Jim Leyland, the manager of the Detroit Tigers, now knows who he should be preparing to meet in the 2012 World Series following Monday night’s result from AT&T Park that saw the San Francisco Giants eliminate the St. Louis Cardinals in game seven of the NLCS.
Leyland had been in the dark about who his opponent was going to be immediately following a sweep of the New York Yankees last week and for several days afterward. However, when The World Series starts on Wednesday, it will feature the San Francisco Giants, winners of the 2010 World Series, and the Tigers, a franchise that last won the World Series in 1984.
The Giants have demonstrated incredible resilience during the current postseason: they came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the divisional series and San Francisco also erased a 1-3 deficit in eliminating the Cards.
However, despite that resilience many think that it is the Detroit Tigers who have the edge heading into the Fall Classic: the AL champions have been resting their pitching arms since sweeping the New York Yankees last week while San Fran had to play a full seven game series against the Cards. Perhaps as a result, bet365’s betting odds on the World Series make the Tigers a 5/9 (-180) favorite to win the series straight up while the Giants are priced as 8/5 (+160) underdogs.
But where Detroit has an edge in terms of relative fatigue levels, the Giants will have an edge if the series goes a full seven games. The National League won the All Star game this summer and that means their representative in the World Series will enjoy the benefit of an extra home game should the World Series go the distance.
Perhaps importantly, the Tigers were not a great road team on the season as they compiled just a 38-43 record as visitors on the year. However they’ve faced two road series so far this postseason without faltering, perhaps proving once again that regular season stats don’t mean a lot when a team gets hot at the right time. Heading into the 2012 World Series, the Tigers have played .789 baseball over their last nineteen games, regular season and playoffs combined.
Justin Verlander looks like he’ll be a huge factor in the upcoming Fall Classic. Detroit’s ace has given up just two earned runs in 24.1 innings pitched during the current postseason and he will open the World Series for the Tigers on Wednesday. If he works on short rest during the World Series, he could pitch games one, four, and seven* (*if necessary). If his effectiveness on the mound continues then San Francisco will only be able to compete if their own pitchers are just as effective: following a long series against the Cards, you have to wonder if San Fran’s starters will be able to keep pace.
But what you also have to wonder is if the Tigers only ‘proved themselves’ by beating up on a New York team that was demoralized and underachieving in the ALCS. Derek Jeter went out with an injury early in the ALCS and Alex Rodriguez didn’t exactly earn his pay by posting an OPS of .222. The Yankees might have looked like a strong team on paper following a regular season where they played just below .600 but their on the field performance in the ALCS was nothing to be admired.
The 2012 World Series, thankfully, won’t be decided by statistics, by betting odds, or by writers. It will be decided on the field and heading into the 2012 World Series it looks like baseball fans will be treated to a coin toss between the never-say-die Giants and Detroit’s masterclass defenses.
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And in the playoffs, we’ve picked up where we left off in regular season already profiting big thanks to Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals. Last Thursday night we picked Detroit as home underdogs to complete the sweep and send Yankees’ home and they did just that bringing us yet another underdog winner!
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