2012 World Series Preview: Giants Will Dodge Verlander En Route to Second Title

In case you haven't checked your Facebook news feed to calculate how massive the San Francisco bandwagon is, the San Francisco Giants came back to defeat the reigning World Series Champions in three straight games for their second World Series birth in three years. 

Behind Hunter Pence's magical, uplifting words of wisdom and the California Cainsaw Massacre, the 2012 Giants have set a Major League record for elimination game wins en route to a World Series: six.

With the 2012 World Series (conveniently being played in the United States) set to begin, here is a complete breakdown of both teams. 

The X Factor 

Who would you rather have pitching in a World Series game?

As the Oakland Athletics were forced to learn the hard way—Justin Verlander is a straight beast. 

The Tigers can potentially pitch Verlander, who has a career postseason ERA lower than George W.'s approval rating, in three of the seven potential World Series games.

Yes, Giants fans, that will be tough to watch.

The Giants had some extremely quiet bats in the non-elimination games against Cincinnati and St. Louis, so what happens when the Giants square off against the reigning Cy Young and Most Valuable Player? 

In the 2012 postseason, Verlander has won all three games he's started over an average of eight innings pitched, finishing with a total earned run average of 0.74.

As Brian Wilson would say, those numbers are good numbers. 

Starting Pitching Breakdown

	Detroit	San Francisco
W-L	5-1	5-5
ERA	1.02	3.88
K/9	.162	.252
Opp. BA	9.6	7.2

The most important factor for the San Francisco Giants offense is figuring out a way to beat all of the other Detroit pitchers. 

Even without Verlander, Detroit has been backed by four lights out games from Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez who gave up just three runs (combined) in four starts. 

The question for Detroit, however, is how will these pitchers perform when not facing the most historical offensive collapse in baseball history? 

Offensive Breakdown

2012 NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro set a Major League Baseball record for recording six multi-hit games in one Championship series—a stat that ESPN MLB expert Tim Kurkjian classified on SVP & Russillo as:

"

Marco Scutaro was a better hitter than Buster Posey in this postseason. That's like Steve Kerr being a better player than Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals.

"

Sure, the Giants caught a little magic form an unlikely source. But how does the entire Giants offense stack up against Detroit's $214,000,000 powerhouse? 

Detroit (2012 Postseason)

	BA	Hits	RBI	XBH
J. Peralta	.343	12	3	3
A. Jackson	.297	11	4	5
M. Cabrera	.278	10	5	4
D. Young	.294	10	8	3
O. Infante	.286	10	0	1
P. Fielder	.211	8	3	1
A. Garcia	.333	6	4	1
A. Dirks	.257	9	1	2

San Francisco (2012 Postseason) 

	BA	Hits	RBI	XBH
M. Scutaro	.354	17	5	4
Pandoval	.320	16	9	7
A. Pagan	.208	11	6	4
H. Pence	.188	9	3	2
B. Belt	.222	8	2	3
B. Posey	.178	8	6	2

Clearly, the offensive production this postseason lies completely with Scutaro and Pablo Sandoval. Posey, on the other hand, has recorded just eight hits in 12 games—two of which were homeruns. 

Rest vs. Momentum

While the Giants are fresh off yet another series comeback, Detroit hasn't played a playoff game in five days. 

Overall, the 2012 Tigers are a more complete team with more consistent talent on both sides of the ball. 

Both teams are highlighted by former Cy Young winners as well as this year's Most Valuable Players in Buster Posey and Miguel Cabrera (because WAR is not a real statistic upon which an MVP award is based on). 

Cabrera is the only active ballplayer to win a Triple Crown Award—so, yeah, he's a spectacle to watch come Wednesday. 

On the other hand, Posey has been seemingly non-existent in the first two playoff series so it will be extremely interesting to see how he responds to the .178 postseason batting average. 

Last year, the Cardinals rode a magical season (much like the 2010 Giants) all the way to a World Series title against a far more talented Texas Rangers team—proving that simply because a team is better on paper does not always equal victory.

Game one of the 2012 World Series begins Wednesday night with the always entertaining Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on the mic.

Who Wins?  

In my "expert" opinion, I have to side with Truth from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas repping the Orange and Black yet again. There is no stopping a San Francisco man from abusing potent glaucoma medicine while watching his Giants take home the 2012 World Series trophy.

Giants in seven. 

Share your opinion with me on twitter: @kevry88