Major League Baseball begins its’ mainly October extravaganza with the Major League Playoffs beginning today. There are 16 teams qualified for the playoffs with 8 from the National League and 8 from the American League. There are 8 Wild Card Series with 4 in the American League, which starts today at 1 PM CT, and 4 in the National League starting tomorrow. The Wild Card Series, which is best 2 out of 3, will be played at the higher seeds’ home field.

Then the National League Division Series will be played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas and Minute Maid Park in Houston. The ALDS will be played at Petco Field in San Diego and Dodger Stadium in LA. This is to keep a bubble situation for the playoffs to prevent any COVID cases. The National League is in Arlington and Houston and the American League is in LA and San Diego to keep it as neutral sites, which is too bad for the higher seeds as they earned home fields, but safety comes first at this time, and it worked spectacularly well for the National Hockey League, where the Tampa Bay Lightning just defeated the Dallas Stars to win the Stanley Cup in 6 games last night as Victor Hedman of Tampa Bay was selected as the Conn Smythe Award winner for most valuable player in the NHL playoffs, and it’s worked as superbly well in the NBA where the LA Lakers and LeBron James square off with Jimmy “Buckets” Butler and the Miami Heat tomorrow (Wednesday) night in the NBA Finals beginning at 8 PM CT on ABC. Will have preview and prediction tomorrow.

So MLB is following this blueprint. The Tennessee Titans reported that 3 players and 5 staff members had tested positive for COVID, so they and the Minnesota Vikings, the team they played this past Sunday in a phenomenal game which the Titans won 31-30 as long time New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski converted 6 of 6 field goals, including the 55 yard game winner with 1:44 left to clinch it for the Titans on the road and move them to 3-0. They’ll be off this week as will the Vikings, as the Titans were scheduled to play a huge game at home versus the Steelers, while the Vikings were at Houston. It is hoped that the Titans and Vikings can resume a week from Sunday, October 11th, Bama Golf’s birthday. With only 3 players positive, if the rest of the team can survive maybe the Titans can make it a week from Sunday. This Sunday looks like a long shot.

So, Major League Baseball is doing the right thing.

ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and TBS will televise the Wild Card Series beginning today. Game 1 is No. 6 Houston Astros @No.3 Minnesota Twins, 1 PM CT on ABC.

At 2 PM CT on ESPN, the No. 7 Chicago White Sox, a surprisingly strong team for most of the regular season before struggling at the end are @ the No.2 Oakland A’s a very strong team.

At 4 PM CT on TBS, the No.8 Toronto Blue Jays are @ No.1 Tampa Bay Rays.

And at 6 PM CT on ESPN, the No. 5 New York Yankees are @ No.4 Cleveland Indians.

Wednesday

11 AM CT, ESPN

No. 7 Cincinnati Reds @ No.2 Atlanta Braves, should be a highly competitive series with the Reds’ pitching led by aces Sonny Gray and Trevor Bauer trying to neutralize the Braves’ bats.

1 PM CT, ABC

No. 6 Miami Marlins @ No.3 Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have really had a resurgence with former star catcher David Ross managing. Miami has had a nice season as well.

1 PM CT, ABC

Astros @ Twins

2 PM CT, ESPN

White Sox @A’s

3 PM CT, TBS

Blue Jays @ Rays

4 PM CT, ESPN2

No.5 St. Louis Cardinals @ No.4 San Diego Padres-Padres can really hit. Cardinals’ pitching is going to be seriously challenged.

6 PM CT, ESPN

Yankees @Indians

9 PM CT, ESPN

No.8 Milwaukee Brewers @ No.1 Los Angeles Dodgers-Brewers have their hands full with this juggernaut.

The ALDS Series will be televised by TBS and the NLDS series will be televised by MLB Network and Fox Sports1

TBS will televise the ALCS and FOX and Fox Sports 1 will carry the NLCS.

The World Series commences October 20th and will be televised by FOX.

With all that background intel here are the predictions.

Wild Card Games

National League

Dodgers over Brewers in 2

Padres over Cardinals in 2

Cubs over Marlins in 2

Braves over Reds in 3,

That’ll be a tough series, maybe the best series of the wild card round.

American League

Rays over Blue Jays in 3

Yankees over Indians in 3

Twins over Astros in 2

A’s over White Sox in 2

NLDS

Dodgers over Padres in 4

Braves over Cubs in 5

Another tough series for the Braves, but they advance.

ALDS

Rays over Yankees in 5

A’s over Twins in 5

Expecting 2 hard fought series in the American League.

NLCS

Braves over Dodgers in 7

I’m going to take the Braves with their bats and enough pitching and I like the Braves coaching better than the Dodgers. Give me the Atlanta team to make their first World Series appearance since 1999 when they lost to the Yankees in 4 games.

ALCS

Rays over A’s in 6

Very bullish on this Rays team. They have some serious arms. When Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman threw a 101 MPH fastball at a Rays batter’s head, luckily missing him, Rays Manager Kevin Cash said after the game, “I’ve got plenty of guys who can throw 98.” He got fined for it, but you loved it. The Rays never backed down to the Yankees and took 8 out of 10 games from them this season. They get the last laugh in the American League.

World Series

Atlanta Braves vs.Tampa Bay Rays

This should be a superb Fall Classic with the heavy lumber of the Atlanta team, as Skip Carey used to say, versus the pitching artillery of the Rays. After going back and forth on this one, both teams have a lot of magic to them, give me,

The Atlanta Braves in 7 over the Tampa Bay Rays

MVP of the World Series

Freddie Freeman

I expect Freddie to also be the MVP of the National League as he hit .341 with 13 homers and 53 Ribeyes and was a dominant player and leader for this stellar team. Like Freddie and the Braves to bring home the World Championship Trophy to the ATL.

I picked Mike Trout in the American League so I’ll stick with him for the AL MVP.

Cy Young for the American League will be Shane Bieber of the Cleveland Indians

Cy Young for the National League will be the resurgent Yu Darvish of the Chicago Cubs.