LCS Preview

Today after what seems like an eternity baseball has returned. This is just going to be a quick preview because I haven't had a lot of time this week and want to get this preview done before the Yankees-Rangers game begins.

Let's start with the ALCS. Looking at the pitching matchups I have to give the advantage to the Yankees. The starting rotation for the Yankees is stronger 1-2 and the Rangers are stronger 3-4, (I'm just talking about this series and for our purposes cj wilson is texas' #1 and Cliff Lee is #3. The Yankees have a stronger bullpen so overall I will give the pitching advantage to the Yankees. The lineups however are a different story. I give the advantage here to the Rangers, the reason being that the Rangers have a lot of speed and Jorge Posada is terrible at throwing runners out. I think this series, a lot like Game 5 of the Rays series, comes down to manufacturing runs. So because of the Rangers speed they will be able to manufacture more runs than the Yankees lineup will be able to. Overall in this series I give the slight advantage to the Rangers because of their speed and ability to manufacture that one run when they need it. I'm taking the Rangers in 7, with Cliff Lee throwing another series deciding complete game.

Onto the NLCS. This is a battle of the pitching rotations. The Giants have a really good rotation, Lincecum, Sanchez, Cain and Bumgarner and so do the Phillies with Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels & Blanton. I'm going to go against the grain and say that I believe the Giants have a better rotation. From 1-3 I think the Giants pitching is just as good and Bumgarner is better than Blanton. The Giants bullpen is better than the Phillies because seriously, Brad Lidge, that's all I have to say about the weakness of the Phillies bullpen. The Phillies have a better lineup when they are going good but have been struggling mightily. In the lineup category I am going to give a slight advantage to the Phillies. I think this is going to be an awesome series and I predict the Phillies in 6, with Roy Oswalt getting the W.