Phillies, Eagles, 76ers or Yankees, Giants Knicks

Separated by only 75 miles of the Jersey Turnpike New York and Philadelphia have had a bitter rivalry for years. The Yankees and Phillies start the 09 World Series on Wednesday that goes through the weekend, the Giants and Eagles play in Philly on Sunday this being one of the biggest rivalry’s in the NFL and only to add it to it the Giants have lost two straight games making it only a ½ game lead they hold in the NFC East and last and certainly least the Knicks and 76ers play on Saturday in the Garden.

161st vs. Pattinson Stations

161st and River will be packed come Wednesday thanks to the Yankees going for their 27th World Series Championship. This game will be probably be the most important game of the series putting the two best playoff pitchers this season who are also very good friends against each other. Sabathia and Lee have been unhittable this postseason both of whom have won every game they’ve played in. It also puts the two scariest line ups in the MLB against each other. It would big for the Yankees to come out of Wednesday game with a win but it would enormous if the Phils could come out on top.

Break down of positions

1st base Teixeira and Howard are two of the premier hitters in the league, looking at their numbers Howard has the advantage in RBI’s and homeruns, but Tex has less strikeouts, a better batting average and on base %. As a hitter the slight advantage goes to Howard but Tex is a switch hitter and arguably the best fielding first basemen in the league. In my opinion these two players are very equal but I’ll give Philly the advantage.

2nd base Cano and Utley is another interesting matchup. I’ll agree that Utley is the obvious choice in this seeing as there aren’t too many 2nd basemen hitting 30 homeruns a year but Cano has a much better batting average and batted around the 6th or 7th spot in the Yankee order. Advantage Philly.

Short Stop Maybe another season this might be closer and there might be more of an argument for Rollins but Jeter had a great season this year and has only gotten better over the years at fielding his position. This season Jeter has easily had the better hitting season .338ba and a over 400 obp. Advantage Yankees.

3rd base Advantage Yankees

Catcher Ruiz is a pretty good hitter and has done well in the playoffs but Posada is much better. The only reason this might be closer than it seems is Molina might be still be catching AJ, but regardless Advantage Yankees.

Right Field Swisher had a great season seizing up a huge hole for the Yankees in their outfield, but they have Jayson Werth who is the obvious decision in this matchup and could use that opposite field swing of his to hit some over right field. Advantage Phillies.

Center Field I still don’t agree with the decision to start Melky over Gardener, but that’s beside the point the Yankees have a man whose hitting last in their lineup and the Phils have an All Star. I only hope someone in the Yankee Stadium bleacher has a big enough arm to nail Victorino with another beer. Advantage Phillies

Left Field To continue the trend of good outfielders for the Philiies Ibanez takes this one as well. Damon had his homers go up thanks to the short porch in right field and hitting behind Jeter helped his RBI’s too, but Ibanez was one of the best hitter in the MLB the first half of the season before his injury. Advantage Phillies

DH Whoever Philly puts in this spot doesn’t have much of an argument against one of the Yankees clutchest hitters Matsui. Advantage Yankees

Starting Pitchers Even if you give it to Lee over CC the rest of starting pitchers goes NY’s way. Pettitte and Pedro is a great pitching matchup, the two veterans have watched each other for years when Pedro was still a Sock. Pettitte has to have the nod here seeing as he’s won more postseason games than any other pitcher in history. Then you have AJ and Hamels, to two team’s underachievers. When AJ is on he’s one of the top pitchers in the league and you could pretty much say the same for Hamels. Cole might have the postseason experience on his side but he also has had the worse numbers of late. AJ gets it. And then the Phillies lineup has to go against the Yankees ace again, and the Phils send either Blanton who is obviously inferior to CC or Lee who isn’t used to pitching under limited rest. Advantage Yankees

Relief Pitchers Brad Lidge, Chan Ho Park, Ryan Madson, Chad Durbin Clay Condrey or Mariano Rivera, Phil Hughes, Brian Bruney, Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson. NO real argument for this one Yankees easily have the better bullpen, having the greatest closer of all time does have its perks. Advantage Yankees

NY 6 Philly 5

Yankees are the favorites for good reason apart from Philadelphia outfield the Yankees have the better players in almost every aspect of the game.

Prediction

Yankees win the series in 6.

Gmen and the High Flying Eagles

The Giants are coming off two losses that they were both favored in; the Saints destroyed the Giants showing the NFL that the number one defense (at the time) could be completely abused. Bill Sheridan chose to go with a zone d for most of the game and it didn’t work at all. All the injuries to Giants D were finally brought to attention. Kenny Philips one of the best up and coming players in the NFL who also led the team in interceptions and tackles is out for the season and CC Brown has taken his place, who’s shown that his covering skills are in need of much improvement . Browns obvious strength is in his tackling and run defense but Meachem got behind him all day making an easy target for Brees. Aaron Ross is another key player still out for the Giants having become a very good second CB behind Webster. Terrell Thomas has taken his spot who’s doing a better job than CC at replacing the first team player but also needs improvement. Expect the safeties this week to play much further back than they have to eliminate any deep throws to the Eagles quick receivers. Another problem has been the lack of pressure on QBs. Sheridan needs to grow a pair and take a page out the late Jim Johnson/ Steve Spags book and start blitzing the A gaps. This was the Giants go to blitz the last years and hasn’t been used as much of late, there have been a lot more secondary blitzes that haven’t doing much.

The offense has been also less than stellar lately. I mean the only way we could score on the Cardinals D was a short run from Jacobs and a 62 yard fluke tipped ball to Hicks. Kevin Gilbride’s play calling continues to drive me to states of inert depression. The G- men have lost their best offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs to New Orleans and St.Loius, and the men that replaced them have been deplorable. Gilbride is still calling 3rd and long draws and screens like Tiki was still their running back.

As for the Eagles they beat the Redskins on Monday night a game that score doesn’t show how close the game really was. The offense didn’t look good which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone because the Redskins D even though not apparent to their record have been very good. Jackon and Maclin are identical receivers; both don’t have size or weight but have extremely good speed hands and route running ability. The defense let up 17 points to one of the worst offenses in the NFC East in years, but they did still win.

Prediction

The obvious hit the Eagles took on Monday was the concussion to Westbrook. Arguably the best player the Eagles have and in my opinion the most underrated offensive weapon in the NFL will be out for the game against the Giants. If it wasn’t for this injury my guess would be the Eagles beat the Giants and take the lead in the NFC East. But he’s out making McCoy (who does look really good and I thought a very smart pick by Philly in the draft) the starting RB and leaving the pressure on McNabb to throw A LOT, which he is very used to. My guess is Maclin has a huge day thanks to be covered by Thomas and CC Brown all day but an interception and fumble here and there by McNabb puts the favor NY’s way and brings a win back to the Meadowlands.

27-24 Giants

Knicks and 76ers

Knicks are pretty much horrible but the young players like Wilson Chandler and the stiff Italian jump shooter Gallinari will bring more wins NY’s way but this match up will sadly be a loss. Elton Brand will have no sympathy for his home town team and will probably destroy Curry or David Lee underneath the boards.

Prediction

76ers have this game by the middle of the 4th quarter