On paper, the GIANTS have what appears to be a very dominating crew in this match up. In the 88 World Series, The Oakland A's had one of the mightiest Teams in the History of Baseball. But with all the HGH and forearm bashing that went on, The 88 Bums had Orel Hershiser, John Tudor, Ramon Martinez, Tim Belcher and a bunch of little punks named Micky, Franklin, Sharpie and guys that will never make the hall of fame except of course one Kirk Gibson.
The 88 Dodgers had exceptional pitching. The 2010 Giants have better pitching. The 88 Dodgers had a better manager and pitching coach. The 2010 Giants have position players that can go deep. So there's no need for talk about trades for more expensive meat. In fact, the GIANTS could do better with less. Have you ever had to much of something and you had to just hack part of it off and throw it in the freezer? I'm going to take the GIANTS during their recent productive stretch and compare that line up to the 88 World "Series" Champions.
Pitching is a draw
88 Dodgers vs 2010 GIANTS
Mike Scioscia vs. Buster Posey..... advantage DRAW
Franklin Stubbs vs Aubrey Huff ..... advantage GIANTS
Steve Sax vs Freddy Sanchez .......advantage GIANTS
Alfredo Griffin vs Juan Uribe.......... advantage GIANTS
Mike Hamilton vs Pablo Sandoval....advantage GIANTS
Micky Hatcher vs. Pat Burrell.......... No Contest GIANTS
John Shelby vs. Aaron Rowand........advantage DODGERS
Mike Marshall vs Andres Torres.... advantage GIANTS
*The Dodgers did have an injured Kirk Gibson who would have comped to Pat Burrell in leftfield.
With an obvious position player advantage and equal if not better pitching, you can see why I say there is no need for the GIANTS to make a foolish trade. It does however; make good sense to find new homes for Edgar Renteria and Bengie Molina.
The Yankee organization (love them or hate them) has been successful over the years because it forced it's starters to help the new guys. The Yankees put a priority on winning and didn't care who played where or how they got it done. Wally Pip actually taught Lou Gehrig how to play first base. Jerry Coleman took Billy Martin aside and taught him how to play 2nd base.
It wasn't until personalities got involved that the Yankees started losing. Reggie Jackson vs. Dave Winfield. Billy Martin vs. George Steinbrenner. And of course the most obvious being AROD vs. Jeter.
In Baseball more so than any other sport, the team that plays together stays together. It's about having players that give their best; as opposed to having the "best" players.
BTW, for those of you too young to remember the 1988 world Series, The A's had Jose Canseco - 42 homeruns, Mark McGwire - 32 homeruns, Dave Henderson - 24 home runs, Dave Parker - 12 homeruns in 377 abs and Terry Steinbach- 9 homeruns in 350 abs.
The Dodgers "Series" team only had Mike Marshall with 20 homeruns. Everybody else (except Kirk Gibson-25) had less than 10 homeruns. This team had no power and no .300 hitters (again Gibson who was injured for the Series only hit .290)
The 1988 A's won 104 games. Yet lost to the Dodgers in 5 games in the World Series.
If I were a betting man and the 1988 Dodgers (the weak playoff team) played the 2010 GIANTS I would not hesitate to take the Bums because they did it by working together. As I said earlier, the 2010 GIANTS are playing like the cast of "Survivor". They're worried about who's going to get voted off the Island. The 1988 Dodgers were playing like a bunch of kids playing "Sandlot" ball. They were having fun.
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