Although it briefly appeared as if we may have been heading for a Phillies/Yankees rematch, this year's World Series will feature some new faces. The Giants are aiming to win their first championship in San Francisco, while the Rangers are playing in the Series for the first time in franchise history. No matter which team wins, two things appear certain: one side's fanbase will be devastated, and Bengie Molina will end up with a World Series ring.
When we asked you for your ALCS and NLCS picks, votes were nearly evenly split. Let's see if there's a consensus choice for this year's champion.
Who will win the World Series?
I still like San Fransisco.
That is kind of funny about Bengie.. he can’t lose.
Same thing with Chris Ray I believe. Right Luke?
My understanding is that whether or not guys like that get rings is up to the specific teams, but they’re usually fairly lenient. Molina would almost definitely get one if the Giants won. Ray probably would if the Rangers won.
gotcha. But in retrospect, Ray did help the Giants get to where they are.
I mean both teams.
Texas!
I’d really like to see the Giants win because Freddy Sanchez was my favorite player when he was in Pittsburgh, but I also really some of the players on the Rangers. I just hope that this is a really good World Series to watch.
Any World Series without the Yankees is a good World Series.
amen!
wah wah wah.
Should be a good series. While Cliff Lee vs. Roy Halladay would have been epic, Lee vs. Lincecum could be just as intense
YOU got that RIGHT!! Yankee players are over paid losers Cliff lee killed them
But I hear that cliff lee will go to new york next season some how
I’m saying Giants in 6.
I’m rooting for the Giants but best of luck to both the Rangers and Giants
I’ll tell you who isn’t going to win.
Fox’s ratings, that’s who.
So glad the Yanks got ousted…
But I think the Phillies would give the Rangers a better challenge.
Rangers in five. maybe six.
Giants definitely have the advantage in pitching, though it’s not that far apart. But still… Rangers in 7.
I can’t wait to see if Hamilton can be slowed down. He’s been raking all year long and has carried it right into the postseason.
Have the rotations been announced yet? I went to mlb.com and they’re showing Lincecum v. Lee in game 1. The Lee part make sense… but why not start Cain in game 1, don’t give his arm too much rest.
I almost always root for the AL, and this year will probably be the same. I am having a bit of trouble going all out for the Rangers because of the Reindeer and Claw stuff. I’m not a fan of gesturing each time you make a good play.
Even so, the Rangers play the game really well, and I love their aggressiveness on the bases. Ron Washington’s interviews have made me a fan of his. I haven’t seen enough Rangers games to know if he’s a great manager, but he seems to know what to say and how to say it. Nolan Ryan was one of the true icons of my early days watching baseball, and I like the team he and his group have put together
Not that any of this has to do with disrespect of the Giants. They’re a pitching driven team that plays the game crisply. Their offense has a few parts that are underrated. I have absolutely no issue with them as a squad or an organization.
Maybe Rangers in seven with Cliff Lee pitching three times and winning twice.
The only thing I have a problem with regarding Washington is that he seemingly is rigid regarding bringing in Feliz in the 9th. There were a couple of times during the Yankees series that I thought he should have brought him in in the 7th or 8th, where the match-ups indicated his presence. Other than that, I like the Rangers and Washington.
Giants, all the way baby. I base that totally upon emotion mostly, but after Lee, the Rangers don’t match up well with the Giants pitching. And, because Brian McCann is a beast, the NL finally has the home field!!
Also, at what brief period did it appear that there was going to be a re-match? Neither the Yankees nor the Phillies ever had much momentum in the LCS.
Yanks and Phils had the momentum coming into the LCS though, coming off first-round sweeps. Both were considered favorites.
That is kinda my point actually, once the ball was in play there wasn’t a time when either the Phillies or the Yankees held much of an edge.
But specifically in the case of the Giants and Phillies, when one looked at the numbers closely there wasn’t one team that had a clear advantage offensively. But pretty much everyone just assumed that the Phillies were a better offensive team.
Considering runs scored compared to runs allowed, the Phillies had a 16 run advantage on the Giants. (less than one run per 10 games) When that is balanced by park and division then the best one could say about Phillidelphia was that there was a wash, but one could argue that the Giants held a slight edge. Once that was considered, the Giants had to be the favorites due to the “entire” pitching staff, not just the rotations.
In the AL, the Rangers took out a team that the Yankees couldn’t put away with more opportunities during the season.
All of that said, neither NY or Philly really got anything going.
