2010 MLB Playoffs

Cincinnati Reds:

Strengths: Nothing like starting with the weakest team from the weakest division.

It's pretty simple with the Reds this year. They added a couple of veterans in Scott Rolen and Orlando Cabrera, got an MVP-caliber season from Joey Votto, and did just enough pitching to walk away with the NL Central crown.

WDAE’s drive-time show host Steve Duemig has a Facebook page for fans to talk sports in the Tampa Bay area.

Looking at his Facebook page, there are many vociferous Joe Maddon critics that post about the Rays manager’s decisions in a game.

This has been going on for the last few years. Many people think Maddon tends to outsmart himself by fielding different lineups or using different relievers to get an out.

The Philadelphia Philles were the proud owners of the NL's best record during the regular season, and hold home field advantage against the Cincinnati Reds in their Division Series playoff matchup, beginning Wednesday.

So why should anyone believe that the Reds, and their recently extended manager Dusty Baker, can topple the heavily phavorited Phils?

Oh, let me count the ways.

A wise-ruling emperor will step down from his throne if it is better for his royal subjects to be governed by a more respected successor.  On the contrary, a stubborn emperor will be forced out.

The Yankees, to me, fall into the stubborn emperor category: they are the long-time personification of the Evil Empire in the Empire State.

Last year in the playoffs, Alex Rodriguez was outstanding for the New York Yankees.  He carried the team through the American League Division Series and the American League Championship Series.  Although he struggled in the first few games of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies last year, he had several key hits to help the Yankees become World Series Champions.

Well, it's official: the 2010 MLB playoff schedule is all set.

When the Braves and Giants won their games on Sunday, they clinched the final two postseason spots still up for grabs. 

Now, the real work begins. Regular season success is one thing; winning in the postseason is something decidedly different. Who has what it takes to win it all in 2010?

We're breaking down every matchup of the four division series, telling you not just who will win each game, but why. Let's begin with Wednesday's games.

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.

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.

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.

As the Atlanta Braves fought for the right to play into the second phase of the season on Sunday, the Philadelphia Phillies started Cole Hamels against Atlanta’s Tim Hudson.

And then after Hamels came Roy Oswalt.

And then after Oswalt came …

And so it was for the Phillies on the final day of the regular season, their National League East title wrapped up long ago.

No Philadelphia pitcher worked longer than Hamels’ two innings, with manager Charlie Manuel using Game 162 as a “staff” day to get eight different pitchers some work.