Good Morning! Today begins the second season, the playoffs. 162 (or 163 as it were) games are complete, and now the season the "matters" is upon us. As I have mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of what the playoffs stand for. I choose to prefer the regular season. To me, 162 games is enough games to tell me who the best team in the game is. The playoffs? Well, it is simply telling us what team is hottest right now, or most healthy, or really, is getting all the breaks right now. The Wild Card wins this thing a lot. The best team doesn't always win the World Series, but the World Series championship is all that seems to matter to anyone, especially in terms of history. The champion will be the team that wins three short series in a row, the glorified end of the season championship. But at the same time, as much as I downplay the playoffs and World Series champions, there is something wonderful about these series. Tim Laudner or Steve Lombardozzi can play hero. Everything is so magnified and that can be great for unknown players who do anything to help their team. It can also be horrible for stars that dare to not hit well over a small sample size of games (see Vlad Guerrero and Alex Rodriguez circa 2007). The playoffs are here. What do you think? What are your thoughts on the playoffs? And, finally, what are your predictions.

Today, I am going to take a look at the four playoff series and try to do a little analysis. Hopefully you will enjoy, and feel free to discuss:

Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

So there you have it, my preview and prediction on the four Divisional Series. As you can see by my calculations (and of course they are subject to personal opinion), all four series could be very close. I really would not expect any sweeps. However, momentum does play a role in the playoffs and if a team wins the first two games of the series, things change. Again, the regular season means pretty much nothing when it comes to the playoffs. The media will become as much a story for the stories they tell. We will get sick of Tim McCarver talking about the greatness of Derek. We will be tired of hearing about A-Rod's struggles last year. We will tire of hearing former ball players spewing cliché after cliché while clearly simply spouting off what they are reading in the media notes. But the important thing to remember is that the game is still the game, and it is a great game! If you're like me, you will want to just put the game on mute and enjoy the games.

Phillies over Rockies in four games

Diamondbacks over Cubs in four games

Angels over Red Sox in five games

Indians over Yankees in five games

Am I a little biased against the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Cubs because they go about their business by overspending (Cubs being the worst as clearly the Yankees and to a less extent Red Sox are now trying to do it the right way)? Maybe. But at the same time, by matchups, I don't think that it will be upsets if none of those teams win. I realize that MLB wants the Phillies, Cubs, Red Sox and Yankees in the playoffs for ratings. But I want the best teams to advance (since the Twins aren't in the playoffs). I want to watch good baseball for the next four or five weeks. I just hope the games are good.
 

Any thoughts or arguments? Please e-mail me or Comment below!!