Playoff Predictions

I know that you all remember how well I did in my NFL Playoff predictions back in January (please note use of the sarcasm font in that statement), so I now bring you my playoff predictions. I know that I should have done these on Monday or Tuesday, before the games started, but I will be honest here in how I was going to go.

NL:

Phillies v. Reds: Gotta go with the defending champs here. When you can throw out a rotation of Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels, that's who you go with. Halladay's masterpiece only reinforces this opinion. (An aside: I regret to say that I did not see any of the Halladay game yesterday. A once in a lifetime happening, and I missed it.)

Giants v. Braves: I am going to go against the grain here and pick the Braves. I must confess a personal bias here. I always admired how the Braves were able to put together all those winning teams in the 90's and early 'oo's. I know they spent big to do it, but perhaps the fact that they were able to win the World Series only once in that incredible span makes me feel sympathetic. Plus, I like an old school guy like Bobby Cox (call him the Anti-John Russell) , so I'd like to see him go out with a winner.

AL:

Yankees-Twins: Yankees in this one, and this would have been my pick before the win last night. I heard this morning that last night was the 7th consecutive playoff game where the Twins led the Yankees in the game and ended up losing. Good luck to Ron Gardenhire getting THAT little monkey off of his players' backs.

Rays-Rangers: Rays, although the Rangers beatdown of David Price yesterday now makes this a shaky proposition.

NLCS: Phillies over Braves
ALCS: Yankees over Rays
World Series: Phillies over Yankees. Will the Yankees bullpen (ie, Mariano Rivera) overcome the Phillies starting pitching? I'm gonna say no, and that the Phils will prevail. Hope it goes seven games.