The Front Row: Baseball’s final four

WHO TO PICK: The stage is set for what is sure to be a fascinating week of baseball.

This year’s ALCS and NLCS features everything you could possibly want if you’re a baseball fan — well, unless you’re from Chicago.

We have a genuine powerhouse, the ultimate underdog story, a former power with new life provided by a loony slugger and quite possibly the most depressed fan-base in all of sports.

Who is going to come out on top once all the dust clears? I haven’t the slightest idea, but that has never stopped me from making predictions before.

The Boston Red Sox feature the highest payroll of the remaining teams and a pitcher in Jon Lester who is blossoming into the baseball’s next big-game ace, but with two recent World Series championships, they’re not quite due for a third.

The Tampa Bay Rays are too young and too brash to know they’re not supposed to be here. They play like they have nothing to lose, which is a very dangerous thing. It also doesn’t hurt that they might be the most athletically gifted squad remaining.

The Los Angeles Dodgers appeared dead in the water around the All-Star break, but they’re now playing with attitude. The Dodgers’ run just goes to show you that adding one of the five greatest right-handed hitters in baseball history is always a good thing, no matter how crazy he might be.

The Philadelphia Phillies might not have the best starting pitching and their sluggers might strike out a bit too often, but this city needs a championship worse than Boston, L.A. and Tampa combined. The collective tension among Philadelphia sports fans is suffocating.

I see Tampa Bay outlasting Boston in a grueling seven-game series, with Lester winning two of Boston’s games on his own. However, Tampa’s overall team speed and their wide array of middle-inning relievers should give them a slight edge.

In the NLCS, Manny Ramirez hits .500 and the Dodgers advance in six, setting up a Rays-Dodgers World Series.

In the end, Ramirez — the man who was considered the worst human being in baseball just two months ago — will hoist the World Series MVP award. The Dodgers will edge the Rays — a team that won 66 games last year — in seven games.

It will be a perfectly fitting end to a completely insane baseball season.

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