Still good chance for Cubs-Red Sox World Series

There's good reason to believe the St. Louis Cardinals or New York Yankees, the early favorites, will not win the World Series this October.

The 1999 Yankees are the last World Series winner to finish the regular season with the best record in their league, while the 1998 Yankees are the last World Series winner to finish the regular season with the best record in baseball.

Baseball's post-season is a crapshoot and luck plays a huge factor in October.

While teams with talent depth win the 162-game marathon from April through September, October baseball is all about having a couple of star pitchers (i.e. the 2001 Diamondbacks) or consistently getting timely hits (i.e. the 2002 Angels).

You could make a compelling argument that the teams with the best shots at reaching the World Series aren't the two best teams in baseball (record-wise) but the two teams that have the best shot at their league's Wild Card spots -- the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox.

The Chicago Cubs are a more talented bunch than the team that almost reached the Series in 2003.

They're better at shortstop with Nomar Garciaparra, at first base with Derek Lee and at second base with Todd Walker.

Sammy Sosa is really struggling, but he's still one of the three or four best hitters on the team and still is a threat to go deep at any point in a ballgame.

However, the major reason the Cubs could be the team to beat in the NL playoffs is obviously their pitching.

The Cubs will likely finish first or second in runs allowed, but what matters in the post-season are these names: Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Clement, Carlos Zambrano and Greg Maddux.

It will be difficult for any team to beat those guys in a best of five or best of seven series.

The Boston Red Sox were supposed to hang right in with the Yankees in 2004.

They missed out on Alex Rodriguez, but added Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke.

But, after a hot start, they haven't really been close to the Yankees.

Still, if they earn a wild-card berth, they will definitely be dangerous.

Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling can carry this team deep into the post-season.

In addition, their awesome offense doesn't hurt their chances, neither.

What's more impressive is that the Red Sox may be the best team in the American League.

Yes, I said the Sox might be the best team in the league, better than the New York Yankees. How can that be?

Well, Boston will likely finish the season with about 20 more runs scored and about 10 fewer runs allowed.

It's inexplicable why the Sox are so far behind the Yankees.

They've been the unluckiest team in baseball ... just check out their record in one-run games.

There's still a long way to go in the season and, if recent playoff history tells us anything, there's no way to predict who will survive the playoff tournament.

The last three World Series Champs had very little in common except that they won in October.

We know talent counts for a lot, but luck may count even more.

Starting pitching is huge, but so is a strong bullpen and taking advantage of scoring opportunities.

Based on what we know, this season is just as good as any for a Red Sox-Cubs Series.