And We Have A World Series

Above: the Greatest Athlete to Have Ever Trodden on the Face of the Earth, With the Possible Exception of Joba Chamberlain

The first ever between two expansion teams, which is kind of amazing. The Lindbergh/Keri preview is, as you would expect, excellent. The case for the Mets is straightforward. It’s hard for the Mets to top the stellar rotation they brought into the 2006 playoffs — The Artist Misleadingly Still Known As Tom Glavine, John Maine, Ollie Perez, and Steve “Blood on the” Tracshel, how can you forget? — but this one is just a touch better, and hence the Mets figure to have a substantial edge in the pitching matchups in 6 of the 7 games. The Mets are probably the better of the two very deep and well-balanced lineups, too, although it’s close, or at least it was close until Daniel Murphy turned into the new, improved version of Rogers Hornsby, a trend I have no doubt whatsoever will continue. On the other hand, the Kansas City high-contact offense is a good match for New York’s power pitching, and while both teams have excellent closers (KC’s being a little more excellent) the Royals have a big edge after that. Another concern I would have for the Mets is the defense. If the Royals put the ball in play, the Mets have several guys stretched at their positions — the DP combo, Cespedes, Granderson has the range but not the arm in RF. A near close matchup, and since as noted previously Paul has shamed me out making baseball playoff predictions (personal to Denverite: let me know the odds before placing bets on my behalf before any baseball series. If you haven’t heard from me, accept odds of winning at worse than -120 never ever. You’ll save us both some money!), I’ll leave it at that and hope for some excellent baseball with the Mets victory our just and benevolent God expects.