The Beginning Of The End

The MLB Postseason Has Begun

Photo from picryl / CC BY-SA 4.0

It is finally the time of year for Major League Baseball (MLB). When the regular season comes to a close and the playoffs and the hunt for a world championship begins.

12 out of the 30 MLB teams will compete in the playoffs in a bracket elimination style tournament. Six of the 12 teams are from the American League (AL) and the other six are from the National League (NL). The six teams from the AL side of the bracket include the Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Guardians, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers. While the other six, from the NL side, are the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds.

On both sides of the bracket, seeds one and two receive first round byes and will not have to play a wildcard game. The one seed for the AL is the Blue Jays, who finished the regular season with a 94-68 record, and the two seed for the AL is the Mariners, who finished with a record of 90-72. On the other side of the playoff bracket, the NL one seed is the Brewers, who ended with the best record in the MLB, 97-65 and the NL two seed is the Phillies, who finished the season with a record of 96-66. These top four teams will not see action until the Divisional Series, which begins on Saturday, Oct. 4.

Seeds three through six will have to play wildcard games, which is a series that is best out of three and begins on Tuesday, Sept. 30, and can go until Thursday, Oct. 2, if a game three is needed for any of the four wildcard games. The higher seeds in these wildcard games will be the home team for all games of the series, which is unusual as teams usually switch between the home and away team every game in a series. For the AL wildcard games, the sixth seeded Tigers will play at the third seeded Guardians and the fifth seeded Red Sox will play at the fourth seeded Yankees. On the NL side, the sixth seeded Reds will face the third seeded Dodgers in Los Angeles and the fifth seeded Padres will go against the fourth seeded Cubs in Chicago.

Surprisingly, for now, the third seeded Dodgers have the best odds to win it all at +225. The Dodgers are led by Shohei Ohtani, who is both a batter and a pitcher and is having another MVP caliber season. Ohtani and the rest of the stacked Dodgers lineup is the main reason they sit as favorites to take home the championship trophy and become back to back world series winners. The Brewers have the second best odds to win the World Series at +500. The Brewers are the best and most consistent team in baseball right now, but not for a reason that many think. The Brewers do not have a stacked, powerful team like the Dodgers, but they do have a very well rounded and consistent team, which is why they are also highly favored to win it all. The third team with the highest odds are the Blue Jays at +550, however, they are the clear favorite to win the AL. Consistency and great defense is why the Blue Jays are favorites to win the AL and toward the top as favorites to be champions.

The month of October comes highly anticipated as there will be loads of MLB games throughout the month. Soon enough, one team will prove their worth and come out on top as world series winners.