Yankees-Phillies World Series Preview

It's the $200 million team vs. the defending champs. Before we get started, let's put a name on this baby. Faced with a pair of Northeast cities just 97 miles apart (if you use I-95), writers looking for a moniker for this World Series have focused on the means of transportation between The Big Apple and The City of Brotherly Love.

ESPN.com provided multiple options in the same World Series Preview section. All-purpose scribe Howard Bryant called it "The Amtrak Series", while Baseball Tonight veteran Tim Kurkjian went with "The New Jersey Turnpike Series" (the aforementioned I-95).

All well and good. But why is everyone just coughing up a repackaged version of the Subway Series? Why is it always about transportation? Surely New York and Philly must have something else in common.

So may I present to you: The Greasy Sandwich Series! The infamous Philly cheesesteak sandwich is a classic greasy staple, and I've heard from reliable sources that the local Wawas (18 within five miles of the city) make a great hoagie. Any New Yorker who's ever been to Katz Deli knows a good pastrami on rye is piled thick and high with fatty, greasy pastrami. Mmmmmmmm.

So without further ado, let's break down The Greasy Sandwich Series.

CATCHER: On paper, this matchup isn't even close. Jorge Posada is a career .277 hitter with 12 years of postseason experience and a huge game-winning home run in Game 3 of the ALDS to his credit. Then there's Philadelphia's Carlos Ruiz, who's played in just three full major league seasons and hit just .255 this year.

But as Kenny Mayne so often says, "Game aren't played on paper, they're played inside TV sets." Since his series-winning homer, Posada has been a disaster at the plate, hitting just .200 in the ALCS with one homer and one RBI. Against the Yankees this season, Ruiz was a regular Howie Kendrick, with a stat line (.750 average, 2.028 OPS in three games) more reminiscent of my old T-Ball average in first grade than the big leagues.

The numbers, then, are basically a wash and may even favor the young Ruiz. But I can't go against a guy who's played in 105 postseason games and is a charter member of the Dynasty Boys. Edge: Yankees

FIRST BASE: Talk about a stacked deck. Former NL MVP and current All-Star and NL RBI leader. All-Star starter and home run and RBI leader in the AL this year. Scary big and a threat to hit one into next week every time he steps to the plate. Best fielding first baseman in the game and OPS machine. Yes, Ryan Howard and Mark Teixeira are the two best first basemen in baseball not named Albert Pujols. It's almost impossible to put one ahead of the other when looking at the bodies of their careers.

The 2009 postseason, however, shows a clear-cut winner. Howard has been a monster at the plate, hitting .355 with two homers and a whopping 14 RBIs in just nine playoff games (that's how you have a playoff OPS of 1.203). Teixeira has looked, well, mortal in October, with just eight hits in 39 at-bats and a woeful .273 on-base percentage. One walkoff homer doesn't make up for a postseason of general futility. Not against Howard. Edge: Phillies

SECOND BASE: Chase Utley is the best second baseman in baseball and has four straight All-Star starts to prove it. Robinson Cano isn't even the clear-cut best second baseman in the American League. Much as I'd love to belabor the point and harp on Utley's recent case of the yips, that's pretty much the end of the discussion. Edge: Phillies

SHORTSTOP: If the debate at first base was a pair of kings, this one is pocket aces. Despite owning an NL MVP, two straight Gold Gloves and the most important hit of the entire postseason, Jimmy Rollins is the obvious underdog in this matchup. I mean, how can you bet against Derek Jeter, who will alternately go by "Captain October" or "Mr. November" depending on how far into the series we are.

Not only does Jeter have 13 Octobers of clutch hits, dazzling gems in the field and singular plays forever etched in our memory, but he's been a better leadoff hitter than Rollins from Opening Day on. Jeter has a massive edge his Phillies' counter part in on-base percentage in both the regular season (.406 to .296) and the postseason (.435 to .279). If the job of the leadoff hitter is to set the table for the big bats behind him, Jeter has been the best in baseball in 2009, while Rollins has been barely above average. And that's not even taking into account the plethora of intangibles Jeter brings to the Yanks. Edge: Yankees

THIRD BASE: The only player having a better postseason than the red-hot Howard? Alex Rodriguez, who has a sick postseason line (.438 average, .548 on-base percentage, .969 slugging percentage, five homers, twelve RBIs, and three kittens saved from trees) that doesn't even take into account his three super-clutch, game-tying home runs in games the Yanks eventually won. Used to be the knock on A-Rod was his inability to catch up with fastballs and his disappearing act in the clutch. The latter is obviously a thing of the past, and the former has been eliminated because of A-Rod's new, more compact swing, which he debuted after his hip surgery at the beginning of the season. Maybe a torn labrum was the best thing that's ever happened to A-Rod, as it forced him to shorten his swing and take fastballs to right field, where all three of his equalizing homers have gone. At this point, he has no obvious weaknesses and is a terror for all opposing pitchers.

