MLB playoffs / predictions!

[MaineDolFan]

Let's talk some MLB playoff action.  What say you?

American League:

Yankees - Twins:  I think this is the year the Yankees final go down in flames.  Overall they have a better team, however the Twins have better pitching across the board.  The Yankees are weak after CC in the rotation, their bullpen is a mess.  This one goes 5, Twinks win.

Rays - Rangers:  I'm not too concerned with the Rays stumbling into the playoffs for almost a month (they played under .500 ball for the better part of the last 40 games of the season).  I said it in my last PT, the Rangers are weak.  The Rays have pitching in spades and it will show.  All four games will be close but the Rays win this in four.

National League:

Braves - Giants:  The most appealing of all four opening matchups.  In case you haven't noticed, Derek Lowe is pitching out of his mind.  He'll go twice in this series, Hudson twice and Tommy Hanson waiting in the wings.  Lincecum, Cain and Zito counter for the Giants.  I flip a coin.  The coin says Braves in 5.

Phillies - Reds:  The Reds are a nice story.  It ends after 3 games versus the Phillies.  Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.  Really?  That isn't even fair.

Discuss.

[Sunstroke]

Padres in 5 games, each round...

On a more serious note:  Phillies over the Rays in the Series...it goes seven, with Halladay getting WS MVP.

[StL FinFan]

Twins/Rays  AL Championship
Giants/Phillies  NL Championship

Phillies/Rays World Series

Phillies World Series Champs

Now go place bets on everyone else because I am always wrong.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Yankees - Twins:  I think this is the year the Yankees final go down in flames. 

As opposed to the last 10 years when they won every single championship? 

Even if they lose, they won't be going down in flames. Minnesota is an excellent team and the Yankees have dealt with injuries and underperformance all year. It's a testament to their other players and $4.9 Trillion payroll that they still made the playoffs. Mainly the second of those things.

[Tenshot13]

Rays win it all...nobody else matters

[EDGECRUSHER]

Bad start for the Rays. Price was off and you can't give Postseason Cliff Lee more than a run to work with, otherwise it is a loss.

[BigDaddyFin]

The Phillies will beat the Yankees in 6 games.

[Tenshot13]

Ugh for my Rays...I figured this would happen, but didn't want to believe it.  I'm really starting to question Maddon's decisions.  I'm a big believer in a manager can't really win games, but can definitely lose games.  I think the Rays' talent is making Maddon look good.  EXAMPLE:  Maddon decides to go with Shields over Nieman for our starting 4 for the playoffs.  Shields has over a 5 ERA and has a sub .500 record.  Plus, he has given up more HR than any other pitcher in baseball.  EXAMPLE 2:  He puts Shields 2nd in the rotation for this series.  WTF man!  He is by far our worst pitcher this season.  The Rays have lost 2, and now we have to depend on Garza, who is either fanDAMNtastic or a piece of shit, and a rookie in Wade Davis...Great...EXAMPLE 3:  The constant rotation with our players.  It's ridiculous.  The only everyday players on the team are Longo, Upton (only because of his fielding, his hitting sucks), Crawford and Zobrist.  That's 4 out of 8 players.  AT THE VERY LEAST it should be 6-7 out of 8. 

I'm not giving up on the Rays yet.  They have the ability to come back from what seems like the impossible.  It's not looking too good though.

[EDGECRUSHER]

After the Twins were once again so easily dispatched, is it wrong for me to believe that Red Sox or Blue Jays would win the central if they played in that division?

[CF DolFan]

I really feel for Brooks Conrad but the dude has cost Atlanta two games. I can't ever remember one person having a worst time in the post season. He consistantly is doing the wrong thing.

[StL FinFan]

He is benched now.

[David Fulcher]

After the Twins were once again so easily dispatched, is it wrong for me to believe that Red Sox or Blue Jays would win the central if they played in that division?

Twins fan that I am, it pains me to say this, but no...no, it's not wrong for you to believe that.  I'm not gonna go and look it up (though it's probably not difficult to do), but not only did the Twins struggle against the Yanks (what's new?) and the Rays this season, but I don't think they fared very well against the BoSox or Jays, either.  Hell, for all I know, they didn't even do well against Baltimore! *sigh* There's just something about that damn AL East.  It hasn't even been just this season, either--Minnesota has consistently struggled against those teams, particularly on the road (off the top of my head) but this season it seemed like they were losing a lot of the home games to those teams, too.  Don't know how much of that had to do with playing in Target Field now as opposed to the HHH, but it seemed like they were losing most of those games this season. 

It's really frustrating.  Like Gardy says, I think Minnesota is a good, solid team, too...but maybe we're just not good enough.  In past seasons, I could've chalked it up to, "Well, the NYY have 4-5 times the payroll that Minnesota does, so what can you do?", and while that might still be the case,  , Minnesota has went out and spent some cash these past couple of offseasons and even made some in-season moves and still...same ol' results--swept out like yesterday's trash. 

Gardenhire said afterwards that he wouldn't agree that the Yankees have been "dominating" the Twins--yes, they've been winning, but all of the games have pretty much been close during the season and even playoffs these past two seasons.  But the writer of that particular article was saying the point of the game is to win and obviously that is even more so the case in the playoffs so, ulimately, yeah, I feel like the Twins have been dominated by the Yanks in particular and aren't so hot against the whole division in general lately.  With Mauer, I'm hoping it was just the fact that he wasn't completely healthy but he just did not impress me this postseason, or last postseason for that matter.  I still think he's an amazing player, but I'm just wondering when he's gonna step his game up in the postseason like I'd expect from a superstar like him. However, the whole teams' *performance* in general, particularly with RISP, was just putrid...it really was.  Couldn't even depend on Cuddyer to come through with a hit in the clutch.  If it hadn't been for a magical hit by Kubes' awesome grand slam back in May, they probably would've only won one game against New York this season after going completely 0'fer against them last season.

Still, I think this is more a recent phenomenon, at least to this extent.  While the AL East is stronger in general than the AL Central (and really any division in baseball, period...it's hard to argue against it), I don't think the AL Central is garbage, either.  White Sox AL representative and WS winner in '05, Tigers AL rep. in '06, a young Indians team pushed the BoSox to the brink in '07 in the ALCS after knocking out the Yankees...I think that speaks well for the division, or at least the top teams, in the previous seasons, the Twins have just stunk it up these past two years once they got in.

[MaineDolFan]

After the Twins were once again so easily dispatched, is it wrong for me to believe that Red Sox or Blue Jays would win the central if they played in that division?

Boston won 89 games this season while playing TOR, TB and NYY 19 times each...and they fielded a AAAA level team.  Replace TOR, TB and NYY with Chicago, KC and Detroit and Boston wins over 100 this year.

[Sunstroke]

Yeah, I feel just terrible about the unjust situation that the Red Sox find themselves in...maybe they can buy their way into a different division next season.