World Series Predictions – MLB Baseball
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 14:53
Breakdown of the 2010 World Series and championship predictions.
The Fall Classic
The World Series is about to begin, and who could have predicted the participants? Actually, I was half right, picking the Texas Rangers to hand it to the Yankees’ Evil Empire. I am now for 5 for 6 picking the MLB playoff series, my only miss being the San Francisco Giants upsetting the Phillies. Of course, I’d like to be perfect, but I’m pretty happy with my current percentage. I’m also batting .500 in determining how many games each series has taken.
World Series: Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants
Much like the Giants last trip to the World Series (their 2002 loss to the Anaheim Angels), this year’s Fall Classic features two cities that have never witnessed a baseball championship, a combined 101 years of futility. At least San Francisco has been there before–three previous times–playoff success of any kind was uncharted territory for Texas until this season.
For one of these two teams, that history will soon be all forgotten.
Both the Rangers and Giants come into the Series off strong League Championship performances. The Rangers absolutely dominated the Yankees; save for one disastrous bullpen inning in Game 1, the ALCS would have been a sweep. Even after New York salvaged Game 5, there was still a sense of inevitably that Texas would take the American League crown, as the Rangers had otherwise outplayed the Bronx Bombers in every facet of the game.
Like the Rangers, the Giants won their series in Game 6 after taking an initial 3-1 series lead over the Phillies. Unlike the ALCS, the NLCS always felt like a close battle, with only one game being decided by more than three runs; in the ALCS, only one game was decided by less than five runs. And with Philadelphia ultimately holding home field advantage, the Phillies seemed far more likely to mount a possible comeback due to their hosting of Game 6 and a potential Game 7, an advantage that the Wild Card Yankees did not have. Of course, the Phillies didn’t comeback and the series didn’t go 7–the Giants won the pennant.
For a game otherwise dominated by statistics in so many ways, direct statistical comparison of championship participants is more challenging in baseball than in any other sport due to the minimal commonality of opponents and even more minimal–if not altogether lacking–of head-to-head match-ups resulting from the two league (with limited Interleague play) system. That having been said, the Rangers have lost 11 straight to the Giants and 9 in San Francisco…and the Giants do have the home field, so Advantage San Francisco.
Comparing statistics, both the Giants and the Rangers have stellar pitching. San Francisco led all of baseball with a 3.36 Team ERA; Texas was ninth overall and third in the AL at 3.93 (considering the American League is the more offensively-minded circuit, that number is all the more impressive). But the Rangers had the best hitting team in all of baseball with a .277 batting average, 19 points higher than the Giants .257, and they scored 90 more runs than their NL counterparts (787 to 697). Although pitching rules in the post-season, when both teams have it, you have to give the edge to the team that’s offensively stronger, so Advantage: Texas.
Having watched both the ALCS and NLCS, having seen both teams play, the Rangers simply feel like a team of destiny to me…toss that one in the intangibles department. Texas is a complete ball club playing at peak levels in all aspects of the game. To take nothing away from the Giants’ offensive stars, San Francisco is a more one-dimensional squad. Thus, I am going to continue to ride the team that has not let me down yet, and my prediction is Texas Rangers in 6.
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