Why the Phillies Will Make it to the 2010 World Series and the Red Sox Will Not

Breathe Red Sox fans. Don't get mad; don't send me hate mail. It's going to be okay. Anger is one of the first steps to acceptance. So, say it with me:"The Red Sox aren't going to the World Series this year." Now take a deep breath. Feel better? Ok, let me go ahead an review the reasons why with you while you look for your gun to disagree with me on.

First, the National League East is a weaker division at this moment compared to the American League East. At this moment, the Phillies are eight games over .500 while the other teams are either at .500 or up to two games over. Meanwhile, in the American League East, there's only one team curently under .500 (sorry Baltimore), while the other teams are anywhere from five games over .500 to a whopping eighteen games over .500. Boston's current perfomance is five games over, which would be good enough for second place in the National League East, but sadly only fourth place in the American League East.

Does this mean that the Phillies are going to make it to the post-season just because of an easy division, much like the Texas Rangers of the late 90's and early 2000's? Not at all. The Phillies have enough young talent in their lineup that can allow them to remain competitive with even the best teams in the American League. The Red Sox, on the other hand, have a lineup full of talented, professional veterans. Being a veteran team, the older players are more likely to experience injuries and their talents are starting their downward slope into retirement. Big Poppi, for as powerful as he is, is no George Brett, and sadly will not be winning multiple awards year after year. Meanwhile, players like Ryan Howard and Jason Werth just improve season after season.

The same holds true for the pitching staffs of the teams. The Phillies pitching staff has the right mixture of youth and experience, with Jamie Moyer and Roy Halladay sharing their wisdom with the likes of the mighty Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ. This mixture assists them with dealing with the other teams in the league like the Giants, the Mets, and the Braves. Meanwhile, the Red Sox have mainly a veteran rotation in a league that is full of veteran rotations. In this case, it is a situation of which team has the most experienced rotation. This is the reason why the Rays are in the position that they are in at this moment in time.

With all of these points to consider, Red Sox fans, there is nothing much to say except for I'm sorry. Now, of course, there may be a trade or two that your team can do to upgrade to improve, but at this point, this is not looking promising for them. So, as ya'll are used to saying every season, maybe next year.