James' 2014 MLB Playoff Preference List

Wherein I rank the eight ALDS/NLDS teams in order from the team I'd most like to see win the World Series to the team I'd most hate to see win it. Explanations follow. Skip to the end for the simple list.

#7 vs. #8: The lesser-est of two evils

This annual exercise started in 2012, when the Texas Rangers failed to make the playoffs* after two straight World Series appearances. Naturally, the two teams that beat them in those series have trouble finding any love in my heart.

If you have enough baseball cognizance to read this post in the first place, you know that the 2011 World Series went quite differently than the 2010 World Series and would naturally engender a much deeper hatred for the opponent. You probably also know that the St. Louis Cardinals have the David Brent (Michael Scott) of fanbases--deluded by their own sense of greatness, desperate for affirmation and incapable of seeing how insufferable everyone else finds them.

So for the third straight year, my 8th-ranked team out of eight is the St. Louis Cardinals, and they are planted in that ranking so much more strongly than my #1 team is in theirs that no matter who the Cards would play in the World Series my primary interest will be to see them lose. That worked out OK for me last year. Simply put, the St. Louis Cardinals are my least favorite part about baseball.

The San Francisco Giants land in 7th, so the only way I'm pulling for them is if they meet the Cardinals in the NLCS, in which case I'm painting my body black and orange.

#5 vs. #6: The inescapable narrative

The next two teams on my preference list are the Nationals and Angels. While I have nothing against the Nationals/Expos, love that baseball is back in the capital, and dislike more about the Angels than any other Rangers' rival, there's no way that a series between the two could overcome the Trout vs. Harper hype narrative that's surrounded those two guys since they were both rookies (and Rookies of the Year) in 2012. And accepting now that I could never escape that polemic, I would absolutely be #TeamTrout. Except for the nights CJ Wilson pitched; I had a hard enough time rooting for that guy when he was on the Rangers. And I'd also want Pujols and Hamilton to go 0-for-50. But in a close call, I've got the Los Angeles Angels in my 5th spot, just ahead of the #6 Washington Nationals.

#3 vs. #4: Be true to your school
I'd be perfectly happy to see either the Angels or Nationals as MLB champions, but each of the teams in my top four are clubs that I'd be really excited about, and each for a number of reasons. But with this second tier, even if the reasons are deeper, there just aren't as many of them.

The Baltimore Orioles are carried into the top half of this list almost entirely by former Vanderbilt shortstop Ryan Flaherty. Flash was a personal favorite while he was at Vandy from 2006-2008. The six-foot-twenty shortstop played rock solid defense, hit for power and average, and always moved with the made-for-the-game swagger and grace you hear old Yankee fans describe when they talk about DiMaggio. After Flash, you have some guys I really respect in JJ Hardy and Adam Jones... and Nelson Cruz, who... well let's just not get into it. Their ballpark is great, though overrated in my opinion, and I struggle to listen to Gary Thorne on their TV broadcasts without hearing the phantom sounds of slapshots and bodychecks even if it's been 20 years since he called playoff hockey on ESPN.

And then there's the Detroit Tigers. It would be hard to pick between David Price and Ryan Flaherty as a Vanderbilt alumnus, but Detroit also has my favorite ballpark in all of baseball, nearly perfect uniforms, and several players I like. But the cases for those players are pretty weak. I loved Kinsler's defense in Texas, but his hitting popping out and baserunning getting picked off drove me nuts. Avila's alright, Martinez is alright... Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander are both all-time greats, and I like seeing Cooperstown plaques written in real time. But it all adds up to a lot of only moderately positive feelings.

In my head, I see this going to the Tigers. But these teams are actually playing each other in the ALDS, and I can't stop myself from cheering for the Orioles so far. That might change when David Price pitches in Game 3, but on the whole I've got the Orioles in number three and Tigers just behind them in fourth.

#1 vs. #2: 
I've loved listening to Vin Scully my entire baseball life, starting with Los Angeles Dodgers radio broadcasts in Arizona back before I could even read. When I first got MLB.tv in 2008, I'd usually put on Dodgers home games after the Rangers wrapped up just to have baseball on a little longer. The years since have included the rise of Kershaw, Kemp, Ethier and Gordon, Mannywood, the last few years of Orlando Hudson's golden glove, the rescue of Hanley from Miami, the arrivals of two of the most under-appreciated players of the 2000's in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, and Puig. Those have each been exciting developments and made the Dodgers an increasingly intriguing and likable team to me. But they are number two.

A 29-year drought is going to make the Kansas City Royals' bandwagon one of the hottest tickets in the country this fall, and the defensive, ex post facto justifications for jumping on it ("My favorite G.I. Joe was from Kansas City!") are going to grow insufferable if the Royals go on a run. And it's hard to tell where my reasons might fall, so I'll spare you all but one--my wife is from Kansas City and my in-laws still live there. That probably doesn't earn me a reserved seat on the bandwagon, but I'm happy to stuff myself in the luggage bin for this ride.

* One game play-in games are exciting, but they are not "the playoffs." If Peter turns you away from the Pearly Gates, you did not "go to heaven." I don't count the Rangers' 2012 play-in game as a playoff appearance, and I'm don't bother ranking teams until after the play-in games are over.

LIVE RESULTS (last updated 10/7)
1. Kansas City Royals
2. Los Angeles Dodgers
3. Baltimore Orioles
4. Detroit Tigers
5. Los Angeles Angels
6. Washington Nationals
7. San Francisco Giants
8. St. Louis Cardinals