Many sports talk shows were speaking this week about how the Aces of the four remaining teams match-up, and what it may mean in setting up the World Series. I have also heard that blogging is all the rage. As a response to these topics, I decided to make this.
The ALCS: Thank you Indians Rebuild and Cost-Cutting, Sincerely, The Rangers and Yankees
Cliff Lee
It is hard to believe that Lee is only 3 seasons removed from posting an era over 6, but over these 3 years this has been a completely different Cliff Lee.
Arguably the most dominant pitcher of last year’s playoffs, Lee looks like he has picked up right where he left off with those Phillies. It seems to be the case with Lee that he takes it to another level in the post-season. He dominated Tampa Bay in his 2 starts posting a 1.12 ERA and a .69 WHIP. Oh and he’s struck out 21 in 16 innings as well.
Lee was less than spectacular during his 15 starts with the rangers in the regular season, and his track record shows that he will consistently be an animal as long as he is on the mound when it counts the most.
Expect Lee to dominate the team that will likely throw several bags of money his way this off-season because you know, the Yankees do not have a dominant left-hander and are in dire need of one... oh wait.
Prediction: Lee makes the Yankees bats look like the Pirates ones, twice. He will answer any questions regarding his pending off-season mega deal. As well, he strikes out A-Rod in all at bats that he is not throwing at his face.
C.C. Sabathia
A lot of controversy surrounds whether Sabathia is this year’s AL CY Young Award Winner. If you are Joe Morgan, you say he is. If you know the first thing about baseball, you say Felix Hernandez deserves it.
Either way, we can all agree that C.C. is a force on the mound, and that one cannot help but draw startling comparisons between his physical stature and that of the will-knotted Charmin Toilet Paper Bear. The only problem with C.C. is that, before last season, he was a playoff choke artist with a career 7.92 ERA in 5 post season starts. Not to say he did not overcome these jitters last season, as he did post a 1.13 ERA in the ALCS, but this Rangers team has bats that can punish with the best of them, not to mention contains arguably the most clutch hitter in all of baseball in Michael Young (Jays fans, insert Esteban Loaiza sigh here).
The fact is C.C. is great, but has not yet proven enough that his emotions can be used in his favour. One has to think that all it will take is a clutch Young single, or a Josh Hamilton hitting it a mileout of Yankee Stadium, or another dazzling outing from Cliff Lee (the anti-C.C.) to throw Sabathia off of his game.
Prediction: C.C. will be dominant in Game 1, but C.J. Wilson will give the Yankees offense left-handed trouble as it has all year. As a result C.C. will not get the win, will play on tilt in his second start, and be ineffective.
The NLCS: The Key To Dominant Pitching Is To Have LeRoy As Your Middle Name, Just Ask These Guys
Tim LeRoy Lincecum:
He has back-to-back CY Young Awards. He has now struck out 245 batters this season, and has also pitched just over 221 innings. If someone had said 3 years ago that a strikeout pitcher could log over 200 innings in each of his first 3 seasons, I would have responded with, “So he plays for Dusty Baker? Well, let’s enjoy it before Tommy J comes knockin’.” But Lincecum is the exception to the rule, and his trophy case is fast to support that fact. The only real question with Lincecum is, “how much longer can he go?” If the answer is, “As long as his hair is,” then he will go well into the 240-250 inning marker and continue to post brilliant complete game 14 strikeout performances. If the answer is, “as long as someone in the SF Giants offense can hit it,” well then maybe “Tim’s Tank” is finally running on “E” for this season.
Prediction: Lincecum will be Lincecum-like and dominate. However he cannot carry this team by himself and simply will not be able to go the distance in 2 games and win them both 1-0. Even “The Freak” cannot be THAT good.
Harry LeRoy Halladay:
Speaking of potentially running out of gas, Roy threw 250+ innings during the regular season. Yet, no one is worried about this statistic as he is Roy Halladay, and is more machine than man.
Halladay’s post –season capabilities were a big unknown going into this post-season. Some surely asked, “Will he be solid? Will he give up the Halladay patented “poor first inning,” and put his team out of it early in these clutch low scoring NLDS games? Or will he give arguably the greatest pitching performance in post season history and no-hit the best offense in the NL?” We all sat and watched Roy do the latter, and dominate with such a stoic demeanour about him that it was clear, everyone else on earth was more emotionally involved in what was happening in that game than Roy Halladay was. Doc just simply kept on pitching.
Truth is Doc was built for the playoffs. He works harder than anyone in the game, and once the ump calls “play ball” it seems like doc shuts everything out except the strike zone and goes to work.
I think the only thing left to ponder in his post season abilities is not, “Will he be great?” but, “How great will he be?” Doc was already in a league of his own during the regular season, now, he has taken it to an all new level. All we can do is sit back and watch something special every time he takes the mound and pitches himself a new story to be written in baseball folklore.
Prediction: Doc out duels Lincecum in a battle of the NL’s best. It comes down to late-game focus, and frankly, Doc is more likely to get that 1-0 lead with his offense than Lincecum is. First run wins the game with pitchers of this calibre, and Halladay will get it.
In Conclusion:
In my opinion, Cliff and Doc are the cream of the crop in their respective leagues (no offense to their counterparts). It is hard to believe that the Phillies could have had both of these aces this season, but here is to hoping that we get a Phillies/Rangers Series, and Ruben Amaro Jr. puts the man he always wanted against the man he once settled for.
No comments:
Post a Comment