The 2007 American League Divisional Series will be between the AL East Division Champs : Boston Red Sox and the AL West Division Champs : LA Angels of Anaheim (worst and longest baseball name of all time). 

Just thinking about this series is giving me goosebumps as I am anticipating an amazing series.

Upcoming games
Wednesday, October 3: LA Angels at Boston (Beckett vs Lackey)
Friday, October 5: LA Angels at Boston (Dice-K vs Escobar) Boston Herald Reports
Sunday, October 7: Boston at LA Angels (Schilling vs ????)
Monday, October 8: Boston at LA Angels, if needed
Wednesday, October 10: LA Angels at Boston, if needed

Did you know?
Red Sox have won 6 of 10 games vs the Angels this season.
Gary Matthews Jr. has been hurt since June with patellar tendinitis.
Lackey this year vs the Red Sox is 0-2, 8.38 ERA
Vladimir Guerrero vs the Red Sox this year is batting .371 with 1 HR and 7 RBI
Angels pullben has a 4.22 ERA while the Red Sox bullpen is 3.14 ERA.

25 Man Roster for ALDS

Regulars:

Jason Varitek
Kevin Youkilis
Dustin Pedroia
Julio Lugo
Mike Lowell
J.D. Drew
Coco Crisp
Manny Ramirez
David Ortiz

Bench:

Eric Hinske
Alex Cora
Jacoby Ellsbury
Bobby Kielty
Doug Mirabelli
Kevin Cash

Pitchers:

Josh Beckett
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Curt Schilling
Jon Lester
Jonathan Papelbon
Eric Gagne
Hideki Okajima
Mike Timlin
Manny Delcarmen
Javier Lopez

J.D. Drew went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield notched his 17th win as the Red Sox locked up home-field advantage for the entire postseason. (RedSox.com).  This was a huge win for the Red Sox esp considering they were celebrating the AL East championship last night.  Having home field advantage throughout the post season will be a big impact because we are basically unbeatable at home.  I am really happy that JD Drew is starting to play like a 70M dollar man that he is.  Having him heating up for the playoffs is going to help out the top of the lineup. 

It’s now official the Boston Red Sox are the 2007 American League East Champions.  It all started with a very good outing by Dice-K who looked like the pitcher we all thought we were getting when we bid that outrageous amount of money for.  Dice-K was hitting his spots and if he pitches like he did tonight in the playoffs will dominate who ever he faces.  The Red Sox haven’t won the division since 1995 which is a very long time ago and way overdue.

It has just been revealed that Clay Buchholz has been shut down for the rest of the year.  He has been shut down because of shoulder fatigue.  I personally am very happy that the Red Sox have been proactive in this and are looking down the road and are not obsessed with the now.  Yes, I would have loved to see Clay as our K-ROD of the post season but I am more than happy to have him sit it out and not risk injury.  Lets face it Buchholz is going to be replacing Schilling in the rotation next season and I would rather have him at 100% with no shoulder fatigue next season then at even 90%.  Dice-K just took the mound for tonight’s game so bye for now.

Today I started thinking about what it would be like when A-Rod opts out of his contract with the yankees.  As you know Brian Cashman has come out to say that he will not be bidding in the A-Rod sweepstakes and yes we call it a sweepstakes.  My view is that A-Rod and his super agent Scott Boras will be looking for upwards of 30-38 million dollars a year to play a game that we call baseball.  Lets say for argument sake the Red Sox decide to bid and we win the sweepstakes.  What would we do with Manny, Lowell(if we resign him), Lugo, Coco (since we now have ellsbury).  We would put ARod at short and lowell at third if we resign him (which we should). I really think Theo would have a field day as we would be able to trade Manny, Lugo.  Just image the type of young talent we would get for those guys mean while we would have one amazing lineup.  Ellsbury, Pedroia, Papi, A-Rod, Lowell, Drew, Varitek, Youk, Coco.  Thats a really young, fast and scary lineup for the next several years.

Beckett looked extremely uncomfortable in that first inning against the Twins at Fenway.  He seemed to either A) Not Care or B) trying to hard to win 21 games and secure the cy young award.  I personally thought before the game that he was a lock for the Cy Young award but now I am not to sure.  C.C Sabathia has had an outstanding season but he still has not put up the type of numbers like Beckett.  C.C however has beat Verlander and I believe Santana on number occasions, while beckett has beat who? Wang?  I mean he really hasn’t pitched against anyone that good or on the same level as Santana and Verlander.  Don’t get me wrong Beckett is the man no question about it and as a biased Red Sox fan I would say he should deserve it.  We as baseball fans need to take a step back and look at the pitchers within the AL East and realize that we don’t have pitches the caliber of Santana and Verlander that Beckett has beaten.  Just my 2 cents on the whole issue and I think the voting will be extremely close with Beckett pulling it off for the Cy Young.