MLB Post Season Update: League Championship Series

The MLB Division Championship Series have come to an end and the NLCS and ALCS series are about to begin. This post will examine those match ups and unveil the Groundskeeper MLB League Championship series predictions.

ALCS

New York Yankees (95-67) vs. Texas Rangers (90-72)

This series will pit the defending World Series Champion New York Yankees against the American League West Champion Texas Rangers. The Yankees are coming off a series sweep of the Minnesota Twins, while the Rangers are riding the excitement surrounding their 3-2 series win over the AL East Champion Tampa Bay Rays; which culminated in their first ever ALDS series crown.

New York is heading into the series with fresh legs after receiving plenty of rest while waiting for the Rangers and Rays to battle it out. Their series against the Twins appeared as though it was a rejuvenation session conveniently planned for the post season. All of the question marks that they had going into the match up seem to have been erased. The Groundskeeper Series MVP award goes to Yankees Center Fielder Curtis Granderson who batted right around .455 with two 2 runs on 5 hits and 3 RBIs. Granderson also put himself in scoring position by recording both a double and a triple. The Groundskeeper Series CY Young award goes to New York Starting Pitcher Phil Hughes who pitched 7 scoreless innings with 6 strike outs and 1 walked batter in game 3 of the Yankees sweep over the Twins. If the Yankees can keep up the type of play they produced against Minnesota they will be in prime position to take the next series as well.

The Texas Rangers had never won a playoff series going into their match up against Tampa Bay. Incidentally their Ace Pitcher Cliff Lee had never lost a post season game. By the time the 5th game rolled around it became a certainty that one of those streaks was about to come to an end. Fortunately for Lee and the Rangers it was the streak that they were both playing to break. The Rangers left the series with some serious holes to fill, but they also proved that they are a dangerous team when firing on all cylinders. The Groundskeeper Series MVP goes to Rangers Second Baseman Ian Kinsler who produced an impressive stat sheet with 5 runs, 8 hits, 3HRs, and 6 RBIs. The Groundskeeper Series CY Young award goes to Texas Starting Pitcher Cliff Lee who posted an impressive 1.13 ERA with 21 strike outs and 2 walked batters over the course of 16 innings. If the Rangers can keep their bats alive and rally behind their bullpen, they should be in fantastic shape in their upcoming series against the Yanks.

The deciding factor in this series should be depth. While New York has struggled on the road against Texas, the struggle has not been what it appears to be at face value. In all of the games with the exception of their final meeting (with Lee at the helm) the Rangers have had to rally late and rely on relief pitching to win games. In their post season series that starts Friday, Cliff Lee will likely not be available to start until game 3 due to the series against the Rays going all 5 games. Look to the Yankees and their hot bats to take advantage of the Rangers lack of depth at the Starting Pitcher spot. While the regular season meetings between these two teams got split at 4 games a piece, the Groundskeeper prediction for this series is: New York over Texas 4-2.

NLCS

Philadelphia Phillies (97-65) vs. San Francisco Giants (92-70)

This series will feature the defending National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies against the National League West Champion San Francisco Giants. The Phillies are arriving in the NLCS after a 3 game sweep of the insurgent Cincinnati Reds, while the Giants are charging in after a dominating 3-1 series win over the Atlanta Braves.

The Phillies pitching absolutely dominated the Reds giving up only 4 runs the entire series; and did I mention that all of those came in one game? In game 1 of the series Phillies Pitcher Roy Halladay threw only the second no hitter in the history of post season baseball; and for the Reds it was all down hill from there. The Phillies bats however, were not particularly potent during the series. Only two players were batting above .300 and one of those players was Roy Halladay (.333). The Groundskeeper Series MVP award goes to Phillies Second Baseman Chase Utley who scored 3 runs on 3 hits with 1 HR and 4 RBI's. The Groundskeeper CY Young award goes to (no surprise here) Philadelphia Starting Pitcher Roy Halladay who pitched a complete game giving up zero hits, zero earned runs, 1 walked batter and 8 strike outs. If the Phillies can get more out of their bats, their pitching should easily be able to do the rest.

San Francisco's starting pitching was also quite spectacular in their meeting against the Atlanta Braves. Led by the arm of their 12 year old phenom... only kidding; led behind the fire ball hurling arm of the young Tim Lincecum the Giants easily moved past the Braves and into the ALCS. Much like the Phillies however, if not even more so, the Giants batting is suspect (to say the least). The Giants averaged under 3 runs a game against Atlanta with no one batter standing out from the rest. The Groundskeeper Series MVP award goes to San Francisco Catcher Buster Posey who in spite of not producing a single RBI was able to hit for a .375 average as well as score 3 runs on 6 at bats. The Groundskeeper Series CY Young was a gimmie; Giants Pitcher Tim Lincecum made the Braves look silly with just 2 hits given up, and 14 strike outs on top of a 0.00 ERA. If the Giants can do more at the plate they should have the pitching to match up well against the Phillies.

The deciding factor in this game should be the utter lack of batting. The pitching in this game from both clubs should be sensational. The key to winning will belong to which ever team can spur their team into production at bat first. This conundrum really benefits the Phillies more than it does the Giants in that their (Philadelphia) lineup is stockpiled with postseason vets and a good record of production at the plate. The Groundskeeper prediction for this series is: Philadelphia over San Francisco 4-1.