As the ALCS prepares to kick off Friday night in the Bronx, Big League Stew takes a look at five early storylines.

1. The Battle of the Big Boys: A bicoastal mega-matchup should lead with premier pitchers and that's exactly what we'll be getting when CC Sabathia(notes) and John Lackey(notes) face off in Friday's Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Both aces were stellar in the ALDS with Lackey downing Jon Lester(notes) to win his first playoff game since the 2002 World Series and Sabathia shutting down the Twins. The two pitchers already met once this year with Lackey taking home a victory on July 12. CC went 0-2 with a 6.08 ERA in two starts against the Halos in '09.

2. A-Rod continues push to become a "true Yankee": Now that Alex Rodriguez(notes) has seemingly put all those "he stinks in October" stories to bed, the focus shifts to whether he can key the Yankees to their first World Series appearance since he arrived in 2004. He just had a nice Miami getaway with his everpresent Band-Aide and can feel confident after hitting .333/.393/1.000 with five homers and nine RBIs in seven games against the Angels this season. Heavenly totals, no?

3. Will Brian Fuentes(notes) have the ninth to himself?: The Angels closer completed a three-out save to eliminate Boston on Sunday, but it was only the second time since the All-Star break that the lefty had done such a thing. We're coming off an LDS round that saw all four eliminated teams blow ninth-inning saves during their series, so it'll be interesting to see if Angels manager Mike Scioscia carves up the final outs against the Yankees between Fuentes and righty Kevin Jepsen(notes) or falls victim to the closer's fallacy and leaves Fuentes up to his own devices. The Los Angeles bullpen was strong in the ALDS against the Red Sox, surrendering only one run over 6 1/3 innings of work.  

4. Will the rest of the Yankees' lineup report for work? Lost in the hoopla over A-Rod's resurgence, Mark Teixeira's(notes) walkoff and the highights from the championship core was the fact that a large number of Yankees didn't pull their weight against the Twins. Johnny Damon(notes), Nick Swisher(notes), Robinson Cano(notes) and Melky Cabrera(notes) were a combined 6-for-48 (.125) with just two runs, two RBIs, one walk and one extra-base hit. All four likely won't continue to struggle, so which one will step up in ALCS crunch time?

5. Unseen forces: We're likely bound for a lot of cliched talk about "ghosts," what with the Yankees' pinstriped traditions and the Angels dedicating their season to their late teammate, Nick Adenhart(notes). It's my hope, though, that baseball writers and broadcasters remember that Adenhart was a young man tragically killed with two of his friends in an auto accident and is missed dearly by his family, friends and teammates. Talking about how his "memory" is motivating the Angels seems acceptable, but turning him into a Babe Ruth-like "ghost" will be taking it too far. As for the Yankee ghosts talk that Fox is sure to bring up, the team is playing in an new stadium across the street. End of story.  

Related: 2009 postseason on the Stew, 2009 ALCS — Angels v. Yankees