The other starters – disagree with you on this one. To say that A.J. gave up 8 runs in 12.1 innings in the ALCS is distorting the facts without acknowledging individual game performance. He had a quality start in game 2, which we won, giving up 2 runs over 6 innings. He imploded in the first inning of game 5 to the tune of 4 runs, but proceeded to shut down the angels until the 7th inning, when Hughes allowed his baserunners to score. I don’t think that’s necessarily “struggling.” Meanwhile, CC and Pettitte have been excellent. Similarly, the Phillies have two starters in shut down mode in Lee and Pedro, with Blanton pitching about as well as Burnett and Hamels in some sort of funk. Bottom line: I don’t see the slight Phillies edge here. I think it’s at most a push.

Looking forward to the series. Good luck to the Phils. Cheers.

Philly Joe you come onto fanbased blog and complain about bias…. really? No sh*t sherlock. Where did you read that this was an official blog? Nowhere on this blog is there anything that says their an official blog of the Phillies or MLB….do your homework before you pull that holier than thou crap around here. There’s plenty of that veiled snobbery in the commentary and forum sections on Fangraphs.

“Premium velocity” is not as important as EXPERIENCE in the bullpen. The best Yankees reliever doesn’t have “premium velocity”. “Premium velocity” hasn’t done much for Phil Hughes this postseason or for Ryan Madson so why does premium velocity matter?

The Phils play real baseball where the pitchers are big boys and hit. The DH adds to the stats of the Yankees so 20 more home runs and 80 more runs scored don’t mean a thing when comparing the Phils and Yankees. The Phillies are also knocking the ball with RISP this postseason while the Yankees have not.

Our offense is just as potent as theirs… they have a distinct advantage at the top of their lineup but we have more power (4 guys with 30+HR). Their numbers look better because they play in the AL where you have a (drum roll please) DH! So yes, the AL is different than the NL… but that doesn’t mean that we don’t match up.

It’s going to be a good series… of course there’s a little bias because it’s a Phillies blog (not an MLB blog).

The Phillies bullpen has an edge on the Yankees? Only Lidge and Madson have premium velocity. The other bullpen guys are a wash.

The Yankees have power arms in Hughes and Joba. Look at what Hughes did during the season. Look at Robertson K/9, he led the MLB with a near 13. Aceves had a WHIP below 1. The Yankees have two loogys that completely dominated left handed pitching, so did Robertson.

Pedro is an NL pitcher for a reason, he can’t pitch in the AL. One day you national leaguers will realize that NL and the AL east are two COMPLETELY different animals.

That said, the series will be close, but the bias on this blog is laughable. How is this even an official blog?

If this series goes 6 games, we’ll likely see Chad Gaudin make a start for the Yankees… I doubt that Andy Pettitte will be able to pitch on three day’s rest.

How are you going to view Hamels if he comes out and throws 8 strong and the Phils win that game?? Are you going to be “so tired of him” then??

Mariano is the greatest closer and pitcher I have ever seen. If he comes in with a lead GAME OVER. Period.