League Championship Series Predictions

I had been intending to follow scores posted by experts from ESPN, Yahoo and CBS Sports for the MLB playoffs, but ESPN seems to randomly insert experts with very few making predictions for every series. I'm including the first round of scores only from the experts that picked all four series and judging by the first glance at the predictions for the ALCS and NLCS, it appears many of these names will be removing themselves by the next round (so I'm not bothering with any links in the names until next round when I know who's worth linking to and who's not).

Anyway, after the Division Series, only one man got all four series correct (number in parentheses indicates number of series with exact number of games predicted):

1. Eric Neel, ESPN: 4-0 (1)
2. Steve Henson, Yahoo: 3-1 (2)
3. Eric Karabell, ESPN: 3-1 (1)
3. Eric Mack, CBS Sports: 3-1 (1)
5. Kieth Law, ESPN: 2-2 (2)
6. Gordon Edes, Yahoo: 2-2 (1)
6. Buster Olney, ESPN: 2-2 (1)
6. Jeff Passan, Yahoo: 2-2 (1)
6. YOURS TRULY: 2-2 (1)
10. Tim Brown, Yahoo: 2-2 (0)
10. Tim Kurkjian, ESPN: 2-2 (0)
10. Jason Grey, ESPN: 2-2 (0)
10. Scott Miller, CBS Sports: 2-2 (0)
10. Adriane Rosen, CBS Sports: 2-2 (0)
15. Danny Knobler, CBS Sports: 1-3 (1)
15. Karl Ravech, ESPN: 1-3 (1)
17. Jim Caple, ESPN: 1-3 (0)
17. Pedro Gomez, ESPN: 1-3 (0)

So anyway, from my end I was right about the ALCS but whiffed on the NLCS. Here's who I've got getting to the World Series:





Philadelphia Phillies over Los Angeles Dodgers in five games




Which team was I more guilty of dissing last round? I'd have to lean towards Los Angeles, seeing as I was saying how I felt tempted to pick a St. Louis sweep. But I'd also be more inclined to believe that the Cardinals were more of a letdown than a case of the Dodgers impressing me. The Phillies, on the other hand, won me over again with their amazing comeback win in Game Four at Coors Field. They've had a formidable lineup all year and their last series proved to me that the champs are determined to defend their title and are radiating a confidence with every batter that indicates each player on the team knows they can do it. I'm saying a split in La-La Land and then the Phils win all three at Citizens Bank.




Los Angeles Angels over New York Yankees in six games




I'm not seeing too many people picking against the Yankees, and that's perfectly justifiable to stick with the team that's had the best record in baseball and will enjoy home-field advantage for the remainder of the playoffs. But just as Philly's ninth-inning comeback to close out Colorado impressed me, the Angels' ability to sweep away the usually pesky Red Sox was no small feat. That, and I still believe in the power of the Rally Monkey. Yankees take Game One, drop the next three before winning Game Five, and then collapse at home before they can force a seventh game.