Plus One

The 2012 Major League baseball regular season has concluded, and by all accounts it was an exciting one. There were seven no-hitters; three of them perfect games, a four-homer game by Josh Hamilton, and for the first time in 45 years a hitter won the triple crown, leading the league in batting average, home runs and RBIs. That player was Miguel Cabrera, who almost single-handedly willed the Tigers to the top in the American League Central.

This is the first year of an expanded playoffs. Normally I am against attempts to turn baseball into pro basketball or hockey, where the regular season is almost meaningless. But I must admit that the way baseball added this extra round should work great--one team from each league has been added as a wild card, and they will play the other wild card winner in a one-game, winner-take-all contest. Not only is there instant tension--no numbing three-game sweeps--but it penalizes the wild cards for not winning their division. A one-game play-in is notoriously subject to weird bounces, but it also forces the wild card teams to use up their best pitcher, while the division winners have time to set up their rotations.

Oddly, the winner of the wild card games will then be at home in the best-of-five next round. This goes back to the beginning of the wild-card era, when the first round was a 2-3 set up, with the team with the best record having the last three home games. This is not exactly a home-field advantage, for if the team on the road loses one of the first two games, they've automatically lost home-field advantage. Baseball, sensibly, went to a 2-2-1 set up a few years ago. I don't know why they've changed it.

As for predictions, well, I'm almost always wrong, but here goes. In today' games, I'll take the Orioles to eke out a win over the demoralized Rangers, who have just been embarrassed by getting swept by the A's. The Rangers will have rookie Yu Darvish on the mound, and have a far superior line-up, but I just sense an O's victory. In the NL, all signs point to a Braves win. Rookie pitcher Kris Medlin is unstoppable, and the Braves have won 23 of his starts in a row. Therefore, I'm going to pick the Cardinals in an upset, because there's nothing like the post-season to throw cold water on streaks like that.

For the next rounds, I'll take the Yankees over the Orioles, but in four close games. The Tigers will beat the A's in five. The As are super hot, but their starting rotation is all rookies. But if Justin Verlander loses game 1, the A's will win. The Tigers don't play well on the road, so really need to win the first two at home. A healthy Max Scherzer is also key for the Tigers.

In the National League, I'll take Washington over St. Louis in five, and Cincinnati over the Giants in four. For the championship round, I'll go with Cincinnati to win the pennant in five. In the A.L., look for the Yankees to beat my Tigers in six.

As I stated at the beginning of the season, I predict the Yankees to win it all. This is mainly because Kentucky won the NCAA basketball championship, and every time that has happened since the '50s the Yankees have followed by winning a World Series. Also, because I hate the Yankees so much, one of the best ways to ensure they don't win is by me picking them do just that.

Let the games begin!