Based on heated discussions with friends and family who are also avid fans of the pastime, I’ve come up with a basic idea of how post-season is going to go down. I’m aware of the obvious standings and it isn’t hard to predict division league winners at this point so this won’t be too big of a guessing game. However, the wildcard races and the question of how each series will pan out make this time of the year more interesting.
It seems to be shaping up like this:
National League
NL East: Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL West: LA Dodgers
NL Wildcard: Colorado Rockies
NL Final Match-up: Rockies vs. Dodgers. Colorado will rock it out until the seventh game especially since the Los Angeles’ fierce pitching is not an easy challenge to overcome. But will only get them so far against the Rockies as their hitters have a habit of performing during crunch time.
(Note: Since the Dodgers and the Rockies are in the same league, the Rockies would have to go against the team with the next best winning percentage for the first playoff series, which will most likely be the Phillies, leaving LA and Colorado to match up at the end of the NL race).
American League
AL East: NY Yankees
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: LA Angels
AL Wildcard: Boston Red Sox (or the M’s if they magically overcome the odds for the next week or so. Wishful thinking!)
AL Final Match-up: Yankees vs. Angels. New York will knock down the other Los Angeles team by Game 5 to clinch the league after sweeping the Tigers in the previous match-up. The Tigers’ pitching is no match for the Yankees who may only gain momentum if they beat the Red Sox in this weekend’s series.
World Series: Yankees vs. Rockies
I imagine this series to be similar to 2007, in that there was hope of the Rockies after doing so well throughout post-season, yet they could fall short against the other beasts from the east and get dominated after four games. The Yankees are just too good right now to choke. I also plan to see some bench-clearing fights started by Jorge Posada, but I digress…
Another World Series victory for the damn Yankees? I wouldn’t be surprised and I doubt anyone else would be either.
