ALDS: New York vs. Minnesota

[craig01]

I doubt it.

Phillies are a tough match up for anyone.

Yanks still have to advance first anyway....and that is hardly a given.

[Pharmcat]

whats the point of watching. the yankees are going to win everything facing the philies in world series.
roy will win game 1 and then after that yanks will take control

the phillies are very tough

they have roy, who will be out there for 3 games, then they have oswalt and hamels

anyone who expects the yanks to walk over them is in for a rude awakening

(they still have to get there first)

[reedhopps]

True the Phillies are a tough match up for anyone, but so are the Yankees. The Yankees have the superior line up, top to bottom, and Phillies have the better starting pitching The Yankees could easily hit Hamels and Oswalt pretty hard though. The doc has always been tough on the Yankees, but the yankees showed they can hit him earlier this year when they knocked him around. He has been good against them over his career though. He has lost a decent amount of games to the Yanks too. If you look position by position it is close at all of them but the Yankees would take 3rd, 2nd, and 2 OF spots, at least on this year's stats. The only clear winner on the Phillies by position is Worth. Team defense is also easy the Yankees have Gold Glovers all over, and they had the least amount of errors in the league. Bullpen is easy, that goes to the Yankees, they have been lights out the second half. Rivera, Wood, Robertson, sometimes Joba in a pinch, and also Logan have all been good. That is a real deep bull pen. Starting Pitching would go to Phils, but its not as big of a gap as many Phillies fans believe. Pettite is still very good, CC has the ability to match Doc, and Hamels and Hughes is actually pretty even although the slight edge would go to Hamels. The x factor would be if both teams go with a 4 man rotation with the 4th starters throwing game 5 since Halladay and CC will go on short rest most likely in game 4, I know CC will be set to pitch games 1,4,7, since he is one of the best in baseball on 3 days rest. AJ could potentialy throw a gem (ie. Game 2 2009 WS), and if he blows up Yanks would take him out quickly, and put in Mosley who has been excellant, so that would probably be better than what Blanton can give the Phils, since the Yanks only need Five innings. The bench would have to go to the Yanks with three guys that would be starters for a lot of teams, like Berkman, Themes, and Kearns, plus the speed with Golstan and Pena. Thats just my slighly biased view of the match up, but the Yanks got a tougher road than the Phils to get there, and they have a lot of work to do in the ALCS against Texas or Tampa, so maybe there will be a rematch we will see won't we.

[Ong_dynasty]

^^
How is it tougher?
It is only tougher if Tampa can go through.
They went through Minnesota and I think the Reds are a better team.
You can make an argument that the next round the Yankees will probably have a tougher match up, but I think the reds are tougher than the twins therefore that should even out.

I would also rather take the better pitching lineup than the better batting lineup.
I do not know how you can say Philly's pitching lineup is only slightly better. Have you seen what they have been doing the last few months?
As what they say, its all about the hottest team in October and thats why I would take the Phillies.
Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels have all been pitching like aces.

[Wade2k6]

The Reds are not a better team then the Twins. Pavano and Liriano > Volquez and Arroyo. The Twins might have gotten beat pretty bad, but they didn't beat themselves like the Reds did (making 7 errors in 3 games).

[Jake Steed]

The Reds are not better than the Twins.

[Zeitgeister]

This may come as a surprise from outsiders, but as a Twins fan I think it's time to look around for a different manager. There is no reason the Twins couldn't have at least competed against the Yankees this year. The talent is there. But this team has been a running joke in the playoffs for most of the decade. I think it's a mental think. The Twins are psyched out against the Yankees especially but really of playoff baseball in generall. We've been to the playoffs something like 6 times in the past 10 years and we've advanced past the ALDS once. We've had a lot of roster turnover, the only constant is the manager. It's come to that point where the fingers need to be pointed at him.

[Wade2k6]

1st. Yankees were clearly the better team when they're both at their best. Twins have a good team, but the Yankees are just better. This is includes last year as well.
2nd. They haven't had a healthy team for 2 years so it's hard to pin them losing on the manager. Morneau hasn't played in the last 2 playoffs and Nathan missed this years playoff.