I Bring Nothing to the Table

We’ve finally reached the resolution of the ALDS series with victories by both Boston and Tampa Bay. As me move toward the ALCS and NLCS, the ability to predict the outcome becomes way less possible.

Take the Phillies and Dodgers series: The Dodgers steamrolled the Cubs where no one expected them to to get them to this point against the Phillies. Philadephia, on the other hand, has solid pitching and defense and their lineup can hit the long ball all day long. L.A. has got Manny. The Phillies have Ryan Howard. The Dodgers have had an epic second half with a strong postseason manager. Philadelphia has had a solid team all year and wants to make it to the World Series for the first time since 1993. I have no idea what will happen, but I think it will be closer than the NLDS. Let’s go with the Dodgers (I hate the Phillies) in 6.

Tampa Bay and the Red Sox have had a bitter rivalry all year long. There was even a brawl at one point in the season between them. It seems like the edge might go to the Rays with their home field advantage and the fact that they edged out the Sox in their regular season schedule, but the Sox are dominant in the postseason and will give the Rays a run for their money. Rays in 7, to make it interesting. More realistically, let’s predict Rays in 5.

I really thought by this point we’d be completely done with the Division Series games, but now we’ve still got another day, at the very least, for the ALDS series.

Philadelphia finally turned in its win and gave us what we expected. They beat the Brew Crew 6-2 and now don’t have any games until Thursday when they will be starting their NLCS series against the Dodgers at home.

Josh Beckett remarkably managed to not put together as solid an outing as he usually does, so the 11-game win postseason win streak against the Angels ended as LA put up a 5-4 win in the 12th. They play again tonight to see if they can lock it down. Lester gets the nod for pitching and he’s been doing well so far.

The White Sox managed to hold onto the series by not allowing the Rays to win with a 5-3 victory. It’s disappointing, but the Boston loss should also help the Rays maintain even momentum against the Red Sox once they win tonight.

Let’s see if we’ll find resolution tonight.

It was National League day last night in the LDS series and both the Brewers and Cubs faced elimination with a loss. Milwaukee was luckier, getting the home field nod, but the Cubs were headed to hostile Dodger territory face to face with the culmination of their hundred year curse.

It’s hard to deal with 100 years of pressure and expectations and the Cubs showed their inability to clinch further rounds of playoff eligibility by losing 1-3 to the Dodgers last night and prolonging the curse, despite having the best record in the National League. There goes that prediction for me!

In Brewers-related news, they defied the nation by holding on last night and beating the Phillies 4-1 in a tense game with both teams getting out of serious bases loaded pressure, sometimes more than once a game. They have yet another day to stay alive as they play this afternoon at 1307.

ALDS races continue today with the Rays in Chicago this afternoon at 1607 and the Angels in Boston at 1917. It’s bound to be exciting since all the games today could signal the end of this playoffs round.

Another day another pair of division games, this time exclusively ALDS games. With these two the Division Series are all looking rather one-sided.

Thanks to the always clutch hitting of Dioner Navarro, the Rays were able to start posting runs and making up the two run deficit that Kazmir rounded up in Game 2 of their series. After scoring two in the first, the White Sox are unable to answer any of the next six runs scored by the Rays. They win it 6-2 and push their lifetime postseason record to 2-0.

Boston put together a nice, timely ninth-inning home run by J.D. Drew to push them ahead for a 7-2 victory. While a nice, solid sweep is likely, I’d hate to see the Sox come out of their series with so much momentum. How likely is it to not happen? Josh Beckett pitches tomorrow. The Sox will be playing Tampa soon.

Tonight’s NLDS games have a chance to deliver a winner. I predict the Phillies will win, but I’m hopeful the Cubs at least make it interesting. We’ll see tonight.

What a great day for baseball yesterday was! Boston had a bye today (lucky them and lucky Beckett), the Rays and Evan Longoria made franchise history, and the NLDS races are starting to look a bit more one-sided.

We start in Philadelphia with the Brew Crew putting its faith in C.C. Sabathia to even out the series. What happened instead was a Shane Victorino grand slam that kept the Phillies up above the Brewers for a 5-2 finish.

