A Look at the MLB Playoff Picture

So the MLB regular season ended today, and the playoffpicture is complete. Baseball this year had some amazing storylines throughout the year. I think one of the biggest things is when you look at the playoff teams, some unfamiliar teams are there, and some of the perennial playoff teams are nowhere to be found. Boston, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Anaheim are all on the outside looking in, and along with Los Angeles, represent 4 of the top 5 payrolls in baseball.

New York, Detroit and Oakland won the 3 American League division crowns, with New York and Oakland winning on the final day of the season. Oakland won the AL West in historic fashion, coming back from 13 games back on July 1 and 5 games back with 9 to go. Baltimore and Texas, the teams that lost out on the division titles, captured the two wild card slots.

In the National League, the races were a little less exciting. Washington and Cincinnati led their divisions pretty much wire to wire, and San Francisco led throughout the last 2 months of the year. Atlanta had a comfortable lead in the wild card and was never really in jeopardy of losing it, and St Louis is looking to defend their 2011 World Series crown.

The 1 game wildcard playoff games are Friday, with Texashosting Baltimore and Atlanta hosting St Louis. The winners of these games will play New York and Washington, the top seeds in their respective leagues. In the American League, Detroit and Oakland will face off in the other series, and it will be Cincinnati and San Francisco in the National League.

My predictions are as follows:

AL Wild Card                                     NL Wild Card

Baltimore over Texas                          Atlanta over St Louis

ALDS                                                NDLS

Baltimore over New York                  Washington over Atlanta

Detroit over Oakland                        Cincinnati over San Francisco

ALCS                                               NLCS

Detroit over Baltimore                       Cincinnati over Washington

World Series

Cincinnati over Detroit

On a side note, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers did something this season that has not been done in 45 years, and I don’t think enough people are talking about it: winning the Triple Crown. There have been over twice as many perfect games in ML history as Triple Crowns, and to say this has flown under the radar until the final days of the season is an understatement. So, congratulations to Miguel Cabrera, for doing something only 9 others have done in the history of baseball.