Where do Detroit Tigers finish? MCB roundtable picks postseason winners

Sep 28, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Tigers players celebrate after the game against the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park. The Tigers clinched the Central Division Championship by defeating the Twins. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Hannum 

KC is going to win that Wild Card. I’ve got to go with the team that had the good 2nd half, not the team that has the better full season run differential.

For the NL Wild Card I’ll pick the Pirates. Amazingly enough, it’s because Edinson Volquez looks like a better bet than Madinson Bumgarner.

Detroit is beating Baltimore, Tigers pitching is better than the numbers suggest, Orioles pitching is worse than the numbers suggest and the Orioles O is just going to get shut down.

Whoever wins the AL Wild Card is going to get pounded by the Angels. They’re the cream of the crop in the AL, with the best record despite a slow start. No Garret Richards hurts them a lot in a 7-gamer, but in a short series I think they’ll be fine.

Dodgers and Nats win their respective series, finest rotations in the National League (maybe in baseball).

ALCS goes to the Angels. NLCS goes to the Dodgers. We get another Freeway Series that no-one outside of California watches, despite featuring some of the biggest stars in the game. Who wins that series? The Dodgers do.

As for why the Tigers don’t get past the Angels, in that series my crystal ball says we see them basically struggle in exactly the same way we’ve seen them struggle in the past. The games are all going to be close and they’re going to come down to defense and being able to hold the other team on the basepaths. The Tigers will lose a couple of games due to defensive miscues and a couple of games due to Ricky Rallies in late innings. They’ll win a couple with fireworks displays too, but it won’t be enough.