Under Review: Week 6

More NFL Questions. Word.

Let’s stay home with the first one fellas. Can you put Adrian Peterson in talks as the best running back in the league this year? Not #1 per say, but in conversation as one of the best backs (if not the best) in football this year. Remember it’s only week 7. Also, where do you see him finishing stats wise? Dickerson had 1,800 his rookie year, is that attainable?

Dogg- I've never seen a rookie RB as good as AP. With a below average offense you have to think that teams are concentrating on the run much more than the pass which makes it even more impressive to me. Imagine a guy like this in New England or Indy. It would even be more insane. He just made the Bears defense look foolish and granted they haven't been as good as we're used to but come on. This guy might go Eric Dickerson if not better in his first NFL campaign.


Q- He can be in the conversation. The kid leads the league in yards and has yet to get over 25 carries in a game. If Sunday's game against the Bears was a fluke, then I'd say let's hold off for now. But he's been dominant like this ever since that ridiculous run in the preseason where he spun, ran for 60+ yards, and finished it by bowling over the safety. He's legit and will continue to be so barring a major injury. As for the 1,800 that Dickerson put up, I don't think AD gets to that mark. Not through any fault of his own, but because Chilly won't let it happen. You'll still continue to see the occasional game when Peterson gets only 12 carries because we're scared of over-working him.

Fuzz- I think you have to put him in talks already. Even though banged up, the Bears have one of the better defenses in football. He had 224 easy yards against this good defense on there turf. I say easy, because he made it look easy. It looked like he was playing a backyard football game with his old high school buddies. He’s leading the league with 607 yards and he’s splitting carries. I’ll repeat that. He’s SPLITTING CARRIES! It’s absolutely awesome and the fans in Minnesota finally have a star to get behind. 1,800 yards is absurd for any running back in any year, so I’ll put him at 1,650 with 12 TD’s. Not Dickerson like, but one heck of a rookie year…

This is getting a little ridiculous over in New England. Are they going to lose? If so, too what team?

Dogg- I don’t even know what their schedule looks like but I believe Indy is over the hump with the New England jinx. Indy beats them at home in week 9 for sure and see them probably losing one more besides that one. 14-2 is my prediction. Indy goes 16-0.

Q- What the heck, let's go bold. I have them losing at Baltimore Week 13. There's not a lot of reasoning behind this either. I just looked at their schedule, assumed they weren't losing at home, and took a guess. There will be one game where they are off and that's my pick for it.


Fuzz- Wow Dogg. You called for an NFL team to go undefeated this year and it’s not the Patriots? That is a call ladies & gentleman. A team hasn’t gone undefeated in like 40 years, yet the Colts will do it this year. Wow. The Patriots are going to lose at some point. I know they are on fire beyond belief right now, but the odds are stacked against them. They looked like they toyed with Dallas, but I see them losing. I call losing at Indy in Week 9 in the most anticipated game in the history of the NFL.

Simple question: Which head coach deserves to be fired right now? More then one? None?


Q- Scott Linehan. Easy. He's turned The Greatest Show On Turf into an offense that averages 100 yards and 10 points per game. It's not entirely his fault, I know they've had injuries to key guys like Bulger and Jackson, but this is terrible and someone has to take the fall. Oh, and we can fire Childress anytime now.

Fuzz- It’s always a difficult decision to fire your head coach mid-season since the other coach or an interim coach would almost have to start over with the players. Saying this, Q & I are on the same page with the Scott Linehan firing. I’m also going to add Marvin Lewis to the mix. Both deserve to be either fired or a couple weeks away from getting canned. They have one win between them and both teams have enough talent to at least be .500. No excuse for these collapses.


Dogg- I am a firm believer that you give a head coach at the very minimum one year to right the ship. I know fans are calling for their coach’s heads at this point in the year but you might have to look at the players on the field as well. Give these guys a fair shot. After all, they did get hired and most of you fans were probably jacked up on that very day before the season began.

Commissioner Goodell said this week that the Superbowl could be held in London one day. An American sports championship overseas. What are your thoughts on this?

Wembley Stadium in London

Dogg- I didn't hear that comment but I think that is the dumbest comment I've heard in 25 years. Yes, I'm 25 years old so definitely the dumbest comment I've heard in my life.

