As I said last week, I'm not really serious about predictions. That said:
NLCS: I think the Dodgers are going to win because until I actually see Ryan Howard and Chase Utley play in the postseason like they played in the regular season, I'm not going to believe they can. You can only rely on Shane Victorino so long. In contrast, I have this feeling that the thousands of little Martians that live inside and operate the manlike-machine that is Manny Ramirez are motivated to return to Boston for the end-of-days confrontation with Red Sox fans, so they'll no doubt program him to rake.
ALCS: Not that the Red Sox will necessarily make it. Indeed, I'm inclined to believe that the Rays will prevail here. Why? They give me Florida Marlins vibes. I think Scott Kazmir is going to be Josh Beckett circa 2003, and of course, Josh Beckett isn't Josh Beckett anymore. Youkilis, Pedroia, and Ortiz were all cold in the ALDS. That doesn't mean they'll stay that way in this series -- unlike Howard and Utley, they all have track records of turning it on when it matters -- but I just kinda have a feeling that, like, two of them won't.
Of course I'm a sucker for the big story just like everyone else is, so seeing a Dodgers-Red Sox matchup will probably be how my very casual rooting interests lean, but I'm certainly not going to be a fanatic about it.
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10 comments:
BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Go Phitins'!!! Stick it to Craig!
I hope they do, bigcats. At least to make it a tight, hard fought series. I'm ultimately so lukewarm on either of the two teams that I'm rooting for good baseball far more than I'm rooting for anything else.
Yeah, I'm rooting for good baseball too, and I bet we'll get it. These teams seem pretty evenly matched (insofar as neither is a runaway favorite, like, say, the Tigers over the Cardinals in '06). I think we could have some nail-biting pitching duels as well as slug-fests with constant lead changes. Here's hoping for a seven game series.
Kazmir won't pull a Josh Beckett with all those walks. He's a left-handed Dice-K. Five or six nerve-wracking, but ultimately strong innings. They've actually had very similar stats the last two years.
The Rays give you good vibes, huh? Well then, the Sox ARE doomed.
I think that series goes 7, and the Sox pull it off...some punk move by those little tikes in Tampa (perhaps precipitated by a Beckett plunking) proves to be the tipping point in making Ortiz angry; they won't like him when he's angry.
That would be a great game one match up- Dice-K and Kaz. It would be a 6 hour game leaving us all numb and hungover, with a final score of 13-9
APBA Guy-
Quality opposition exposes a team's weaknesses. Ex: Boston exposed Anaheim's defensive shortcomings in the LDS. Anaheim exposed Boston's injury riddled offense.
Tampa Bay has too little depth. They certainly can win, if their front nine can hold up and score 5 runs a game. I don't think their pitchers can hold Boston to 3 or less on average. But this is really an even series so it should be great fun.
Speaking of the possibility of a Dodgers/Red Sox series, does anyone know definitively who gets Championship Rings. A friend of mine is concerned that in a Sox/Dodgers scenario, Manny would be guaranteed an actual ring either way. I wasn't sure if he would get one if the Sox won. Anyone know for sure?
It's up to the team, and history says the Red Sox are generous with rings - in an analogous situation, Nomar got one in '04. Of course, that was 2004, and the Sox felt like giving one to absolutely everybody they could justify. Whether they'd give one to Manny this year might be a different story, but I think that an organization that raffles them off to fans will give one to anyone who stepped on the field wearing the uniform to avoid the public relations hit of dissing anybody.
Yeah but with Manny they should probably make the exception seeing as when he stepped on the field in uniform he wasn't really there....
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