Other League Division Series Games: LA/ATL, BOS/NYY, HOU/CLE

[Eye Black]

No Brewers baseball for a few days, but we can use this thread to discuss other Division Series games.

 

Schedule for Monday, October 8th:

 

[Point Beer Is Best]

I was kind of hoping for a Brewers/Braves NLCS so we'd get a week long celebration of Hank Aaron.

[MrTPlush]

I am guessing the Brewers are going to have a lot of fans from other fanbases. People hate the Dodgers as it is and people usually don’t like to see teams make consecutive appearances in big games. No one wants to see a rematch.

[Point Beer Is Best]

I am guessing the Brewers are going to have a lot of fans from other fanbases. People hate the Dodgers as it is and people usually don’t like to see teams make consecutive appearances in big games. No one wants to see a rematch.

 

Same. I think if it's Braves/Brewers things will be more evenly split, but if it's LAD/Brewers, it will be LAD/Cubs fans on one side and everyone else lined up behind MKE.

[Point Beer Is Best]

Another reason to root for the Braves to at least push this series back to LA is that it will force the Dodgers to pitch Kershaw in Game 5 on Wednesday, making him unavailable until Game 3 in LA. LAD closing out tonight resets their starting rotation with Kershaw likely starting Game 1.

[long ball]

I'd prefer the Brewers get the Braves in the NLCS, but I'll be super happy if Braves/Dodgers goes to a game 5 where Jansen needs to throw a couple innings after Kershaw.

 

On the American league side, it would be nice if the Astros get eliminated at some point. If the Brewers advance to the World Series I don't want to face the Astros. I think they're pretty clearly the best team in the AL right now.

[jjfanec]

I'd prefer the Brewers get the Braves in the NLCS, but I'll be super happy if Braves/Dodgers goes to a game 5 where Jansen needs to throw a couple innings after Kershaw.

 

On the American league side, it would be nice if the Astros get eliminated at some point. If the Brewers advance to the World Series I don't want to face the Astros. I think they're pretty clearly the best team in the AL right now.

 

I agree on both accounts. The braves winning tonight is really big for the Brewers. In the world series I actually wouldn't mind playing the red Sox because their bullpen is really suspect. But that is a long ways away.

[3and2Fastball]

Another reason to root for the Braves to at least push this series back to LA is that it will force the Dodgers to pitch Kershaw in Game 5 on Wednesday, making him unavailable until Game 3 in LA. LAD closing out tonight resets their starting rotation with Kershaw likely starting Game 1.

 

100% correct.

 

As Brewers fans we want the Braves-Dodgers series to go to 5 games, preferably going into extra innings in both games 4 & 5. Let them use up and exhaust their pitching staffs

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I am guessing the Brewers are going to have a lot of fans from other fanbases. People hate the Dodgers as it is and people usually don’t like to see teams make consecutive appearances in big games. No one wants to see a rematch.

 

A lot of people hate Braun and he is the sole reason some people are rooting against the Brewers. More casual fans will adopt the Brewers, I think, but a lot of people really hate him.

[SRB]

On the American league side, it would be nice if the Astros get eliminated at some point. If the Brewers advance to the World Series I don't want to face the Astros. I think they're pretty clearly the best team in the AL right now.

 

I'd prefer the Astros over either Boston or New York

[jerichoholicninja]

On the American league side, it would be nice if the Astros get eliminated at some point. If the Brewers advance to the World Series I don't want to face the Astros. I think they're pretty clearly the best team in the AL right now.

 

I'd prefer the Astros over either Boston or New York

 

As a baseball fan, I would prefer the Astros. But I think the Yankees are the most beatable of that group, so I guess go Yankees?

[SRB]

On the American league side, it would be nice if the Astros get eliminated at some point. If the Brewers advance to the World Series I don't want to face the Astros. I think they're pretty clearly the best team in the AL right now.

 

I'd prefer the Astros over either Boston or New York

 

As a baseball fan, I would prefer the Astros. But I think the Yankees are the most beatable of that group, so I guess go Yankees?

 

The Yankees have some health issues, but that offense is frightening. I'm not frightened of the Astros offense.

[CheezWizHed]

From a logistics point of view a MIL/HOU match-up would remove weather from the equation. There is just something depressing about watching baseball played in the cold: Walks are increased, BA decreases, everyone looks miserable.

[fondybrewfan]

I want no part of that Astros pitching staff; give me Cleveland, NY, or Boston over Houston for sure.

[Yellin4Yelich]

It will be interesting who comes out of the AL. All scary teams.

