My Cards are Huge Favorites Over Bob B's Dodgers

[Vince P]

Because Adam Wainright and Chris Carpenter can potentially pitch 77-87% of the games if this series goes all 1.5 miles on the Turf, I knew the Cardinals would be favorites. Plus, they also have the best player on the planet in Albert, or since #3 hit ahead right ahead of Gehrig.

But I was quite surprised they were such overwhelming favorites; Cards are -1.70 (Dodgers are +1.50) to take the series. The Cards are also -1.50 to win Game 1.

Bob's Dodgers have home field advantage as if that means anything in baseball, scored more runs during the season, have a higher batting average, lower overall ERA, better bullpen, and finally, have the great Juan Pierre and Doug Miegrabrabarkiewizquewitz lurking in the background. And their defense, with the exception of the fertility player, is pretty solid.

Management wise, I give La Russa a slight edge over Torre because he handles pitchers better. Btw, I’m confused, is la Russa Italian or Spanish or some combination of both - not that it matters? I always thought he was like from Sicily, but read otherwise.

Oh, and one final thing: The Cards have Scarlett, but the Dodgers counter with Alyssa.

Question: If you worked for Sports Inc®, what line would you make on this series?

Vince P

[CapeCodDoug]

Well the Pinnacle series line is +125 Dodgers; I'd be betting Vince, not line making. Even better, buy some Dodgers futures and sell them if they split the first two at Dodger Dog Stadium.

[Vince P]

Well the Pinnacle series line is +125 Dodgers; I'd be betting Vince, not line making. Even better, buy some Dodgers futures and sell them if they split the first two at Dodger Dog Stadium.

Thanx Cape. I stand corrected. I pulled the series line from my newspaper (general Las Vegas Lines).

I was lucky enough to cash on the Dodgers winning over 85.5 games at even money and winning the west at +1.25. Now I have them at +7.00 to win the NL Pennant and +16.00 to beat the Yankees. has them +2.89 and +7.95 to win each of them.

I could be rich come Breeders' Cup time or donating blood once again if the Cards wipe them out.

Vince P

[Joel]

The starting pitcher is in the crapper right now.

Randy Wolf is the #1 starter..he was almost out of baseball 2 years ago. Look for Torre to go to the bullpen early and often..

[Bob B]

Cardinals do not hit lefties well at all. Lately Cards haven't been hitting anything well at all and the mental mistakes and physical errors over the last three weeks have been disturbing. The bullpen has been horrible over the last month as Ryan Franklin regressed to the mean performances of his average career. There is a worry in the Lou that the players think they can just flip a switch and be good again.

I think the Cardinals should be a slight favorite in a 5 game series, but I would have favored the Dodgers in a 7 game series. To win the Dodgers are going to have to hold the Cardinals to 1 or 2 runs at Dodger Stadium and hope they can get 3 off of Carpenter and/or Wainwright. I don't think they will score that many on either of them, but if they can be within 2 runs and get either of them out of the game by the 8th, the Dodgers will be in great shape. Torre's boys would be well advised to work the count to try and make the big 2 throw a lot of pitches to get them out of the game earlier. Of the two, Wainwright can go a lot longer and throw up to 130 pitches. Carpenter would probably be kept at a max of 110. As for Cardinal batters, Schumaker, Ryan, Pujols and Holliday are all steady. Molina is pretty steady but any groundball he hits with a man on first is an automatic double play. The other bats are extremely streaky. Ludwick, DeRosa, Ankiel, Lugo and Rasmus are all very hit or miss and strikeout an extreme amount. Defensively the outfield is very good with good arms (except the last 3 weeks). DeRosa and Schumaker are average at 2nd and 3rd, Ryan is the best defensive shortstop in the NL but no one knows it yet and Pujols is usually good at first base when he doesn't try to do too much. Molina is the best defensive catcher in baseball, but he's been hurt the last week and it's been obvious. If he's healthy I wouldn't advise running on him. Bullpen, as mentioned, is a disaster. Miller has been pretty good as a lefty specialist, Franklin was great the first five months and horrific in September. Middle relief is very poor, but Smoltz may shore that up against right handed bats.

A lot of nervous folks in the Lou. If this series was played a month ago, there would have been an abundance of confidence, but certainly not now.

[Syncopate]

The starting pitcher is in the crapper right now.

Randy Wolf is the #1 starter..he was almost out of baseball 2 years ago. Look for Torre to go to the bullpen early and often..

Oy Vey............What I thought too when I heard who was going to start game #1. Considering Wolf drove in a few runs this year, maybe he can help himself with the stick.

[Dgstan]

Why the hate on Randy Wolf??? Opie is MONEY!!! He's been waiting a long time for this and he's coming off his best year ever (according to him). He's the least of our worries. Not to mention, his OBP is better than J. Martin.

[Vince P]

Btw, Thursday's game time is set for 3:07pm west coast time if the Yankees decide to start play Wednesday, and 6:37pm west coast time if the Yankees decide to start on Thursday.

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/mlb/s ... s.jsp?y=09

We'll know 1 hour after the TC game tomorrow when the Yankees have to make their decision.

It makes sense for the Yankees to choose to start Wednesday - giving the Tigers / Twins no rest.

Vince P

[Dgstan]

If the game starts at 6:30pm, I have to leave work early to go watch REAL LIVE BASEBALL. If it starts at 3, then I have to leave work even earlier and pull my daughter out of school to go watch REAL LIVE BASEBALL.

I think the latter would create some great memories for her.

[Vince P]

If the game starts at 6:30pm, I have to leave work early to go watch REAL LIVE BASEBALL. If it starts at 3, then I have to leave work even earlier and pull my daughter out of school to go watch REAL LIVE BASEBALL.

I think the latter would create some great memories for her.

I rewound my Tivo from Sunday night Baseball on ESPN and this is what I heard from a Yankee's beat writer.

Obviously it's hearsay, but this is what he said:

"Sabathia told me that Girardi told him to prepare to pitch Wednesday."

Re work, same here.

Love work sideways. There's plenty of other jocks available to ride the last 3 races.

This is the time of the year when I wish I was on in Brooklyn and can watch games in Prime-Time.

Vince P