Opinion

The Wild Card New York Yankees will start the postseason in Minnesota against the AL Central Champion Twins.

Both teams will be critique over the next three days, as the sports media and baseball fans will express their opinions while trying to predict the outcome.

The 2010 Phillies beat out the 2010 Atlanta Braves for the NL East title. But in the postseason, Philly will have to beat the ghosts of the 1991-2005 Atlanta Braves. What? Well, hopefully it’ll make more sense by the end of this slideshow.

Right now, the Phillies have their own “Big Three,” and with it, a great chance to win their second World Series in three years.

Bud Selig has not done much right in his tenure as commissioner of Major League Baseball.

He has overseen the first-ever cancellation of the World Series and the first ever tie in the All Star game (in his former team's venue, no less). His tenure brought the steroid era to a feverish pitch and damaged the hallowed records of baseball, as well as the worst disparity of the haves and have-nots the game has ever experienced.

It took until the last day of the season, but the Giants won the NL West. Their reward? A first round match-up against the Atlanta Braves.

The Braves will have a massive emotional investment in the postseason with Bobby Cox retiring at the year's end, and it gets no easier if they win. With a dynamic Reds offense and an uber-talented Phillies team waiting next round, a World Series victory seems a distant hope.

I have nothing against the San Francisco Giants—in fact, I don’t particularly care about them one way or the other. I’m sure they’re nice people, and they’re certainly a very good baseball team.

But, while San Francisco’s successes and failures don’t rouse my passions as an Indians and Red Sox fan, their victory Sunday afternoon irked me as a baseball fan because of the domino effect it had on the playoff scene.

Nine hitting clones of Jose Bautista (including the DH). Some 486 home runs between them. Over 1,000 "runs" (taking the average of runs and RBI to adjust for batting order). And 900 bases on balls. All with a batting average of "only" .260.

This isn't going to happen. Even Bautista himself might find it hard to hit another 50-plus home runs next season after pitchers adjust to him.

Now that the regular season has concluded and the playoffs are about to begin, you're going to notice a lot of new Yankees fans suddenly showing up around the office.

The New York Yankees had a rough September, posting a 14-16 record for the month, and finalized it by losing the AL East to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Regardless, getting closer to the goal of repeating entails making the postseason and that first step has been accomplished.

As a diehard Atlanta Braves fan, I can honestly say that five years doesn't seem like all that long to wait, but it felt like eternity to me.  In five years, I have gotten married, had three kids, had three jobs, joined the Army, and have seen several family members go to be with the Lord.  Well, Braves fans, the wait is over.  The Atlanta Braves have clinched the Wild Card and are set to face the San Francisco Giants in the National League Divisional Series, starting October 7, 2010 at AT&T Park in San Francisco.&nbs

Another MLB postseason is here! 

And for the third straight year, I have prepared my assessments and predictions for each and every series. 

Past assessments and predictions on my part have been mixed: In 2008, I successfully predicted the winner of four of the seven possible series; in 2009, I successfully predicted the winner of five of the seven possible series, including the two pennant winners.