Playoffs Pants Party: Cardinals vs. Padres

Well, the playoffs are finally here, which means a month of absolute madness for anyone who dares to root for any of the final eight teams. (To reiterate: As Cardinals fans, October 2004 was the least productive month, professionally and personally, since all 48 months of college.) We at Deadspin are fortunate enough to be at home all day, which means we'll be watching all the afternoon playoff games and live blogging them for you, starting at 1 p.m. ET. Unfortunately, that first game involves the Cardinals, which is totally unfair; expect every other word to rhyme with Argggh. The link for that will be up later.

But first, a look at the series, as viewed around the Web. The Cardinals are heavily favored, mainly because they had the best record in baseball and are playing a team that just barely finished above .500. But in a short-series, anything can happen, save for maybe any player actually playing the game without the benefit of amphetamines. And despite some grouchy sabermetricians — the Hardball Times' Lee Sinins mournfully calls the playoffs, "a small sample size hypefest," which is maybe the least fun sentence we've ever read — this is the most fun time to be a baseball fan. We can't wait.

Predictions on the Cardinals-Padres series:

• Baseball Prospectus: Cardinals in five. • Hardball Times: Cardinals in five. • Padres blog Ducksnorts: Cardinals in five. • Rob Neyer: Cardinals in three.

Pretty much everywhere we've looked, we've only been able to find one person to pick the Padres: ESPN's Buster Olney. In a short five-game series, Olney has a better chance than people think of looking like a genius.

Big Baseball Playoff Preview [The Black Table] Five Questions: Cardinals Playoff Edition [Hardball Times]