By Josh:
The end of the season was one of my favorites in the last 20 years. Seeing multiple races come down to the wire and two even requiring one game playoffs was a ton of fun. So now I’m just hoping that the playoffs will be just as good, and if you go by the Wild Card games, especially the NL Wild Card, it should be a good one.
Now I intentionally waited until after the Wild Card games to complete my predictions because even though I love the one game Wild Card, it is just too hard to predict if a team will get hot for one game and my predictions were going to change quite a bit based on who won the Wild Card games.
NLDS: Colorado Rockies (91-72) at Milwaukee Brewers (96-67)
I love the Colorado Rockies. Their Twitter account which is the best in sports, their manager who just happened to be from my hometown and played for Lower Columbia College who I have covered for the past 4 years, and their roster is talented and fun. Despite my love for the Rockies I’m going with the Brewers to win this series. I said on Twitter the other day that I’m leaning towards an AL team winning it all but the Brewers have me questioning that thought. Brewers in 4.
NLDS: Atlanta Braves (90-72) at Los Angeles Dodgers (92-71)
The Braves are young and super talented. I think that in the next 5 years they will win a World Series if their front office can keep making good decisions. However, I don’t think it will be this year and this series against the Dodgers will team them a lot as well as give them motivation for next year as the Dodgers will win this series in 4.
ALDS: Cleveland Indians (91-71) at Houston Astros (103-59)
If you want to win the World Series your going to have to knock off the defending champs. The Indians aren’t going to be the team to accomplish that. In fact I think the Astros take care of business in every game, especially with their pitching. Astros in 3.
ALDS: New York Yankees (100-62) at Boston Red Sox (108-54)
Both of these teams are powerhouses and I love the fact that this great rivalry meets up in the playoffs. Honestly it is this series that I had to wait to do my playoff predictions. Had the A’s won the Wild Card I would have picked the Red Sox to win, but the Yankees won and I’m picking them to win this series. However, it won’t come easy as I think this series goes all 5 games and I would be there will be at least one extra inning game between them.
NLCS Los Angeles Dodgers vs Milwaukee Brewers
If this match up happens it should be a ton of fun to watch. I also think this series will get more interest across baseball than any other match up in the playoffs other than Yankees vs Red Sox. The Kershaw discussion will surface again, the Yelich MVP season will be talked about way to much, but the deciding factor for me is who will get to do more bat flips in this series. I think the Brewers take it in 6.
ALCS: New York Yankees vs Houston Astros
You get a home home, and you get a home run and you get a home run. We all get a home run. In a rematch of last year the Yankees and Astros will see just how many feet worth of home runs they can hit. Over / Under 15 home runs in this series. I’m going with over and I’m going with the Astros in 7.
World Series: Milwaukee Brewers vs Houston Astros
Had you told me 5 years ago this World Series match up was even a possibility I would have looked at you like you were stupid, but here we are and this is a real possibility. This isn’t the exciting match up of major cities and fan bases that promoters would want but it would bring great baseball and excitement. All that being said I think the Astros repeat and take the World Series in 6.