HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Possibly the greatest Halloween costume ever. Teddy Ballgame always was described as a ‘heads up’ ballplayer.
-I suspect that Charlie Manuel has set the pitching rotation for the remainder of the World Series with his announcement yesterday of Joe Blanton as his Game 4 starter and Cliff Lee for Game 5. Here’s how I see things shaking out:
Game 3-Pettitte vs Hamels
Game 4-CC Sabathia vs Joe Blanton
Game 5-Chad Gaudin vs Cliff Lee
Game 6-AJ Burnett vs Pedro Martinez
Game 7-CC Sabathia vs Cole Hamels
I think the Yanks have an edge in every game except the obvious Lee-Gaudin mismatch. As Mo detailed yesterday, Blanton is a decent pitcher who numbers facing the Yanks are a bit deceiving. But CC is an elite pitcher, one who is relatively unaffected by short rest. I think the only way the Yanks don’t pitch Gaudin in Game 5 is if they’re down 3-1 and facing elimination. Then you would have to go Burnett-Pettitte-Sabathia, all on short rest. But at 2-2 or up 3-1, I think it’s Gaudin. Girardi would very much prefer to avoid using Pettitte on short rest if at all possible, Andy did have a shoulder issue just a few weeks ago. It’s not to say Andy can’t do it, but you wonder if his stuff will be sharp so you’ll try to avoid it. When Andy’s a little bit off, he’s batting practice.
I can’t expect Burnett to be as good as he was in Game 2, but Pedro should fare much worse. Pedro used a bag of tricks to throw off Yankee hitters, most of which they won’t be fooled by twice in a short series. Hamels is a picture of inconsistency this year facing one of the most consistent pitchers in Baseball for the potential Game 7. But I honestly don’t think that game will be played. My prediction would be the Yanks win tonight, split the next two and wrap it up at the stadium with Game 6. Should the Yanks lose tonight’s game, I still think they’d take the series in 7. But that would obviously be a tension-filled series where the Yanks were playing from behind the entire way and facing elimination twice at home. A win tonight and they cruise to a championship.
-Matt Hagen of THT put out his Top 10 Yankee prospect list. Biggest surprise for me is how high Manny Banny is, but I guess the secret is out on our 18 year old Mexican sensation.
-Larry Mahnken of THT explains why the Yanks will win the World Series. Loaded with good tidbits, check it out.
Related posts:
