GC: 2012 World Series Preview "Waking a Sleeping Giant" or "Tenacious Tigers"

In This piece we will preview the 2012 World series between the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants and give a historical analysis and take a statistical view of both teams, before providing our series recommendation.

In the 2012 MLB regular season, the San Francisco Giants finished six games ahead of the Detroit Tigers. From 1905 through the 2012 MLB Semifinals round, inclusive, when MLB teams led their best-of-7 playoff series opponents by six regular-season games, they have posted an 8-5 (.615) best-of-7 series record in those series against their opponents.This is the 15th best-of-7 MLB playoff series for the Detroit Tigers, and the tenth for the San Francisco Giants. In best-of-7 MLB playoff series, Detroit has a 6-8 series record, a 4-6 Finals-round series record, and a 4-10 Game 1 record, while San Francisco has a 5-4 series record, a 1-3 Finals-round record, and a 5-4 Game 1 record. In 2012 National League Championship Series Games 5 through 7, the San Francisco Giants outscored the St. Louis Cardinals 20-1 in the most one sided best of 7 MLB playoff Games 5 through 7 since the Atlanta Braves outscored St. Louis 32-1 in 1996 NLCS Games 5-7. In the 2012 NLCS as a whole, San Francisco outscored St. Louis 35 runs In best of 7 MLB playoff series, then, the combined run differential for the San Francisco Giants improves to +33, which is behind only the New York Yankees (+220), Atlanta Braves (+55), and Philadelphia Athletics (+41) for greatest best of 7 MLB playoff run differential all rounds inclusive. The Giants will give hope too many teams out thee who will look to build around pitching. No one would have though they could get this far with Tim Lincecum losing 15 games and pitching to an era over 5 most of the season. Though their lineup is missing a true super star, they have clutch performers who have a solid approach at the plate and always seem to come up with clutch hits. Now they will face a Tigers team that swept past a Yankees team that had all the big name talent and post season experience. The Tigers are led by perhaps by arguably the best pitcher in the majors in Justin Verlander, who gets stronger as the game wears one. Though Verlander did not win 20+ games this season, he has really picked it up in the playoffs as he us pitching to an era under one in his last 4 starts. Verlander is one of the few guys in this league who can throw 98 mph and still locate. The Tigers also have the bats this season as Miguel Cabrera had a huge triple crown year and has protection in the lineup in Prince Fielder. The only knock on the Tigers is their defense which has not hurt them so far in the playoffs. The Tigers enter the series off 5 straight wins but will not have faced live pitching in nearly a week, so it will be interesting to see if the layoff effects their game.

Moving on with some statistical stats we see that the Giants are 4-2 at home vs the Tigers when they have played inter league games. The Tigers are 3-3 at home in games vs the Giants and lost 2 of 3 at home just last year. In game one Verlander will be on the mound and he has one start vs the Giants a few years back in a loss to Tim Lincecum where he allowed 3 runs in 6 innings. Verlander though has been incredible in his last 3 road starts this season going 23 scoreless innings. Max Sherzer has 4 starts vs the Giants mostly from his days with Arizona and is 1-3 going 19 innings and allowing 11 runs. He has been good in his last 3 starts which have spanned 15 innings and he has allowed just one run. Doug Fister has won 4 of his last 5 starts and has allowed just 5 earned runs in his last 34 innings of work and has not faced San Francisco. Anibal Sanchez is 3-1 the last 2 season vs the Giants and has faced them twice this season when he was with Miami. He allowed 6 runs in 12+ innings. In his last start the Giants touched him for 5 runs in 5 innings so they do have some familiarity wit him. The Giants have won the last 5 times Barry Zito has started at home and in his most recent appearance last season he shut Detroit down for 6 innings not allowing any runs. Madison Bumgarner has not fared so well. He has not pitched since October 14th and has allowed 14 runs in 12 innings losing his last 3 starts. He did however shut the Tigers down in his only start against them last season in Detroit going 7 strong innings allowing just one run while striking out nine. Staff ace Matt Cain, fresh off his game seven League Championship series win, has not faced Detroit and they way the series sets up he will most likely make his first appearance against them in Detroit. Cain is 4-2 in his last 3 road starts, but the Giants have won 3 of his last 4 when he pitches at home. Perhaps the most underrated starter on their staff in Brian Vogelsong. In his last 6 starts he has been superb allowing just 4 earned runs in 36 innings. Vogelsong has one start vs Detroit. The Tigers defeated him last season in a game where Vogelsong was very effective going 6+ innings allowing just a pair of runs. Tim Lincecum has been used mostly coming out of the pen this year in the playoffs. Lincecum endured his worst season as a Pro this year. He has one start back in 2008 allowing 4 runs in 7 innings in a win over Verlander. However, he may not get much work here unless one of the other starters gets knocked out early since he has allowed 15 earned runs in his last 14 innings pitched.

Both teams averaged a shade under 4 runs per game in the Inter league season. The Tigers are averaging a shade over 4 runs vs left handers and right handers. The Giants also the same just over 4 runs per game regardless if its lefty or righty. The Giants average 3.9 runs per game at home but seem to do more damage on the road where they have averaged 5 runs per game this year. In the battle of the bullpen, the Giants have a slight edge with a 3.49 era with the Tigers checking in at 3.79. The Giants also have the edge on defense. In Closing we will take a Shot here and go with the Giants to win the series. Teams with the home field in the World Series are winning a shade over 57% all time at 59-44 and the Giants see to have something special going here. After Matt Holidays slide the, The Cardinals woke a Sleeping Giant. They have the pitching to stay with Detroit and can muster enough offense and take advantage of the home field in this one. Enjoy the Fall Classic and may all your Selections be winning ones.

Rob Vinciletti is the Founder of Golden Contender Sports. Rob finished #1 overall on most major leader boards in MLB this season and is off to a fast start in football with his exclusive Diamond cutter systems and Computer Simulations. In football Rob has Produced winning results in both Pro and College football in each of the last three seasons and is an amazing 41 games over .500 in NCAAF and 33 games over .500 in the NFL the last 3+ seasons combined as we pass week 8 in the NFL. You can check back daily to receive free picks from Rob and get an additional free play on Monday nights on The Bandbox Sports talk show at 7:05 eastern. Listen online at 88.9 wsia.fm. Best of luck to all as we close out MLB and look forward to another Solid Hoops season. GC

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