Fuzz- I’m with my boy Dogg here. I have no idea why this is even an option. The NFL will hardly ever go to a cold weather state for the Superbowl, unless they have a dome, but even that is sparse. These markets get screwed because they don’t even have a chance at getting the most significant sporting event in America to their city. You know how much money is brought into a city during this week? It’s insane. Yet, the commish has the marbles to suggest that they want to put all this money and hoopla in an overseas market! A slap in the face to American Economics. This is so stupid.

Q- I would quit watching football if this happened. I'm sick and tired of every sport's commissioner trying to expand everything to other countries. It's all money and greed that's driving this too. They have their sports and leagues, and we have ours. Leave it at that and quit trying to "globalize" the sport. It's unnecessary and taking games away from the people who made the sport what it is today. I guarantee that this will be the downfall of one of the major sports. At some point people are going to quit watching/attending when they realize that the out of country market is more important than us here in the States.

AFC has an overall record of 14-12 over NFC teams this year. Is this surprising? Right on? Does this tell us anything?

Dogg- I would've guessed that the AFC is much better against the NFC than that but the matchups are all random. I believe the AFC has more terrible teams but also has the elite teams as well.

The NFC is full of average teams so they can beat up on the below average teams in the AFC. The AFC is still much better in my opinion and think they will come out on top in the SB once again.

Fuzz- It’s a little surprising to me. I would have thought the AFC would be way higher, but they’ve slipped a little bit. Teams like Cincinnati, San Diego (even though getting better now), Denver and even New York are having worse years then expected. NFC only has Chicago and New Orleans that aren’t living up to expectation. Maybe the NFC isn’t the minor leagues of the NFL anymore…

Q- The only reason this is surprising is because most would have predicted something closer to a 20-6 mark. But you can't and won't have that big of a separation. Yes, the top 3-4 teams in the AFC are better than anyone in the NFC, but they also have some terrible teams over there that our average NFC teams are beating up on. So, long story longer, no, I'm not surprised at all.

Read More......

Adrian Peterson is good

Q: Now that was a fun game. You know who's really good at football? Adrian Peterson. Talk about stepping your game up. What a stud. He goes for 224 yards and 3 touchdown on just 20 carries (over an 11 yard average) against what is widely considered one of the best defenses in the NFL. He gashed the Bears for touchdown runs of 67, 73, and 35 yards. The kid could do whatever he wanted today. Oh, and he had a 53 yard kickoff return at to set up the game winning field goal. Is there anything he can't do? Can he be included in a conversation about the best running backs in the NFL after just 5 games? Who's better than him?


Fuzz: My man crush for Adrian “all day” Peterson moved into dangerous territory today. I’m a little nervous. Can he be considered one of the top backs you ask? He is! Unless Derrick Ward runs for 199 yards tomorrow night on Monday night football, Adrian Peterson is your leading rusher in all of football. I know I might be getting ahead of myself, but let’s pass over the rookie of the year talk (which is a lead pipe lock), how about MVP talk if we make playoffs? You really have to watch this team every week to realize the shocking lack of talent on the offensive side. It’s truly embarrassing. Adrian Peterson isn’t part of our offense… he IS our offense.


Q: Wow, a big win on the road and you're talking playoffs? You do have Peterson on the brain; are you going to get the road white #28 jersey or the home purple? This was a giant win, make no mistake about that. 2-3 on the year (and we should have beaten both Detroit and Green Bay) is decent, but we're still in a very difficult part of our schedule. We're at Dallas next week, then follow it up with home games against Philly and San Diego and travel to Green Bay. If we find a way to go 2-2 it will be a minor miracle (maybe Jon Kitna can help us out with that) and THEN we can start looking at playoffs. What I'm worried about is that we tried to blow that game today in the fourth quarter. Everyone is going to be talking about AD and Longwell's game winner, but don't forget that our D got abused for two touchdowns to get Chicago back in the game. Should I be as worried as I am?

