2012 League Championship Series Predictions: Meet the new Final Four, same as the old Final Four

My strategy of picking against my rooting interest proved to be fairly accurate, as I nailed not only the winners of three of the four series in the last round but the exact number of games too. My only miss was Oakland, a team that by now appears to be jockeying with my beloved Braves for postseason infutility. The final thoughts on this once again disappointing Atlanta season are forthcoming down the line, probably after I return from the vacation next weekend.

The downside to having as many teams I'm by no means a fan of advance last round means that, of course, my wife may finally have a point when breaking out the annual "You don't even like these teams" argument when I have any sports playoffs on TV. Still, I'm not about to tell her that and I'm more than likely still going to make playoff baseball appointment viewing since we are still given two fairly good matchups.

As you can tell by another vanilla graphic for this post, I still don't have the time to construct a more creative image to accompany this post—not that I've necessarily got any particularly compelling ideas dreamed up anyway. Unfortunately for me, these "final four" remaining teams are all quite familiar faces—well, logos, at least. Still, only one's going to be called champions this year, and damned if I'm not still interested to find out which club that will be. Perhaps I'll have developed a more passionate rooting interest by the time I'm posting my World Series picks.

Again, these aren't presented in any sort of order this year:

Boston Red Sox over Detroit Tigers in six games

 Make no mistake, if any one team remaining now is the one I will be rooting for, it is Detroit. Still, while I'd love to see some redemption for a Tigers squad that came up short last year, to me there is just no getting around the fact that Boston not only finished with the league's best record, but continues to find ways to win. Detroit might have the better starting rotation, but the Red Sox rotation isn't exactly one to write off either. Boston's lineup is filled with conrtibutors, they've probably got the stronger bullpen, and then, oh yeah, there is that whole home field advantage thing. It remains astonishing to think that this team so many experts and observers (your truly included) to be the worst team in the American League East is now eight wins away from the franchise's third World Series title in a decade after 86 years of heartbreak and frustration. This series could see any number of terrific pitcher's duels, but in the end, I think when the Sox don't steal games late, they'll outright blow the Tigers away and take care of business.

St. Louis Cardinals over Los Angeles Dodgers in five games

Drew Magary's fine Deadspin piece already bemoaned the increasingly tired Cardinals narrative, but as I said last round, I'm done doubting this team. The loss of Albert Pujols was supposed to send this team tumbling back to mediocrity, but instead they've seemingly emerged maybe better than ever. There is little doubt that much of America may be expecting and/or hoping for the Dodgers to return to the World Series, what with a certain player named Yasiel Puig. Los Angeles will have the benefit of starting the basically unhittable and almost certain National League Cy Young winner, Clayton Kershaw, in this series, but it's the defense behind him that I think gives St. Louis the edge. The Cards remain a calm, cool, and collected team of professionals who simply are not as prone to error(s) as the Dodgers, and I'm willing to say that I give Mike Matheny the managerial edge over Don Mattingly as well. Simply put, even if Mattingly is able to start Kershaw twice in five games, I think that's all St. Lou is going to need to return to the Fall Classic ... yet again.