Playoff Predictions

[TopDawg]

A lot of people talk about how MLB is structured so that the highest paying teams are virtually guaranteed a spot in the playoffs/World Series and that the lower-payroll teams don't have a chance. With that in mind, go ahead and make your predictions on which teams will make the playoffs, the World Series and who will win it all.

Here is some payroll help:

AL East
New York Yankees 194,663,079
Boston Red Sox 120,099,824
Baltimore Orioles 72,585,582
Toronto Blue Jays 71,915,000
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 35,417,967

AL Central
Chicago White Sox 102,750,667
Detroit Tigers 82,612,866
Minnesota Twins 63,396,006
Cleveland Indians 56,031,500
Kansas City Royals 47,294,000

AL West
Los Angeles Angels 103,472,000
Seattle Mariners 87,959,833
Texas Rangers 68,228,662
Oakland Athletics 62,243,079


NL East
New York Mets 101,084,963
Atlanta Braves 90,156,876
Philadelphia Phillies 88,273,333
Washington Nationals 63,143,000
Florida Marlins 14,998,500

NL Central
Chicago Cubs 94,424,499
Houston Astros 92,551,503
St. Louis Cardinals 88,891,371
Cincinnati Reds 60,909,519
Milwaukee Brewers 57,568,333
Pittsburgh Pirates 46,717,750

NL West
Los Angeles Dodgers 98,447,187
San Francisco Giants 90,056,419
San Diego Padres 69,896,141
Arizona Diamondbacks 59,684,226
Colorado Rockies 41,233,000

[TopDawg]

Based on those numbers, the playoff teams would be:

AL - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston (last year's playoff teams)
NL - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston (one from last year's playoffs)

It'd be a Subway Series with the Yanks winning.

NY, Chicago, LA and cities that end in "ton" dominate the payrolls, eh?

[TopDawg]

Chickens!

[snp]

Fine I'll play.

AL East - Yankees
AL Central - White Sox
AL West - A's
Wild Card - Indians

NL East - Mets
NL Central - Cards
NL West - Dodgers
NL Wildcard - Astros/Braves

Yea, I really went out on a limb. But it's so hard to tell at this point. If Roger comes back, that's an easy 10 game boost for the Astros.

Still not even close to trade-deadline when a lot of teams finalize themselves and make the last push.

[TopDawg]

Thanks for playing. I know it's tough to make playoff predictions now, but that was the point. This thread was for all the people who complain about baseball being unfair because it's all about the payrolls. But if it really is all about the payrolls, then it should be easy to make playoff predictions now.