State of the Evil Empire -- ALCS, keys to winning and predictions

Alright so impressively, the Yankees dismantled the Minnesota Twins and swept them, even being on the road for the first two games! The only thing that concerns me is that CC Sabathia didn't have a strong performance at all. For his standards, it was pretty weak barely going 6 inning and giving up 4 runs. I think in a way it's good for CC to have that game to shake off and re-focus for this series against the Texas Rangers. Keep in mind people, Texas is a VERY sneaky good team! Here are some keys for the Texas Rangers:

1. "It can't be JUST Cliff Lee" : Alright we all know Cliff Lee is quite dominant and proved it in the ALDS with the Tampa Bay Rays. BUT....someone else has to be dominant in that Texas rotation along with Cliff Lee! Will it be C.J. Wilson? Will it be Tommy Hunter? Two of those three at minimum need to show up if they want any chance of knocking off the Yankees.
2. "Keep the power switch on": Texas seemed to be one step ahead of the Rays in the ALDS in games 1,2, and 5! They seemed to score early, maintain that lead, and tack on runs! This HAS to be done against the Yankees if they want ANY shot of moving onto the World Series!
3. "Run like hell": We all know Jorge Posada isn't good behind the plate! Texas baserunners need to test out Posada's arm and run on it often! Run often to get runners into scoring position and get those runners in! That's a good way to score runs on the Yankees is by the running game!

Here are the Yankees keys to success in the ALCS:

1. "The Ace needs a strong hand": Simply put, if CC loses game 1, the dominoes fall BADLY for the Yankees! IT IS all about game #1! A game 1 loss puts pressure on Hughes in game 2, which can put pressure on Pettitte in game 3, which leads to AJ, or CC on short rest, or some other bad combination in game 4! CC winning game 1 takes the pressure off of Hughes in game 2, which makes the rest of the rotation fall in line!
2. "Bring 'em home!": GET THE RUNNERS IN FROM SCORING POSITION! ESPECIALLY A RUNNER ON THIRD WITH LESS THAN 2 OUTS!! This was their Achilles Heel in September, BUT, was their strength in the ALDS with their better ability to get runs in from scoring position!
3. "Bullpen needs to be bullish": Kerry Wood has been outstanding for the Yankees since being acquired at the trade deadline, he may have had one bad game against the twins, but that to me was a work issue more than anything. A solid Kerry Wood and Mariano being Mariano is CRITICAL to the success of the Yankees! Boone Logan must continue his good work in getting lefties out! David Robertson needs to be sharp enough to get an out for Girardi, and Joba needs to keep his head on his shoulders and he'll be fine!
4. "DH slot": The DH slot produced BIG TIME in the ALDS with Berkman in game 1 and Thames in games 2 and 3! This position needs to step it up to get in hitters 4-6 in the Yankee lineup!
5. "AJ can't be a BJ": All kidding aside, here's the deal with Burnett....the report this week on AJ's 80-pitch side session reported a wild pitch on pitch #1, two hit batters, and other than that, his pitches were "mostly sharp". "Mostly sharp" may have two different meanings! Was he not sharp on his fastball but sharp on the breaking pitches? or vise versa? If AJ wants to have a good series, he better throw his fastball for strikes AND THEN mix in his breaking stuff. WITH AJ BURNETT, IT IS GAME, SET, MATCH IF HE CANNOT THROW HIS FASTBALL FOR A STRIKE! Also...IF THE YANKEES ARE DOWN 1-2 OR 0-3 IN THE ALCS, THERE IS NO WAY THE YANKEES SHOULD PITCH AJ BURNETT! AJ BURNETT WILL PITCH IF THE YANKEES ARE UP 2-1 OR 3-0! ANYTHING WORSE AND CC SABATHIA COMES BACK ON SHORT REST OR SOMEONE ELSE!

There are my keys to this American League Championship series! Should be a good one to watch! My official prediction is Yankees in 6 games! I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Yankees pull it off in 5 games and only lose to Cliff Lee, which means they win at home in front of their fans! But I'm giving the Rangers their much deserved respect and so 6 games is my prediction! Enjoy it! I'll keep you all updated as we move through this series! 

State of the Evil Empire -- ALDS update

Well tonight the Yankees took game #2 of their ALDS against the Minnesota Twins! Yankees are up 2-0 in the series AND get to play in the Bronx for the next two games! Andy Pettitte finally looked like the post-season version of Andy Pettitte us Yankee fans have grown up to love! GREAT to see major contributions from Lance Berkman, Curtis Granderson,  and the rest of the hits were pretty much evenly distributed! How about the evolution of Curtis Granderson people! Granderson has been a MUCH different hitter since he went to school with Kevin Long back in August! Now granted the Yanks aren't out of the woods quite yet as they have to see what they get from Phil Hughes! But so far, so good! 

Outside of the Yankees, there have been some really really interesting stories so far in this MLB post-season! How about Doc Halladay's no-hitter?! How about 14Ks by Tim Lincecum?! Unreal! But...with the good brought some bad! In game 1 of Yanks/Twins, we had an umpire blunder when the RF umpire, 1B umpire, 2B umpire, and the others involved DID NOT see Golson CATCH the ball but instead saw "a trap"! Now....in live play, I thought Golson did trap the ball! But...when I paused the TV and replayed it back to that frame, it was clear he caught the ball! One of these days....a play like this is going to SCREAM for more Instant Replay and cost a team BADLY! This is yet another red flag for MLB to get their act together! 

Yesterday, we had a record two ejections in the same day in post-season play! The first one was the first post-season ejection since 2005! Now a check-swing call is difficult and Joe Maddon was trying to fire up his lifeless team that failed to show up to the Trop like their fans! (yes I went there!) The other ejection later that day is bothersome. Reportedly Ron Gardenhire had a past history with HP umpire Hunter Wendlestadt, and Hunter blew a strike 3 call that was clearly a strike! Now that bothers me! It really wasn't "borderline" at all!

So far...It looks like we're moving closer to a Yankees/Rangers ALCS and a Giants/Phillies NLCS! We'll have to see how it all plays out! But with the Rays showing NO life AT HOME...tough for me to find them winning three straight! Same with the twins....they looked defeated! And they have to play in a place where they CANNOT seem to find wins! Phillies will continue to dominate a Reds team that beat up on a crappy NL Central and the Giants will beat up on a Braves team that doesn't have much left!

Stay tuned for more post-season updates!