Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Bring on the Phils

So the Dodgers finally know that their counterpart will be Philly in the NLCS. Not an easy task to go up against one of the best hitting teams in baseball. The Pitching seems to favor the Dodgers. Hamels is a stud and Moyer has pitched well, but Lowe is a seasoned veteran having been here many times, Billingsley has been the Dodgers best starter all season and Kuroda is good for 5 or 6 decent innings. Myers has pitched well since August, but earlier in the season was sent back dowbn to the minors to regain his form. The Bullpens are pretty equal except for the closer which heavily favors Philly.

Hitting is something of a toss-up as well. While the Phillies did have the 3rd most runs scored, but had the 10th best batting average which is indicative of a team that scores all their runs by the long ball. The Dodgers pitchers gave up the fewest homers in baseball so that could bode well against a team with the likes of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. The Dodgers hitting has seen a resurgence since the acquissition of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake and the reemergence of Rafael Furcal after spending nearly the entire season on the DL.

What really favors the Dodgers is if they can take at least one in Philly then they play the middle three in LA where they had one of the best records in the NL. I'm picking the Dodgers in 6 to win and face the Red Sox in the World Series.

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