Fuzz: Ok, Ok, Ok. I’m a little pumped up right now and I was getting ahead of myself. I had no idea that was our next four games. Anyways, thanks for putting me back in my place and letting me enjoy this W for 34 seconds. You’re a true friend. Our defense was absolutely horrible today. Over 450 yards giving up to an average offense. We made Griese look like Johhny U today. This is a concern. Our running defense has been very good all year, but our passing defense has been downright brutal. We seem to give up gobs of yards every game. It’s a little surprising because we have some names in the secondary. Maybe that’s it, maybe they are just names. Thank God we won though. If we lose that game, so many things happen in my opinion. Starting with our head coach. I know the owners are backing Childress but a loss like that with that lead would have put some doubt into everyone if it’s not there already...

Q: He should still be done in my mind. The team just doesn't seem any different than they did under Mike Tice. The offense is terrible, Chilly's choice at QB is marginal at best, and he just seems like a guy who won't change his ways no matter how many games we lose. Don't get me wrong, I'm super pumped about the win, but we shouldn't let a W cloud over the awful job he's done in about a year and a half. Ok, enough negativity; let's talk about BC's boy, T Jack. Is it just me or did he look better than he's ever been? He managed the game ok, didn't make any major mistakes and even completed a few big time passes (both in yards and in pressure situations). Is he starting to come around a little bit here?


Fuzz: T-Jack’s box score line isn’t anything to applaud. 9/23 for 136 and a TD. No turnovers. Saying this, I would agree with you. I bet our “awesome” wide receivers dropped between 5-7 balls. Most of the throws I thought we good enough to be caught too. It might be time for another week of the “jugs” machine for the boys. I still thought this was his best game to date as a Pro. It’s not saying much, but we needed to see some improvement. We always hear about this cannon of an arm he has, so seeing him connect for the 60 yard TD to Williamson was awesome to see. It was a nice day for T-Jack. You could see that he has some skill. You know who else has skill? Adrian Peterson. Did we talk about him yet? Kidding. What did you think of that 55-yard game winner? If we miss that, knowing Minnesota sports, I don’t think we win.


Q: First of all, I didn't think there was any chance that he was going to hit it in the first place. 55 yards is a long field goal and you never know when the famous Chicago wind will pick up. Plus, his previous career long was something like 50 yards. But he proved me wrong and drilled it (well, it scraped the back end of the cross bar, so maybe "drilled" isn't the right word) to save us from blowing a big lead late in the game. I'm with you Fuzz, if he misses that I don't think there's any way we take care of business in overtime. In fact, we'd probably have to kick off first and Hester would have taken it to the house...again. How ridiculous is he? The guy is unstoppable. He even scored on offense today (that's embarrassing for us). Why would anyone ever kick to him? Is he the best return man ever?

Fuzz: Ever? He could be. I was actually having this same conversation earlier in the day when the game was going on with my cousin Mike. We were talking about that he has to sustain this amazing run. Remember when Dante Hall a couple years ago had like four returns in four games? Everyone was saying the same stuff about him too. Now, I couldn’t even tell you what team he plays for. Saying this, Hester does have eight special team touchdowns in about a year and half and Hall has 12 total on his career. So, he can be the best ever, he just needs to do it for long stretch. We kicked to him most of the day and he burned us once. It didn’t kill us in the end, because we won. But, I don’t know if I’d kick to him ever again. It’s not worth it. We should start wrapping this thing up. The main point I want to say is that I don’t think we have played a more enjoyable game in about three years then we did today. Even though it was nerve racking at the end, it was still a great football game to watch. A big road win and now we need another one against the Cowboys next week. You have any final thoughts Q?

Q: I agree that this game was one of the most enjoyable to watch in a long time, and that's all thanks to AD. I hold my breath every time he touches the ball because of the possibility of something special happening. Obviously the "prevent the win" defense was a point of concern and a bit of a buzzkill, but the D did have 5 turnovers, so that was good. T Jack looked ok, and we need to keep reminding ourselves that he's young and still very raw right now. Overall, I think the biggest part of this game is going to be sitting at work tomorrow and not having to complain about how bad the game was or listen to the Packer fans gloating (though the latter will still probably happen). I just hope everyone isn't too disappointed next week when AD only runs for 150, instead of the 225 he did today.

Read More......

Wow

This is getting ridiculous.

19 out of 20. That's the Rockies record in the last 20 games. Has a team ever been on a run like this before? Maybe, but not in the crunch time. They've been doing this in September to get into the playoffs and now they are undefeated through five games in the post season. The million dollar question remains. Will they lose again?

Read More......

