Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Bring on the Twinkies

Well it took an extra two days and one hell of a playoff game, but the Yankees finally have an opponent for their Division Series. The Twins are the lucky winners of Who Wants to Play the Yankees Sweepstakes. Although I'm not sure you could call them lucky as the match up against the Yankees is a landslide on paper in favor of the bombers.

The bombers have better hitting, better starting and a bullpen that slightly outmatches a solid Twins crew led by Joe Nathan. The Twins are coming off an exhausting run to the playoffs where they had to win 17 0f 21 including a one game playoff. Now they are flying halfway across the country to take on a team they failed to defeat once this season.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Ron Gardenhire and the Twins ability to constantly compete for a playoff spot regardless of their roster deficiencies or when their owner decides to be absurdly cheap, but can you really choose anybody but the Yankees to win this series? Just look at the Game 1 starters: Brian Duensing vs. CC Sabathia. This is a David vs. Goliath match up in every respect for these two teams except of course for Joe Mauer.

I also think that any Yankee player who previously had post-season struggles (Sabathia/A-Rod) will be able to get beyond them in this time around. Sabathia hasn't worn himself out while carrying his team to the playoffs, and Rodriguez has had a different aura around him since he came back from hip surgery early this season. Both should be ready to step up during this October.

I've learned that in the playoffs, any team can beat any other team in such a short series, which of course is part of the problem with the MLB playoffs, but in this case I can't see the Twins pulling out more than one game. I predict the Yankees in 4.

No comments: