It’s October and that means it’s MLB playoff time.

Which team has the wherewithal to endure the trials of the baseball gods? Which teams will fail to achieve immortality? Am I being overly dramatic?

Well, here are the contenders:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

The New York Yankees

It’s very rare to see a post-season Yankees team. They almost never make it. It’s so exciting that they finally get a chance … God, I hate this team.

Alas, they are a good team with a salary that could cancel the national debt. They lead the majors in runs scored and still manage to not have atrocious pitching.

The Tampa Bay Rays

They also hit very well, but they have pitched better than the Yanks. They have the lowest ERA of any AL playoff team led by the wonderful David Price. They also have a good closer too.

Somehow they do this with a pretty low salary. How the MLB even allows this is beyond me.

The Minnesota Twins

This team has been great and they are much better than last year, somehow. I guess it has to be the addition of J.J. Hardy.

This is a team that is easy to root for even when I’m a Brewer fan. They just work hard and do a solid job despite the lack of big names. Much like the Rays.

They also have one of the best hitters in the game in Joe Mauer.

The Texas Rangers

This is a team to watch. They have hit well for thousands of years and finally they have a pitching staff that can out-pitch high schoolers.

They can go far, but they have to get through an experienced Rays team to do it.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The Atlanta Braves

This is a team that sort of backed into the playoffs. They did pitch great this year though with Tim Hudson tallying a 2.83 ERA. He only got to 17 wins with that mark though.

He went 16-10 back in 2007 with a higher ERA at 3.33, so obviously this team had a hard time with consistently putting runs on the board.

The San Francisco Giants

This team’s pitching staff is deadly. Like, Jason Bourne deadly. Tim Lincecum, despite looking like he still has his probationary license, struck out everybody and their mother this year.

Unfortunately their hitting is not like Jason Bourne. It’s more like the guy that Jason Bourne free-falled on in order to cushion his multi-story fall. In other words, it’s the worst.

The Cincinnati Reds

I feel like this is the forgotten team in the playoffs.

Joey Votto had a really memorable season, but they have the worst pitching staff in the playoffs, got to play the Brewers, Cubs and Pirates and oh yeah, they get to play the next team in the first round.

The Philadelphia Phillies

This team can hit. They can pitch. They can fix your carburetor. They can do it all. The addition of Roy Halladay seems unfair.

They do have the LAZIEST nickname in pro-sports though. It sounds like a name a drunk person would give to something.

Who’s going to win? Well, in case you couldn’t guess, I have the Phillies coming out of the NL.

The Giants and Braves may never finish their series for God’s sake since neither will be able to score against the other’s pitching. Plus the Reds can’t pitch to the Phillies.

Out of the AL, I have the Rays. They seem to be the most complete of the teams in that conference though the Rangers could easily screw that up. The Twins will always be a tough team, but the Rays are the better team.

In the end, The Phillies will make yet another World Series and it will be a rematch of the 2008 World Series

The Rays will win it all because of how complete they are. This is a team that has been good for a couple of years now with virtually the same players. They have incredible team chemistry.

Yes, I did pick the two teams with the best records in baseball to play each other, but that’s just how I see it.

Regardless of how it turns out (because Philly has a great chance at winning the championship), I just don’t want either the Phillies or the Yankees to win it. It’s good to have some variation and I’m sick of those two teams.

Did I mention that I hate the Yankees?