MLB: 2013 PLAYOFFS // NFL: WEEK 5 STANDINGS; BRONCOS VS. COWBOYS.

SPORTS NOTEBOOK, Friday, Oct 4 Sports-notebook.blogspot.com FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. MLB: 2013 Playoffs // NFL: Week 5 Standings; Broncos Facing the Cowboys. . . // . . . MLB---IS the MLB post-season really miles apart from the regular season? Is it the crapshoot that so many baseball professionals call it? “Yes,” “Ya,” “Si,” “Of course, Bro’” are the proper answers here, in that a team that hadn’t done as well as other clubs from April through September can be crowned a League Champion in October and then win the World Series, and then there’s the fact of post-season players being more psyched and tense during the playoffs, the stakes being high among teams much closer in skill-sets and power than many of the clubs encountered during the regular season (a team’s vulnerabilities are a much more worrisome factor during the post-season, than prior to October). About the only “No,” “Nope,” “Nyet” that applies to the above questions is that the post-season is baseball all over again, each day or night just one more game in spite of what the stakes are, although this isn’t what is felt by most fans, analysts and ballplayers. If baseball is your thing, the post-season is definitely “Big Deal,” and this year the teams seeded are bound to excite, reflecting the best of 2013. The immediately positioned, that is, those at the cusp on that day that the regular 2013 season closed, were, in alphabetical order, the Atlanta Braves (NL), Boston Red Sox (AL), Cincinnati Reds (NL-Wild Card), Detroit Tigers (AL), Los Angeles Dodgers (NL), Oakland Athletics (AL), Pittsburgh Pirates (NL-Wild Card), and the St. Louis Cardinals (NL), the Tampa Bay Rays (AL) and the Texas Rangers (AL). Yet only five of these 10 teams were among the top 10 last year, and just one got to the World Series---the Detroit Tigers. Surprisingly, last year’s five other teams of a top 10 are not only out of the 2013 playoff picture, they finished poorly as as mediocre during the 2013 regular season, as examples, last year’s WS winner the San Francisco Giants (NL), the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels. Of this year’s playoff-billeted, the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates were losing teams as 2012 ended, each under .500 with fewer than 69 and 79 won games respectively, thus within the bottom 15 of MLB’s 30 ball clubs. Nor had the New York Yankees reached the playoffs this year, when for 2012 they were ranked in the top 12 and had more won games (95) than the number two team and WS winner the Giants, more proof that in the post-season “anything can happen.” Fueling this reality is that each post-season team has one or more strong cards suggesting the possibility of victory, for instance, the Braves can boast of five hitters accumulating 100 home runs during the regular season, while this year the team’s starter rotation + bull pen have the lowest combined ERA in all of professional baseball. Yet the Dodgers, now vs. the Braves in Division Series competition, they have excelled at extra-base hits and leaving few runners on base at third outs, and they may have the best three starting pitchers in the National League, each with an ERA under 3.0. The Tigers also have low ERA starting pitchers, and a high team-wide on-base percentage with MLB’s top hitrter of the year, as last year, Miguel Cabrera, and the Cardinals, like the Red Sox, are competent all-around, as well, with least vulnerabilities when examined whole. Also, the Cards have the NL’s number one record re. doubles and runs, and the Red Sox can claim more than 100 HR’s placed by nine batters during 2013, and the Red Sox finished 2013 with the best AL Record (most won games). The Athletics, well, they are hot, they won 19 of the team’s last 27 games, not leading in many skill categories yet still recording high nearly among all categories. If it is strategy and all-around skills + power that dominates, we could see the Athletics besting the Tigers and then the Red Sox, too, but barely and then winning the AL-LC, and the Cardinals taking down the Braves and the Dodgers for eth NL-LC. If it’s star power from the mound and line-ups that prevail, then we might see the Dodgers incredibly close and the Dodgers grabbing the NL-LC from wider distribution of offense skills. An Athletics vs. Dodgers WS would compete the two styles employed for winning ballgames, the winner being anyone’s guess. . . // . . . NFL---WEEK 5 is here, having kicked in last night, Buffalo Bills against the Cleveland Browns. These franchises entered Week 5 at two wins, two losses (2-2) each, thus .500, and nine other NFL franchises will be seeing the start of Week 5 at 2-2/.500, the majority holding third and fourth positions among the five teams within their respective divisions, yet two of these teams are today leading their divisions, the American Conference North’s 2-2 Baltimore Ravens, and the National Conference East’s 2-2 Dallas Cowboys. Three other division leaders are at 4-0, AC West’s Denver Broncos, AC East’s New England Patriots, the NC West’s Seattle Seahawks, and the NC South’s New Orleans Saints. At the heels of the Broncos are the 4-0 Kansas City Chiefs. The division leaders at 3-1 are the AC South’s Indianapolis Colts, and the NC North’s Detroit Lions. But directly behind the Colts are the 3-1 Tennessee Titans, and right back of the Lions are the 3-1 Chicago Bears, causing the AC South and the NC North to be very tight Week 5 division competition. For a look at AC vs. NC as Week 5 continues, the AC has 37 wins, the latter 27, the NC having been pulled down by two 0-4 franchises, the NC East’s 0-4 New York Giants, and the NC South’s 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, plus a 1-3 team within each of the NC divisions, surprisingly among them the 1-3 NC East’s Washington Redskins and the now NC North’s 1-2 Green Bay Packers, which faces the NC North leading team the Lions on Sunday, Green Bay’s chance for a turnabout start. . . // . . . BRONCOS, COWBOYS---IN a nutshell, if the 4-0 Denver Broncos hold the 2-2 Dallas Cowboys offense to no more than 21 points it’s likely that the Broncos will take the Cowboys down, for the Peyton Manning offense is skillful and powerful enough to put up 28 or more points vs. the Dallas franchise. To date, the Broncos have scored 179 points through Week 4 of the NFL season, the Cowboys, 104, yet the Broncos have given away 91, the Cowboys 75, which implies that the Cowboys have a chance for victory if the Cowboys defense can hold the Manning-led strike force from scoring big. The least number of points for a Broncos single game win this year has been 37, the highest, 52, while best for the Cowboys has been 36 and that was against an 0-4 team, the N.Y. Giants. Note that the Broncos defense has improved game by game, giving away fewer points progressively, though not my much, Our pick, Broncos 31, Cowboys 20. END/ml