February 29, 2004

Green Light Means Go. Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA projection for the AL East:
Team        Record   RS    RA     Diff  Deficit

Yankees 105-57 920 654 +266 0
Red Sox 105-57 922 661 +261 - 5
Blue Jays 84-78 856 826 + 30 -236
Orioles 82-80 789 773 + 16 -250
Devil Rays 64-98 712 900 -188 -454
Will Carroll has BP's Red Sox Team Health Report: "Pedro gets a yellow light based on injury history, but honestly, he's much less likely than last year to come up lame. ... Four years removed from his shoulder surgery, Schilling may surprise people by being a green light player ... Kim's yellow light is cautionary, but again, like last year, there is a greater chance of him breaking out than breaking down. ... [T]he only red light on the team is prodigal DH Ellis Burks [but] as a platooned DH, he's also very unlikely to play so much that he injures himself. ... For Varitek, position and age are enough to push him slightly into the yellow. ... When I sat down to go through all the factors, I fully expected the Sox to look as colorful as the Yankees THR. Instead, there's enough green in that lineup to cover the Monster--and perhaps enough to get past the 'Evil Empire' once and for all."

Dan LeBatard, Miami Herald, on the "caveman culture of sports": "You will find more homophobia per square foot in a professional sports locker room than you will find just about anywhere else in America outside of a Klan meeting ... So while homosexuality makes that arduous walk toward America's altars ... you still won't find it anywhere near here, in the locker room where being a felon, rapist or cheat remains preferable to being gay."

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