Tag: Tim Lincecum

World Series 2010: Texas Rangers-San Francisco Giants Starting Rotation Profile

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2010 World Series combatants—the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.

Fox television executives may not love it, and there are loads of disgruntled Yankee and Phillie fans grumbling about the legitimacy of this version of the Fall Classic. But this World Series promises to be a thrilling affair.

The defending champions of each league were sent packing, each bitterly disappointed that their dreams of a series rematch would never be realized. Last year’s World Series entrants both swept their divisional series foes, only to run into hungry squads that refused to be intimidated by the New York and Philly postseason pedigrees.

Texas has been generally regarded as a potent offensive juggernaut, but as it proved in its thorough dismantling of the New York Yankees, the Rangers can certainly pitch with the best of them. Midseason arrival Cliff Lee and his stellar postseason resume lead the way. But C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis and Tommy Hunter form a diverse rotation capable of silencing the bats of the opposition, even the vaunted Yankee lineup.

San Francisco on the other hand, may have surprised its opposition with its offensive output, as the Giants earned their way to the World Series primarily on the strength of their pitching and, of course, their beards. Led by two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, the Giants boast a thrilling, young starting staff that should have Bay Area fans excited about the next several years.

With Game 1 rapidly approaching on Wednesday, let’s take a look at the starting pitching rotations for each team. Since Texas hasn’t quite decided in which order it will trot out its starters and which hurler will occupy the fourth slot, we’ll profile the pitchers in contention for those roles.

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2010 World Series: Who Has the Edge? A Position-by-Position Breakdown

The Fall Classic is upon us.  The usual suspects are missing from this one though and in their place are a pair of young, upstart teams: the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers.

The talent is fantastic on both sides and this promises to be a great World Series filled with drama.  There’s a lot on the line. The Rangers are looking for its first championship in franchise history, while the Giants are looking to end a five-year drought of their own.

Many will be turned off because there are no Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies or any of the other October regulars.  No need to worry though as both of these teams belong here.

Are you a fan of great pitching?  Then you’re in luck because the Giants are pitching deep, finishing the season with the best team era in the game. 

The Rangers aren’t without their share of great arms, as they will be sending Cliff Lee to the mound in Game 1.  As Lee has proven in the past, anytime he starts in October, something special can happen.

If you’re not a fan of the young power arms and would rather see some offensive explosions, this series has that as well.

The Rangers, led by Josh Hamilton, finished the regular season as the fifth highest scoring offense in the game.

This series truly has something for everyone.  Who has the edge?

Let’s take a look.

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World Series 2010: San Francisco Giants vs. Texas Rangers Complete Breakdown

The World Series kicks off Wednesday, and there are few people who would have guessed it would be the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants left standing when the season came down to its final series.

On one side, there is the offensive juggernaut that is the Rangers, a team that outscored the Yankees nearly 2-1 in knocking them off and advancing to their first World Series ever. Throw in the ace of all aces in Cliff Lee, and you see why the Rangers are favored to win it all.

On the other side, there are the underdog Giants, a team that needed a win on the final day of the season just to qualify for the postseason. Their offense is nothing to write home about on paper, but they always seem to score just enough to back their stellar pitching.

So here are ten aspects of the upcoming best of seven series, and who holds the edge, as we look at every area of the Ranger vs. Giants match-up to come.

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World Series 2010: 5 Keys To Win It All

The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants both come into the 2010 World Series as having been heavy underdogs throughout their playoff runs.  Now, Texas is the favorite, even with starting the series in San Francisco.  

This should be a great series to follow when it commences Wednesday evening on FOX.  

Both teams are looking to prove that their respective Championship Series victories were no fluke.  Truth is though, both teams are capable of hoisting the World Series Trophy.  Only time will tell though, as always.  

But as for now, here are five ways that each team can win it all.  

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Tim Lincecum: 10 Reasons He’s the Most Important Player in this World Series

Tim Lincecum: the Most Important Player in The World Series

For the Giants, that is certainly true. But of all the 50 players that will be participating in the 2010 World Series—which begins Wednesday at 7:57 p.m. in the San Francisco’s AT&T Park—”The Freak” is still the most important.

