If the weather allows, the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals will kick off the 2014 American League Championship Series on Friday night at Camden Yards. Neither team made the playoffs last season and both teams have endured lengthy championship droughts -- Kansas City last winning it all in 1985 and Baltimore in 1983.

Contrary to what we will see in the National League Championship Series, which pits the San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals, the ALCS represents new blood in October.

The Royals and Orioles faced off seven times during the regular season with K.C. winning four of the head-to-head battles. Unfortunately for prognosticators, all of those games occurred before the middle of May.

Baltimore (96-66) was seven games better than Kansas City (89-73) over the course of 162 games, but as we’ve come to realize that doesn’t mean much this time of year. Both clubs are coming off a sweep in the divisional round with the Royals dominating the top-seeded Los Angeles Angels, who win 98 games but scored just six total runs over three playoff games.

Looking at each team statistically, the Orioles, as you might expect appear to come out on top. They rated higher in terms of OPS (.734 to .690) and home runs (211 to 95), but the Royals made better contact (.263 to .256 in batting average) and got on-base at a slightly higher rate (.314 to .311). Baltimore hopes to do damage once they get on base, by way of the stolen base. Buck Showalter is undoubtedly prepared for Kansas City’s speed attack, while Ned Yost will have to instruct his pitchers to avoid the favorite zones of Baltimore’s power hitters.

Power is where these two teams differ most. The Orioles led all of baseball in home runs. The Royals ranked dead last. Through the first round -- Kansas City played one extra game -- they each clubbed four long balls. Historically, relying on home runs hasn’t led to postseason success (see the recent playoff runs of the New York Yankees), but it’s also all about getting hot at the right time.

The Orioles had the better pitching staff in the regular season, topping the Royals in ERA (3.43 to 3.51) and opponent batting average (.244 to .250), but Kansas City was slightly better in strikeouts per nine innings (7.25 to 7.23) and got more length from their starters (95 quality starts to just 78).

It’s an obvious advantage when a starting pitcher goes deep into a game, especially in the postseason when bullpens get taxed easily, but Showalter isn’t afraid of playing matchups early and often. Both teams have very strong bullpen staffs, but Showalter has famously shown better decision-making during his tenure than Yost has to this point.

The 2014 postseason hasn’t gone according to script through the first week, so there is no reason to believe that it suddenly will fall in line, but the expectation is that the Royals will try to win with small ball and the Orioles with blasts into the seats. That is how each team got into the playoffs, even if Kansas City stole a page from Baltimore’s book in their sweep of Los Angeles.

One narrative surrounding this series is the inexperience and pluck of the young Royals, who hadn’t even been to the playoffs since long before most of their everyday players were born. That’s a very shallow angle. The Orioles haven’t been this far with their current core, they also lack a clear-cut ace (who is the best starter in the series – is it definitely James Shields?) and will be relying on some young players.

The Orioles are the deeper team, better one through nine, even with Chris Davis (five games left on his suspension) off the NLCS roster and Matt Wieters and Manny Machado sidelined for most of the season. They’ve weathered all three of those storms thanks to their depth and the leadership of Showalter.

Those factors will give Baltimore enough to advance to the World Series and end Kansas City’s mystical run.

Prediction: Orioles in 6