Playoff Predictions

This week I will give my playoff predictions.

ALDS:

Indians over Yankees in 3
Red Sox over Angels in 3

ALCS:

Indians over Red Sox in 7: They both have great pitching, but all 5 of the Indians starting pitching have an ERA of less than 4.60, while only 3 of the Red Sox starting pitchers do. So far the Indians have outscored the Yankees 14-4, while the Red Sox have outscored the Angels 10-3. Also the Indians have 186 home runs and the Red Sox only have 143.

NLDS:

Rockies over Phillies in 3

D’Backs over Cubs in 3

NLCS:

D’Backs over Rockies in 6: The D’Backs have great pitching and the Rockies have great hitting. Pitching wins championships. D’Backs rotation in order have ERA’s of 3.01 (Brandon Webb), 4.93 (Livan Hernandez), 4.25 (Doug Davis), 4.30 (Micah Owings), and 5.03 (Edgar Gonzalez) while the Rockies have 4.22 (Jeff Francis), 3.43 (Franklin Morales), 4.28 (Ubaldo Jimenez), 4.94 (Josh Fogg), and 7.15 (Elmer Dessens). The Rockies postseason score is 16-8 and the D’Backs one is 16-6.

World Series:

Indians over D’Backs in 7: They both have incredible pitching, but the Indians have better hitting.

C: Victor Martinez CLE vs. Chris Snyder ARI
Winner: Victor Martinez: Victor Martinez had a .300 batting average with 25 home runs while Chris Snyder only hit .252.

1B: Ryan Garko CLE vs. Connor Jackson ARI
Winner: Ryan Garko: The averages are similar, but Garko has better power numbers.

2B: Asdrubal Cabrera CLE vs. Alberto Callapso ARI
Winner: Asdrubal Cabrera: Cabrera hit .283, while Callapso only hit .215.

3B: Casey Blake CLE vs. Chad Tracy ARI
Winner: Casey Blake: Blake has a better batting average (.270), more home runs (18) and more RBI’s (78) than Tracy.

SS: Johnny Peralta CLE vs. Stephen Drew ARI
Winner: Johnny Peralta: Stephen Drew is only batting .238.

RF: Franklin Gutierrez CLE vs. Justin Upton ARI
Winner: Franklin Gutierrez: Upton’s batting .221 while Gutierrez is batting .266.

LF: Kenny Lofton CLE vs. Eric Byrnes ARI
Winner: Kenny Lofton: In the regular season I would choose Byrnes, but Lofton is just so good in the playoffs.

CF: Grady Sizemore CLE vs. Chris Young ARI
Winner: Grady Sizemore: they both have good power and stolen base numbers but Chris Young is only batting .237.

DH: Travis Hafner CLE vs. Tony Clark ARI
Winner: Travis Hafner: Travis Hafner had 100 RBI’s this year.

G1SP: CC Sabathia CLE vs. Brandon Webb ARI
Winner: CC Sabathia: The pitchers are very close, but in Cleveland, Sabathia gets the edge.

G2SP: Fausto Carmona CLE vs. Livan Hernandez ARI
Winner: Fausto Carmona: Carmona had a 1.14 ERA in September.

G3SP: Jake Westbrook CLE vs. Doug Davis ARI
Winner: Jake Westbrook: Westbrook had a 4.14 ERA in September.

G4SP: Paul Byrd CLE vs. Micah Owings ARI
Winner: Micah Owings: Micah has a 4.30 ERA while Byrd has a 4.57 ERA and it’s in Arizona.

G5SP: CC Sabathia CLE vs. Brandon Webb ARI
Winner: Brandon Webb: The pitchers are very close, but in Arizona, Webb gets the edge.

G6SP: Jake Westbrook CLE vs. Doug Davis ARI
Winner: Jake Westbrook: It’s in Cleveland and they both have done pretty well this year, but Westbrook had a better September so he has more confidence.

G7SP: Fausto Carmona CLE vs. Livan Hernandez ARI
Winner: Fausto Carmona: Hernandez has an ERA of almost 5.00 while Carmona is in Cy Young talk.

Indians 14, D’Backs 2

Results of last week’s poll:
Who do you think will win NL MVP?
Matt Holliday – 62%
Jimmy Rollins – 15%
Carlos Beltran – 8%
Prince Fielder – 8%
Ryan Howard – 8%
All others – 0%

Come back next week for part 6 of the Doug Melvin Trade Analysis.