If it seems like I've focused entirely on A-Rod and ignored Pedro Feliz, it's because the matchup is that one-sided. Edge: Yankees

LEFT FIELD: Ah, the outfield. The place where the Phillies seem to have an edge that gets bigger and bigger as you go from left to right. The matchup in left field is relatively even, considering Johnny Damon's ALCS resurgence, capped by his go-ahead two-run single in Game 6. He even appears to have won Game 1 of the World Series for the Yanks, according to this absurd simulation. While Raul Ibanez got off to a sizzling start and was one of baseball's best hitters at the All-Star Break, he hit a wall in the second half of the season and began a three-month slump that has continued in October.

Given their recent production -- namely, that Ibanez has one hit in his last 14 at-bats and Damon hit .300 in the ALCS -- it's hard not to go with Damon. But know this: No position player on the Yanks scares the crap out of me more than Damon. He could hit .400, .100 and everything in between in this series. Edge (gulp): Yankees

CENTER FIELD: Setting his mad dashes at umpires from center field aside, Shane Victorino has been a solid No. 2 hitter for the Phillies this season, hitting over .290 and scoring 102 runs. He's been even better in October, posting five multi-hit games in nine starts and reaching base safely in every game.

You could make the argument that it's easy to do that when you're surrounded by Rollins, Utley and Howard, while poor Melky Cabrera usually has Nick Swisher hitting in front of him (more on that in the minute). But strip away the lineups and ask yourself who you would want up at the plate in a vacuum. It's an easy choice. Edge: Phillies

RIGHT FIELD: Is Philadelphia getting good value on Jayson Werth right now or what? For $2.5 million, the Phillies have a player who was a solid back-of-the-lineup guy in the regular season and then exploded in October with five homers and 10 RBIs in 32 at-bats. He almost single-handedly closed the door on Joe Torre's Dodgers in the NLCS with a two-homer, four-RBI performance in the Phillies' 10-4 win in Game 5. If that's not enough, he has the coolest facial hair on either team (though that's not really fair, considering the Yankees don't allow facial hair.

For more than twice as much money, the Yankees have Nick Swisher, a good-field, good-walk, no-hit career castoff who's been REALLY no-hit in the postseason (4-32 so far). Swish has killed more rallies than I can count in the last two weeks, to the point where you almost want to see him dropped below Melky to the No. 9 spot in the lineup. In a series filled with big hitters, Swisher may distinguish himself as one of the few real offensive liabilities. Edge: Phillies

DESIGNATED HITTER: Not exactly a fair fight, since the Phillies play in the NL and therefore have no DH. The position will only relevant in Games 1,2, and possibly 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium, since all games played in Philadelphia will feature pitchers hitting (can't wait to see C.C. Sabathia in the batter's box). The Phillies will probably go with veteran Matt Stairs, whose built-only-for-power lefty swing may actually pay off with the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium.

In the end, though, it will probably be all trash and no treasure for Stairs, who hit just .197 in the regular season and is 0-4 as a pinch hitter in October. Meanwhile, Hideki Matsui continues to go along nicely, flying under the radar as the epilogue to Texeira and A-Rod in the lineup. He's not the best No. 5 hitter in the league, but he has seven hits and eight walks in nine postseason games and always seems to come up with a huge hit when you least expect it. Edge: Yankees

BENCH: Minus Stairs, the Phillies don't really have a bench, just a hodgepodge collection of 30-somethings who played their best -- ie mediocre -- ball for other teams. Backup catcher Paul Bako has his best season with the Tigers 11 years ago, Greg Dobbs' best season average (.370) came as a second-half callup with the Mariners, and Eric Bruntlett was better in Houston than Philly. As the Associated Press put it: "This is far from a dazzling unit, but the Phillies don't necessarily use their bench that much."