Under Review: Week 5

NFL Questions...

1) A common theme this year as seen last night in the Bills/Cowboys game is the coach calling a timeout on the sideline when the play is about to start. What do you think of this rule where coaches can call a timeout out right before the snap to ice a kicker?


Q- I have absolutely no problem with this practice. It's a legal move and at this point, the opposing team should be anticipating the timeout. If you have a game winning FG lined up, plan on making the kick and having the points taken off the board because the head coach is in the official's ear hole barking for a TO. It's going to happen. Deal with it, line up again, and drill it again (just like that Folk kid did last night). Game over.

Fuzz- I’m with Q on this one. I don’t see any problem with it. It’s all part of the strategy of the game. Basketball coaches call timeouts all the time after they see a defensive set-up from the other team. Baseball managers will send up a certain pinch hitter as a decoy then put in the real hitter they want once the other manager selects his relief pitcher. If a NFL coach wants to call a T.O. to ice a kicker, so be it.

Dogg- First off, I think that is the worst rule ever but don't know how you would ever stop it from happening. If it's a normal play in the 4th quarter and the defense is confused, they obviously will have to call a timeout close to when the play is starting so why should it be different for a FG attempt? Secondly, it should've not happened last night. My fellow blogger, Q, and I noticed that Dick Jauron was yelling at the ref for about 5 seconds "now", "now", "now". The ref decides to not blow his whistle the first 6 times Jauron asked for a timeout but finally did on Jauron's 7th try. I hate it but don't know how to effectively avoid it.

2) Two part question. First part: Was the hit Trent Green gave to the defensive lineman legal? What did you think of the whole situation? Second part: Should Trent retire after what happened?

Dogg- It's tough to blame Trent Green on that play because how else is he supposed to block a 300 pound defensive lineman? Can't really try to flatten him otherwise he would be derailed and who knows what he injures then. We're talking broken arms, broken ankles and whatever else. I also don't blame Travis Johnson for getting upset immediately because when a guy dives at your knees like that, it feels like it was done intentionally and that can end careers. If Trent Green doesn't get a concussion, I believe that this wouldn't as big of a deal as what some are making it out to be. Trent Green would be making a huge mistake if he doesn't retire.


Fuzz- I don’t know how to answer the first one. He’s a 56-year-old white dude, how else is he supposed to knock him down? It seemed fine to me. He’s done some of those draft preview shows in the off-season and I think he’s really good. He’s got a talent for TV. If he wants any hope for a life after football, including a TV gig, he needs to get out ASAP. It’s not worth it anymore.

Q- Ok, so as far as I know, that was technically a legal move by Trent. Does that make it ok or something a player should do? In my mind, no. You don't take a head frist dive at a guy's knees, especially when he's not looking. You just don't. That's why I understand Johnson's initial reaction when he flipped out on TG (though he should have taken a second to realize that the guy was unconscious and not moving, so maybe talking trash wasn't the best route). Knees are fragile things and they are a lineman's lifeblood. Going after someone's knees is like trying to end their career. It's not worth the extra 5 yards your offense is going to gain. That said, it's time for Mr. Green to be done with the sport of football. I've watched his head bounce off turf, knees, etc. long enough. I don't want to see this guy's head turn to mush. Plus, he seems like a pretty articulate guy frome the few times I've seen him interviewed. So he should have a chance to be an analyst or commentator in the future. That's assuming, of course, that he can still form a sentence...

3) Through five weeks, what's the worst division in football? Why?

Q- I have a feeling that my co-writers are going to disagree with me on this, but in my mind it's the NFC South. And it's not even close. Yeah, Tampa Bay had a nice little start to the season where they surprised a few teams. But that's in the process of crashing to a halt. Their D was playing over their heads to begin with, and as old as they are, you'll see a very severe decline in the coming weeks. Plus, now Caddy is done for the year and his backup, Michael Pittman, is hurt too. That's left them with something named Earnest Graham (and yes, I just had to ask Fuzz his name a second ago) running the ball. Oh, and they are talking to the Vikes about acquiring Mewelde Moore. Yeah, this is not going to end well for them. And that's the best team in the division. After the Bucs, you have David Carr and the Fighting Panthers, the two-headed crapfest of Harrington-Leftwich leading a terrible Atlanta squad, and the suddenly brutal New Orleans Saints. Yuck.


