Giant Surprise

If nothing else can be said about the 2010 MLB Playoffs, I think the word "unpredictable" is the best description.

After the way the Texas Rangers cut through the New York Yankees in the ALDS, I honestly thought there was little chance the San Francisco Giants had in the World Series. Even with a fairly solid dismatling of the reigning NL Champion Phillies, I just didn't see the Giants doing much. I picked the Rangers in five games and kin of thought I was being generous to SF.

Boy was I wrong.

The Rangers just never seemed to get itself going. The Giants pitching was beyond incredible and shut the Rangers down like they were a minor league team facing a big league club. On the other side, the Giants bats hit way beyond anything you could have expected. Even Cliff Lee looked human facing them. They took advantage of every oppertunity and just flat out outplayed the Rangers.

Just goes to show you that it's impossible to predict these things. Congrats to the 2010 World Champion SF Giants.

Well, That was Easy

Sometimes things just never change.

So the New York Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins in the first step towards a possible repeat as World Series Champs, and is anyone REALLY that suprised?

The only game the Twins really had a shot in winning was the first game, where C.C. Sabathia was not very effective and the Twins had held a 3-0 lead until the Yankee bats woke up and stormed forward with four runs in the 6th. Games two and three had fairly little drama, and once again the team that could, just didn’t.

Next up is either the Rangers or the Rays. Tampa Bay looked fairly listless and overmatched in the first two games of the series, but has looked like the team everyone expected in games three and four. Now game five will reveal foe the Yanks who they are facing, but whomever team it is, the Yanks will certainly have an advantage since team aces Cliff Lee and David Price will face off in a “win or die” elmination game, thus leaving another pitcher to face off against Sabathia in Game One of the American League Championship Series.

That also means that odds are you’d see Sabathia in games 1, 4 and 7 but the Rangers or Rays would only have a chance to use their best pitchers twice.

Of course, there is always the chance the situation could wind up helping those teams if one of the two aces got to face off with regular rest against a twice short rested and perhaps overused Sabathia in a deciding game seven.

In any case, what seemed to be a bit of a climb for the Bronx Bombers seems a little bit easier this morning. That is not to say the ALCS will be a cake-walk no matter which team they face, but a well rested rotation can do nothing but benefit the Yanks.

As for the Twins, it’s time to go home again and wonder just why in the Baseball God’s Name does every playoff series vs. New York end the same. For a team that looked so strong going into the playoffs, the Twins looked fairly overmatched, being outscored 17-7 in the three games. The offense struggled mightly and the absence of their all-star/MVP first baseman (Justin Morneau) was glaring. In the end, the terrible play of the last three weeks of the season didn;t seem to affect the Yanks at all, and the road to another Championship became a little less cluttered.