Some pre-Game 1 thoughts

Tonight's game 1 will center on a couple questions, whether Ozzie made a mistake by letting his pitchers throw four complete games and whether Garner is making a mistake letting Bagwell DH.

I don't think the White Sox should worry about too much rest for their starters, unless it's an extreme amount of time rest is generally a good thing for the starters. The question is whether the extreme amount of rest their bullpen has had is too much, and I think it might be. Only one reliever threw at all in the ALCS and that was in Game 1. Before the ALCS they also had a layoff since the swept the DS. That means it's been almost 2 weeks since any White Sox reliever has seen any kind of significant work. I understand that winning games is paramount in the postseason, but it's not like Ozzie has Rick White and John Grabow to choose from in his pen. Jenks, Politte, Hermanson, and Cotts have all been very good this year. I could be completely off base here, but I think it's something to keep in mind (then again with the Astros offense they may not need their pen much).

For the Astros the question comes in Garner's choice of making the emotional move of giving Bagwell the start at DH tonight. Yeah, he's maybe the best Astro ever. Yeah, he and Biggio are the clubhouse leaders of this year. The problem is we're talking about a guy who had a grand total of 7 extra base hits in 100 at-bats this year (.380 SLG). And letting Bagwell DH puts Berkman in left tonight. Is the emotional boost of Bagwell in the lineup worth more than letting Berkman DH and putting the hot-hitting Chris Burke in left field? I guess we'll find out.

And while we're at it, let's clear up some ridiculous things I've been hearing the ESPN "experts" talk about. I guarantee that someone will score more than 5 runs in a game in this series. It's ridiculous to think otherwise. And I also would be shocked if the teams combined for more squeezes than homers. The White Sox hit 200 home runs this year. It may be a pitching dominated series, but this isn't 1912 guys (I'm talking to YOU Steve Phillips, why does ESPN think moron GMs make good TV analysts anyways?).