By: Jay Miller
So, where were you in the fall of 2003? Think all the way back, 17 years ago. What was going on in your life? As for me, I was a junior in high school and about to turn 17. Now, well now I’m about to turn 34 with a beautiful wife and two amazing little boys. The one thing in common between 2003 and 2020… The Marlins are in the playoffs again!
After a 17-year drought, the Miami Marlins are back in the playoffs. That is just one of the headlines as we shift to postseason baseball. This season, in all its glory, has so many amazing story lines going for it ahead of Tuesday. Joey Votto, a potential future hall of famer, hasn’t played in a playoff game in 2,554 days when Game 1 rolls around Wednesday and the Cincinnati Reds open up against the Atlanta Braves. Houston won’t have trash cans this time and we have already seen how it affected their regular season numbers. Will Kershaw finally lead his Dodgers and get his ring he so much deserves? (In my best TV announcer voice) “All this and more in this season’s Major League Baseball playoffs.”
Let’s get straight into the American League opening round bracket.
American League – Round 1
Toronto Blue Jays vs TB Rays
The Toronto Buffalo Blue Jays have been a fresh and exciting group to watch this year. Led by young studs like Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio and Vlad Guerrero Jr, the Jays are just glad to be here. Give them another year or so and they will compete for an AL East title. Sadly Jay’s fan, your future is bright, but your present is a grim reaper in the form of the current AL East champs, the Tampa Bay Rays.
TB has the second best ERA (3.56) and the third lowest WHIP (1.22) in the AL. Pitching is the name of the game in a three game series and the Rays have one of the best staffs in all of baseball. Two game sweep in the Rays favor.
New York Yankees vs Cleveland Indians
This might be the best matchup in all of the postseason round one games. Game 1, Gerrit Cole vs Shane Bieber! WOW! This game will be one to watch for sure. Whoever takes game one will win the series. The Yankees lead the AL in 2020 with 315 runs scored and came in second with 94 home runs. Problems arise for the Bronx Bombers with their pitching staff who owns a 4.35 ERA for the season. The Indians… well, they have the best ERA (3.29) in the AL and second best in all of MLB. I’m gonna go Indians in three games.
Houston Astros vs Minnesota Twins
Will the Twins finally get that first round monkey off their back!? I think this is the year! Not much to say about this one as the Twins have one of the best offenses in all of baseball and the Astros road into the playoffs in a clunker of a car, running on fumes after dropping Justin Verlander off at the hospital for surgery. Twins in two… maybe three… no let’s say two.
Chicago White Sox vs Oakland Athletics
“How can you not be romantic about baseball?” It’s a very good question considering this matchup. A bunch of young guys in Chicago who are too young to realize they shouldn’t be here yet. Led by, I believe, the 2020 AL MVP, Jose Abreu, the White Sox are dangerous with a bat in their hand and possibly more dangerous on the bump.
Then there are the Fighting Billie Bean’s, as I like to call them. Don’t see them much on the SportsCenter highlights or even on MLB Network because they are a west coast team, but won their division and finished tied for second for the best record in the AL at 36-24. As of Sunday night, the A’s had not selected a game one starter to go up against the Sox Lucas Giolito.
This series will be back and forth, not from game to game, but from inning to inning. My brain tells me Sox in three, but my guts says the Fightin’ Beans sneak two wins out somehow. A’s in three.
National League – Round 1
Milwaukee Brewers vs LA Dodgers
I’m really not going to waste my time explaining. Dodgers in two.
Cincinnati Reds vs Atlanta Braves
I’m not sure anyone has a better 1-2-3 in their pitching staff than the Reds do. Trevor Bauer, Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray own a combined ERA of 2.80. Not to mention one of the best bullpens in baseball in the last month. Led by Raisel Iglesias at the back end who has allowed two runners to reach base in his last 22 batters faced going into Sunday.
The Braves starting rotation is in shambles, but my goodness can they hit! The Bravos are second behind the Dodgers in runs scored in the NL by one at 348. They also led all of MLB with an .832 OPS. Eleven points higher than the next closest team. The Reds…? Well, they ranked 27th in MLB in runs scored and 19th in OPS.
A great series awaits these two teams. Expect a low scoring affair in all three games. Reds take the finale on a gem by Sonny Gray.
