NLCS Tonight!

The days are boring when baseball isn't on television. This time between series isn't good for anyone (you can ask TB (the boyfriend).

However, now is not the time to lament over staring at each other on the couch and him wondering why I have nothing else to do.

Here are my (Sooz) picks for the series.

I have an interest in both these series. In the Yankees-Angels series, I'm a Yankees fan, so I want to see the team I have enjoyed over the course of my life win. In the NLCS, if the Phillies make it to the World Series, I will be covering the entire thing, home and away. Right now, I have only been covering the Phillies playoff home games for work.

Which means I would love for a Phillies-Yankees World Series because I'm selfish and it would be fun for me.

But now we put my bias aside and look at the series from a logical perspective (at least my logic).

Predictions:
ALCS: Yankees in 6.
I feel the Yankees have too difficult of a time against the Angels, but in the end they will pull it out. It should be a great series, but I really think the Yankees are just too good from the starting pitching to the great lineup and a stellar back end of the bullpen.

NLCS: Dodgers in 6.
This series could go down to seven games and part of me thinks that it might. These are two evenly matched teams. Solid starters, who could be inconsistent on any given day. Hitters who seem to always get the big hit when it counts. But the difference is in the bullpens. Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson just haven't done it for Philadelphia. If you look at the stats, you'll see the Dodgers have 26 blown saves, but 13 of them were by guys you'll will never see in the ninth inning (one isn't even on the roster). George Sherrill and Jonathan Broxton are the difference.

What are you predictions?

ALCS Yankees v. Angels

Friday is the start of the ALCS for the Yankees and Angels, and the next four days of weather in New York are supposed to feel like December- around 40 degrees rain and possibility of (!)snow(!). Yikes. I have more under armor than I am willing to admit from socks to a headsock in case of extreme cold. I have no problem looking like an abominable bum in Yankee apparel if it means warmth and baseball.

The arctic weather is sure to play a factor in these games from the possibility of delayed start times, ice cold players and more importantly pitchers, as well as the game scores. In case you didn't know the ball likes to fly out of Yankee Stadium and I am sure the weather will wreck havoc on the ball either going out or keeping the ball in the park.

I'm not one of those Yankees fans that think this is a lock to win, and as a matter of fact I think this is going to be a great series and has the possibility of going 7 games. The Angels are a tough team, and are always a tough team for the Yankees to beat in the post season. I am hopeful with the Yankees line-up being able to score enough runs to beat the Angels, but it may come down to pitching and if any of these games are called for weather the Yankees may need a fourth starter. That fourth starter could be Chad Gaudin (yikes) or Joba Chamberlain (yikes). This will definitely be interesting to see this unfold, that is if my eyes don't freeze shut in the next few days.

As far as picking up new cards, I dabbled with a few packs here and there of Ticket to Stardom out of boredom and nothing else being available. Nothing exciting really. I do have a card from eBay that I plan to blog about a little bit later on.