Postseason Preview; Plus Predictions

I know and would have made more sense than plus, but you've got to love the alliteration.

So the Junkees face the Twins in the first round, which I'm not thrilled about, but I try to be optimistic in my despising the Junkees, so the bright lining is that at least they have to face Johan Santana, who is so dominant that he reminds me of Orel Hershiser in 1988 when he was unbeatable and led the Dodgers all the way; they have to play in the noisy Metrodome, which gives Minnesota an enormous home-field advantage (not that it helped them much the last couple of postseasons...), and they're a slightly better offensive team this year than in 2003, with Justin Morneau edging Doug Mientkiewicz at first, and the emergence of Lew Ford. Otherwise, you have Shannon Stewart (if he's healthy enough), Torri Hunter, Jaque Jones, Corie Koskie, and the rest of the group. No big bopper to speak of, but again, if the pitching does their job, it could be enough to knock New York out of the first round. Anaheim didn't have a big bat in '02, but they did it, so let's hope Minny can do the same.

Obviously I want Boston to beat Anaheim because that sticks it to the Yankee fan more.

In the NL, of the four teams, the only two I can see beating the Yankees are Houston and Atlanta, but because they face each other in the first round, it'll be harder to have one of them face New York in the Series. The Dodgers are not beating the Yankees with the Odalis Perezes and Jeff Weavers of the world, and I can see the Junkees scoring 10 runs a game off the Cardinals pitching. I think Atlanta is a better team now than in the mid '90s, with Giles, Drew, Chipper, Andruw, et al. I like Thomson and Hampton better than Glavine and Maddux, who needed pitches six feet out of the zone to be called strikes to succeed. The Astros can mash the ball, and Clemens and Oswalt are legit top of the rotation guys.

So, here are my picks for the '04 postseason. Keep in mind that sometimes I am pick the teams I would like to see win, rather than the teams I think will win:

NLDS: Astros over Braves; Cardinals over Dodgers
ALDS: Twins over Yankees; Angels over Red Sox
NLCS: Astros over Cardinals
ALCS: Angels over Twins
World Series: Angels over Astros

Again, I'd love to see the Red Sox win just to needle the Junkee fans, but I think the Angels are the most complete team, and this way, Torre can't way what he said in '02 that at least he lost to the best (schmuck).