Here Come the Playoffs!

Monday - Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers. Wednesday - Winner of Monday's game at Cleveland Indians. Friday - Winner of Wednesday's game at Boston Red Sox. Sprinkle in the NL wild card game on Tuesday as well. The Red Sox couldn't have asked for a better ending to the wild card race as they will play the survivor of one, possibly two, games before their opponent reaches Beantown. The biggest decision left for John Farrell's staff is who makes the playoff roster. Let's start with Lester, Lackey, Buccholz. Add in Ortiz, Napoli, Pedroia, Drew, Middlebrooks, Nava, Gomes, Ellsbury, Victorino, Saltie & Ross. That's 14. Carp, Bogaerts & Berry for bench players. That's 17. Uehara, Dempster, Tazawa, Breslow & Workman in the bullpen. That's 22. Either Morales, Doubront or Thornton as the 2nd lefty out of the pen That's 23. Bubble guys would be Jackie Bradley, Jr., Brock Holt, John McDonald, Allen Webster, Rubby de la Rosa, Brandon Snyder & Ryan Lavarnway along with adding another lefty pitcher. It may depend upon the opponent as to the last piece or two, but my choices would be to take Franklin Morales as the additional lefty, JBJ for defense late in games & Brock Holt in case of injury to Pedroia. We'll see how John Farrell tinkers with the first 3 out of 5 series. 4 days off will help the pitching staff, but the hitters will be at a disadvantage on their timing. Let's hope Lester is "on" in game 1 to give the hitters a chance to adjust.