More starting pitching

I made a point earlier in the off-season, and I seem to have missed it in my evaluation of the starting pitchers for Boston and New York. But I was thinking about this today, as I saw that Kevin Brown might miss his first start.

I have made it clear that I like the Red Sox staff better than the Yankee staff. Johnson's the best pitcher on either staff, but I think that Boston's got a solid 5, while I don't trust either Pavano or Wright. (I keep seeing people comment on Clement moving from the NL to the AL, but no one seems to have noticed that the same is true for Pavano, Wright and Johnson.)

In any event, one of the big edges that the Red Sox have is depth. The Yankees have got five starters, assuming that they stay healthy. That's a huge assumption for Kevin Brown. It's probably a big one for Randy Johnson, who's got no cartilage in one of his knees. And if one of them goes down, or the aliens that inhabited Jaret Wright's body last year flee, they've got nothing. Tanyon Sturtze? Please. Whereas the Red Sox are 6 deep to start with (though Miller's not ready yet, Schilling will be before they need a fifth starter.) And they've got a John Halama, if need be, for an emergency start.


Update: Now Brown's gone on to the DL.