Fearless (?!) MLB Playoff Predictions-Opening Day Edition

Each Major League Baseball season features 30 teams playing 4,860 games, over 43,000 innings, from April to October every year, to set up one of the grandest traditions in sport anywhere, the Fall Classic, the World Series, and all the great and wonderful moments that institution have provided fans for over 100 years.

There are a large segment of fans, though, that feel that the same teams make the playoffs year after year. "Oh," you hear them say, "it'll be the Yanks and Sawx in the American League, and it's been a while since the Cards have been there, ain't they due? And the Mets or Phillies will be the other team. It's all about money." Yes, there is something to be said for having a big budget. But there are a few things more important, like having starting pitching, a light-up-the-board offense, dynamic young talent, and veteran leadership. And you may be surprised who has it...and who doesn't.

The predicted finish for each division...

AL EAST: Red Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees, Rays, Orioles
AL CENTRAL: Tigers, Indians (Wild Card winner), Twins, White Sox, Royals
AL WEST: Angels, Mariners, Rangers, Athletics
NL EAST: Mets, Phillies (Wild Card winner), Braves, Nationals, Marlins
NL CENTRAL: Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, Reds, Astros, Pirates
NL WEST: Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres, Giants

AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

Divisional Series: Indians (Wild Card winner) vs. Red Sox (East Division and home-field advantage winner)

The Indians will come into this series with a chip on their shoulder after their exit from the American League Championship Series last year, in which they had Boston down three-to-one, three tries to win once, and couldn't close the deal. They also have a good a chance as any of knocking off the powerhouse Sox, since this will be a short series. They got to three once, right? Problem: Games three, four and five would be at Fenway, where the Sox have serious mojo on their side in October the past few years. There's also the small matter of having Josh Beckett, one of the top postseason pitchers of all time, and the possibly returned and healthy Curt Schilling, who'd pitch you into submission on one foot if it meant a ring, and Daisuke Matsuzaka and/or Tim Wakefield and/or John Lester to back them up. And Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Mike Lowell at the plate, who aren't short of playoff experience themselves. Cleveland will be game, they'll push it to five on sheer will of talent alone, but experience will reign, and the champagne will still taste the same to them in Boston.

RED SOX OVER INDIANS, THREE GAMES TO TWO

Divisional Series: Tigers (Central Division winner) vs. Angels (West Division winner)

Detroit pulled the trigger on the trade that made them even scarier than they already were when they brought in Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from Florida, Los Angeles already had Vladimir Guerrero and a host of other stars, young and otherwise, before adding Torii Hunter. The Angels may like their chances better already since they aren't facing the Red Sox for the first time in the postseason in years. This will be another interesting series, since the run-and-gun Halos will test catcher Ivan Rodriguez early and often, and the Tigers will try to blast for the fences with Gary Sheffield, Magglio Ordonez, Cabrera, and a host of others while matching speed with Curtis Granderson at the top. The style clash will be tremendous, but it will come down to that age-old axiom, that pitching wins championships. The Tigers have Verlander, Rogers, Willis, and Robertson. The Angels have John Lackey, but he became invisible in October last year, and the others just don't have enough to overcome such a powerful lineup.

TIGERS OVER ANGELS, THREE GAMES TO ONE

League Championship Series: Tigers vs. Red Sox

It's tempting just to write in "Red Sox" and be done with it. They've won the whole shooting match twice since 2004. They've got the pedigree, the pitching, everything. Here's one thing they have going against them: There hasn't been a repeat World Series winner since the New York Yankees did it for three years running (1998-2000), and no repeat American League champion since those same Yankees did it from '98 to 2001. Not to mention that the Indians will have pushed the Sox to the limit in each game of their series, plus the Tigers had a few extra days' rest after closing out the Angels a game early. The odds are long, and, sure, the Red Sox are certainly good enough to win it all again, but, just by recent history alone, it's hard to pick them to repeat.

TIGERS OVER RED SOX, FOUR GAMES TO THREE

NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

Divisional Series: Phillies (Wild Card winner) vs. Cubs (Central Division winner)

The Cubs return to the playoffs for two straight years for the first time since 1906-1908. That's right, since that last World's Championship. Believers in numerology may well point to that as a sign that this is the Cubs' year, that the Billy Goat and Bartman go away for good, like similar curses had for the Red Sox and the White Sox in recent years. However, they'll have to overcome long odds in a battle-tested Phillies team, who were in a war all year with the Mets, and are ready for whatever the Cubbies may throw at them. Pitching will be fairly even, the offenses are both prolific, this will be a tight series, but, in the end, it just may come down to luck. And, let's face it, who in Major League Baseball has worse luck in October than the Chicago Cubs?

PHILLIES OVER CUBS, THREE GAMES TO TWO

Divisional Series: Diamondbacks (West Division winner) vs. Mets (East Division and home-field advantage winner)

The D-backs are young, are exciting, are talented, and have the experience of last year's run into the National League Championship Series under their belts. They have scrappy position players like Eric Byrnes and Orlando Hudson, young power from Chris Young, and great pitchers like Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, and, if healthy, Randy Johnson. So they are certainly capable of taking three games and moving on yet again. But they face the same thing the Cubs do, and may be less able to deal with it: a battle-hardened Mets team. A battle-hardened Mets team with Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, Orlando Hernandez on the mound, with Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Jose Reyes at the plate. In short, better experience at pitching and a whole heck of a lot more offense on the Mets' side, which will be plenty enough to overcome the spunk of Arizona.

METS OVER DIAMONDBACKS, THREE GAMES TO NONE

League Championship Series: Phillies vs. Mets

The league rule against teams from the same division meeting in the divisional round makes a great National League Championship Series possible, as the two front runners face up, just like they had all through the season in one of the best division races in recent history. There's no deception possible, no surprises, just straight-forward, pedal-to-the-metal baseball. And it will go down to the wire, but in the end, it will come down to the same thing the division race came down to, that of deeper starting pitching, and that edge belongs to the Mets.

METS OVER PHILLIES, FOUR GAMES TO THREE

104th WORLD SERIES
DETROIT TIGERS VS. NEW YORK METS

The Tigers, by virtue of the American League's victory in the All-Star Game in July, have home-field advantage for the Series, and that has proven important throughout these playoffs. Most certainly, the fielding problems that helped doom the Tigers in their 2006 World Series loss to the Cardinals will not come into play, that is experience coming through, both from the players and manager Jim Leyland. But Willie Randolph has a fair share of World Series experience himself, as a player with the Yankees. There's a few rings on both sides, so the experience factor is a push. What it will all come down to is who can get the big hits at the right times, as both pitching staffs will make few mistakes, which will also lead to whomever having the last at-bat having the best chance to win the title. Game Six will be in Detroit, and the better offense, one through nine, is the Tigers. The Tigers don't have an especially long drought, relatively, since their last title (1984, a span of 24 years), but the Motor City certainly feels like it's been long enough, for sure.

TIGERS OVER METS, FOUR GAMES TO TWO