The Texas Rangers have successfully defended their American League Championship and are returning to the World Series on October 19th in St. Louis to face the Cardinals. Now it’s that time where I break down the teams and predict who I think will win.
First Base: EDGE: Cardinals
The Cardinals have Albert Pujols while Texas will likely go with a mix of Mitch Moreland, Michael Young and Mike Napoli.
Second Base: EDGE: Rangers
Give me Ian KInsler over Nick Punto any day of the week.
Third Base: EDGE: Rangers
This was a close one but Adrian Beltre’s defense alone gives the Rangers the one up over NLCS MVP David Freese.
Shortstop: EDGE: Rangers
Elvis Andrus has a higher batting average and on base percentage than Rafael Furcal.
Outfield: EDGE: Push
Jon Jay, Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman match up well with David Murphy, Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz. Though I believe Texas is better defensively when you add Endy Chavez and Craig Gentry to the mix.
Starting Pitching: EDGE: Cardinals
The Cardinals get the slight edge over the Rangers based solely on Chris Carpenter much like Detroit had the advantage with Justin Verlander. However, Texas proved it could hit against Verlander and may just do the same against Carpenter.
Bullpen: EDGE: Rangers
Both the Cardinals and Rangers used their pitcher 42 1/3 innings in the playoffs due to lackluster performances from their starting staffs but there’s no doubt in my mind that the Rangers posess the better and deeper bullpen. Texas will have the easier job of shutting down the Cardinals’ batters in the later innings.
Manager: EDGE: Cardinals
It’s Tony LaRussa for crying out loud! He’s a future Hall of Famer and has been in this position many times before though I believe in the end he will be outsmarted by Ron Washington and the “small ball” approach.
In the end I believe that the Texas Rangers will win the World Series and they’ll do it in six games though my heart would love to see it happen in five so they could do it in front of the home crowd. I didn’t bother comparing the teams at DH due to the fact that the Rangers are an American League team and they have the better options/weapons available to use at that slot in the lineup.
I turned to Twitter to get some fan predictions and this is what I found:
@Dallasger: “Going for 5, win it in Texas!”
@MavsRangersBoys: “Rangers in 5.”
@firemodecode: “Rangers in 5 after going up 3-0.”
@patsoxforever: “The Rangers will lose game one to Chris Carpenter then win four in a row. Your first World Series Win.” (He’s a lifelong Red Sox fan by the way)
@BrownCJennifer: “Rangers in 6.”
@tex198: “Rangers in 5!”
@Kaedensmomma: “MY (Michael Young) becomes a machine gun with hits and is MVP, Cruz 3HR, Lewis CG, Pujols 2HR, Berkman does little. Rangers lose games 1and 5, but win the World Series.”
@PeterPansTXBabe: “I have Rangers in 6.”
@Section52: “My heart wants Rangers in 5. My gut says Rangers in 6. My brain thinks that my heart/gut might know nothing about anything.”
@DNewton2175: “(Rangers) in six. Beltre MVP.”
@lorchal: “I say Rangers in 6 games. Napoli MVP.”
@EmLikesBaseball: “Rangers in 5.”
@rrsc29fan: “SWEEP!”
@Cowboysfan36: “Okay i’m gonna say Rangers in 6 games.”
@osvaldo_fajardo: “Rangers in 5!”
@elm95: Rangers in 5. “The Cards have struggled against lefties which should go in favor of the Rangers. TX hitters too much for STL.”
@MrCTrangers: “Rangers in six. Going with Nolan. Think Young and Cruz have a big series and hopefully so does the rest of the team. DUCKS UP!”
And the best prediction of the night goes to:
@gooberface: “Rangers in 2. Cardinals won’t even bother facing us at home after they see what we do to them in Busch Stadium.”
Let’s go Rangers!
Until next time, I’ll see you in the cheap seats!
James Holland is a lifelong fan and blogger of the 2011 American League Champion Texas Rangers. You can follow him on Twitter @TXRangersJames.
Sources:
http://mlb.mlb.com
http://twitter.com