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 Best of the best The smoke has cleared, and the top teams are still playing
Posted: Tuesday October 06, 1998 03:34 PM
With all due respect to this year’s wild card teams and the excitement those races gave to the final week of the baseball season, what you’re seeing now is what you should be seeing: The best teams in each league playing each other. The two Championship Series should both be well played, offering some of baseball’s best pitchers against some of its best hitters. I’m still not coming off the predictions I made at the beginning of the year. But my World Series picks will have their toughest tests to date in the next week or so. Here’s my take on the race for the pennants: National League Championship SeriesWhen you look at the San Diego Padres, two things come to mind: The pitching, starting with Kevin Brown, and the depth. When a guy like John Vander Wal can win a series for you, that says a lot about your team. The Padres have the ability to dominate with Brown on the mound. Look what he did against the Houston Astros. They were handcuffed, stymied. He makes you almost want to hit yourself. They were perplexed, taking strike three, leaving men on base. It just goes to show you how tough it is in postseason play. When the pressure’s on, it feels like someone’s holding your bat. If Brown can pitch three times in a seven-game series -- and with just three days of rest against the Astros, his slider was breaking as big as I’ve ever seen it break -- he’ll make it very tough on the Atlanta Braves. With the exception of Brown, you can’t say the Padres’ pitching is great. But they have some other weapons, too. They have that depth that can absolutely wear a team out Vander Wal ripped the Astros with a huge pinch-hit two-run triple. He’s a guy who has been around a long time. He has that pinch-hitting experience from the left side, which is very valuable in the playoffs. Jim Leyritz, who had some big hits when he played for the Yankees in the World Series in 1996, hit .400 with three home runs and five RBIs against the Astros. They’re a team, with everything that means. When the Braves start thinking about the Padres, they’ll be thinking about Mr. Kevin Brown. But, heck, the Padres have plenty to think about, too, with the Braves. Like John Smoltz. And Tom Glavine. And Greg Maddux. And all that post-season experience. When your third pitcher is Maddux -- “We threw him third ‘cause he’s struggling” -- that alone is enough to scare opponents. The Braves have the ability to score some runs, with guys like Chipper Jones and Andres Galarraga. But, with a pitching staff like that, they don’t have to score a lot. One thing the Braves don’t have is the closer that the Padres have in Trevor Hoffman. If the Padres have the lead in the eighth, you can pretty much write that one down. The problem for the Padres, though, is getting to the eighth with a lead. Post-season is all about pitching, and I can’t see how you can pick against the Braves’ staff. Ozzie’s pick: Braves in six. American League Championship SeriesPeople are looking at the Cleveland Indians as the underdog in this series. But the Indians are one of the best offensive teams in baseball. The Indians have a lot of depth and experience. Don’t forget, they knocked the New York Yankees out of the playoffs last year. And the Indians seem to be getting it all together right when it counts. David Justice had six RBIs and hit .313 against the Boston Red Sox in the Division Series. Jim Thome had two home runs. Manny Ramirez hit .357 with a pair of homers. These are guys that can carry a team. The Indians’ starting rotation won’t blow anyone away. But, with an offense like the Indians have, all Cleveland needs from Jaret Wright, Charles Nagy, Dwight Gooden and Bartolo Colon is to not let the game get too out of hand. Against a team like the Yankees, that’s the last thing they need. The Yankees, who won 114 games during the regular season and easily handled the Texas Rangers in the Division Series, have David Wells and David Cone and Andy Pettitte. Those guys had a .44 ERA against the Rangers and held Texas to a .141 batting average in the three-game sweep. That’s good. Add a potent offense that includes Paul O’Neill and Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter and rookie Shane Spencer and you have a team that can beat you in a number of ways. These guys aren’t superstars. They’re blue-collar guys, just doing their job. And doing it really, really well. And one more thing: The Yankees are riding an emotional wave -- the team is rallying around Darryl Strawberry, who recently went through cancer surgery -- and you have a team that’s extremely dangerous. Ozzie’s pick: Yankees in five. Ozzie Smith, a 15-time All-Star, is the baseball analyst with CNN/SI, the 24-hour sports news network from CNN and Sports Illustrated. His column will appear weekly throughout the rest of the post-season.
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