So I’m an ESPN Insider and I get access to some of the best articles on ESPN.com. This one, written by Buster Olney, the most prolific baseball writer for ESPN, wrote 10 keys to the World Series. I have copied and pasted it here for you to read because if I just put the link, you would not be able to access it. So here it is:
The matchups in the World Series won’t only be about Cliff Lee versus Tim Lincecum, or Matt Cain vs. (perhaps) C.J. Wilson. It goes a little deeper than that.
Here are 10 relevant matchups within the 2010 Fall Classic.
Josh Hamilton vs. Bruce Bochy
In Bochy’s 16 years as a manager, he generally has relied less on intentional walks than other skippers; for example, when Bochy managed against Barry Bonds and the Giants, he often had his pitchers go after Bonds in situations when other teams always worked around the slugger.
But Bochy’s choices in dealing with Hamilton in the World Series might be weighted in such a way that he’ll decide to just pitch around Hamilton. Midway through the American League Championship Series, Hamilton felt as if he had finally regained his swing, after missing a lot of September with broken ribs, and he hammered the Yankees, hitting .350 with four homers. The Yankees tried to veer around Hamilton in Game 6 in the way you’d walk around a rattlesnake, which makes all the sense in the world. Hamilton is one of the three or four best hitters in the world right now, and on the other hand, the guys hitting behind him — Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz — are a lot easier to pitch to these days.
Guerrero punished the Yankees in Game 6 with a booming double after they worked around Hamilton, but he’s reached the stage of his career where he can be handled if the pitcher doesn’t make a mistake.
The guess here is that Bochy will give Hamilton the Barry Bonds treatment and walk him intentionally, repeatedly, if he comes to bat with runners on and a base open.
In the time he’s been manager of the Giants, Bochy has ordered intentional passes 207 times; that ranks 8th in MLB over the span.
Guerrero will play in the outfield during games in San Fran.
Neftali Perez vs. the big stage
Ron Washington has taken some heat in this postseason for being conservative in his use of his talented young closer. Rather than throwing him into the fire for as many as six outs at a time, in the way that Mariano Rivera and Brian Wilson have, Washington has limited Feliz’s exposure — partly because Feliz looks as if he is still finding his October sea legs. Washington has been managing according to Feliz’s comfort level, as much as with the matchups, and game by game, Feliz has seemed more and more at ease.
Eight out of the Giants’ 10 postseason games have been decided by two runs or less, and presumably there will be a moment in the World Series when Washington will need to manage the way Bruce Bochy managed in Game 6, where he’ll just go with his best pitchers. Because Feliz is one of the Rangers’ best, he’ll get thrown into the deep end of the pool. We’ll see how he responds.
Hitters vs. the San Francisco twilight
Assuming there is no cloud cover, the games in San Francisco will start at about the time the shadows are stretching across the infield, with the outfield stands in sunshine, which will make Lincecum, Lee et al even more difficult to hit in the early innings. All of the Giants’ games in October have been the kind that peel off the inside of a manager’s stomach lining, and given the conditions, there’s no reason to think that won’t continue to be the case when the Rangers and Giants face off in San Francisco.
By the way: The forecast for San Francisco for Game 1 appears to be spectacular, with temperatures in the mid-50s.
Rangers’ offense vs. Lincecum’s changeup
Advance scouts view Texas, in general, as a team that can feast on fastballs, and is vulnerable to offspeed pitches — like Lincecum’s changeup. “It’s a perfect pitch to combat them,” said one scout. “He’ll probably use that slider he’s been throwing against right-handed hitters a lot, too.”
The fact that the Texas Rangers have never faced Lincecum in a regular season start means that very few of them have stood in a batter’s box against him — all told, the Rangers’ roster has accumulated 20 at-bats against Lincecum, with Jeff Francoeur getting 16 of those. Bengie Molina, Lincecum’s catcher for most of his starts, will be able to provide a scouting report to teammates, but that might not make any difference whatsoever.
Rangers’ baserunners vs. Lincecum’s slow delivery
Opposing runners swiped 27 bases against Lincecum this year, in 30 chances, and the Rays and Yankees will testify about how aggressive the Rangers will be on the bases. But it’s worth pointing out that a lot of that damage on the bases against Lincecum was accomplished in the midst of his midseason slump; he has been more confident in his handling of the running game over the last two months.
Javier Lopez vs. Hamilton
Cody Ross hit some big homers against Roy Halladay and was named the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series. But you could have made an argument that Lopez was the Giants’ MVP, in the way that he shut down the Phillies’ left-handed hitters time and again. Lopez’s numbers from the NLCS: five innings, one hit, one walk and six strikeouts.
There will be innings in which Bochy will point to the San Francisco bullpen and call on Lopez to face Hamilton, who will present a different kind of challenge than Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. “The Philly guys stopped taking the ball to the opposite field,” said one NL talent evaluator. “They looked like they were trying to pull everything. Hamilton will hit the ball the other way, and he’s so strong that he could flip the ball over the wall in left-center. He’ll get better swings against [Lopez] than Howard and Utley. He’s a different kind of power hitter, because he can do things that high average guys can do.”
For the record, Hamilton is 1-for-3 with a walk against Lopez in his career.
The entire Giants’ lineup vs. Lee
If it sounds like hyperbole when we say that Lee, already, is the greatest postseason pitcher of all time, then remember his October numbers: eight starts, a 7-0 record, a 1.26 ERA, only seven walks in 64.1 innings, with 67 strikeouts.
“He’s so good right now that I’d almost be thinking about sacrificing some early at-bats in trying to get him out of there,” said one scout. “I’d have everybody taking a strike the first time through the lineup, to at least try to build his pitch count. Maybe that’ll be the difference between getting him out of there in the seventh or the eighth inning.”
“When they swing, what they need to do is pick a side of the plate. You can’t cover the whole plate against him. The Yankees got caught up trying to cover both sides of the plate, and they looked confused.”
The Rangers vs. Buster Posey
He is the most dangerous hitter in the San Francisco lineup, because of his bat speed and his mature approach at the plate. He will take fastballs to right-center field field, with power, and he pulls breaking pitches; as one scout said in the last months of the regular season, he is one of the most refined young hitters we’ve seen in years.
So how should the Rangers’ pitchers work against him? “The classic approach — fastballs up and in, soft stuff low and away,” said one longtime scout. “And you have to make sure he doesn’t beat you. With all due respect to [Pat] Burrell, you’d rather face him than try to deal with Posey.
Andres Torres vs. postseason failure
The Giants would not have made the playoffs without the tremendous regular season of their center fielder, but Torres struggled early in the postseason, seemingly expanding his strike zone. But he threw out six hits in his last 10 at-bats in the NLCS, and that might be enough to propel him to a strong World Series. They’ll need some solid production from him to beat the Rangers.
Wilson vs. his command
When he threw strikes in his Game 1 start against the Yankees, he shut down New York. In Game 5, he struggled terribly with his command, and he lost, and Giants’ hitters like Posey and Pat Burrell will run up his pitch count if he’s not throwing strikes.
Roughly Speaking 