World Series Notes

Some thoughts on the upcoming World Series.

- Many people are putting the Rockies hopes on team ace Jeff Francis who had 5 scoreless innings in the Rockies trip to Fenway during Interleague play. It has to be noted that historically left-handed pitchers don't do well at Fenway and this is especially true during the playoffs (let's call this strike one). Francis will be matched up against perhaps the biggest playoff money pitcher in modern history in Josh Beckett (strike two). Do people have such short memories that they forget that the same hopes that are being put on Francis are exactly the same as the hopes Cleveland fans put on CC Sabathia who also had a sparkling regular season outing at Fenway to his credit (strike three). I just don't see the hopes of Francis as the horse to ride to victory being justified by reality.

- SI's John Donovan compares the two teams, position by position and decides that the Red Sox will win in 5 games.

- If I ran a casino - I would have a prop bet that allowed you to either take the number of runs the Red Sox will score in the World Series or the number of points the Patriots will score against the Redskins on Sunday. I think the two numbers will be fairly close.

- Part of me wonders what baseball would be doing if the Padres beat the Rockies and they went on the run to the World Series instead of Colorado. Would the World Series be put off for a week because of the wildfires in California?

- I also have to say that I think the Rockies decision to pitch Josh Fogg in game 3 in Colorado instead of game 2 in Boston is a mistake. Fogg grew up in Lynn, MA and has pitched in Fenway before. Fogg also does much better on the road than at home (4.15 road ERA vs a 5.97 home ERA this season). Ubaldo Jimenez has never pitched at Fenway and will be asked to face players he probably grew up idolizing like fellow Dominicans Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. I think this is a mistake.