2011 World Series Preview

Hello friends! Tomorrow night the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals will battle it out as the 107th Fall Classic gets underway from Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri! So without further adu here are my thoughts on the 2011 World Series!

2011 World Series:  Texas Rangers vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Offense: The Cardinals are hitting 288 with 10 Home Runs as a team while the Rangers are hitting 259 with 13 Home Runs as a team! You can really make an argument that both teams are even offensively! The Rangers are led by ALCS MVP Nelson Cruz who feasted on Tigers pitching to the tune of 6 Home Runs and 13 RBI's! In addition to Cruz the Rangers also have Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, sparkplug Elvis Andrus, and their 2 offseason acquisitions Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli who were also the 2 heroes of the Rangers 3-1 series win against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Division Series! Meanwhile the Cardinals are led by arguably the best player in the game today in Albert Pujols who came to life in the NLCS against Milwaukee by hitting 2 Home Runs and 9 RBI's after being held to just 1 RBI in the Division Series against Philadelphia! Matt Holliday is looking a lot like that guy in Colorado who led the Rockies to the World Series in 2007 as he hit 1 Home Run and 5 RBI's after being held to nothing in that same Division Series against the Phillies! But the Cards have a real Wild Card up their sleeve in the form of NLCS MVP David Freese who feasted on Brewers pitching to the tune of 3 Home Runs and 9 RBI's! No doubt both teams can flat out hit! But for me this is so tough to call as to who to give the advantage to offensively! Sorry I have to rule this a draw!

Advantage: Even

Pitching: The Rangers have an overall Team ERA of 4.11 while the Cards have an overall Team ERA of 4.18! Wow talk about close! In terms of starting pitching the Rangers will have CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, Derek Holland, and Matt Harrison while the Cards will counter with Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Edwin Jackson, and Kyle Loesch! In terms of starting pitching you have to give the edge to St. Louis as they have a true ace in Carpenter along with 2 quality starters in Garcia and Jackson, and an OK starter in Loesch! As for Texas well Wilson and Lewis are good but not great, Holland is what I like to call the Mr. Inconsistent as he has been very shaky and eratic at times and Harrison is OK like Loesch! In terms of bullpens well I like the Rangers bullpen mainly because of setup man Alexi Ogando and closer Neftali Feliz! Now the Cards do have a solid bullpen of their own led by Fernando Salas and veteran journeyman setup man Arthur Rhodes who oh by the way is guaranteed a World Series ring win or lose seeing as how he started the year with Texas before being traded to St. Louis at the deadline!

Advantage: St. Louis in terms of starting pitching
                  Texas in terms of bullpen

Prediction: Alright it all comes down to this! Who wins the 2011 World Series? Wow this 1 is beyond the shadow of a doubt tough to call as anything can and will happen! My gut tells me to go with the hotter hand right now and that hotter hand is St. Louis. My heart on the other hand tells me to go with Texas to win their 1st ever World Series title as they are 1 of only 8 franchises (Tampa Bay Rays, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres being the others) that have yet to win a World Series title! Offensively both teams are dead even in my opinion! St. Louis has the better starting rotation while the Rangers have the slight edge in bullpen! Damn this is so tough! But at the end of the day you cannot bet against the hot hand! Last NFL Season we saw that in the Green Bay Packers and in the NHL we saw that in the Boston Bruins! As much as I would love to see the Texas Rangers win this thing I have to go with the team that has the homefield advantage in this series! Why? Because since 1985 the teams that have had the homefield advantage in the World Series are 20-5 in those series and that is why I like St. Louis to win this series in 6 games and complete 1 of the greatest comeback stories in recent memory! Who would've thought that this team who was down 10 1/2 games to the Atlanta Braves in the N.L. Wildcard race 2 months ago would beat the best team in baseball all year in the Philadelphia Phillies and then beat a team that no 1 including myself was going to be any good in the Milwaukee Brewers to now being on the cusp of their 11th World Series title? Not me boy! Cards in 6 in what should be a very good series from start to finish!

Winners: St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 2

Alright that is my World Series preview thanks so much for reading along and please feel free to share your thoughts and tell me who you like to win the 107th edition of the Fall Classic and be sure to join me right back here on this blogsite on Saturday night as I will preview the WWE Vengeance PPV so until then you know the routine everybody! Thumbs up talk to you later! YEAH!!! Bye for now!