UPDATE 10/8:
From
ESPN: Wednesday's ALDS opener isn't going to dissuade
anybody who thinks this New York team is poised to go deep into
October. With a methodical 7-2 victory over the Twins, the Yankees
showed some home-field dominance....
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ESPN's Jason Stark has a theory on why the Yankees will win the World Series this year.
Nine years after the Yankees won their last World Series Stark polled 16 MLB insiders on why the team will win. In a word: balance. The Yankees have the best balance of strong hitting and pitching of any team in the MLB.
Baseball Prospectus (as usual) predicted this a while ago. Check
out this chart of Yankees 2009 playoff odds.
From ESPN.COM's Jason Stark:
Here's the good news for those New York Yankees: Their
nine-year, $1.8-billion nightmare is about to end. This is their
year. This is their time. The mighty Yankees are about to win it
all again...
I polled 16 people from all over baseball in the past week
about which team they'd pick to win this year. All but two of
them picked the Yankees. So if they don't win, at least
I'll have company at the next Not Nostradamus Club meeting.
Why the Yankees? Here's just a sampling of the reasons I
heard:
• "A hundred and three wins in the AL East is
pretty incredible," said an American League assistant GM.
• "I think the Yankees are the most balanced team
in the AL," said another AL assistant. "I think CC
[Sabathia] will put his past postseason demons behind him and lead
the rotation. The lineup is as deep as any in the AL. And they have
some guy named Rivera in the back of the 'pen."
• "They can pitch, and they can hit," said an
NL executive. "And when you match them up with anybody, for me
they win that matchup."
So where exactly are the gaping holes in this team -- the
holes you seem to find in every other club in this field? The
Yankees led the big leagues in runs scored, home runs, on-base
percentage, slugging, OPS, extra-base hits and walks. They had the
best team ERA, the best second-half ERA and the lowest opponent OPS
of all the AL postseason pitching staffs. They have a closer (Mr.
Mariano Rivera, ladies and gentlemen) with a 0.77 postseason ERA.
They're riding the best clubhouse vibe, the best grade in
chemistry class, of any Yankees team in maybe a decade. They put
runs on the board at home (5.7 runs per game). They put runs on the
board away from home (5.6 per game). They hit left-handers (.286
AVG./.365 OBP/.480 SLUG). They hit right-handers (.282/.360/.476).
They can bludgeon you early (.828 OPS in the first inning). They
can mug you late (15 walkoff wins -- second-most in franchise
history). They win at home (57-24). They win on the road (46-35).
They crush the bad teams (29-12 against the Orioles, A's,
Royals and Indians). They beat up the good teams (27-17 against the
Angels, Red Sox, Tigers, Twins and Phillies). They even won a
series in Anaheim -- for the first time in five years. And they
went 9-1 in their last three series against the Red Sox.
"So when you add it all up," said the same NL
executive quoted earlier, "it's hard not to pick the
Yankees."
Yep. Couldn't agree more. But it could all go
wrong...
Read how Jason Stark challenges his own theory on why the
Yankees are a shoe-in for 2009 World Series champs on
ESPN.com...
Submit Your Theory
On 10/07 the theory was predicted. On 11/4 it was confirmed: the Yankees are the best balanced team in baseball.
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The island used to be connected to the rest of the Earth, but was detached during electromagnetism experiments conducted by the Dharma Initiative. It is capable of traveling anywhere with the only parameter being gravity
Now that they've had two days to think about it, what can the Internet's brainiest 'Lost' theorists tell us about the show's final season?
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There are a million different ingenious theories out there that explain this or that certain phenomenon and many are very complicated. See which one are surfacing on the interwebs today.
Nick Jonas (and the Administration) has just released a new song and it's called "Conspiracy Theory."
Listen to the newest single from his upcoming album "Who I Am" below:
Amateur historian Rick Rogers has spent decades developing a theory that either Dutch or Spanish traders visited Hawaii before Captain Cook's 1778 arrival. Maps from 1589 showing an approximation of Hawaii's shape and location; remains of a 1664 women indicating she had syphilis and the disappearance of 5 Spanish ships plying the Manila to Acapulco trade in the 1500 and 1600s make his case.
Scholars at the global warming skeptics thinktank, "The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI)" say ocean acidification theory is a scare tactic ignores Cambrian data, the chemistry of CO2 and the alkaline affect of ocean rocks.
Twitter Activity
The Yankees have achieved a level of success in the world of baseball that is so gaudy, so well known, and so storied picking a handful of players to call their all time best is no easy task. They should be always competitive enough to keep pace with the others. I used to attend their games even their tickets get sold out. Luckily I found Ticketwood.com, now I'll before compare prices before getting tickets. Go Yankees!!
http://www.ticketwood.com/mlb/NewYork-Yankees-Tickets/index.php