Here are 10 of the reasons why:

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2010 World Series: The Texas Rangers Will Play the Underdog One More Time

This is a position that the Texas Rangers are all too familiar with. It’s a position they’ve been in through their first two postseason series, and they’ll play the role one more time.

What is that role, you ask? It’s being the underdog.

When the Rangers made it to the postseason, no one expected them to get past the Tampa Bay Rays let alone be the American League Champions. They weren’t supposed to beat the Rays, and they sure weren’t given a snowball’s chance in hell against the defending champion New York Yankees.

Once the Rangers had knocked off the Rays in the American League Divisional Series, the New York media started its onslaught of entitlement. A few of which actually put the Yankees in the World Series before they had even met the Rangers in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

After the Yankees came back and won Game 1 after trailing most of the night, most of the fans here in Texas thought every bit of momentum from that game was gone, and the series could be over all too soon.

While some might have counted them out after the first night, the Rangers weren’t counting themselves out, and they proved it over the next five games. Finally putting them down for good in Game 6, Texas sent the defending champions home for the ninth time in 10 years.

Much to the chagrin of the media that didn’t expect a thing from the Rangers or the ones that expected them to lay down and let the Yankees walk all over them, it was the Yankees that watched another team celebrate.

Now, after playing the underdog for two straight series, they’ll be in the position one more time, but this time it comes in the World Series against the National League Champion San Francisco Giants.

The team from the Bay Area finished off a 4-2 series win over another heavily favored team, the Philadelphia Phillies.

They have young pitchers in Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain. Three guys who can shut down just about any team they face.

Most will talk about how the Giants shut down the Phillies offense, but even they pale in comparison to either the Yankees or the Rangers. So far this postseason, the Phillies had a team batting average of .215, a 45 point drop from their .260 combined batting average during the regular season.

But, say what you want about the Phillies, the Giants offense wasn’t much better, dropping 26 points from the regular season (.257) to the postseason (.231).

On the flip side of the coin, the Texas Rangers picked up right where they left off from the regular season. They led all of baseball in team batting average (.276), only dropping three points during the postseason (.273).

When Vladimir Guerrero wasn’t hitting, they got big hits from Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Bengie Molina and Nelson Cruz. But, whey needed Guerrero the most, he came through in Game 6 with a clutch two-run double before Cruz put the game away for good.

They have guys who can come up big at any given time. They have a lineup that has speed up front with Elvis Andrus, power in the middle with Guerrero, Hamilton and Cruz, and role players who can pick up the slack with Ian Kinsler, Molina and David Murphy.

The one thing that you can count on being thrown out are “historic stats” between the two teams like ESPN’s Buster Olney has already done this morning. It’s inevitable that people will find some way to make their team look like the favorite in the days leading up to Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.

But, no matter how many stats we want to throw out and no matter who has or hasn’t done well in the past against this pitcher, we saw how history worked out for the Yankees in the ALCS. They had owned the Rangers in the past, but the past doesn’t always translate to the present.

Where this game will be won is on the hill. The Rangers were ninth in baseball in team ERA (3.93) during the regular season and have been nothing short of dominant in the postseason, putting up a combined 2.40 ERA.

The Rangers are expected to have Cliff Lee in Game 1 followed by C.J. Wilson in Game 2 and either Colby Lewis or Tommy Hunter in Game 3 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

For the Giants, they are most likely to go with Tim Lincecum in Game 1, Jonathan Sanchez in Game 2 and Matt Cain in Game 3.

Let’s get to the heart of what this World Series is really all about. CBS Sports’ Gregg Doyel spelled this out in a brilliant manner and far better than I ever could. This is a World Series between two mid-majors, if you forgive the college football pun.

The Yankees are out as are the Phillie,s and the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to quit with two months left in the season.

The media isn’t salivating over the pinstripes; they don’t get to talk about their crush on Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter for at least another three months and change. They can’t stand that. Who is going to watch a World Series between two teams who actually earned, not bought, their way onto the biggest stage in baseball?

