The Yankees and the Phillies

I weighed in on who I thought would win about 3 weeks ago when the playoffs began. Yes, I have predicted the entire MLB postseason perfectly (so far), and I disagree with Jimmy Rollins and believe the Yankees will win in 6 games, but of course I'm not that confident, because anything can happen in baseball, especially when two teams are so evenly matched.

There are plenty of good reasons to pick either team. Let's go with the Phillies first.

The Phillies have a deep lineup of 6 guys who can hit for average and power. They can take pitches, steal bases, and perform in the clutch. They'll wear down most pitchers and force a pitching change before the 8th inning almost every time (often before the 7th inning). They're young, have something to prove, and are in their primes. They're led by Charlie Manuel, whose hitting coaching experience has surely helped the Phillies get to where they are today.
The Phillies also have great starting pitching. The 1-2-3 punch of Lee, Martinez, and Hamels is as good as you're going to see in the playoffs. These guys are capable of putting quality starts together against any lineup at any time, and that includes the Yankees.
What the Phillies don't have is a great bullpen. They do not have shut-down, blow-em-away guys as a bridge to Brad Lidge. And even Lidge has been vulnerable this year. Even though he's been good in the postseason so far, Lidge blew 11 saves this year, one of them coming against the Yankees.

On the Yankees side, their lineup has the same amount of power. They're a little older and therefore more suseptible to fatigue as the series wears on. But they're extremely skilled and experienced hitters. They hit for power, average, and they take pitches. They're not quite as quick on the bases but they're not exclusively a station-to-station team either. They have confidence and they're very, very hit right now, as A-Rod has emerged from his half-decade long postseason slump in electrifying fashion. You can never count this Yankee line-up out, and over the course of a series the Phillies will need their pitchers at their very best to contain them.

As for the Yankee pitching, CC, AJ, and Pettitte might be asked to pitch all the games, as a 3 man rotation. All three are capable of shutting opponents down or thoroughly containing them, and only one of them, Mr. Burnett, is a likely candidate for melting down. Hey, maybe AJ will find himself in this World Series, and become the mentally tough champion we know he can be. There's always hope.

In the bullpen the Yankees have Mariano and three guys who have the ability to and experience of completely blowing people away in the 7th and 8th innings. Those guys are Joba, Hughes, and Bruney (if he makes the roster).

In the end, I believe this series will come down to the Yankee offense in the late innings, and the ability of Hughes and Chamberlain (and maybe Robertson or even Bruney) to provide that vital bridge to Mariano. The Yankees will almost certainly have to come back to win at least one of the 4 games needed to reclaim baseball's throne. They'll need to defeat Phillies' bullpen, the only weakness in an otherwise extremely dangerous championship ballclub. And Hughes and Chamberlain will have to execute in the late innings. If the Yankees fail in these departments, they will lose, and the Phillies will have repeated as world champions and sent reverberations through the baseball universe that they are a dynasty to be compared with the greatest teams in baseball history. But if the Yankees succeed, they will have ousted the Phillies, reclaimed the throne, and brought glory back to New York baseball. If they play Yankee baseball, as we know they can when they're at their best, then the clouds will part and the sun will shine through once again, as brightly as ever, on our dear Yankeeland.

Let's play ball. We can do this.