Baseball Playoff Predictions

Despite my abysmal predictions (Yankees finishing 3rd; Indians, A's, Rays, Mets, and Cubs finishing first) I'm either A) heartened by some of my predictions on the quality of the divisions (within two games of the final first-place record for the AL Central and West and NL Central, and nailing the final record for the NL East's first-place team), or B) too stupid to know to never repeat that exercise again.

So, without further ado, my playoff predictions for the first round.

Yankees (in 3) vs. Twins. I want to root for the Twins, I want the Yankees to fail. I want C.C. Sabathia to continue to manifest his insanity in the post-season. I want A-Rod to continue to be Mr. April. But none of that is going to happen in this series, the most lop-sided of them all.

Red Sox (in 5) vs. Angels. The Angels' offense is much better, but the bullpen is much worse. Boston is hurting, but I'm going to pull a former-homerism here, and say that the spark of Victor Martinez (and Beckett-Lester starting 1-2 isn't too shabby, either) is going to put the Sox over the edge.

Phillies (in 4) vs. Rockies. To exercise former-homerism again, if Cliff Lee was good in the AL, he's been filthy for the Phils since the July trade. I wouldn't want to face him twice, even with the Phillies' bullpen. Him, plus a more than functional starting staff and a good offense, will just outmatch the Rockies, who may put up a fight for a game or two.

Dodgers (in 4) vs. Cardinals. I know Tony LaRussa is experienced enough to deal with this kind of mediocrity on his team (hello, 2006 World Series), and I know that the Dodgers slumped in the second half. That said, I still like the Dodgers on paper, and while the series' aren't played on paper (and my predictions based on paper didn't work out in reality), I can't really embarrass myself further here.