Dogg- The AFC East is the worst. I know you have New England who might be the best team in the NFL but after that you might have 3 of the 5 worst teams in the entire league. You have Chad Pennington who has been playing how he looks, like a woman. The other two starting QB's are Trent Edwards for Buffalo and Cleo Lemon for Miami....Who?

Fuzz- I really want to say the NFC North, but I’m going to say the AFC West. Not one team over .500. Are you kidding me? Because of a bye week, the 1st pick overall Oakland Raiders lead the division with a 2-2 record. Wow is a good word for this. San Diego clearly is in trouble, Denver is lost and Kansas City is just bad.

4) A redundant question, but still needs to be brought up again. Are San Diego and Chicago back after their wins this week? Just one of them back? Neither?


Fuzz- I’m not sold yet. Both did have convincing wins on the road this week, but I’m not biting. I think both are going to miss the playoffs. San Diego has one of the oldest and worst coaching staff in the league and the Bears have tons of injuries and have Brian Griese as their starting quarterback. I see them both hanging around mediocrity all season never reaching their potential.

Q- I'd like to say that neither one of them is, but here's the problem: they both play in such mediocre divisions that they definitely have a chance. The Chargers looked good enough on Sunday to have some commentators wondering what was wrong with Denver and could they fix it. You know you're having a poor season when any win you get causes major questions being brought up about the team that you actually beat. Oh, and in case you didn't already know, the Broncos are one of the "formidable" challengers in the AFC West. So are the Chiefs (hey, you got 11 yards rushing on Sunday; congrats!) and the Raiders (hey, Daunte, way to go on the 75 yards passing two weeks ago. You sure proved the naysayers wrong!). Yikes. On the other hand, Chicago looked all but buried at the half on Sunday night. They were well on their way to being 1-4 and d-o-n-e. Then Favre lets them back into the game with some ill-advised throws, McCarthy decides to run the ball for the first time all year, and the Bears sneak out a win. Now they've gained some confidence and proved to the Pack that they are beatable (and that Favre can still give away games at the drop of a hat). Oh and the other two teams in the NFC Norris are the Lions and the Vikings. Enough said.

Dogg- They will both be in the playoffs and YES that's a call.

5) Assuming New England, Indy, Dallas and Pittsburgh are your top four teams in the league, who is #5?

Dogg- I take San Diego. They have a whole new coaching staff, which takes time to get use to all the new schemes. Gates might be the best offensive player in the game today and Rivers will only play better. LT is LT and he will always do his thing. Their defense will definitely pick it up and start containing teams which is all they'll need to do with their potent offensive attack. Mike Turner is now 100% healthy and he will help them. A change of pace back that is fresh with huge upside can only help.

Q- Wow, good question. Can I just say anyone except the Vikings? Seriously though, there's probably four contenders for this crown. Let's dismiss three of them. First, the 4-1 Packers. It's a nice story that all the old, curmudgeon writers are fawning over, but I'm going out on a limb and saying they're done. The Bears will overtake them within 5 weeks (or less) after the ball stops bouncing their way and their lack of a running game cripples them. Next on the chopping block are the 3-1 Titans. An above average, no-name D is a nice thing to have. The tailback tandem of Chris Brown and LenDale White, on the other hand, is not. Their lack of offense will be their demise; plain and simple. Third team off the list, the 3-1 Redskins. It hurts to cross them off of my list. I like the way Jason Campbell is maturing as a quarterback. Their running game is decent.

They have some nice defensive players. The problem is consistency. One week they look like they're coasting to a wild card spot, the next week they look like they could finish 5-11. That leaves us with my choice--the 3-1 Jacksonville Jaguars. Amid all of the quarterback controversy early in the year, and with the surprising Patriots, disappointing Chargers, and consistent Colts, they've gotten lost in the shuffle. But this is a good team. Garrard isn't the long term answer, but he's not going to kill you either. The running game has been very solid as well. And, of course, their D is ridiculous. After 4 games, they've given up only 41 points. 41!! If David and the receivers can do anything, this team will be able to advance to the second round of the playoffs (where they will get throttled by either New England or Indianapolis).

