Who Cares If It's The O's Or The Rangers?

Everybody has been doing the "who would you rather face?" posts the past day or so in preparation for Game 1 of the ALDS on Sunday.  To be honest, I don't see the value in it.  There's no way to predict which of those teams is going to win and actually be the opponent, and at the end of the day there really isn't a clear advantage for the Yankees over one or the other.

Against the Orioles and the Rangers this season, the Yankees were a combined 13-12 with a +1 run differential.  They were practically dead even with both teams.  Both teams sport a pair of potentially tough lefties to match up with CC and Andy, they both have solid bullpens, and they both have lineups capable of doing a lot of damage in a hurry.  If you want to make the "yeah, but the Rangers blew a huge lead and aren't playing good baseball right now" argument, I'll admit that you're right and then remind you the O's just loss 2 of 3 to the Rays to close the season and only scored 1 run in the game they won; they aren't exactly burning the world down themselves.

There's too many similarities between both teams and too little of a past history advantage to point to for the Yanks to really feel better about facing one or the other.  What I am rooting for is a long game tonight, preferably 15 innings, with a lot of scoring early so both teams have to chew up their bullpens and possibly get another starter involved.  That will give the Yankees an advantage and that's something I would root for.  As far as the colors of the jersey and logo of the hat, I really don't give a shit.