The weather is getting cooler, the leaves on the ground are beginning to outnumber the ones still in the trees, and the calendar has reached mid-October. That means final four time in the baseball playoffs!

With both League Championship Series set to start this weekend, the Taking Back Sports writers have taken the time out of their busy schedules to make some ALCS and NLCS predictions in today’s 5-Minute Break column. While none of these predictions will amount to hill of beans in this crazy world, it’s a time-honored sports writer tradition to attempt the impossible and predict the future.

ALCS Preview

Let’s start with the defending champion New York Yankees (95-67). Alex Rodriguez reached 600 home runs and owner George Steinbrenner passed away while the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays waged battle all season for the NL East title. New York faded a bit down the stretch and finished as the AL Wildcard. Yet losing home-field advantage didn’t seem to matter much for the Bronx Bombers, who beat Minnesota like red-headed stepchildren in the ALDS. The Yankees might not be clicking on all cylinders like they did in 2009, but their lineup will make for a tough out in any series. Just being a tough out in the playoffs is not enough because the World Series is the only series that matters in Yankeeland.

The Texas Rangers (90-72), meanwhile, are the unexpected guest at the postseason party. This team wasn’t supposed to emerge from bankruptcy. It wasn’t supposed to have new (and competent) ownership. It wasn’t supposed to have a productive Vladimir Guerrero. And it most certainly wasn’t supposed to deal for postseason ace Cliff Lee before the trading deadline. But thanks to all of that as well as an MVP-caliber performance from “The Natural” Josh Hamilton, Texas ran away with the AL West Division. Thanks to a pair of dominant starts from the aforementioned Lee, the Rangers upset the Rays in their ALDS series. Now Texas is four wins from the World Series. All the Rangers have to do is beat the team that had ousted them from all of their previous playoff appearances.

In the ALCS, either the Rangers will exorcise their postseason demons or the Yankees will once again rain on the Texas parade.

Dr. Sports Fan

That should be enough, but I have been wrong (many times) before. In the ALCS, I really just think New York is that much better than Texas. Josh Hamilton is too banged up, and Cliff Lee will not be able to match up with CC Sabathia. Bad news all around for the Rangers.

ALCS: Yankees in 5 (CC Sabathia MVP)

Jack Bauer of All Sports

The Rangers seem to be a team of destiny this year with the acquisitions of Vlad and Cliff Lee, emergence of Nelson Cruz, and the MVP performance of Josh Hamilton. This is a very, very good team, and it showed with the Rangers surviving September with Hamilton on the DL. And the Rangers, yes the Rangers, have a better pitching staff than New York. The Yanks are the Yanks, and the defending champs, but I like the team with home field advantage in this series.

ALCS: Rangers in 7 (Vladimir Guerrero MVP)

Mr. Dude and Stuff

With the ALCS, the Yankees have a whole bunch of question marks and don’t feel as elite as they have before, but I still think it will be too much for Texas to overcome by anyone not named Cliff Lee.  I also see Mark Teixeira living up to that gigantic contract and getting himself some big late inning hits to win what I think will be relatively tight games.

ALCS: Yankees in 6 (Mark Teixeira MVP)

The Phoenix

In the AL, you have to keep your eye on one guy — not Cliff Lee, because I think we’ve figured out the guy is just good.  I’m talking about Josh Hamilton.  Ginger ale celebrations aside, the guy hit .111 in the ALDS vs. Tampa Bay with six strikeouts.  Seriously if it weren’t for Ian Kinsler (.444 BA, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 1.444 OPS), we wouldn’t be having this discussion.  We’d be breaking down the C.C. Sabathia/David Price matchup.

If the Rangers can steal game 1 vs. Carston Charles Sabathia with C.J. Wilson, they’ll have an early edge, but that’s a lot to ask – win game 1 of the ALCS in New York.  Lee wouldn’t go until at least game 3, and if Texas is down 0-2, this is going to be a really short series no matter how ungodly Lee is in the postseason.

