this is not a Yankees bash-piece. The Yankees were clearly the best team in the American League. This is an American League bash-piece. Are we to believe that the Boston Red Sox, LA Angels and Minnesota Twins were the 3 best teams in baseball following the Yankees? Are we to believe that the Dodgers couldn't beat any one of them? i think not...
the American League is overrated. Most baseball pundits will tell you that A.L. has the most talent, the best managers and the best teams. They will tell you that any of the top 5 teams in the league could beat the best of the National League. They will quote All-Star game scores and inter-league winning percentage, but the N.L. has split the last 8 and have won 2 of the last 3. Chances are they will win this year's event...
there is a lot of talk about the Yankees lineup. It is indeed vaunted, but is it really anymore frightening than the Phillies? Jimmy Rollins and Derek Jeter are a wash. Rollins is actually more productive, with more HRs and RBIs, but i know better than to disrespect Derek Jeter. Shane Victorino is twice the player than Johnny Damon. Sure Damon has taken advantage of short porch in right and being in between Jeter and Mark Texiera, but Victorino has a C tattooed to his chest for clutch. Damon hasn't been clutch since he was beating the Yankees. Texiera and Chase Utley are pretty equal as well. Good at bats, good power. They say Utley is hurt which has followed him to the plate, but has Texiera been knocking the cover off the ball? And for all the MVP talk where was he in April when Alex Rodriguez convalescing? Next up is the real match up. A-Rod and Ryan Howard. No question they are the two offensive flash points in this series. A-Rod has risen from the outage he has had since game 4 versus the Red Sox in '04. This talk of how he hasn't been clutch in the post-season is a bunch of hype people forget how dominant he was in that '04 ALCS before he and the entire team choked away 3-0 lead. But this is A-Rod's first World Series—i'm just saying, things are a little different in the series. Howard would be the reigning World Series MVP if not for Cole Hamels doing his Sandy Koufax impersonation last year. He like A-Rod, is a beast. A wash again. We move on to Hideki Matsui and Jayson Werth. Matsui is good and has shown up in the clutch. Raul Ibanez has been more than the Phillies could ask for and newsflash, they didn't have Ibanez in this time last year, when they crowned themselve World Champs. And in a N.L. Park we might not see Matsui, and if we do, the Yankees are already in trouble. Jorge Posada is great offensive catcher but Werth is a stud. I'll take Werth here by a nose. Add Matt Stairs in A.L. games versus Robinson Cano. Cano can hit no doubt and gets the edge here, but Stairs is a dicey proposition if you are looking to pitch around Werth or Ibanez. The bottom of each lineup is pedestrian but you have to be careful with both Nick Swisher and Pedro Feliz. You can break apart the lineups anyway you want the fact of the matter is this—the Yankees are not playing the punchin' Judy lineups of the Twins or the Angels, they are playing a team that can hit the shit out of the ball and they don't go down easy...
the pitching staffs are pretty equal. i'll give CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett the nod over Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez. And if Hamels truly is having a lost year, Andy Pettite gets the edge their, but after that who do you have? Forget how CC will react to a three man rotation, we know he can do it, but what about Burnett? Is Posada going to sit those two games when the Yankees need all offense it can get? Joe Blanton is an innings machine and JA Happ pitched well vs the Yankees back in June, nerves?, maybe. But I will take either one of them over the alternatives in the Yankees rotation. As for the bullpens it all starts and ends with Mariano Rivera. He is the best there is and was. But he is all the Yankees can really depend on. Manager Joe Giradi has lost faith in the formula that has worked leading up to post season. Charlie Manual has an enigmatic Brad Lidge closing games for him. Lidge has been all over the map this season but has been focused thus far in two post season series. And while the Phillies bullpen has been just as unpredictable this season Manual is already used to navigating his way around its pitfalls. And oh, these guys all pitched in the World Series last year. The Yankees have but two guys in their entire pitching staff who can say that...
both teams are responsible defensively, but someone actually called the Yankees infield possibly the best ever—huh? I know the comment was made with the offense included but A-Rod is a good 3B, Pedro Feliz is better, range and arm. Derek Jeter has great hands but has limited range. Rollins makes every play and then some. Cano and Utley have both improved throughout their careers but they are both apt to boot a couple here and there. Texiera is in a class by himself and is the reason the Yanks get the nod in the infield defense department. However, on arm strength alone, the Phillies outfield defense dwarfs the Yanks. Carlos Ruiz is superior behind the plate. Posada calls a mediocre game and has trouble keeping the ball in front of him at times. Ruiz is a classic defensive stalwart. Both players can throw a runner out...
both benches are unimpressive, so i give the edge to the Phillies because the their bench wears rings on their fingers...
There is a lot of talk of the advantage the Yankees have due to the mystique of the new Yankee Stadium. Really? Because the Phillies really looked worried when they took 2 of 3 this past June. Its a small park, the wind is blowing in such a way that the ball flies out of the park. Sounds like Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Oh, and the Phillies are the World Champions and all, i think they can handle the stress...
so if the teams are so close how could i possibly prognosticate a five game win for the Phillies? i believe Cliff Lee is the best pitcher in baseball right now, he's red hot, and he will be dominant in winning game 1. Starting Pedro in game 2 is a stroke of genius. With the Phillies already up a game they don't need to go with Hamels on the road and Pedro, the game 7 starter in the '04 ALCS, might be a mind game more than anything else. Now, the Yankees will have to battle back in Philadelphia, where they booed Santa Claus. This is not Atlanta where they have to give away World Series tix to fill the stadium, they used to have a jail in there old ballpark will probably have a paddy wagon parked in the bullpens...
so Phillies in 5. you won't get that kind of prediction and analysis from any talking head on the TeeV, but you will get it from Jimmy Rollins. And take it from a Met fan, he has a pretty good track record for predictions...
but really, who cares if i'm wrong or even out of my mind? Who even knows if they will get the game in tonight? We got Knicks opening night, baby! Enjoy with a capital E. No tarp needed...
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