For baseball fans, October is the greatest month of the year. The year when the playoffs begin, the ultimate march to the World Series crown and an epic journey for fans and players alike which could ultimately shape baseball history. Every pitch is dissected, every game analyzed, every managerial decision second-guessed. These players play 162 games for the moments we will witness during the next month. The real question then arises: which team is in the best shape to capture this elusive World Series trophy? Who will be popping the champagne three separate times this month like we watched our beloved Sox do in 2004? Here are my playoff power rankings, from 8 to 1, with the #1 team most likely to win it all.
8. St. Louis Cardinals
Dissecting the Cardinals is quite simple: they have one great hitter (Pujols), one great pitcher (Carpenter), one strong reliever (Wainwright) and a bunch of crap. Much like the reason I??m concerned with the Twins winning it all with their playoff rotation of Santana and Garbage, Carpenter and Garbage doesn??t seem all that enticing to pick either. Plus, like Detroit, the Cards are limping into the playoffs after a tumultuous September that saw them nearly choke away the division to Houston in what would be the Biggest Regular Season Lead Evaporated in MLB history, and was only saved because of a clutch Pujols homerun off our friend Cla Meredith last week and a Scott Speizio three-run double. Who on this green earth would ever wager with the Cardinals at this point?
A couple factors are keeping them afloat: they have playoff experience, a solid in-game manager (other than his utter incompetence in managing the bullpen in that Padres series, I kept waiting to see Francona in the dugout giving La Russa orders), and a lineup full of veterans who are due for a big postseason (Edmonds, Rolen?
