Gordon Wittenmyer, who covers the Minnesota Twins for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, provides commentary of American League Championship Series. He says its difficult to predict how the series will play out.
Joe Mays is set to take the mound for the Twins at the Metrodome, as the team takes on the Anaheim Angels in game one of the American League Championship Series. Kevin Appier is scheduled to pitch for the Angels.
SPEAKER 1: Who thought either one of these teams would get here, much less how it would come down if they faced. I don't know. I felt, going into the Oakland series, I had a better bead on how that might play out. I thought they would be good games. I knew that they would be competitive. I thought maybe Oakland had a little bit of an edge and obviously, I was wrong. So in this case, I don't know. Anaheim is probably the hottest team going right now and the hottest hitting team going right now. They trounced the Yankees.
SPEAKER 2: What do you think are the Angels' main weaknesses?
SPEAKER 1: I think that-- I don't think that their starting rotation is as deep as the Twins. And that's provided that Joe Mays' does what he's supposed to do. They've got a rookie in that fourth spot. Their top three are pretty good though. Their bullpen is outstanding. Their fielding is pretty good. It's not quite as good as the Twins, but it's not a weakness. Right now there's-- I don't think they have a lot of weaknesses.
SPEAKER 2: Now, Denny Hocking, a popular Twins player, was injured during the celebration pileup in California. What will his absence mean to the Twins?
SPEAKER 1: Well, the thing that Denny brings is that he's extremely versatile. He was their only middle infielder on the bench? I mean, he can play all four infield positions in addition to just the middle infield spots. So that's big, especially with Rivas hamstring. Luis Rivas, second baseman, tweaked his hamstring in the fourth game of that series against Oakland. And he says he can play and I'm sure he can and I'm sure he will, but that's a concern.
And Danny's the veteran who you trust in that situation. He also has very good career numbers against the Angels. He lives in Southern California, that's where he's from, and he's always taken a great deal of pride and seems to be motivated when he plays these guys. So it's kind of a two, double headed loss there. You lose a guy that does well against this team, and you also lose a guy that can do so many things for you. David Lamb has some Major League experience. He's never been in a situation like this before, and he's very much a question mark.
SPEAKER 2: How will the Twins' home field advantage make a difference in the series?
SPEAKER 1: Well, one thing that I think we can expect is we had record crowds in that Division Series, and one of those two days, the first day, it wasn't quite as loud as some people expected it to be. I don't think that's going to be the case this time. I think even with slightly smaller crowds, and I mean, slightly by a few hundred, it's going to be so loud in there that you won't be able to have a conversation 6 inches apart from your neighbor. And when you get into a situation like that, the team that's coming in, the visiting team is going to have problems with that.
One thing I did not hear from the Anaheim Angels was any real adjustments that-- they talked about fielding pop ups, using their instincts and reactions and getting to the ball first and that kind of thing. The Oakland A's, they prepared hand gestures to use. The Twins prepared hand gestures to use. So you can't hear in the noise. So if Anaheim is just counting on going in there business as usual, they might be in trouble.
SPEAKER 2: I think it's still uncertain whether baseball commissioner Bud Selig will attend tonight's game. What do you think? Do you think he'll make an appearance?
SPEAKER 1: I would guess at some point in the series. I don't know if he'll be there game one. If this thing goes six or seven games, he might show up on the other-- on the other side of this.
SPEAKER 2: And what kind of reception do you think he would get?
SPEAKER 1: Well, you know that deafening part of the Metrodome factor that I just described, I think he'll feel it.
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