Yanks/Halos ALCS Preview!

Weather forecasts speculate that the next two days in the Bronx will have you running to grab a hot cup of swiss miss...However, the series between the 103-win Yankees and 97-win Los Angeles Angels will, without a shadow of a doubt, be nothing short of a scorcher....










The Yankees steamrolled through the regular season and made short work of the Twins, but if there's one team that is sure to give the bombers a run for their money...it's Mike Scioscia's Angels squad...a squad that finally managed to beat the Boston Red Sox in an ALDS; something they could not accomplish in 2004, 2007 or 2008.






Both of these offenses are nothing short of dominating...The Yanks come at you with straight up power...Jeter and Posada have been their typical postseason selves....AROD has used the Kate





Hudson treatment to become the new Captain Clutch, hitting 2 HR and 6 RBI in the ALDS; including that game-tying 2-run jack in the 9th inning of game 3...However, the rest of the lineup combined to hit .140 in the opening round against the likes of Carl Pavano...that won't fly with a stellar Angels rotation...











The Angels offense comes at you with power as well, but they also have more speed than the Yanks...L.A.A has a team that can get you with small ball and are among the best with getting runners from first to third...Bobby Abreu has gotten off to a hot start this postseason and playing against his old club will certainly fuel the fire..I also think that Vlady has got one more flash in the pan...free agency is looming for him you know...







I give the Starting pitching edge to the Angels because a) they're sending out 4 starters in this series that are capable of shutting down the yanks and b) one of those starters is this man to the right.................



John Lackey, who is two postseason wins away from getting monster money in free agency next season, hurled a gem in game 1 of the ALDS and beat the Yankees in the only time they faced him this year...The losing pitcher of that same game? C.C Sabathia..



Joe Girardi's decision to only use three starters shows me that a) he has no faith in throwing Joba or Chad Gaudin out there in a tight series and b) he's legitimately scared of the Angels....Although he looked good in his first postseason start this year, he lost both of his games started against L.A.A this year and didn't look all that great doing so....A.J and Pettite have more thrown on their shoulders. While Andy is a warrior, the jury is still out on AJ's warrior badge in the postseason ....



While the Angels have a shaky Brian Fuentes closing games for them, the Yanks gain the pitching edge right back with a much deeper bullpen...Phil Hughes needs to put the ALDS behind him and pitch to his ability or the Yanks will lose that a piece of the bridge to Mo in the 9th...



While the Angels are fully confident that they can take the Yankees out like they did in 2002 and 2005, the Yanks have shown a mental toughness this season that I have not seen on the bombers in years...This series will deliver and be one for the ages...The Yanks will pull it out, but it will take 7 games to do so...

Philthies take game 1

The Phils used a pair of three-run bombs and last year's version of Brad Lidge to take Game 1 of the NLCS 8-6 in La La Land....











The action got going in the bottom of the second with a long ball from James Loney...Clayton Kershaw, the yooungest pitcher to start an LCS game, cruised through the first four innings...and then hit a little bit of trouble in the fifth...that's when the flood gates would open....











Three wild pitches , a Carlos Ruiz three-run blast and four pitch walk to Cole Hamels later....Kershaw found himself with two down and runners on 2nd and third with Ryan Howard at the plate..I can understand wanting the whole lefty/lefty matchup and wanting to see Kershaw go 5, but how is he not out of the game at this point???? Howard proceeds to hit a two-run double and just like that the Philthies are sitting pretty with a 5-1 lead....






Give the Dodgers kudos for coming right back with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning when Man-Ram blasted a two-run shot and then went on to watch the ball from home plate for what felt like a solid hour and a half...Hamels didn't look awful tonight, but he's still a shell of what he was 1 year ago..



The dagger came when Raul Ibanez hit the 3 run bomb off Sherrill in the 8th...Raul has been on a tear this postseason as that HR game him 8 RBI in 5 postseason games...The Dodgers did manage to put up 2 in the bottom half, but missed on a huge opportunity when Manny hit a dinker with 2 on to end the inning...



Lidge came in and gave up the leadoff single to Kemp, but got Blake to hit into the double play...He walked Loney, but then got Belliard to pop out...Phils fans should take his recent success with a grain of salt...It could only be a matter of time before the real Brad Lidge shows up...



In today's matinee, Vincente Padilla will look to further capitalize on his NLDS game 3 gem and help LA avoid going down 2-0 before going to the city of brotherly love...Pedro Martinez will be making his first postseason start since game 3 of the 2004 World Series against the team he started his career with...Pedro hasn't pitched in almost a month and I can't imagine him being as sharp as he would be if he had thrown more recently....The Phils may be 3-0 on the road thus far, but I don't see LA losing tonight...Dodgers tie it up at 1...