This guy.

It’s a series that will feature some of the best pitching baseball has to offer. It will also feature a guy you can’t help but love (Josh Hamilton), a guy with a beard that continues to get darker by the day (Brian Wilson), a guy who will get a World Series ring no matter who wins (Bengie Molina), and arguably one of the worst, or best depending on how you look at it, haircuts you’ll ever see (Tim Lincecum).

These are two good teams with a bunch of guys who you won’t hate nearly as much as those who hate the Yankees.

There is no Alex Rodriguez type arrogance, there are no Nick Swisher type barrages of ‘f’ bombs to explain their feelings about facing Cliff Lee, and there will be no home made signs that say “Can’t we just sign both Lee and Hamilton,” caught by the TBS cameras while in New York.

The Rangers and Giants don’t have the best players money can buy. These two teams have the kind of talent that makes a World Series worth watching.

The glass slipper could be the most overrated symbol in all of sports. But, we love to root for the underdog don’t we? Well, at least most of us do.

For both cities, this is as big as it gets because neither city has much to root for when it comes to football. The Giants and Rangers are saving the NFL fans who are suffering by having to watch two lackluster football teams. The Cowboys and 49ers are a combined 2-9 so far this season. Yeah, it’s not been a good year for them.

Whether you think the networks will hate this World Series, you can bet that both AT&T Park and the Ballpark in Arlington will be sold out for every game that takes place at each respective stadium. These fans are chomping at the bit for Game 1, and they are ready for a World Series Championship to be brought home to their town.

For the Texas Rangers, this will be the defining moment for their franchise. They have been through an ownership change, they’ve been through slumps, the ineffectiveness of Scott Feldman and Rich Harden and jubilation when they acquired Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners.

This is a solid group of guys. Every single one has come up with a big hit during this postseason, every single one has done what the team required of them to get this far.

They’ve knocked off the best the American League had to offer. Now, they are just four wins away from their first ever World Series title.

The team’s mantra, “It’s Time,” has held true all season long. They have one more hurdle to clear and they’ve come too far to lose now.

The Texas Rangers, and their fans, believe it’s their time. They’re ready to celebrate in Arlington, a celebration that, for the first time, won’t have anything to do with the Dallas Cowboys.

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World Series 2010: Why the Texas-San Francsico Matchup Is Good for the Game

After 162 regular season games and two rounds of playoffs, there are only two teams left standing: the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers.

With these two unlikely league champions set to square off in the 2010 World Series on Wednesday night, there are certainly plenty of disappointed fans in New York and Philadelphia.

While many casual baseball fans and network executives at Fox were hoping for a 2009 World Series rematch of the YankeesPhillies, as a series featuring the Rangers and Giants may not be good for Bud Selig and Fox’s ratings; it will, however, ultimately be good for baseball.

It’s good for Rangers fans who have been waiting for this moment since the team’s inception as the Washington Senators in 1961; it’s good for San Francisco Giants fans that have been waiting for a World Series title since they were still playing baseball at the Polo Grounds in New York back in 1954.

It’s good for a fan of any small market team that isn’t supposed to make it this far, with juggernauts like the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies standing in their way.

This year’s World Series will give the casual fan the opportunity to become familiar with players not named Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez or Ryan Howard. Instead, the names Cody Ross, Nelson Cruz, Colby Lewis and Matt Cain will become recognizable. Also, guys like Josh Hamilton and Tim Lincecum will finally get the national media attention they deserve.

It’s not as though there won’t be plenty of intriguing story lines in this year’s World Series: Cliff Lee versus Tim Lincecum in Game 1 has the potential to be one of the best World Series pitching duels in recent memory, feel-good stories like the triumph of Josh Hamilton over substance abuse and the emergence of Cody Ross as an unlikely playoff hero are sure to garner the attention of sports fans everywhere. The list goes on.

