2013 MLB Playoff Predictions from Across the Web

Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

With the 163rd game in the books, its time for the so-called experts from across the web to pick who will be taking home the trophy later this month.

Detroit Tigers’ fans either have their team winning it all or fearing the offensive power outage from September will bleed into October causing their season to end at Comerica Park in Monday’s Game 3.

So what do the experts says?

CBS Sports

The prognosticators at CBS Sports see the winner of the Detroit-Oakland series going a long way. Of the six staffers who predicted the playoffs, from the wild-card round to World Series, four of them had either the Tigers or Athletics winning it all and one had Detroit losing in the World Series. Danny Knobler (Tigers in five over the Dodgers) and Shelby Miller (Tigers in seven over the Cardinals) predict our Tigers to win it all, while Mike Axisa (A’s over the Dodgers in six) and Dayn Perry (A’s over the Cardinals in seven) pick the A’s.

Jon Heyman picks the Red Sox to beat the Dodgers in seven while Matt Snyder (not that one) is the lone CBS writer picking an NL team to win it all, the Dodgers over the Tigers in seven.

Four of the six writers see the Indians besting the Rays in the AL Wild-Card game and they all see the Pirates beating their division rival Reds.

In the ALDS, all writers have the Red Sox advancing to the ALCS. Three pick the Tigers to advance and three pick the A’s. In the NLDS, all but Axisa sees the Cardinals beating the upstart Pirates and they all see the Dodgers besting the Braves.

ESPN

As they do with every sport (except hockey), ESPN employs a small village of analysts.  Of the 29 “insiders” the World Wide Leader tapped for this feature, eight see the Tigers winning it all (tied with Boston for the most picks to win it all). No one has the Tigers winning the American League pennant but losing in the World Series.

Some interesting picks include Pedro Gomez picking Cincinnati to win it all (in seven games over Tampa Bay)–go Wildcard road teams! David Schoenfield has the Pirates besting the A’s in seven games.

Astonishingly, no one at ESPN picked the Yankees to win the World Series.

Bleacher Report

What is more rare than the Pirates in the playoffs? A Bleacher Report article that is not cut into 400 slides.

B/R has six people you’ve probably never heard of before picking the postseason and the results are positive short-term for the Tigers. The team is split on who will come out of the AL Wild Card game, with half picking Cleveland, and half picking Tampa Bay. Five of the six have Pittsburgh advancing in their Wild Card game.

In the ALDS five of the six pick Boston, with one picking Tampa Bay. All six pick Detroit over Oakland. All have L.A. advancing and five have the Cardinals emerging from the other division series.

For the AL pennant, two pick the Tigers, three Red Sox and one Rays. For the NLCS, five see the Dodgers prevailing and one sees the Cardinals. Once again the Tigers are picked to win it all twice, Boston twice and Los Angeles twice.

Some other big sports websites, such as Yahoo! and Fox Sports, have yet to provide staff predictions. Should they provide them we will relay that to you. In the meantime the people who make their living predicting sporting outcomes have updated the odds of winning the World Series for the playoff teams.

Vegas

As of this morning, the Tigers have fallen behind the Dodgers and Red Sox as the favorite to win the World Series.

Los Angeles Dodgers (5/2)

Boston Red Sox (3/1)

Detroit Tigers (5/1)

St Louis Cardinals (5/1)

Oakland Athletics (8/1)

Atlanta Braves (9/1)

Cincinnati Reds (18/1)

Pittsburgh Pirates (18/1)

Cleveland Indians (20/1)

Tampa Bay Rays (25/1)