ALCS Recap/World Series Preview

Now you're probably thinking, "Gee Brian, the Yankees lose a series and you take your sweet time posting about it? Don't the Rangers deserve some praise? You're just bitter". If you are thinking that, you are correct. I am bitter. I'm miserable. The Yankees we're HORRIBLE that whole series and I didn't want to talk about it. Kudos to the Rangers, enjoy your rings (more on that below). It'll be interesting to see what kind of panic mode the Yankees go into this off season (Phillies too).

So here is my last baseball post of the season. I might chime in about the awards, but this Series is very uninteresting to me (as a baseball fan, not as a bitter Yankee fan) so I'll so my match up and then it'll be back to me talking about TV shows you don't watch.

Catcher: Bengie Molina vs. Buster Posey. Advantage: Giants. They dumped Molina for Posey this season, and Posey is tearing it up so far in October
First Base: Mitch Moreland vs. Aubrey Huff. Advantage: Giants. A better choice for Comeback Player of the Year, Huff hit well all year and has kept it up.
Second Base: Ian Kinsler vs. Freddy Sanchez. Advantage: Rangers. Rangers are just better there.
Third Base: Michael Young vs. Jaun Uribe. Advantage: Rangers. See above.
Short Stop: Elvis Andrus vs. Edgar Renteria. Advantage: Rangers. See above.
Left Field: Nelson Cruz vs. Pat Burrell. Advantage: Rangers. Yep, still better.
Center Field: Josh Hamilton vs. Andres Torres. Advantage: Rangers. Not even close.
Right Field: David Murphy vs. Cody Ross. Advantage: Even. Both are having really good post seasons.
DH: Vlad Guerrero vs. Pablo Sandoval. Advantage: Rangers. Again, not really close.
Starting Pitching: Even. It's pretty close all around, Lee and Lincecum match up, as do Cain/Wilson and Lewis/Sanchez.
Bullpen: Rangers. One bad outing for the Rangers against the Yanks but other than that it went fine.
Closer: Neftali Feliz vs. Douchebag Wilson. Advantage: Rangers. Yeah, I hate Wilson, and I've seen him implode and haven't seen Feliz do it. I'm sold.
Bench: Rangers. Giants use Uribe, Renteria, Fontenot, and Sandoval in platoon roles, while the Rangers guys are solid there and know their role. Might sound weird, but I'll take the bench players over the fill in "starters".

Overall Advantage: Rangers. Even pitching and they can actually hit the ball. Rangers in 5.

ALCS Game Five

No time for this, Yanks did what they need to. That made me happy

ALCS Game Four

This damn team doesn't deserve to win shit. Thank God Cano, Jeter, and Gardner are getting on base at least.

ALCS Game Three

Thank god the image uploading is down on this site because yesterday's game was brutal. I will say Pettitte pitched one of the best games of his career to waste, and I know Lee is good, but yesterday was just pathetic. Here are the "Bucks"

Yankees

Andrew Eugene Pettitte: 4 Bucks. Yes he got the loss so normally I'd give him three, but he was the ONLY bright light for the Yankees yesterday and gave up 2 runs on 2 shit swings. Hamilton was just strong enough to poke it over on a great pitch. As far as I'm concerned he gave up no runs.
Yankees Offense: 0 Bucks. That was just disgraceful
Yankees Bullpen: 0 Bucks. See above

Rangers

Cliff Lee: 4 Bucks. That was pretty impressive to say the least.
Michael Young: 4 Bucks. He's one of my favorites and very underrated, showed why yesterday.
Every hitter who came up in the 9th: 3 Bucks. It'd be 4 but 3 had to make outs along the way.

ALCS Game Two

Crappy game from the Yankee's fan perspective. Lee-Pettitte should be good tomorrow. Here are the Bucks


Yankees


Robinson Cano

At least one Yankee was showing life at the plate.

Yankees Bullpen

Joba, Robertson, Logan, Mitre....5 innings, 2 hits

Phil Hughes

Just the complete opposite of his ALDS outing

Rangers

Rangers Bullpen

3 and a third, one hit, huge improvement

Colby Lewis

First time facing the Yankees since 2003...I think he did alright

David Murphy

Big homer...but pinch hit for?

ALCS Game One

Wow. What a come back. One of the best innings I've seen the Yankees put up since 8th inning, Game 7 2003 ALCS. But that game is done, now it's time to focus on game 2 later today.

New face time awards, going with a Baltimore theme. A manager who turned the Yankees around in the early 90's and the Rangers around in the late 90's.

Yankees

Yankees Bullpen

Joba, Mosley, Wood, Mo....5 scoreless innings.

Brett Gardner


Great hustle to lead off the inning, pressure never went away.

CC Sabathia

Well let's hope his next outing is a bit better.

Rangers

Derek Holland

Only Rangers reliever to shut down the Yanks, came up big when they needed him to.

CJ Wilson

Great start, but went to waste unfortunately for him.

Rangers Bullpen not named Derek Holland

2 relievers, 2 pitches, 3 runs.

ALCS Preview

Yankees-Rangers start tonight, here's my breakdown.

Catcher: Jorge Posada vs. Bengie Molina, Advantage: Yankees. Molina had a good DS series and is valuable, but I'll take Posada's bat in any series.
First Base: Mark Teixeira vs. Mitch Moreland, Advantage: Yankees. Not really too close.
Second Base: Robinson Cano vs. Ian Kinsler, Advantage: Yankees. Probably one of the closer match ups but Cano might be the MVP (but probably not) and Kinsler is inconsistant.
Third Base: Alex Rodriguez vs. Michael Young, Advantage: Yankees. Just like in the DS, Young is very good but doesn't quite match up with the likes of Longoria and A-Rod
Short Stop: Derek Jeter vs. Elvis Andrus, Advantage: Yankees. Maybe next year this would go the other way but Jeter walks more so the OBP at the top of the order will help.
Left Field: Brett Gardner vs. Nelson Cruz, Advantage: Rangers. Cruz hits for very good power, and a high average.
Center Field: Curtis Granderson vs. Josh Hamilton, Advantage: Rangers. Hamilton WILL be the MVP.
Right Field: Nick Swisher vs. Jeff Franceour, Advantage: Yankees. Swish had a great DS after a great season.
Designated Hitter: Lance Berkman/Marcus Thames vs. Vald Guerrero, Advantage: Rangers. Guerrero is much better than either of the Yanks options.
Starting Pitching, Advantage: Rangers. Wilson, Lee, Lewis...one of the better rotations in baseball.
Bullpen, Advantage: Even. Yankees didn't really get a chance to use their pen too much while the Rangers did. The pen's will be very important in the best of 7 series.
Closer: Mariano Rivera vs. Neftali Feliz, Advantage: Yankees. It's Mo.
Bench, Advantage: Rangers. Rangers have some guys on their bench who are possible starters (Cantu, Murphy), Yankees bench doesn't get much use.

I don't like to do predictions with the Yankees. While the Yanks might seem to have more in their favor, where the Rangers excel they are very, very good.

NLCS Preview

Championship Series are set, I'll do my best to talk about the NLCS here between the San Francisco Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies

Catcher: Buster Posey vs. Carlos Ruiz, Advantage: Even. Both aren't bad, I like the spark from Posey and the experience from Ruiz. Call it even.
First Base: Aubrey Huff vs. Ryan Howard, Advantage: Phillies. Huff is the lone star in SF's line up, Howard is better.
Second Base: Freddy Sanchez vs. Chase Utley, Advantage: Phillies. Utley is better, nothing else to it.
Third Base: Pablo Sandoval vs. Placido Polanco, Advantage: Phillies. Kung Fu Panda is struggling, and that'll bring him down more than Polanco's injuries.
Short Stop: Juan Uribe vs. Jimmy Rollins, Advantage: Phillies. J-Roll can hit for power just as well as Uribe, but Rollins is a much better base runner.
Left Field: Pat Burrell vs. Raul Ibanez, Advantage: Phillies. Close, but Ibanez is pretty good at coming up big in October (at least he was last year)
Center Field: Andres Torres vs. Shane Victorino, Advantage: Phillies. Victorino is just much better...not much to it.
Right Field: Cody Ross vs. Jason Werth, Advantage: Phillies. Ross had a great first series...but Werth is better...yet again.

Starting Pitching, Adantage: Phillies. Giants pitched GREAT in the DS, Halladay gave up no hits in 9 innings. When Roy Oswalt makes your bad start you're in pretty good shape
Bullpen: Even. I'd say that the Giants have a better pen, but it wasn't amazing in the series and the Phillies didn't use theirs really.
Closer: Brian Wilson vs. Brad Lidge, Advantage: Giants. I gotta give the Giants at least something on this. That being said, it is pretty close to even.

Series Prediction: Phillies in 5. The match ups say it all.

ALDS Game Three

I've been super busy the past couple days so I haven't had the time to do this recap. Pretty busy now, so it'll stay short. Nice to see a relaxing series win, hoping the Yanks get to have the same thing happen next series. Here are the last Roy's:

Twins

Orland Hudson

At least someone on the Twins was able to drive in a run

Denard Span

Two hits, deserves some mention

Brian Duensing

See you next year

Yankees

Marcus Thames

Another DH coming up with a big homer

Nick Swisher

Couple hits including a homer, nice way to end the series

Phil Hughes

7 Innings, 4 hits, one walk, 6k's...pretty good I guess