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So what's everybody's prediction for these playoffs? Any October upsets? Is it the last go round for Pujols in St. Louis and Fielder in Milwaukee?

NL
Phillies vs. Cardinals
Brewers vs. Diamondbacks

AL
Yankees vs. Tigers
Rangers vs. Rays

I look for Philly and Milwaukee to win the first round, Philly to win the NLCS. The Tigers and Rangers to make it out of the first round in the AL, Detroit to win the ALCS.

Philly beats Detroit in 6 games to win the World Series.

Pujols stays with the Cardinals - Fielder goes to the Cubs.

Cheer for the Rangers because my favorite team is out and one of my favorite patients is a huge Rangers fan... other than that I don't care much who wins.

I expect Philly to get out of the NL... AL is wide open.

Brewers in 5 over Diamondbacks
Phillies in 3 over Cardinals

Yankees in 4 over Tigers
Rays in 5 over Rangers

Phillies in 5 over Brewers
Rays in 7 over Yankees

Phillies in 5 over Rays

My prediction is Tigers over Phillies in 7, but I'm rooting for a Rays/Brewers WS with the Rays winning.

Rays over Rangers
Yankees over Tigers

Rays over Yankees in the ALCS

Phillies over Cardinals
Brewers over Dbacks

Phillies over Brewers in NLCS

Phillies over Rays in W.S.

Tigers take care of the Yankees. A-Rod will take some flack. Struck out with the bases loaded in the 7th and whiffed again to end the game. Should be a good ALCS.

The last four batters for the Yankees got out. They combined to make $78 million this year.

28 mill to A- Roid. He's a walking corpse. He ruined his body with those drugs....and the Yanks have to pay him for 6 more years I think.

The lack of a salary cap does have its' benefits!

Tigers will win in 6 against Texas. Comerica is a freaking nightmare park for Texas. 

They're a team suited to bomb homers everywhere. Big parks like Detroit do them in because balls that would be gone in Texas only reach the warning track in Detroit. It's impossible to hit one to center field.  The long ball is their main source of offense with Kinsler, Hamilton, Beltre, Napoli and Cruz all 25+ homer guys. If they don't hit homers, they lose. 

While walking through the Venetian, I stopped off at a bar to see the bottom of the 7th. Bases loaded, 1 out and A-Rod up. I turned to my bro-in-law and said, "if I could get to the sports book fast enough, I'd bet my next mortgage payment he'll K here." Boom. (ok, I flip-flopped a bit when he was ahead in the count...thinking he'd at least make contact).

You know, it's not horrible to whiff in that situation if you're Brett Gardner....but if you're the highest paid player in baseball, you HAVE to at least get a sac fly. You're paid to be the man...so, deliver. And then he hits .111 in the series. Goodness, have fun with that contract for the next 6 years.

People were getting on Jeter for a slow start and the contract stuff in the offseason, but he battled through it and had another very good season. Outside of missing a chance to win game 3, he was very good in the series. As much as I can't stand the Yanks, I respect the hell of of him. Dude is solid with all the pressure to deliver in that town.

j/c

let's remember that the Tigers are not exactly a low budget team either.

2011 $106mil (in Mar - they have taken on salary since then, not sure the new number)
2010 $134mil

No, they are not the Yankees at $200mil+ or the Red Sox/Phillies at $160mil+, but they are right in that next group.

The Rangers at $92mil are actually the lower budget team in this ALCS.

Have to be honest, have not watched any postseason mlb, especially when there has been football on.

I am happy to see the Yankees out. Get ready for whining from bspn about a low rated alcs. I really hate when people complain about ratings. Who cares, it's not about the best matchup, it's about who wins the games. If the Phils don't make the WS, it will get even worse.

I don't really care who wins, maybe Arizona just so we can see Chuck Nagy get a ring, he's done a great job with that staff out there.

I want Arizona, St.L, or Texas to win. Wouldn't mind the Brewers.

I think the best matchup would be St.L vs. Texas. Both exciting teams that like to fly around the bases.

Cardinals vs Tigers would be reminiscent of the likes of Bob Gibson, Denny McClain, Mickey Lolich, etc, duking it out in 1968. For fans old enough to have seen it, it was great baseball. Two storied, charter members of their leagues, from great baseball towns, in classic uni's (the Cardinals home white jersey is the best in baseball, imo) would be pretty nostalgic. We'd probably see lots of film clips from the old days during that series.

true. but I hate the Tigers enough that I am actively rooting against that scenario

i'll root for the other Gibson (Kirk) and the montages from his WS heroics to be shown

I'm actually rooting for a Detroit v Milwaukee World Series. It stinks Cleveland couldn't be the small market team in that equation but oh well.

I'd probably pull for the Brewers in that scenario.

Something tells me the Dbacks and Cards will be playing in the NLCS though. Philly has that "we're the favorites and we're supposed to breeze through to the WS so we aren't taking the wildcard team seriously" thing going.