I’m still a Cliff Lee fan. I’ll vote Rangers while my self-esteem recovers.
The Giants are a much better team than they get credit for. ESPN, TBS, and Fox all fully expected that they wouldn’t put up much of a fight. But, they have been playing games against good pitching all year, and winning. I can see why Phillies fans would be discouraged, but there was reason to feel the Giants were capable of winning that series.
Hop off your high horse there, buddy. Personally, it means little to me who wins the World Series now, but I think it would be great for baseball, and even better for Cliff Lee, to win the World Series, so that’s who I’m voting for. When did I say that the Giants weren’t capable of winning the series? The Giants beating the Phillies has nothing to do with why I’d prefer the Rangers to win.
And I’m not sure if you watched the same series, but every baseball mind that covered the Giants gave a perfect analysis – They can pitch, but they can’t hit. The Phillies offense didn’t show up, and that gave the Giants an upper hand. So your comment is a little out of place, since nothing I said relates to anything you said. =/
is it possible that instead of the phillies pitching not showing up it was due to the giants pitching staff? cus this team is built to score 3-5 runs and rely on great pitching and the giants executed almost all series. i hate how everyone just assumes the phillies lost the series as opposed to the giants winning it.
It’s possible, but it’s not true. The Phillies left a ton of men on base, and if the Giants pitching was as effective as your making it out to be, that wouldn’t have been the case. Nobody was able to step up and drive those runs in, hence, the offense didn’t show up. The Phillies were the odds on favorite to win that series, and on paper, are the better team. That didn’t translate to on the field play, so the Phillies let that series get away. The Giants won, but the Phillies lost it. That’s just the nature of being the underdog.
Any team that is built to score three runs is going to be a mismatch for the Rangers, and it’s a poor excuse for managment not being able to get production out of their lineup. Adding failed contracts like Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria, and calling their lack of production an offesne that was built to score three runs is ridiculous.
los rancheros de texas en 6 juegos.
O quizás en 7…pues los Gigantes están apretando mucho en estos días. 🙂
A mi me gusta Los Gigantes mas…
¡Yo quiero Heath Bell!
…el cual no tiene nada que ver en esto….
cual es tu equipo y a quien ofreses por Heath Bell?
I usually vote AL but im going with the Giants just to see my boy Tim Lin continue to rake up awards and when his arb case comes up again in a year, i wanna see what he would ask for. So come one Tim, win the world series and become the mvp of it too = $$$
The Giants got to Roy Halladay TWICE. Just saying.
No. They didn’t.
If anything, you could say that Cody Ross got to him in Game 1. He was pretty good in Game 5. His line was 6.0IP, 6H, 2ER, 2BB, 5SO. Hardly “got to” him, despite pitching with a strained groin. I could say that the Phillies “got to” Lincecum and Sanchez if you use those kind of numbers.
lincecome had better numbers than halladay all series. and since the phillies offence is “so much better” than the giants like you said before id say lincecome as the far better pitcher that halladay this series.
Anyone who told you that the Phillies offense was “so much better” didn’t watch this team all year. Their offense has been pretty weak all year.
Also did Tim pitch with a strained groin in Game 4 ? Game 1 was supposed to be a huge pitching match up but Tim and Roy didn’t really impress.
To be honest, someone who can’t even spell the word “offense” doesn’t have much argument leverage in my book, but for argument’s sake… It wasn’t a question of Lincecum pitching better than Halladay. It was what I thought, at the time, was RawlingsHeat saying that the Giants beat up on Halladay, which wasn’t the case, and I was using his numbers to show that I could easily make a case to say that the Phillies beat up Tim Lincecum. When it comes down to it, all that matters in the postseason is wins and losses, and Halladay and Lincecum were both 1 – 1 as starters.
Someone who uses W and L as an important statistic doesn’t have much leverage in my book. The Giants did what they needed to do against Halladay. Claiming they didnt because “Cody Ross was the only one who hit” is completley stupid because he is part of the team. why not admit that the Giants outplayed the Phillies the media made the Phillies out to be the surreal team that no one could touch. And you want to talk bad contracts? Howard at 25 mil per for and .850 OPS and average defense? Rollins at 10 Mil for 700 OPS and injuries throughout the year? The Giants were able to overcome their bad contracts with great pitching and stranding baserunners, what they’ve been doing all season. A team doesnt isnt in the top 3 in walks allowed and still have lowest ERA if they dont know how to pitch with men on…
Someone who can’t read and use common sense has no leverage in my book. I wasn’t using wins and losses to determine their effectiveness. That wasn’t even the point of the comment. The point I was making was that the Giants didn’t handle Roy Halladay the way these Giants fans are making it out to be. Like I said, if that’s the way you’d like to look at it, the Phillies handled Tim Lincecum all the same.
