St. Louis vs. Detroit

In my original predictions, I had Minnesota over the the Cards.  The reason I had Detroit losing in the first round was that I thought they were too inexperienced, but that doesn't seem to matter.  They are on fire right now.  Their pitching and hitting both look better than St. Louis.  Plus they've had about a week to set up their rotation and rest their bullpen.  I have to go with the Tigers in 5 games...they're just so hot right now.

An amusing note on the Yankees:

A caller, who is a Yankee fan, on a sports radio show compared their line-up to a gourmet dinner when he said it's like they combined caviar, steak, and fettuccini...they are all great foods, but they don't make a good meal.

Giants managerial search:

The names that seem to keep popping up are Bruce Bochy (manager of the intradivision Padres), Manny Acta (coach for the Mets), Bud Black (the Angels' pitching coach), Joe Girardi (former Marlins manager), and Dusty Baker.  First things first, DON'T HIRE BAKER.  Plain and simple.  The guy has had his chance with some great talent and hasn't gotten the job done.  Not only that, but the Giants are going to be getting a lot younger this offseason, and I don't think Baker has it in him to coach up a group of youngsters that might not be competitive for a couple years.

If I had my choice, I would like to see them hire Girardi.  He almost got Florida into the playoffs with a payroll ($15 mill) that was less than Alex Rodriguez' 2006 salary ($25 mill).  Not only that, he did it with a roster that featured 22 rookies.  The reason he got fired in Florida obviously has nothing to do with the teams' performance; he was fired because of personality conflicts with the owner and GM.  As far as I have been able to tell, the Giants' owner and GM have never gotten into any sort of altercation with a manager or anyone else.  This seems to make perfect sense for a team that has to retool (and you probably thought I was going to say rebuild).  The only problem is that he might get snatched up by Washington before we get the chance.  But if Peter McGowan gets the opportunity, I hope he brings in a young, successful, proven commodity like Girardi.

As always, comments, critiques and suggested topics are welcome by replying here or by emailing me at KONsports@yahoo.com.