Andruw Jones Not On ALDS Roster

Jones himself confirmed it this afternoon to the media:

“I don’t deserve to be on it."

There it is, folks.  Andruw Jones will not be on the ALDS roster, logic and statistics scores a win, and my faith in humanity has been restored.  Round of applause to you on this one, Joe.

Yanks-O's ALDS Preview: 3 Things That Will Decide The Series

(Hey, remember this?)

There wasn't nearly as much drama and work involved as I was personally hoping for last night, but the Orioles sent the Rangers packing and the Yankees now know who they'll play in their divisional round matchup tomorrow night.  As a divisional rivals, the Yanks and O's saw plenty of each other this season.  They played to a 9-9 stalemate in their season series, with the Yankees taking 5 of the first 8 and Orioles winning 6 of the last 10.  That record and those trends mean little now, as the slate is wiped clean for this 5-game series.  But they can give some insight as to the type of things we should be looking for to make predictions and a decision on who will ultimately win.

These teams have a lot of similarities, and there aren't many points of comparison where one has the clear advantage over the other.  The Yankees are the deeper and more talented team on paper, but the O's have played with that undefinable "it factor" all year long, and that is reflected in their undeniably impressive 1-run game and extra-inning records.  I expect this to be a close series and a competitive series, and after the jump are the 3 things that are going to decide who wins.

AB4AR's Final Playoff Roster Prediction

Joe's getting his Jim Gordon on and playing things close to the vest with announcements about his postseason roster, so not much has been confirmed yet.  We know that Casey McGehee won't be a part of the club, which is a bit of information that should elicit almost no emotional response, good or bad.  We know that CC Sabathia is getting the ball tonight to start Game 1 of the series, which has been a scientific fact since the moment he walked off the mound in his last regular season start.  We know about 22-23 of the guys whose names will inevitably be chosen, it's not that hard to figure out, so we're really only waiting for Joe to confirm those last 2 or 3 names.  But AB4AR waits for no one!  I'm going to help Joe get the news out of the way early with the official AB4AR 25-man postseason roster final selection.