Fuzz- First off, I would like to say to Q that you seem confused on the Bears right now. Last week you reiterated your call on 5-11 for them and now you say they are going to beat the Packers for the division? That win must have swayed you young man. Anyways, I’m going with the Tennessee Titans. I love them. I especially love their head coach. Jeff Fischer has to be one of the top three coaches in the league in my opinion. You can’t talk too much about the Titans without mentioning Vince Young. To use a cliché, he’s a winner.

It’s so true. He finds ways every week to get in the win column. I think I would trade draft picks 1-7 next year to attain him. I’m not even kidding. Funny thing is, I don’t know if Tennessee would even take it...

Read More......

I miss college

I'm not a huge fan of college football, but you can't beat this picture above. I stole this off another popular blog site, but I don't care. If I went to a big school where college football was significant maybe that would increase my passion for the sport. Either way, this picture of the Stanford students screaming at a burning fire (assuming some sort of USC paraphernalia is in the fire) is priceless. This picture makes me miss college. We never did this, but when you're in college, you do stuff like this. Where any idea that involves beer, yelling and friends is a hell of an idea.

P.S. You got to love the guy with a full pitcher in his hand. I can't tell you how many friends I have that would do that exact same thing.

Read More......

Bill Smith 1, Terrible Players 0

This past Monday, Bill Smith officially took over as General Manager for the Minnesota Twins. On Friday he made his first move. Oh, there have been rumors of contract negotiations with Hunter and potential blockbuster trades involving Santana, but there was really nothing to those musings. In his first actual decision as our GM, Mr. Smith endeared himself to many Twins fans (well, at least those of us who write for this site).

On this beautiful October afternoon, the Twins finally cut ties with below average (I'm trying to be nice here) utility players Lew Ford and Luis Rodriguez. Oh, and Josh Rabe and Tommy Watkins were let go too, but that's far less important. What matters is that Bill made a strong stance with some of the garbage that is clogging up my favorite team's roster. His quote: "We needed to clean up the roster a bit so there was a number of moves to be made. And rather than wait until the winter to do so, we felt it was best to do that now." Here, here good sir.

Personally, I have never liked Ford. Even during the promising times early in his career (remember those two weeks?), I was never impressed with him. Sure, he had some speed and was able to take extra bases...during those infrequent times he actually got on. And when Hunter was injured for those few hundred games over the last four years (something he needs to remember before he continues to call others out for their toughness. But that's another post.) Lew was a decent stop gap who could use that aforementioned speed to track down a number of balls. However, both of those admirable qualities are extremely overshadowed by a) his less than stellar hitting ability, b) his growing problem with depth perception (or whatever it is that has caused him to misplay numerous routine fly balls), and c) the difficulty he has in remembering how many outs there are in an inning. If you don't know what I'm talking about with letter c, then you haven't watched many Twins games over the last couple of years.

On the other hand, I never had major issues with Rodriguez the way that I did with Ford. I'll channel my inner Denny and say that he was who I thought he was: a backup utility infielder who was solid with the glove and could, on occasion, get a couple of hits. In fact, I'd still rather have him than Nick Punto any day of the week, but Gardy has made it very clear that the Tricky One isn't going anywhere any time soon. Luis' problem wasn't physical, but rather one of circumstances. It's not his fault that the Twins have loaded up their roster over the last few seasons with more backups and utility players than should ever be allowed on one major league team. He's still a legitimate major leaguer, as evidenced by San Diego immediately plucking him off waivers once we parted ways with him.

Bottom line, it's nice to see Smith take a somewhat bold stance in getting rid of some excess waste on our roster as we head towards what should be a playoff season in 2008 (yeah, I said it). There was probably some pressure to hang on to a guy like Leeeeeewwwwwww (I'll never forgive some Twins fans for that) because he's a bit of a hometown favorite--at least he is to those who know nothing about baseball and just like shouting his name. I won't miss Ford and I'm glad L Rod has already caught on with another squad. But the most important thing is that our GM has made his first official move, and in my eyes it's a great one. I look forward to watching him mold this team over the winter. Best of luck to you Mr. Smith, I'll be watching...

Read More......