In the MLB, there is no salary cap and there is anything but a level playing field in terms of payroll. When the New York Yankees annually spend 250 percent of the $84 million median payroll of the entire league, things are anything but fair.

In addition to the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies all spend nearly twice as much as the league median. It’s no surprise that three of these four teams are perennial championship contenders.

Enter the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers.

The Giants did have a $97 million payroll, good enough for 10th in the league, but considering $18 million of that is tied up in Barry Zito, who didn’t even make the playoff roster, that’s $79 million on the team that beat the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies in the postseason, which happens to be $5 million lower than the league median.

The Rangers’ story is even more intriguing. At the beginning of the 2010 season, the Rangers’ organization was bankrupt and actually owned by Major League Baseball. Their opening day payroll of $55 million ranked 27th in MLB, ahead of only the Pirates, Padres and Athletics.

Luckily for small market teams, this season further proves that no amount of money is guaranteed to buy a championship. The Yankees can go out and spend money like they own the mint, yet couldn’t get past a team that spent only 27 percent as much money.

It’s good for baseball to see some parity in a sport that is often criticized for being dominated by big market teams. Regardless of who ultimately prevails, a fanbase will be rewarded with a long overdue championship.

This year’s championship will either go out to lifelong Giants fans and former players like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal or to Rangers faithful and players including Nolan Ryan and Jim Sundberg.

Hardcore baseball fans love an underdog. It’s what keeps so many people pulling against the New York Yankees year in and year out.

This year’s World Series features two of them.

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World Series 2010: 5 Things You Need To Know

The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants will be competing in the 2010 World Series which commences on Wednesday night.  OK, let me rephrase that: The San Francisco Giants will do battle with the Texas Rangers in the 2010 World Series which gets underway on Wednesday in San Francisco.  Even reworded it has the same meaning and shock value too.  

Crazy to think this but these two underdog teams each from the West will be representing their respective leagues in the World Series.  This is one of the most surprising pairings in quite some time yet still should be a great series.  

Here are five things you ought to know and why you should tune into FOX for this one.  Don’t worry my fellow Philadelphians, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are not among these reasons.  

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World Series Game 1: New York Yankees Fans Will Be Watching Lee vs. Lincecum

Just in case you didn’t know, a 2009 World Series rematch between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies is not happening.

To many baseball fans surprise, both powerhouse ballclubs lost in the Championship Series. Some might say the Phillies and Yankees lacked the heart, as making the postseason is basically part of the regular schedules.

Regardless of the reason, a loss is a loss no matter how it happened, who was injured, why so many players were slumping or if a team had too many days off. 

So now the 2010 World Series starts on Wednesday in San Francisco, CA.

The city’s Giants will host the Texas Rangers for the first two games of a seven-game battle where only one team will leave as champions. The other team will leave with nothing, as nobody gets introduced as the “team that lost in the 2010 World Series.”


Will I watch the 2010 World Series?

Yes, but not if something better is on or I go out. Also, I am a huge baseball fan so whether I watch or not doesn’t speak for much of the norm.

The best matchup of the series and only one other teams fans might watch is on Wednesday night. Game 1 features the Rangers’ Cliff Lee vs. the Giants’ Timmy Lincecum, who are both legitimate Cy Young-winning pitchers.


Why will New York Yankees fans watch Game 1 of the 2010 World Series?

Cliff Lee is a free agent after the World Series ends and all of baseball is drooling just at the thought of acquiring Lee.  Yankees Universe wants him, CC Sabathia is his buddy and fans will get excited with the realization that they get what they want.


Who do I predict to win in this battle on the mound?

Picking a winner between Lee and Lincecum is a toss-up because if both are throwing heat, which has been the trend it could fall either way. Since Texas and San Francisco barely face each other in the regular season, if ever makes both the pitchers become even more devastating.

If this winds up being the case, my guess is Cliff Lee would win. The Rangers are better hitters than the Giants. Also, Lee has been in the postseason before, pitching for both an AL and NL team.

