World Series Preview, and Preseason Review

I thought it would be interesting to go back and take a look at my Baseball Pre-season predictions from this year. Let’s see how well I did.

Preseason Division Winner Picks: Phillies, Cardinals, Rockies, Red Sox, Tigers, Rangers

Actual Division Winners: Phillies, Reds, Giants, Rays, Twins, Rangers

Score: 2 out of 6. Not so great.

Pre-Season Wild Card Picks: Dodgers, Yankees

Actual Wild Cards Teams: Atlanta, Yankees

A .500 average isn’t bad. Hah. The Braves came out of nowhere, and the Yankees were in the race the whole time.

Pre-season World Series Pick: Rockies vs. Yankees (Yankees win in 6)

Wow, one of my teams made the Championship Series, the other missed the playoffs.

Still, what a dream series this is for a guy like me. True, as a real young boy I was a slight Astros fan. Not many people know that, but I was closer to Houston and I fuzzily remember going to some games in the Astrodome.

I grew out of that phase in fifth grade when I moved to Tyler, Texas, about 90 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth. After that, I was all things Rangers. I got to meet Jeff Russell and Geno Petralli, and remember going to the old Arlington Stadium to see the Rangers get beat, pretty regularly. It didn’t matter much to me, I just loved the atmosphere.

Then came the late 90′s, and guys like Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez were leading the offense-happy Rangers to the AL West title, only to run into the Yankees. Never good.

Some of you who read this might think “Wait, don’t you like the Braves and Giants as well?” And I do. The Braves were easy to watch every day on TBS, and the Giants had one of my favorite players of all time, Will Clark. I copied The Thrill’s swing as often as I could. Loved him.

So here I am, I am about to watch a World Series featuring both my favorite team and one I always admired. What will happen?

I think the Giants have better starting pitching than the Rangers, even though Cliff Lee is a complete stud. The Rangers have a better bullpen, although not by much. The Rangers also feature a better offensive lineup, even though the games in San Fran without the DH will help the Giants out to an extent.

Look for this series to feature great pitching, with more low-scoring games than you might expect.

My Pick to Win: Rangers in 7.

Sure, it's a homer pick, but I actually think they can do it.