The MVP.

The American League playoff matchups are looking set as I write this. It looks like the New York Yankees will face Cleveland and the Boston Red Sox will face the Los Angeles Angels. But trying to figure out what is going to happen in the National League is not nearly so easy.

The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies are tied for the lead in the NL East. The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs are still fighting out the NL Central Division. In the NL’s Western Division the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies are all still fighting for a spot in the playoffs. That’s seven teams still in the running for a playoff spot with just three games left as I’m writing this.

I find the collapse of the New York Mets extremely interesting. I (and almost any one you asked) would have predicted that a successful return by Pedro Martinez would clinch things for the Mets who had a seven game lead just two weeks ago. Instead, the 3-1 Pedro is on a team that is not only in danger of losing the NL East but could also fail to even make the playoffs.

The Cubs have probably secured the NL Central with a two game lead left with just three left to play. But with the Cubs involved would you really be that surprised if disaster struck? The Cubs are playing the Cincinnati Reds which makes things much easier on them than the Brewers who get to play the Wild Card Leading San Diego Padres this weekend. But then the Cubs also have Ryan “Rally the other team” Dempster as their closer. So now you see what I mean? Anything can happen. It should be fun to watch; the prediction here is that we have at least one tie breaker game before the playoffs start.

The San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres are going to be very dangerous in my opinion. They have easily the best 1-2 starting punch in the National League with Jake Peavy and Chris Young.  With Greg Maddux as the number three pitcher in the rotation, the other NL playoff teams should have their hands full.

But the Padres pitching staff doesn’t depend solely on the starters. The bullpen is in a word awesome. Heath Bell has been a solid set-up man all year after being acquired for random junk from the Mets last off-season. Cla Meredith has been much more on the mortal side of things than he was last season but he is still a great late inning reliever. With those two doing the job in front of the most solid of solid closers in Trevor Hoffman the Padres can beat anyone in a short series.

The Padres lineup is not the best but with Brian Giles, Scott Hairston, Adrian Gonzalez, and Khalil Greene it is definitely solid enough to do the job behind that great rotation and awesome bullpen. The loss of Milton Bradley hurts a lot, but Scott Hairston is a quality replacement, which makes that deadline deal for him look even more brilliant.

The Milwaukee Brewers

I did not purposely decide to focus on the teams with the best chance and worst chance of making the playoffs. I just think it is very interesting that the team is not likely to make it to the playoffs despite things going to plan for the most part. Of course, the Milwaukee Brewers did not plan to lose ace Ben Sheets for weeks during the season but they probably should have expected it. They probably also did not think Rickie Weeks would fail to develop into a stud second baseman and require a stint in the minors to get things straightened out. But enough things went right that the Brewers probably should be finishing at the top of the Central Division rather than out of the playoffs.

The Brewers no doubt were optimistic for Prince Fielder but I doubt they expected him to be a legit MVP candidate at this point. The big man is leading the National League in homeruns and it isn’t really all that close. It looks like Prince is going to eclipse Big Daddy Cecil Fielder’s career by a couple of laps.

The Brewers probably also didn’t think that J.J. Hardy would all of a sudden make all those Miguel Tejada comparisons look realistic but that’s exactly what he did by destroying the National League in the first couple months of the season and coasting his way into a very solid establishing season for the young shortstop.

Yovani Gallardo has pitched like an experienced bug leaguer all ready and with some experience is going to make a nice ace tandem with Ben Sheets next season. The Brewers’ young pitcher is 9-5 with a 3.67 earned run average.

Of course, the biggest surprise has to be that Ryan Braun was as terrible as predicted at third base but that it did not matter at all. The Brewers’ rookie of the year cinch is looking like a future MVP himself. He’s batting .325 with 34 home runs after starting the season in the minors to work on that horrible defense of his.

If the Brewers find another starter in the off-season, they are going to be the early favorite to be the National League World Series entrant in 2008.

Feedback can be sent to jonwilliams@sportsgrumblings.com