2008 World Series

The Rays are the 1969 Mets incarnate, a team that was as bad as can be, and suddenly rose up to the top of the baseball world, and won the World Series. The 1969 Mets rise was not that surprising when you really investigated the type of players they were developing. Between 1966 and 1968 the Mets saw the debut of two of the greatest pitchers of all time, and a third pitcher who was solid in his own right. While Tom Seaver had long term greatness with the Mets, and Nolan Ryan was the erratic fireballer, who had yet to learn to harness his control, Jerry Koosman was quickly developing into one of the premiere lefties in the National League, as he narrowly missed winning rookie of the year in 1968, and became the with Seaver the 1967 Rookie of the Year and 1969 Cy Young one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball.

The Rays though not quite developing the same type pitchers have with the draft put together one of the best young lineups, with B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria having breakout postseasons. Weather or not the Rays line up will have the Hall of Fame careers of Ryan and Seaver remains to be seen, but they should be All-Stars in Tampa for years to come.

Against the Phillies the Rays match up well, as each team has deep line ups with few rest bits for the opposing pitcher. While the Phillies might have the best starter in Cole Hamels, the Rays have the better overall rotation. The bullpen could be an advantage for the Phillies, but if David Price can equal what he did in Game 7, and there is no reason to believe he can’t; that advantage can certainly be blunted. In the end look to how these two teams did during interleague play. Even in years when the Rays were still baseball’s running joke, they seemed to play well against the senior circuit, and this year was no different as the Rays posted a 12-6 record against the National League. Meanwhile only the San Diego Padres had a worst interleague record in all of baseball then the Philadelphia Phillies who went 4-11 against teams from the junior circuit.