NL: 1st round playoffs (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

The NL playoffs are set:

Giants vs. Braves
Cardinals vs. D-Backs.

Who's your pick in each series and why?

 

[Patrick_S]

Giants and Cards in 4.

While Braves are probably better then they have been in years but I think the Giants are simply hot right now and Bonds will finally have a great post season. The games will be close but the Giants in 4.

The Cards will get an upset win and beat either Schilling or Johnson (probably Schilling who is struggling right now) and the rest will be history.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Living in an AL-only city (les Expos could do some good business if they tried marketing in New England), I can't say I'm as confident about my feelings about the NL.

Giants in five. The Braves are still a very good team, but I wonder how much of their record is padding. The pitching is also old enough for me to wonder how much they have left after six months.

Cards in four. That the D-Backs will fall out early is probably indicative of why the playoffs shouldn't really be given much credence when determining "best team" - with the Gonzales injury, the team they trot out won't necessarily represent the team over the course of the year.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Braves
Cards

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'll go with:

Braves in 4 (The Braves will pitch around Bonds)
Cards in 5 (late season injuries hurt the D-backs)

 

[Tim Markley]

I'm a lifelong Cards fan so of course I'll pick them. I expect them to win in 4. They've been playing great baseball lately and with all of the events of this year, they're very dedicated to winning.
I'll go with the Braves in the other series. I don't think they'll give Barry a chance to beat them and the Giants just don't have the pitching to hang with the Braves.
Cards will win the NLCS and go on to win the World Series!

 

[Mitty]

D-Backs in 4
Giants in 4 (although Patrick has a good point about pitching around Bonds, something they'll surely do)

Both are just guesses. The NL series are pretty difficult to handicap this year, unlike the AL, which barring upset, we're in for a dandy A's-Yankees tilt for the AL pennant.

Baseball Fever. Catch It.

Remember that slogan?

 

[Adam Bluhm]

My guess:
Giants/Braves-Giants in 4.
D-backs/Cards-D-backs in 5.

Yeah. Bonds will see little to no action unless they have someone behind him in the lineup protecting him. Jeff Kent didn't take to that position very well this year. I think Bonds provides better protection to Kent than visa-versa. Braves are a good team, but they just can't seem to ever pull it together when it counts. I think their old veteran pitching won't be able to hold the stamina needed.
On the other hand, I feel the D-backs will be able to win in 5 if we see Johnson/Schilling get a combined three starts.
I'm a bigger AL fan. Actually, I'm a diehard Oakland fan. Oakland should be able to cruise through Minnesota (should). I think the only handicap Anaheim has is it's post season experience. There's nothing more valuable than that.

 

[Agee Bassett]

Giants in 4 (Braves did not display their ostensible National League dominance against the West too well this year.)
D'backs in 3 (All the way, baby.)

 

[Brian Perry]

I just saw that the D-back/Cardinal game starts at 10:08 pm CST. Way to market the game to kids!

 

[Jason Seaver]

But 8pm PDT, where the game is actually played. Meanwhile, Anaheim/NYC is three hours earlier, and Minnesota at Oakland four hours before that. Kids will get a chance to see some baseball.

 

[Tim Markley]

But why not start the game at 7 PM PST like usual? I don't get it. They need to take into account the fact that St. Louis is 2 hours earlier. Making the game start at 10 PM CST is ridiculous.

 

[Patrick_S]

But why not start the game at 7 PM PST like usual?

Because the Yanks/Angles game would not be over by 7pm.
Is it really that big of a deal that the game is starting an hour later?

 

[Jason Seaver]

Quote:

Since they've got four series running at once (and three per day), either St. Louis at Arizona or Minnesota at Oakland had to have the late start (so someone in the Midwest would be PO'ed no matter what).

 

[Rob Willey]

Actually, it starts at 8:00 MST which is 8:00 PDT. Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time (bless 'em).

I don't have a strong feeling about either series, but in the interest of making a prediction, any prediction, I'll go with Braves in 4 and Cards in 4.

Can't go with the Giants until Bonds actually does something in the post-season, and give the edge to the Redbirds because they were hot down the stretch and the D'backs are banged up (they'll miss Counsell more than Gonzalez).

Rob

 

[Grant B]

local paper picked the Braves so you know the Giants will win...they never get anything right!

DBacks hurt and lately sucking....so they will win

 

[Tim Markley]

Cards 12 Dbacks 2!! Morris pitched great and the Cards' bats were alive. No difficulty facing Randy Johnson. It's only the first game but it gives me a good feeling for the series.
Unfortunately Woody Williams is out for the series. They'll miss him because he's the Cards' 2nd best starter when he's healthy.
Next game is Thursday, Finley (Steve Finley according to my local paper ) vs. Schilling. Schilling didn't pitch well down the stretch and Finley's been up and down.
I don't know why they think that they need to arrange the starting times of the games so that there's no overlap. Do they honestly think that every baseball fan watches every inning of every game? If so, they need a reality check. I think that they need to make it so that the fans of the teams playing can watch the game at a reasonable time. By making the Cards game start at 10:00 PM CST, they've lost a large share of their audience in the St. Louis area, including most of the kids.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I don't know why they think that they need to arrange the starting times of the games so that there's no overlap.

Because Fox paid good money for exclusive rights, and because the fans cried bloody murder when MLB tried having the games run simultandously with only the "relevent" game playing locally.

 

[Grant B]

Bye Bye Mr Glavine

 

[John Thomas]

How about my Cardinals? Beat Randy Johnson AND Curt Schilling!

Of course, today's game was much, much closer with Isringhausen pitching the 9th to pick up the save.

One more win!