2007 MLB Divison Series Preview

So we all know that the Twins 2007 campaign finished in a less than desirable fashion. Nonetheless, the American and National League playoffs will go on with out them. So while we here at TKOT will do our fair share of off season Twins writing (including a soon to be released Season in Review, a What to Watch For look to the winter in Twins Territory, and plenty of speculation on things like that Santana/Bartlett for Reyes/Pelfrey/change rumor), it seemed right to at least mention those who are still playing. Without further ado, here is a breakdown of all four divisional series as well as a prediction for each.

California Angels Playing in Anaheim Located Near Los Angeles vs. Boston Red Sox

In what appears to be a very evenly match series, the difference in this showdown will be which team’s stars show up. Despite tying Cleveland for the best record in baseball, the Red Sox have thrived without the typical seasons from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Manny finished the year hitting just .296 with 20 HR’s and 88 RBI. That’s far below his .319/38/121 averages over the past 12 seasons. Big Dave, on the other hand, hit for a very good .332 average, but the power numbers were down to 35 and 117 (yes I know it’s ridiculous to have 35 bombs and 117 ribies be a down year for you, but that’s how dominant Papi has been). If those two step up to where fans, especially those in Boston, are accustomed to, this could be a very short series. On the CAPiALNLA side, they are looking for a breakout series from their stud, Vlad Guerrero. It’s not like he had a terrible year, 27 bombs and 125 ribs is very good, but if the Angels are going to have a chance, Vlad the Impaler is going to have to carry them on his back, Carlos Beltran in Houston-style. I just don’t see that happening. Prediction: Boston in 4.

New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians

This series will be decided in the first game or two at the most. If Cleveland can get ahead 1-0 or 2-0, they should roll. They have the better pitching of the two teams and the usually home field advantage. I say usually because playing in New York during October can be a frightening experience for a young team like the Indians, so it’s a good thing that they only have to play there twice, at the most. Chief Wahoo’s bunch will have to lean heavily on the aforementioned pitching advantage if they are going to tame that vaunted Yankee lineup. Even New Yorkers know that if they’re going to do anything this postseason, it will be on the strength of that 8 runs per game offense. It’s make or break time for a guy like Alex Rodriguez. The knock on him has always been that he can’t get it done in October. Well, with his opt out and resulting free agency looming, it’s time for A Rod to put up or shut up. Prediction: Yankees in 5.

Colorado Rockies (aka TKOT’s bandwagon pick) vs. Philadelphia Phillies

This is a big series for the TK on Toast writers. We decided about 4 days ago that we were going to jump on the Colorado bandwagon. So we watched that tie breaker game and cheered like the Twins were playing while our new boys triumphed in 13 glorious innings. Now the Rockies face an uphill challenge in the Philadelphia Phillies. Those same Fightin’ Phils who overcame a 7 game deficit in the last couple weeks to overtake the Mets and win the NL East crown. Translation: they’re riding high and extremely confident. The Phillies have a dangerous lineup that runs Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Aaron Rowand, and Pat Burrell as their first six hitters. Scary. Add to that a pitching staff headlined by young stud Cole Hammels and a very deep bullpen and they are the clear favorites. But don’t sleep on this plucky Colorado squad. They weren’t even and after thought a few weeks ago, but forged ahead into October thanks to a little 15 out of 16 run to close the season. They have some very nice hitters in Troy Tulowitzki (ROY), Matt Holiday (MVP), Todd Helton, Garrett Atkins, and Brad Hawpe. And unlike every other Colorado team for the last 10 years, they aren’t solely dependent on the long ball. Add in an underrated pitching staff including Jeff Francis, Josh Fogg, and a lights out bullpen and you have your 2007 sleeper pick to make a magical run. Prediction: Rockies in 5.

Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

A big series for Chicagoans and baseball fans alike. Those North Siders have been waiting for a long time to celebrate a title. And everyone in baseball has been waiting for just as long for them to shut up about it already. Other than Eric Byrnes, I couldn’t care any less about this series. I’m sure Soriano will hit a few bombs and Zambrano will throw a gem or two, but I really don’t care. The only reason I can give you to watch this series is Byrnes. He plays the game all out—the way every person getting paid millions of dollars to play a game should. So if you want to teach your young child how to play the game and what kind of player to analyze, watch this series. Otherwise, just assume that the Cubs will find a way to lose and we’ll have at least another year of their fans whining that they haven’t won a title in 40 some odd years. Prediction: D Backs in 4.

Read More......