Well, the Yankees do. They have speed, in the form of backup outfielder and pinch running specialist Brett Gardner. They have "savvy" in the form of A.J. Burnett's personal catcher, Jose Molina (I put savvy in parentheses because if he is actually calling most of Burnett's pitches, I take the whole sentence back). And it appears they will have slugging as well, as power-hitting lefty Eric Hinske is reportedly replacing speedster Freddy Guzman on the World Series roster. All three would immediately be the best player off the bench for Philadelphia, even the light-hitting but rocket-armed Molina. Philly just doesn't have anybody. Edge: Yankees

STARTING PITCHING: Ah, there's the rub! I could write more on the starting pitching in this series than this entire post. Let's keep it simple and give some bulletpoints.

--C.C. Sabathia (2007 AL Cy Young winner with the Indians) will face Cliff Lee (2008 AL Cy Young winner with the Indians) in Game 1. I think folks in Cleveland would rather be beset by midges than watch their former aces start the World Series for other teams. Hard to give the edge to either ace, but right now C.C. would be hard to bet against at home even if Walter Johnson started for the other team.

--It looks like Pedro Martinez, the Yanks' old nemesis himself, may start Game 2 in Yankee Stadium on Thursday. After all Pedro's been through, it's hard to tell which pitcher will show up. Will it be the one-hit, 17-strikeout Pedro? Or will we see the "Who's Your Daddy?" Pedro? I'm leaning towards the latter.

--Game 3 would then feature a battle of two lefties -- veteran Andy Pettitte and youngster Cole Hamels -- who have more than proven themselves in the postseason. Hamels won the NLCS and World Series MVP honors in 2008, and as for Pettitte... well, just read my last post. As good as Hamels has been in the last two Octobers, I'll take Pettitte against lefties Utley and Howard and hope Rollins and Werth don't burn him from the right side.

--Oh, one more thing. New York starters are 5-0 this postseason. Edge: Yankees

RELIEF PITCHING: Each side has three setup men they can't really count on: Scott Eyre, Ryan Madson and Chan Ho Park for the Phillies, and Phil Coke, Joba Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes for the Yankees. That's right, you can't argue Joba and Hughes are reliable when Mariano Rivera is pitching two-inning saves and everyone -- I mean everyone -- is calling it the only possible move.

And that's the thing. The conversation really starts and ends with Rivera. Phillies' closer Brad Lidge blew two saves in two days against the Yankees in May; Rivera blew two saves all season. The best reliever in baseball history is also the only guy on the planet I want to pitch one, two, even three innings with my season on the line. No one -- not Lidge, not anybody -- can stand up to that. Edge: Yankees

MANAGER: The New York Times ran an article earlier this week that succinctly sums up the difference in coaching styles between Joe Girardi and Charlie Manuel. The Cliff notes: Girardi coaches from his head a la Joe Torre, while Manuel coaches from his gut a la Stephen Colbert.

We could debate the contrasting approaches all day, but what it really boils down to is results. Manuel has a World Series ring as a manager, and Girardi doesn't. Until that changes, Manuel's on top. Edge: Phillies

X-FACTOR -- MOJO: Austin Powers had it, James Bond certainly has it, and the Yankees and Phillies have it in spades. Both teams breezed through their first two series, and both were comfortable waiting until the last moment for come-from-behind wins that broke the backs of their opponents. The Yankees have Jeter; the Phils have Rollins and Utley. The Bombers have A-Rod; the Phillies have Howard. The Yanks have Sabathia; the Phils have Lee. The Yanks have 26 World Series and four in the last 13 years; the Phillies are the defending champs. And so on and so on.

These are the two best teams in baseball, and more importantly, the two clubs best suited for a short series. They're full of confidence and talent, and neither team will be scared by the other's formidable attributes. Going forward, we'll see which team can exert its mojo on the opposition. But I couldn't for the life of me predict who comes out ahead. Edge: Even

BOTTOM LINE: This series is Ali-Frazier, Affirmed-Alydar, Pacino-DeNiro, a heavyweight fight that promises to be a classic. Both sides can score runs in bunches, and both will be looking to get past the elite starting pitching and exploit the opposing bullpen.

It's almost too close to call. But three projected starts by Sabathia and Rivera waiting in the ninth inning is too much to bet against. After the ALCS, Girardi said he picked the number 27 to wear as manager because he wanted a constant reminder of his team's goal: a 27th World Series title. Next season, he'll have to wear #28.

PREDICTION: Yankees in 7