Postseason musings
*Been meaning to say for awhile that I love the Wheaties commercial in which a softball player with the beer gut hits a home run to the sound of Vin Scully calling Kirk Gibson's famous homer off Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series. That just might get the nod for the Dave's World Advertisement of the Year right there. Which is appropriate, since we're giving out awards today. Here are the first annual Dave's World baseball awards:
MVP
American League: David Ortiz. We've discussed this before. No one in the American League has carried his team like David Ortiz. Alex Rodroguez isn't even the MVP of the Yankees. That should go to either Mariano Rivera or even Jason Giambi (The guy who admitted to steroid use, saw his skills deteriorate to the point that they asked him to go to the minors, then suddenly, exactly at that point, magically found his swing again. All by hard work. Really, they should make a Disney movie out of this. But I digress). I understand the general sentiment against voting a designated hitter for MVP, but think this is one of those occasional times a specialist has gone so far above and beyond that you make an exception, like the year Eck won.
National League: Albert Pujols. OK, I suppose this is "best player" more so than the strict "MVP," since the Cardinals are still pretty hot stuff without him, but again, my blog, my rules.
Cy Young
AL: Mariano Rivera. For two reasons: One, because there is no Pedro-in-1999 obvious choice this year; and two, he simply earned it. If you've been following along here, you've probably noticed my barely-concealed admiration for Rivera. I don't care if it says New York on his uniform, Rivera's a warrior and the way he battled back he was basically written off has been pretty amazing.
NL: Dontrelle Willis. How many years until he reaches free agency? Dontrelle was absolutely phenomenal this year. Plus -- and this has absolutely nothing to do with the Cy Young criteria -- he also batted something like .258 and was up to seventh in the batting order by September. That counts for something in Dave's World.
Manager of the year
AL: Mike Scioscia. Thought about giving this one to Joe Torre, but couldn't pull the trigger. That $200 million payroll thing is always going to go against him in these sort of situations, even though it isn't his fault. Scioscia guided the Angels through some rough spots, held off Oakland's charge, and is peaking at the right time.
NL: Frank Robinson. Tempted to give this one to Bobby Cox, since he led a team riddled with injuries and loaded with kiddies to another division title. But Robinson's team was basically the same bare-boned Montreal Expos as last year, and it wasn't as if they turned around and started spending a ton of money once they moved. Yet Robinson kept them in the playoff hunt in the best top-to-bottom division in baseball until near the end.
Division series
I'm not going to project all the way through the playoffs, here. Just going to deal with what is in front of us now.
Red Sox vs. White Sox -- The obvious theme is being beaten into the ground already: The Red Sox won for the first time since 1918, now is it the White Sox's turn to win for the first time since 1917????? I've said this before and I will say this again: The White Sox once threw the World Series. The franchise has not yet done enough penance for such a sin. Go back to your room and think about it for another 87 years and then maybe we can talk. As for the actual series, well, the White Sox really seemed to run out of gas on the last month and the only reason they didn't pull a historic choke is because Cleveland imploded in the last week of the season. Red Sox in four.
Yankees vs. Angels -- Could be the best matchup of the first round. Los Angeles has the most underrated starting pitching of all the playoff teams and seem to be peaking at the right time. Angels in five.
Astros vs. Braves -- Usually, the Braves play the role of "OK, I watched the other three games, I can skip this one," in the first round. But this year they're something different. They battled through a lot of injuries and all of a sudden, Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones come off like elder statesman. Houston has the best "you don't want to face these guys in a short series" rotation of all eight playoff teams with Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt going 1-2-3. Hmm. I might have to take the "best matchup of the first round" away from Yankees-Angels. Houston in five.
Cardinals-Padres -- It is something like 29-0 Cardinals in Game 1 as I type this. Thanks for playing, San Diego, here's your parting gift.
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