Monday, October 4, 2021

2021 MLB Postseason

Wisconsin sports fans have been pretty spoiled to have a football team that is expected to complete for the playoffs every year for past 3 decades or so.  I never thought there would be a time in my life when I could say the same about the Brewers, but I think they might be approaching that territory.  The Crew secured a postseason spot for the 4th consecutive season, and have now been competitive every year under David Stearns and Craig Counsell after their first full season.  Here is a fun bar trivia fact that I guarantee nobody outside of Milwaukee will get correct: the Brewers are 2nd only to the Dodgers in total wins in the NL over the past 5 seasons with 395.  Unlike some past years when I was just happy with making the playoffs or maybe just getting out of the first round, this year I legitimately think the Brewers have a chance to win it all, and I'm super pumped for the postseason!

Excluding the Brewers and Covid, there have been a lot of other memorable storylines of the 2021 season.  The early hubbub was the ball tackiness issue which I touched on a few months ago.  Pitch spin rates were at an all-time high and MLB came down hard by banning literally all foreign substances outside of rosin.  The fact that we have not heard much about this since the first few weeks of the ban means that either pitches have adjusted and made a lot of stink over nothing, or more likely, they found some way around the system.  This will be an interesting issue leading into the CBA negotiations this winter.  Shohei Ohtani put up a historic season the likes of which we may never see again - 9 wins, 3.18 ERA, and a 10.8 K/9 rate on the mound, and 46 homers and 100 RBI with the bat.  If he doesn't run away with the MVP then there is something horribly wrong.  Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Marcus Semien broke homerun records for a historically prolific Blue Jays offense.  On the other side of the coin, the Mariners somehow won 90 games despite a -51 run differential.  Sadly, neither of those two teams made the playoffs.  We had 3 100-win teams (two in the same division!) and 4 100-loss teams which I'm sure has rarely if ever been done in the same season, and just further emphasizes a disparity in team salary that needs to also get addressed in the CBA.  Max Scherzer also became just the 19th pitcher ever to record 3,000 career strikeouts and further cemented his hall-of-fame candidacy, and has a good chance of joining Rick Sutcliffe as the only pitcher to win the Cy Young Award after being traded midseason.

This year was not one of my better ones on the predictions front, but if the Brewers win it all I won't really care.

PLAYOFFS START 10/5/21
NL Wild Card - #4 Dodgers v. #5 Cardinals
NLDS - #1 Giants v. WC Winner
#2 Brewers v. #3 Braves

AL Wild Card - #4 Red Sox v. #5 Yankees
ALDS - #1 Rays v. WC Winner
#2 Astros v. #3 White Sox

World Series Prediction: Brewers defeat Rays in 7
Rooting for:  Brewers v. White Sox

Preseason Predictions
#1 Dodgers
#2 Brewers
#3 Mets
#4 Padres
#5 Braves

#1 Yankees
#2 White Sox
#3 Athletics
#4 Blue Jays
#5 Angels

Padres defeat Yankees in 6

FINAL STANDINGS AND SERIES:
Brewers 95-67, 1st NL Central; NLDS v. Braves
Twins 73-89, last NL Central; eliminated

2021 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 0
Peter - 9

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