With spending $503 MIL on contracts this winter, however they are not as old of a club as they were last year. That doesn’t mean the problem won’t come back in future years, it just means this is their best year to compete for some time.

Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer): Follow @stokes_hunter21

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I am not a Yankees fan, and am definitely not a Red Sox fan either, however it is funny how this rivalry has captivated most baseball followers.

After this winter signings have occurred, I finally decided to do some investigating, because of all the venom fired towards the Bronx Bombers.

Immediately after Carlos Beltran signed, you saw, ‘hey, the Yankees are signing old fogies again.’

I also watched as Boston Red Sox Nation piled on the New York franchise for this.

So after reviewing both rosters, guess what….Both teams have similarly aged players.  It is almost dead on.

The majority of the Red Sox pitching unit is in their 30’s. Felix Doubront and often injured Clay Buchholz are the only Starters south of 30. Koji Uehara is 39, and tops the list of the relief core, all pretty much of 30. The offense is also aging with David Ortiz at 38 – and newly signed A.J Pierzynski at 37, joining Victorino, Gomes and David Ross already as guys over the 30 year old mark.  Last season, the club maximized its entire roster to end up winning the World Series.  The influx of young players like Bradley Jr, Bogaerts and Middlebrooks must pan out for this organization to have long term success.  Boston has 9 players on the last year of their contracts in 2014.

At Catcher, the Red Sox signed 37 year old Catcher A.J. Pierzynski, while New York inked 30 year old Brian McCann.

At First Base, Mike Napoli is 32, while Mark Teixeira is 34.

At Second Base, Dustin Pedroia is 30 and Brian Roberts is 36.

SS has the biggest discrepancy on the board with Derek Jeter playing at 40, and Xander Bogaerts listed as the starting SS.  The AL Rookie of The Year candidate is just 21 years old.

At 3B, Will Middlebrooks is 25 – and Kelly Johnson is 32.

DH stars Alfonso Soriano at 38 – while David Ortiz is 38.

CF – shows Jackie Bradley JR 24 – versus old Boston player Jacoby Ellsbury 30.

RF – Shane Victorino 34 – Brett Gardner 30.

LF – Carlos Beltran 36 – Jonny Gomes 33.

Bench NYY – Ichiro Suzuki – 40, Eduardo Nunez – 27, Brendan Ryan, 32 and Francisco Cervelli – 28 or Austin Romine – 25.

Bench BOS – David Ross – 37, Mike Carp – 28, Daniel Nava – 31 and Jonathan Herrera – 29.

SP #1 CC Sabathia – 33 vs Jon Lester 30.

SP #2 Masahiro Tanaka – 25 vs Clay Buchholz – 29.

SP # 3 Hiroki Kuroda – 39 vs Jake Peavy – 33.

SP #4  Ivan Nova – 27 vs John Lackey – 35.

SP #5 David Phelps – 25 vs Ryan Dempster – 37.

SP #6 Michael Pineda – 25 vs Felix Doubront – 26.

CL David Robertson – 29 vs Koji Uehara – 39.

RP Matt Thornton – 37 vs Edward Mujica – 30.

RP Shawn Kelley – 30 vs Craig Breslow – 33.

RP Preston Claiborne – 25 vs Junichi Tazawa – 29.

RP Adam Warren – 25 vs Burke Badenhop – 31.

RP Cesar Cabral – 25 vs Andrew Miller – 29.

The offense is considerably older yes.  but look at the pitching.  With Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera retiring last year, all of a sudden, the majority of the team’s staff is younger than 30.

Having said this, the Boston Bullpen is a lot better than the Yankees.  Also, the Red Sox have 9 guys with expiring contracts this year – and only one player that makes considerable money long term in Pedroia.

This study will also worsen for the New York Yankees as the years go by.  The Boston Red Sox management do not make many mistakes in signing old players to long-term deals.

However for 2014, the Yankees are not as old as you think.

Here are 28 potential players for the 25 man rosters as of right now.

The Red Sox have captured 3 Titles in the last 10 years, and have run a more efficient franchise from the business side of things – than their AL East counterpart New York. At least with their old players, they are all nearing the end of their deals, and are not signed to so much cash and years as the Pinstripers. For 2014, this rivalry should have renewed vigor.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com ***

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A big thank-you goes out to Our ‘Chief Writer‘ Hunter Stokes for preparing today’s featured article.  Hunter is a Baseball Writer for MLB reports.

Hunter grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia and played baseball with Sheldon Bream (Sid Bream‘s son) at Liberty University in the NCAA.

His favorite player is Brian Wilson (how could you guess?), and he hates when people can’t think outside the box!

His favorite expression – is ‘ this At Bat is about ten seconds away from a Toe – Tag!

You can reach Hunter on Twitter  Follow @stokes_hunter21

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