Miami Marlins vs Chicago Cubs
I have to take a moment to give credit to the only person I heard say, “I think the Marlins could be really good this year. I have them in the playoffs.” My father told me this way back before Spring Training 2.0. At which point I debated putting him into a nursing home. Glad I decided against it.
Please note that the Marlins have never lost a playoff series in franchise history. Well, it was fun while it lasted Marlins Man, but the Cubs will take the three game series from the young upstart team from South Florida. The Marlins are ahead of schedule on their rebuild and the NL East will be very fun to watch for the next several years. Cubs in two.
St. Louis Cardinals vs Slam Diego Padres
I’m not sure if anyone remembers this. While on deck in 2018, Manny Machado was recorded by a fan saying, “we’ll win a World Series before the Dodgers do.” I laughed like Charlie Murphy from Chappelle Show when I heard that. No one is laughing now. The Padres are the real deal.
As much as I despise the Cardinals, they are an incredible franchise. Overcoming the early season COVID attack on the team, St. Louis kind of looked dead in the water. They picked themselves up and with Paul Goldschmidt returning to form, found themselves second in the NL Central.
It was a good fight Cards, but an early departure is imminent. You can return to the casino after just two games. Padres move on.
American League – Divisional Series
Cleveland Indians vs Tampa Bay Rays
Over a five game series, I’ll take TB’s pitching staff over just about everyone’s. TB in four.
Minnesota Twins vs Oakland A’s
What a feel-good matchup, am I right? These two teams going up against one another, knowing one will get to the ALCS. I’ve got this one going the distance in five games. Push comes to shove, I’m gonna take Rocco and his Twinkies. Twins in a coin flip.
National League – Divisional Series
Slam Diego Padres vs LA Dodgers
Here it is folks! This is the series we have all been waiting for! During the regular season, the Dodgers won the overall matchup four games to two. LA also outscored the Friars 31 to 21 in those six contests.
Like in the past, this series revolves around Kershaw, who should get two shots to pitch in five games. If he’s on, the Dodgers roll. If he’s not… Dodgers exit stage right.
Gonna see another five game series with a lot of fireworks and some heart broken bullpens when it’s all said and done. Dodgers limp into the NLCS as if they were Rocky defeating Apollo Creed and yelling “YO ADRIAN! I DID IT” to no one in particular, because there are no fans in the stands.
Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs
This is the second inner-divisional series matchup in the ALDS. Two teams who, for all intents and purposes, hate each other’s guts, want nothing more than to end the other ones season.
Yu Darvish will most likely finish second behind Bauer in the NL Cy Young Award race and will make for a compelling game one pitching matchup. My prediction is six hit by pitches, four ejections and at least one bench clearing moment in the four games that will be played. Reds in four. Bauer pitches games one and four.
League Championship Series
American League
Minnesota Twins vs TB Rays
A tale as old as time… not Beauty and the Beast, no, Pitching versus hitting! Can the Rays keep the Twins bats from hitting the long ball? I think they can. I think the Rays are headed to the World Series for just the second time in franchise history! TB Rays in five.
National League
Cincinnati Reds vs LA Dodgers
After Kershaw’s remarkable performance in the ALDS, the Reds will take Game 1 with the better pitching matchup. However, it will be the end of the line for Joey Votto and company as their season will most likely come to an end.
Dodgers win it after a couple Reds bullpen implosions late in the series. Six games to be exact.
World Series
LA Dodgers vs TB Rays
First, there are the Dodgers in all their Dodger Blue history! Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Kirk Gibson’s home run, five straight ROY award winners in the 90’s just to name a few. Then there are the Rays and their exercised Devilish history. Rocco Baldelli’s crazy career ending disease, Josh Hamilton’s derailed career, inability to sign David Price or Carl Crawford long term, just to name a few.
The mighty, deep pocketed, Dodgers against the lonely, penny pinching Rays. This is truly a David vs Goliath matchup. I think you will find the vast majority of baseball fans will become Rays fans leading up to the World Series. It could be one of the biggest “feel-good” stories in a year riddled with negativity and sorrow lurking around every corner.
In reality, it will be the Dodgers who take centerstage in the Fall Classic. Kershaw pitches a gem and Mookie Betts gets the series MVP in a six game series. The City of Angels gets their long awaited seventh World Series title.