What the heck, I’ll take a shot in Predictions Sure To Be Wrong:
ALDS: Yankees over Tigers in 4. I’m going to take the contrary position that Kenny Rogers gets the Tigers’ only win over the Big Unit in game 3. My seats to game one are a wee bit far away - bleachers sec 55 row P. I think that’s somewhere in Van Cortland Park.
Twins over As in 5. Santana wins games 1 and 5, and Bonser or Radke come through to get another win.
NLDS: Mets over Dodgers in 4. Would love to pick the Dodgers, but I can’t see the Dodgers pitching shutting out the Mets lineup. I predict a big series from Cliff Floyd.
Cardinals over Padres in 5. Carpenter and Pujols. Nuff said. I also think Rolen picks it up a couple of notches. He can’t keep being as bad as he’s been the last month, can he?
ALCS: Twins over Yankees in 7, as much as it pains me to say it. I just feel the Twins match up well against the Yankees - Santana is unstoppable, and they’ll struggle against Bonser, never having seen him. The Twins bullpen is also a huge strength.
NLCS: Mets over Cardinals in 5. Despite the Mets limping a bit at the finish, I just can’t see any team in the NL beating the Mets. Too good a lineup, and none of the other teams have the dominant pitching to shut the Mets down.
WS: Twins over Mets in 6. Here the Mets run into a team with pitching good enough to shut them down. Santana gets his chance to show his stuff on the national stage, the world learns about a man named Boof, and Torii Hunter leads the Twins lineup to victory.
The 1987 Twins were beloved. The 1991 Twins were idolized. But the 2006 Twins have surpassed all that.
Before July, most people couldn’t’ve named three of them. Now people are quoting their batting averages, on base percentages, and tendencies when at the plate with a 2-1 count and a runner on second.
Rather than predicting who’s going to win, I’m just going to say that I predict that Nick Punto is going to be voted the MVP of the WS. That little bastard is a hoover on hot wheels–nothing gets past him.
What the hell? It’s the Year of Improbability for the Twins.
(And to think they were considering contracting them not too long ago. :mad: )
Oakland is up 3-1 in the 9th. Santana pitch 8 good innings but Zito is pitching a great game and is at only 91 pitches. He will probably get a chance to complete his gem.
Nope, Huston Street relieved Barry Zito.
All bets are now off in the Twins-A’s series, and not just because some people here picked Minny to sweep. Oakland stealing a win with Santana on the mound is huge - I’d say it’s now their series to lose.
That’s what they call back in the old country, “by the skin of your fucking teeth.” Still, I will make no predictions, even with the A’s having beaten Santana. There’s still so much more that can go horribly wrong.
Just thought I’d toss this out for everyone to ponder. I was looking at the all-time post-season records of the remaining franchises:
Overall, that’s not a crowd. Not too many wilting flowers there. And I’d say the majority of the historically best franchises are represented in this group. Looks like a pretty good postseason to me.
Addendum: the stats I listed above are from my accounting based on the mlb.com postseason results pages. I may have missed something here or there; if so I apologize for any inaccuracies.
Your prior post just reminded me of something, I need to root hard for LA to win the NL and then lose to the Yanks. The Dodgers have the second most World Series losses at 12 to the Yankees 13. I would like to see the Dodgers tie that again.
Poor Mets can’t catch a break. Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez has usually been solid in October. The Mets’ pitching staff took a big hit. El Duque says he can still pitch, and we might see him as a game 4 starter. I wish El Duque well, and for a change I’m rooting for the Mets. I want to see the Yankees beat them in the World Series!
Maybe now the Yankees will trade A-Rod to a team where he will be appreciated. He sure isn’t going to get any love in NYC.
As much as I hate Jeter, I have determined that it is because he is a Yankee, not him personally. I would have been cheering him at the top of my lungs if he had been playing for the Tigers last night.
I would consider trading A-Rod for a young Top of the game pitcher and a very good Third Base Prospect. Do you know of any teams that fit this bill? I am sure Cashman would at least listen to offers.
Heard on the Mike & Mike program this morning on ESPN Radio:
If you were starting a team would you take:
Chamberlain or Russell?
Montana or Marino?
Peyton Manning or Brady?
This all led up to:
Jeter or A-Rod?
I would take Russell, Montana, Brady & Jeter and that was Mike Greenberg’s point. YMMV.
I every case by stats the other player is a superior player, in all four cases the lesser players were the WINNERS. The Clutch guys, the people that find ways to win and make their teams better.
A-Rod comes with a lot of baggage from his Texas contract, his bad-mouthing of Jeter, and stats that make just about anyone’s jaw drop. However, he is the only player who could hit .290 / 35 / 121 with an OBP of .392 and SP of .523 and we NYers would complain about how bad a year he had. In our defense, this was A-Rod’s worse year in the field, by far. Does someone have the stats for how many losses were a direct or indirect result of A-Rods glove work?
It had a lot to do with his months of bad hitting coming when we lost Matsui, Sheffield and Cano and before we got Bobby Abreu. When we needed him to step up, he did not. Jeter, Bernie, Jorge and to some extent Damon and Cabrera did.
Great Winner vs. Great Accumulator. I like A-Rod, I hope, (heck, I pray and I am agnostic) that he has his big cathartic moment. If he can ever turn the corner and become a post-season player, it would be simply incredible. Meanwhile, as we only pay him around 17 million, by most Yankee standards he is getting the job done. When all is said and done, his offense makes up for is many defensive lapses this year. His great months more than balanced his terrible months. He is a great player; it is just that in October or in crunch time, you would rather have Jeter at the plate than A-Rod. This is not actually an insult. There are only a handful of active player that I would put up on Jeter’s level for crunch time.
As a Dodger fan, I’m really disappointed about the Mets’ injuries. I feel like now we HAVE to win the World Series to even have a shot at respect during the post-season. Most experts have discounted our chances against them, and it seems that now if we manage to beat the Mets, all we’re going to hear about is how decimated they were to begin with. No one will care if we beat St. Louis/San Diego in the next round, so truly, we just have to win it all.
Of course, I was hoping we’d win it all anyway, so this should still work out nicely.
