The 2007 World Series gets underway tonight at 8:35 PM at Fenway Park between the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies. The entire World Series will be shown on FOX.
In the NLCS, Steve took the Diamondbacks while I took the Rockies. In the ALCS, we both took the Red Sox. That evens Steve and I up at 3-3 on our postseason predictions. So now on to our predictions, Steve’s are in red.
When you look at the lineups, you can arguably give the Red Sox the advantage at almost of all of the positions. The Rockies, in my opinion, have the better center fielder and right fielder. In the postseason, the bullpens have evened up some as the Rockies bullpen has been pretty much lights out.
The biggest question for the Red Sox is who will play first base and third base in Colorado. There is no DH so it’s possible for another platoon situation. The Rockies came into Boston and took 2 of 3 from the Red Sox this season. As I have always said, you need to throw that out. What you can’t discount is the fact that the Rockies come into the World Series having won 21 of their last 22 games. But since they swept the Rockies 8 days ago, the Rox have been working out and not really facing live pitching. I think that could be the downfall for the Rockies in this series.
It’s going to be a fun series and I see the Red Sox winning the World Series in Game 6 back home at the Fens.
Home field advantage will possibly be larger in this series than in any other so far this post season. The reasons being as we’ve seen all year long the Red Sox had one of the best home records in baseball, they play better in Fenway Park and most importantly they get to have their entire lineup as they will be able to use the DH spot for David Ortiz. On the flip side, home field for the Rockies is a big deal too. Coors Field has a large outfield, the air is thin, the weather should be colder than Boston, no DH and the Rockies fans will be twirling those damn towels just to try to stay warm.
The lineups are both pretty potent. Obviously the Red Sox are better with Ortiz DH’ing and Kevin Youkilis at first. And any suggestion you see or hear to bench JD Drew and play Youkilis in the outfield is dumb. Now I’m going to tell you why. You’re better off with Drew’s speed in the outfield as Coors Field is very large. And why have two or more guys out of their regular positions (if you played Drew in center). What you will most likely see is exactly what they did during the road interleague games. Youkilis, Ortiz and Mike Lowell will each get one game off. Ortiz will sit Game 5 when the lefty Jeff Francis makes his second appearance of the series. The Rockies lineup is very good as they feature the NL ROY candidate Troy Tulowitzki, NL MVP Candidate Matt Holiday and Todd Helton. They’ve shown a penchant for coming back and manufacturing runs but I think the 9 day lay off will be a killer for the hitters and the pitchers.
In the post season it all comes down to pitching. And I just feel the Sox have the better staff all around and more experience. In fact I’m not sure I can even tell you the Rockies starters after Francis and Ubaldo Jimenez. Both teams feature young hard throwing closers who have been very good at what they do.
My pick is the Boston Red Sox win their second World Series title in four years bringing joy to Boston and making fans of other teams hate us more because you know there’s gonna be some dumb ass fans who’ll make us all look bad. The newbies need to act like they’ve been there before (if it happens). I say Sox over the Rox in Six.
WS Game 1 Wed., Oct. 24, 8:00 PM at Fenway Park, FOX
Jeff Francis vs Josh Beckett
WS Game 2 Thurs., Oct. 25, 8:00 PM at Fenway Park, FOX
Ubaldo Jimenez vs Curt Schilling
WS Game 3 Sat., Oct. 27, 8:00 PM at Coors Field, FOX
Daisuke Matsuzaka vs Josh Fogg
WS Game 4 Sun., Oct. 28, 8:00 PM at Coors Field, FOX
TBA vs Aaron Cook
WS Game 5 Mon., Oct. 29, TBA at Coors Field, FOX*
TBA vs TBA
WS Game 6 Wed., Oct. 31, TBA at Fenway Park, FOX*
TBA vs TBA
WS Game 7 Thurs., Nov. 1, TBA at Fenway Park, FOX*
TBA vs TBA
* if necessary