I really hate to say it because I hate mentioning his name, but Alex Rodriguez needs to wake his bat up.  After all the talk about him breaking out in the postseason last year, A-Rod is back to being pretty pedestrian.  Teixeira is going to need all the help he can get, and I don’t think Robinson Cano is enough.

When all is said and done, these are still the Yankees.  It’s October, and somehow these guys somehow always win when everyone doubts them.  Well, I didn’t just walk in here from the cotton fields.

ALCS: Yankees in 6 (Robinson Cano MVP)

Jack Bauer of All Sports

Fact check, Adio: Texas is hosting Game 1. They have home field.

The Phoenix

Don’t the yankees have a better record..?!?

Dr. Sports Fan

Wildcard teams don’t get home-field advantage (regardless of record) unless its in the World Series after their All-Star team wins. Nothing I said makes any sense, but that’s just how MLB rolls…

Jack Bauer of All Sports

Just ask the ‘08 Eagles. Hard to argue a 9-6-1 team is more deserving than 9-7, but you get the idea…

Sports Drone

I’m not really an AL guy… but I think the Rangers are going to win this series.  Yes, the Yankees have the experience, but I trust the pitching of the Rangers much more.  Sabathia is really the only pitcher on the Yankees I trust.  I know, I know… Pettite is one of the best playoff pitchers of all time, but he’s coming off a recent injury and has only pitched 2 games since being back.  The way that the Twins were playing, I don’t really believe any of the Yankee pitchers had a challenge in the ALDS.  We’ve also seen what Cliff Lee could do against the Yankees from last year’s WS and if it comes down to 7 games… Texas has the huge advantage with Lee over the probable starter of Hughes.  Even if Sabathia pitches on 3 days… I think Lee will still have the advantage.  I think these teams match up really well, but I think it will wind up being Roy Halladay vs. Cliff Lee in game 1 of the WS.  Can you imagine what that would be like in Philly?

ALCS: Texas in 6 (Josh Hamilton MVP)

NLCS Preview

The two-time defending National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies (97-65) rode a rollercoaster season to white-hot finish with baseball’s best record. After spending much of the season in deep offensive malaise, the Phillies used a midseason trade for Roy Oswalt and the re-emergence of Cole Hamels to spark a 27-9 finish to clinch their fourth straight NL East Championship as well as the best record in baseball. Along with some pitcher named Roy Halladay, those pitchers are the main reason that Philadelphia is the odds-on favorite to win the 2010 World Series. Ironically, it’s the Phillies offense that causes most of the nail biting in the Delaware Valley. That same offense was once the strength of a team that’s been to the last two World Series and won it two years ago.

The Phillies trio of aces have nothing on the big 3 atop the San Francisco Giants (92-70) rotation. The Giants made the playoffs on the strength their big three of Tim Lincecum (reigned two-time NL Cy Young winner), Jonathan Sanchez, and Matt Cain. Thanks to an MLB-record 1.78 team ERA in the month of September, San Francisco surpassed the upstart San Diego Padres and clinched the NL West on the last game of the season. Newcomers Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell as well as rookie catcher Buster Posey have given Kung Fu Panda some offensive help. Even though Philly is the clear favorite, no one around the game would be shocked if the Giants advanced to the World Series.

Dr. Sports Fan

The Giants and Phillies have similarly matched pitching, but I give the edge to the Phillies in hitting, fielding, and experience.

NLCS: Phillies in 6 (Shane Victorino MVP)

Jack Bauer of All Sports

The Phils have the bat power to overcome the Giants pitching. The Giants do not have the offense to overcome the Phils’ pitching. That said, the Giants are a good team and will be able to compete in the series.

NLCS: Phillies in 6 (Roy Halladay MVP)

Mr. Dude and Stuff

The Phillies just have too much more offense than the Giants, even with it under-performing in the NLDS. The Giants are relying too much on their young pitchers and Buster Posey to produce in the middle of the lineup, I just find it too hard for them to overcome the Phillies, especially in a rowdy Citizens Bank Park atmosphere to start off.

