Many other bloggers have already expounded on the glory of the Angels' finish. On September 15th, the Angels lost their 4th straight, a sweep at the hands of Seattle and then a loss to Detroit. That losing streak dropped them back into a tie for first with the A's and gave them a 29-33 record from July 7th (the beginning of the Seattle series just before the All Star Break) to September 15th. Since that day, the Angels have gone 14-2 and one of those losses was with an offense of scrubs, likely all nursing hangovers from their huge party the night before.

Because of this fantastic sprint to the finish line (which conjured up memories of the last week of 2004), the Angels were not only able to leave the A's in the dust (winning the division by 7 games), rest their starters, and set their rotation, they were able to tie the Yankees and the Red Sox with the second best record in the AL (3rd best in the majors). Because of head-to-head tiebreakers, the Yankees won the AL East over the Red Sox, while the Angels picked up the number 2 seed in the AL. This means they will host the Yankees starting Tuesday in the ALDS, while the Sox will battle each other in the other AL series. This matchup has to be considered favorable to the Angels since the last time they met in the playoffs, the Angels won everything, the Angels have the best record against the Yankees of any major league team since 1998, and the Angels would have been 8-2 against them this season if they hadn't blown consecutive 4 run leads (the whole bullpen has been looking very refreshed lately, so they are unlikely to repeat that).

Meanwhile, the Angels will probably be going to a 4-man rotation, with Colon and Lackey starting games 1 and 2, and then some other starters pitching the other games as they come up. Colon, I worry about a little, but only really against Alex Rodriguez, who has hit 4 home runs off of Colon in two games...Colon has basically kept the rest of that team down. The other starters have held the Yankees offense down extremely well, although the Yankees appear to be a different team than they were back in July. Facing Colon on Tuesday will be Mussina, who the Angels have beat twice and lost to once. The starter the Angels should probably fear the most is Randy Johnson, because he has shown flashes of his younger self in the past month. However, my guess is that he will not start until game 3...and the Angels were able to score runs on him earlier this year.

Who would I like to see on the playoff roster? Well, the normal lineup of guys, of course (Fig, OC, GA, Vlad, Rivera, Bengie, Ersty, Quinlan, AK) plus the regular bench guys: Ckotchy, Ztu, Jose, Fins, and DVo. The pitchers would be: Colon, Lackey, Wash, and Santana as starters, with Byrd, Escy, Donnelly, Shields, K-Rod, and Gregg out of the bullpen. Gregg gets that last bullpen spot over Yan, who collapsed on Saturday and Christiansen, who would give the Angels the LOOGY everyone thinks they need (why not just go with the best guy in the pen?). This of course leaves one roster spot open, which I would go with Sorensen or Josh Paul. I don't really see the need for a third catcher in the playoffs (I understand it a little bit in the regular season), but Paul is used extensively as a pinch runner. From what I understand, Sorensen is a much better pinch runner, and so I would rather have him in the mix. Wash would be my 3rd starter (he has the team's best starter ERA), which gets him a start on the road this series, and Santana would be my 4th starter simply because he has dominated each of the AL playoff teams (although it should be kept in mind that he was tagged for 6 runs in 4 innings the last time he faced the BoSox). If he starts badly, Byrd can always come in for long relief, with Escy and Gregg prepared to be extra backup. Of course, you never know how things will go, we can just hope we have the team on the field that gives us the best chance to win.