PLAYOFFS: L.A. vs St. Louis

written by John Raimondo, Jr.

With the 2004 Division Series underway today at 1:00p.m., it seams pretty certain, on paper at least, who will be victorious in the L.A. Dodger-St. Louis Cardinal series.

The Cardinals, who to many surprised the league this year, had a MLB-leading record. If one were to look at both teams and compare them on paper, there truly is a stronger, better team in the Cardinals. Each position gives the Cardianls the advantage.

With the exception of second base, Alex Cora being a very tough out throughout the year and a great fielder. And third base. Not to overlook Scott Rolen, who is one of the best right now, but Adrian Beltre has had an MVP calibre season, leading his team to many come from behind
victories and led the league in Homeruns. The Cardinals take the cake.

The Cardinals offense is quite possibly the best in the league and I wouldn't mind seeing them go all the way to the World Series (St.Louis is supposedly the best baseball town in america, so why not?). But as has been proven year in and year out, the teams with the better pitching staff have walked away with World Series titles; hence why the Yankees have lost two of the past three series, although they were the favorites last year. The Cardinals pitching staff is well equipped this year with all 5 starters winning 11 games or more and a good bullpen, one of which features Jason Isringhausen (EX-MET, way to go Wilpon!) who was tied this year with 48 saves to lead the national league.

But do not count out the Dodgers staff, although they are nowhere near as good as the Cardinals staff was during the regualar season (A down and out "finished" Jose Lima leads the team with a 13-5 record), and most of the starters except for Lima all have losing records. But they have shown heart and guts all year, coming from behind not only to win games, but their division. If their pitching can hold down that "Murderous Row" of an offense, Gagne is still in the top three for relievers in the he game and he will shut them down.

Cardinals win this series in 4, just to be generous to L.A. And if you love baseball like I do, you have to love the Cardinals offense and hope to see it matched up against the Yanks.......OR the Red Sox?