 

My money is Houston. Verlander/Cole/Morton/Keuchel, followed up by a really good bullpen. Offense is a down from last year, but still full of elite players and scary.

 

BOS has a juggernaut offense. But with Price struggling and moving to the pen, Sale/Porcello/Eovaldi isn't as scary. They might have ride Sale really hard to get into the WS. The bullpen isn't as good as HOU or NYY

 

 

edit: typo

[KeithStone53151]

Man, it's hard for me to even think about a potential AL opponent. Right now, all I want is the Braves to win today. At minimum, it means Kershaw pitches Wednesday and we'd only see him twice if the Dodgers advance.

[TJH123]

 

The Yankees have some health issues, but that offense is frightening. I'm not frightened of the Astros offense.

 

Altuve, Bregman, Springer don’t scare you? Did you not see what they did in the playoffs last year? Pretty sure Springer has homered in like 7 of his last 8 playoff games including today. Altuve would be better than anyone in our lineup not named Yelich (maybe even better than him), and Bregman put up a borderline MVP season this year. I’m terrified of their lineup.

 

Edit: forgot about Correa too, he had a down season but it’s clear how deadly he can be.

[fondybrewfan]

Who would the Dodgers pitch in Wednesday? It would be Ryu or Kershaw and Ryu did start game #1 and looked great.

[long ball]

Who would the Dodgers pitch in Wednesday? It would be Ryu or Kershaw and Ryu did start game #1 and looked great.

 

Roberts announced today that Kershaw will start game 5 if necessary.

[TJH123]

Gonna be watching LA/ATL game 4 closely. Getting Kershaw to pitch game 5 would help us tremendously.

[SRB]

 

The Yankees have some health issues, but that offense is frightening. I'm not frightened of the Astros offense.

 

Altuve, Bregman, Springer don’t scare you? Did you not see what they did in the playoffs last year? Pretty sure Springer has homered in like 7 of his last 8 playoff games including today. Altuve would be better than anyone in our lineup not named Yelich (maybe even better than him), and Bregman put up a borderline MVP season this year. I’m terrified of their lineup.

 

Edit: forgot about Correa too, he had a down season but it’s clear how deadly he can be.

 

Eh, you can't cobble together players' best seasons, or if you do then we get 2011 Braun, 2017 Schoop, etc. The Astros are mediocre defensively and Bregman is their only superstar offensive player this season. Aside from Bregman and Altuve (having a down year) everyone else on that team in 2018 was worse than Travis Shaw.

 

Altuve is not better than Lorenzo Cain or Yelich even factoring in that he plays 2B...

 

*Edit* To be clear, I'm not underestimating these AL teams, we'd be the underdog against any of them. I just don't think the Astros can compete against the 2018 Red Sox or Yankees.

[tmwiese55]

Offensive lineups sure that's probably true. But Hous has clearly the best pitching of those 3 teams. And though I know as you've pointed out the Astros hitters have underperformed this year, come crunch time in the playoffs I still think they're closer to the hitters they've been in recent years than their stats this year. I think Houston is the team I'd least like to see, but yea they're all very good. Assume Cle is out then I'm picking Yanks as my preferred team.

 

Note too on if they play NYY. Yanks still get home field in spite of being the WC. Kind of odd that it applies to WS but not NLCS. As in, the Cubs would not have gotten home field in the NLCS had they beat Col then us.

[KeithStone53151]

Well there likely goes any chance of home field in the WS. Houston just took a 4-2 lead and are threatening for more.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Don't think anybody saw Cleveland making it out anyway.

 

To be honest, With 2-3-2 I'm not convinced the top seed gets the advantage anyway. Three straight games at home is awfully nice and really puts pressure on the top seed to win the first two.

[SRB]

Offensive lineups sure that's probably true. But Hous has clearly the best pitching of those 3 teams. And though I know as you've pointed out the Astros hitters have underperformed this year, come crunch time in the playoffs I still think they're closer to the hitters they've been in recent years than their stats this year. I think Houston is the team I'd least like to see, but yea they're all very good. Assume Cle is out then I'm picking Yanks as my preferred team.

 

Note too on if they play NYY. Yanks still get home field in spite of being the WC. Kind of odd that it applies to WS but not NLCS. As in, the Cubs would not have gotten home field in the NLCS had they beat Col then us.

 

Definitely. The Astros pitching staff is why they're in the playoffs. But I think lower scoring games play to our advantages more than a slug fest with the Red Sox and Yankees lineups, which are just ridiculous.