December 17 2001: World Series Preview
What Will It Take?
Diamondbacks/Yankees World Series Preview
The 2001 World Series matches up two teams that could not be more different. The Yankees have been there before and are trying for their fifth world championship in six years. When they began their dynasty in 1996, the Diamondbacks didn't even exist. The Yankees have a core of players who have played together for years, many of whom came up in the minors together: Jeter, Posada, Pettitte. Even Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera are home-grown. The D-backs, assembled mostly by free agent purchases over the past four years by owner Jerry Colangelo, are the all-carpet-bagger team. But Arizona does have strengths they bring to the field, and they will use every advantage they have to unseat the Yankees.
Two guys named Schilling and Johnson. Yes, it's true, they both have losing records against the Yankees and their ERAs when facing the Yankees don't historically match their usual excellence, (Johnson 6-7, 4.12, Schilling 1-2, 4.66) but you can be confident these guys will give Arizona a chance to win whenever one of them takes the hill. With the two of them slated to pitch four times (maybe even five), they are the best reason not to bet against Arizona.
Home field advantage. The Diamondbacks are more familiar with their desert home. The infield is choppy and baked as hard as cement, and the warning track is full of lips and seams that can impart bad hops to balls. With very little margin for error in the pitchers duels slated for Games One and Two, a single badly-played ball could be the difference.
Luis Gonzalez. The Yankees will try to pitch around Gonzalez, who is an NL MVP candidate, hit 57 homers this year, and won the Home Run Derby. As long as Reggie Sanders and Matt Williams stay cold at the plate, Gonzo can be avoided. But if the other hitters in the Arizona lineup get hot, Gonzalez has the potential to hurt the Bombers.
Small Ball. SS Tony Womack stole 60 bases in 1997. He swiped half that many this year, only because why steal when the #3 hitter is so likely to whack one out of the park? Both teams will be playing for every run, moving runners over and bunting on the hard-baked infield. Look for Womack to run.
Attitude. These Diamondbacks have a lot of veterans who are hungry for their first ring and who are unlikely to be flustered by pressure. Mark Grace is finally free of the curse of the Cubs, and Craig Counsell is proving that some guys just wait until October and then bust out all over. Counsell's regular season stats are unassuming, but he puts the bat on the ball and contributed mightily to both the division series and the championship series.
The real question, of course, is can the D-backs parlay these elements into four wins against the Yankees? The Yankees have many advantages of their own which are well-documented: depth of starting pitching, bullpen strength, postseason experience, "mystique." In the past six years, the Yankees have won with an uncanny knack for pouncing on opponents' mistakes and getting a big clutch hit when they need it. Both teams will try to keep the ball away from suspect middle relievers (like the Yankees' Witasick and Wohlers, if they make the roster), and get some consistent run production from their lineup (although, as the Yankees have proved in years past, it can be different guys every night). The Yankees' Derek Jeter needs to shake off the aches and bruises from his dive into the stands in Game 5 of the ALDS, while Arizona's Matt Williams needs to stay out of the slump that plagued him until he came up with a key double in the rally that won the Diamondbacks the pennant.
The Yankees, meanwhile, should not count out Brian Anderson, the Arizona Game Three starter, because how many times have we seen the Bronx Bombers blanked by rookies and call-ups during the regular season? Too many to count. But in October, Anderson may find these are different Yankees, less susceptible to the lulls of the regular season.
Ultimately, if Arizona is to win, they will have to do everything right. They will have to shut down the Yankee hitters one through nine, keep Chuck, Soriano, and Jeter off the basepaths, knock out starters in the fifth inning, hit the bullpen, and not beat themselves with errors, baserunning mistakes, or misplaced pitches. That's a tall order and they've only got one guy who is 6-foot-ten.
Yanks in six.
This article originally appeared at YankeeBaseball.net.
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Copyright © 2001 Cecilia Tan
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