ALDS: Minnesota Twins @ Oakland A's Detroit Tigers @ New York Yankees
NLDS: San Diego Padres @ St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers @ New York Mets
Twins vs. A's I don't have any confidence in Oakland. Their lineup is good enough, but I don't feel good about putting the ball in Huston Street's hands for the 9th. Still, they'll take at least one because of Minnesota's lack of starting pitching depth. Twins in 4
Tigers vs. Yankees I'd love for the Tigers to prove that they're for real, but I seriously doubt it. Steinbrenner's bought a lot of bats, but the difference maker will most likely be the one bat he DIDN'T buy: Bobby Abreu. Yankees in 3
Padres vs. Cardinals The Cards stumbled into the playoffs, but so did the White Sox last year. Unfortunately for the Cards, they have NO ONE beyond Carpenter to give them a good outing. The Padres come in with a fresh Peavy, Wells, and Williams. It's a tough pick, but... Padres in 5
Dodgers vs. Mets The Mets' rotation is crippled, but the Dodgers are missing a guy, too. Penny's been absolutely awful since the All-Star break, so I'm not counting on the Dodgers to do too much damage. Still, they've got Maddux and Lowe (who many forgot helped lead the Red Sox to their only championship in '04), so I'll go with them. Dodgers in 5
Twins vs. Yankees In a battle of attrition, I'll give the nod to the Yanks. They'll struggle with Santana and no one else. Yankees in 6
Padres vs. Dodgers The Padres dominated the Dodgers all year, but that last loss has to be lingering in their heads. I don't think they'll recover. Dodgers in 7
Dodgers vs. Yankees (a.k.a. Grady Little's Revenge) The Yanks have a lot of depth, but the Dodgers have just enough pitching to get them through the day. If Penny's recovered, he'll be the x-factor. Remember, he beat the Yanks in the '03 series. Another tough choice, but I'll have to root for the home team here. Dodgers in 7
TEN YEARS AGO IN WRESTLING HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 1996 WWF: Shawn Michaels d. Mankind at Mind Games, one of the 90's best matches. Also, some guy named Steve Austin made it his personal mission to bring Bret Hart back to the ring.
WCW: The nWo prevailed in War Games with the help of a Fake Sting. The real Sting walked out on WCW, kicking off one of the biggest angles in the company's history.
I think Oakland can get to Radke/Garza/whoever else the Twins might throw after Santana, but not in all three games not pitched by the Minnesota ace. Twins in four. (P.S. - it's Oakland at Minnesota, not the other way around)
Tigers/Yankees
Detroit faltered big time over the last month. The Yankees finished hot, taking the best record in baseball. I say New York sweeps here.
Cards/Padres
Not having to throw Chris Carpenter in a playoff for the division is huge, and is what I think gives St. Louis the nod in this series. Carpenter shuts down San Diego in his two starts, and Albert Pujols is enough to get the Redbirds one more win. St. Louis in five.
Dodgers/Mets
Pedro or no, the Mets take this series. Yeah Pedro's out, but I don't think the Dodger pitching can stop the Mets. New York in four.
That would give us:
Minnesota/New York vs. St. Louis/New York. I'll reserve LCS predictions for when we get there.
Minnesota over Oakland New York over Detroit (though obviously, I'd love to see the Tigers pull off the upset) San Diego over St. Louis Los Angeles over New York
Twins over Yankees, just cuz Padres over Dodgers, due to pitching and slightly more consistency
Twins over Padres in the lowest-rated World Series of all time
Scene: Mark DeRosa's brain. The year is 2005. Part of Mark DeRosa's brain: Come on, another position change? One day it's second base, the next day right field, now it's third? Why, I oughta go into Buck's office and throw his talking fish on the floor! Other part of Mark DeRosa's brain: Hold on, other part of the brain. We're making $500,000 this year. Last year we made $725,000. All for playing a damn kids' game. This is, as they say in Brainland, a no-"us"-er. We're not going to complain. Part of Mark DeRosa's brain: You're right, dude. Let's go back to looking at this crazy porn Teixeira gave us!
Originally posted by It's False Dodgers vs. Mets The Mets' rotation is crippled, but the Dodgers are missing a guy, too. Penny's been absolutely awful since the All-Star break, so I'm not counting on the Dodgers to do too much damage. Still, they've got Maddux and Lowe (who many forgot helped lead the Red Sox to their only championship in '04), so I'll go with them.
What does Lowe pitching for Boston (who did not win their only championship in '04) have to do with the Dodgers against the mets in 2006?
Twins over A's I picked the A's in the Series at the beginning of the year but I just can't pick them here. Johan pitching twice, Mauer and Morneau, the great bullpen.
Tigers over Yankees Someone has to pick the Tigers, yeah it could just as easily be a sweep for the Yankees but we'll see.
Mets over Dodgers I think the worries of the starting pitching are overrated. The Mets had Pedro out a lot during the season and they still dominated. Yeah Maddux the Dodgers have Maddux but Glavine has played in a lot of playoffs too. Yeah the Dodgers have Lowe who has a 3.05 ERA in the playoffs but El Duque has a 2.55 ERA in the playoffs (even though he's pitched 40 more innings). Their starters are still fine and they have the best offense and bullpen in the NL. I think it's pretty ridiculous that a team can have the entire league clinched months ago and one player goes down and suddenly it's over for them.
Padres over Cardinals The Padres quietly had the second best pitching staff in the Majors, take the bat out of Pujols' hands I don't see how the Cards wins.
