Who's Next
Not the classic Who's album, which begins with Baba O'Reilly, official theme song of Paul O'Neill, and ends with Won't Get Fooled Again, unofficial theme song of AROD (who is really tearing it up now that the race is over). But who's next for the Yankees? Who will they play in round 1, who is the likely opponet, who is the most favorable.
Loriano went down for the season yesterday, turning the Twins from the team you most wanted to avoid in a five game set to a team that has Santana and nothing else. What's more, if the Yankees were to play the Twins (and unless the finish behind the A's or Angels they definitely play the wild card team), they would have home field advantage, which means, and this is huge, santan would only get to pitch 2 games in the series if he pitched them both at Yankee Stadium. Santan is unbeatable in the dome, but he is little better than 500 on the road. ow that the Twins have no backup in the form of Loriano, with Radke still hurt, and with some kind of collective block about winning at the Stadium, I think they are highly beatable.
Maybe not as beatable as the Tigers, however, whose young arms are fading and who just don't score enough runs. The tigers are homer-happy, like the Yankees at their worst, which makes them particularly vulnerable to pitchers like Mussina and Wang. and for whatever reason, Johnson has always done well against them. They are still my favorite first round opponent.
My least favorite, barring the unlikely scenario that the Angels get it,, would be the White Sox. They play the Yankees pretty tough; Contreras is inconsistent, but he can be brilliant, Garland is consistent, if never lights out, and while both Garcia and Beurle arer highly beatable, the Sox have what the Twins and Tigers don't, a potent offense. the run from Thome to Konerko to Dyer to Crede is tough. they don't have to win with their pitching.
My dream scenario is the Twins somehow struggle through and win the division. We get the Tigers first. The Twins beat Oakland in 5, which is possible since they don't hit that well and have recently been shutdown by Silva, whom the Yankees torched, and then we get the Twins in a seven game series, where the absence of Loriano would kill them, particularly since Santana couldn't pitch until game three. Any thing but the Angels. I don't understand how a team that bad can prove so difficult but there you are.
Later I'll talk about the National League and try to figure out how the Mets can be eliminate so we don't have another subway series so soon.
Loriano went down for the season yesterday, turning the Twins from the team you most wanted to avoid in a five game set to a team that has Santana and nothing else. What's more, if the Yankees were to play the Twins (and unless the finish behind the A's or Angels they definitely play the wild card team), they would have home field advantage, which means, and this is huge, santan would only get to pitch 2 games in the series if he pitched them both at Yankee Stadium. Santan is unbeatable in the dome, but he is little better than 500 on the road. ow that the Twins have no backup in the form of Loriano, with Radke still hurt, and with some kind of collective block about winning at the Stadium, I think they are highly beatable.
Maybe not as beatable as the Tigers, however, whose young arms are fading and who just don't score enough runs. The tigers are homer-happy, like the Yankees at their worst, which makes them particularly vulnerable to pitchers like Mussina and Wang. and for whatever reason, Johnson has always done well against them. They are still my favorite first round opponent.
My least favorite, barring the unlikely scenario that the Angels get it,, would be the White Sox. They play the Yankees pretty tough; Contreras is inconsistent, but he can be brilliant, Garland is consistent, if never lights out, and while both Garcia and Beurle arer highly beatable, the Sox have what the Twins and Tigers don't, a potent offense. the run from Thome to Konerko to Dyer to Crede is tough. they don't have to win with their pitching.
My dream scenario is the Twins somehow struggle through and win the division. We get the Tigers first. The Twins beat Oakland in 5, which is possible since they don't hit that well and have recently been shutdown by Silva, whom the Yankees torched, and then we get the Twins in a seven game series, where the absence of Loriano would kill them, particularly since Santana couldn't pitch until game three. Any thing but the Angels. I don't understand how a team that bad can prove so difficult but there you are.
Later I'll talk about the National League and try to figure out how the Mets can be eliminate so we don't have another subway series so soon.
posted by joe valente | 11:10 AM
2 Comments:
I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Mauer, Cuddyer and Morneau can all really hit, but the team still doesn't score that many runs. They remain offensively challenged. Why? Well there's only three of them and Hunter who's very inconsistent. It's hard to generate offense out of just threee positions, especially when one, Mauer, doesn't have that much pop, and another, Cuddyer, doesn't hit for that great an average. Morneau is the only one that does it all in that line-up. There is simply no comparison with the Yankees put up there with Matsui as DH. That's why, I would argue, that despite having the best starter in the league, the second best starter in the league (for much of the season), a very good number 3, the best set-up man in the league (Reyes), one of the better 7th inning guys in the league (Crain), and possibly the 4th best closer in the league (Nathan, after MO, Papelbon, and Rodriguez), the Twins are still only a game and a half clear in the wild card and still trailing a fairly mediocre team in the Tigers. With that kind of pitching, they should have the best record in baseball, especially since their defense is also first rate. They just don't score enough.
I think we can feel pretty confident that the Angels aren't making it. 7.5 down in the wild card, 5.5 down in the division, 16 games left to play. That would be a comeback of historic proportions.
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