Vigilante Sports

This matchup pits two teams that have been put together very differently. Boston is an established team with dominant veteran pitching, and Cleveland is a young team whose young pitchers have led the way for them this year. The lineups for each of these teams are similar to their pitching staffs. The Red Sox have a veteran lineup led by David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, and the Indians have 2 young hitters who are establishing themselves as stars (Travis Hafner, and Grady Sizemore). Both teams can hit, both teams can pitch. Who is playing better now? Let’s look at the Key Matchups.

Key Matchups

• C.C. Sabathia vs. Josh Beckett – Both pitchers had CY Young caliber years. Beckett dominated in his outing in the Division series. Sabathia is going to have to bring his A game against such a strong and experienced pitcher like Beckett.
• Big Papi and Manny vs. Pronk and Grady – The Red Sox has the post season experience and the Indians have big strong young players who are hungry to prove they belong. Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore are destined to be stars in this league. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are currently the gold standard for post season production. Will we see the young kids over take the veterans?
• Spark plugs – The Indians have Kenny Lofton who will provide key hits and to just, generally be a pest on the basepaths. The spark plugs for the Red Sox are extra base hits. They rely on their slugging to get runs across.
• Managers – Terry Francona took the Red Sox to the promised land. And Eric Wedge seeks to do the same for the Indians. Management at this time of year is always important.

My prediction: Indians in 6

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 2:43 am and is filed under Baseball, MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.