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Now that its the all-star break what is everyones predictions for the playoffs and stuff

NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Diamondbacks
NL Wild Card: Brewers

AL East: Red Sox
AL Central: White Sox
AL West: Angels
AL Wild Card: Tigers

AL Champ : Red Sox
NL Champ : Mets

World series champs Red Sox

If not the Red Sox then White Sox

Just watch

Going with the White Sox, eh DT
NL East - Mets. I don't see them going very far into the playoffs, because their bullpen struggles and lack of starting pitching.
NL Central - Cardinals. Edmonds and Rolen are going to have to hit well if they want to get anywhere.
NL West - Undecided, but I'll go with the Dodgers, the best of the very weak division in my opinion.
NL Wild Card - Reds. If Bronson Arroyo continues to pitch the way he has, they have a solid ace. Their hitting is very good, considering they're benching Freel, who in my opinion is one of the best base stealers in the MLB, overlooked by many.

AL East - Red Sox. Unfortunatly, their division has no pitching, and the Yankees are having tons of injury and bullpen problems. I am suprised on how well Papelbon has been doing.
AL Central - White Sox. Coming from a White Sox fan, this might be biased but, they are the best team in the MLB. Solid starting pitching, 1-5 and an alright bullpen, not as good as last years though. A lot of experience from last year, and don't forget they got better than last year, losing Hernandez, getting Vazquez, Thome, and players like Crede and Dye have really picked it up.
AL West - Rangers Sort of a risky pick for me, but with the talent they have on their team, I think they can win the division. Their pitching is doing well, considering they pitch in one of the harder ballparks to pitch in. I expect Teixeira to hit better, too.
AL Wild Card - Tigers. I think the Tigers are going to come back to Earth soon. Verlander is a rookie, and cannot pitch 200+ innings. Rogers does the same thing every year, he ends the season after the All-Star break horriblly. People like Thames and Shelton are hitting way better than they should be. But, their bullpen is pretty good, with a few people that can throw pretty fast.

It'll end up Cardinals vs Whitesox in the World Series, White Sox win.

I like your predictions n2o. I have a feeling that the Red Sox will have a very successful postseason. They have a decent bullpen with Papelbon doing the closing job. The lineup is very productive with Manny, Ortiz, and a few of the newest players to the team. Nixon is having another great and underrated season. The defense has also improved a lot. Alex G. and Mark Lorretta have only 5 errors between them and mike lowell is doing a fine job at third. And of course, we have the most clutch player in the game, Ortiz!

It's weird seeing all of these new teams in the playoff picture and to see the Yankees out of it.

what a terrible shame, i dont care what anyone says, Y A N K E E S all the way!! Theres always next season. But as for this season im thinkin Redsox, but id really rather see Mets...

Unfortunatly, pitching wins championships.

Look at prior world series winners if you need proof.

You don't need amazing pitching if your offence can produce runs.

The red sox beat the white sox 2/3 games and the one they lost was in the 19th inning. I believe that one went into extra innings because papelbon let up a home run. The 3rd time he had a lost save I think. Anyways IMO it will either be the Red Sox or the White Sox winning the world series but, I being a Red Sox fan and the fact that they won 2/3 against the white Sox I say Red Sox FTW.

Stuff will change in the playoffs for sure. The way managers mange their pitchers is different.

But either way, you will end up having to use your 3 4 and 5 slot starters, and that is where the Red Sox struggle.

Only time will tell

The Red Sox have 2 aces which could pitch potentially 4 games in the world series. We have a really good prospect Jon Lester, Wakefield, and Clement when he gets back.

I would hardly call somebody with a 4.75 ERA an ace. Lester has pitched what, 3 games? and Wakefield... unreliable as always, and Clement has like a 6.50 ERA.

And Schilling, the guy who just has surgery on his ankle(recently, I believe.) is your ace. Not sure how he is going to hold up over 200 innings.

Josh Beckett has won 11 games. I could care less if pitcher gave up 8 runs but still won the game because wins are what matter in the post season. The only reason his ERA is that high was because of 4 bad games. You cannot rely on ERA alone. He has had postseason success too. Curt Schilling seems to be holding up fine too. Wakefield has an ERA in the low 4's and although he can be unreliable (like with Aaron Boone) he is still a great asset. John Lester is 4-0 in the first 6 games of his career with a 3.06 ERA and averaging 8 strikeouts per 9 innings. I would say that isn't bad.

A pitcher isn't going to drive in 8+ runs though. Wins aren't a good statistic to tell you how good your pitchers are.

Beckett won't have the luxury of his team getting 9 runs per game when he is in the playoffs, if he is.
ERA and WHIP tell you how good a pitcher is. If they have a 1.50 ERA and a .8 WHIP, but they are 0-15, are they a bad pitcher? No. It's just the offense that is doing bad, not scoring any runs.
Knuckleballers aren't exactly the type of pitchers you want pitching in crucial games, like the playoffs. They're too on/off. When he gets his knucke ball going good, then it's great, but when he's off... they're doomed.
I'm not sure what to expect from Lester, probably a higher ERA.
And Schilling is holding up fine, but just wait till he starts getting sore sooner or later... he's like 39 or 40, and his body isn't exactly in perfect shape..

Well I agree with you for most of that. Josh Beckett just had a few rough games which boosted his ERA up there. He is proven to win the big game though, like when he pitched against the Yankees in the World Series.

3 or so games is hardly enough to determine whether somebody pitches well in big games. I'm not sure how many he has pitched, but I think in 2001 or whenever he did win, he was a rookie(not sure.) And from there he never reached the playoffs again(I think.)

He pitched about 6 or 7 games during the playoffs which is a huge amount in 2003 when they won the World Series. After the championship season, his team broke apart and he was left with a bunch of rookies and a low run producing offence.

Good to see some baseball talk.

I figured that Marlins would have won the World Series last year.

They were a huge disappointment.

I just don't think 2 good pitchers and a bunch of unproven or unreliable pitchers can match up to the White Sox though or the Tigers in a 7 game series, even though the Tigers are way overachieving.