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World Series Preview

B-Dub Written by B-Dub, Tuesday October 26 2010
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This may not be the World Series matchup that Fox Sports wanted, but there is no shortage of interesting story lines with the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers.

Giants fans dress up like fat pandas in honor of their chubby third baseman.  They wear fake beards in honor of their closer who puts black shoe polish on his scraggly beard.  Two of their best hitters were guys that were released by their original team during the season.  And the Giants haven't won a World Series since 1954, when the team was in New York.

The Rangers' manager failed a drug test and somehow kept his job.  Their best hitter is a recovering drug and alcohol abuser, so they celebrated in the clubhouse after the ALCS with ginger ale.  The team declared bankruptcy during the season and then was sold in August.  And the team has not only never been to a World Series, they had never even won a playoff series until this season.

Oh, and Texas catcher Bengie Molina will get a World Series ring no matter who wins the series.  The Giants have said that their longtime catcher, who was traded to the Rangers in July to make way for rookie phenom Buster Posey, will get a ring if they win the Series.

With all that as a backdrop let's take a look at the actual matchup in the 106th World Series.

Offense

Giants

The Giants definitely didn't make it to the World Series on the strength of their hitting.  San Francisco was 9th in NL in runs scored, 8th in OPS (on base + slugging %), 7th in batting average, 6th in home runs and dead last in MLB in stolen bases.  First baseman Aubrey Huff led the team in every major offensive category, but his 26 HRs and 86 RBIs are the fewest by a team leader on World Series team since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds.  Rookie of the Year favorite, Buster Posey has been great which made up for the down year by Pablo "Kung Fu Panda" Sandoval.  The biggest surprise for the Giants is that two of their better hitters are guys that were released during the season and picked up by the Giants.  Pat Burrell has provided a power threat to the lineup and Cody Ross is absolutely on fire, hitting four of the team's six postseason homers.

During this postseason, the Giants are only batting .231 and six of their seven wins have been by one run.

Rangers

The Rangers, on the other hand, are a very good offensive team.  They led all of baseball in batting average (.276), were 5th in MLB in runs scored and were in the top 5 in the AL in HRs, OPS and stolen bases.  They are led by AL MVP candidate Josh Hamilton, who led MLB in Avg. (.359) and OPS (1.044).  Sure shortstop/leadoff hitter Elvis Andrus, outfielder Nelson Cruz and designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero (115 RBI) helped pace this offense, but Hamilton is the straw that stirs the drink.  It is worth noting that Guerrero only played in the outfield once in the last two months and is far less productive when he's not the DH (.234 in 17 games).

As good as the Rangers offense was in the regular season, it has been even better in the playoffs.  They're batting .281 with an OPS of .815 and have five regulars hitting over .300 in the playoffs.  

Pitching

Giants

This is the reason the Giants are still playing.  Their starting rotation of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner has the lowest starters ERA in the postseason at 1.93.  Lincecum won the last two NL CY Young awards, so you know he can dominate any lineup.  Matt Cain hasn't allowed an earned run yet in the postseason.  And San Francisco has won both games that Bumgarner has started.  The only issue is Sanchez's wildness.

The Giants bullpen had the second-lowest ERA in MLB (2.99) during the regular season, but somehow has the second-highest ERA (4.22) in the postseason.  Romo and Casilla are good strikeout pitchers and Javier Lopez is particularly tough on left-handed hitters.  Expect to see him on Hamilton quite a bit in this series, after he tortured Ryan Howard in the NLCS.

Closer Brian Wilson's 48 saves during the regular season led all of baseball.  And during the postseason he has gone nine innings without allowing an earned run while striking out 12 and getting 5 saves.

Rangers

Colby Lewis was pitching in Japan last year, and now he has a 1.45 ERA in three postseason starts.  C.J. Wilson had 15 wins during the regular season and Tommy Hunter went 13-4.  But the real story of the Rangers staff is Cliff Lee.  

Lee is 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 34-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in this postseason.  Over the last two years he is 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in eight postseason starts.  He won the 2008 AL Cy Young award and absolutely dominated the Yankees last year in the World Series, so he is a big time pitcher who excels on the biggest stage.  The Rangers should go to a three-man rotation to allow Lee to pitch Games 1, 4 and a possible Game 7.

The Rangers bullpen blew Game 1 of the ALCS, but they were impressive during the regular season with second-lowest ERA in the AL.  40-year old Darren Oliver has postseason experience and Darren O'Day has been an effective workhorse.   

Rookie closer Neftali Feliz had 40 saves during the regular season, but hasn't gotten a save in the postseason since the Rangers have been blowing out their opponents.  He doesn't have a scruffy black beard, but he's effective nonetheless.  

The Giants have the homefield advantage, but the Rangers have won five of their seven road games during this postseason.

The Giants have won all year on the strength of their pitching and their pitchers will have to be exceptional again to win this series.  The Rangers have a good pitching staff themselves, led by the best postseason pitcher around.  The difference here is how much better the Texas hitters are than the San Francisco lineup.  The Rangers have averaged almost six runs a game, while the Giants have averaged only three.

The guess here is that the Rangers hitters will be able to solve the riddle that is the Giants staff and Cliff Lee will be his dominant self.   

Rangers in 6.

 


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