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Meow To know that your team -- the Texas stRangers! -- is one of the best in Major League Baseball. That they have finished, at least, in the top four and could very well be in their second straight World Series in eight or so days is amazing. It will never get old. This is the opposite of bad.
The Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers kick off the American League Championship Series tonight at the Ballpark with Justin Verlander and C.J. Wilson going to the mound. Rosters have been set. Rotations in order.
The big news today is that Delmon Young, a hero from the ALDS against the Yankees will not play in these games. He's off the roster with a hurt oblique. A huge boon for the Rangers.
Before I discuss five keys, I would like to note that I think this is an extremely even match up.
Each have a veteran batting title contender (Miggie Cabrera won it, Miggie Young finished third), each have a potentially great bullpen that has struggled (Detroit is 25th in bullpen ERA, Texas, 26th). Each quietly won their division as others melted down and the nation looked to the AL East. Each are deep in their rotation. Each have looked to promote their youngsters. Each made very understated moves at the trade deadline (Tigers added Young and Mark Fister).
Each are beatable. Each could win this series. Good luck trying to pick.
Five things:
Verlander
The end-all, be-all. He's great. Still, the Rangers need to get to him. For three years, the Rangers have never feared the ace and they've regularly been able to get to Roy Halliday, Verlander, Felix Hernandez, Jered Weaver and Cliff Lee. If you think the likes of Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli or Adrian Beltre are scared now? No. The Rangers will see Verlander -- probably -- two times. They need to win at least one. And it might be noted that Verlander throws harder as the game goes on. Therefore, it might help getting to him early.
Control
The Tigers are a bit of a group of free swingers. Quite a number of strikeouts and not very many walks. Still, very good hitters. They do not run the bases much (49 steals for the season). They rely on the extra-base hit. The Tigers don't manufacture runs in the walk-steal-sac bunt kind of way. The Rangers pitchers have a very simple goal: Hit your spots. Teams like the Yankees or Red Sox will work you over. Pitches gotten away with against Tampa Bay will not pass the Tigers. They will punish mistakes. Strikes must not eat up the bulk of the plate. Speeds must be changed. Every pitch must be able to be thrown for a strike.
Boomstick
It'd be nice for the entire line-up to catch fire and score 12 runs a game. That probably won't happen. Instead, I'd take a snootful of Nelson Cruz. To call Cruz' attempts at bat as "flailing" and "clueless" might be kind. I'm a kind guy so we'll call them that. Cruz had one hit in the ALDS posting a .067 average. He's stunk since coming back from injury hitting .190 in September alone. Things are set up well for him. He's had some time off, he's hit at the Ballpark well (.293 for the season) and hit at Comerica well (.375). Boomstick must explode.
Lefties
The Detroit Tigers are a bunch of big, beefy righties. The only lefties on the Tigers roster are relievers Phil Coke and Daniel Schlereth. That will require hefty at-bats from Mitch Moreland and David Murphy. It could also mean batting practice for Josh Hamilton (.905 OPS against righties this year). Now is not the time for Murphy or Moreland to tighten up.
Conquering Comerica
The Rangers were dreadful against Detroit this year. They lost six of nine games. Although six of those nine were at Comerica Park and the Rangers wound up with the best road ERA in the league. Some seasons, even the best teams can't beat another team. Sometimes worse teams have a better team's number. This scares me more than anything.
Prediction
Rangers in seven
Rangers have depth at almost every part of their roster, experience, a better offense.
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