Dodger blue vs. Cubby blue

I have football thoughts this week, about the Bears big victory last night, three of the top four teams in college football losing, the Redskins upset at Dallas, and the mighty Northwestern Wildcats starting 5-0 for the first time in about 60 years. But really, who wants to read about that? It’s all about baseball this week, so here is a brief breakdown of what’s going on in my brain thinking about the upcoming Cubs-Dodgers playoff series.

-I didn’t really care who the Cubs played in the opening round- as a friend of mine said, the Cubs will have to beat every team in the NL eventually- but the Dodgers offer an interesting matchup. When we played them in late May/early June, they didn’t have any offensive firepower; one of the reasons the Cubs won five of the seven games against LA this year. But since the acquisition of Manny Ramirez in late July, they have developed a real swagger, one of the reason’s they made it to October. If Manny is on fire, it could be a long winter here in Chi-Town.

-On the pitching side, I can honestly say that I’m both nervous and excited thinking about the Cubs staff. If all four starters- Dempster, Zambrano, Harden and Lilly- pitch at their best, this will be a short series. But lately Harden has been shaky, walking too many batters and getting his pitch count high early in games. And since the All-Star break Zambrano has been a giant question mark. It will be interesting to see how long these two can go, because I honestly feel that starting pitching can be a huge edge towards the Cubs in this series.

-Playing at Wrigley for games one and two (and possibly five) should help the Cubs, and I like that the Dodger don’t have an ace in the mold of CC Sabathia or Johan Santana. But the fact that everybody seems to be picking the Cubs (except for Peter Gammons) worries me, as does the fact that, well, they are the Cubs.

Prediction: If you think I’m actually making a pick on this series, then you don’t know me very well. But I will try to post my thoughts after every game, regardless of the outcome. By the way, in the other series’, I like Boston over the Angels, the Rays over whoever wins the Central, and the Brewers over Philly.