Post Season Predictions

Entering my favorite time of year, the Major League Baseball postseason. There’s a week left in the regular season and still some races yet to be determined, but largely we know which ten teams will be playing October baseball. My Washington Nationals are in full rebuilding mode, and my Boston Red Sox are fading fast. But for a hard core baseball fan like myself, none of that matters once the playoffs start. I’m all in. Like every year since 2010 I offer up my predictions around this time. My record has been decidedly mixed in this regard. Some years I seem prescient, other years I’m more like an idiot. For purposes of today’s exercise, I am assuming that the Dodgers and Red Sox will be wildcard teams, two outcomes that have not been assured as of 9/29/2021. Here are the ten teams in question:

From the American League:

Tampa Bay Rays

Houston Astros

Chicago White Sox

New York Yankees

Boston Red Sox

From the National League:

Atlanta Braves

Milwaukee Brewers

San Francisco Giants

St. Louis Cardinals

Los Angeles Dodgers 

Ok, first of all we can throw out the Chicago White Sox. They have the privilege of playing in the most pathetic division in all of baseball, the embarrassing AL Central where all the other teams finished under .500. When half your schedule consists of tomato cans, its easy to wrack up plenty of wins. The White Sox aren’t going anywhere.

Same deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. They aren’t even the best team in their division. They are at or near the bottom in most offensive and defensive categories. They pitch well and they strike a lot of guys out, that’s about it. So now that we have the imposters out of the way, here are my thoughts:

Tampa Bay Rays. I can’t figure these guys out. They have really good pitching and they hit a lot of home runs. But they strike out…a lot, more than any other team in the postseason. You would have a hard time naming anyone on their team. They have no “stars”. They basically have no fans either. Nobody attends their games. They won’t sell out their stadium during the World Series, if they get there. Never has such a good baseball team been cared less about than these guys. And yet, here they are again with the best record in the American League.

If the New York Yankees end up playing the wildcard elimination game against the Boston Red Sox, it will be the highest rated game of the year. These are two teams loaded with All Stars…and yet neither of them could beat out the Rays for the division title, leaving them vulnerable to a one and done exit. Although my hatred of the Yankees is legendary, they will win this game because they are a better team at the moment.

The Houston Cheaters aren’t going anywhere, at least I hope not. It’s going to come down to the winner of the Yankees-Red Sox game and the Tampa Bay Rays. Of those three the Rays feel like the third best team. So weird. My gut says “Yankees”

The most fascinating matchup of perhaps all of this year’s post season will be the LA Dodgers vs the St. Louis Cardinals. It will feature the best team in baseball (the Dodgers, hands down) against the hottest team in baseball,(they with the currently 17 game winning streak) in a one game shootout. Hard to pick against the Dodgers who have the best pitching staff perhaps ever. It will be a great game, but the Dodgers will advance and make it to the World Series with little or no interference from either the Braves or the Giants, yet another team I can’t figure out. They don’t have nearly as many great players as the Dodgers and yet they have won more games. All they seem to do is win. But in a short series it boils down to which team has the best pitching and that’s the Dodgers.

So, there you have it…the Dodgers vs the Yankees in the World Series…what everyone in the Commissioner’s office prays for every night.

Dodgers win.