A-Rod October Stud or Dud?
| 18
|
by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Alex Rodriguez Tries to Erase Reputation of Not Being Mr. October
Alex Rodriguez, once again, tries to battle the October blues that have plagued him the last two postseasons. Over the last two years in the playoffs, he has three hits in 29 at bats with no home runs and no RBIs. He has only one extra base hit in those at-bats and hit .133 in 2005 and .071 in 2006.
Although A-Rod has not done much at the plate, we, as baseball fans, must consider the fact that this is a new year and a new postseason. For all we know, A-Rod may have a Reggie Jackson type of October, but we won't know until the games have been played. So even though A-Rod had a fantastic season, he still has something to prove to the New York Yankees and their fans that he can deliver on the biggest stage in baseball during October and he just might do it this year.
One sidenote on A-Rod is that he has 1503 RBIs at the age of 32, while Manny Ramirez has 1604 at the age of 35. With that being said, A-Rod definitely has a great chance of passing the 2000 mark in RBIs. Barry Bonds needs four RBIs to reach 2000 if a team signs him during the offseason, but he has played ten more years than A-Rod if he does make it. A-Rod needs seven RBIs to pass Mickey Mantle and needs 35 to pass Joe DiMaggio.
Phillies-Rockies
I doubt if there has been many playoff series pitting two more powerful offenses than these two teams possess. If Aaron Rowand had one more RBI, there would have been ten starting players with at least 90 RBIs between the two teams. That would have left only six hitters with less than 90 RBIs in the starting lineups. Jeff Francis will take the mound for the Rockies against Philadelphia's Cole Hamels. I doubt that Kyle Lohse or Adam Eaton will be starting any games for the Phillies since Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and Kyle Kendrick were their most effective starters even though Moyer had an ERA over 5.00. If Chase Utley hadn't been on the disabled list the Phillies probably would have had five players with 25 or more home runs.
To show how powerful an offense the Phillies have, Jimmy Rollins had 71 more total bases than Ryan Howard, as he hit 38 doubles, 20 triples and 30 home runs for a total of 88 extra base hits plus stole 41 bases. I would be very surprised if there was any other player that posted those kinds of numbers in the majors during 2007. Rollins set a new mark for most at bats in a season for any major league player batting 716 times. He set personal highs in runs, hits, triples, home runs, RBI's, total bases, slugging and batting average in a full season.
When you look at the statistics of the Rockies' pitchers you wonder how they got as far as they did. Once you get past Jeff Francis and his 17-9 record, Josh Fogg is the only other pitcher on the team with ten or more wins with his 10-9 record. Behind Francis and Fogg are Aaron Cook (with eight wins) and Taylor Buchholz with six wins.
This series should come down to who has the best pitching since the offenses are going to score runs. It is a matter of which team can hold the other team to less runs scored than what they score. Based on better pitching I pick the Phillies to win this series since the offenses balance out each other.
Indians - Yankees
Since the Yankees have a more powerful offense with five players having 90 or more RBIs, they should get the edge in this series if they can get any kind of respectable pitching. Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner are the only Indians with over 78 RBIs this season. The Indians did it on pitching this season with two 19 game winners in C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona and 15 game winner Paul Byrd. There is a huge dropoff in wins after Byrd with Jake Westbrook next with six wins. Their bullpen features Joe Borowski with an AL leading 45 saves, but the negative about him is the eight blown saves and 5.07 ERA.
Robinson Cano was a big part of the second half Yankee success, driving in 97 runs on the season and hitting .343 after All Star game after hitting .274 before the game. Still the key to the Yankees is for Alex Rodriguez to be able to hit the Indians pitching and hit it consistently. The Yankees probably will go with Chien-Ming Wang with 19 wins, Andy Pettitte with 15 wins and Mike Mussina with 11 wins and may use Roger Clemens with 6-6 record if he is able to pitch but doubtful if he can pitch with short rest.
They may even use him before using Mussina if they go with three starters in the playoffs. Clemens was only a .500 pitcher this season but still had a lot to do with the Yankees success after he joined the team. He had eleven starts with three or less runs allowed while allowing four or more runs in six starts. He hasn't pitched since the 16th of September so it remains to be seen if he can be effective after such a long layoff.
