September Baseball/ Playoff Preview

Now that the regular season is coming to a close, I'd like to take this opportunity to toot my own horn. In the 4 edition of "Get to Know us" on the St.Pats website, I predicted the following for the American League East( http://worknotes.com/mn/stpatrick/irish/hf4.stm). As it stands right now the Sox are 2 1/2 games back of the division crown, but as no sports writer even thought to mention, the Yankees are in 4th place. Now that the tooting is done lets analyze the season to this point.

It has been a great year and as an avid baseball lover I've enjoyed many things about the season thus far. The Tampy Bay Rays are a great great story, and it just goes to show you that bad teams can eventually get better with good draft strategy and smart free agent acquisitions. Teams do not need to spend 10's of millions of dollars via the New York Yankees every off-season. I've been especially impressed by how well the young players(Longoria, Garza, Upton, Shields) have preformed, although down the stretch they have been struggiling. Equipped with a pretty solid bullpen and a few mashers like Carloas Pena and Cliff Floyd, I fully expect the Rays to make push for October baseball.

Now moving on to the hometown Minnesota Twins. I for one did not see this team being in contention come September. But me, like most sportswriters severely under estimates the ability of Gardy and the coaching staff to use players where they can best utilize their abilities. The pitching staff has no business being as great as it has been, considering the oldest pitcher is Scott Baker... he's 26. It is truly amazing what these guys have done, especially Francisco Liriano who pitched an 8 inning gem today only to get a ND. The lineup still concerns me however, with little pop in the order after Morneau. I like that Span got moved to the lead off spot where he is really excelling, and Gomez down to the 9 spot where he's not exposed as much being a free swinger who strikes out a lot. Mauer is having another solid season, although I like many others would like to see more power from a guy who stands at 6'5". Overall a great season with or without a playoff birth, but as it stands I love their chances.


Now on to more familiar and happy territory for me, THE BOSTON RED SOX. I've been a little disappointed in the team lately with their lack of late inning hitting, but nonetheless this is a team built to win in the post season. Let me take this time to get my anger out about the Sox trading Manny... FU*K SH*T BIT*H CO*K!!!!!!!! MOTHER F******** SON OF A CU*T. Alright now thats over and done with. Moving on to the guy they got in return for Manny, Jason Bay. He has played extremely well since joining the club, and other than last night's 0-6 performance I have had few complaints about him. He's a productive hitter and an above average outfielder, a perfect fit in Beantown. The lineup as a whole is the best, bar none, in all of baseball. It starts with speedy Jacoby Ellsbury at the top, and MVP front runner Dustin Pedroia batting behind him. From there you have Big Papi, Kevin I should be MVP but voters don't like Jews Youkilis, Bay, J.D Drew, Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek and Jed Lowrie. A 1-9 lineup with productive hitters at all 9 spots. Thats what you get when you have the best GM in baseball doing the scouting and free agent acquisitions. The pitching staff has been great although not overly dominant thus far. Dice-K has been the ace in terms of wins and ERA, but the true ace is lefty Jon Lester, who if I could vote for CY Young would get mine. They also have Tim Wakefield and Paul Byrd as effective innings eaters at the back end of the rotation that has saved the bullpen from being overworked.

The American League is far and away the better league in my opinion, but the gap has closed fast with this year's firesale of great players from the AL to the NL. First the Clevland Indians traded last year's CY Young winner in CC Sabithia to the Brew Crew for top prospect Matt Laporta. Not long after the Oakland A's sent Rich Harden to the Cubs for a slew of talented young players. Both of these trades made the Cubs and Brewers legitimate World Series contenders, as well as sent 2 of the best young pitchers in the game to the National League. The aformentioned Manny Ramirez trade sent arguably the most productive right handed hitter since the 1950s to the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving them a true power threat in the lineup. The Dodgers as of late have been raking and haven over taken the D-Backs for first place in the NL West.


So how do I see the year finishing out?
AL Divison Winners: Twins, Red Sox, Angels
Wild Card: Rays
MVP: Dustin Pedroia HM: Justin Morneau, Kevin Youkilis, Josh Hamilton
CY Young: Cliff Lee (Roy Hallday is the league's best pitcher however) HM: Hallady, Lester, Dice-K, AJ Burnett

NL Divison Winners: Cubs, Mets, Dodgers
Wild Card: Brewers
MVP: Albert Pujols HM: Ryan Howard, Lance Berkman, Ryan Braun
CY Young: Tim Lincecum HM: CC Sabithia, Brandon Webb, Edinson Volquez

ALDS: Sox over Twins, Angels over Rays
ALCS: Sox over Angels
NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers, Brewers over Mets
NLCS: Brewers over Cubs
WS: Brewers over Sox

Thats right folks, I would bet on the Brew Crew over my Sox, why? Simple really, with CC and Ben Sheets the Brewers have a deadly 1-2 punch, and with the uncertain health of Josh Beckett, the Sox don't have their guarnteed 3 wins in a series. I still like it to go 6 or 7 games however and be a fun one to watch.