[Syd Thrift]

Let's take a look at the matchups in the League Championship Series...es. I guess I'll save my overall predictions for the end.

Red Sox vs A's
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Catcher: Red Sox guy Jeremy Dolak (.249, 6, 45) is kind of the epitome of your bog-standard catcher. I'd say "league average" but I guess he's kind of not - a 2-time All-Star and a decent if not super great fielder who has a Gold Glove on his resume. For the A's, Josh Lewis (.293, 14, 66) is the team's #3 hitter and best overall guy for average in Oakland. I *think* he's eligible for ROY (he had 96 at-bats in 23 games in an extended September call-up last year) and if so he's definitely the favorite. Doesn't have the defensive rep that Dolak does, I guess, but at this point in their careers he's probably the superior one. Advantage: A's.

First base: Mike Miller (.292, 20, 92) had kind of an off year for the Bosox but he's still a 4-time All-Star at the age of 27 who won the MVP in 1968. The A's have a guy in Ray Hawkinson (.369, 7, 33) who had a monster half-season after the A's purchased him from the Twins, but there's no way I'm stacking up 51 good games against a guy like Miller. Advantage: Red Sox.

Second base: The A's Israel Gaytan (.291, 6, 51) is... fine. He's not the best fielder in the world but he swung a nice stick and was one of several nice surprises on this team, which, you'll remember, is still just 2 years removed from a 112 loss season. That said, Brian Long (.283, 9, 46) was a perennial All-Star with the Angels and White Sox and he continued that with the Red Sox. The raw numbers look similar I guess but Long is, unlike Gaytan, a plus defender. Advantage: Red Sox.

Third base: The Red Sox acquired Kristian Schneider (.278, 8, 58) in the offseason to shore up a position that had been a weak spot in 1970. Schneider was good when he played, although the 31 year old missed 3 weeks plus with shoulder inflammation and a strained back dropped him into a temporary platoon role in September. Oakland's third sacker Chase Jones (.268, 31, 83) was the power hitting cleanup man in a breakout season. Advantage: A's.

Shortstop: Matt Evenson (.257, 5, 44) is another guy for the A's who was OK, maybe not your first choice to start for a division winner but nobody expected the A's to be where they are right now. He lacks the arm strength you need for a shortstop but was decent enough with the stick, I guess. Oniji Handa (.243, 4, 54) hit .330 in September to transform an awful 1971 into a merely mediocre one at the plate. In the field he's still the pre-eminent defender in all of baseball. Advantage: Red Sox

Left Field: The Red Sox' Tom Brown (.301, 17, 89) is another guy they scavenged off the cash-strapped White Sox this past offseason and arguably had a career year with his new club, setting a career high in average and just missing the mark in RBIs (91 last year). He's been a good enough fielder to go into center when someone's injured. Adam Groves (.280, 16, 57) was picked up from the Cubs at the (unofficial) trade deadline and fit in wonderfully with his new team, so well that you have to wonder why Chicago decided he was surplus to their plans. Advantage: Red Sox, but closer than you might think.

Center Field: This is a real wild card spot, as the A's current guy - David Mesa (.282, 1, 25) is solid but nothing spectacular. That said, Alex Vallejo (.301, 5, 23), who's been out with a fractured wrist since September 4, *is* something spectacular. When he stays healthy, which admittedly is a problem, he's a potential All-Star. The Red Sox have John "The Astronaut" Glynn (.268, 13, 53), who's a prototypical leadoff man. Advantage: Red Sox for sure until Vallejo's ready, maybe a push after.

Right Field: The Red Sox juuuust got Jun Kim (.283, 11, 43) back from a strained hamstring that had laid him up since mid-August. Like, literally he played in the team's final game on the 29th. When healthy - and I guess he is now - he's a perennial Gold Glove with the best arm in baseball. On offense, he was having a career year before the injury. Richard Berman (.285, 2, 39) had a somewhat disappointing year after the 25 year old hit .306 between the Brewers and A's in 1970. He still managed to finish 2nd in the AL (behind Mike Miller) in doubles with 36. Advantage: Red Sox.

Bench: Outside of David "Aperture Science" Mesa I don't really expect the bench for the A's to do much outside of the pinch-hitting tandem of John Skelton (.234, 4, 19) and Kyle Kelver (.241, 6, 34). Neither were particularly great this year and this playoff series may very well be Skelton's swan song as he's 42 years old and not getting any better. The Red Sox have a couple of pieces that should help them out, particularly pinch-hitter / 4th outfielder Sam Marks (.325, 4, 33) and middle infielder Dwayne Fraser (.308, 3, 25), the latter of whom was the Sox' starting 2nd baseman last year before the team brought Long in. Advantage: Red Sox.

Starter 1: Justin Kindberg (27-6, 2.06) is an easy, easy choice for AL Cy Young and had, honestly, one of the best seasons a pitcher has had in modern MLB history, period. The A's plan on using Nate Lancaster (11-3, 3.05) as their "#1" based on an awesome 2nd half of the season. Lancaster is probably better than he's gotten credit for but come on, you can't stack him up against Kindberg. Advantage: Red Sox.

