well, you've got willis/beckett/burnett/vargas or valdez against smoltz/huddy/sosa/thomson or ramirez.
now, i'd take smoltz before any of the top three marlins starters, but i'd probably take willis and beckett ahead of hudson. so i call that a wash for them.
burnett has absolutly fallen appart this past month, so i consider him something of a risk going in to the playoffs. coming off an injury and not having played a full season in a couple years, i think what you're seeing from him now is his arm tiring. this of course, could just be an aberrition and he may return to form. if he does, i'll go ahead and say that the marlins have the superior rotation. if he doesn't, though, what you might see is sosa continue his excellent performance this year. i have no reason to think his ERA will stay under 2.50, but i think it's reasonable to put him in the 3.50 range, which is certainly better than tired-arm beckett.
at the back of the rotation, i'll take thomson/ramirez over vargas/valdez.
so i guess i just have more faith in sosa pitching 3.50 ERA ball than i do in burnett's arm not falling off by division series time.
edit: as for offense, i'll give the marlins delgado/miggy over jones/jones, but there's no way any other spot in that lineup is advantage marlines. the braves are better at the top and better at the bottom.
well... i guess the marlins pitchers probably hit better than the braves (smoltz has really lost it up at the plate...), but outside of that? no way. they're sending mike lowell and alex gonzalez up there!
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Sosa's last game was great. He's got horrible control yes, and is getting very lucky, but he's getting the job done, is he not? Ramirez could be solid at #3 or 4. Thomson... I don't even know. Davies or LeRew could step in as starters as well. Hampton's in the pen.
Furcal > Castillo
Giles >> Conine
Chipper < Delgado (Barely)
Andruw > M-Cab
Francoeur > Encarnacion
McCann/Estrada >>> Easley
Roche/Franco > Pierre
Langerhans/KJ > LoDuca
Their lineup's got nothing on ours.
I don't get the big deal about the bullpen. Boyer-Reitsma-Farnsworth is very good. Horrible guys like Kolb, Brower, Martin, etc. blow up that bullpen ERA. The bullpen isn't that bad. The Marlins have nothing other than Jones.
Huddy has been pitching great ball lately, I'd take him easily over Burnett at this point.
Red Stripe wrote:No offense but those comparasions seem extremely biased
Furcal > Castillo *SEE NO PROBLEM HERE*
Giles >> Conine *SAME HERE*
Chipper < Delgado (Barely) *PLEASE, DELGADO DESTROYS CHIPPER, CHIPPER YOU HAVE TO ADMIT IS NOT THE SAME AS HE USED TO BE*
Andruw > M-Cab *NOT THE WAY I SEE IT, ANDRUW JUST HITS FOR MORE POWER, BUT MIGGY CAB DOES EVERYTHING ELSE BETTER(EXCEPT RANGE IN THE OUTFIELD I GUESS)
Francoeur > Encarnacion *AGREED*
McCann/Estrada >>> Easley *NOT BY THAT(>>>) MUCH, MCCANN AND ESTRADA AREN'T MUCH BETTER*
Roche/Franco > Pierre *TO SAY THIS IS JUST SILLY*
Langerhans/KJ > LoDuca *SAME HERE, LO DUCA IS A MUCH BETTER HITTER THAN BOTH OF THEM*
Chipper has been great this year in games he's played. He's been just as good as Delgado when you compare stats, not counting cumulative due to injuries. Just look at them.
Chipper: .306/.417/.567/.984; 17 HR in 307 AB's
Delgado: .298/.392/.573/.965; 29 HR in 466 AB's
How does Delgado "destroy" Chipper?
On Mcab/Andruw:
How does MCab do "everything else" better? All Cabrera does is hit for a higher average, about 55 points. His isoOBP is worse, and only 30 points above Andruw's. He slugs less. I don't know about you, but I'll take the 20 extra homers over the 30 points in OBP. Andruw's got the better OPS.
Easley? .242/.317/.430/.747 is his line.
McCann's getting the bulk of starts. Have you seen him hit? He's a MUCH better hitter than Easley.
How is it foolish to say LaRoche/Franco is better than Pierre? The only argument that could have ever been made for Pierre is that he's a good leadoff hitter. In the 6th spot, his apparent value drops enormously.
Even in a horrid slump/year so far, Roche still has a higher OPS
yeah. a lot of the braves' bullpin problems go away when they get a few of hampton/horacio/thomson back there.
as for brandnew's player comparissons....
i'd take delgado over chipper and miggy over a. jones, but the bravos get the rest easily. i'll take langerhans/johnson over loduca any day of the week, and franco/laroche over pierre is an easy call, too. pierre just isn't really good at anything besides stealing bases. he's a fine fantasy player because of his average and SB, but his OBP is crap, and SB arn't nearly as useful in real baseball.
sorry, but even with laroche's awful season, i won't take the SBs that go along wtih pierre's stat line.
granted, we're comparing 1Bs to a leadoff-type CF, but if you want to make that comparisson, then you have to talk about furcal: .342//.418//.761
and that's hardly fair becuase then pierre doesn't even have the "speediness" advantage going for him.
anyhow, miggy/delgado is better than jones/jones (i mean, it's really not that close) but the rest of the braves's lineup is significantly better than that of the marlins and more than makes up the difference.
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I havn't even read everything I've bought"
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George_Foreman
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IMO any weaknesses a team has during the regular season become tremendous problems in the playoffs. Why? Because the playoffs are the cream of the crop, all the teams are relatively good and to beat them you need to be solid all around.
The Marlins may look great on paper, which was why they were the favorite to win the NL West. But there are weaknesses to this team, they are 11 games over .500 and will finish with what, 87 wins? This team is good, but not unstoppable. The Marlins aren't going to waltz into October and decimate the competition, not this year.
I think the Cardinals should be considered the favorites to go to the WS. They get to rest their squad, which needs it (Pujols slightly banged up, Edmonds banged up, Walker is well... old.) They also get to set their rotation, give those guys some rest. Yes, it can be argued that resting the players will possibly take their edge off, but I don't think so with this team. These guys really are relentless, and have a competitive thirst. They'll be repeating as NL pennant winners this year.
...Boston papers now and then suffer a sharp flurry of arithmetic on this score; indeed, for Williams to have distributed all his hits so they did nobody else any good would constitute a feat of placement unparalleled in the annals of selfishness. -Updike
To me it's looking more and more like a repeat of last year's World Series. There's no one in the NL who can take down these Cardinals and -while the AL is more of a crapshoot - I'd say there's about a 40% chance the Sox make it in. Give another 40% to the Indians and 20% to the rest.
There is no juggernaut this year - it's a good year for baseball.
dannyolbb wrote:To me it's looking more and more like a repeat of last year's World Series. There's no one in the NL who can take down these Cardinals and -while the AL is more of a crapshoot - I'd say there's about a 40% chance the Sox make it in. Give another 40% to the Indians and 20% to the rest.
There is no juggernaut this year - it's a good year for baseball.
Cards/Marlins would be a very good series. Marlins pitching could dominate in the playoffs while the Cards may be caught planning prematurely for the WS.
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by George_Foreman » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:04 pm 
