cHawk

Who wins tonight’s NL Wild Card Game? Will it be the Cardinals or the Dodgers? React with “Sad” for Cardinals and “Incorrect” for Dodgers SPs: Adam Wainwright (Cardinals) vs. Max Scherzer (Dodgers) O/U: 7.5 Venue: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA JANKEES LOSE

Make that 4-1 Red Sox

How the momentum has changed. Yankees on the board and Severino is dealing. Turning into a good game.

I predict Yankees 5, Red Sox 3

Who wins tonight’s AL Wild Card Game? Will it be the Yankees or the Red Sox? React with “Sad” for Yankees and “Incorrect” for Red Sox SPs: Gerrit Cole (Yankees) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (Red Sox) O/U: 8.5 Venue: Fenway Park, Boston

The place for discussion about this year’s playoffs.

Don’t forget about CB Buckner

All we need now is for Angel Hernandez to retire

Man, that’s depressing. Even O’Neill has been disappointing after getting payed.

5 leads? Damn. Never realized that.

This. Exactly this. There’s a reason the Rays are in the playoffs and the Mets and Padres are not.

I want the Rays to win. I just have a feeling it’ll be the Yankees. Hope I’m wrong.

October baseball is upon us. 10 teams battling for a World Series trophy. Only one will win it all. I will make predictions for each round. I will pick a winner from each matchup, and a # of game(s) (or score for the Wild Cards) that series is going to go. Today, I’m only going to do the Wild Card and Division Series. After you read, please share your opinion down below. How wrong or right am I? WARNING: Take my predictions with a grain of salt. Let’s get started. Wild Card: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers The road to the World Series begins in LA, where the defending champs host the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals are not long off from a 17 game win streak. They also swept the NL Central winning Brewers in that stretch. However, they were stifled up a bit to end the year. The Dodgers are the defending champions, have a world class pitching staff, and have a deep-af lineup. Comparing the two teams? Talk about a no contest matchup. The Dodgers are by far and out a more complete team than the Cardinals. Expect a shutdown performance from the Dodgers’ world-class pitching staff. Prediction: STL - 0, LAD - 4 Wild Card: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox The most heated and long-lasting rivalry in all of baseball will meet in the AL Wild Card Game at Fenway Park. For the SP matchup, you will see Gerrit Cole for the Yankees and (most likely) Chris Sale for the Red Sox (on short rest, as he also only threw 62 pitches on Sunday). That’s a wash matchup. What’s not a wash matchup is the bullpens. The Yankees’ bullpen was a little shaky at the ASB, but it has looked good down the stretch. The Red Sox bullpen has looked rather vulnerable. This will end up costing the Red Sox the game. Prediction: NYY 5 - BOS 3 Division Series: Atlanta Braves vs. Milwaukee Brewers (I’m doing these in no particular order) The first Division Series has the NL East-winning Atlanta Braves taking on the NL Central-winning Milwaukee Brewers. Comparing stats, this series looks like Atlanta’s offense and Milwaukee’s pitching and defense. Atlanta’s Batting Stats: Runs Scored: 8th Home Runs: 3rd BA: 11th OPS: 9th Milwaukee’s Pitching Stats: ERA: 3rd WHIP: T-3rd HR Against: T-4th (fewest) That will be what it comes down to. And I think the Brewers will come out on top, simply because they’ll have too much pitching. Keep in mind that the Braves won a pretty bad division. Also, the Braves will be missing Ronald Acuña Jr. for this series. That’s a pretty big hit. I think the Brewers pull this one out pretty comfortably. Prediction: Brewers win in 4 games Division Series: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays Coming off a big win against a familiar foe in the Wild Card game, the Yankees will head to Tropicana Field for a best-of-5 with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays biggest strength is obviously their bullpen. They have the highest RP WAR in MLB, but the Yankees aren’t that far behind. When it comes to offense, the Yankees have the edge. They’re better at most positions than the Rays (Baseball Savant Rankings). The Rays might have a higher Offensive WAR, but the Yankees did deal with key injuries early in the year. The Yankees also have an advantage at SP WAR. The Yankees rank 6th whereas the Rays only rank 15th. These two teams have battled it out during the Regular Season, and it’s been a pretty even matchup. I’ll take the Yankees for their SP and Offense. Prediction: Yankees win in 5 games Division Series: Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros I’m not going to be biased and quickly say “Astros in 3” because I hate the White Sox. From all the Division Series matchups, this one looks like the best by far. Both teams are ranked Top 10 in ERA, WHIP, and Fewest HR Allowed. Both teams also are ranked in the Top 10 (Offensively) in each RS, HR, BA, and OPS (except the Sox are 19th in HR). Also remember that the White Sox were missing Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez for a large portion of the year. Both will play in this series. The rosters for this series are a toss up. However, the Astros: - Will play 3 of 5 games at home - Are (much) more experienced - Have made the Championship Series in 4 consecutive years They’re bound to make it again, right? Prediction: Astros win in 5 games Division Series: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants One of the most intense rivalries in baseball. Dodgers and Giants. These two teams have the Top 2 records in baseball, have been the Top 2 in BR/theAthletic Power Rankings (yeah those are meaningless). Both teams are Top 3 in Team ERA, WHIP, and HR against. Both teams are also Top 10 in RS, HR, BA, and OPS. The stats make this look like a toss up. BUT… The Dodgers have a better roster than the Giants. They hold the advantage at most positions. The Dodgers are also the defending champions, and are more experienced. The Giants, in comparison to the Dodgers, appear to be smoke and mirrors. I will eat crow if I’m wrong. Prediction: Dodgers win in 4 games So those are my predictions for the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. I will do Championship and World Series predictions when those rounds come around.

73-89. Seventy-three and eighty-nine. Last place. How many wins did we expect? ~90 is the answer to that question. Ninety. I think that says it all about this season. The year where nothing went right. The year the pitching staff fell apart.

What is with the playcalling this game.

They haven’t given up a sack until just now.

Cousins doesn’t look nearly as sharp as he did the last two weeks

This is me hearing that the Cardinals made the playoffs by adding Happ and Lester:

Nagy is not off to a good start in terms of developing Fields. He’d be better off starting Foles this year than Fields.

Who knows? Maybe it’s Klint.

3 National League Playoff Spots have been locked up, and another one is as good as locked up. The final spot that is still a question is the champion of the NL East. Who will it be? Will it be the Braves or the Phillies? Please vote and share your opinion below:

They probably won’t be a “big plays” offense but they could definitely be an up-tempo offense that scores a lot of points, while also burning the clock. The OL has impressed me. The stats, so far (SSS) look a lot better than last year. Guard play has been way better. I think another thing that’s been helping Cousins out is using the 3 WR sets.

The Bears OL is 32nd in Sacks Against% at 15.15% (yikes!!!). The Vikings OL is 7th at 4.00% (and no, I don’t believe in PFF grades). The Seahawks DL isn’t great, the Browns DL is way better. Rashod Hill could get absolutely manhandled. Also the Browns OL hasn’t been great to start this year, that’s surprising.