 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Garrett Rudolph, Section MLB
Well, folks, it's finally here. The baseball season has ended, award votes have been cast, and the playoffs are about to begin. The Astros and Phillies both made last-second runs at the postseason, but came up just short. The Dodgers put the pressure on the Padres to win their last game of the season, and San Diego responded by winning the game, and tying for the lead in the West. The Padres get the pennant on the basis of the tie-breaker, defeating the Dodgers in 13 of 18 meetings, a stat that might be worth remembering if they both win their opening round matches. Also, the last team to take the Wild Card on the basis of a tie in standings, but a loss of the tie-breaker, was the '04 Red Sox who beat the Yankees in seven, and swept the Cardinals in the Series. On the American League side, the Twins captured the AL Central pennant on the last day of the season, and will face the playoff-pitiful Oakland A's. Detroit, by reason of losing the Central pennant will have to face the mighty Yankees. One way or another, it should be an interesting couple of weeks. I, personally, have a busy schedule planned for the next three weeks- three games on Tuesday, three more games on Wednesday, two on Thursday... I might have to buy new couch cushions by the end of October. On a different note, this is the last MLB Power Rankings article of the season, and I'd like to thank everybody who's read the articles, and the people who have made comments. Enjoy the rankings, and a first round playoff preview, and as always, questions, comments, and complaints, are welcomed.
Minnesota Twins vs Oakland Athletics The Athletics are looking to break the Billy Beane curse of their inability to escape the first round of the playoffs, but the Minnesota Twins are standing in their way. Minnesota won the AL Central on the last day of the season, overcoming a 10-game deficit from the 1st of July. While this season was supposed to be the coming-out party for Oakland's youngsters like Nick Swisher, Bobby Crosby, Rich Harden, Huston Street, Joe Blanton, and Dan Haren, the focus of the last half of the season has been placed squarely on the Minnesota Twins' standouts: Joe Mauer, who became the first AL catcher to win a batting title; Justin Morneau, and his improbable hunt for the MVP; Francisco Liriano's explosion onto the scene; Johan Santana's dominant quest for a second Cy Young; and not to be ignored were the emergences of Michael Cuddyer, Nick Punto, and Boof Bonser. But, before you count out the Athletics, by saying they don't have Minnesota's momentum, or Minnesota's star-laden offense, or just that the A's can't win a postseason series, take a deeper look at Oakland's pitching. Zito is still an ace-caliber arm and didn't give up a run in his only outing against the Twins, earlier in the season. Rich Harden was injured for most of the season, but struck out 12 hitters in eight innings, during his two starts fresh off the DL. Dan Haren had outings where he looked dominant (and outings that he didn't). All in all, Oakland had the fourth best ERA in the AL, which is the good news. The bad news, however, is that the Twins had the second best. The key matchup of this series is between the closers. Huston Street's numbers look pretty good, with 37 saves and an ERA just over 3.00, but he did lose four games and blow 10 saves, second worst in the AL. Joe Nathan on the other hand, has been unshakable with a 7-0 record, 36 saves, and a 1.58 ERA. Nathan blew only two saves all season (fewest in the AL), and lead all closers in WHIP (0.79), batting average against (.158), and strikeouts per nine innings (12.51). If the Twins make a solid run in the playoffs look for Nathan to have a Rivera-esque postseason. If the Athletics are going to make a run, look for Street to do better than saving 79% of his chances. New York Yankees vs Detroit Tigers The Tigers had the best record in baseball for most of the season, but fell to playing mediocre baseball sometime in the dog days of summer. By the time the dust had cleared, they no longer had the best record in baseball, and by the time the season had ended, they no longer held the best record in the AL Central. As the Wild Card team, they will have to play the new team with the best record in the AL: the New York Yankees. The turning point for the Yankees was the acquisition of Bobby Abreu. Although they needed pitching more than anything, they acquired Abreu to fill in for Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui. Now that Sheffield and Matsui have returned the Yankees are looking at a $130 million lineup that is operating on all cylinders. The pitching staff still lacks luster, but Mike Mussina has plenty of playoff experience, and Chien-Ming Wang would be a Cy Young contender if Johan Santana hadn't won the Triple Crown. Randy Johnson is optimistic about pitching in game three, but it's hard to say if he will, or how effective he'll be. On the other side of the diamond, the Tigers have an offense full of free-swingers. They have the second fewest walks in the AL, and the second most strikeouts. Typically, teams that can boast these rankings are fishing in October, not playing baseball. The saving grace for the Tigers is that they have six players who have 19 or more homeruns (Granderson, Ordonez, Guillen, Inge, Monroe, and Thames), and top-to-bottom, the best pitching staff in the majors. There will be plenty of things to pay attention to in this series, even for the casual fan who doesn't care about Detroit or New York: the most dominant reliever of all time, Mariano Rivera; one of the most dominating pitchers of our era, and a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer, Randy Johnson; one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time, Ivan Rodriguez; Joel Zumaya's triple-digit fastball; and whether or not two-time MVP Alex Rodriguez continues to choke in prime-time situations. There will be plenty of things for the more fanatic baseball fans to watch as well. Pay attention to Bobby Abreu's command of the strike zone- he takes more at-bats to a full-count than anybody I've ever seen. Pay attention to the managing strategies of two great coaches, Joe Torre and Jim Leyland- particularly the way Leyland makes trips to the mound for purposes other than pulling the pitcher. Pay attention to Derek Jeter's immeasurable leadership qualities that likely won him the MVP this season. Watch Mussina's knuckle-curve, Rivera's cut-fastball, and Wang's sinker. Watch