A Plethora of Playoffs

Dave Paisley

After a weekend when it seemed like the Oakland A's would be flying to Tampa Bay to finish the regular season, then fly to either Seattle or Chicago for a game to determine the wild card, and the Yankees would have to host a reluctant Marlins squad in the Big Apple to determine home field advantage for the playoffs, the end result was somewhat anti-climactic. A lot like the Olympic Games, really -- a lot of hype, but in the end just a lot of Bob Costas' whining.

However, there was no whining from the Oakland A's, who won the AL West for the first time since the three divisional alignment was invented, nor from the Mariners, who avoided further unnecessary regular season action with a 5-2 win over the Angels. No, the anti-climax was reserved for the Cleveland Indians and fans of sudden-death playoffs everywhere.

The poor Indians made a sterling run for the wild card berth at the wire, but a faltering Seattle club was able to stave them off with some late inning heroics in Anaheim. As it was, Oakland had to use twenty game winning ace Tim Hudson on Sunday, pushing him back to game 3 of their playoff series with the Yankees, a move that could prove critical. The Mariners did the same with Aaron Sele, their most reliable starter of late, who will now probably start game 3 on Friday against the White Sox. The impact to the M's isn't quite so drastic, though.

As the post-season pairings stabilized, I decided to check back with my pre-season predictions to see how I did for predicting post-season action. In the NL, I had Atlanta winning the East (duh!), Houston winning the Central (d'oh!) and the Giants and Dodgers tied for the West, with the lesser of those two getting the wild card. I had the Mets three games off the wild card pace. Not bad, apart from Houston, but even then I had the Cards and Reds just two games back of them. So cancel Houston and LA, and add the Cards and Mets instead.

In the AL, I had the Yankees winning the East (but not in this limping into the playoffs fashion) with 98 wins, Cleveland winning the Central (and the White Sox way back), and Seattle the West, but only with 89 wins, four better than Oakland. So I had the Red Sox taking the Wild Card with 93 wins. Well, maybe if they'd had an actual offense. I nailed their runs allowed within three, but credited them with 123 runs too many. Cancel the Red Sox and Indians, and add the A's and White Sox instead, and there you have the AL playoffs.

So four correct playoff teams out of eight isn't great, but it's not like this is the NHL or NBA or something, where predicting playoff teams is like shooting Vikings in a barrel (don't ask...).

As for those playoff matchups, the Braves-Cards matchup promises to be interesting, with almost 20 game winner Greg Maddux matched up with actual twenty game winner Darryl Kile. And just how glad do you think Kile is to be out of Colorado now? Game 2 continues with yet another battle of nine game losers, Tom Glavine and Garrett Stephenson. The D'oh! factor ranks pretty high in Atlanta with home field advantage frittered away in the ninth inning of Sunday's finale game, although the Cards may be happy to get out of St. Louis with just a split against Cy Young candidates Maddux and Glavine, figuring Rick Ankiel can take Andy Ashby in game 3. A 2-1 lead going into the last two games would certainly be handy. Here's the schedule for the first three games:

Tuesday: Atlanta (Maddux 19-9, 3.00 ERA) at St. Louis (Kile 20-9, 3.91), 1:07 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday: Atlanta (Glavine 21-9, 3.40) at St. Louis (Stephenson 16-9, 4.49), 4:07 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday: St. Louis (Ankiel 11-7, 3.50) at Atlanta (Ashby 12-13, 4.13), TBA

My prediction: Cards in five.

The Mets and Giants is an interesting series, with the Mets pitching pitted against Bonds, Kent and the rest of the Giants attack. The Mets pitching has a substantial advantage right down the line, so it remains to be seen whether this will be the first post-season where Barry Bonds doesn't run and hide behind his mommy's skirts. Here's the matchups so far:

Wednesday: N.Y. Mets (Hampton 15-10, 3.14) at San Francisco (Hernandez 17-11, 3.75), 4:07 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday: N.Y. Mets (Leiter 16-8, 3.20) at San Francisco (Estes 15-6, 4.26), 8:18 p.m. (FOX)

Saturday: San Francisco (Ortiz 13-12, 5.01) at N.Y. Mets (Reed 11-5, 4.11), TBA

My prediction: Mets in five.

Over in the AL, the A's are the hottest thing since toasted sliced bread while the Yankees are as cold as the proverbial witch's mammary appendage. What does that mean for the playoffs? Absolutely zippo. The Rocket was hot a couple of weeks ago, and I suspect he will be able to crank it against even the mighty Gumby brothers. The big question will be whether Tim Hudson can keep the momentum going in game 3 in New York. Here are the matchups through the first three games:

Tuesday: N.Y. Yankees (Clemens 13-8, 3.70) at Oakland (Heredia 15-11, 4.12), 8:08 p.m. (NBC)

Wednesday: N.Y. Yankees (Pettitte 19-9, 4.35) at Oakland (Appier 15-11, 4.52), 8:18 p.m. (FOX)

Friday: Oakland (Hudson 20-6, 4.14) at N.Y. Yankees (Hernandez 12-13, 4.51), TBA

My prediction: Yanks in four.

Which brings me to the final matchup involving the Strikethree.com hometown team. Sure, they limped into the playoffs, but the mighty White Sox they face are literally limping, and what's worse, they've been barely better than .500 since the All-Star break at 40-37. White Sox opening pitcher Mike Sirotka isn't 100% and after Jim Parque (can't tell him from butter) the team doesn't have a clue how to patch a pitching rotation together. Friday may feature a combination of sore-armed James Baldwin and Cal Eldred with his right arm glued back on. The Mariners are leery of starting the apparently hurt Jamie Moyer in Game Two, but Paul Abbott waits in the wings, while the aforementioned Aaron Sele will undoubtedly start Friday. The Mariners breadth (if not depth) of pitching should win this one.

Tuesday: Seattle (Garcia 9-5, 3.91) at Chicago (Sirotka 15-10, 3.79), 4:07 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday: Seattle (prob. Abbott 9-7, 4.22), at Chicago (prob. Parque 13-6, 4.28), 1:07 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday: Chicago (prob. Baldwin 14-6, 4.65) at Seattle (prob. Sele 17-10, 4.51), TBA

My prediction: Mariners in four.

OK, so fluff up the couch, make sure you've got plenty of beer, and settle in for yet another fascinating post-season. And I don't mean just the Marlins and Expos players, that means you too, Cleveland Indians...

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