2018 MLB Season

[Dilbert]

Yankees over Athletics

Cubs over Rockies

 

Indians over Astros

Red Sox over Yankees

Brewers over Cubs

Braves over Dodgers

 

Indians over Red Sox

Brewers over Braves

 

Indians over Brewers

 

[AnPheitseog]

I'm playing with the folly of hope here.

 

Rockies over Cubs

 

Rockers over Brewers

Dodgers over Braves

 

Rockies over Dodgers

 

 

A's over Yankees

 

A's over Red Sox

Astros over Indians

 

A's over Astros

 

Rockies over A's

 

As shown by my ability in the NFL thread, I SUCK at picking so I know this will never happen. Then again, went with will over gut, which is normally wrong

[FinsUp1214]

AL Wild Card

Yankees over A’s

 

ALDS

Red Sox over Yankees

Astros over Indians

 

ALCS

Red Sox over Astros

 

——

 

NL Wild Card

Rockies over Cubs

 

NLDS

Brewers over Rockies

Braves over Dodgers

 

NLCS

Brewers over Braves

 

——

 

World Series

Brewers over Red Sox

 

 

[Unocal]

10 hours ago, CS85 said:

Losing Travis Wood and counting on Mike Montgomery to be your sole long-relief option.  Banking on a closer with a history of injuries to give you a full season.  Ponying up the cash for a crumbling, wonky Darvish instead of retaining the devil you knew in Arrieta.  Abandoning the "develop hitters and swap for pitching" plan and simply hope to god the team doesn't crawl into themselves; a habit they have never seemed to shake.  Stupid bullpen moves.  Injuries.  Regressing talent.  Lack of discipline.  Declining defense.  The Chatwood signing. 

  

2018/19 offseason will be a crucial one.  I don't foresee the Cubs winning the wild card and I don't imagine they'd win more than a game in any series they'd end up in.

 

If they win tomorrow, they're going back to the World Series.

 

For all their flaws, they have intangibles and they still know how to win.

[Unocal]

6 hours ago, The Six said:

This is the easiest possible path for the Dodgers to get to the World Series. Roll over some weak Central team and a young Braves squad that isn't ready yet. These playoffs are going to be the opposite of the regular season, where the AL side will now have all the intrigue, and the NL side will be boring. It's just a matter of waiting to see who will come out of the AL to face LA.

 

This isn't the NBA. Predictabilty does not exist in October.

 

The Braves are actually better on the road than at home and they are playing with house money, nothing to lose.

 

The Brewers/Cubs are anything but weak.

[Quillz]

Dodgers might have been going back to the WS if they weren’t so banged up. As a Dodger fan, I don’t see them returning. Probably gonna be the Brewers or Cubs. 

[Digby]

OAK 3-2 BOS

---------------- HOU 4-2 OAK

HOU 3-1 CLE

 

------------------------------------ HOU 4-1 MIL

 

MIL 3-2 CHC

---------------- MIL 4-3 LAD

LAD 3-1 ATL

 

 

[Sport]

I think the Oakland A's are going to win tomorrow night and that feeling is based entirely on the fact that they've lost roughly 43 consecutive "Loser's Done" playoff games, including 4 straight years with a game 5 LDS loss from 2000-2003, which is just wild. They're due. 

 

The actual number is 7 straight losses in Loser Goes Home games. They did manage to sweep the Twins in the 2006 ALDS so they've won at least one series, but remarkably bad record in games where the winner advances and the loser is eliminated. Look at this silliness:

- 2014 blow a big lead in the wildcard game to Kansas City.

- 2013 and 2012 score a combined zero runs in two game 5's against the Detroit Verlanders.

- 2003 they go up 2-0 again, this time on Boston, lose 3 straight.

- 2002 the "Moneyball" year, they're up 2 games to 1 on Minnesota with Game 5 at home. Lose.

- 2001 they're up 2-0 on the Yankees, lose 3 straight, which included the Jeter play in Game 3 (IMO an incredibly overrated play)

- 2000 happy to be in the playoffs for the first time in 8 years, scratch back to force a game 5 in Oakland. Yankees win 7-5.

 

They're so due for something to go their way in one of these. Also it would be HILARIOUS to watch New York bitch a storm about winning 100 games and being out of the playoffs after one game. It might even get MLB to change the playoff structure. 

