First Round Playoff Predictions

Okay, here's my predictions for the first round. I`ll do this before each round of the playoffs whether the Yankees keep going or not

Red Sox versus Angels

I`m going to go with Boston on this one. Josh Beckett has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year, their offense is much better than the Angels especially with Guerrerro hurting, they still have an awesome back-end of the bullpen, and they just have more pitching than the Angels. They also have home-field adavntage. The Angels are a team that fits the playoff mold perfectly but the Red Sox just fit into it better. Red Sox in 4.



Yankees versus Indian

This is the big one. I`m sorry to say I don't think the Yanks have much of a chance. Sabbathia deserves the CYA this year and they haven't seen him in years, Carmona has also been excellent and could easily defeat Pettitte, and will the long layoff hurt or help Rocket? The Yankees have the much better position players and a much better bench but studies have shown that offense int he regular season doesn't correlate with offense in the post-season. Peopl can point to Joe Borowski as being the Indians closer and them having a weak back-end of the bullpen but you forget the two other guys they have with ERA's under 2.00. The Yankees can probably match them with Rivera and Joba and probably have a slightly better bullpen but the difference isn't really that big. Postseason experience is a non-factor and so is head to head matchups in the regular season. I see the Indians winning it but they do have a shot. Wang is the kind of guy that sometimes can deliver and unbelievable performance and on certain days can math Sabbathia. If he can win game one then Pettitte-Carmona could really go either way andI like our chances up 2-0 at home with Rocket pitching possibly the last game of his career. This could go either way but the Indians are my pick to win the WS. The Yankees could easily win though. Indians in 5.

I know very little about NL teams and won't embarass myself with a prediction for them