000 seeing $25% cuts and those making $500,000 or more getting 30% cuts.

Drellich reported that a Red Sox employee told him that “people are livid” over the fact that those making $100K are being treated the same way as those making $500K. And, yes, that does seem to be a pretty wide spread for similar pay cuts. One would think that a team with as many analytically-oriented people on staff could perhaps break things down a bit more granularly.

Notable in all of this that the same folks who own the Red Sox — Fenway Sports Group — own Liverpool FC of the English Premier League, and that just last month Liverpool’s pay cut/employee furlough policies proved so unpopular that they led to a backlash and a subsequent reversal by the club. That came after intense criticism from Liverpool fan groups and local politicians. Sox owner John Henry must be confident that no such backlash will happen in Boston.

As we noted yesterday, The Kansas City Royals, who are not as financially successful as the Boston Red Sox, have not furloughed employees or cut pay as a result of baseball’s shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps someone in Boston could call the Royals and ask them how they managed that.