[Sport]

Here's my picks:

 

A's > Yankees

Cubs > Rockies

 

Brewers > Cubs 

Dodgers > Braves

Red Sox > A's

Indians > Astros

 

Brewers > Dodgers

Indians > Red Sox

 

Indians > Brewers 

[dfwabel]

 

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

AL Wild Card

A's over Yankees 

 

ALDS

A's over Red Sox

Astros over Indians

 

ALCS

A's over Astros

 

——

 

NL Wild Card

Rockies over Cubs

 

NLDS

Brewers over Rockies

Dodgers over Braves

 

NLCS

Brewers over Dodgers

 

——

 

World Series

A's over Brewers

[pmoehrin]

6 hours ago, Quillz said:

Dodgers might have been going back to the WS if they weren’t so banged up. As a Dodger fan, I don’t see them returning. Probably gonna be the Brewers or Cubs. 

 

The Dodgers like the Red Sox are the two toughest teams for me to get a read on for the same reason.

Neither team had an impressive bullpen this season. Between the two, Craig Kimbrel was the only reliever to finish with a sub 3 ERA and have at least 60 innings pitched.

 

But what both teams do have is a deep rotation to offer some help. Kenta Maeda worked exclusively out of the bullpen in the playoffs last year and was arguably the Dodgers best pitcher in October. He will come out of the 'pen again this year. Ross Stripling is another Dodger starter likely to be working almost exclusively out of the bullpen in October, and that sill leaves Alex Wood, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill fighting for two of the three rotation spots left after Kershaw and Buehler. With the Braves having an OPS of .780 against lefties versus .726 against righties, Wood will likely be in the rotation for the LDS at least.

 

Knuckleballer Steven Wright will likely be the Red Sox middle innings guy even though he's only appeared in relief 16 times this year. Nate Eovaldi will probably be down in the bullpen as well yet though he's only come into relief once this year. They also have Ryan Braiser who can throw 100 MPH and posted a 1.60 ERA. But he didn't come up until July and is still pretty untested at the Major League level. He'll be on the team but how much trust is Cora going to have in a 30-year-old rookie in the biggest games of the year?

 

Bottom line neither team is coming in with the bullpen they had during the regular season, so you can take any team bullpen stats and throw them in the trash. How that translates in October remains to be seen.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

The Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers all strike me as teams similar to the NHL's Sharks and Capitals (up until last season). Absolutely demolish the regular season (Dodgers less-so this year), but sort of falter in the playoffs. Almost like they're not quite built for a 5 or 7 game series. 

[Digby]

The stat I read that jumped out was that Boston's starters -- Sale, Price, Porcello, yes -- are a combined zero postseason wins, still. 0 for 19 or something like that.

 

Gonna need Martinez and Mookie to smash a lot of dingers.

[Kramerica Industries]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

Also it would be HILARIOUS to watch New York bitch a storm about winning 100 games and being out of the playoffs after one game. It might even get MLB to change the playoff structure. 

 

Won't have to hear it from me. I was bitching about this kind of situation happening over four years ago now. Then, the second-best record in baseball in 2015 missed the playoffs because they got relegated to the wild card...at least this time the Yankees only have the *third*-best record. 

 

As far as who the World Series favorites are -- I've said all season long that the Astros are the best built team for October and are the team to beat, and there's nothing the Yankees or Red Sox can do to make me think otherwise. That was true in April, and it's still true now that we've reached October. Under one circumstance, I'll hope to be wrong about that. In literally any other circumstances, I'll hope to be right.

[Crabcake]

1 hour ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

The Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers all strike me as teams similar to the NHL's Sharks and Capitals (up until last season). Absolutely demolish the regular season (Dodgers less-so this year), but sort of falter in the playoffs. Almost like they're not quite built for a 5 or 7 game series. 

God it feels good to read that. 

[buzzcut]

Yankees over A's

 

Red Sox over Yankees

Astros over Indians

 

Astros over Red Sox

 

Rockies over Cubs

 

Brewers over Rockies

Braves over Dodgers

 

Brewers over Braves

 

ASTROS over Brewers

[Still MIGHTY]

Yankees over A's

 

Yankees over Red Sox

Astros over Indians

 

Astros over Yankees

 

Cubs over Rockies

 

Cubs over Brewers

Dodgers over Braves

Dodgers over Cubs

 

Astros over Dodgers in 5

[pmoehrin]

52 minutes ago, Digby said:

The stat I read that jumped out was that Boston's starters -- Sale, Price, Porcello, yes -- are a combined zero postseason wins, still. 0 for 19 or something like that.

 

How is it that I just know that stat came from Dan Shaughnessy without even having to google his name to find the article?

[Kramerica Industries]

11 minutes ago, pmoehrin said:

 

How is it that I just know that stat came from Dan Shaughnessy without even having to google his name to find the article?

 

Boston sports writers have done an admirable job in finding ways to keep making their teams look like plucky underdogs with big shortcomings to overcome when their teams have won 10 championships in the last 17 years.