{"id":14455,"date":"2017-10-05T11:33:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14455"},"modified":"2017-10-05T11:34:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:34:35","slug":"2017-playoffs-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14455","title":{"rendered":"2017 Playoffs Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Now that we know that the Yankees battered the surprising Twins, and that the Diamondbacks outlasted the Rockies, lets do a quick prediction piece.<\/p>\n<p>First; a quick look back.\u00a0 I did the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13601\">obligatory seasonal prediction piece in early April 2017<\/a>; how did I do?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NL East: Predicted Washington in a close race, actual Washington (thought not by a &#8220;close&#8221; margin as I thought it would be over NY)<\/li>\n<li>NL Central: Predicted Cubs by a fair margin, actual Cubs by &#8220;just&#8221; 6 games and it was close all year.<\/li>\n<li>NL West: Predicted Dodgers &#8220;by a hair,&#8221; actual Dodgers by a mile even though both WCs came from the NL West.<\/li>\n<li>NL Wild Cards: Predicted SF and NY, actual Arizona and Colorado.\u00a0 Wow, could not have been further off here.\u00a0 SF finished tied for the worst record in the game, and NY wasn&#8217;t far off.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>AL East: Predicted Boston, actual Boston<\/li>\n<li>AL Central: Predicted Cleveland by a lot, actual was exactly Cleveland by a lot (17 games to be exact).<\/li>\n<li>AL West: Predicted Houston, actual Houston.<\/li>\n<li>AL Wild Cards: Predicted Toronto and Texas, actual was NY Yankees and the surprising Twins.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So that&#8217;s interesting: I got all six divisional winners right, and whiffed on all four wild cards.\u00a0 Maybe that&#8217;s the way modern baseball goes; thanks to rebuilding efforts its easier than ever to pick the divisional winners, but the two wild cards open up post-season baseball to a significant portion of the league.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my post season predictions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NLDS: Nats over Cubs in five.\u00a0\u00a0Nats should have enough to beat the Cubs if <strong>Scherzer<\/strong> is healthy.<\/li>\n<li>NLDS: Dodgers over Arizona in five as well.\u00a0 \u00a0The Dodgers have their hands full and missing <strong>Arrieta<\/strong> a second time may be the difference maker.\u00a0 I know Arizona gave LA fits in the regular season &#8230; but they&#8217;ll be more focused now.<\/li>\n<li>ALDS; Houston over Boston in four: I think Houston just has too much firepower for Boston&#8217;s pitching staff, which is pretty thin past <strong>Sale<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>ALDS: Cleveland over the Yankees in three; Cleveland whacked them in the seasonal series and should continue to romp.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Championship Series<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NLCS: Dodgers over Nats in seven.\u00a0 Seasonal series was 4-3, no reason not to think a NLCS would be the same.\u00a0 I just don&#8217;t think the Nats will have enough to overcome the balanced Dodgers attack.\u00a0 Maybe if the Nats had a guaranteed 100% healthy <strong>Harper<\/strong> i&#8217;d change my tune.\u00a0 I hope i&#8217;m wrong.<\/li>\n<li>ALCS: Cleveland over Houston in six.\u00a0 Cleveland is just too good of a team and their pitching will overcome Houston&#8217;s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>World Series<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>WS: Dodgers over Cleveland in six.\u00a0 Another heartbreak for Cleveland, but the Dodgers&#8217; talent wins out with the help of home field advantage and two <strong>Kershaw<\/strong> starts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that we know that the Yankees battered the surprising Twins, and that the Diamondbacks outlasted the Rockies, lets do a quick prediction piece. First; a quick look back.\u00a0 I did the obligatory seasonal prediction piece in early April 2017; how did I do? NL East: Predicted Washington in a close race, actual Washington (thought [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2036],"tags":[164,1169,426,2329,1037],"class_list":["post-14455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","category-post-season","tag-bryce-harper","tag-chris-sale","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-jake-arrieta","tag-max-scherzer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14455"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14459,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14455\/revisions\/14459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}