If you could read or weren’t too lazy to breeze over my other comments, you’d see that I never thought that the Giants were going to be rolled over by the Phillies. That doesn’t mean that the Phillies weren’t the better team on paper. They were. That’s about as far as I can take your comment seriously. Jimmy Rollins is on the last option of a contract that he performed well throughout the course of, and Ryan Howard’s new deal does not go into effectiveness until 2011. It’s hard to call a contract bad before it even begins. You totall blew the point I was making out of proportion with your Giants obsession.
“all that matters in the postseason is wins and losses, and Halladay and Lincecum were both 1 – 1 as starters.” was your comment. Now you say ” wasn’t using wins and losses to determine their effectiveness.” Seems incredibly contradictory. Also, you are going to say the Howard contract isnt absurd? You would do it again if you had the chance? You were the on who brought up contracts, another point that has no relevance as to why the Giants simply outplayed the Phils.
“all that matters in the postseason is wins and losses, and Halladay and Lincecum were both 1 – 1 as starters.” was your comment. Now you say ” wasn’t using wins and losses to determine their effectiveness.” Seems incredibly contradictory. Also, you are going to say the Howard contract isnt absurd? You would do it again if you had the chance? You were the on who brought up contracts, another point that has no relevance as to why the Giants simply outplayed the Phils.
I can see how that sounds contradictory. Read the two sentences as a whole and it should make more sense. When you get to the playoffs, specifically the NLCS, your goal is to win 4 games. I’m sure that both Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum that in their two chances in the playoffs, anything other than going 2 – 0 was disappointing to themselves. That’s what I meant by wins and losses are all that matters. I was relating that specifically to Halladay and Lincecum, not the team as a whole. Both guys wanted two wins, both guys went 1 – 1, regardless of what their teams did behind them. Both guys would tell you that they should have never put their teams in the situation to let them down.
Now read back again. I didn’t say two words about contracts, because I was talking about Halladay and Lincecum. You were the one who made the ridiculous argument that the Phillies were overpayed. Even if they are, it has no relevance to any point of this argument. I won’t say that the Howard contract is absurd until he plays it out that way, if he plays it out thay way. It’s ridiculous to judge a contract before it begins. Ryan Howard carried the Phillies over the past four years or so, and he deserved to be rewarded. It’s a lot of money, but rewarding the face of your franchise doesn’t seem all that terrible to me. The Phillies have money to spend, and they’re going to spend it.
To be honest though, the Giants got lucky on a few waiver claims. That doesn’t make up for the fact that Brian Sabean completely failed at assembling the roster he intended to assemble. Aaron Rowand is riding the bench, Barry Zito isn’t even on the roster… Those are two albatross contracts that really weighed down the Giants. Calling up Buster Posey, which was a no brainer, and claiming Cody Ross off of waivers, which was only done to block the Padres from claiming him, were the only logical moves that Brian Sabean made in 2010. Sometimes, like the 2008 Phillies, all you need is a little luck.
It’s kind of hard to argue with someone who thinks that the ability to use proper grammar and spelling is critical to making an argument. I don’t care if someone’s illiterate; if they’ve got a good point, they’ve got a good point.
Lincecum absolutely pitched better than Halladay. Game 1 was fairly even; Timmy allowed two bombs, Halladay allowed two bombs. Timmy struck out more and walked more. Halladay gave up more runs, but his defense is worse.
Game 5 clinched it. Halladay ended up giving up fewer runs, but Tim’s defense failed him, and the Phillies managed to score just about everyone they put on base. Meanwhile, the Giants stranded more runners, and they hit a LOT of balls very hard, but right at people. Halladay did not look good, falling behind in the count, while Tim was shutting the Phillies down inning after inning (excepting the third). One insane inning, with Ruiz’ “HBP” (you’re supposed to get out of the way, and he should not have been awarded first) and Huff’s error resulting in three runs. Lincecum allowed 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 4 H, 7 IP, Halladay allowed 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 6 H, 6 IP.
Once again, the point of my original comment was in response to a comment that RawlingsHeat made, which sounded like he was saying that the Giants completely lit Halladay up. That wasn’t the case. The point of comment was never to compare the performances of Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum, other than the fact that if you were going to call the way Halladay pitched being handled, then the Phillies handled Tim Lincecum as well.
