For ALDS, I'll Take Oakland Over Minnesota

On 1050 ESPN radio, Wally and the Keeg were taking calls from Yankee fans as to which team they wanted the Yankees to face in the first round. They got mixed responses, but I’ll give you my opinion from a Yankee despiser’s perspective:

Oakland has better pitching. Hudson, Mulder, and Zito are a better trio than Santana, Radke, and Silva. Granted, Santana could beat them twice, but who’ll shut ‘em down the other three games? I don’t trust Radke because he strikes me as a guy who dominates the stinkers but can’t succeed against the strong offenses. Silva was a nice pickup by Twins GM Terry Ryan in the Milton deal, but keep in mind he was in the Phillies bullpen last year, so let’s not go crazy.

The big three have shown that they can all beat the Yankees (albeit not at the same time in the same series… then again, if only Jeremy Giambi had slid…), and I’ll take Dotel over Billy Koch any day.

But more important is the fact that the 2004 A’s are willing to manufacture runs, and aren’t hung up on the Beane method of taking one base at a time and not, God forbid, wasting an out. Against good pitching, you have to run the bases aggressively, play solid defense (which Beane has taken care of as well this year), and do the little things to win. Look at the ’03 Marlins with Pierre and Castillo wreaking havoc on the base paths, or the ’02 Angels, exploiting the weak throwing arms in the Yankee outfield by taking the extra base every chance they got.

I’ll take Kotsay, Hatteberg, Chavez, Crosby, Durazo, Dye, Miller, Scutaro, and Byrnes over the Terrence Longs and F. P. Santangelos of the world they threw out there in 2000 and 2001.

The Twins are a great fundamental team, but don’t have dominating power, and if your pitching’s not all that, you can’t beat the $190 million bums.

Of course, if the Angels beat out the A’s and make it, I’ll be more than delighted. Same with Texas, who can bop the ball. Either way, it looks like the Junkees will face the AL West in the ALDS, and that makes this Yankee despiser pretty happy.