2018 MLB Postseason

(screenshot courtesy of FS Wisconsin)

The Brewers ended their 7-year postseason drought with a thrilling final week of the season, ripping off 8 straight wins to not only clinch a playoff spot on Wednesday in St. Louis - the same place they were eliminated from the playoffs last year - but also to pass the Cubs for the NL Central Crown in a thrilling Game 163 yesterday.  I must say, even though I'm ecstatic that we get to pass up the Wild Card coin flip and rest our bullpen, objectively speaking I think the division tiebreaker games are stupid.  The Cubs and Dodgers should have just won their respective divisions based on head-to-head matchups and been done with it.  Literally no other sport does this.  Can you imagine if the Packers and Vikings were tied at the end of the year and they had to extend the season a week to play another game?  As I said, I'm not complaining, and it is a lot easier to take since the Brewers don't really have a true "ace" that they wasted.  Jhoulys Chacin had a hell of a year and was our best starter by far, but our bullpen is the star of the pitching staff and will be for however long we go in the playoffs.  The Brewers just need to go 11-8 in the month of October to secure their first World Series championship ever, and I couldn't be more thrilled to attend Game 1 of the NLDS on Thursday.  Whereas in 2008 I think Brewer Nation was just happy to be there, and in 2011 we ran out of gas in the NLCS, I legitimately think this team has a chance to at least win the pennant, and it is only the first in what should be several playoff years to come.

Elsewhere around baseball, only really the National League was exciting this year.  It seemed like all of the AL races were locked up by the all-star break, with the exception of Oakland getting hot and sneaking into the 2nd wild card spot.  The fact that a team with the lowest payroll in the league got 96 wins in the stacked American League is just another feather in the cap of Billy Beane.  The NL West, East, and even the Central were pretty competitive most of the year.  The Nationals managed to disappoint yet again and crush many preseason World Series predictions, my own included.  There were a lot of tearful goodbyes in the final week of the season, including Joe Mauer, Bryce Harper, Adrian Beltre, and most notably David Wright, who played his first and final game on Saturday for the first time in over 2 years due to spinal stenosis.  Yadier Molina is also 36 years old now, and if his career ended by watching a loss from the bench that secured 3 straight years missing the postseason, I would be more than fine with that.

On the ballpark side of things (which is why you're all here), I only made it to 21 games this year.  It's my lowest total since I started keeping track, which was the year I graduated from college in 2004.  Sadly my wall of stubs at work is not as long as I'm accustomed, but considering I have been helping keep an infant alive this year, I still think it's an impressive number.  Molly has already been to 7 games and 2 ballparks before her first birthday and I'm excited to teach her more about the game as she gets older.  I did manage to get to 10 different ballparks this year, including 4 new ones to add to my total.

Onto my yearly preseason and postseason picks - I again went 7 for 10 this year.

PLAYOFFS START 10/2/18
NL Wild Card - #4 Cubs v. #5 Rockies
NLDS - #1 Brewers v. WC Winner
#2 Dodgers v. #3 Braves

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

World Series Prediction: Indians defeat Brewers in 7
Rooting for:  Indians v. Brewers

Preseason Predictions
#1 Cubs
#2 Nationals
#3 Dodgers
#4 Brewers
#5 Giants

#1 Yankees

#2 Astros
#3 Indians
#4 Red Sox
#5 Twins

Astros defeat Nationals in 6

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 10.02:

Brewers 96-67, +1.0, NL Central Champions (NLDS v. Wild Card Winner)

Reds 67-95, -28.5, last in NL Central

Twins 78-84, -13.0, 2nd in AL Central

2018 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 16 (+19 worked)

Peter - 22