Your last paragraph cracks me up. If there was a stat for “what ifs,” this would be a different argument, because then I could say something along the lines of, “What if the umpire didn’t miss that strike three called to Pat Burrell in game one, where he doubled on the next pitch?” I didn’t though. Halladay didn’t look good because he battled through a groin injury. I could say “what if Halladay didn’t have a groin injury too,” but that’s a little ridiculous.
I never said that Halladay pitched better than Lincecum, or Lincecum pitched better than Halladay. I said that neither were lit up by either team, which I think is fair to say was the case.
Oh I didn’t really mean it like that. I meant in terms of getting him out of the game fast. Halladay did really well. The Giants just did really good at not chasing a bunch of pitches out of the strike zone and really working him
not the yankees aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
For the record, Chris Ray will also get a World Series ring either way, as he made 28 appearances with the Giants after being dealt from Texas (where he made 35 appearances) for Molina.
I keep looking for the option for the Pirates.. But it seems to be missing somehow..
Hilarious.
Much respect to you my man. Pirates fans epitomize loyalty. It’s easy to be a fan of a team that is doing well. But fan-ship is tested when your team sucks… for years. No disrespect. In fact, the exact opposite.
Braves fan still a tad bitter over the calls in the NLDS (I still kinda like the SF; they were my 2nd favorite NL team this year). I still think TEX is the overall better team anyways.
Rangers in 6.
I think the Giants in 6. The Rangers were white hot in the series against NY, you could have pitched peas to the plate and they would have still gotten hits. That being said, the lay off may cool them off and the Giants pitching is superior to the mediocre NY pitching the Rangers were facing in th ALCS. The other side is that after Lee, the Giants won’t be facing anything like Oswalt, Hamels etc.
What is it going to take for people to recognize that the Rangers have a terrific rotation beyond Lee?
ERA/FIP/WAR
Lewis 3.72/3.55/4.4
Wilson 3.35/3.56/4.4
Oswalt 2.76/3.27/4.7
Hamels 3.06/3.67/3.8
Add to that the fact that Oswalt and Hamels get to face pitchers in the NL, and you can make the case that the Rangers have a better starting three than the Phillies.
Thank you for posting that. Wilson and Lewis are underrated. Giants fans who think their offense is going to bomb Wilson and Lewis are in for a surprise. It will be a great series dominated by pitching. But the Rangers will win in 6 because of overall better speed on basepaths which create runs and defense which IMO the Giants lack.
Rangers in 6. But what do I know…I picked the Phils and Rays when postseason started.
It’s going to be really close. The Giants have the edge in pitching and you know what they say about god pitching, but I don’t think the edge is as huge as some people think it is. The Rangers, on the other hand, have a pretty serious advantage in hitting, and I think their hitting advantage is larger than the Giants’ pitching advantage.
You’ll probably never hear me utter these words again, but it may even come down to the managers. From what I’ve seen this postseason (admittedly not every game) they’re both playing pretty aggressively. If these games are as close as I think they’re going to be, running into a few outs vs. manufacturing a few runs may literally be the difference.
I’m going to say Rangers in 5, but I also think the games will all be extremely close (1-2 runs).
I say I have no freaking clue. I am a die hard Giants fan, but putting emotions aside, the Rangers are an excellent team. I picked the Phillies to beat the Giants in 5 in the NLCS, but the Giants definitely surprised everyone when they took it in 6. People want to blame it on the Phillies offense choking, but the Giants pitching was solid. There were also a couple of plays that should be attributed to the baseball gods. Huff turning the double play on a line drive that would have put the Phillies even or given them the lead, Ross Gload almost doubling down the line early in the series. Plays like those can determine the outcomes of games. That is why baseball is amazing- it’s a game of inches. Plus it’s like Ron Washington said, it does not matter who is the best team on paper (Let’s be honest- the Rangers), it matters who is playing the best right now. I think that the Giants pitching will be tested, but the Rangers offense will be tested as well. Either way, I think it will be close. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole series came down to one play.
I think its an unpredictable result. I say this because both the Rangers and Giants have been unpredictable this post-season. Whoever wins, it will be a great series, possibly as good as the 01 series. Screw the ratings, America should prepare themselves for some great baseball.
dadwd
Texas will win it in 5 games.. Im still a cards fan But Hamilton deserves a ring for how far he has came GO RANGERS