I went 3 out of 4 in the DSes, getting the Rockies wrong. I have totally been off on Denver related sports teams. I thought the Broncos would go 2-14, I thought the Rockies would win in 4, and spoiler: I think the Nuggets (aka: The Tatoos) will get to the Conference Finals again; so all you Nuggets enthusiasts, go to a bar, go get laid, do something, since there is no way your team is going to even make the playoffs now. Anyway, these are great CSes. Sadly, rain is predicted all weekend in New York, so that series may not start before the other one is over.
NLCS Dodgers vs Phillies
Much like the last series, the Dodgers are the superior hitting. They pitch much, much better, in every single way. They have a better rotation (Cole Hamels may as well retire cause that boy is never going to do what he did last year again, and also, he's married to a Playboy Playmate so, son, get out of baseball and get home to that girl), they have a better bullpen, and despite Brad Lidge's "resurgence" they have a better closer.
The Phillies are the better hitting team, but that difference is less than the Dodgers advantage in pitching. The Dodgers Ethier-Kemp-Ramirez-Martin combo is surprisingly amazing, and really, really diverse (a black guy, a latino, a french canadian, and a white guy - now that's a team). To me, they can go head to head with the Utley-Howard-Werth-Ibanez quadro. The Phillies run better, but since the ability to steal bases pretty much became irrelevant in 1980, that means absolutely nothing.
Here's my key to the series. The Dodgers start two leftys (Kershaw and Wolf), and three of the Phillies quadro are lefty. This shit matters. The Dodgers have the better matchups that way. The Phillies won this series handidly last year, but, like Boston-Anaheim, they were the better team in '08 and this year the Dodgers are better. It should be a great series. I hope it will be, since the NLCSes have sucked the past two years (quick, who played in the 2007 NLCS?).
Dodgers in 6
ALCS New York vs Anaheim
This will be billed as the "sluggers vs the scrapper" (btw, that was so sappy I think I turned 20% gay just writing that - or I just became Jay Mariotti, either one). However, don't let the lovable Angels fool you. David Eckstein (Grit) and Darin Erstad (Guts) do not longer play for this team. They have been replaced by the likes of Kendry Morales (a fat cuban defector who is slow as shit but can mash - much like every Yankee) and Bobby Abrue (who you will hear the following about him: "He takes pitches, he changed the offensive culture of this team" until you die). They still have the usual gnats, but they are latino not white like Grits and Guts. They are the Macier Izturis and Erick Aybar's of the worlds. Their meat of their lineup (Abreu, Vlad, Hunter, Morales) is quite good. Their pitching is vastly underrated, and most of them have been Yankee killers, much like this team (Lackey (no, he's not part horse), Weaver (the good one), Kazmir (who owns the Yanks. Rumor has it he has George Posado doing his dishes)). They are a great baserunning team. They go 1st to 3rd better than anyone, and the Yanks are noodle-arms abound.
As for the Yanks, their hitting is great, but was very spotty in the 1st round (save for all the clutch hits). The Twins actually hit better, but they ran the bases drunk and failed to get any clutch hit (basically, they all turned into A-Rod). The Yankees pitching was average during the season, but was great in the 1st round. I look for these things to go back to their regular season norm. CC Sabathia, all 380lb of him, is bad, bad, bad in the postseason against teams not having Nick Punto and Jason Kubel. AJ Burnett is wild, and that won't work against the Angels, becuase they take pitches. The Yankees, like they often do, have the offense to win them some games.
This series can be a classic. The Yankees are a lot like the 2004 version that choked, with their amazing offense and so-so pitching. The Angels are not exactly the Red Sox circa 04 (becuase they lack Manny Ramirez, Big Papi and players who walk around naked and resemble Jesus), but are good enough to do the same. Plus, this is the Adenhart season. They can't lose for that guy. They really are as good as the Yankees, the own them historically and they will not let them off the hook like the Twins did. Plus their manager is good, unlike Joe Girardi, who strikes me as the type who would cheat at Monopoly.
Angels in 7
These can be classic series, and hopefully they are, becuase the DSes sucked again. We haven't had a DS go 5 games since the Angels beat the Yankees in 2005.
BTW, here's the answer to the question of who made the NLCS in 2007: Arizona and Colorado. Exactly, I know that blew your mind.
