2010 World Series Thread

I think the on-field baseball in the next week is going to be excellent and entertaining.
Lee-Lincecum twice is must-see TV (except for the fuckers at fox and cablevision blacking me out).
Actually, at work for Game 1 and we have Direct. Game 5 Monday is my day off so the local sports bar with Direct will do just fine.

Because of their post-season success on the road, Rangers in 7

 

I'm also going with the Rangers. The Giants need their pitching to dominate, but Sanchez can be erratic and Lee could definitely outpitch Lincecum twice. The Rangers are just so much better offensively than the Giants.

 

Even with Vlad probably sitting out 4 games -- I really can't see him playing the outfield anymore -- the Rangers are a far better hitting team.

Bengie Molina, meanwhile, is guaranteed a ring it would seem.

 

I saw that about Molina. He will get one either way.

And Ron Washington has already said that Guerrero is going to play right field in San Francisco, at least in Game 1.

 

Even more so, when you consider they emerge from The Major League.

 

I hope Hamilton is ready to cover a LOT of ground in the outfield.

 

I hear that.

 

True, but Guerrero did at least play in the outfield 18 times this season. He is healthier than he had been for a while, but he is certainly a liability defensively these days.

 

Vlad is going to play right field in San Francisco? I see many triples in the Giants' future.

The idea that the Giants aren't a very good hitting team, with the oft-cited stat that they were ninth in the NL in runs, is very misleading. Their offense was just absolutely putrid in the first two months when they had guys like Rowand, Renteria, Molina and Schierholtz in the everyday lineup. Depending on the pitching matchups, their World Series lineup will feature six to eight different position players from the lineup that opened the season. (Huff, Uribe and possibly Renteria remain.)

The line of demarcation for them was July 1 when they traded Molina to make room for Posey at catcher. That's also about the time Burrell won a starting spot. From April to June, the Giants scored 4.13 runs a game; from July through September it was 4.46, and that's even with a slow September when Torres was hurt and Jose Guillen was for some unknown reason occupying a lineup spot ahead of Cody Ross.

The Rangers scored 4.86 runs a game. Allowing for the DH and ballpark differences, I think their edge is pretty slight in that category.

 

As of now, hasn't Washington only said he'll play there in Game 1? How many hard hit balls to right do you see Lee giving up?

 

I'm sure Vlad is going to play the outfield better in the World Series than he would in May. So at least they can expect the best defense he has to offer. And San Fran has a lot of right-handed hitters.

 

It isn't the hard-hit balls that will do the damage. It's the ones that sneak in near the foul line when he is positioned 50-75 feet away in the gap.