Sizing Up Baseball's Triumvirate part 4.

While nothing is life is ever a given, it's pretty clear to anyone who pays attention to baseball that three teams rise above all going into the 2010 season. The Phillies, Yankees and Red Sox are all equipped to make a run for the title. All three bring great hitting, pitching and defense to the table, as well as considerable postseason experience. This week's article will focus on how the Phillies hitting matches up against the Red Sox pitching.

Phillie hitters vs. Red Sox pitchers

While the Red Sox do bring good hitting to the table, pitching will be the Red Sox strength in 2010. The 2010 Red Sox possess arguably the best and deepest pitching staff in all of baseball. At the top the Red Sox rotation are three pitchers who could all be staff Aces on most major league staffs. Beckett brings all of AJ Burnett's nastiness to the mound with much better control. He possesses a great fastball to go along with a great curve. If Burnett's game two performance in the 2009 World Series is any indication, the Phillies might be in pretty big trouble when Becket takes the mound against them.

After Burnett is the home grown southpaw Jon Lester. His style of pitching is more akin to a young Andy Petitte. He keeps hitters guessing with a steady combination of fastballs, cutters, breaking balls and change-ups. Ironically, left-handed hitters fare better against him then righties. This should bode well for the left heavy Phillie lineup.

In the third spot, the Red Sox will have free agent signee John Lackey. Lackey is your prototypical power right-handed pitcher. He's tall, thick, sturdy and not afraid to come at hitters. When he's on, he can get batters out with either his fastball or curve. However, because he keeps the ball over the plate, he is susceptible to getting rocked when he's stuff is even slightly off. Once again, the splits work in the Phils favor. Lackey does much worse against left-handed hitters. So while Lackey might be a dangerous pitcher overall, the potential for the Phillie hitters to get to him will be high in a potential World Series match-up.

Filling out the Red Sox rotation are two guys who themselves could be staff Aces on some teams. Dice K had a 2009 season to forget. As it turns out, he was pitching hurt. When healthy, Dice-K brings a huge arsenal of pitches including a forkball and screwball that can make him a hard pitcher to read for anyone facing him for the first time. However, working in the Phillies favor again is the splits. In 2008, Dice-K's best year in the MLB, left-handed hitters did dramatically better against him than righties. Ideally the Red Sox would use a good lefty in the fourth spot of their World Series rotation instead of Dice-K. Unfortunately that lefty as of now doesn't exist. Clay Buchholz is the only other option. While possessing a dominant change-up and curve, Buchholz also does his best work against right-handed hitters.

In a match-up against the Phillies, the starters' splits may push the advantage to the left heavy Phillie lineup. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, they do not possess a whole lot proven southpaws in the bullpen either. Gone is Philly favorite Billy Wagner. His wicked fastball and slider from the left side could have been murderous to the heart of the Phillie lineup. As it stands now Okijima is the only proven southpaw in the Red Sox pen. Accompanying him in the setup role is Daniel Bard, who while a quality pitcher does stunningly bad against left-handed hitters. Closing for the Red Sox is Papelbon who actually shuts down left-handed hitting quite well.

In short, the Red Sox have lots of quality pitching. However, up until the game gets into Papelbon's hands, the Red Sox will not have many guys that specialize in shutting down left handed hitting.

As noted in part 2 of this article, the Phillies' hitting should be improved in 2010. In a match-up against the Red Sox, the Phillies' left heavy lineup will work in their favor. To make things worse for the Red Sox, the Phillies will also have a couple of solid left-handed bats in Dobbs and Gload to use as pinch hitters in games at the Bank, and as potential DHs in games at Boston.

The favorable match-up against the otherwise formidable Red Sox pitchers should make the Phillies the favorite in a potential World Series match-up. Even assuming that the Phillies don't add another starter, I'd say the Phillies stand to win this potential match-up in 6 games, and in 5 games should the Phillies add another quality starter.