Starter 2: The A's #2 guy is Lee "Batty" Barnard (11-13, 3.46) a bit of a control guy on a team with some big time strikeout artists. He's more of a back of the rotation type on a truly great team. Boston's #2 is Michael Pesco (20-14, 3.20), who missed most of last season (only 9 starts in 1970) but was the Red Sox' workhorse, leading the league in games started, completing 15 of them, and equalling his league-leading 254 strikeouts from '68 (he finished 2nd to the A's Roberto Ortiz this year). Advantage: Red Sox.

Starter 3: Sany Hinojosa (14-11, 3.33) is no slouch even though he's the #3 guy for the Bosox. He was a 21 game winner for this team last year and overall has gone 35-22 for Boston since arriving in the December 1969 trade that also netted this team Jun Kim. At 36, he's the veteran presence on this staff. After a fair bit of dithering I decided to go with the 1971 strikeout king in Roberto Ortiz (13-17, 3.71) instead of the former Pilot Rick Shelton (15-15, 3.71). Ortiz is... Nolan Ryan: lots and lots of whiffs, lots and lots of walks (a league leading 164), and generally a guy who will beat himself rather than allow you the honors. Still just 25, if he can develop that control he'll be a monster. Advantage: Red Sox.

Stopper: The A's Willis Chavezx (10-5, 2.34, 18 Sv) took over the full-time role in place of homer-prone Josh Howard (2-4, 5.00, 14 Sv). He was very effective but that 41/34 K/BB ratio makes me wonder if it's smoke and mirrors. Boston's Matt Brock (9-7, 3.79, 25 Sv) suffered through a baaaaad August (0-2, 5.74) and September (3-3, 4.86) to nevertheless lead the AL in saves. If he's back into form, bye bye 9th. As it stands... Advantage: A's by a hair.

Bullpen: Boston's got two guys in Bubba Touchton (5-3, 2.67) and Kojiro Nakazawa (5-3, 3.21) who can certainly pick up the slack if Brock still has the yips, plus a guy in Marco Sanchez (16-10, 2.41) who'd be a #1 starter for most teams in the league. The A's, outside of Chavez, rely on 35 year old Chris Wilson (6-0, 1.69, 4 Sv) and the aforementioned Josh Howard. Advantage: Red Sox

Overall: I'll go ahead and say Sox in 4 although if you told me they sweep, I wouldn't doubt you.

Cardinals vs Braves
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Catcher: The Braves did some weirdness last year, dumping a perfectly good catcher in Shaun Dennehy (now with the Angels) and picking up the 35 year old backup Danny Coyle (.218, 10, 46) to handle the duties. He did much better than anyone expected, which is to say the position was still a bit of a minus. The Cardinals' John Stuwart( .294, 12, 59) bounced back from a very bad 1970 season (.222, 2, 15 before missing the second half with an injury) and is if nothing else the Silver Slugger at the position. Advantage: Cardinals.

First base: Trading Justin Stone away to the Dodgers allowed St. Louis to move the 33 year old Lorenzo Martinez (.265, 37, 100) out from left field, where he'd increasingly become a defensive liability. Sometimes guys suffer when you switch positions but Martinez was as good as he's ever been. Dante Chairez (.267, 25, 92) is also a slugging first baseman but just is not in the perennial MVP candidate level that Martinez is. Advantage: Cardinals.

Second base: Kevin Dwyer (.314, 19, 77) has been to 11 All-Star Games with the Braves and it's probably time to recognize him as the best 2nd baseman in NL history. He's still only 32 so hopefully has lots of ground left to cover. The Cardinals used Tom Depew (.311, 2, 46), who looked like a potential .400 hitter in April and May before falling way off in the summer and then resurrecting himself with a .303 August and .337 September. Advantage: Braves.

Third base: Mike Galeana (.238, 30. 80) was handed the third base job in early June and just kept hitting dingers, to the extent that the Cardinals even felt emboldened enough to trade away the incumbent Mike Morrison, a 2-time All Star, away to Milwaukee. The Braves' Vicente Luna (.260, 12, 58), a .311 career hitter, hit for a career low in average in 1971 although it should be said that even with a .260 average he's solid. Advantage: Cardinals.

Shortstop: Atlanta's Jon Reid (.267, 6, 63) provided solid offensive production for a shortstop but he committed 21 errors for a .960 average in 117 starts, which took some of the bloom off his plus range. St. Louis's Dusty McCully (.253, 9. 58) is more of your standard good-field, no-hit shortstop, though he had nice power for a middle infielder in his first season as a starter. Advantage: Atlanta.

Left Field: Rafael Disla (.314, 9, 58) is the guy the Cards got back for Justin Stone and while he was never going to match Stone's hitting, the Cardinals aren't unhappy with what he did do. His RBIs were a career low (outside of his rookie year of 1967 when he only had 124 at-bats) in large part because the hitting of Casey Satterfield pushed him down in the lineup, and he didn't quite lead the league in hitting, but he did finish 4th. The Braves found the leadoff hitter they'd been looking for for years in Chris Ward (.296, 12, 47) who led the NL with 56 steals in 78 tries, only grounded into one double play all season, and scored 86 runs for the champs. Advantage: Push? Veteran bias makes me say Cards but I like Ward's filling of that role...