NLCS: Phillies in 6 (Ryan Howard MVP – That’s right, my MVP money is on the first base power bats in both LCS.)

The Phoenix

CAUTION — LONG WINDED

.. .. .. as a devout Phillies fan, I must beg and plead you not to toy with the baseball gods. I like how Mr. “I Don’t do Predictions” is the primary author behind this, by the way.

Anyways…

Initially when the topic of NLCS predictions came up, my initial response was “I don’t want to and please don’t make me. I test not the baseball gods.” However, since I’m a responsible journalist of sorts, I shall submit.

First of all, can we just say that this is probably one of the greatest collections of pitching in the history of the postseason: Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt on one side with Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez on the other. Both teams were top-10 in ERA, and they’re 1-2 in ERA in the postseason.

Both trios of pitchers are equally impressive, so in my opinion, pitching is kind of a wash. With all the conversation about the anemia behind the Giants offense, people fail to realize that the Phillies were equally unimpressive against the Reds. As a team, they’re only batting .212 and only Chase Utley has a home run so far. Not good. The difference between the two offenses is that Philadelphia has the personnel to get runs on the board quick, fast and in a hurry. Putting up fat numbers against SF pitching keeps the bullpen (another strength) … well, in the bullpen. Of all the people that need to get going in the NLCS for Philadelphia, the most important is Placido Polanco. Batting .111 in the two-spot is NO BUENO!

You have to like the matchup if you’re a Phillies fan for one reason: who in San Francisco’s lineup scares you? Bottom nine, two on, two outs, two run deficit: .. who’s gonna get that home run? Burrell? Strikes out too much. Huff? Kinda doubt it. Posey? Not necessarily a home run guy. I would be worried if the Giants had some kind of speed on the base paths, but they don’t have that, either, really.

I trust Philadelphia’s offense a lot more than San Francisco’s, and I trust that Howard and Utley will be “bashing the ball like the Cerrano of old.” However, since I respect the Giants starting staff, I’ll say Phillies in 6.

NLCS: Phillies in 6 (Roy Halladay MVP)

Sports Drone

The Giants really scare me as a Phillies fan. I’ve seen the Giants, even when they weren’t in the playoff race, come into Philly and dominate them the past few seasons. The fact the Phillies didn’t hit very well last series against pitching that was much, MUCH weaker than San Fran’s also scares me a little. I think the Phillies can do ok against Lincecum, but I’m really nervous about Jonathan Sanchez in game 2. He seems to always get the best of the Phillies. I still think the Phillies are going to win, but I think they’re going to have to scratch and claw to get there. I think the Phillies playoff experience is the difference here. San Fran is talented offensively, but they’re all a pack of journeyman. It won’t be enough for them to beat Philly.

NLCS: Phillies in 6 (Brad Lidge MVP — I know, I know, it sounds crazy… but I think every game is going to be won by 1-2 runs and I think Lidge will baffle the Giants hitters.)

The Phoenix

If what you say about Lidge is true, then I better go to the pharmacy and stock up on heart medication…

So we’re at the conference finals, with the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins now just three wins away from playing for hockey’s ultimate prize. But really, it seems like there are only two contenders for the Stanley Cup: the aforementioned Red Wings and Penguins. You might remember these teams from such matchups as last year’s Stanley Cup Finals.

Yes, same teams as last year. Amazingly, that hasn’t happened since 1984, when the Edmonton Oilers stopped the New York Islanders from winning a fifth consecutive Cup after the Isles swept them the year before. In fact, the Isles lost more games in that one Cup Finals than in the four they won, in which they lost three total. Just shows you don’t win four of these things by accident, folks.

To go back even further, the last time a team won consecutive Cups by beating the same team twice was in 1978, when the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins. Yes, two teams that are now in the same division met for the Cup two straight years. The NHL also thought it was a good idea to have Los Angeles and Pittsburgh in the same division for eight years. And people say Gary Bettman has caused the league problems.

