Totally non-Astros related Friday afternoon discussion: Dream World Series match up

LAD and LAA would be my pick. Despite Lidge, there is no way I can pull for the Phillies, them having won last year and their fans being Phillies fans.

And although it would be interesting to see Torre face off against the Yankees, I still can’t bring myself to say I’d like to see them in the WS. It’s the Yankees, after all.

So, we arrive at a Los Angeles series by process of elimination. Okay, Los Angeles/Anaheim. Whatever.

I like Yankees vs. LAD. Good story lines and good teams. The Angels might have some interest to Astros’ fans if you recall that Ed Wade (when he first took the job) said the Angels were his model for constructing the Astros. There are some parallels, both the Angels and Astros are serial pythag beaters (even though though the Angels have been doing it for much longer); both teams like high batting average contact hitters; both teams aspire to aggressive base running (even though the Angels do it a lot better because they have the personnel). However, the parallels end because the Angels are a better team. Interestingly, the Angels’ preference for free swinging contact hitters was modified a bit this year by the addition of OBP machine (and ex-Astro) Bobby Abreu. Could the Astros have used Abreu OBP this season? If Carlos Lee were on the team, I suspect Wade would have signed Abreu. During the off-season, Wade said Abreu was one of his favorite players and he couldn’t understand why other teams weren’t more anxious to sign him…but Wade said the Astros simply didn’t have a spot in the outfield for Abreu.

In a shocking development, I correctly picked Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees and Angels to win the first round series.

I picked Dodgers and Yankees to win the league championships, with the Yankees winning it all. (Phillies threw a small wrench into matters last night).

 I have no desire to see the Phillies in the World Series (not anti-Phillies but more a Blah attitude on my part) so I’m rooting for the Dodgers.

I’m more neutral on the Angels-Yankees. The part of me that wants the most deserving team to win (and the part of me that wants my predictions to be accruate) picks the Yankees. Every other part of me favors the Angels .

I’m a a fan of a few of the Phillies players (Utley, Victorino) and I do like the team in general.. and I thought they were going to go all the way last year when not many people did. Plus, I would like to see a consecutive year World Series winner. I think that would be neat. I pick the Yankees because I hate them, and the Yankees will consider anything less than a World Series title a failure. I would like them to get so close, but not win it all.

mostly because I’m actually okay with the Phillies as a team, despite their legions of somewhat-to-horrifyingly obnoxious fans, and I can’t stand the Angels (just read that Rev Halofan’s posts over at Halos Heaven, he unfortunately skews my perception of all Angels fans) and their small-ball.

scoring two runs in the eighth (with the help of an error) to win 2-1.