To be more specific Texas has Josh Hamilton in their lineup, and a hot-hitting Hamilton is lethal no matter who is pitching. The guy is a machine and was just crowned the ALCS MVP. Imagine where Hamilton would be if he didn’t do all those drugs, because it doesn’t seem possible to be any better.

Lincecum is six-plus years younger than Lee. It is only Lincecum’s fourth season as a professional, and this is his first postseason ever. Also called the Freak, Lincecum has been dominating in the playoffs thus far, striking out 14 in the NLDS.

Mind you, Big Time Timmy Jim has won two Cy Young awards in his first three seasons. As many claim Lincecum is the best pitcher of the last two seasons without question.

What I have noticed watching this postseason is hitters make contact with Lincecum, but not with Lee. Lee shutdown the two best hitting teams in baseball, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees so the Giants will presumably be no threat.

The World Series is a different monster, as it’s one of the biggest stages in all of sports. It’s a stage that Cliff Lee seems to be nothing but flawless on, and I don’t see that changing on Wednesday night in Game one.


Who Do I Predict Will Win Game 1?

Texas Rangers win 3-1, and Cliff Lee gets the win, one RBI and a home run (kidding about the home-run, but you never know with this guy).

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MLB’s Changing of the Guard: Why This World Series Is Good for Baseball

Almost seven months, 2,430 regular season games, an entire postseason completed and it all almost ended exactly where we were a year ago. Almost.

With this past weekend’s games resulting in the conclusion of both the ALCS and NLCS series, baseball fans worldwide were almost faced with a Yankees versus Phillies rematch for the World Series. It also would have marked the third straight season the Phils reached baseball’s most coveted destination. We almost watched as the Yankees competed for their 27th World Series title. Almost.

We almost ended the season following those ever so familiar faces of postseason heroes, who have made a living crushing the competition when the season mattered the most. The likes of Derek Jeter, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez…the list goes on and on. Almost.

Instead this year baseball fans will be tuning in to a series so new, for once, they really do not know what to expect. Sure the ratings certainly won’t be as high. How could they be? The Yankees and Phillies are located in two of America’s largest sports markets with fanbases of unmeasurable quantities.

Sure it would have been exciting to see CC Sabathia take on a Phillies lineup chock-full of talent, again. Sure it would be exciting to see if Cole Hamels and the rest of the Phillies All-Star rotation could hold off the Yankees erasing last season’s shortcomings. Sure it would be exciting to see if A-Rod, Jeter, Posada and company could do it again.

However, what is more exciting is the unknown this year’s Series most certainly presents.

With the stage set and the world of baseball tuned in, we turn the focus not to the ever so recognizable faces of the New York and Philadelphia ball clubs, but to the faces of baseballs new generation.

With a sport already widely considered “boring” or “too slow” it surely does not help when the same faces pop up every fall. In a sports world where the call for youth and personality has never been stronger, isn’t it time baseball got with the program?

Look at hockey with the emergence of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos in recent years. Basketball? Try Kevin Durant, Tyreke Evans and even LeBron James. Even football with the likes of Chris Johnson, DeSean Jackson and company has seen a shift to focusing on the players of the “new school.”

Finally we have not only a series featuring a Giants club who has not reached a World Series since 2002, where they infamously choked away a 5-0 lead in Game 6 eventually leading to a championship for the Angels, but a series featuring a Ranger’s club who has previously never won a single playoff series.

That, ladies and gentleman, is excitement.

Along with the change of teams and scenery comes that calling for the new “era” of baseball. Replace CC Sabathia and Cole Hamels with two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum and the Rangers young ace C.J. Wilson. Derek Jeter for Elvis Andrus, A-Rod for Pablo “Kung-Fu Panda” Sandoval, Posada for Buster Posey. What are you left with? A Series full of under-25 players starving for their first taste of postseason glory.

One thing is for sure, for the first time in a while, nothing is for sure. Baseball finally got the facelift that has been needed for years. A changing of the guard that not only shook up this season, but will have implications on many seasons to come.

Don’t let the ratings fool you, this World Series will be the best one played in recent memory. And to think we almost had a repeat season. Almost.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


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