Team with deepest pitching staff likely to have playoff edge

So, whom do you want to play? That was the issue the other night that I discussed with my ESPN baseball broadcast partner David Justice. He spent many a day in the postseason with the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees.

Every year at this time fans and players take a look at not only who will make the major league postseason but also check out the possible matchups.

Most players will say they don’t care; they just want to get there. While that is true, they do care. They do have opinions, but as former major leaguer Manny Mota, now coaching with the Dodgers, said to me this week, “Let the sleeping dogs lie. We [the Dodgers] just want to go about this final week quietly and move one. We don’t need to rattle cages.”

That is what all players come to learn. It’s the quote about who you would rather play that makes it to the opposing team’s bulletin board and fires their generator.

Justice has an interesting take on what players think that seems contrary to the prevailing belief of fans.

“I would rather play the best team out there in the first round,” he said. “That’s because the longer the series the more likely the better team will come out on top.”

“In the best-of-five first round,” he went on, “I may not be on the better team, but if we can steal one and win one, we have a chance to beat a team that if we played a longer series we would lose to.”

That usually revolves around the pitching. The teams that win are those with the staffs that can throw three solid starters who take them deep into the game. Who are those teams among those contending heading into the final weekend?

Justice says, “There is really no team out there with a dominating staff. This may be a year where the offenses have the better of it. This could be a year contrary to most postseasons and the bats will make the difference.”

The Red Sox are aware of that. Curt Shilling is the ace and Pedro Martinez has been anything but shining down the stretch, losing four in a row. However, there is no evidence the Sox bats can be stopped by any particular staff out there.

The Yankees will have the best record in the AL. They cannot play the wild-card Sox in the first round since they are in the same division.

So, the Yanks play the team with the fewer wins of the other division champs. That is a battle that is going down to the final day, since Central-leading Minnesota and AL West co-leaders Anaheim and Oakland each had 90 wins through Thursday night.

The Sox will play the team with the greater number of wins and may not know until Sunday.

So take a look at the staffs of the Twins, Angels, and A’s and pick your poison.

If this is the year of the postseason bats, the Sox should stand in good stead.

We are about to find out.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.