PEVA Picks World Series Participants

Okay, it doesn't always happen this way, within this mixup of a playoff format where you could be the Wild Card participant and get to the series ala the Cardinals of last year and almost the Cardinals of this year.  But, this year, it did.  The San Francisco Giants, who were the 41st best team in regular season history this year, and number one for the season will play the number two team, the Detroit Tigers.  Yes, we said that, about the Giants.  When you total up all of the PEVA values for individual players and get a team number, they were the #41 team in baseball history.  Are they that today?  Probably not.  It includes the PED first half of Melky Cabrera, who was on his way to the MVP award through the All-Star break, but it also includes a pitching staff and batting squad that is surprisingly potent, all while playing in that pitcher's park which makes the batting exploits and numbers seem less stellar.

So what makes them so good, even if you discount the Cabrera boost.

Batting
Buster Posey, 3rd best catching season in history, and the upcoming MVP of the whole season for players, hopefully, that didn't take PED, and #2 in PEVA this season at 39.383.
Angel Pagan, at #32, an under the radar type of player who'll garner a significant contract in free agency this offseason.  Pablo Sandoval, #95, and whose old school line of 12 HR, 63 RBI, and 0.283 looks a lot better outside that ballpark.  Overall, and including part year players like Melky and Marco and Hunter, they had 6 Top 100 players, when an average team should have 3.3.

Pitching
They also had 6 Top 100 pitchers, with Matt Cain heading the list at #9, Bumgartner at #26, and Vogelsong at #42.  An average team should have 1.4 pitchers in the Top 42.  When you add in Sergio Romo in his part-time closer role and the comeback of Barry Zito, #82, and the fact that a down year from Tim Lincecum is still in the mix, the pitching side of the equation almost kept pace with their batting teammates.

And their opponent.  Well, this isn't nearly as balanced a squad, but oh, when you talk about their top line players that everyone knows about and could win both the MVP and Cy Young Awards, this year with two different people, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, it could be one great World Series to watch.

Batting
Miguel Cabrera, #1 PEVA
Prince Fielder, #8 PEVA
Austin Jackson, #28 PEVA

Pitching
Justin Verlander, #1 PEVA
Matt Scherzer, #35 PEVA

Check out the PEVA Team and Individual Power Rankings for 2012