Road to the Ship: Day 4

Vincente Padilla pitched 7 shutout innings last night to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals right out of the NLDS....Not bad for a man who was not only pitching in his 1st ever playoff start, but also unemployed in August....

Sadly, this series was over when Matt Holliday dropped the ball in left field Thursday Night...It was nice to see the fans give Holliday a nice ovation when he came up to bat...Cards fans have to be the absolute best as far as class and passion in all of baseball....

The Dodgers held the mighty Albert Pujols to just one measly RBI in the 8th inning of a 5-0 game...the Cards also left over 30 men on base in three games...

Andre Ethier was a beast in this series with 2 HR and ya gotta love how Furcal ALWAYS shows up when it matters...both of these guys hit .500 in the NLDS....Bottom Line...this team is STACKED...they have over 7 starters that they can throw out there to start and succeed...I may have been flawed with my World Series pick, but I think it's a safe bet to say that the Dodgers have gotta be early favorites to become the NL Champs!

Road to the ship: Day 3

Wow...is it me or does it just seem like that it is the Yanks' destiny to make their 40th appearance in the fall classic?

The walk-off warrior of last night was Mark Teixeira who rocketed sent a Jose Mijares delivery off the top of the left field wall...

After only one rbi in 16 previous postseason games coming into this series, A-Rod is putting his woes behind him in a very big way with 3 more RBI's last night...including a 2- run blast off one of the game's premier closers to tie the game at 3 in the Bottom of the ninth....that's right A-ROD hit a bomb in the ninth of a big postseason game!....I could just tell Nathan didn't have it last night...how rediculous were those facial expressions of his?...he also nearly blew it in the tenth by airmailing a throw to second on a pickoff attempt...Jose Mijares came in to force a double play and save Nathan from a miserable night....only to blow it himself

Speaking of blowing calls, Phil Cuzzi may have made the WORST call I have ever seen in a big time game...The ball hit by Joe Mauer down the left field line hit off of Melky Cabrera's glove and fell to the ground...the ball was called foul, but the ball landed in fair territory by a good foot or so!!! Mauer ended up hitting a single, but that would have been a double for sure...Kubel followed Mauer with a single and then Cuddyer follwed him with another hit...now nobody knows what really would have happened if Mauer got the call, but we may have been talking about a series tied 1-1..

The Twins also failed to help themselves in the 4th when Gomez made a horrible baserunning blunder and Swish threw to Jeter for the out before Delmon Young could score...The Twinkies had several missed chances, but in the end, the Yanks did it with timely hitting and a solid effort from the bullpen...Mo, Aceves and Robertson saved the game last night..The Yanks are scary deep in the bullpen...A.J looked decent tonight with only a run on three hits in 6 innings, but he did have 5 walks and often put himself into jams....

Now it back to the Baggydome for Game 3 Sunday night where Andy Pettite will take on former Yankee great, Carl Pavano (note the sarcasm on that one)....from what we have seen in the past 3 weeks or so, the Twins will surely not go down quietly...They are definitely going to need some of that Metrodome magic...and maybe even a Metrodome Miracle to even make it back to New York for a possible game 5...

The Red Sox are 100% dead in the water...Jared Weaver followed the steps of John Lackey and tossed another seven innings of beauty...the Sox offense has been simply non-existent; managing just one run in the first two games of this series. If the Sox can throw Josh Beckett out there and still not manage to win a game....they're screwed

Road to the Ship: Day 2

I think it’s now officially safe to say that Cole Hamels is a shadow of the pitcher he was just one short year ago….Cole only managed to make it through five innings and gave up four runs; including a 2 run shot to a man who hasn’t gone yard since the 6th of May! He didn’t even stick around after he was pulled because his wife was in labor. Did it have anything to do with his subpar start? The event may have been on his mind, but it doesn’t make up for how poorly he’s pitched this year…












At least the Philthies have a red-hot Raul Ibanez, who already has 4 ribbies in the first 2 games…The Philthies got some momentum going after Jason Giambi and his foo-man-choo on roids’ struck out with the bases loaded and Jayson Werth blast. However, it wasn’t enough to get past Huston Street….It’s looking like Pedro’s gonna get the nod in what could be a snowy game 3…where was his ass in 2006? Regardless, dress warm….and maybe break out the sleds…I got Hammel and the Rocks taking game 3










In 63 games with St. Louis, Matt Holliday only made 1 error…In his last 21 games, he had not homered…2 streaks were snapped..While Holliday managed to go deep, he also managed to take a line drive into his gut that may have very well cost me my shot of calling the World Series winner this season…









After the botch that occurred with 2 outs in the 9th, the flood gates opened and the Dodgers capped off a 2-run bottom of the 9th with a Mark Loretta walk-off RBI single..his first career hit off of closer Ryan Franklin in 16 at-bats..It’s not all Matt Holliday’s fault seeing as how Franklin gave up 2 more walks and 2 rbi singles, but there is no excuse for that ball not being caught!! If that ball’s caught now it’s 1-1…now you’re facing elimination!









