Two future hall of fame managers — Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa — square off in the premier series of the NLDS.
The Dodgers 2009 season had more ups and downs than (insert your own gay sex reference here). With a roided up Manny Ramirez the Dodgers started off the season red hot. Then came the news that Manny Ramirez tested positive test for elevated levels of estrogen — a result of cycling off steroids. Yet, quality pitching from their young arms helped the Dodgers to go 29-21 during Manny’s 50-game suspension. Andre Either’s late inning heroics kept the Dodgers afloat during the summer as the young arms began to tire out. The Dodgers finished the season 3 games ahead of Colorado but struggled in the final two weeks of the season.
The Cardinals season — much quieter than the Dodgers — was marked by dominating pitching performances from starters Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright and closer Ryan Franklin. The Cardinals added Mark DeRosa and Matt Holliday to better protect Albert Pujols in the lineup and then pulled away from the field in the NL Central. Like the Dodgers, the Cardinals failed to close strong.
It doesn’t take an expert to see that the Cardinals 1-2 punch of Carpenter and Wainwright gives them an advantage in this series. While on the other hand the Dodgers have yet to decide who starts games 2 and 3 after Randy Wolf goes in game one. For this reason I’m picking the Cardinals to win the series.
Dodger Hotties
3B Blake Dewitt
P Chad Billingsley
RF Andre Either
P Jon Garland
3B Casey Blake
Cardinal Hotties
1B Albert Pujols
CF Rick Ankiel
P Blake Hawksworth
3B Mark DeRosa
P Kyle Loshe
OF Matt Holliday
P Adam Wainwright
3B Troy Glaus
2B Skip Schumaker
LF Joe Mather
