Baseball - Post-Season

[WorkingForTheEnemy]

Ive posted this up in my thread in S+S as well. As it's more than just selections and a look at the post-season as a whole, I thought Id post it in here too to see what others think. As we have a night off I thought Id take a look at the post season situation. For those that dont know, this is how it works. Teams play a best of 5 game series. All the games are played at the home teams ballpark. The two winners then go on to face each other for the league championship.(Best of 7). The winners of each league championship then face each other in the World Series(Best of 7). AL Division series MIN (AL central winners) @ NYY (AL East winners) BOS (AL wildcard winners) @ ANA (AL West winners) MIN @ NYY NYY are 4-2 (3-0 at Yankee Stadium) These teams are from opposite ends of the spectrum. NYY went out in the offseason and spent big money obtaining A.Rod and Gary Sheffield to add to their already impressive aray of stars. MIN on the other hand had to let 4-5 of their main players go, not being able to afford them. Instead they brought in names that had under performed at other clubs. The main name amongst those being Santana, who has become one of the best starters in the game. NYY have gone without winning a World Series for 3 years, which is the same as Man Utd going the same time without the Premiership. They expect to at least get there, if not win it. MIN have beaten preseason expectations just by reaching the post season. The key here, as always in post season, could be the starting pitchers. MIN have Santana, who held NYY to 1 run in 5 innings last time they met. If MIN go with a 3 man rotation, NYY will have to deal with Santana twice unless they sweep the 1st 3. It'll have to be the Yankees offense that beat him as at he moment , none of their pitchers seem up to it. NYY saving grace, El Duque, troubled his shoulder in his last game against TOR and may not be fit to take part. The Yankees will be looking to take the 1st few games of the series to give him as much time to recover. If they don't manage this it may be too late by the time he's ready. Mussina can really hold his own on his day but nowadays no-one knows what day that is. If the the Yankees pitchers get their act together and their offense are on top form they'll be very hard to beat. If MIN take advantage of poor pitching and grind out runs they can be more than a match for them. I'm going to go and say that the Yankees offense have carried the side too long and this time they'll fall short. It'll be tight but Im gonna say 3-2 to the Twins.

[WorkingForTheEnemy]

Re: Baseball - Post-Season BOS @ ANA ANA are 4-5 (4-2 at Angel Stadium) Both teams have had their bad times and good times in the playoffs. Ask any BOS fan though and they might not actually recall the last good time. Still suffering from The Curse of The Bambino, BOS are determined to finally shake off the tag of almost rans. Despite qualifying via the wildcard, BOS finished the season with the 2nd best record in the AL, 3rd best in the Majors. With the middle of the lineup consisting of Martinez and Ortiz, along with Damon having a great year, it's no wonder that BOS have managed to outhit every other team in the majors. Most of the work was done in the second half of the season, going 50-26 since the start of July. All this amongst one of the most controversial transfers of the year, the release of Nomar Garciaparra. ANA left it late to secure their place in the playoffs. No fault of their own though, Texas and Oakland pushed them all the way both having over .500 seasons. A key part of ANA success has to go down to Vladimir Guerrero. With 39 HR and 126 RBI, Guerrero has been the engine room of the team, keeping them afloat even during bad patches. BOS will be leading off with post-season specialist Curt Schilling. Behind him is Martinez, who despite being in his worse losing streak for 10 years, who has picked up 16 wins this year. Arroyo is yet to experience the post season and Wakefield can easily go one of two ways. Washburn will be starting off for ANA. Colon, who had a great second half of the season will follow him with Escobar and Lackey due up after that. Escobar has not tasted post-season action to date. Lackey, despite having a hard time of it earlier in the year, seems to have turned his troubles round and getting closer to his best(especially at Angel Stadium). Again it'll be close to call but if the BOS bats stay as hot as they have been so far I can see them outhitting then Angels. I'm gonna go 3-1 to the Redsox.

[WorkingForTheEnemy]

Re: Baseball - Post-Season THE AL CHAMPIONSHIP If the Yankees make it past MIN, I'm sure they'll be favourites to beat either ANA or BOS. BOS will of course have The Curse working against them if it comes to that matchup, which is bound to ruin their chances again for another year. I'll go with this being MIN and BOS. Unsure of how it works for home advantage, which could play a big part. If it goes the whole distance BOS may have to face up to Santana 3 times but then theyve got Schilling and Martinez. I'm always worried with BOS about the amount of men they leave on base, despite them scoring the most runs in the majors. They seem to be more comfortable hitting runs rather than working them, which against good pitching and in the post season you need to do. Stealing bases and sacrifice bunts can make a huge difference post-season and it's not something BOS are all too familiar with. For the value Im going to have to suggest MIN to win the AL championship. Generally 4/1 at the moment, Ladbrokes go 9/2. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to take a look at the National League before the games get underway.

[zuzu]

... St. Louis @ Houston St. Louis Under 4.5 @ 1.85 Fonbet I found a very interesting bet. I think that St. Louis will not score more than 4 Runs against Oswalt today. R. Oswalt is today the Starting Pitcher on the mound for Houston. 2004 he has a 20-10 record and 3.49 ERA. And yesterday the St. Louis was really bad and scored only 2 Runs and I think Oswalt will make a good game and St. Louis not score more than 4 Runs. :drums