With the end of a 162-game regular season for each team, the MLB season has come to a close. It was a great year for baseball, highlighted by Aaron Judges’ 62 home runs, 11 shy of Barry Bonds’s true Home Run record. With the playoff bracket set, it’s time to look at the matchups and teams that are contending for a World series.
American League:
Wildcard games
#5 Seattle at #4 Toronto
Seattle just ended the longest playoff drought in Major League sports. I don’t bet against God’s will, do you? Seattle moves on and plays New York, where they will fall.
#6 Tampa Bay at #3 Cleveland
Tampa made it out of the best division in baseball this year, while Cleveland dominated one of the worst. Tampa’s a tougher team, I like them to get the road win and then a series loss against Houston.
Top Dogs-
#2 Yankees
This Yankees season was a tale of two halves. The pre-all-star break Yankees are one of the best baseball teams of the last 50 years. With that said, I personally made the post-all-star break Yankees team but chose not to play to pursue blogging for Total Frat Move. If Aaron judge wasn’t a hand-crafted baseball beast, the Yankees may even be a wild card team right now. I don’t see New York beating Houston in a series without home-field advantage, and I don’t see Aaron Judge resigning with the Yankees if they don’t win it all. Make of that what you want.
#1 Houston
These cheating assholes actually have talent. The AL is not so bunched as its NL counterpart, this is Houstons conference to lose. Anything short of a World Series appearance is gonna be disappointing for the Astros. Luckily for them, they are gonna make it there. Luckily for us, my dark horse is gonna beat them there.
National League:
Wildcard Games:
#5 San Diego at #4 Mets
There are 152 professional sports teams in America across the MLB, NBA, NFL, and MLS. Being a Mets fan has to be one of the five hardest teams to root for. They led the NL East for 170ish games this year, and still somehow fumbled it to Atlanta. If the Mets can’t get it done against the Padres, we might be looking at a rebuilding Mets team over the next 6 years. With that said, I like the Mets in this one, and I see them getting an opportunity for revenge against Atlanta in a series that goes seven, but sees them fall short of the A.
#6 Philadelphia at #3 St. Louis
These are different teams. Philadelphia never really figured it out and squeaked into the postseason. St Louis has the two leading NL MVP candidates and the spirit of Albert Pujol’s final year. There is no game I feel more confident in than St Louis killing the Phillies, and for my betting friends out there, I really like St. Louis to win it all. Not advice, so don’t take it, but St Louis is gonna win the World Series, again don’t take my advice.
Top Dogs-
#2 Atlanta
I don’t think Atlanta repeats and I don’t feel bad about it at all. Atlanta is about to be the bet team in baseball for the next ten years. Fuck em. They can take a loss this year. They are literally gonna win 4 of the next ten world series, easy.
#1 Los Angeles
Does having the highest payroll in the league mean you have the highest expectations in the league? I wouldn’t know, I dropped out of calc, but the Dodgers look good. In terms of how teams are built, no team in the postseason has the endurance the Dodgers will have. With that being said, something just feels different about St Louis this year. I like the Cardinals to beat them in the conference championship, as Freddie Freeman sneaks on a plane to Atlanta.
