MLB Playoff Bracket 2014: Full Postseason Schedule and Bold Predictions

One thing the Major League Baseball postseason teaches us is that after 162 games, we still don't know anything about this game that's so near and dear to our hearts. Looking at regular-season records and stats is only a guide, because once games start it's all up in the air. 

That's what keeps us watching, because if we could end up predicting these things with no actual guesswork involved it wouldn't be nearly as fun. This year also feels different because there's not one dominant team that stands out above the rest. 

Even the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals, who finished with the best records in the American League and National League, have flaws that can be exposed in the right matchup. With that out of the way, here are bold predictions for the postseason after we look at the playoff schedule. 

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Bold Predictions

The Los Angeles Angels Will Be One-and-Done

Welcome to the postseason, Mike Trout! It's nice having you here and eventually getting that MVP award you have deserved for the last three years. This is a great moment for baseball to have the best all-around player in the playoffs. 

Unfortunately for Trout and Angels fans, they are not going to be staying around long. 

It's not like the Angels will be the first team in history to post the best record in the regular season only to lose in the Division Series, but regardless of whether they are playing Oakland or Kansas City, there won't be a long playoff run in store for Mike Scioscia's group. 

The one thing everyone says about October baseball is you need pitching to win, especially starting pitching. The Angels have Jered Weaver at the top, whose wins above replacement (WAR) has gone from 5.7 in 2010 and 2011 to 1.5 this year and ERA has gone from 2.41 in 2010 to 3.59 this year (per FanGraphs). 

After Weaver, the Angels are looking at a rotation that includes C.J. Wilson (4.51 ERA), Hector Santiago (3.75) and Matt Shoemaker, who hasn't pitched since Sept. 15. Wilson and Santiago combined for 1.3 FanGraphs' wins above replacement this season. 

Also, per Ted Keith of Sports Illustrated, the Angels weren't exactly dominant against either of their potential Division Series opponents: 

Lastly, there is the fact that Los Angeles went just 10-9 against Oakland and 3-3 against Kansas City, the two potential opponents in the Division Series. In fact, the Angels were an even .500 (19-19) against the other AL postseason entrants, so their road to their first World Series since 2002 will be anything but smooth.

The Angels are one of the few teams in baseball that can put up a lot of runs in a hurry, but with a volatile rotation capable of imploding at any moment, the margin for error is so small for a team that won 98 games in the regular season. 

Preventing runs is critical to success in the postseason. The Angels had the second-best run differential in baseball this year, but allowed more runs than Baltimore, Oakland and Kansas City. Losing Garrett Richards was bad enough, but then Tyler Skaggs' Tommy John surgery was the final blow that sealed their fate as a great regular-season team ready to fall short in October. 

Clayton Kershaw's Greatness Won't Get L.A. Far

In the NFL, a great quarterback can make an average team a Super Bowl contender by hiding other deficiencies thanks to his ability to create big plays down the field and command the game.

In Major League Baseball, a No. 1 starter can't do that because he only controls one part of the game and is only able to pitch a maximum of three times in a seven-game series. Clayton Kershaw is the biggest difference-maker of any starting pitcher in baseball, but even he can't get the Dodgers into a World Series. 

Last year, criticism fell on Kershaw's shoulders for his disastrous performance in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against St. Louis (10 hits, seven earned runs in four innings). No one remembers that in three starts before that, he allowed one earned run with 23 strikeouts in 19 innings. 

The unfortunate part for Kershaw is that he plays on a team that's not very good when he's not on the mound. The Dodgers bullpen is terrible, finishing 22nd in ERA while posting the third-most walks. They have also never been a team that plays well against other good teams. 

Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated wrote in his Dodgers playoff preview that the team being 26 games over .500 in the regular season results almost exclusively from playing the worst teams in the National League West:

In all, the Dodgers have the most potent offense of any NL team outside of the Rockies (4.43 runs per game) while allowing 3.81 runs per game (seventh) en route to the league's second-best record and run differential (+101). It's worth noting, however, that they piled up the wins against the NL West's lesser teams, going a combined 40-17 (.702) with a +75 run differential against the Padres, Rockies and Diamondbacks, but just 54-51 (.514) against the rest of their schedule.

The Dodgers are returning to the scene of last year's playoff defeat, taking on St. Louis in the Division Series. Adam Wainwright may not be Kershaw, but he's really good on his own with a 2.38 ERA and 4.5 FanGraphs' wins above replacement. 

Los Angeles rates well as a defensive team overall, with 26 defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs, but the outfield was pedestrian with Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford all having below-average overall defensive ratings. 

Kershaw can do many things on a baseball field, but he can't catch balls not hit to him and the team has been average against anyone besides the bottom three teams in the National League West. That's why the Dodgers won't make it to the World Series. 

Washington Will Win the World Series

Despite my earlier talk about no great teams in baseball right now, picking the World Series winner was among the easiest tasks of all the playoff predictions because they meet all the criteria that we look for when evaluating a championship team. 

The Nationals had the best rotation by ERA (3.04) in baseball this year. They have five starters with a legitimate argument to start in the postseason, and three finished with an ERA under 3.00 (Jordan Zimmermann, Tanner Roark, Doug Fister). 

ESPN's Doug Glanville had the best "analysis" on which starter opposing teams may want to pick on:

Their bullpen finished strong after Drew Storen moved back to the closer's role, finishing fourth with a 3.00 ERA. They have above-average or better defenders at shortstop (Ian Desmond), third base (Anthony Rendon) and catcher (Wilson Ramos). 

The one Achilles heel that seemed to be holding the Nationals back was on offense. Overall, the numbers are strong with the eighth-best on-base percentage (.321), ninth-most runs (686) and 10th-best slugging percentage (.393). 

Any problems with the bat seem to have been fixed in August, which is when Bryce Harper started looking like the slugger we all expected him to be before that injury earlier in the season. He hit 10 of his 13 homers in the final two months, which gave the Nationals a nice trio in the middle of their order with Rendon and Adam LaRoche. 

Every other team has a notable flaw that you can single out as a reason why it won't win the World Series. The Cardinals don't score runs; the Dodgers are average when Kershaw isn't on the mound; the Pirates are relying on Edinson Volquez in their rotation. 

The Nationals are the best and most complete team in baseball entering the postseason and will capture the first World Series title in franchise history. 

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