It might be a little too late to be making World Series predictions as two teams have already been eliminated from this year's postseason, but to be honest I didn't have the Atlanta Braves nor the Texas Rangers in the final dance this year.
Anyways, we are not exposed to teams like the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Oakland A's or St. Louis Cardinals as often as the Yankees, Dodgers or Red Sox.
Luckily, I began doing my homework at soon as the postseason began.
So at first glance, my two favorites after seeing every single playoff game so far are the Reds and the Tigers.
The Reds have done it both on offense and pitching so far. Pitching has been purely dominant shutting down the San Francisco Giants, one best hitting teams in the league.
More than stepping in and covering for their injure star Johnny Cueto, Mat Latos was simply backing up one of his teammates. It was almost like he did not think twice about filling in on short notice in a postseason game.
He gave up one earned run on a solo shot by Buster Posey in four innings pitched. Bronson Arroyo then took the mound Sunday, putting a small dagger into the Giants as he threw seven scoreless innings.
Brandon Phillips carried the offense in Game 1, but then everybody chipped in as the team smacked nine runs on 13 hits in Game 2.
The Tigers on the other hand have a dominant Justin Verlander on the mound in the playoffs. Is it crazy if to predict against Verlander? Because I did. Similar to CC Sabathia's numbers, Verlander had not been an ace for the Tigers in the playoffs, but he pitched a hell of a game on Saturday.
Doug Fister then threw seven innings and game up only two earned runs in Game 2 giving the Tigers a chance to make a comeback.
The Tigers have done what great teams do in the postseason, take advantage of walks and errors by their opponents. So far, in Game 1 and 2 the Athletics have made costly mistakes and the Tigers have made them pay the price with big runs.
You have one team being completely dominant in the Reds and another team, the Tigers, playing opportunistic baseball taking advantage of teams lacking fundamentals.
Once in the Fall Classic, with the Tigers' 1-2 punch of Verlander and Fister, I do not see the Reds matching against them in a seven-game series. Tigers will win in six and hoist the World Series trophy.