Center Field: Josh Damon (.259, 18, 61) isn't anything special in the field but when a center fielder hits 18 HRs and drives in 61, you take notice. St. Louis's 1970 was shot down in large part because of horrendous defense from center field and they floundered for a big chunk of the year this year, too, before alighting on Rule V pick Jim James (.286, 9, 29 in 82 games). James took over for Elijah Johnson (.237, 4, 32), the 11-time Gold Glove Award winner for the Pirates whom the Cards hoped to eke out one more good year from, but it wasn't meant to be. Advantage: Atlanta.

Right Field: Casey Satterfield (.302, 13, 70) entered the season for the Cards at a bit of a crossroads, having hit a career low .264 in 1970 and looking like a guy who didn't have the lock on the position they thought he would have when they called him up in 1969. He responded with a career high in BA and a solid 70 RBIs after moving into the 3 hole in August. The Braves of course have the all time great Henry Riggs (.299, 43, 119) in right and Riggs had an all-time great season, leading the league in HRs for the 2nd time in his career and making his 16th All-Star Game. The clock may be ticking on Riggs, who just turned 36 on September 28th, but the, um, bell isn't chiming yet.

Bench: The Braves' main PH "Cranklin" Martinez (.250, 4, 15) wasn't super great but they got a really awesome second half from Jeremy "Grab Em And" Holden (.389, 1, 7). Other highlights off the bench include Jose Gomez (.247, 10, 19) who functioned as a 4th outfielder and late-inning defensive replacement for Riggs for much of the year, and 23 year old Michael Lee "Meatloaf" Aday (.000, 0, 0), who is on the postseason roster as a pinch-runner and defensive sub. The Cardinals have a guy off the bench in OF Ethan Keesee (.358, 0, 8) who looks like he deserves to find a regular home somewhere, plus Johnson, who is still useful. Advantage: Braves.

Starter 1: The Cardinals really struggled with pitching this year, at least until they acquired Ricardo Gomez (13-13, 3.41) at the deadline in the deal that sent Mike Morrison to Milwaukee. Gomez went 7-3, 2.39 down the stretch for this team and became the unlikely ace they needed. Atlanta's got George House (23-9, 3.11) back from a sore back just in time for the playoffs. He went from 1969 Cy Young to missing all of 1970 (with an injury suffered the last day of '69) to potential Cy Young in '71, so this was pretty big for Atlanta. Advantage: Braves.

Starter 2: With Felix Carranza (16-9, 3.92) out for the playoffs and Jake Cari (11-12, 3.56) still nursing a sore elbow with an uncertain return date, the Braves turn to Trevon Dean (8-7, 4.48), a former 20-game winner himself who's been pretty, pretty bad the last 2 seasons. He wasn't exactly amazing down the stretch, either, with a 1-0, 4.60 mark in September in 2 starts and one long relief outing (he wasn't hurt, he'd just been relegated to the back of the bullpen). The Cardinals' Vince Bachler (14-15, 3.44) is kind of the epitome of a mid-rotation starter but that's still a fair bit better than what Atlanta's tossing out there. Advantage: St. Louis.

Starter 3: Jimmy McCauley (12-12, 3.91) saw his hit rate soar this year although he still struck out as many guys as he had in the past. He's also kind of a bog-standard middle to back of the rotation guy. Atlanta is going with 27 year old knuckleballer Colin Rose (2-1, 4.94), who looked decent on the final day of the season and that's going to have to do. Advantage: St. Louis.

Stopper: Billy Munoz (10-6, 2.69, 24 Sv) is a very good stopper and in practically any other matchup in the league I'd give him the advantage. John Winn (10-4, 1.32, 32 Sv) had the kind of shutdown season that gets you Cy Young votes even when you only threw 102 innings all season long. Advantage: Braves.

Bullpen: Atlanta will really need Winn to carry them once their starters are done, as the rest of the bullpen is iffy. Mikhail Baryshnikov (2-0, 3.00, 1 Sv) looked OK in September but he's a 22 year old kid and not ready for the limelight. Steve Hollopeter (4-6, 5.26, 3 Sv) was awesome with the Mets last year (3-3, 2.55) but just plain couldn't contend with the Launching Pad, allowing 22 HRs in 78.2 innings. Again, like the rotation, the Cardinals' bullpen isn't amazing but it's at least not in tatters. Doug Ellis (1-0, 2.19) looked good in September after missing most of the last 2 seasons with injuries. Rick Legere (7-4, 2.55, 8 Sv) served as Munoz' caddy all season long and could probably close for most teams. Advantage: St. Louis

Overall: This series will probably go further but I think St. Louis' superior - by which I mean, not moribund - pitching staff will eventually emerge in this one.