The 2024 season featured 6 division winners that were all largely decided by August 1st, but the final two wild card spots in each league were thrilling to the very last pitch of the season - a season that was extended by an extra day with an epic Mets-Braves winner-take-all doubleheader. All is right with the world as the huge-payroll Yankees, Padres, and Mets are all returning to the postseason this year. Once again, the Brewers won the NL Central despite being written off by every baseball analyst in the country - just as they were last year - and this will be their 6th postseason in the last 7 years, including 4 division titles in that stretch. The Crew has the 6th most wins in all of baseball since the start of their run of success in 2017, so it really makes me wonder when they'll start to be taken seriously. Even I wrote them off in Spring Training this year, and I hope I can eat my own words as I watch them hoist the World Series trophy in a month. With repeated success comes expectations, and the years of just being happy with making the postseason are long gone. There's no reason to think this team can't make a deep run in a softer playoff field than I can remember in recent years. Almost every team in the playoffs, especially in the American League, has either limped in, or has a ton of injuries, or some discernable flaw, and no team won 100 games. The two possible exceptions to the "soft" playoff field are the Brewers' first round opponent of the Mets, and the Detroit Tigers. Both teams came out of nowhere to snag the final wild card spots in their respective leagues, and the Tigers were even sellers at the trade deadline. They overcame a 10-game deficit in the final 6 weeks of the season, becoming the first team in MLB history to overcome a double-digit deficit that late in the season. This historic stretch can be greatly attributed to the embarrassing collapse of the Twins, who went an abysmal 13-27 in their final 40 games. A similar collapse also occurred in the AL West, where the Astros started the year just 7-19 and were below .500 at the All-Star Break before erasing a 10-game deficit to surpass the Mariners in route to yet another division title. You can't put a bow on the 2024 regular season without mentioning two things - Shohei Ohtani and the Chicago White Sox. Shohei created his own category of player by achieving the first 50/50 season of all time, and might very well become the first full-time DH to win an MVP award. Shockingly, in his 7th MLB season, this will be his first time in the playoffs. And the lowly White Sox went 41-121, thus surpassing the 1962 Mets with the most losses in a season in the Modern Era. I'm not sure why everyone in baseball is so shocked that the AL Central - widely considered the worst division in baseball - fielded 3 playoff teams when each of them got to play the White Sox 13 times.
I picked the Braves and Orioles to go to the World Series before the season, and while technically that's still a possibility, I'm not feeling super confident about either of those teams right now. It took the O's sweeping the Twins over the weekend just for me to push on my preseason bet over 91 wins. Here's hoping the Crew plays deep into October so that I can make it back for a playoff game. There are a lot of really intriguing matchups in the Wild Card round, and I can't wait for it to start in just 3 short hours.
PLAYOFFS START 10/1/24
NL Wild Card Round - #3 Brewers host #6 Mets, #4 Padres host #5 Braves
NLDS - #1 Dodgers v. 4/5 Winner, #2 Phillies v. 3/6 Winner
AL Wild Card Round - #3 Astros host #6 Tigers, #4 Orioles host #5 Royals
ALDS - #1 Yankees v. 4/5 Winner, #2 Guardians v. 3/6 Winner
World Series Prediction: Phillies defeat Astros in 7
Rooting for: Brewers v. Orioles
Preseason Predictions:
#1 Braves
#2 Dodgers
#3 Cubs
#4 Phillies
#5 Padres
#6 Reds
#1 Orioles
#2 Astros
#3 Twins
#4 Yankees
#5 Blue Jays
#6 Rangers
Preseason World Series Prediction: Braves defeat Orioles
FINAL STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 10/1/24:
Brewers 93-69, +10.0, 1st NL Central; NL WC v. Mets
Twins 82-80, -10.5, 4th AL Central; eliminated
Orioles 91-71, -3.0, 2nd AL East; AL WC v. Royals
2024 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 7
Peter - 32
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.