To this point, this has been one of the more unimpressive postseasons of recent memory for MLB. I could be a little partial since I am a BoSox and Astros fan and both teams underachieved miserably this year but looking at the remaining teams and matchups there’s not much to be desired.
With that being said if I could pick a World Series matchup of the teams left I would love to see a Dodgers-Yankees WS, and have Joe Torre stick it to his old club.
That could be a bit difficult though with the Dodgers playing the defending champion Phillies in the NLCS. If there’s one thing LA has going for them though, its confidence. The Dodgers are fresh off defeating the best starting rotation in the majors in Carpenter, Wainwright and others and should be able to sleep a little easier knowing that the best staff is now behind them. One thing the Phillies do have is an offense, and a very good one at that. With four sluggers with more than 30 home runs this season, four speedsters with more than 20 steals and a frontline rotation of Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ, the Phillies are a force to be reckoned with.
That being said, the Phillies are very average in just about everything else. The team doesn’t have a batter who averages at least .300, the Dodgers have several at or above .300, the Phillies don’t have a dominate bullpen, The Dodgers have one of the best in baseball behind Jonathan Broxton, George Sherrill and an assortment of others and also the Phills don’t have Manny Ramirez.
Ok, so maybe Manny is a goofball that has been caught taking steroids. Maybe he does make the occasional fielding mistake and tries to intercept balls intended for the cutoff man at shortstop. Regardless, the guy flat out produces when the game is on the line and a World Series is at stake. He was 4-13 against the Cardinals, with a .308 average and 2 RBI. That doesn’t sound like much, but the team won. This guy motivates his SoCal teammates and gets maximum effort out of them and I’m thinking it’s going to be more of the same for this series.
The Dodgers might not have the “pop” that the Phillies have, but this team can play some efficient fundamental baseball. The games will likely be close for the first 7 innings or so but if I’m the Phillies, I’m scarred to hand the ball over to the bullpen, especially Brad Lidge. Lidge only notched 31 saves, with 11 blown saves and an ERA over 7!
If Lee and Hamels can throw complete games and both win the first two games of the series, then the Phills have a good chance of winning, if not, the Dodgers win in 4 games.
As for the Yankees-Angels series, all of the weight lies solely on A-Rod’s shoulders. Well not all of it, but most of it. If A Rod can build on his very impressive series against the Twins in which he went 5-11 with 2 homers and 6 RBI, and match even half of that production then the Yanks will win this series handedly.
The Yankees, on paper, should dominate all aspects of the game, as much as I hate to say it. The only strength the Angels have is their speed on offense. LA has six players with double digit steals including 42 from Chone Figgins and 30 from former Yankee Bobby Abreu. The older catching duo of Jorge Posada and Jose Molina will have their work cut out for them when it comes to holding the runners, but the Angels will have to get on base before they can steal a base and that may be hard to do on a very good Yankee pitching staff.
In the end the Halo’s will likely win 1 game before the Yanks just slam the door on them.
What to expect? Expect a competitive NL series decided by some error or blown save and and expect the Yankees to walk all over the Angles. Then watch A Rod piss his pants when he sees Joe Torre in the World Series and the Dodgers win it all.
