And now for the MLB Playoffs*

The Mets are now 100% set for the offseason, and there is a lot of big fish in the ocean.

The Mets have these big rods, ready to snatch them up, but if my arch-nemesis, Sandy Alderson, gets accepted as GM, he’s going to be very happy just sitting in his big ol’ chair and watching the market unfold.

Later, near the beginning of the new season, he’ll sign a relief pitcher out of Cuba that’s averaging 8.3 BB/9. This is also the same for what Brodie van Wagenen would do. Except, van Wagenen comes with a twist. He’s going to sign a completely unneeded player, like Yuli Gurriel.

But, these are my educated predictions, because I think Sandy doesn’t know how to make a move because he has never made any big moves (and the Mets need that) and Brodie van Wagenen traded the future of this franchise for someone who’s at the end of his career and is not producing at all while Edwin Diaz, who has 6 saves and 4 blown saves, which is, I think the worst rate in baseball history.

The baseball playoffs are the blandest playoffs in playoff history, but, it’s still the playoffs. Don’t get alarmed, I’m still going to cover them, it’s just that there have barely been any upsets, and, the Astros won – sadly. Both of the number one seeds, the Dodgers and the Rays, disposed of their opponents the Brewers and the Blue Jays, respectively, quickly and quietly. In a game where the teams were literally the most equal in baseball history, the Indians and the Yankees, the boys from the Bronx pulled out and won 2-0, routing the Indians both times.

The Cards went up 1-0 against the Padres, but, how can you fight against the explosiveness of Fernando Tatis Jr., my favorite player not on the Mets, Manny Machado, and Eric Hosmer? You can’t. The Padres came back and won 2-1.

The Astros won against a fairly good team, the Twins, which I never saw coming. I mean, everyone thought without the garbage cans and the signals they would be bad, but, I guess the Twins were that bad, because, the Astros can’t be good.

Then, the Miami Marlins pull out, yes you’re hearing me correctly, against the Cubs. Quoting their Twitter post, 10 out of 10 chiropractors recommend to not sleep on the Marlins, which is true, very true. Corey Dickerson is a much underrated player in the MLB, but on the Marlins, he’s like Jeff Bezos crossed with the Queen of England – players pray to him. The Marlins pitching was great in both games, allowing only 1 run in 18 innings, how crazy is that. When maybe two years ago they were allowing 8 runs in 9 innings. All the Marlins needed in game two was a homer from Garrett Cooper, the Magneuris Sierra RBI was just insurance. By the way, no one scored a run until Cooper sent one to left. Only five hits from the Cubs in the second one, underwhelming, these Cubbies.

I want to say next year, but, maybe something else will happen like this. The A’s, who really are going to make a deeeep playoff run, maybe even beat the Astros and then stroll along to the ALCS, where they will be killed by the Yankees, but hey, Billy Beane’s, the GOAT of all MLB GMs, legacy gets even better.

The last series, the Braves, had to literally walk to the end, no competition, no stress whatsoever, no runs scored from the Reds, and the Braves just had to produce a few runs, crazy if you ask me.

I had 5 out of 8 predictions correct, the only two that didn’t get right were the Twins, the White Sox, and the Cubs series. I had them winning instead of the Astros, the A’s, and the Marlins.

So my next calls:

TB vs Yanks – Yanks

Twins vs White Sox – Twins

Dodgers vs Padres – Dodgers

Marlins vs Braves – Braves

Yankees vs Twins – Yankees

Dodgers vs Braves – Dodgers 

World Series:

Yankees vs Dodgers – I’ll let you know in a next blogpost.

The Series to Watch: All of them, actually. But, if I had to choose the most compelling one, then definitely the Yankees and Rays. The Rays are one of those teams that are overflowing with completely mediocre players. The Rays are also something like the A’s back when Beane took over. A new team, a new idea, and the traditional baseball fans didn’t like it. But, hey, look where it got them. But, on the other side, good and new can’t compete with good ol’ power.

Clint Frazier, Luke Voit, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Gary Sanchez, and Gio Urshela are only the top of this lineup. They will have a discrepancy at catcher, with the home run or strikeout Gary Sanchez versus the below-average Kyle Higashioka, but Aaron Boone likes Higashioka more because he just keeps producing and Sanchez just keeps declining.

The star aces are facing off tonight, Gerrit Cole and Blake Snell. The Yankees will pull out, because the pitching is equal, both good starting rotations and good bullpens, the coaching is slightly better for the Yankees, purely because of experience, but the hitting, the hitting of the Yankees is double the hitting of the Rays. 

Ahhh, October has finally arrived for this MLB season with an asterisk*.