But anyway, we’ve got some kind of history happening here, and things are set up perfectly for it. The San Jose Sharks aren’t here, and the Wings have already flown by the Anaheim Ducks. The Chicago Blackhawks are very inexperienced, don’t have a stud goaltender like Vancouver, don’t hit as much as Anaheim and aren’t as skilled with the puck as San Jose.

In the East, the Penguins don’t have to face the Boston Bruins or the New Jersey Devils, and they’ve already defeated the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin. Instead, Crosby, Malkin and Friends get the Carolina Hurricanes, the East’s sixth-best team.

So let’s plan the parade in Detroit or Pittsburgh, right? Not exactly.

The Blackhawks might be young, but youth didn’t stop the Penguins from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals last year. They’ve got some experience in Martin Havlat, Brian Campbell and Nikolai Khabibulin, so they aren’t completely a group of wide-eyed kids. But the wide-eyed kids will have to be the difference. Put simply, the Blackhawks aren’t beating the Red Wings without Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane playing great. No goals and few shots aren’t going to cut it.

As for the Hurricanes, they’ve got a great weapon in their arsenal: Cam Ward. Nobody has beaten him in a playoff series so far, and the guy is a perfect 4-for-4 in Game 7s. Ward might be the best clutch performer there is today, and I’m not limiting that to just hockey.

But as good as Ward is, the Canes can’t win if they can’t outscore the Penguins. Crosby and Malkin have carried Pittsburgh all year long, and Carolina has no scorer to match them, even counting Eric Staal. They’ve got to win this series on the blue line, or Ward’s streak will be over.

So after all of that analysis, what’s my prediction for these conference finals?

Let’s plan the parade in either the Motor City or the Steel City. Nothing’s stopping history.

Alexander Ovechkin. Sidney Crosby.

They’re the NHL’s two marquee players. And they hate each other.

Forty Percent.

That’s how many cable subscribers had the opportunity to watch these players and their respective teams do battle for seven games to win the right to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

As elementary math will tell you, Sixty Percent of cable subscribers do not get Versus, the primary carrier of the NHL playoffs this season and the previous three seasons. Have you wondered lately, or anytime in the past four years, what happened to hockey and why it isn’t on TV anymore?

Answer: Hockey never left TV, it’s just only on 40 percent of TVs with cable.

With all do respect to the probably great people who work over there, Versus is basically the Detroit Lions of cable channels. That’s bad news for hockey fans, and for sports fans across the board who will tune in to any sport come playoff time to watch a good, competitive series with the top players in a sport. I’m at best a casual hockey fan, but having more free time then I’d like, I’ve been tuning into Versus the past month to watch the NHL playoffs for the same reasons sports fans in general might tune in. A sport I do not care about whatsoever is soccer, but come World Cup time, I’ll watch, because it’s the World Cup, the premier event of a top sport featuring its best players.

Perhaps this season more than ever, the presence of the NHL Playoffs on Versus has proven to be a disaster to the sport. The reality is (take it from Jack, who has watched quite a bit of playoff hockey this season and has followed the sport over the years at least enough to talk intelligently about it) this year’s NHL playoffs have been awesome. Among the best ever probably (I defer to the other fine writers of Taking Back Sports to offer a more precise ranking of these playoffs in the historical realm). Even ESPN — which is second only to Gary Bettman in responsibility for you, the fan, missing playoff hockey — is giving the NHL a lot of airtime on it’s various programs. (Editor’s Note: Gary Bettman isn’t the only dim-witted commissioner out there.)

I’ve also been following the NBA playoffs very closely, as my loyal readers well know. And I must say, in spite of not getting Versus in HD on my top-of-the-line package with Cox Communications (if anyone who works for Cox is reading this, I mentioned the name of my cable service on purpose for a reason), I have enjoyed watching the NHL playoffs almost as much as the NBA playoffs. Allow me to briefly recap all of the great things that have happened so far in the NHL Playoffs:

Ovechkin leads the Capitals back from a 3-1 deficit against the Rangers to win in 7 in round one.

Bitter rivals, the Flyers and the Penguins met in round one. Pens won in six tough games.

