Glory Days

Man, I love post-season baseball. Come October, first thing you got to do is explain to the wife and kids that nothing but baseball is on TV until the last pitch of the World Series is thrown. Did that. Second thing is to make wildly uneducated predictions about teams that you have only marginally followed during the season. I know I’m a day late on this, but nothing happened in yesterday’s games to change my opinions.

Twins vs. Yankees: As happy as I was with the Twins beating the evil Yankees in game one, it wasn’t a complete surprise. Who didn’t expect Johan Santana to pitch like he did last night? The guy's been unstoppable since the All-Star break. I don’t think the Yankee’s pitching is strong enough to even get through a best-of-five series. Lieber? Brown? I’ll give the Yankees one win since I still can’t believe former Phillie Carlos Silva had 14 wins with Minnesota this year.

Want to Win: Twins
Will Win: Twins in 4.

Angels vs. Red Sox: No surprise that Shilling won. As shaky as Pedro Martinez has been lately, tonight he goes against Bartolo Colon, who's been Mr. Erratic this year. Boston will come out of Anaheim with 2 wins and demoralize the Angels. The Red Sox being the Red Sox, you have to figure that they'll give up at least one game just to make it interesting.

Want to Win: Red Sox
Will Win: Red Sox in 4.

Cardinals vs. Dodgers: The Dodgers had to struggle to make the playoffs while the Cards cakewalked in. With L.A. going with Weaver and Lima, look for last night’s result to be repeated two more times. St. Louis’ bats are just too hot.

Want to Win: Cardinals
Will Win: Cardinals in 3.

Braves vs. Astros: Who to root for here? The Braves, who always win, as the missus grumbles (her hatred of the Braves is one of her few baseball passions) or the Astros, with two of the biggest jerks in baseball, Roger Clemens and Jeff Kent? Tough call. Also a tough call on who I think will win. Atlanta’s pitching staff is suspect, but Leo Mazzone has made them look like the old Maddox-Smoltz-Glavine-Millwood squad. Their game one starter is Jaret Wright. Jaret Wright! What is going on? Have there ever been more formerly washed up pitchers in one post-season before? Houston has Clemens & Oswalt and a whole lot of offense.

Want to Win: Braves (that tells you just how much I hate Roger Clemens)
Will Win: Astros in 5.