As predicted, Wainwright threw a gem by only giving up a run on 3 hits along with 7 punchouts in 8 innings of work…21 yr old Clayton Kershaw also pitched 6 2/3 strong innings….In the post-game Wainwright blamed the miss on the mass of white towels because it made it hard to see the ball….weird…nobody else seemed to have a problem catching the ball today… I felt going into this series that whoever won this NLDS matchup would be representing the NL in the World Series....presently, the Dodgers are looking like a pretty sexy pick....If L.A can sweep St. Louie, the Dodgers will have eliminated the N.L Central powerhouse for the second year in a row, last year being the Cubs…If you can’t find a way to win with Carpenter and Wainwright throwing…your done!









It took them 6 tries, but the Halos finally won a game 1 in the ALDS! Their 5-0 victory over the Sawx looked incredibly convincing and they, without a shadow of a doubt look like the better team out of the two…John Lackey hurled a gem...are you paying attention Mets' brass? If watching the reaction by Torii Hunter after he hit that 3-run shot failed to get you jacked up, you may not have a pulse…This team wants it and wants it in a big way..






The Sox counter, in game 2, with the Ace of the staff in Josh Beckett…When his team is down in the playoffs, his record is 3-0 with a miniscule e.r.a of 1.23…definitely the man you want on the mound in game 2…Like the cheerleaders say…if he can’t do it…nobody can…and the Sawx will be seein the brooms!






In an interesting move, Yankee mainstay Jorge Posada will be watching game 2 from the pine as Girardi has decided to go with Jose Molina as the battery mate to game 2 starter A.J Burnett…






When Molina has been the catcher, A.J has given up 2 less runs per game than he does with Posada, who was having difficulty catching fastballs the other night.. However, it’s absurd to think of starting a big playoff game without Posada as the go-to guy behind the dish. Jorge's bat can easily be lost in the Yanks' nasty lineup, but his leadership will be sorely missed on that field tonight. One would think that since A.J has never pitched in the playoffs that he would want to put his ego aside and have a seasoned postseason pro, such as Posada guide him through it...



I personally don’t expect him to have a good start tonight against a Twins team that was fianlly able to take a day off! Twins game 2 starter, Nick Blackburn, has looked filthy in his last 2 starts…starts that were make or break for the Twinkies’ playoff hopes…similar to tonight's clash in the Bronx….Twins in game 2

Road to the Ship: Day 1

The wild run to the World Series trophy began yesterday afternoon with Cliff Lee silencing the Rockies bats with a complete game victory...Cliff only managed to give up a run on 6 hits and outside of the Tulowitski homer he looked downright dirty...

Today, these two lock up for another matinee that pits last year's World Series MVP, Cole Hamels against Aaron Cook....Cole's looked a bit shaky to say the least this year...However, I feel like the realization that he's not even the best left-handed starter on his team anymore plus the atmosphere of October baseball will have him fired up this afternoon...Philthies are goin up 2-0

The 6:00 game had the "Metrodome Magic" Minnesota Twins playing the Yanks in the first playoff game in the new stadium....The Twins clearly looked wiped after playing in one of the most exciting games I have ever seen and just didn't have it...

C.C finally had a solid start in the postseason, which is bad news for anyone the Yanks potentially face and AROD GOT A CLUTCH HIT! 2 of them actually....Jeter and Godzilla also connected on a pair of 2-run bombs....is there anything #2 can't do? And did anyone catch Swisher's interview with Sager after the game? If this man had a talk show...i'd watch!

They may have looked bad in game 1, but there is NO WAY you can count the Twins out of this one...they'll make it a series for sure!

In Tinseltown, the Dodgers found a way to hit Chris Carpenter and took game 1 against the Cards...After being down 1-0 in the 1st, Matt Kemp immediately shifted the momentum back to L.A with a 2-run blast in the 2nd...

The two teams also set a postseason record of 30 men left on base...mostly due to the clutch pitching of the Dodgers 'pen last night....Is it me or are the Dodgers really deep off the bench? Thome, Pierre, Hudson??? They're all former all-stars for crying out loud! Did I make the wrong pick for this series

Broxton came in and shut the door..his 1 1/3 innings pitched included getting a huge out from Pujols with 2 outs in the 8th...they need to figure out a way to get the crowd pumped up besides playing "iron man" every times Brox throws a pitch..got kinda monotonous...and iron man's a great song.

The Dodgers once again have the task of going up against yet another Cy Young candidate in 19-game winner Adam Wainwright this evening...Wainwright has 2 starts against LAD this year and looked dominant in both (Aug 19th @ L.A 7IP 2ER 4H; July 28th @ STL 8IP 0R 8H and won)..Clayton Kershaw goes for the Dodgers and hasn't given up more than 2 earned runs in a game since the 14th of August...weird seeing as how he hasn't won a game since July 18th...I'm taking the Cards in game 2 to tie er up at 1-1

We'll stay out in CA for the opening of the Red Sox/Angels series tonight in Anaheim...John Lackey goes up against Jon Lester, who hasn't faced the Angels all season...How is the Angels .285 team batting average going to face against Jon Lester's 225 k's? The Angels hae won 7 of their last 8 and are the hotter team going in..After day one saw each of the home teams win, I give game 1 to them at home....

JA's playoff predictions...

There's simply nothing like October baseball...before this postseason gets too intense I want to throw my predictions out there real quick...

NLDS:

Phillies over The Rockies in 4

Cardinals over the Dodgers in 5

Yankees over the Twins in 5

Angels over the Red Sox in 4

NLCS:

Cardinals over the Phillies in 6

ALCS:

Yankees over the Angels in 6

WORLD SERIES:

Cardinals over the Yankees in 7

Pennant Fever!

Thank the baseball gods above that we have, at least, 2 solid pennant races going down the stretch...






In the National League, we have the Colorado Rockies clinging to their Wild Card lead by 2 games over the surging Atlanta Braves with just 6 games left to go in the regular season...






After 14 years of being a postseason regular, the Bravos have fallen off the radar. However, their rediculously good pitching staff may push them back into some meaningful October baseball...






The two hurlers leading the way are Javier Vasquez and Jair Jurrjens...Javier is having a renaissance season going 15-9 with a miniscule 2.83 e.r.a and 229 whiffs! The pride of the Netherlands, Jair Jurrjens, is 14-10 with an even lower e.r.a of 2.61...this kid's only 23 years old people! In each of their last 4 starts, these two have been nothing short of filthy!


Vasquez: 4-0 0.81 e.r.a 30 Ks and 2 complete games


Jurrjens: 4-0 0.63 e.r.a


That's only 5 combined earned runs in 61 innings pitched....Throw rookie phenom Tommy Hanson, veteran Derek Lowe and the recenty returning Tim Hudson behind that and you may have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball....definitely one that can compete with the nastiness coming out of St. Louis...






Sitting at 86-70, Atlanta has reeled off 7 straight wins and 15 out of their last 17 games...can you say 2007 Rockies? After 2 more games with the Marlins, the Braves get 4 games AT HOME against the lowly Washington Nationals...The Rockies? They also have their last 6 at home, but will have a much tougher time at it with the Brewers and N.L West leading Dodgers coming to Coors field...If you ask me..this is the year that the Braves play the role of comeback kids and win the wild card for the N.L!






As a Mets fan, I find myself pulling for the Braves because hey...they're not the Philthies..I also feel that Bobby Cox does deserve one more shot at October before he rides off into the sunset....









Baseball fans can thank mother nature for giving us one of the more pivotal doubleheaders we have seen in quite some time today as the Twins play a pair in Detroit today sitting 2 back of the Tigers for the lead in the A.L Central division.



I always find it funny that somehow...someway...the Twins are always playing competitive baseball at the end of September...It seemed highly unlikely this year after Justin Morneau went down for the remainder of the season...at the time they were 70-72 and 5.5 games back...Since then, they have gone 11-2 and Michael Cuddyer has become Minnesota's version of captain clutch hitting .370 with 6 HRs and 19 RBIs in that span...



On the other side of the spectrum, the Tigers are looking like a team with one foot in the grave and the other slipping...A team that was 7 games up about 3 weeks ago is looking like they are regretting a couple of their deadline acquisitions...Aubrey Huff has only hit a miserable .198 in his 35 games as a Tiger and Jerrod Washburn has hurled an e.r.a of 7.33 in his 8 starts in the Motor City after pitching lights out in Seattle....



The Twins need to take at least 3 of 4 in this series to stay alive in my view and this afternoon's game one is huge because in the night cap they have to deal with Tigers ace Justin Verlander...no easy task...



The Twinkies also have an easier set of 3 games after this series if they can manage to pull closer to the Tigers....While the Tigs have to deal with the White Sox, Minnesota gets to end their season at the Metrodome against Kansas City...However, they will have to deal with Zack Greinke on Saturday...Will there be postseason baseball at the Baggy Dome for one last time or will the Twins close out their stadium in Mets fashion by narrowly missing the playoffs?