The sixth-seeded Hurricanes knock off the No. 1 seed Bruins in seven games in round two after upsetting the Devils in round one in another seven-game series.

The No. 8 Ducks knock off the top-seeded Sharks in round one to meet the Red Wings in round two. This has become one of the great rivalries in hockey this decade, as the teams have won the last two Stanley Cups. The Wings outlasted the Ducks in 7.

“Sid the Kid” and Ovechkin square off in Round 2. The Pens score the minor upset (based on seeding), crushing the Caps in D.C. in Game 7.

Nothing gets sports fans more jacked up then the excitement of a Game 7  in any sport (maybe Phil Jackson isn’t a sports fan anymore). The NHL has already had five, and there are two more rounds of playoffs to go.

This year’s NBA playoffs had an all-time series between the Celtics and Bulls, as well as two other good ones in Boston-Orlando and L.A.-Houston. The Hawks and Heat also went seven games in round one, but that series was not that exciting and of little consequence because everyone knew the winner of that series would get smoked by LeBron and Co. — which is exactly what happened. That’s only four Game 7s (not that that is weak by any standards, but that’s less than the NHL this year).

NHL Commish Gary Bettman and the Boss from Dilbert. Two beacons of mismanagement and stupidity. Speaking of ideas and marketing, are those words even in Bettman's vocabulary?

The NHL playoffs also have storylines this year that are just as intriguing as the NBA playoffs’. For the first time in a long time, the NHL playoffs have been worth watching.  Unfortunately, many can’t because of Gary Bettman, the dimwitted commissioner of the NHL.

A figure familiar to many who’ve worked in an office environment, the Boss from Dilbert, is a striking comparison. Dilbert fans out there (including yours truly) know how incompetent, lousy, and mundane a manager the Boss is. For those non-Dilbert fans, we’re not looking at Al Davis stupid, we’re looking at worse! The Boss in Dilbert has no common sense, no ability, no talent, and in all of the years of the comic, has accomplished nothing and has made life miserable for everyone around him.

With that brief description, I introduce Bettman, the man who has ruined not only the NHL, but the entire sport of hockey (at least this country). After the lockout that cancelled the 2004-05 season, ESPN declined to renew its option to broadcast NHL games. Bettman then negotiated a deal that landed the NHL on … Versus? That’s the best you could do, Bettman, commissioner of a major sport? Worse, NBC got the rights to certain weekend and playoff games for FREE! Charge them something, Bettman, even if it’s just a nominal amount!

So this is why many of you reading may have in fact only seen a handful of NHL playoff games this postseason. Because the commissioner, in a desperation move to get games on the air after the lockout — which he caused by years of mismanagement of the league and ensuing losses — made a long-term deal with Versus in exchange for a few beans that haven’t grown into giant beanstalks.

Talk about a “master of panic.” With all due respect to Stan Van Gundy, who has lately been a shining representative of his Shaq-anointed title, Bettman was even more of one. Van Gundy has one more game to prevent ruining an entire team’s season by being a “master of panic,” but Bettman has ruined an entire league and it’s associated sport.

Did Bettman seriously think he could grow a disgruntled fan-base post-lockout by putting the NHL on a station few people get, let alone watch if they have it? Worse, the long-term survival of the sport in this country is in danger because of this move. Young kids aren’t watching hockey on Versus, so I can’t help but wonder: Will there be a next generation of hockey fans in this country?

Sadly, Bettman probably did think this. This is the same Bettman who actually thought the NHL could succeed in the state of Arizona. Let’s see how much longer until the Coyotes hail from Southern Ontario.

Bettman did not, nor did he have to, do anything to generate what has been a terrific postseason for the NHL at a time that the league – and the sport — need it more than ever in this country. The only problems are that Bettman has deprived viewers the opportunity to see the playoffs, and Bettman has done no marketing of the sport – even with two great young stars in Crosby and Ovechkin.

Speaking of marketing, the quote from the Boss in the comic sounds very familiar to something Bettman would say, if he even has a Director of Marketing …