divisional series

sports:  I am writing this as the first game of the divisional series between the Tigers and Athletics is under way.  Despite that fact I am not watching the game until I finish this post so as not to be swayed by anything in the early innings.  So here we go with the divisional series of the playoffs.
I might as well start with the series that has already started.  The Athletics and Tigers.  In this series I am going with the analysis of the Tigers I went with in my inital baseball post, only with a twist.  The Tigers were by far and away the second best team in their own division right until the end of the season when they got hot and Miguel Cabrera put the team on his back and got them to the playoffs while winning the triple crown.  But they were exactly the team we were expecting otherwise.  A team with three absolutely great players, in Cabrera, Verlander, and Fielder, and not a whole lot else.  They have a poor defense and the rest of their lineup and pitching rotation are average at best.  The Athletics on the other hand have a lineup that has consitency throughout, with the speedy and effective Coco Crisp leading off, Stephen Drew - who has always been a rock solid player going back to his days in Arizona, Yoenis Cespedes - who would probably be the AL rookie or the year were it not for Mike Trout, and the surprise of the year in Josh Reddick - who has turned into the rock in the middle of the Oakland lineup after being nothing more than a platoon outfielder in Boston.  The Athletics also have a much more well rounded pitching staff.  While they lack a superstar, like Verlander, who will probably cost the A's the first game, the rest of Oakland's pitching staff is far more well rounded than the Tigers.  During the playoff era, series have often come down to who is the hottest team as opposed to the best.  Both teams are hot coming into the playoffs and have played in pressured filled situation.  Thus I would have to pick the more well rounded team, Oakland, to take this series.
In the second game of the first night of the divisional series, the Cincinatti Reds face the San Fransisco Giants.  This game offers probably the most anticipated pitching match of the entire playoffs when Cy Young hopefuls, Johnny Cueto and Matt Cain, face off in the first game.  As with the stellar match-up of this first game, this series may be the hardest to predict.  The Reds have, arguably, the best team in baseball on paper.  With Cueto, Homer Bailey, and Bronson Arroyo anchoring what might be the most well rounded staff that also includes super-flamerthrower Aroldis Chapman as their closer, it will be hard to get a single hit off these guys.  And then their lineup with MVP candidate and former winner Joey Votto, as well as power hitters Jay Bruce and Ryan Ludwick, the Reds should have no problem scoring runs against anybody.  Plus they have to of the best defenders in baseball in third baseman Scott Rolen and second baseman Brandon Phillips.  Then there are the Giants.  They might pose the only pitching staff in baseball that is top to bottom as formidable as the Reds, particularly with their starting pitching.  Their depth and experience in their starting rotation is just kind of startling.  Matt Cain has been a top five pitcher all season.  Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong are two pitchers who are going to give you consistantly solid outings.  Tim Lincecom, who looked like he wouldn't even make it through the year as a big league pitcher (with no wins and an era over eight in the first two months), has had a late season resurrgance as he has adjusted to the drop in velocity that contributed to his terrible start.  And Barry Zito, who has always been an up and down pitcher since switching sides of the bay in 2007, is still capable of a big game if he is called upon.  And they didn't even miss a beat when all-star closer Brian Wilson went down for the year back in the first week of the season.  The Giants lineup is not filled with the kind of power that the Reds posses with Votto, Bruce, and Ludwick.  But their lineup is filled with guys who are just always on base.  No one is going to blown away by the likes of Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Angel Pegan, Aubrey Huff, and Hunter Pence; but when you watch them, you realize that they are seemingly always on base and advancing runners.  They may not have the power of their opposition, but they are almost always as effective.
 This maybe be the hardest series of the playoffs to get right.  And for me, a fan of this incarnation of the Giants, it feels like a head vs. heart pick.  Everything points to the Reds being the superior team, but I just believe in Posey and his rag tag team that seems to have supplanted the '04 Red Sox as the "idiots" of baseball.  A pitching classic of all time throughout the five games, a style that favors the Giants.  And thus they pull it out in the final game on the strength of their ace, Matt Cain.  See you tomorrow for the other two games.