QOTD: First Round-itis?

Monday, October 08 2007 @ 10:39 AM EDT

Until Damon hit that home run yesterday, I thought it was all my fault. See, going into the first round of this year's playoffs, I thought there were four teams who were clearly better than their opponents in the four series at hand.

Yup, LAA was obviously the best team in the AL, just a noodge ahead of NYY. And CHC and PHI would make for a fun traditionally-loveable-losers NLCS bracket, certainly (the NL West never wins anything, after all). Then yesterday I found myself one dominating Jake Westbrook start -- that never came, of course -- from all four being swept in the first round. 

So as we just barely avoid the first "four-sweeps-and-out" first round of the Wild Card era, here's a couple of simple questions for you ...

• What surprised you in the first round?
• What, if any, trends do you see going forward toward the World Series?
• Which player now holds the pole position for World Series MVP?
• Five teams left ... rank 'em by their chance to win it all.

On that last one, here's mine:

1. Boston (that's hard to write --  hope I'm wrong!)
2. Colorado (riding the streak of all streaks at the right time)
3. Arizona (they can't keep it up, can they?)
4. Cleveland (Still have to get past NYY)
5. New York/AL (If they beat Cleveland, they zoom to the top of this list)
   
   
   

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