It is that time of year again, the grueling 162 game schedule is finally complete and the baseball playoffs are among us. Everyone starts from scratch again and records don’t mean a thing as the past few years have indicated when the Angels, Marlins and Red Sox won 3 World Series in a row form 2002-2004 as wild cards. The final day of the regular season this past Sunday was one of the most memorable days in baseball I can recall for quite some time. Everything in the American League was decided already. Not the case for the National League. The only things that were guaranteed were that the Chicago Cubs won the NL Central and the Arizona Diamondbacks won the NL West and clinched home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs. Two spots were still open for four teams-the Mets, Padres, Phillies, and Rockies . Going into Sunday, the Mets and Phillies were tied in the standings which meant if both lost or won, there would have been a playoff on Monday. The Phillies defeated the Nationals 6-1 while the Mets played one of their worst games of the year in a game they had to win. Future hall-of- famer, Tom Glavine, had the second shortest outing of his illustrious career lasting only a third of an inning and gave up 7 earned runs. This loss was really the culmination to the last two and a half weeks of the Mets season. An epic and absolutely unbelievable collapse, the Mets lost 7 games of ground in that time, while the Phillies were able to climb the standings and out-dueled them on the last day of the season when it meant the most in order to win the NL East. Across the country on the west coast, there was a similar situation. The Padres were 89-72 and were leading the Rockies , Mets, and Phillies by a game. With the Mets losing they could not catch the Padres since they had 88 wins. The Phillies finished with 89 wins but won the NL East so they were not going to get the wild card. But the Colorado Rockies could still catch them. Since they had led the wild-card race for so long, it seemed they were going to win the NL wild-card but the Milwaukee Brewers played spoiler and defeated them 11-6 while the Rockies defeated the NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks in a well-played game, 4-3, which had a playoff-like atmosphere. The Colorado Rockies had a very surprising finish as well going 15-5 in their last 20 games. They overcame a 4 and a half game deficit with 10 days left in the season to catch San Diego at 89-73. One of the greatest events in sports are baseball’s one game playoffs because it decides who moves on to the playoffs and who goes home. Both teams were very deserving of making the playoffs but one had to lose.

The playoffs begin today and there are two series I am really looking forward to.
The first is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (94-68) vs. the Boston Red Sox (96-66).
This is a series with two incredibly talented teams both offensively and defensively who have coasted in their divisions for much of the year. I look for this series to be won on bullpen pitching. Both teams have a few all-stars. The Angels have John Lackey, a 28 year old pitcher, who is having the best year of his career with a 19-9 record and an ERA slightly above 3. They also have a dominant closer in Francisco Rodriguez, who has saved 40 games this year. He will be a difference maker in this series. On the offensive side, they have perennial all-star and former MVP, Vladimir Guerrero. In what is probably considered a down year for Guerrero, he has still hit 27 homeruns and driven in 125 runs. He is another difference maker for the Angels and how he does in this series will dictate whether the Angels win or not. They have a couple other offensive players who will make a difference in my opinion which are third-basemen Chone Figgins and former all-star outfielder Garret Anderson. The Boston Red Sox have many of the same players that won the 2004 World Series. Led by hitters David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez and pitchers Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett, they were able to achieve the best record in the majors this year. Ortiz’s season, like Guerrero’s has to be considered sub-par, yet he has still hit 35 homeruns, driven in 117 runs and hit .333 in the regular season. Ramirez is having one of the worst seasons of his career but due to what he has done in the past, still has to be feared or else the Angels will pay for it. Curt Schilling had a solid year for a 40 year old going 9-8 with an ERA a bit under 4 even though he was on the disabled list for a few weeks. Josh Beckett was the brightest of stars on this loaded Red Sox team. He had the best year of his career going 20-7 with a 3.27 ERA and started the season 9-0. He will likely win the AL Cy Young and it is well deserved. As I said earlier, this series will be won by bullpen pitching and I like the Angels bullpen more than the Red Sox.
Prediction: Angels in 5

