We made it through the first round of the baseball playoffs. In all four series the higher seed prevailed and we are left with two pretty good League Championship Series. Yankees/ Angels provides us with the two best teams in the AL. New York is hot, but LA will be flying high after finally vanquishing the Red Sox in a playoff series. In the NL, we have a rematch of last years NLCS. The Dodgers will be hungry and Philly wants to get back to the ultimate prize.
Here are the projected lineups for each team along with my pick for the result. In the lineup comparison the player that I feel has the advantage at each position will be in all caps.
ALCS
New York Yankees Los Angeles Angels
Man: Joe Girardi MIKE SCIOSCIA
C JORGE POSADA Mike Napoli
1B MARK TEIXEIRA Kendry Morales
2B ROBINSON CANO Maicer Izturis
3B ALEX RODRIGUEZ Chone Figgins
SS DEREK JETER Erick Aybar
CF Melky Cabrera TORII HUNTER
LF JOHNNY DAMON Juan Rivera
RF Nick Swisher BOBBY ABREU
DH Hideki Matsui VLADIMIR GUERRERO
L-PH BRETT GARDNER Gary Matthews
R-PH Jerry Hairston HOWIE KENDRICK
SP CC SABATHIA John Lackey
SP AJ BURNETT Joe Saunders
SP ANDY PETITTE Jered Weaver
SP Joba Chamberlain (maybe) SCOTT KAZMIR
L-setup Phil Coke DARREN OLIVER
R-setup PHIL HUGHES Kevin Jepsen
Closer MARIANO RIVERA Brian Fuentes
The Angels will not be scared of the Yankees. Many of the players were on the 2005 team that beat the Yankees in the Divisional round. That being said, the Yankees starting rotation has to be considered more playoff ready and the Angels cannot compete with the Yankees offensive firepower. The Angels will need to score by generating runs with speed. It probably won’t be enough.
PICK: Yankees in 6
NLCS
Los Angeles Dodgers Philadelphia Phillies
Man: JOE TORRE Charlie Manuel
C RUSSELL MARTIN Carlos Ruiz
1B James Loney RYAN HOWARD
2B Ronnie Belliard CHASE UTLEY
3B CASEY BLAKE Pedro Feliz
SS Rafael Furcal JIMMY ROLLINS
CF Matt Kemp SHANE VICTORINO
LF MANNY RAMIREZ Raul Ibanez
RF ANDRE ETHIER Jayson Werth
L-PH JIM THOME Greg Dobbs
R-PH MARK LORETTA Miguel Cairo
SP CLAYTON KERSHAW Cole Hamels
SP VICENTE PADILLA Pedro Martinez
SP Hiroki Kuroda CLIFF LEE
SP Randy Wolf JA HAPP
L-setup GEORGE SHERRILL Scott Eyre
R-setup RONALD BELISARIO Ryan Madson
Closer JONATHAN BROXTON Brad Lidge
This rematch will be exciting from beginning to end. Both teams showed they had no quit in them in come from behind victories i at least one game in the previous series. The batting is pretty even, as evidenced by the fact that I gave each team the advantage at 4 starting positions. The Dodgers are hoping that Manny starts to hit a little better than he has recently. If they can get that, the deciding factor will be the Dodgers pitching. Philadelphia has the bigger names in Hamels and Lee, but I think the Dodger starters are just as quality. The real difference will come once the starters are out. LA has depth and versatility in its bullpen that the fragile Phillies just can’t match.
PICK: Dodgers in 6
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