With their H2O pitching staff already intact, there was little reason to believe that the Philadelphia Phillies who were already among the favorites to win the NL Pennant in 2011, were the “mystery team” that was competing for Cliff Lee against the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.

Opting to accept a deal from his former team that included less money and years, Lee accepted the Phillies contract offer and surprised the baseball world; turning down a ton more cash that the Yankees threw at him.

After leading the Rangers to the World Series last year, everyone assumed they were the favorite if Lee wasn’t all about the money. Instead, he headed back to where he played in his first World Series, the City of Brotherly Love.

Lee is said to have turned down about $34 million Yankee dollars to return to Philadelphia and with his dominating postseason arm the Phillies should be the favorites to win the World Series this coming season.

The Phillies now have a pitching staff that is the best in baseball since the mid-1990’s Atlanta Braves teams that featured Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. The addition of Lee should more than make up for the loss of Jayson Werth in free agency.

The foursome looks incredibly scary come playoff time, since no other team will be able to go as deep. Cole Hamels has fared the worst of any pitcher in the group during the postseason, with a 3.45 ERA.

One downside to the signing is that Lee still has a long term deal including a vesting option for a sixth year and he is already 32 years old. Halladay and Oswalt are both 33, so there is a chance the group could begin to decline over the next few years. Also with Halladay and Lee having injury issues in the past, there isn’t a guarantee that they can stay healthy.

In a short series, any team can win, so the Phillies aren’t a stone cold lock to win the World Series in 2011, unless of course MLB goes to the extended series and increases every playoff series to a 7-game series. Either way, with the addition of Cliff Lee they are strong favorite to bring the World Series trophy back after a two year hiatus.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

For the San Francisco Giants to win the NL West title, it took a historic run of dominant pitching and the entirety of 162 regular season games. Moving on to the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves the  Giants’ starting pitching staff took a dramatic step from outstanding to superlative in their domination in that series and suddenly find themselves in the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Looking ahead, in order to get past last year’s National League Champion Phillies, the pitching will need to be as good or even better than it was during the 3-games-to-1 NLDS series win over the Braves.

Here is the Giants expected lineup in charge of taking on the H2O squad of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels:

1. Andres Torres, CF
2. Freddy Sanchez, 2B
3. Aubrey Huff, 1B
4. Buster Posey, C
5. Pat Burrell, LF
6. Juan Uribe, SS
7. Mike Fontenot, 3B
8. Cody Ross, RF

That Giants starting lineup includes only two players whose name were written on the Opening Day lineup; Huff — who was hitting third and playing first, and Uribe who started at second base due to an injury to Freddy Sanchez.

Ironically, the Giants’ three highest-paid hitters, Aaron Rowand ($13.6 million), Edgar Renteria ($10 million) and Jose Guillen may find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes time to cast the 25-man roster.

Looking at the one-through-eight hitters in the line-up, the Giants are a collection of aggressive, outhouse-or-castle hitters who sometimes make the opposing pitchers job a little easier.

Here are hitters to watch in this upcoming series:

• Pat Burrell — Motivated to take on his former team, Burrell smashed 18 homers, many of those in clutch situations.
• Juan Uribe — His 23 homers and 85 RBIs set new career highs and were second on the team. In a slump and getting only one hit in the NLDS, the Giants need Uribe to return to being the hitter he was for much of the regular season..
• Buster Posey — Posey is one of the game’s best young hitters. He was 6-for-16 with a .444 OBP and scored three runs during the NLDS against the Braves.

Now look at the Giants pitching staff. They set a modern-day record with 18 consecutive games allowing three are fewer runs and allowed more than three runs just three times in the final 26 games. During the NLDS, the staff allowed just 9 earned runs in the four playoff games, five that came in Atlanta’s lone win in Game 2.

Here’s the Giants expected starting rotation:

• Game 1: Tim Lincecum
• Game 2: Jonathan Sanchez
• Game 3: Matt Cain
• Game 4: Madison Bumgarner

Game 1 should be epic with Lincecum facing Halladay in the most anticipated matchup in recent playoff history. Each hurler stepped into October baseball with a bang with Halladay no-hitting the Reds in Game 1 and Lincecum allowing just two hits while fanning 14 Braves in a complete game shut out in his Game 1 start. If this series goes to 7 games, we may see this matchup three times.

As great as Lincecum has been, the rest of the Giants’ starting staff has performed nearly as well. During the NLDS they recorded an ERA of just 1.66, a WHIP of 0.82, struck out 46 hitters, walked just seven and gave up just 24 hits in the 38 innings pitched.

Looking at the Giants bullpen, they weren’t as sharp but will need to be if they want to take down a Phillies’ roster stacked with talent.

Here’s a look at the Phillies starting rotation:

1. Roy Halladay: 21-10, 2.44 ERA, 250.2 IP
2. Cole Hamels: 12-11, 3.09 ERA, 206.2 IP
3. Roy Oswalt: 13-13, 2.73 ERA, 211.2 IP
4. Joe Blanton: 9-6, 4.82 ERA, 175.2 IP
5. Kyle Kendrick: 11-10, 4.73 ERA, 180.2 IP

Prediction:

I see the Phillies winning in six. Although the Giants have played well, they are a team of rag-tag parts with the most expensive pieces expected to be on the bench for the majority of the NLCS.

The Giant pitching has done gotten the job done but to manage the Phillies potent lineup four times in seven tries may be asking too much. It should be a close series and a nail-biter for both teams with few lopsided victories.

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The Cincinnati Reds finished the regular season with the best offense in the National League. They led all NL teams in batting average, homeruns and runs scored; yet in the NLDS the Reds high powered offense was no match for the Phillies H2O pitching staff.

Roy Halladay set the tone for the Phillies in the first game by throwing just the second no-hitter in postseason history. Halladay needed just 104 pitches and allowed a single walk to the Reds. The Phillies offense wasn’t terrific, but their four early runs off of Edinson Volquez was more than enough for Doc.

The Reds battled back in game two and took an early lead but were undone by terrible defense late in the game. Four Reds errors led to five unearned Phillies runs that helped overcome a less than stellar effort by Roy Oswalt (five innings, three earned runs allowed). The Phillies offense still didn’t play well (all eight of their hits were singles) but struck at the right times and helped the team to a 7-4 win.

Game three, much like game one, was all about the Phillies starting pitcher. Cole Hamels, who led Philly to a World Series Championship in 2008, tossed a complete game shutout while striking out nine Reds hitters. The offense again didn’t do much (only eight hits again) but two runs was more than enough for Hamels.

All in all, the Reds never really looked like they had a chance to win the series. Even if they had won Game Two, they would likely be facing Roy Halladay again in Game Four with their backs against the wall.

After finishing the regular season with the best record in all of baseball, the Phillies showed that they are the favorite to win the World Series with dominant pitching against the Reds talented lineup.

Although the Phillies offense hasn’t seemed to catch fire yet, they finished the season second in the NL in runs scored and should turn it on at some point this postseason.

If Philadelphia starts hitting the way they are capable of they may be unstoppable in both the NLCS and World Series.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC