Playoff Baseball Starts Today

When I leave my building in the morning I can smell the aroma of Fall in the air. The air is starting to get colder and the days are getting shorter, but thankfully, I know it leads to one beautiful thing…The Fall Classic – The World Series.

A couple of my buddies called me several times this past weekend wanting to talk football? I kept saying, “I’m not concentrating on football until things get ironed out for the baseball playoffs.” I must have said that one sentence about five or six times. Indeed, I wanted to watch the games on the grid-iron – but not as much as the very important games on the diamond.

In the American League the Red Sox won two of three from the Yankees but still lost the AL East to the Bombers. The Indians lost all three against the ChiSox (AL West Champs) and eliminated themselves from winning the AL Wild card – which went to Boston for the third straight season. And the ‘Angels of Somewhere in Southern California near Los Angeles but actually in Anaheim’ beat the Texas Rangers on the last day of the season to have first round home-field advantage.

Field Level’s AL Division Series Predictions:

Angels defeat Yankees and win series 3-2
The Angels pitching is SO much better than the Yankees. I think with Bartolo Colon and John Lackey starting on the bump in the first two games they have a decisive advantage over the Yankees. They’ll take this series back to the Big Apple up 2-0…Randy Johnson will win Game 3 and the Yankees will win Game 4 in the Bronx and take it back to California. But homefield is always key and the Angels will take the deciding game to move on.


ChiSox defeat BoSox and win series 3-2
The Red Sox are going to fall victim to this problem – “Too many tired arms”. I think this series is going to be tight, but the White Sox have much better pitching right now. With Buehrle and Garland they have the best two starters in the series and having the home-field advantage will payoff handsomely in Game 5.


The only thing up for grabs in the final weekend of the regular season in the National League was the NL Wild Card. The Houston Astros won it for the second consecutive year by edging out the Philadelphia Phillies. I was admittedly pulling hard for the Phils for a few reasons. They play in the best division in baseball, the NL East. And my parents happen to be big fans and season ticket holders. The Astros will do battle in the divisional series with the Braves again and the NL Central Champ Cardinals will host the NL West Padres. San Diego won a whopping 82 games this year – having the worst winning percentage for any team to make the Major League Baseball playoffs.


Field Level’s NL Division Series Predictions:

Cardinals defeat the Padres and win 3-0
Unfortunately for the Padres they don’t have the fire power to match the Cards. This is going to be one of those very anti-climatic, boring series. I’m sure the Padres will play Game 3 close but lose and watch St. Louis dance on their field. They’re not a good team…they’re a below-average team that plays in a disgusting division. MLB should’ve told them to stay at home and let the Phillies play.


Astros defeat the Braves and win 3-1
Bobby Cox always has his team in it to win it…but they just never seem to do it. This year is going to be no different than the last 9 years – no World Championship for Atlanta. The fact of the matter is the Astros don’t lose at home and with Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens going in the first two games they’re going to split. Oswalt will easily out-pitch Jorge Sosa and the series will end in Houston in Game 4. Better bullpen, better starting pitching, better defense and wha-la! The Stros will move on for their NLCS rematch against the Cardinals.