As long as Boston is out, I'm happy (sorry Top - even though you deserve it with your poor Jobs/Obama joke ).

I wish nothing but the worst on the field for the Brewers and hope this is the last night that I'll have to see them on my TV. I'd love nothing more than for Morgan and Braun to get drilled with fastballs in the bottom of the 9th as they're down by 2 - Fielder comes up and strikes out on three pitches. Would be glorious.

GO D'BACKS.

Axford blew a save.

I'm rooting against the Cardinals. Despise them.

I don't know why but I'm actually rooting for the Cards tonight, can't figure out why either.

I guess I dislike Philly that much?

They need to focus in a little more on the girl in the yellow shirt behind home plate!

Great postgame interview by T-Plush...

I saw 7 replays of Molina celebrating the throw out...

I'd like to actually see the out...

They showed me the out...

And now I know why they waited so long... Apparently all you have to do is hit the ground next to the runners leg...

Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez will both pull the feat of K'ing to end their season two years in a row for the 1st time in history....on back to back days

Yeah b-but Howard got hurted!

J/C...

I've seen the Steelers win Super Bowls. I've seen Belichick win Super Bowls. I've seen the Ravens win a Super Bowl. I've seen the best player on my NBA team wuss out/quit and then screw the city over on national TV. I've seen Barry Bonds, my original LeBron, in a World Series. I've lived in a world where Alex Rodriguez makes more in one at bat than I've ever made in an entire year. I've lived the vast majority of my life with my three pro teams being amongst the worst if not THE worst in their respective sports. I've fought the good fight for 14 years as a Toledo fan in the land of poisonous nuts...

But if the Brewers go on to win the World Series, I may just be done with sports. Their are no words to describe my undying hatred of several of their players and their attitude in general. Again, I wish them nothing but the worst in the next round. GO CARDINALS. GO PUJOLS.

Sports, I'll tell ya.

I hate all Wisconsin teams.

I almost didn't care if Pittsburgh won it all last year.

Come in off the ledge, BigD, lol.

Random crapola:

*Brewers' "Beast Mode" shtick is gonna get old quickly if I have to watch them in the NLCS and the WS. It already did a little bit just watching last night.

*Ex-Indian Factor:
Tigers - Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta
Cardinals - Jake Westbrook, Arthur Rhodes
Brewers - none
Rangers - none

*Speaking of Peralta, I saw him throw a guy out after ranging far behind 2nd base to field a grounder. He never showed that kind of range here ... never. He also never saw a low outside slider he wouldn't flail weakly at. So, somehow, he has gained good range and plate discipline (he hit .299 this year) just by moving about 130 mile to the northwest of Cleveland.

*Prince Fielder appears to be very overweight. I wonder if anyone will give him $25M as a FA. I would much sooner invest in Pujols, if my team had that kind of green to throw around.

*I think the screen format that TBS uses for baseball assumes everyone has a 50 inch flat screen high def TV, because I don't and I can't read the score in that little box in the upper left of my screen.

*They never went back to the woman in yellow behind home plate last night, and I'm thinking they should have.

*The Cardinals' road uni top is the 2nd best in baseball (their home top is best). I think I think that because it combines baseball, which I like, and cardinals, which I like. The cardinal is the Ohio state bird after all.

Maybe it's me but I like Nyjer Morgan. Sports needs a few guys like that.

More random crapola ...

Texas demolished the Tigers 15-5 to win the ALCS, 4-2. Boy, that team can really mash. Nelson Cruz was hitting the schnikees out of it all series long - .364, 7 HR, 13 RBI.

In the NLCS, Cardinals lead 3-2, and will try to close it out tonight with Edwin Jackson (12-9, 3.79) vs Shaun Marcum (13-7, 3.54). Odds should favor the Brewers since they play so well at home, but Marcum has struggled in the postseason (0-2, 12.46). If it comes down to a Game 7, it'll be Carpenter vs Gallardo.

Incidentally, the average payroll of the 4 teams left is about 97M per year, which just goes to show you don't need to spend 200M to win. On the other hand, it probably means the Indians (49M) need to find a way to spend another 40M or so to really contend, which seems doubtful.

Go Cardinals for the NL. Go Rangers for it all.

You can definitely win with just a 100m payroll, problem is, Larry Dolan won't spend that money.

See, we're not asking for 200m payrolls. If they showed fans they actually cared about winning, and put out something around a 100m payroll, more people would actually care, but they drove away their fans years ago with the trading for prospects garbage.

Milwaukee and St. Louis went out and added pieces. Their ownership actually cares. Even in 2007 it was mostly our own raised players with Kenny Lofton and parts/pieces type players like Paul Byrd.

You can win with a much smaller payroll than $100 million. The Rays are doing it right now.

Yes, it sucks that your ownership won't give you more money to spend, but a smart front office can win in your situation. It's been proven time and time again.