Twins over Tigers Pretty good match up but I like the Twins because they won today which means they'll have home field in this series.
Mets over Padres Even without Pedro the 27th ranked offense of the Pads is nothing to worry about. The Mets can score on the Padres, they might have to manufacture runs but Reyes does that about as good as anyone.
Twins over Mets The Twins just have the best mix of pitching, offense and bullpen.
(edited by Quezzy on 1.10.06 1746) Lance's Response:
Originally posted by Big BadTwins over Padres in the lowest-rated World Series of all time
Padres/A's and Yankees/Mets would do worse ratings than that. AL Tigers/Yankees: If the Tigers could have taken 1 out of 3 from the Royals the last weekend of the season, I could have taken Santana to steal a series from the Yankees and eliminate them from the playoffs. Now, I have to rely on a team that faded late and has Kenny Rogers pitching a playoff game. Curse of Mattingly don't fail me now. The Curse is the only thing going in the Tigers favor. Tigers in 4.
A's/Twins: A's have a chance to win in 4 but make an idiotic base running mistake. Twins in 5.
Tigers/Twins: If they had Liriano I'd take the Twins. Santana only gets to pitch once as the Tigers win in 6.
NL
Dodgers/Mets: I don't like the Dodgers manager or 1st baseman. I depsise the Mets. Dodgers in 4.
Cardinals/Padres: Only can rely on 1 team that faded late and that is because of the Curse of Mattingly. Padres in 4.
Dodgers/Padres: Dodgers in 6. Why, I don't know.
World Series
Dodgers/Tigers: Tigers in 4 as the AL winning streak reaches 12.
Starting with the AL, I've got the Yankees over Detroit in 4. The Tigers should win one, and my guess is it'll be game 3, but they've been fading for too long, and I don't see them making much noise this year.
Twins over A's in 4, due to the reverse. The Twins have put on a decent little 2nd half run, and it'll pay off for a while longer.
Padres over Cardinals in 5. St. Louis almost backed into the postseason, but they'll wake up enough to take this down to the wire.
Mets over Dodgers in 4. Pedro's no longer a concern for the Mets, and the offense should be good enough for the pitchers to take a little while to get into the groove.
Right now I'm running this out to a Twins/Mets Series, and the Mets taking it in 6, but that may change depending on what surprises we get, if any in this round.
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Originally posted by It's False Dodgers vs. Mets The Mets' rotation is crippled, but the Dodgers are missing a guy, too. Penny's been absolutely awful since the All-Star break, so I'm not counting on the Dodgers to do too much damage. Still, they've got Maddux and Lowe (who many forgot helped lead the Red Sox to their only championship in '04), so I'll go with them.
What does Lowe pitching for Boston (who did not win their only championship in '04) have to do with the Dodgers against the mets in 2006?
Lowe was having such a bad year in '04 that Boston wanted to sit him out the rest of the year. But when it came playoff time, he got the Sox through some huge games, including Game 7 against the Yanks. So no matter how bad Lowe might have done against the Mets this year, he's still very dangerous in the postseason and could be the difference-maker.
TEN YEARS AGO IN WRESTLING HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 1996 WWF: Shawn Michaels d. Mankind at Mind Games, one of the 90's best matches. Also, some guy named Steve Austin made it his personal mission to bring Bret Hart back to the ring.
WCW: The nWo prevailed in War Games with the help of a Fake Sting. The real Sting walked out on WCW, kicking off one of the biggest angles in the company's history.
Originally posted by It's False Dodgers vs. Mets The Mets' rotation is crippled, but the Dodgers are missing a guy, too. Penny's been absolutely awful since the All-Star break, so I'm not counting on the Dodgers to do too much damage. Still, they've got Maddux and Lowe (who many forgot helped lead the Red Sox to their only championship in '04), so I'll go with them.
What does Lowe pitching for Boston (who did not win their only championship in '04) have to do with the Dodgers against the mets in 2006?
Lowe was having such a bad year in '04 that Boston wanted to sit him out the rest of the year. But when it came playoff time, he got the Sox through some huge games, including Game 7 against the Yanks. So no matter how bad Lowe might have done against the Mets this year, he's still very dangerous in the postseason and could be the difference-maker.
Yes but like I said, that's no advantage when Orlando Hernandez has a 9 - 3 record and 2.55 ERA compared to Lowe's 4 - 4 record and 3.05 ERA.
NY over DET in 3. (Kenny Rodgers is starting game three for DET. He didn't face NY all season, nor last year. He pitched against them once - poorly - in 2004, missed them in 2003, twice against them - poorly - in 2002, missed them in 2001, and three times - VERY poorly - in 2000. This guy is protected better than a confidential informant. I was praying that he'd get a start in NY, but I had to remind myself how smart Leyland is.) OAK over MIN in 5.
NY over LA in 4. STL over SD in 5.
NY over OAK in 5. NY over STL in 5.
Yankees over Mets in 6.
As an aside, did anyone catch Baseball Tonight last night? If someone told me that John Kruk and Steve Phillips get along off-camera, it would be a shock.
Lord loves a workin' man. Don't trust whitey. See a doctor and get rid of it.
In tribute to the teams whose stadiums I've actually visited, I'll say the Mets, Padres, and Yankees. I'll also say the Twins because I really like the Minny airport.
I thought the big joke was putting Dick "In Hand" Williams on the list. None of these names belong in the Hall, as if Sutton and Neikro didn't water the thing down enough. Who's next, Tony Fossas?