Because I Can

That's right. The postseason matchups have been announced. And ladies and gents, here they are, with commentary.

American League
Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
Jim Leyland's bunch go up against the nastiest lineup ever. Seriously, Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada are at the bottom of the lineup. That's just sick. Sure the rotation's not much, but everyone's healthy just in time for the postseason, and they actually made it there despite missing Shef and Matsui. The Tigers have good defense and groundball pitchers, so that will continue to work to their advantage. Still, the Yankees look like the juggernaut.

Season Series: 5-2 Yankees

Starters:
Robertson vs Wang
Verlander vs Mussina
Johnson vs Rogers

Prediction: Yankees in 4


Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins
Wow, two teams that really picked it up later on in the season. The A's have been hot in the second half, but the Twins have been hotter. Shooting all the way to the top in a short run, they will be nasty to beat. The A's real weapons are their pitching, all the way through. The Twins have great pitching as well, particularly in Santana and Nathan, though if you look at their regular season numbers, you'll see how much better Liriano made them. There are some significant bats for the Twins as they've got batting leader Joe Mauer, as well as power bats Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau. The A's feature Nick Swisher and future hall-of-famer Frank Thomas.

Season series: 6-4 Minnesota

Starters:
Zito vs Santana
Haren vs Bonser
Garza vs Loaiza

Prediction: Minnesota in 5

National League
Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets
As far as lineups go, the Mets have the advantage of having the most home run power, but that isn't hard against the Dodgers. What makes this difficult for the Dodgers, though, is that the Mets have speed to match them. The Mets have speedsters in Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and Chavez, while the Dodgers have them in Furcal, Lofton, Lugo, and Martin (yes, the catcher). The Dodgers have been more dynamic in making changes to their pitching, though, as nobody in their bullpen started the year in the majors, and neither has their catcher. The Dodgers also upgraded their rotation by picking up Greg Maddux, while the Mets added Guillermo Mota to replace Duaner Sanchez. The Dodgers as a team seem to have the most balance, though. Their lineup, in particular, is well balanced with pretty good hitters 1-8 (unless Lugo starts). In the second half, it is worth noting that the Dodgers are hotter in the second half, although the Mets weren't a bad second half team either. Most critically, though, may be rotation depth. The Mets have El Duque and Tom Glavine for the front of the rotation, but the Dodgers have not only Lowe and Maddux, but also options with Penny, Billingsley, and Kuo, while the Mets have Steve Traschel, John Maine, and Oliver Perez.

Season series: 4-3 Mets

Lowe vs El Duque
Maddux vs Glavine
TBA vs TBA

Prediction: Dodgers in 4

St Louis Cardinals at San Diego Padres

The St. Louis Cardinals would have been the favorites in this series for the past few years, and the beginning of this year. Things have changed, though. The Padres got better. They made some nice offseason moves, acquired guys who will make the future bright, and got that Piazza fellow too. The Cardinals have seen Isringhausen tank, Eckstein and Edmonds battle injury, and their rotation diminish to dependence on Jeff Weaver. They still have Scott Rolen. They still have Chris Carpenter, and they still have Albert Pujols. But the Padres have Chris Young, Jake Peavy, Woody Williams, David Wells as starters, and a dependable back end of the bullpen. Pitching gets you through the postseason, so I'd go with the Pads.

Season series: 4-2 Padres

Starters
Carpenter vs Peavy
Suppan vs Young
TBA vs TBA

Prediction: Padres in 4

So my predictions for what you'll see next week are:

Dodgers at Padres
Twins at Yankees

The most exciting game to watch will be Thursday night's game, simply because it is the two lead pitchers of the Atlanta dynasty duking it out against each other.

Labels: MLB