NLCS Prediction: The Philadelphia Phillies Will Play the Milwaukee Brewers

The Phillies will beat the Cards.

Since Philadelphia reacquired Cliff Lee, they have been the favorites to win the World Series. Their potent lineup, rotation of aces and stellar regular season only showed all of baseball why they are the team to fear. 

They are facing the St.Louis Cardinals, who obviously are not the team they once were.

Chris Carpenter pitched the season finale for them, so their Game 1 starter, who is going up against the likely Cy Young winner in Roy Halladay, will be Kyle Lohse, who is a good pitcher but definitely not the caliber of pitcher as Halladay, Lee or Hamels. Despite the injuries the Cards have endured, they still have a good rotation after Carpenter in Jaime Garcia and Lohse, but they are nothing like the Phils. 

The Cards have a strong offense centered around Pujols, but unfortunately Holliday is currently hampered by a finger injury. They are going to really need Berkman and Molina to step up offensively if they want to survive this round. 

As we have continued to see, Halladay can dominate a game at will and even complete games at will. The Phillies will have the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, so this all just stacks the odds in their favor. They are probably the only team in the playoffs who don’t have to worry about pitching their ace more than once in any series, so their pitchers will get all the rest needed. 

As for their offense, well, they have Howard, Pence, Utley, Victorino, Polanco and Rollins…do I really need to get in to it? 

 

The Brewers will beat the D’Backs.

Kirk Gibson has done a phenomenal job with the D’Backs. If he were to win Manager of the Year, it would be well deserved.

Ian Kennedy has pitched masterfully this season, winning over 20 games

The Brewers, however, are probably the biggest threat for the Phillies in the National League. They have two MVP candidates in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder; and they have two aces in Yovani Gallardo, who had 17 wins, and Zack Greinke, who had 16 wins. They also got solid seasons out of 13-game winners Randy Wolf and Shaun Marcum. They have a phenomenal bullpen starting with their two closers John Axford, who had 46 saves, and Frankie Rodriguez along with LaTroy Hawkins, who had 20 holds this season. 

The Brewers are a team to be feared; they have offense, scary power and great pitching. They are a gritty team that can play on all cylinders and will make the NLCS one to watch. 

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