The Cubs continue to prove that they cannot break the curse as they had an error riddled second inning allowing the Dodgers to post FIVE RUNS and eventually come to a 10-3 victory. Pathetic.

Best story of the night: Evan Longoria hits two homeruns in his first two at bats, the first rookie to ever do that in the postseason and the second ballplayer to do it in general. The Rays continue their dream with their first ever postseason victory at 6-4.

Red Sox get the bye and it’s looking like Josh Beckett will be ready for his Game 3 pitching match against the Angels.

I know I promised you some simulated game results to go along with my post-game analysis, but as I booted up MLB Power Pros 2008 and started to rearrange the final team rosters, it quickly became apparent to me that I would be much better served just waiting until we had World Series teams so I’d only have to do two (for those of you playing at home, I only managed to set up the Red Sox before I gave up).

So how did the teams do? How well are my predictions faring so far?

The first game of the playoffs yesterday was the match between the Phillies and the Brewers. It turned out about how I expected it to since the Phils had their stud, Cole Hamels, out against a relative no-name in Yovani Gallardo. The only unexpected result was that Brad Lidge, the man who has never blown a save this season, almost managed to blow the Game 1 save. Philadelphia comes out lucky with a 3-1 win and gets to go face C.C. Sabathia with a one-game buffer just in case he trounces them.

Our next match was the Cubs vs. Dodgers yesterday evening. The stakes couldn’t be higher for the Cubs as they look to erase their 100 year curse, but tonight was definitely not the night for that. Ryan Dempster, with his ridiculous glove fanning movements, came close to walking almost every player on the Dodgers lineups with seven walks. It was a very specific set that ended it for Chicago though, as James Loney hit a grand slam off of Dempster to erase the 2-0 lead the Cubs used to have. Final score: 7-2.

Finally we have the Red Sox/Angels match-up. The fated best team in baseball bent on revenge against an injury-riddled team looking to extend a dynasty. It looked to be a fine game for LA until the sixth inning when Jason Bay, Manny’s replacement, knocked in a two run blast that changed the score to 2-1. John Lester would come out in the bottom of the 6th to whiff all three Angels batters and put a nice little bang at the end of the sixth. Red Sox would put in a few more to win it 4-1.

What’s to come tonight?

Sabathia pitches against the Phils! Can the Phils avoid a loss against the most dominant pitcher in the NL?

Dice-K takes on the Angels. He’s undefeated on the road. Those Halos better watch out.

Zambrano steps up to try and get the Cubs back in it. He’s the ace, he’s got the pressure of 100 years weighing him down. Can he do it?

Tampa Bay finally goes out tonight to show the White Sox who is the boss. Will the Rays start posting their first postseason victories or will the pressure be so much they get knocked out?

Tune in tomorrow for more (there will also be a Game Overview post, so be sure to read that too!)

You’ve probably heard the saying that hindsight is 20/20 on Monday morning, so just imagine how well I can call ‘em two days later on Wednesday. That’s right, it’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up.

It took 163 games, but as of today we officially have our eight teams set for the 2008 postseason. How did I do in predicting the outcome of the 2008 MLB season? Well let’s take a look, division by division, at my guesses and predictions and see:

AL East

It finally happened: the Tampa Bay Rays came and took a division win for the first time ever in the organization’s ten-year existence. They’re not the first to go from last to first in one season, but it’s still a good story to see them come so far in their brief history. It’s also great to see Florida teams do so well in the season and hopefully we’ll see more attendance in Tampa (technically St. Petersburg). It was always a bit of a pipe dream on my part, despite my knowledge that this team was the real deal, mainly because their youth would have been their greatest enemy. You can’t claim that a team inexperienced with the playoff push in one of the harder divisions in baseball can confidently take first place. Good for me that they did, though, makes me look nice and smart.

Boston performed as I predicted it would too, winning the AL wild card and taking second place in the AL East. It’s a bit of a tough break for them to not win the AL East, since now they have to play the Los Angeles Angels in the first round of the playoffs. I’ll get more into this when I make my postseason predictions, but this can be either a blessing or a curse for my favorite team in the postseason.

The Yankees did about as well as I thought they would, but how strange that they did not have their typical second half push. Instead they actually fell below the Blue Jays for a few days of the season.

