It would have been cool to have a World Series in which Ohtani would be pitching to Judge. Alas, Ohtani’s elbow isn’t there yet.
Next year.
Isn’t that always true?
Not specifically playoff related, but this is the current MLB thread. Here are the final draft lottery odds for getting the first pick. The White Sox are ineligible for the lottery (which consists of the top 6 picks) because they aren’t a revenue-sharing team (read: they make too much money) and already got a lottery pick last year. The As are a revenue sharing team, and had lottery picks the last 2 years.
- Rockies (61-101): 22.45%
- Marlins (62-100): 22.45%
- Angels (63-99): 17.96%
- Nationals (71-91): 10.2%
- Blue Jays (74-88): 7.48%
- Pirates (76-86): 5.31%
- Reds (77-85): 3.67%
- Rangers (78-84): 2.45%
- Giants (80-82): 1.9%
- White Sox (41-121): Ineligible
- A’s (69-93): Ineligible
- Rays (80-82): 1.5%
- Red Sox (81-81): 1.22%
- Twins (82-80): 1.09%
- Cardinals (83-79): 0.82%
- Cubs (83-79): 0.68%
- Mariners (85-77): 0.54%
- Diamondbacks (89-73): 0.27%
When it was determined that the Royals would play at Baltimore, just for grins I went online to look for tickets for Game 1. Good seats along both the first and third baselines could be had for $150.
The Royals will play two games in New York and will finally have a home playoff game next Wednesday. I just looked at tickets for that game. Cheapest seats in the upper deck nosebleed sections are $182. Similar tickets for Game 1 in New York are currently listed at $137.
Average attendance this season for the Royals was just over 20k, a significant increase over last season. KC fans will support a winner. I went to a weekday game in May, where the attendance was just over 14k.
Money isn’t everything. $166 million of the Yankees payroll is for 5 players. Obviously Judge and Soto are worth every penny and they are the reason the Yankees are where they are. The other three didn’t exactly earn their money. Cole has been up to his own high standards by the end of the year and hopefully will continue but he was out on the IL for a long stretch in the beginning of the year and took a long time to get up to speed. Rodon’s win loss record looks good but in reality he’s been very uneven. Looks great some games and looks like ass in others. Stanton started off the season good then got injured and reverted back to being a strikeout king.
If Cole and Rodon pitch the way they can at their best this year the Yankees should be in good shape. I trust Cole to rise to the occasion. I have less trust in Rodon.
With the way Dominguez played at the end of the year I can’t see him starting. His fielding was atrocious and he didn’t bat well enough to make up for it. They already have Chisholm playing a position he just started playing a couple of months ago. He’s able to make up for his lack of experience by being very athletic with a great arm but he still makes bad plays frequently. Rice is also doing good at a new position but his inexperience shows up at bad times. They can’t afford another potential bad fielder. I believe Rice will platoon with Cabrera and Verdugo will start in left.
There are front runners in other parts of the U.S., like those who root for the Dallas Cowboys. Des Moines Register editorial cartoonist Frank Miller used to insist “it isn’t an official World Series unless the Yankees are in it” (a cartoon in the peach-colored Register sports section would show a ballplayer being tagged out at the plate, when the Yankees were eliminated).
When I was growing up in NYC, all the baseball fans in my family were non-Yankee/anti-Yankee fans (the Dodgers, Giants and Mets were favored).
The semi-opaque crystal ball, fresh off its fairly accurate pick of last night’s game in Milwaukee, forecasts a close wild card finale up until the late innings when the Mets bullpen gives way again. 4-2, Brewers.
The Braves are the first team that had three of their Opening Day starters miss at least the last 35 games of the regular- and postseason on the IL, and still made the playoffs.
They lost Strider on 4/5, Acuña on 5/26, and Riley on 8/18 to season-ending injuries.
Cite: OptaStats
Great game going on in Milwaukee.
0-0, going into the bottom of the seventh. Quintana for the Mets has allowed 4 hits. 3 pitchers for the Brewers have allowed 2 hits.
And, on queue, a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 7th off the Mets reliever, Butto.
Followed by another home run. Suddenly 2-0, Milwaukee.
Where’s Grimace when you need him?
3-2 Mets on a 3-run homer by Alonso in the top of the 9th.
Can’t say it any better than Jack Buck in the Kirk Gibson game - I don’t believe what I just saw!
Miracle Mets! YGFB!
That was a hell of an ending. This year looked like another wasted year for the Mets and now they are going to the NLDS.
Well, crap.
One of the best closers in baseball gives up three hits, a walk, and four runs, in 2/3 of an inning, and the Brewers are one-and-done in the playoffs yet again. 
In their 56-season history, the Brewers have won a grand total of three playoff series (the ALCS in 1982, and NLDS in 2011 and 2018).
So…I predicted the close pitching battle and the Mets bullpen blowup and got the final score right. Just missed out on the winning team, no biggie.
Whatever further good things might or might not happen, this late Mets surge has been fun to watch.
I don’t have cable and I just got Sling last week for the playoffs but now I see I don’t get FOX, where the Mets/Phils will be shown. I get FS1 and 2. So where can I go? I tried an OTA antenna a while back and it doesn’t work.
Never mind, looks like all games except Satruday will be on FS1. Fubo, which has a free trial, has my local FOX
you know I swear sports is the only thing besides politics where negative articles get airtime Latest BS:
I heard somewherrr the other day that every team the Brewers have lost to in the postseason have gone on to the World Series. I haven’t taken the time to verify, but that’s amazing, if true.
Very reminiscent of the 2019 wild card game.