the composure of Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander, both only 23 years old. And if none of these things get your blood flowing faster than normal, you can always laugh at simple sexual innuendos involving Wang, Moose, and Johnson. New York Mets vs Los Angeles Dodgers Here's a brief history lesson for you. The last time the Dodgers were in the World Series was 1988. The last time the Mets won the NL East, was also 1988, when they lost the NLCS to the eventual world champion Los Angeles Dodgers. And 1988 was the last time the Dodgers won a playoff series. Many years before that, the Dodgers actually used to play in New York, but for some reason, at they didn't refer to themselves as the Los Angeles Dodgers until they moved to California. Go figure. Of course, none of this is relevant to who wins this series between New York and Los Angeles. The Mets have the best record in baseball, the third best pitching staff in the NL, three hitters with over 114 RBI, and the league's leading base stealer. However, this series might be more about what the Mets don't have than what they do. They don't have Pedro Martinez. Which means that Grady Little won't have a chance to leave him in the game one pitch too many. Okay, so that joke was terrible. I admit. But, in all honesty, Pedro's absence is huge for the outcome of this series. Without him the Mets will rely on a starting staff of Tom Glavine (wasn't he supposed to be done for the season?), John Maine (who?), Steve Trachsel (he's still pitching?), and Orlando Hernandez (is there anybody who actually believes he is only 36?). The Dodgers might not have a hard-hitting ballclub, but let's not forget they did hit four homeruns in seven pitches. And instead of coasting into the playoffs, the Dodgers are riding a seven game winning streak, with the pressure of their playoff future hanging in the balance. The whole key to this upcoming series is the Mets pitching, which means conversely, that the other key is the Dodgers lineup. While the Mets have three players who have over 25 homeruns, the Dodgers have zero. Nomar Garciaparra and JD Drew both lead the team with 20 homeruns each. The Dodgers will have to get good performances out of their young talent, Russell Martin (both offensively, and in keeping Reyes and Beltran under control), Andre Ethier, and Wilson Betemit, as well as veterans Rafael Furcal, Jeff Kent, Marlon Anderson, Garciaparra, and Drew. If one man is going to make or break this series, look for Carlos Beltran to duplicate his monster 2004 playoff series, when he hit eight homeruns in 12 games. St. Louis Cardinals vs San Diego Padres At this point the Cardinals have to be thanking God for allowing them to even get into the playoffs. But, now that they've made it, anything can happen. Obviously the Cardinals have the most explosive offensive weapon in this matchup- quite frankly, they have the most explosive offensive weapon of all teams in the playoffs: Albert Pujols. Unfortunately for them, he seems to be their only offensive weapon and their pitching isn't all that great either. Former Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter looked great for most of the season, but struggled twice in huge games down the stretch. Jeff Suppan is probably their second-best pitcher, and any team that goes into the playoffs with Jeff Suppan as their second-best pitcher had better have an offense to supply the backup. Jason Isringhausen is injured, so there is some question as to who will take over the closing duties, so if the Padres can keep it close for the majority of the game, they could make a few late-inning comebacks. The Padres major flaw is their floundering offense. Where the Cards have one bat that needs to be feared, the Padres really don't have any. Mike Piazza and Brian Giles are the most consistent hitters on the team, but Piazza doesn't play every day and Giles hit only 14 homeruns, his lowest total since 1996, when he only played 51 games. The pressure of the offense will fall on the young shoulders of Khalil Greene, Josh Barfield, and Adrian Gonzalez. Greene got his playoff feet wet last year, but Barfield and Gonzalez will be making their postseason debuts. The true strength of the Padres, however, is their pitching staff, top to bottom. Jake Peavy and Chris Young both show young, raw, ace-quality stuff, and their bullpen of Scott Linebrink, Alan Embree, Cla Meredith, Scott Cassidy, and Brian Sweeney is the best in the major leagues. Oh, and let's not forget, Trevor Hoffman, who is, with all due respect to Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all time. Rivera has the postseason numbers, but in terms of regular season statistics, Hoffman has more career saves, and a higher career save percentage (90% vs 88%), and has been doing it for a longer period of time, as well. If the Cardinals can defeat the Padres in this series, several things will have happened. The Cardinals hitters will have proven that they are more than just one man. That means Scott Rolen proving he can do a viable job protecting Pujols. That means Jim Edmonds turning around an entire season of injuries and inconsistency. That means role players like David Eckstein, Juan Encarnacion, and Preston Wilson coming up with key hits in key situations. The second thing that must have happened is that the Cardinals bullpen held their ground. Adam Wainwright will likely be closing games, but he has only saved three career games. This stat might be blown out of proportion, though, because, remember, Bobby Jenks only had six career saves before dominating the '05 playoffs with the White Sox. The rest of the 'pen, including former closer Braden Looper, has been good at times, but never stellar. They'll need outstanding numbers and a lot of innings if the Cardinals are going to get out of the first round, or more so, if they're going to make a World Series run. Predictions Divisional Series Minnesota defeats Oakland in 4 New York defeats Detroit in 3 Los Angeles defeats New York in 5 San Diego defeats St. Louis in 4 League Championship Series Minnesota defeats New York in 7 San Diego defeats Los Angeles in 7 World Series Minnesota defeats San Diego in 6
Story writing contestLog in or create an account to vote for this story!
All trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective leagues and associations. The Rest © Sportscolumn.com / Cow Hollow Media, LLC. Please read our Terms of Service. Sportscolumn.com is powered by Scoop.
|
Related Links |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
