American League All Star Team

Two weeks ago I selected the players I would have on the National League All Star Team if I were doing the voting.  Well, now that the fans have mucked it up as usual, here is the list of guys I would like to see starting for the American League on Tuesday night.


 C      Kurt Suzuki     Seattle Mariners
1B     Jose Abreu     Chicago White Sox
2B     Ian Kinsler     Detroit Tigers
3B     Adrian Beltre     Texas Rangers
SS     Erick Aybar     Anaheim Angels
OF     Mike Trout     Anaheim Angels
OF     Nelson Cruz     Baltimore Orioles
OF     Jose Bautista     Toronto Bluejays

As  you know the masses were smart enough to elect only a few of these guys to start on Tuesday night.  And there you see why giving the winner home field advantage for the World Series is a joke.  Hopefully, the game to played at Target Field in Minnesota this year will produce an interesting game.
  

Belated Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants and their organization on winning the 2012 World Series.  The Giants not only won the Series but totally dominated the Detroit Tigers, sweeping the Series four games to none.  If you are a regular reader you know I picked the Tigers to win in a post prior to the start of the World Series.  Wow, I couldn't have been more wrong.  To the Giant faithful I apologize and to the Tiger loyalists I am sorry to have jinxed your Tigers.

And now that the 2012 Season has come to a conclusion I will say what others have said previously..."Baseball leaves you when you need it the most".

Good Luck to the Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants will square off this evening in the 2012 World Series.  Congratulations to the Giants on their comeback win over my beloved Saint Louis Cardinals.  The Giants battled back from a three game deficit, again, and in the process dominated the Birds in the last three games of the NLCS.  The Cardinals had problems with pitching, defense and hitting.  And the reason for it is the Giants kept constant pressure on Saint Louis.

But, I think their post season run is all but over.  I am picking the Tigers to win the World Series in six games.  With an ace like Justin Verlander almost guaranteed two wins, the Giants will have a hard time winning the series.  In addition to Verlander, the Tigers boast Mike Fister, Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer (a University of Missouri alum).   The best hope San Francisco has is Ryan Vogelsong who has been nails in the post-season.  Barry Zito had a great outing last time against the Cards, but has been inconsistent.  The Tiger's rotation will be too much for the Giants who are beasts at home, but mediocre on the road.  

Add these all together and you get a Tigers World Championship.

Good Luck Redbirds

Here it is 19 days later and the Cardinals are still playing. I really didn't have much hope for their playoff chances but...they are still playing. In fact the World Series starts tomorrow night at Busch Stadium.

It's the Cardinals against a very good Texas Rangers team that tore through the American League playoffs and destroyed the Rays and Tigers along the way. At the same time the Cardinals edged out a tough Philadelphia squad and then got past a good Milwaukee team that hit the ball hard.

But, bottom line it's the Cards in the Series for the 18th time in their history. This has also been one of the most enjoyable baseball post-seasons for me in a long time. Maybe it's because of the Cardinals underdog role. Maybe, it's because of their never-say-die attittude. But, it's a great group of guys and they seem to be having a lot of fun and seem unfazed by any pressure. Witness the teams catch phrase #HappyFlight and tweets from Allen Craig's pet tortoise @TortyCraig. Whatever it is they are having fun and so am I. I won't make a prediction on the World Series this year but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see this team win it all. Go CARDS!!!