Austin Herr: Plenty of 'X-Factors' in MLB Playoffs

An exciting 2011 MLB season ended on a shocking note on Wednesday, with the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox both blowing giant leads to begin September in their respective leagues for the wild card. Enter the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays instead, as the seventh and eighth teams to move on to play in the postseason. 

Each team has its star player(s) that can change the game, but it may be a different, lesser-known player that could ultimately have the biggest impact on his team's chances to win it all. These players are called X-Factors.

Here are my X-Factors—a player each team needs to perform well in order to win ballgames:

New York Yankees

(LF) Brett Gardner—Gardner has been in many spots in the line-up for manager Joe Girardi. He's batted at the bottom in the eighth and ninth spots on many occasions. He's batted at the top in the leadoff spot and two hole, as well. A lot of this has to do with the hot and cold nature of Gardner. At times he's ripping the face off the baseball and makes getting on base seem effortless. Other times, he's slumping hard at the plate. Gardner has to be a catalyst for the Yankees sluggers to do what they do best.

Detroit Tigers

(C) Alex Avila—Avila has been one of the surprise stories of baseball this season. In spring training, he was fighting for the starting catcher position. He won the job, and produced beyond expectations, batting .295 with 19 homers and 82 RBI. With few catchers seen as offensive threats in the American League, he was named the starting catcher for the American League all-star team. Not only does he look to do damage at the plate, but he does a great job behind the plate. He's been an offensive and defensive star all season.

Texas Rangers

(2B) Ian Kinsler—Kinsler quietly had a great hot streak to end the regular season. He hit .342 from the leadoff spot to help his team win nine of their last 10 games to finish the season. Every win was needed to obtain home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. When Kinsler is hot, so are the Texas Rangers.

Tampa Bay Rays

(3B) Evan Longoria—Longoria is the Rays' best slugger, hitting in the three spot. Early on he struggled mightily, and the team went down with him. The Rays were one of baseball's worst teams early in the season. However, Longoria started to heat up in the months of August and September. He hit 17 home runs, and led his team on a late, unfathomable charge to knock off the Boston Red Sox, the early favorites to win it all. When he's seeing the ball well, he's a top talent in this league.

Philadelphia Phillies

(SP) Cole Hamels—The Phillies already have dominant, Cy Young Award-winning pitchers in Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. You can almost always count on them to put their team in very good shape to win each and every game they start. The overlooked Hamels has quietly put up a solid season of his own. He went 14-9 with an ERA of 2.79. With this trio all pitching well, it's very difficult to beat the Phillies.

St. Louis Cardinals

(RP) Jason Motte—The Cardinals have juggled closers around all season long. Part of that is because of injuries, but ineffectiveness has played a large part in that as well. Motte has only recently been named the Cardinals closer, another attempt by manager Tony La Russa to find a reliable shutdown pitcher in the back of the bullpen. Many of the Cardinals losses this season have come solely from blown saves in the ninth inning. If Motte proves to be the answer, nobody should overlook the wild card Cardinals.

Milwaukee Brewers

(SP) Zack Grienke—Grienke has the stuff to be an ace on most teams. He won the Cy Young award with the Kansas City Royals back in 2009. Due to injuries and inconsistency, however, he's the No. 2 starter for the Brewers. If he performs to his potential, the Brewers will have a nasty top of the rotation duo in Grienke and Yovani Gallardo.

Arizona Diamondbacks

(C) Miguel Montero—Montero has been a mirror image of Avila this season. Nobody really knew much about him coming into the season. Early on, he was in contention for the batting title until he started to fade away. That's to be expected though, with the grueling job the catcher position faces. He ended up finishing with an impressive .282/18/86 statline, a big reason why the Diamondbacks came out of nowhere to win the NL West.