2018 Major League Baseball Post-Season Preview

The Major League Baseball post-season starts tomorrow, and it's got a little bit of everything: big market teams, small market teams, perennial winners, teams that have fallen on hard times, and both of last year's pennant winners. As usual, you could pick two teams of out of a hat and they could be your World Series teams. Despite three teams in the American League winning over a hundred games (a record) I wouldn't be shocked if any one of the ten teams involved won it all.

For the play-in games, we get Oakland-New York tomorrow and Colorado-Chicago the following day. The Yankees and Cubs are favored and home teams, but I do like Oakland's chances, if their pitching can keep the Yanks in the yard. The NL game is odd because it features two teams that just lost. Both teams also gave up division leads in the last week, but are still alive. The Cubs have had trouble at the plate lately, but I think they can out-hit the Rockies.

Everyone would look forward to a Yankees-Red Sox and Cubs-Brewers division series, as both have inter-division rivals. The Red Sox, winning a franchise-best 107 games, would be the favorite on paper to go all the way, but you never know when these two teams get together. It depends on the Red Sox pitching. They've got Chris Sale, David Price, and Rick Porcello, but none of them have sterling post-season records. There may be a lot of runs scored, but I like the Red Sox.

The other match-up in the AL is Cleveland-Houston. The champs look just as good as last year, but don't sleep on the Indians. They seem to win when they're not supposed to and lose when they're supposed to win. They play with house money against the Astros, but I think Houston will prevail, but it will be a lot tougher than they hope.

In the NL, I think the Brewers have the hot hand and will dispatch the Cubs, while the Dodgers will handle the Braves, who are back in the post-season for the first time in a few years. Then the Brewers will find a way to beat the Dodgers. They will meet the Red Sox, who will win an epic series against Houston.

The league and the Fox network would certainly like some sort of combination of Yanks/Sox and Dodgers/Cubs to be in the series. Perversely, I would like something like an Oakland/Milwaukee series, two of the smallest markets in the game. If Oakland could win it would finally validate Billy Beane as a baseball genius. The Brewers have never won a World Series--the only championship for the city was a Braves win in 1957. The Rockies have never won a World Series, either. A Houston/Milwaukee Series would feature two teams who were once in the other's league. A Cubs/Red Sox series would be fun--they've never played each other in a World Series and both stadiums are the only ones left in Major League Baseball over 100 years old.

I would least like a Yankees/Dodgers series. They haven't played one since 1981, but for those too young to remember, they've played each other way too many times. If the Yankees are going to play anyone in the Series, let it be the Cubs, who they haven't played since 1936, and before that, 1932, when Babe Ruth hit the controversial "called shot" home run. Maybe Aaron Judge would point to centerfield.

But I'm going to stick with the Red Sox against the Brewers, with the Red Sox experience finally winning in, say, six games. Last year I did pick the Brewers to win the 2020 World Series, and they seem to be ahead of schedule.