Black Table, a literary journalism web site in New York, has an extensive preview of the playoffs by Will Leitch. I love their summary of the A's:

Oakland, despite the similarities in philosophies, couldn't be a more different team. The lineup is one of the worst in baseball, so bad that Beane was forced to trade for Cincinnati's Jose Guillen, who might be the definition of the non-sabermetric hitter (few walks, poor plate discipline). What has carried the A's has been the bullpen, led by Keith Foulke (yet another A's closer reclamation project) and Moneyball star Chad Bradford, and a seemingly endless supply of starting pitching. For most of the year, Mark Mulder led the young, cheap staff, but when he went down, rookie Rich Harden stepped in. He hit the rookie wall, so up stepped Ted Lilly, who was once traded for Jeff Weaver. The trio of Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Lilly might not be as impressive as last year's Mulder/Zito/Hudson triumvirate … but it's close.

That the A's have been so successful for so long on such a short budget is astounding; heck, someone should write a book about it. But, fact is, this is probably the weakest A's team to make the playoffs since Beane began his run. Zito hasn't had one of best seasons, Lilly has been hot but won't be confused with Mulder, and the lineup requires Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez -- two of the most talented yet maddeningly inconsistent hitters in the game -- to carry them. What Beane has done with the A's is incredible, but a World Series has eluded him, much to his frustration, considering the crapshoot nature of the postseason. It would be ironic, one supposes, if Beane's worst team was the one that actually snuck in the World Series … but when you're facing a lineup like the Red Sox's, irony and two bucks will get you uptown.

There is a misconception here about Oakland and Beane's methods. I don't think Beane cares where the runs come from, as long as there is a large enough difference between the A's runs scored and runs allowed. The offense, despite a lower batting average, OBA and Slugging, only scored 32 fewer runs than last year. Couple that with the pitching and defense allowing 11 fewer runs, and the difference between this team and the 2002 team is 21 runs, or two wins. Last year the team was very lucky and won six more games than they should have. This year, the team won 1 more game than it should have. Yes, it may be the worse team in this run, but it's not a bad team, and it's not that different from last year's team.

Beane doesn't say, "We have to have a .340 OBA." He says, "we have to outscore our opponents by 130 runs to make the playoffs." If he can save money by getting a worse hitter and a better pitcher to do that, he will.

As for the Cubs, no punches are pulled:

The Cubs are everyone's cause celebre these days, but this is not a plucky Expos team, or overachieving Oakland squad. This is a team full of malcontents playing for a greedy corporation that bleeds its long-suffering fans dry in the name of the bottom line, selling nostalgia to drunken overgrown frat boys who usually don't notice there's a game going on until the seventh inning stretch. You'd almost feel bad for the players if they weren't all jerks too.

It's a long read but a great one. Enjoy.