It's a wrap on the 2025 regular season, and the playoffs begin tomorrow with a week of quadruple headers - a big reason I am a huge fan of the expanded playoff format. The other reason I am a big fan of the expanded field is that it creates drama for pretty much the entire month of September because there are so many more teams with a chance to snag one of those 3 Wild Cards in each league. If this were 4 years ago, the Tigers would been sent home, and the baseball world would have been denied seeing likely Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal pitch in the postseason, and we also would have seen the NL playoffs largely decided over a month ago. Because of the 6-team field, we got to see a remarkable comeback for the Guardians to overtake Detroit to win their 3rd AL Central title in the last 4 years, only for the two of them to be matched up against each other in the first round. Cleveland channeled the 2024 Tigers to give them a taste of their own medicine, erasing a 15 1/2 game deficit, the largest in MLB history. The 6-team field also let us witness another catastrophic Mets implosion, which allowed the Terry Francona-led Reds to sneak into the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2013, despite having a sub-.500 record in August and September. As a Brewers fan who was completely devastated by the Mets defeating us in the playoffs last year, I am immensely enjoying bathing in the schadenfreude of their misery. Pete Alonso announced he was opting out of his contract for next year less than an hour after their season ended, which is just very on brand for the Mets. The Blue Jays had the 2nd best record in all of baseball after Memorial Day (#1 was the Brewers), and the Mariners had a stretch of 17 wins in 18 games en route to their first division title since Ichiro's rookie season in 2001. The Cubs finally decided to be decent this year, and the entire country outside of Texas is rejoicing for the Astros missing the playoffs. And, of course, we can't put a bow on the 2025 season without mentioning the 97-win Brewers. They locked up their 4th division title in the last 5 years, and their 7th postseason berth in the last 8 years, while also breaking the franchise record for wins in a season. This team's preseason projected win total was 80, and they were once again counted out by everybody to not even have a chance to sniff the playoffs, and Pat Murphy and Crew yet again proved everybody wrong. He should be a lock to repeat as NL Manager of the Year. I know I say this every year, but this feels like a year the Brewers can make a deep run, if they can just get everyone healthy in time for Saturday following their well-earned first round bye.
I picked the Dodgers and the Rangers to go to the World Series before the season. Obviously I was way off with the Rangers, but it's hard to bet against the Dodgers with that lineup and their postseason acumen. I would also like to note that I picked the A's to beat the over of 71 wins and they did so by a healthy margin, finishing up with a record of 76-86. So I'll have a nice chunk of change this fall to either celebrate with, or console me, depending on how far the Brewers go. Either way, beer will be involved.
PLAYOFFS START 9/30/25
NL Wild Card Round - #3 Dodgers host #6 Reds, #4 Cubs host #5 Padres
NLDS - #1 Brewers v. 4/5 Winner, #2 Phillies v. 3/6 Winner
AL Wild Card Round - #3 Guardians host #6 Tigers, #4 Yankees host #5 Red Sox
ALDS - #1 Blue Jays v. 4/5 Winner, #2 Mariners v. 3/6 Winner
World Series Prediction: Brewers defeat Yankees in 7
Rooting for: Brewers v. Blue Jays
Preseason Predictions:
#1 Phillies
#2 Dodgers
#3 Brewers
#4 Braves
#5 Diamondbacks
#6 Reds
#1 Red Sox
#2 Rangers
#3 Royals
#4 Yankees
#5 Rays
#6 Mariners
Preseason World Series Prediction: Dodgers defeat Rangers
Peter - 31
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment