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California Dreaming
By
Charlie in the Trees The Anaheim Angels vs. the San Francisco Giants. One is the most balanced, most complete team in baseball. The other is a patchwork outfit riding a tremendous hot streak. Talent versus luck. Who’ll win? The two league championship series each matched very similar teams. It was surprisingly that both ended up so lopsided. Over in the American League, the Angels and Twins each were complete teams. The whole was much greater than the sum of their parts. Neither had any one dominant player. Both were young and hungry survivors of Bud Selig’s contraction plan/fiasco, although one escaped much more narrowly than the other. In the ALCS, Angel pitching got hot and shut down the Twins’ offense. The Twins middle relief corps, forced with having to make perfect pitches to keep pace with the Angels, promptly fell apart under pressure. The Twins middle relievers should have been a team weakness, but they were great through the first 168 games. Unfortunately for the Twins, they were pathologically awful in the last four games and the Angels walked away with a five-game victory. Adam Kennedy was the series MVP. But it just as easily could have been Troy Glaus or Troy Percival. Or Darin Erstad. Or Garret Anderson. The Angels are the best “team” in baseball, team being ordinarily defined as a group coming together to achieve a goal. Everyone contributes. There is not a single weakness in the entire batting order or on the entire pitching staff. While there may be no one opposing teams fear coming to bat in a key late-inning situation, there also is no one Angels fans fear either. On the other hand, from the National League, the Giants are riding the queen mother of all lucky streaks. They drew the always-underachieving Braves in the first round. They were then on the field when the snake bit Cardinals finally wore out. This was an emotionally draining year for St. Louis. the death of Daryl Kile may have been the worst, but it was not the only tragedy endured by this team. After their ALDS win over Arizona and the freak injury to Scott Rolen, the Cards were mentally and emotionally exhausted. They had nothing left in the psychic tanks. And it showed on the field. (Ironically, it showed at its worst in their lone win, Game Three, when the team, especially studly second baseman Fernando Vina, forgot to play defense.) The Giants deserve credit for taking advantage of golden opportunities handed to them. This is not to say the Giants are a bad team. After all, it takes boatloads of talent to manufacture enough good luck to win a championship. Just look at the very lucky New England Patriots. Still, the Giants are a patchwork unit held together by one star (Jeff Kent), one near star (Rich Aurilia) and one super-duper-star (Barry Bonds). Everyone else is a question mark. Kenny Lofton? Mediocre since 1999. J.T. Snow? Ordinarily, it’s a problem when your first baseman can’t hit a lick. Reggie Sanders? Shouldn’t be starting right field anywhere, let alone in the World Series. The starting pitching is even more ordinarily: four number-three starters, at best. Ever since Joe Torre
was hired to manage the New York Yankees, following the loss in a 1995
ALDS by the Buck Showalter burnouts to the Ken Griffey Mariners, the
team that has won the World Series has fallen into one of two
categories: Last year, the Diamondbacks may have had the best one-two starting combo in baseball, but they also had a tremendous amount of good luck. Numerous goofs and mistakes turned into good fortune. The Florida Marlins got very lucky defeating Cleveland in 1997 . Every other year, of course, ended in Yankees triumphant. The Yankees are not in the World Series. This year, Lady Luck is making noise with the orange thunderstix. The Angels may be the superior team, just like the St. Louis Rams in last year’s Super Bowl, but superior talent has been a lousy predictor thus far this post-season. The team without home advantage has won every series thus far in 2002. If the Giants win, it will be seven for seven for the team with road-disadvantage. Seven sounds right. Giants in seven. Key Players |
