2010 World Series Preview

It's a World Series nobody predicted.  While a few "experts" mentioned the Giants as a potential World Series team at the start of the season, the Texas Rangers are the surprise team, and now they are the favorite at baseball's biggest stage.

The Rangers have advanced this far by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees. The Giants have advanced this far by defeating the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Texas won all three of their road games in round 1, and took two of three in New York in round two. The Giants won both of their road games in round 1, and took two of three in Philly in round two. Going by those trends, one may think Texas has the upper hand here being on the road, but San Francisco’s home field advantage is one of the better ones in baseball.

Thanks to the NL finally winning an All-Star game, the Giants have home field advantage for the series and they might be the one NL team that benefits from it the most. They are 52-34 SU at home this season and since 2000, the Giants are 11-1 against the Texas Rangers. 9 of those 11 wins all came in San Fran, and while most of that doesn’t mean a whole lot given how different these teams are now, the Giants did sweep them three straight last year.

Texas will be counting on their during the season trade acquisitions to give them the upper hand in this series. Cliff Lee has been dominant once again in the post-season and he will be the game 1 starter. He still has yet to lose in post-season play and Texas is hoping that string continues. The other addition that could prove to be what puts Texas over the top is C Benji Molina. Molina played most of this season with the Giants and caught for all of the pitchers he and his team will be up against. You know that he has got one of the best scouting reports around on the Giants staff given that he was a part of it for so long, and if he and his teammates can capitalize on that, Texas bats could be bombing away all series.

Both teams have solid pitching and the managers cancel each other out.  This should be a close series with the Rangers winning in 6.