Season 4 World Series Preview

So we know the two teams.  We know the star players.  We know about the stats and how each team did this season.  They're good, we get it.  So let's look a little deeper, and find some of the smaller details that might otherwise get overlooked.  

Vancouver has been running a three-man rotation, with two of those being righties, and one being a left-hander.  The bullpen has three right-handers, and two lefties.  Among the starters, the two right-handers actually do very well against lefties, and are exceptional against righties.  The lone left-hander in the starting rotation is a stud against lefties at the plate, but only average against righties.  The bullpen is very impressive against right-handers, with only one weak link.  

The St Louis starting lineup sports six righties and three lefties at the plate.  None of them hit right-handed pitching especially well, not even the left-handed batters.  But a number of their hitters can kill left-handed pitchers, which could pose a problem for Vancouver in a couple of the games.  But on the surface, Vancouver wins this particular match-up, as they dominate right-handed hitting, and the St Louis lineup is full of righties.  

When St Louis is in the field, they will most likely trot out a three-man rotation, much like that of Vancouver.  Although their roster would tell you otherwise.  The league is looking into the possibility of fining the team for giving false information to the press, when St Louis listed a pitcher as their Game 1 starter, despite that pitcher having thrown zero innings in the post-season so far.  But we digress.  Most likely, St Louis will have two righties and one lefty in their rotation.  The right-handers can hold their own against both lefties and righties at the plate, but like the Vancouver situation, the left-handed pitcher is weak against players on both sides of the plate.  There is a right-hander in the bullpen who might be brought out as the third starter, but that is still a mystery.  As a whole, the pitching staff does not dominate lefties or righties, but there are two or three guys who are somewhere between above-average, and really really good.

At the plate, Vancouver does exceptionally well against right-handed pitching.  Uh-oh.  Five right-handed batters and three lefties among their regular starters, the vast majority are above-average to great when it comes to hitting righties, with just one or two who could be deemed "below-average" when it comes to hitting right-handed pitching.  This does not bode well for St Louis, who will rely heavily on their righties.  Even when it comes to left-handed pitching, Vancouver still hits the ball really well.  

Defensively, Vancouver has a little bit of an issue in their infield, while St Louis is solid all the way around.  The St Louis infielders are near the top of the ML at nearly every position when it comes to fielding percentage.  Vancouver is not exactly bad when it comes to their defense, as they are one of the best overall with their fielding percentage.  This might be an issue during the WS.  Or maybe it won't.

Based on this info, past performance, and all of the other information that we have, it's tough to not pick Vancouver.  

NJ's Prediction: Vancouver in 6.