Only thing I got wrong about this division, the standings of the Orioles and Blue Jays being WAY off. The O’s managed to fall 18 games behind the Jays at the end of the season. I should have been able to see that the solid pitching on the Blue Jays squad would carry them further than the Orioles mediocre lineup.

Final standings (bad predictions in bold):

Rays
Red Sox
Yankees
Blue Jays
Orioles

Postseason Guess Record: 2-0 (I’m going to count the Red Sox guess in 2nd as a correct one for me for the wild card)
Regular Season Guess Record: 3-2

AL Central

Hoo boy, here’s one that I totally mixed up, even though I got the postseason right. Why in the world did I think that the Tigers would have a chance at second place in AL Central? They were absolutely the worst disappointment in baseball this year, which is a real shame for me to say, since they’re so chock full of former Marlins. Sheffield and Willis were major disappointments for the team and the huge contracts in place may still prevent major shakeups in the off-season. Let’s hope that this doesn’t stay such a pathetic team in the foreseeable future.

The actual winners, the White Sox, managed to stay alive in the 163rd game tie-breaker against the Twins this year to clinch first place in the AL Central and a playoff spot. We’ll see what happens in the postseason, but I should have seen that these two teams were the actual best ones in the central and not clung to a pipe dream that the Tigers would put together a decent showing in the second half.

The rest of the division, the Indians and Royals, managed to put together solid seasons with the Indians keeping closer than the Yankees and the Royals actually managing to place higher than the Tigers. How pathetic for Detroit…

Final Standings:

White Sox
Twins
Indians
Royals
Tigers

Postseason Guess Record: 3-0
Regular Season Guess Record: 5-5

AL West

I’ll say it again: pathetic. The first place team, the Angels, clinched this division like a month ago. At the end of the season, we see them a ridiculous 21 games ahead of their nearest competitors, the Texas Rangers.

Texas managed to play better than I suspected, getting ahead of the Athletics (which I predicted as possible), but not anywhere near the wild card (16 games back).

Seattle finished an abysmal 39 games back. That’s beyond ridiculous. Like I predicted, they didn’t even break a .400 win percentage. They’re gonna have to mix some stuff up next year or more heads will fly. We’ll see if Ichiro will get dealt away during the off-season.

Final Standings:

Angels
Rangers
Athletics
Mariners

Postseason Guess Record: 4-0
Regular Season Guess Record: 7-7

NL East

Another really wrong division, but basically because I love the Marlins and wanted them to win. I’m going to be fair with my prediction standings and not try and make myself look better.

The Phillies won the division, despite strong competition from the Mets, who lost it near the end and lost the wild card in the 162nd (read: last!) game of the season against the Marlins.

As I predicted, the Marlins pitching really helped them out, but I also predicted that a failing of the bats would mess them up. Guess what? The bats stopped working, so they fell behind, but not without setting franchise records for home runs and MLB records for having an entire infield (1B, 2B, SS, and 3B) with over 25 home runs. Nice work Fish, maybe next year.

Final Standings:

Phillies
Mets
Marlins
Braves
Nationals

Postseason Guess Record: 4-1
Regular Season Guess Record: 9-10

NL Central

Another division gone wrong. I got the first two right with the spectacular Cubs and Brewers standing atop the division, but the rest being totally mixed up.

Sabathia totally helped the Cubs out and may find himself with an NL Cy Young as a reward for his stellar pitching. I’m also gonna take credit for being right about the Brewers in the postseason since I have them in the second place spot in this division.

I really thought Pujols would keep the Cardinals above the Astros, but they had a ridiculous wild card attempt that propelled them ahead. The Pirates also hurt a lot more than I thought they would have after losing key players to the trade deadline.

Final Standings

Cubs
Brewers
Astros
Cardinals
Reds
Pirates

Postseason Guess Record: 6-1
Regular Season Guess Record: 11-14

NL West

So I was wrong about the NL West, but I will claim it’s because Manny Ramirez had yet to be traded at that point. No one in their right mind could have predicted that he would get dealt away mid-season, but he went out to L.A. and brought them a division win.

Final Standings:

Dodgers
Diamondbacks
Rockies
Giants
Padres

Postseason Guess Record: 6-2
Regular Season Guess Record: 14-16

So how did I do?

