Ryan Howard

Now that the 2010 MLB regular season has been completed and the divisional playoff pairings have been decided, all of the baseball prognosticators will be out in force, attempting to give their predictions on which team will likely emerge as World Champions.

These same scribes, statisticians, former players and sabremetricians will no doubt distribute mountains of data and spew out fact-based analysis to support their arguments.

They will also undoubtedly base their findings on their own spectacular histories in correctly predicting previous winners.

The 2010 MLB postseason has finally arrived.

After 162 games of scratching and clawing through the league, only eight teams remain. Each club has gotten here because of the supreme talent on its team.

Each team remaining has at least two players that are in the top tier of the league. Expect these 25 players to have the biggest impact in October. Whether it be a key home-run or a huge strikeout, elite players have the potential to etch their name in the history books.

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. 

Part 4 of 7 Phillies Championship Advantages

As they say, timing is everything. After a highly challenging 2010 season wrought with unending obstacles, that little bit of wisdom might particularly ring true for the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Part 3 of 7

Although the Phillies have a league-wide reputation as an offensive powerhouse, their numbers were down across the board this season. Appearances can be deceiving. 

A peek at the rankings suggests that the Phillies might take a back seat to other playoff teams in terms of offensive output.  

Part 2 of 7

The Philadelphia Phillies current era of success has been built around a nucleus of talented players. Some players have come and gone, but that core has been present through the team's rise and current reign as one of baseball's elite teams. 

Players such as Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Cole Hamels are at the center of the core and have served as the key catalysts to the organization's ascension from an "also-ran" to an elite ball club. 

After clinching their fourth straight division title, the Philadelphia Phillies have established themselves as the team to beat in the National League.

Well, Gee, nothing really lasts forever, does it?

The Phillies, playing before their 122^nd straight sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park, saw their 11-game winning streak come to an end, losing 5-2 to the New York Mets. The Mets were led by rookie pitcher Dillon Gee and rookie leftfielder Lucas Duda.  Who?

With just over a week left in the MLB season, I figured it'd be good to look at the possibilities for this postseason's match-ups.

While certain teams have much work to do in regards of locking their position in the postseason, I thought it would be fun to look into the playoffs as they sit today.

If the postseason started right this instant, the match-ups would look like this:

American League Division Series

Texas Rangers at New York Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins

At the risk of being the master of the obvious, the Philadelphia Phillies are red hot right now. 

They’ve won 17 of 20 games in September, and boast a current 10 game winning streak.  The next hottest team in the NL—now that the Colorado Rockies have re-entered Planet Earth—is the Chicago Cubs, who are a tepid 7-3.