World Series Preview

WORLD SERIES PREVIEW – SEASON 8 by hurricane384

ANAHEIM TROJANS (AL)
VS.
ARIZONA SUN DEVILS (NL)

RATINGS ADVANTAGES
STARTING LINEUP BENCH
POWER-Anaheim POWER-Anaheim
CONTACT-Arizona CONTACT-Arizona
VS L-Anaheim VS L-Anaheim
VS R-Anaheim VS R-Anaheim
EYE-Anaheim EYE-Arizona
ADV-Anaheim ADV-Anaheim

ROTATION BULLPEN
CONTROL-Anaheim CONTROL-Anaheim
VS L-Arizona VS L-Anaheim
VS R-Arizona VS R-Arizona
VELOCITY-Anaheim VELOCITY-Arizona
STUFF-Anaheim STUFF-Anaheim
ADV-Anaheim ADV-Anaheim

ANAHEIM
Offense: The Trojans are a balanced offense, boasting 7 players who hit 20+ homers during the season and an incredible 9 players who knocked in 90+ throughout the season. They boasted a .269 team batting average which was good for the 6th best batting average in the majors. Their 258 homers lead the majors as well. No MVP candidates on this squad, just a bunch of guys playing together as a team.
Pitching: Boasting 5 pitchers with more than 10 wins a piece including 11-1 rookie Turner Evans, this is a strong team pitching wise as well. Their 3.67 team ERA was good for second in the majors. They also threw the 4th most complete games in the majors. Carr and Bailey were the leaders of this staff, as well as Cy Young candidates.
Defense: Finishing second only to the ridiculously solid fielding Syracuse Orange with a fielding percentage of .988, the Trojans only committed 74 errors, and turned 356 double plays while making 68 plus plays against 15 minus plays. Caught only .238 of base stealers Only one player, Allen, managed to win a Gold Glove for Anaheim this season.

ARIZONA
Offense: While not as balanced as Anaheim, the Sun Devils are no slouch on offense either. They had 4 players with over 30 home runs and 98 or more runs knocked in. In addition to this, they do one thing that plays against Anaheim’s weakness…they steal bases. They had 3 players steal 30+ bases during the season while as a team they were 156/207 on the year. They were only tied for 9th on the year. Led by MVP candidate, Ortiz, this is not an offense to be toyed with.
Pitching: Another team with 5 pitchers recording double digits in the win column, they are led by Cy Young candidates, Nunez and Martin as well as Fireman of the year Ward (45/49 SV). A team ERA of 3.82 was good enough for fifth in the majors, while their strikeout total of 1146 was second to Dover.
Fielding: Finishing smack-dab in the middle of the pack, Arizona was a solid, but unspectacular fielding team this season. Their .983 fielding percentage was right there with the league-average. They recorded 40 plus plays while recording 34 minus, so they are not going to take away a lot of outs from Anaheim.

Prediction: Anaheim in 5.
While Arizona is a good team, Anaheim doesn’t have a major weakness. If Arizona can get on base, they may be able to make something happen on the base paths, but getting on base is going to be tough. Anaheim on the other hand, can take outs away in the field as well as manufacture runs as they led the league in sacrifice flies. Unfortunately, I just don’t see how Arizona can overcome Anaheim’s advantages, both in ratings and results.