The other series I’m looking forward to is the Chicago Cubs (85-77) vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks (90-72). Both teams are back in the playoffs. The Cubs have not tasted postseason play since 2003 when they lost to the Florida Marlins in the 7th game of the NLCS after the very controversial game 6 where fan Steve Bartman snatched the ball right before Moises Alou was going to catch it. The Diamondbacks last trip to the postseason was 2002, when they got swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1st round. I’m not very surprised the Cubs made the playoffs because they have the best team in the NL Central and I thought the Brewers were the only team who could contest them in the division. I’m sure the Arizona Diamondbacks winning the division are a surprise to many people. They were not to me. In fact, I picked them to win the division at the beginning of the year. I did not like the teams they competed with in their division and thought they were overrated. I thought they had a lot of offensive potential for a team that is one of the youngest in the major leagues. I really liked their pitching as well. Their pitching is led by last year’s NL Cy Young Winner, Brandon Webb, who has a 18-10 record and a ERA of 3. His crowning achievement this year was his 42 inning scoreless streak which will go down as one of the more memorable achievements this year. Closer Jose Valverde came out of nowhere to lead the major leagues in saves at 47. He had only 18 last year. I think the Diamondbacks success this year is a key contributor to his improvement and he’s just pitching better. A concern is that he has been shaky at times in the past, the Diamondbacks better hope that this isn’t the time. Their hitters are all very young and aren’t household names so it will be interesting to see how they do in many of the player’s first playoff series. The Chicago Cubs will be ready to play this series and want to put the past to rest. They are led by one of the best pitching staffs in the major leagues. Carlos Zambrano, the staff’s ace is 18-13 with a 3.95 ERA. He is very good at times but at others, lets his emotions get the best of him. If he can pitch well in this series, since he’ll probably be getting 2 of 5 possible starts, I think the Cubs can win this series. The Cubs hitters are very good. Their 3 best hitters are Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, if they can hit the way they have shown in the past, I expect the Cubs to win this series in a short one. Even though all signs point to me picking the Cubs, I like the Diamondbacks because everyone has doubted their abilities to win the whole year and they were still able to capture the best record in the NL. Their pitching is every bit as good as the Cubs and I think their bullpen is far better. Even though on paper, the Cubs hitters look much better, there is no question that the young Diamondbacks players can hit. It’s just that they’re inexperienced and don’t have history on their side yet. Six months ago, I said if the Diamondbacks players can mesh together they are headed to the World Series. I still stand by that prediction.
Prediction: Diamondbacks in 5

The Rockies have been on a roll for the last month or so and have really come together. Their hitters have been playing great and I think are finally prepared enough to make a run at the second round. They have only made the playoffs once back in 1995, where they lost in 4 games to the Atlanta Braves. Making the playoffs this year has been a great accomplishment for 1st basemen Todd Helton who was drafted for this organization back in 1995. This is his first year making the playoffs in his career. It has been a great story for baseball. The Colorado Rockies for the last few years have had one of the best hitting teams in baseball and now they finally get teh chance to play in the playoffs. Besides Helton who has been a cornerstone for the franchise, they have a few other decent hitters like all-star Matt Holliday, 3rd basemen Garrett Atkins and right fielder Brad Hawpe. In the past, their pitching has been the weakness for the team but I think their pitching is some of the best they’ve had in the last several years. The Phillies are on a emotional high right now similar to what the Rockies feel which makes this such an intriguing series. I think both are shocked to find the position they’re in right now considering just 2 weeks ago their chances looked so bleak. There’s no way around it. The Phillies hitters are the best in the NL and are much better than the second team’s hitting in the playoff which in my opinion is the Rockies but it’s definitely arguable. They have last year’s NL MVP Ryan Howard who missed 20 games this year still hit 46 homeruns and drove in 133 as well as Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino, Aaron Rowand, Chase Utley and this year’s like NL MVP, shortstop Jimmy Rollins who has 30 homeruns, 93 runs driven in, 137 runs scored and a .295 average, all while hitting leadoff in almost all of their games this year. They are just stacked on offense and it’s surprising to see they needed to wait until the last day of the season to clinch a playoff spot. A reason for that is likely their mediocre pitching. The only bright spot on their pitching staff is the young 23 year old lefty Cole Hamels. This season he was 15-5 with a 3.39 ERA. Already an ace now, I think he is destined for greatness in the future. Another good find was the ability of Brett Myers to close which was only discovered because Tom Gordon went on the disabled list early in the season. Since they put Myers in the closer’s role, they have really turned things around. If the Phillies play the Rockies , I think the series winner will be decided on which team outslugs the other. If the Phillies play the Padres, I think the series winner will be decided on pitching.
Prediction: Phillies beat the Rockies in 4

The last series which will be the worst in my opinion is the New York Yankees vs. the Cleveland Indians. I don’t think Cleveland has much of a shot at all and the Yankees may lose one game at most. The Yankees are playing much too good lately for Cleveland to even think about making this a series. The Yanks went 6-0 against the Indians during the regular season and I expect the same to happen here. Cleveland to me are one of those teams that always demands respect but then they do nothing about it and can’t win a big series when it matters. The Yankees have far more playoff experience and it will show.
Prediction: Yankees in 3

I hope everyone enjoyed my 1st round playoff preview and there’s more to come as the playoffs progress. Being a Mets fan, it disheartens me that the Mets collapsed like they did and did not make the playoffs, but that will not stop me from watching and I hope to fellow Mets fans, it doesn’t either. As a sports fan, I realize there’s plenty more great baseball to be played. You have the usual suspects like the Angels, Red Sox and Yankees, but you also have the newcomers like the Phillies and Diamondbacks. It’ll be interesting to see what unfolds over the next month or so. Sit back and enjoy the ride on the way to crowning the 2007 World Series Champion.

All first round games are broadcast on TBS.