The Oakland Athletics did it again, they shocked the experts and won the AL West.  This time they did it in a more decided fashion than last season’s game 162 miracle, but it is still shocking nonetheless.  So, now that the A’s are AL West champions, it is time to look at how they will match up in the playoffs.

There are two scenarios the A’s face in the ALDS.  The first scenario, and this appears to be the most likely, is a 2012 rematch with the Detroit Tigers.  It appears as if the A’s will again be the home team as they are up on the Tigers in the win column and own the tiebreaker.  The second scenario is that the A’s overcome the Red Sox for the best record in the league and end up facing the wildcard winner.  While both scenarios are very much in play, let’s take a look at how the A’s match up in both possibilities.

The Tigers are an interesting matchup for the A’s.  Many of the A’s fans and players will be looking for revenge against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season, and the A’s are in a good position to do just that.

With superstar Miguel Cabrera struggling with injury over the last month, the Tigers have continued to roll, but in the playoffs they will need Cabrera to perform like the MVP that he is.  While Prince Fielder and Victor Martinez can still produce, and Fielder has been tremendous against the A’s, if Cabrera isn’t at full health it will make it easier for the excellent A’s pitching staff to work around those two in the order.

The real matchup, though, is going to be between the two pitching staffs.  It will be a matchup for the second best American League team ERA, the A’s, against the fourth best ERA Tigers.  In the 2012 ALCS, the A’s had to face Justin Verlander twice, and like Verlander did to many teams in 2011 and 2012, he dominated the A’s.  Verlander has not been himself this season, but with the Tigers, when one pitcher drops off another one steps up.  Max Scherzer has been the man that has stepped up for the Tigers this season. 

Scherzer is the beneficiary of the best run support in the league, leading him to 20 wins, but run support is not all that Scherzer brings to the table.  Scherzer is second in the AL in strikeouts and has a very respectable ERA of three, which is good enough for seventh in the league, and the A’s are going to have to face him twice.  The A’s won’t be worried, though, because the last time they faced Scherzer, he had quite possibly the worst outing of his season in a no-decision. But, the playoffs are a different animal.

The more intriguing scenario, and probably the most difficult, is if the A’s do take over the Sox and end up facing the wildcard winning team.  If the Rays or Rangers end up winning the play-in game and take on the A’s in the ALCS, it won’t seem like a big deal for the A’s.  They have faced both teams in the last month and have dominated both teams to a tune of 3-0 against the Rays and 5-1 against the Rangers.  The team that would give the A’s the best matchup, and be the most dangerous, would be the Cleveland Indians.

Over the last three seasons the hottest team in baseball went all the way to the World Series and then on to win.  The Giants did it twice and the Cardinals did it once.  The A’s were the hottest until being cooled off in Los Angeles, and if the Indians continue their streak and make it into the ALCS they will easily be the hottest team in baseball.  No one wants to face a team this hot in the first round of the playoffs. 

They’re on a five game winning streak, and to top it off they have a winning record against the Athletics this season.  The Indians swept the A’s at home in Cleveland early in the year and then went on to take two out of three from the A’s in Oakland in mid-August.  That is a dangerous matchup for any team, but when you add that up with how hot the Indians are right now, it might benefit the A’s to not have the best record overall.

No matter who the A’s end up playing, one thing is true for sure, this team will not be happy with just another appearance in the ALCS.  They may not have been predicted to win the division by the experts, but they fully expected to be here, and the only goal on their minds is to win it all.