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Just before the start of the season, I goaded the Beyond the Box Score staff into a preseason poll to predict (among other things) the playoff participants and World Series winners. Eleven of the 17 participants picked the Boston Red Sox to win the AL East; seven picked the Texas Rangers to win the AL West; five pegged the Tampa Bay Rays as the eventual world champions.
So nobody's perfect.
But that's no reason to go back to the well before the playoffs start in earnest tonight! Seven writers submitted their predictions for all nine matchups and even guessed who would win the Most Valuable Player award in the World Series. Our predictions are in the table below, with the number of games we expect each series to last given in parentheses.
| Round | Bryan Cole | Bryan Grosnick | Chris Teeter | Justin Perline | Justin Schultz | Steven Martano | Steven Silverman |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL Wild Card | Royals over A's | A's over Royals | A's over Royals | A's over Royals | A's over Royals | A's over Royals | A's over Royals |
| NL Wild Card | Giants over Pirates | Giants over Pirates | Pirates over Giants | Giants over Pirates | Pirates over Giants | Pirates over Giants | Giants over Pirates |
| ALDS | Tigers over Orioles (5) | Tigers over Orioles (5) | Orioles over Tigers (4) | Tigers over Orioles (4) | Tigers over Orioles (5) | Tigers over Orioles (5) | Orioles over Tigers (4) |
| ALDS | Angels over Royals (4) | Angels over A's (4) | A's over Angels (5) | A's over Angels (5) | A's over Angels (5) | A's over Angels (5) | Angels over A's (4) |
| NLDS | Dodgers over Cardinals (4) | Dodgers over Cardinals (5) | Dodgers over Cardinals (4) | Dodgers over Cardinals (3) | Dodgers over Cardinals (4) | Dodgers over Cardinals (4) | Dodgers over Cardinals (5) |
| NLDS | Nationals over Giants (3) | Nationals over Giants (5) | Nationals over Pirates (4) | Nationals over Giants (4) | Nationals over Pirates (4) | Nationals over Pirates (5) | Nationals over Giants (3) |
| ALCS | Tigers over Angels (7) | Tigers over Angels (6) | A's over Orioles (6) | A's over Tigers (6) | Tigers over A's (6) | A's over Tigers (6) | Angels over Orioles (7) |
| NLCS | Dodgers over Nationals (6) | Dodgers over Nationals (7) | Nationals over Dodgers (6) | Nationals over Dodgers (7) | Nationals over Dodgers (6) | Dodgers over Nationals (7) | Nationals over Dodgers (6) |
| World Series | Tigers over Dodgers (6) | Dodgers over Tigers (6) | Nationals over A's (6) | Nationals over A's (5) | Nationals over Tigers (6) | Dodgers over A's (6) | Nationals over Angels (7) |
| WS MVP | J.D. Martinez | Matt Kemp | Jayson Werth | Anthony Rendon | Anthony Rendon | Clayton Kershaw | Mike Trout |
Our consensus World Series pick, then, is your Washington Nationals. The Nationals (who were picked three times in our preseason poll) started the season with 12-to-1 odds to win the World Series and are now down to 11-to-2. Here are the World Series odds for all ten playoff participants as of Sept. 29 with the number of authors who picked them in parentheses:
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Angels | 5/1 |
| Dodgers (2) | 5/1 |
| Nationals (4) | 11/2 |
| Tigers (1) | 6/1 |
| Orioles | 13/2 |
| Cardinals | 8/1 |
| A's | 11/1 |
| Giants | 12/1 |
| Pirates | 14/1 |
| Royals | 16/1 |
Leave your predictions in the comments below. And don't get upset if we picked against your favorite team: three of us had the Athletics in the World Series, and look how well that's working out for us.
. . .
Bryan Cole is a featured writer at Beyond the Box Score who is rooting for chaos and small markets. You can follow him on Twitter at @Doctor_Bryan.