If you saw a Rangers\/Cardinals World Series coming before this season started, I suggest you enter the psychic business. A return to the Fall Classic was certainly conceivable for Texas but few handicappers gave St. Louis a chance after it lost Adam Wainwright to Tommy John surgery. <\/p>\n
Will the Cards\u2019 underdog status finally catch up to them or will they complete an improbable championship run?<\/p>\n
2011 WORLD SERIES: Texas Rangers vs. St. Louis Cardinals<\/strong> Schedule:<\/strong><\/p>\n Game One: Wed., Oct. 19th \u2013 Rangers at Cardinals \u2013 7:05 PM CT *If necessary<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a breakdown of the 2011 World Series across six key categories, followed by my pick to win it all.<\/p>\n Both teams have showcased plenty of pop throughout the postseason but the edge has to go to Texas.<\/p>\n It seems Nelson Cruz almost singlehandedly gives the Rangers an edge in the Fall Classic. He just completed the greatest power output of any player in a Major League Baseball playoff series and did it in six games. Cruz set major-league records with six homers and 13 RBI in the American League Championship Series against Detroit.<\/p>\n In realty, of course, the Rangers are far more than just Cruz. They have one of the game\u2019s best power\/speed combinations in Josh Hamilton; baseball\u2019s best hitter after the All-Star break in Mike Napoli; and baseball\u2019s best hitter in the regular season\u2019s final month in Adrian Beltre. All that and we haven\u2019t even touched on Michael Young or Ian Kinsler. Texas\u2019 lineup is stacked with powerful, patient, athletic hitters. Almost every guy in this lineup can take you deep but they all run the bases very well, too.<\/p>\n St. Louis boasts the game\u2019s best pure hitter in Albert Pujols and underrated David Freese. Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman are outstanding hitters, too, but neither guy is at 100 per cent entering the World Series. The Cards\u2019 aging lineup doesn\u2019t hold a candle to Texas. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n Edge: Rangers<\/p>\n The pitching breakdown is similar to the hitting one in that St. Louis has the best starter on either team in Chris Carpenter just as it has the best hitter of all in Albert Pujols. Carpenter is still good enough to shut down even the toughest of lineups on any given night. But the rest of St. Louis\u2019 starters, including Kyle Lohse, Edwin Jackson and Jaime Garcia, have struggled; of that trio, Garcia has the best playoff ERA at 5.74.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, even if Texas doesn\u2019t boast a true No. 1, it has a stable of capable No. 2 types, including playoff warrior Colby Lewis, innings eater Matt Harrison, power pitcher C.J. Wilson and young gun Derek Holland. Texas\u2019 depth is superior.<\/p>\n Edge: Rangers<\/p>\n It\u2019s no contest here. The Rangers just became the second team in playoff history to win all four games of a series with relievers. Neftali Feliz, Mike Adams, Alexi Ogando, Mike Gonzalez, Darren Oliver, Scott Feldman \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t be hyberbole to call this the bullpen the equivalent of the Phillies\u2019 starting staff. Texas\u2019 relievers are so good that the starters feel little pressure to last deep in games.<\/p>\n Edge: Rangers<\/p>\n Again, the Rangers have the edge here. Adrian Beltre is a Gold Glover at third, Elvis Andrus is solid at shortstop, and Josh Hamilton is amazingly graceful playing center or left field as a big man. Meanwhile, the Cards deliberately let Lance Berkman play in the field. That alone puts them at a disadvantage whenever the series shifts to St. Louis and he can\u2019t DH.<\/p>\n Edge: Rangers<\/p>\n Ron Washington has done a fine job teaching the Rangers that they can play small ball and win games many different ways, not just with their power. But he\u2019s up against Tony La Russa, one of the best of all time. St. Louis has to have the edge here.<\/p>\n Edge: Cardinals<\/p>\n St. Louis is an older, more experienced team. Pujols, Carpenter and catcher Yadier Molina won the World Series as Cardinals in 2006. Berkman, Ryan Theriot, Jackson, Rafael Furcal, Lohse and Nick Punto and Octavio Dotel all played for playoff teams previously in their careers. The experience and intangibles, which include the home-field advantage, point in St. Louis\u2019 direction.<\/p>\n Edge: Cardinals<\/p>\n St. Louis certainly looks like 2011\u2019s team of destiny and it will feel far less pressure to win after no one expected this team to go anywhere. But I still prefer the team of talent of the team of destiny.<\/p>\n The Rangers are absolutely stacked everywhere except starting pitcher and their starting staff is still solidly above average. I\u2019m not convinced that St. Louis can keep up with this team\u2019s combination of power, athleticism, defensive ability and phenomenal relief pitching.<\/p>\n 2011 World Series prediction: <\/strong>Rangers in six<\/p>\n The 2011 World Series is \u00a0here. Welcome to the CappersPicks.com MLB predictions pages! We KNOW you will find our FREE weekly\u00a0<\/strong>MLB Baseball picks<\/strong><\/a>, tips, betting advice, strategies, baseball gambling articles and more to help you become the best baseball bettor on your block!!<\/p>\n Shea weighs in with his MLB World Series Free Pick for the 2011 main event. It\u2019s the Texas Rangers vs. St. Louis Cardinals matching up. Series odds favor the Rangers -155.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":23218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[47732,52686,112,678,27450,683,52687,12178,12510,52688,52689,52690,1867,3886,37322],"class_list":["post-44657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2011-major-league-baseball","tag-2011-world-series","tag-baseball-predictions","tag-mlb-betting","tag-mlb-free-pick","tag-mlb-handicapping","tag-rangers-cardinals-odds","tag-st-louis-cardinals-odds","tag-texas-rangers-odds","tag-texas-rangers-vs-st-louis-cardinals-pick","tag-texas-st-louis-betting","tag-texas-st-louis-odds","tag-world-series","tag-world-series-picks","tag-world-series-schedule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44669,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44657\/revisions\/44669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWorld Series odds: Rangers -155, Cardinals +135<\/p>\n
\nGame Two: Thurs., Oct. 20th \u2013 Rangers at Cardinals \u2013 7:05 PM CT
\nGame Three: Sat., Oct. 22nd \u2013 Cardinals at Rangers \u2013 7:05 PM CT
\nGame Four: Sun., Oct. 23rd \u2013 Cardinals at Rangers \u2013 7:05 PM CT
\nGame Five*: Mon., Oct. 24th \u2013 Cardinals at Rangers \u2013 7:05 PM CT
\nGame Six*: Wed., Oct. 26th \u2013 Rangers at Cardinals \u2013 7:05 PM CT
\nGame Seven*: Thurs., Oct. 27th \u2013 Rangers at Cardinals \u2013 7:05 PM CT<\/p>\nOFFENSE<\/h3>\n
STARTING PITCHING<\/h3>\n
BULLPEN<\/h3>\n
DEFENSE<\/h3>\n
MANAGING<\/h3>\n
INTANGIBLES<\/h3>\n
THE PICK<\/h3>\n
CLICK HERE TO GRAB OUR BEST Expert MLB Picks for 2011 MLB Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"