Angels-Red Sox
The Red Sox have to be favored today with Josh Beckett on the mound after being the only 20 game winner in majors in 2007. John Lackey can be a formidable mound opponent though, and if the game stays close, he could emerge as the winner. The Red Sox only had two players with more than 88 RBIs in David Ortiz and Mike Lowell. The Red Sox hope to get better production from J.D. Drew, who was 6th on club in home runs and 7th in RBIs while having only three more homers than Dustin Pedroia and Julio Lugo, and only 9 fewer RBIs than Lugo and four more than Coco Crisp.
Behind Beckett and his 20 wins were Tim Wakefield with 17, Daisuke Matsuzaka with 15, and Curt Schilling with 9. The Red Sox will almost have to go with a four man rotation in playoffs since can't see them keeping Schilling or Dice-K in the bullpen.
Vladimir Guerrero is the only power threat on the Angels, making them pretty much a one dimensional team when it comes to power. He is only Angels player with more than 18 home runs and only Angel with more than 86 RBIs. Surprisingly, Orlando Cabrera is the player with the 86 RBIs. Guerrero and Cabrera were only hitters in more than 140 games in 2007. He may not win the AL MVP but he wins the Angels MVP by a runaway vote.
Lackey leads the starters with 19 wins with Kelvim Escobar next with 18 and Jered Weaver third with 13 wins. Joe Saunders had eight wins and may get some starts in the playoffs if they need a fourth starter. I can't see Bartolo Colon getting any starts, since he hasn't won since the 14th of June.
The Red Sox should take this series, especially with Manny Ramirez back in the lineup. The only way the Angels can win is if they get superior pitching in each game that keeps the games close.
Cubs-Diamondbacks
The Cubs had only one 100 RBI player this season in Aramis Ramirez with 101. Derrek Lee and Mark DeRosa had more RBIs than Alfonso Soriano, who had a horrific start having no homers and only one RBI during the month of April. However, Soriano ended the season hitting 14 home runs and driving in 27 runs in September. Soriano drove in more than a third of his runs during his hot September winding up with 70 RBIs to go with his 33 home runs.
Cubs had a solid starting staff with four starters having 12 or more wins. Carlos Zambrano led the team in wins with 18 but went from July 29th to September 8th without winning a game and otherwise would have won 20 games. Ted Lilly won 15 games while Jason Marquis won 12 and Rich Hill won 11. Marquis who pitched so badly for the Cardinals in second half last season he was left off the playoff roster should get some starts for Cubs this postseason.
Chris Young, with 32 home runs, led the Diamondbacks in home runs with Eric Byrnes next with 21 and missed by three stolen bases of being a 30-30 player in his rookie season. No other Diamondback player had more than 17 home runs. Looking at the hitting statistics, it is a wonder the Diamondbacks even made the playoffs since no player on the team had 100 RBIs. Eric Byrnes led the team with 83 and Chris Young was second with 68.
Brandon Webb led the starters in wins with 18 with Doug Davis posting 13 wins and Livan Hernandez had 11 wins. I will pick the Cubs to win this series based on their pitching and the late season power barrage of Alfonso Soriano.
My personal favorite to win the playoffs and then the World Series will be the Cubs since they have waited 99 years for a world championship. The last time they won a world championship was when the airplane had only been flown successfully for five years. The Titanic sank four years after their last championship and World War I didn't start till six years later.
In 1908 Mother's Day was observed for the first time. Women competed in Olympics for first time in 1908. Thomas Selfridge was the first person to die in a plane crash in 1908 and ironically the plane was being piloted by Orville Wright who survived the crash. William Howard Taft was elected the 27th president during the same year.
Among people born in 1908 were Leroy Anderson who composed such songs as Sleigh Ride which was written on a hot summer day forty years later. Eve Arden was born in 1908 and starred in both the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks. The immortal Dodgers announcer Red Barber was also born in 1908. Lyndon B. Johnson our 36th president was also born that year and died 34 years ago. Didn't mean to to stray from Cubs but wanted to give an idea of how long ago it was since Cubs have won. If they are eliminated will root for Phillies if they are still in the playoffs.
So long as Cubs are in playoffs will be rooting for them. Ironically their 1908 championship was their second in a row. Little did they know it they would not even win one in a row until maybe this year in 2007.
