Post-Season Ponderings - WS Prelude
On this eve of the first World Series played in my hometown since before my dad was even a teenager, this headline simply couldn't be farther from the truth for most of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis. I've said it once, and I'll say it a million times: they might as well be in Wyoming, or Cuba, or anywhere else you can think of that psychologically feels a million miles away.
Get ready for the White Trash World Series, folks. It's the pick-up trucks against the Pontiacs, so tie your kids up to the washing machine on the front porch, break out the rusty folding chair you stole from your cousin, and get a big bowl of pork rinds ready. I resent both of these teams to the core, but I have to watch because the game of baseball is so brilliant.
Because they're almost never right, especially when I'm making them, predictions are pretty stupid. But, it's the Fall Classic, so here goes anyway:
Houston in 6. Wait... Good God! Houston?! I'm so thoroughly nauseated right now. Didn't they hit like .220 as a team before the All-Star break?! Didn't Clemens go 2-4 with a 1.60-something ERA in his first 10 starts?! The Cubs were so much better than Houston over the last two years. What the fuck happened?! What's become of the promise of 2003?!
(Whew. So sorry about that. I'll be much less hysterical from here on out, I promise.)
Garcia versus Backe in Game 4 will prove to be pivotal. I think Garcia will suffer a meltdown in the fourth or fifth inning, the bullpen will come in and give up a couple of runs, possibly a cheap homer to the unfair Crawford Boxes in left field (which are barely less cheating than the Green Monster in Boston), and the Houston bullpen will shutdown the Sox's anemic offense. The Sox pitching staff won't necessarily unravel in the final two games, but it's not going to take much to win these games. This should be the lowest scoring World Series of my lifetime, if not of all time. And, for a team supposedly built on good defense, has anyone else noticed that the Sox's defense has been unmistakably shaky this entire offseason? Maybe that's just one of the things people say about teams in first place--if they're in first place, their defense must be stellar...right?
Houston definitely has a better team than last year, and they came pretty darn close to beating St. Louis in the 2004 NLCS. Swap Beltran (overrated after all!) for Tavaras (for speed) or Lamb (for power), and add a healthy Pettite--that's an upgrade in my book. Granted, the Sox starters carried the team all summer, but I saw a lot of their games (on t.v.--how else do people ever watch the Sox?), and Buehrle, Garland, Contreras, and Garcia are not going to Cooperstown any time soon. Clemens, Oswalt, and Pettite are. But, the starters won't matter all that much, at least through the first three games. The staff which allows the fewest walks will most likely win it all, and I think the Astros will take better advantage of the Sox's pitching mistakes. Also, the Sox haven't squared off against a pitching staff as good as this one, maybe all season long. Setting the monstrous homer by Pujols in Game 5 of the NLCS aside, the Houston relievers are much, much, MUCH nastier than any of the other post-season bullpens. It's not like Houston has a bunch of relievers who came out of nowhere, either. Remember, they had the courage to turn away Billy Wagner (not too smart looking back on it) and Octavio Dotel (pure genius).
Any way you cut it, this World Series will feature two teams playing good old fashioned National League-style baseball--singles; walks; sacrifices; short, compact games. Why did the Ozzie Boys kill the Junior Circuit this entire year? For the same reason the other Sox won it all last year. They both realized that OBP is inifinitely more important to scoring runs than blasting homers. This World Series will be a testament to the greatness of the small-ball concept. For the real fan, thinking man's baseball is much more exciting than watching a bunch of gorillas either strike out or launch the ball 500 feet. Give me six hits and ten strikeouts per side, and let's see who manages to tip the balance ever so slightly.
Get ready for the White Trash World Series, folks. It's the pick-up trucks against the Pontiacs, so tie your kids up to the washing machine on the front porch, break out the rusty folding chair you stole from your cousin, and get a big bowl of pork rinds ready. I resent both of these teams to the core, but I have to watch because the game of baseball is so brilliant.
Because they're almost never right, especially when I'm making them, predictions are pretty stupid. But, it's the Fall Classic, so here goes anyway:
Houston in 6. Wait... Good God! Houston?! I'm so thoroughly nauseated right now. Didn't they hit like .220 as a team before the All-Star break?! Didn't Clemens go 2-4 with a 1.60-something ERA in his first 10 starts?! The Cubs were so much better than Houston over the last two years. What the fuck happened?! What's become of the promise of 2003?!
(Whew. So sorry about that. I'll be much less hysterical from here on out, I promise.)
Garcia versus Backe in Game 4 will prove to be pivotal. I think Garcia will suffer a meltdown in the fourth or fifth inning, the bullpen will come in and give up a couple of runs, possibly a cheap homer to the unfair Crawford Boxes in left field (which are barely less cheating than the Green Monster in Boston), and the Houston bullpen will shutdown the Sox's anemic offense. The Sox pitching staff won't necessarily unravel in the final two games, but it's not going to take much to win these games. This should be the lowest scoring World Series of my lifetime, if not of all time. And, for a team supposedly built on good defense, has anyone else noticed that the Sox's defense has been unmistakably shaky this entire offseason? Maybe that's just one of the things people say about teams in first place--if they're in first place, their defense must be stellar...right?
Houston definitely has a better team than last year, and they came pretty darn close to beating St. Louis in the 2004 NLCS. Swap Beltran (overrated after all!) for Tavaras (for speed) or Lamb (for power), and add a healthy Pettite--that's an upgrade in my book. Granted, the Sox starters carried the team all summer, but I saw a lot of their games (on t.v.--how else do people ever watch the Sox?), and Buehrle, Garland, Contreras, and Garcia are not going to Cooperstown any time soon. Clemens, Oswalt, and Pettite are. But, the starters won't matter all that much, at least through the first three games. The staff which allows the fewest walks will most likely win it all, and I think the Astros will take better advantage of the Sox's pitching mistakes. Also, the Sox haven't squared off against a pitching staff as good as this one, maybe all season long. Setting the monstrous homer by Pujols in Game 5 of the NLCS aside, the Houston relievers are much, much, MUCH nastier than any of the other post-season bullpens. It's not like Houston has a bunch of relievers who came out of nowhere, either. Remember, they had the courage to turn away Billy Wagner (not too smart looking back on it) and Octavio Dotel (pure genius).
Any way you cut it, this World Series will feature two teams playing good old fashioned National League-style baseball--singles; walks; sacrifices; short, compact games. Why did the Ozzie Boys kill the Junior Circuit this entire year? For the same reason the other Sox won it all last year. They both realized that OBP is inifinitely more important to scoring runs than blasting homers. This World Series will be a testament to the greatness of the small-ball concept. For the real fan, thinking man's baseball is much more exciting than watching a bunch of gorillas either strike out or launch the ball 500 feet. Give me six hits and ten strikeouts per side, and let's see who manages to tip the balance ever so slightly.
posted by Pat at 4:03 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home