Kuzul

At last, ESPN has come to its senses and made the move to replace the Sunday Night Baseball team of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.

Miller will still be a part of the organization’s baseball coverage while Morgan looks for other employment opportunities.

Morgan was never a very popular color man for ESPN’s baseball coverage, especially among younger viewers. Morgan would drone on about the same topic for several innings, rarely contributing more than common knowledge.

Despite his success as a ballplayer, Morgan offered little insight into the game and often spoke in generalities.

ESPN should use this opportunity to try to incorporate younger people into the game. More entertaining, knowledgeable commentators means more young viewers, which baseball definitely could use. Here are my top 10 picks to replace Joe Morgan in the color booth.

Begin Slideshow

The San Francisco Giants are where few thought they would be at the beginning of the season…hell, at the beginning of the postseason. They are one win away from representing the National League in the World Series.

The Giants came into this series as heavy underdogs to the reigning two-time NL champion Philadelphia Phillies.

After shocking the world and hitting around Roy Halladay in Game 1, they have taken care of business so far at home and throw out the winner of the last two Cy Young Awards in Tim Lincecum.

Gotta love the irony here of the Phillies’ Roy Halladay likely winning the Cy Young this year with the Giants likely to go to the World Series. I’m sure Tim Lincecum will gladly accept this reversal of roles.

This was a very emotional win for San Francisco, and they need to avoid any hangover from this game and close out the series tomorrow.

If they don’t, we see two games in Philly against one of the game’s best double-barreled 2-3 punch in Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

Wednesday’s game saw the uprising of a recently dormant Philadelphia offense, which struck lightning to the tune of four runs in the fifth inning, aided by the erratic pitching of Santiago Casilla.

In the end, it was the bullpen that let down Philadelphia. Chad Durbin left a fastball up to Pablo Sandoval that put the Giants up 5-4 in the sixth inning.

After willing back to tie on a Jayson Werth double, Oswalt came on in relief in the ninth and proceeded to allow a game-winning sacrifice fly to Juan Uribe.

Aubrey Huff slid across home plate with ease and the Giants took a 3-1 series lead into the night.

Halladay will need to be very sharp tomorrow because this Giants’ lineup is an opportunistic group.

They have had Cody Ross shouldering the load so far, but in this game, everybody who was asked to do so seemingly delivered with RBI from Uribe, Posey, Huff, and Sandoval.

Lincecum will need to be sharp in this last home game of the series for the Giants. Because if he doesn’t bring all he has, this is going back to Philly.

That would be a dangerous proposition, one that this ragtag bunch can’t afford to risk.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Texas Rangers will face the New York Yankees in the ALCS.

Yes, you read that correctly, the Texas Rangers! One of just two teams coming into the season to never win a traditional postseason series are now four tough wins away from a World Series berth.

Those wins will definitely be tough to come by, as they face off against the reigning World Series champs in the Yankees.

That is not to say the Yankees don’t have question marks because they certainly do. They still have to decide whether or not to pitch the often erratic, sometimes brilliant A.J. Burnett.

That piles on top of the lack of bullpen depth for the Yankees. It’s Mariano then everybody else since Kerry Wood has looked a little shaky recently.

Whichever team wins the series, it should be a fun one to watch. Both teams pack a big punch offensively and play in hitter’s ballparks so expect some scoring when Cliff Lee or CC Sabathia aren’t pitching.

How will it all unfold? I have a few scenarios in my five bold predictions…

Begin Slideshow

Here we are once again. There is really nothing quite like October baseball. We spent all summer weeding out the undeserving teams and went from 30 to what will soon be four. 

With the National League series all set and ready to roll, the Giants and Phillies pose some interesting matchups.

The dominance established by the three Philly starters against the Reds could force Bruce Bochy to become more aggressive in trying to push any runs across.

Philly certainly looks like the class of the NL this year. I have scoured the National League and found only two teams that could matchup against the Phillies: the Rockies and the Cardinals. Luckily for the Phillies, neither made the Playoffs. 

The Giants did, however, and after dispatching the Braves in four games with some help from the umpiring crew and Brooks Conrad, they stare at the best team they’ve played all year.

Oh yeah, and the Phillies are also playing their best ball of the year. Poor Giants.

And with that, let’s dive in to the five bold predictions…

Begin Slideshow

Game 1 of the NLDS between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants set up to be a tight one. We headed into this series thinking that pitching would reign supreme and offense would be something of a luxury for either team. Needless to say, Game 1 certainly met expectations.

Derek Lowe pitched arguably his best game of the year only to be outdone by his paper-thin counterpart in Tim Lincecum. Lincecum had, as they say, “Roy Halladay stuff” on Thursday night and he was almost as unhittable. 

Timmy went the distance, striking out 14 and allowing just three runners to reach base. Lincecum’s dominance comes as no surprise given the level at which he has been pitching lately. Combine that with a slumping Braves lineup and you get nine innings of near perfection.

The lone run came as a result of a blown call on a steal at second base on what turned out to be a busted hit-and-run attempt as Pat Burrell swung and missed on a 3-2 pitch. Posey later scored on a two-out base hit by recently acquired Cody Ross. 

The first game went off without much surprise, but Game 2 sets up to be an interesting one. The Giants will be starting their other young ace Matt Cain. Cain nearly sent the Giants into a one game playoff with the San Diego Padres for the division after a poor outing on the second to last day of the season.

He will match up against Atlanta’s young right-hander Tommy Hanson, who is making his postseason debut—but then again who isn’t in this series?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With the 2010 postseason fast approaching, the MLB awards will be announced in the coming weeks. One thing baseball lacks, unlike the NFL and NBA, is that there is no All-MLB team announced. They simply hand out individual awards. Given the timing, I decided to make an all-playoff team that consists of nine players from teams still in contention that need to come up big for their team to advance in the playoffs.  These players have displayed not only excellent skills, but also that clutch gene, which so many great athletes possess. So let’s start it off with an obvious name…

Begin Slideshow

He was over the hill. He couldn’t hit without Manny behind him. He’s older than he lets on. He was on steroids. The injuries got to him. Even some Fenway Faithful began calling him “Big Pop-up.” Then, all of a sudden, David Ortiz started to hit again. The past two years have been the toughest in his tenure in Boston, which may be coming to an end. 

On what was a seemingly routine August night in Baltimore in 2008, Red Sox DH David Ortiz dug in to the box. He fouled off an outside fastball, then grabbed his right hand in agony.

In a freak injury on a swing Red Sox fans have seen a thousand times, David tore the sheath tendon off his right hand. What would follow for Ortiz, nobody could have predicted. Out for the year, David watched as his banged up teammates fell one win short of another World Series appearance.

The off-season went by relatively quietly, as the front office still felt they had more than enough talent to put another banner up at Fenway. The season did not start well for Ortiz, who hit an abysmal .185 with one HR through May.

On top of that, reports began to surface of Ortiz failing a drug test in 2004. Red Sox fans saw a side of him that success had previously protected him from. This was not the fun-loving jokester of the past; this was a dejected, vulnerable David Ortiz.

David actually was able to pick up his production for the remainder of the season, finishing with 28 HR and 99 RBI but hitting just .238 in the process. This light resurgence gave some of “The Nation” hope going into this season.

That washed away in a hurry after a .143 April with just four RBI ended in Ortiz being pinch-hit for, the first such occurrence in his tenure. It appeared to be the end of the road for Boston’s once most beloved sports hero.

He was given another chance by skipper Terry “Tito” Francona, who went through similar pressure to make a change when Dustin Pedroia started slowly in 2007. Ortiz has not disappointed. Since May 1, he has looked like the “Papi” of old, hitting .295 with 22 HR and 68 RBI. He went through tremendous struggles and has emerged as big of a threat as ever.

However, David now faces a new challenge, one that has nothing to do with his plate performance: uncertainty. I find it extremely unlikely that Theo Epstein and Red Sox management decide to pick up Ortiz’s $12.5 million option for 2011. Add that to Victor Martinez ($7.7 million), Adrian Beltre ($10 million), Mike Lowell ($12.5 million), and Julio Lugo ($9 million) all coming off the books after this season as well, the Sox are far more likely to re-invest that money into bringing back Beltre and Martinez at a higher price, allowing Ortiz to walk.

The hard truth of the matter is, as they say, money talks and BS walks. Ortiz is not coming back for anything close to $12.5 million, but given his production this season, he has every right to feel he’s worth it. It is pretty clear by their recent history that the Sox will either bring back Beltre at 3B and Martinez at DH and search for a defensive catcher. Another option is they move Youkilis to third, have Martinez play first, DH J.D. Drew, and look for a catcher and a speedy OF bat (Carl Crawford). 

The reaction to these moves will likely be unpopular as Ortiz is the most beloved player on the team and has certainly produced this year. However, this is the regime that let Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, and Johnny Damon walk. They certainly are not afraid to do the same with Ortiz. Red Sox Nation will miss Ortiz dearly, but another World Series win would do a lot to accelerate the grieving process.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com