A look ahead to possible postseason matchups

Every year at this time, we play a little game. We go through spring training and almost all of a marathon six-month season, through the interleague schedule, the All-Star break and past a couple of trade deadlines; we subject ourselves to countless A-Rod whines and at least five Manny trade requests -- and we can't manage to wait one more stupid week for the postseason.

So we play "If the Season Ended Today..."

The truth is, if the Major League Baseball season ended today, we'd all be pretty messed up. The record books would be in tatters. The awards races would be stopped in their tracks. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together -- mass hysteria.

The people of Kansas City might consider it a blessing, but that's beside the point.

Still, it's hard not to skip past these last few days and look to the postseason, especially when these final games are so often filled with no-name lineups and teams simply playing out the string. So here's a glance at what the postseason might bring when it begins next Tuesday.

(These are all the possible series combinations -- not just those that would happen if the season ended today -- with one maybe major assumption: that the Cardinals win the NL Central. Which of these possibles end up as real postseason series will be determined by final records, who wins the AL Central and the NL West, and who takes the wild cards. Also, remember that, by rule, a wild card can't play a team from its division in the first round.)

American League

It will be up to the Tigers' dynamic duo of Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman to carry Detroit to the World Series. Gregory Heisler/SI

New York Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers
These venerable franchises never have met in the postseason. That might have something to do with the fact that the Tigers haven't been to the playoffs since 1987, when there were only two divisions in each league, the Tigers and the Yanks both were in the East and George Steinbrenner still had some bite.

If these two teams play this year, the surprising Tigers would figure to be a heavy underdog, and it's not because of their relative youth or their inexperience in the playoffs. The average age on the team is about 29, which ranks the Tigers somewhere in the middle of the pack. And guys like pitcher Kenny Rogers, catcher Ivan Rodriguez and second baseman Placido Polanco have some postseason experience. The Tigers' problem? That vaunted pitching staff is 2-5 with a 5.43 ERA against the Yankees' potent, and patient, lineup this year.

Burning questions: Can Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman deal with that lineup? With Randy Johnson battling back spasms, what does the Yankees' rotation look like?

New York Yankees vs. Minnesota Twins
Now these two teams, they have some history. The Yankees knocked the Twins out of the AL Division Series in both 2003 and '04 after the Twins had won Game 1 in both years.

This one would be interesting just to see Minnesota lefty Johan Santana, a 19-game winner and the probable Cy Young winner, against Yankees lefties Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui. It could happen twice in the series. Santana, already named as the Game 1 starter, is 1-1 in four postseason starts against the Yankees, with a 3.19 ERA.

Burning questions: Payback for the piranhas? First base for Gary Sheffield?