MLB Playoffs and Moss to Minny

Major League Baseball playoffs start tonight.  I tend to greet this event with a "meh" response.  Television schedules dictate far too much and I tend to lose interest even when my beloved Cardinals are involved.  But I am interested nontheless.  But first:

In case you hadn't heard, Randy Moss was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for a 3rd round pick.  The obvious for the Vikings is that they must win now.  The bulk of their core is getting old and/or has an expiring contract in the next year or two.  In trading for Moss, they finally decided to part with future draft pick to help win now.  While many are expecting the Vikings to sign Moss to an extension, I would think that to not be so smart a choice.  Not unless they want to deal with a huge new contract going to Moss with no one throwing to him after this year.  That would be dumb. 

For the sake of Brad Childress, the Vikings need to win now.  He has invested too much of himself into this current team for it to fail.  With the season ending injury to Sidney Rice, and the recurring injuries to Percy Harvin, the down field passing game of Minnesota has struggled and would have continued to do so.  Moss will definitely help that.  Plus, Moss and Brett Favre seem to really want to play on the same team as the other.  So that has to count for something, right?

Well, Minnesota is playing on monday night this week against the J E T S, JETS, JETS, JETS!!!  Darrell Revis is apparently back this week for New York.  I'll put an over/under for Moss at 2 catches.

Back to baseball.  There are four playoff series with three of them starting today.  I'll go with Texas winning against Tampa Bay in 4 games.  The Rays seem to play better on the road, and since they have home field in this series, I suspect that will play against them somehow.  I'm really not interested in this series at all.

If I have a sleeper for this years playoffs, its the Cincinnati Reds.  I really don't expect them to beat the Phillies, nor does anyone else.  But the Reds ranked in the top ten in all of baseball in every offensive stat that matters (OBP, runs, SLG, ) so I think they might actually keep up with the Phillie pitching.  And they tied for an MLB best .988 fielding percentage.  And you can say all you want about the Reds mediocre pitching, but with extra days off because of television schedules, that bullpen can get worked all they want because they will all get an extra day off that they wouldn't have gotten during the regular season.  So you know what, Reds in 5.

Minnesota Twins vs New York Yankees will also start tonight in the new open stadium in Minneapolis.  Temps are expected to be in the 40's tonight.  Should be interesting.  The stat that everyone is throwing out for this one is how the Yankees (besides Cano/Swisher) are hitting much worse away from the launching pad of the new Yankee Stadium.  And how besides Sabathia, no one else on the Yankee staff knows how to pitch.  Let be honest here, Francisco Liriano is starting Game 1 for Minnesota.  He has never pitched this many innings in a season, struggled down the stretch, and didn't exactly pitch that well in relief in last years playoff against this same Yankee team.  Game 2 starter Carl Pavano has had solid postseason outings in the past.  If Minny wins tonight, I say Twins in 5.  If not, Yankees in 4.

I want to think that in the last year for Bobby Cox as an MLB manager, that he might go into retirement as a champion.  But there are too many injuries for the Braves (Chipper, Prado, Jurrjens) and San Francisco pitchers are just too good.  I am amuzed to see the likelihood of Barry Zito being left off the Giants postseason roster in favor of rookie Madison Bumgarner.  I think its the right move.  Especially is the Giants only plan to go with a three man rotation of Lincecum, Cain, and Sanchez.  Giants in a sweep.

I'm not going to act like I'm that smart and pick past the divisional round.  Particularly when I might have picked half of these series wrong.