World Series Champion. These are the three words that every single baseball player strives for and looks ahead to in those early days of March. A lot has went down since then. The Los Angeles Angels are still the laughing stock of the majors and the Los Angeles Dodgers have proven that you can indeed buy a team. The American League East has continued to be the best division in baseball, while the NL Central has taken the prize for best National League division. Josh Hamilton batted .245 all while being paid 15 million dollars. Hope that’s worth the money there Arte Moreno. Finally, the Marlins and Astros combined for 194 losses so far! At least we can always count on those two teams being cellar dwellars.

Before you know it the playoffs will be starting up with the wild card games getting underway. Below are my predictions on not only who will win but who will be playing in all of the first round play-in games and divisional series.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Wild Card Play-In Game: Tampa Bay Rays vs. Texas Rangers 

When the season began a lot of teams counted out the Texas Rangers. A lot of it had to do with the loss of Josh Hamilton along with some of their players climbing the age chart. The Rangers are slowly falling back and could wind up not even making the playoffs. For now they have a half game lead over the Indians, with three other teams within 2.5 games. If this ends up being the wild card play-in game I have no doubt that the Rays and Joe Maddon will take this game. David Price would obviously get the start as he has had another superb season in Tampa. He is currently 8-8 with an ERA of 3.42. Rookie sensation Wil Myers has played amazing over the past two months and looks to be the David Freese of 2013. The Rangers do have Cy-Young candidate Yu Darvish who has all but sealed up the most strikeouts for 2013 of any pitcher. The only problem is that the Rangers picked a poor time to play bad and they have lost seven straight games. Even if they do get the second wild card spot it seems very unlikely that they will survive the elimination game.

PREDICTION: Tampa Bay Rays - 5  Texas Rangers - 1

ALDS: Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays

The way the new system is set-up has the best team in each league playing the winner of the wild card game. This means that the Red Sox will be facing the Rays in a battle of the AL East and a chance to play in the 2013 AL Championship Series. The Red Sox have looked like the best team in baseball for the better part of six months and currently hold the best record in all of baseball. The Divisional Series is a best of five matchup so you will be seeing Jon Lester, Jake Peavy and Clay Buchholz in the first three games for Boston. Since Price will be starting in the Wild Card game the first pitcher to go for the Rays will likely be Alex Cobb followed by Matt Moore and potentially Chris Archer. This should be a great series and it could go either way.

PREDICTION: Boston Red Sox over Tampa Bay Rays in four games.

ALDS: Detroit Tigers vs. Oakland Athletics

Yes, the exact same matchup as 2012 will happen again this year. The loveable Athletics versus the kings of the American League Tigers. Game one will look to be a very interesting match up with Justin Verlander toeing off against young blood Jarrod Parker. Game two will be equally as interesting as Anibal Sanchez who is currently 14-7 versus A.J. Griffin. The bats for the Tigers will prove to be too much for the A’s as they will be bumped from the playoffs for the second straight year by the exact same team. In fact, it will be an exact repeat of last season as they will lose in five games, breaking the hearts of A’s fans all around the world for another year.

PREDICTION: Detroit Tigers over Oakland Athletics in five games.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Wild Card Play-In Game: Cincinnati Reds vs. St. Louis Cardinals

A battle of NL Central foes will be the main ingredient in this wild card game as the Cardinals will face the Reds. With Johnny Cueto fresh off the DL you might just see him pitch in this game. If it is not Cueto it will most definitely be Mat Latos who has been having a great season as well. The Cardinals will likely have Adam Wainwright on the bump for the one game battle. The Cardinals have had the Reds number this season with a record of 11-8 but the Reds have won the past four of five games. Brandon Phillips has been playing great all season and has looked like the best second basemen in the National League. The Cardinals Allen Craig has dominated as well this year with a batting average of .315 while driving in 97 men. Cardinals fans have been saying Albert who?

PREDICTION: St. Louis Cardinals - 4  Cincinnati Reds - 1

NLDS: Atlanta Braves vs. St. Louis Cardinals

The Braves have been playing very mediocre ball over the final month of the season and their starting pitching is getting up there in innings. Kris Medlen has finally shown signs of 2012 and is looking like the ace on a staff full of question marks. Mike Minor has pitched very well over the first five months of the season but has really shown wear over the final month and has been getting rocked. If this team even has a chance at winning the NLDS they are going to need Jason Heyward to comeback and perform like he did in August. The Cardinals seem to have the Braves number when it comes to knocking them out of the playoffs and it looks like it will remain that way again this year.

PREDICTION: St. Louis Cardinals over the Atlanta Braves in a three game sweep.

NLDS: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

This Dodgers team is very scary. They have a nasty one-two punch in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke to start game one and two. Basically ensuring that they will take the first two of this set. The Pirates finally make the playoffs due in large part to their starting pitching staff and potential MVP Andrew McCutchen. If Matt Kemp can get back into the lineup and perform like he did in 2011 I see no reason why this team can’t go all the way. Sorry Pirates fans but hey, at least you made the playoffs, right?

PREDICTION: Los Angeles Dodgers over Pittsburgh Pirates in a three game sweep.