The 2013
Major League Baseball regular season has been fun and exciting but all good
things must come to an end and when one good door closes, another one
opens. It’s time for the games we’ve all
been anxiously awaiting. The 2013 MLB
postseason is here.
Although my opening day predictions
were dreadful (I had the Blue Jays winning the East and the Sox coming in
fourth), I’ll go for round two on this year’s playoffs. The playoffs start on
Thursday and Friday.
Boston vs. AL Wild
Card:
I think that regardless of who wins
the AL wild card game the Red Sox have the upper hand in the series. With the lineup that they have I just don’t
see either of the two wild card teams stopping them. You’re talking about
having Jacoby Ellsbury (.298) and Shane Victorino (.294) in the same top of a
lineup, and David Ortiz (.309) and a red hot Mike Napoli (.321 in Sept.)
batting next to each other. They look to
have the strongest lineup in the American League. The wild card game between the Rays and the
Indians is coming up tomorrow at 8:00 on TBS.
Detroit vs. Oakland:
Everyone makes fun of the
Oakland A’s—calling them the Jokeland A’s of the Brokeland A’s, but this time
the joke may be on the name-callers. The
A’s have been able to win the division for the second year in the row and it’s
not just one player who sticks out to me on that team as the person who is
going to carry them to the ALCS. Josh Reddick
and Coco Crisp (both former Red Sox) have been great for them in the outfield
but the A’s get it done as a team and I think they will continue to do so into
the ALCS.
St. Louis vs. NL Wild
Card:
The Cardinals are my pick to win not
just the divisional series but also the National League. They have one of the better rotations in the
NL with Adam Wainwright leading the way.
Also with Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, and Carlos Beltran all hitting over
.270, I think that the Cardinals have the best offensive outfield in
baseball. The NL wild card game between
the Reds and the Pirates will be tonight at 8:00 on TBS. I’m picking the Pirates to win the wild card
game.
LA Dodgers vs.
Atlanta:
I give the Braves an enormous
amount of credit to be able to go through this year without veteran third
baseman Chipper Jones and be an effective enough team to win 95 games and the
NL East. However, I think that due to
the Dodgers’ depth in the outfield and aces Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke
leading their rotation I don’t see the Braves getting by them. Young star Yasiel Puig absolutely turned the
Dodgers’ season around. Having a young
star like Puig come up like he did midway through the season can really spark a
team and it did just that for the Dodgers.
Puig hit an astonishing .321 this year.
I won’t
make any predictions past the divisional series yet but stay tuned for more
postseason predictions in my next column.
***
The Boston
Bruins will be visiting Waterbury this afternoon and I would strongly suggest
you make the visit to the Waterbury Ice Center to see them. It all begins at 1:30 this afternoon at the
Ice Center when the Bruins will hold a practice that is open for the public to
come and see. Bruins players Johnny
Boychuck, Chris Kelly, Brad Marchand, Dennis Seidenberg, and Shawn Thornton
will stay for 30 minutes after the practice to sign autographs.
Follow Jasper Goodman
on twitter: @Jasper_Goodman
Check out Jasper’s blog:
www.goodmansports.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment