These teams are definitely constructed differently.<\/p>\n
If you dig the long ball then Baltimore is your choice led by Nelson Cruz, who I think has more home runs this season than the entire Royals starting nine have in their careers.<\/p>\n
\nBet On MLB Playoffs<\/h3>\n
2014 American League Championship Series<\/strong>
\n Kansas City Royals<\/a> vs. Baltimore Orioles<\/a><\/strong>
\n Series Odds: \u00a0Kansas City +124, Baltimore -144<\/strong>
\n ***2014 MLB Betting BONUSES***<\/a><\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&orderby=random&return_javascript=1′]<\/strong><\/p>\nMatchup<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Starting Lineups<\/h3>\n
Cruz and Adam Jones form a potent 1-2 punch for Baltimore…If you value being able to manufacture runs than you can not argue that Kansas City\u2019s get on base, move\u2019em over and get\u2019em in philosophy has merit.<\/p>\n
[dfads params=’groups=63744&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n
No Royals hit 20 homers or drove in 80 runs. \u00a0I do think that the Orioles have the stronger, more experienced lineup but I love the fact that nobody struck out less during the regular season than Kansas City.<\/p>\n
They put the ball in play and force you to respond.<\/p>\n
Advantage: \u00a0Baltimore (with a philosophical edge to the Royals)<\/strong><\/p>\n
Bench<\/h3>\n
Baltimore might have gotten the nod here but injuries have already revealed the depth they had behind the likes of Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Matt Wieters – who saw Steve Pearce coming and catcher Caleb Joseph has been a stabilizing force even though this offense is light.<\/p>\n
For Kansas City they regularly look to contributions from speedsters Jarrod Dyson and Terrence Gore. Veteran bats Josh Willingham and Raul Ibanez can still put a charge in the ball in the right situation.<\/p>\n
How is this for rare, Gore had just one regular season AB with the club but is indispensable now.<\/p>\n
Advantage: \u00a0Kansas City<\/strong><\/p>\n
Starting Pitching<\/h3>\n
In terms of raw stuff the Royals definitely have the edge. The Royals\u2019 James Shields is the best starter on either team and Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy are young premium arms who have developed pretty quickly.<\/p>\n
[dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n
The Orioles are very solid one through four with but nobody has dominating stuff and Chris Tillman and Wei Yin Chen hardly strike fear in opponents. The questions is what are you looking for in a starting staff in the playoffs, consistency or potential dominance – a lot of it has to do with the kinds of offenses you have.<\/p>\n
My preference is for shutdown stuff and the Royals are built to win 2-1 while the O are happy to engage in much higher scoring games.<\/p>\n
Advantage: \u00a0Kansas City<\/strong><\/p>\n
Relief Pitching<\/h3>\n
Baltimore closer Zach Britton seems to have finally found a role for himself in the Majors. He has been dominant since assuming the role this season and he gives the O\u2019s great confidence late in game. He has great support too from the likes of LH Andrew Miller and RH Darren O\u2019Day.<\/p>\n
Similar to the starting rotation if you are looking for pure stuff it is hard to get much better than tjhe Royals trio of Greg Holland, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera. \u00a0It is a young pen full of players who probably don\u2019t realize what is going on around them…and that is for the better.<\/p>\n
[dfads params=’groups=63745&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n
Did you see Finnegan against Oakland. Dude was pitching for TCU a couple of months back.<\/p>\n
Advantage: \u00a0Tie<\/strong><\/p>\n
Manager<\/h3>\n
I fully respect Ned Yost and admire what he has done with the team but this is the biggest gap between the two clubs. Orioles manager Buck Showalter has won more and been in more of these kinds of situations over his career. Further.<\/p>\n
The way this team took off in the second half and didn\u2019t look back was pretty amazing given their personnel losses. You can\u2019t criticize them now but maybe the Royals shouldn\u2019t have been fighting for their playoff lives to the bitter end.<\/p>\n
Advantage: \u00a0Orioles<\/h3>\n
Though the question remains just how much a manager really makes a difference.<\/p>\n
4* FREE MLB Series prediction: \u00a0Royals win in 7 games.<\/strong><\/p>\n
[dfads params=’groups=63746&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2014 ALCS Gambling Online These teams are definitely constructed differently. If you dig the long ball then Baltimore is your choice led by Nelson Cruz, who I think has more home runs this season than the entire Royals starting nine have in their careers. Bet On MLB Playoffs 2014 American League Championship Series Kansas City […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":85934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[64263,146,55940,675,2722,688,3047,55938],"class_list":["post-85882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2014-alcs","tag-bet-on-baseball","tag-kansas-city-royals-vs-baltimore-orioles","tag-mlb-baseball-predictions","tag-mlb-lines","tag-mlb-picks","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-royals-vs-orioles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85882","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\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85882"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85936,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85882\/revisions\/85936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}