Wahoooooobastank

First, let me begin by touching on a few non-Dodger tidbits.

A) We may have seen Ken Griffey Jr. for the last time and no one is talking about it. He single handedly made baseball relevant in one of baseball's best cities (Seattle), and was the face of the MLB for quite some time. He's the Willy Mays of our generation, and one of baseball's top 20 players ever.

B) Ron Gardenhire is the best manager in the MLB, and the Twins are the most over-looked and under-appreciated franchise in all of sports. Every year Gardenhire takes a different group of no-names and makes them playoff contenders. They lose Johan Santana, no problem. They lose Tori Hunter, no problem. They're probably gonna lose Joe Mauer to the Sox or Yanks, and I'm sure they'll bounce right back. The small market Twins have been overshadowed by the Moneyball A's, but have had just as much, if not more, success than them. I'm not sure who their GM is, but the dude should write a book and de-thrown Billy Beane as baseball guru to the outside world.

C) People have been on the Dodgers for ending the season playing mediocre ball but don't forget the Cards finished the season 2-8 in their final 10 games.

I digress......

With the NLDS looming tomorrow, no one seems to be talking about what I think might decide the series--the benches. I know, I know it seems like an afterthought, and quite frankly it would be if both of these teams didn't have impact players riding the pine. But every year there's a Matt Stairs, Dave Roberts, or Aaron Boone who changes the course of the series and this year it very well might come from the Cardinals or Dodgers.

Statistically, the Dodgers have the best bench in baseball. Juan Pierre is arguably the Dodgers' MVP this year after stepping up and playing out of his dome while Manny was preggers. Could he be what Dave Roberts was to the Red Sox in 2004? Perchance. We also have future Hall of Famer and playoff seasoned Jim Thome. He has 17 career post season home runs, but a .227 playoff average. Could he be our Matt Stairs? Why not. Lastly we have former Gold Glovers and current Jews Doug Mientkievicz and Brad Ausmus who both could see the field in the late innings.

The Cards will have either Rick Ankiel or Colby Rasmus (whomever doesn't start), Troy Glaus, and former Dodger greats Julio 'How the hell am I still in the league' Lugo and Joey 'Ballgame' Thurston. None of them are particularly scary on paper, but neither was Matt Stairs or Aaron Boone.

Off to watch the Twins game.