I was 75% accurate in my postseasons predictions if you count my correct “wild card” predictions
I was 66% accurate when you look only at the division champs and neglect the wild card. Still respectable.

I was 46% accurate on my mid-season regular season projections (just one short of 50%)

Postseason

Eight teams. Two league winners. One champion.

AL Matchups:

Red Sox vs. Angels

White Sox vs. Rays

The Red Sox/Angels series is actually the crux of the AL playoff. Personally, I think of the Angels as an overrated team that looks great against the weak AL West. The records look a little different though, with the Angels at 8-1 against Boston, 5-5 against the White Sox, and 3-6 against the Rays. Boston will have a tough series against a team that seems to have their number, but a win will really affect the Rays, putting them up against a pumped up squad that just beat a team most consider to be the best in baseball. With Beckett not pitching until Game 3, the series could take a quick turn for the worse, but I still predict a Red Sox win, as much as it freaks me out. I want the Angels to win so they can lose to the Rays.

After barely squeaking by the Twins to make the playoffs, the White Sox are now coming up against the wall known as the Tampa Bay Rays. I fully expect (and hope) for them to lose, because the Rays are great and another all Chicago World Series (or a Chicago World Series in general) would suck.

Red Sox - Angels
Red Sox - Rays
White Sox - Rays

I predict the ALCS to be the Rays and the Red Sox and an absolute doozy at that. The Rays get home field advantage against a team well-versed in postseason appearances, so that will help them out. Lose one in the Trop and they’re in serious trouble as they could potentially lose it all in Fenway; a park the Rays barely have a winning record in. I’m going to let my emotions continue to cloud my judgment and predict that the Rays go to the World Series.

NL Matchups:

Brewers vs. Phillies

Dodgers vs. Cubs

The Phillies might have had some issues peppered throughout the second half, but I’m pretty confident that they can stand pretty strongly against a weak Brewers squad. The Brew Crew haven’t hit a postseason in so long they can’t be relied upon to perform any better than the Rays might. They’re also 1-5 against the Phillies. Sorry Wisconsin folk, but the Phillies win this one.

This here is an interesting playoff series. The Dodgers have been hotter than hot ever since they acquired Manny. The Cubs have been solid and consistent all season long. Chicago is looking to end a hundred-year-long curse. Los Angeles has a coach in Joe Torre and a player in Manny Ramirez who are both accustomed to winning World Series games by now. It will be close, but I think I’m going to give the Cubs the edge, even though I want the curse to continue to see the Cubs stay out of the World Series since 1945 (and no wins since 1908).

Dodgers - Cubs
Phillies - Cubs
Brewers - Phillies

Again, even though I want the Cubs to keep losing, I predict they will still beat the Phillies. The desire to end the curse at this point will trump the worries that they might botch the series.

World Series:

Cubs vs. Rays

The Rays will win to make me twice as happy for continuing the World Series losing streak for the Cubs and for winning their first World Series (and third for a Florida team). It will be a six game series with the Rays (obviously) winning at the 4-2 mark.

Let’s see how it goes, I’ll be sure to simulate this postseason in MLB PP (with rosters as updated as I can) and keep the blog posted. This will be a baseball-themed blog for a few weeks as a result, but who can complain about that?

With 162 games in a season, does anyone ever really expect it all to come down to the wire? Could anyone have guessed that not one playoff race, but two of the eight playoff spots would have been decided in the last game of the season? Did you guess that of those two, one would still not be decided until tonight?

That’s how crazy this season has been. Only the AL West’s Angels managed to secure a playoff berth earlier than the last two weeks of play. The Mets were knocked out in their last game of the season (by our favorite Florida Marlins) and the White Sox and Twins have a one-game playoff to play tonight to decide which one of them will go on to play the Tampa Bay Rays for the ALDS thanks to a grand slam by their rookie phenom Alexei Ramirez.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow when the regular season is finally over for a last look at my Wednesday Morning Quarterback predictions to see just how well I did this season. I’ll also be making predictions for the post season, which should be interesting. It’s so tough to predict for the time of year where most every player steps it up to an unprecedented degree.