I already wrote what I had to say about the Cardinals’ season on Thursday, although maybe I should have saved it for the first day after the season ended. Although in some ways, the day you are eliminated is the end of the season and also I didn’t end up watching a single inning against the Cubs over the weekend. Which was not so much a protest against the team so much as being too busy to watch the game. It was for the best: I certainly don’t want to watch the Cardinals lose to the Cubs, but I can
admit that it was overall good for the Cardinals to get swept for the sake of the future of the team. They are well-positioned to get another top ten pick.
So instead I will perform the customary pre-playoff post here. In most sports, I could try to share my expertise on what might happen in the playoffs, predict winners, and had I the knowledge I have for baseball in that other spot, I’d feel fairly confident that I’d be right most of the time. Baseball is not one of those sports. So… let’s acknowledge that randomness and have a little fun with this. I will map out the postseason with three different methods on picking the winner.
The first method is quite simple: who I want to win. For some matchups, I don’t want to even risk the other team winning, so I don’t care about a good game, long series, anything. Let their season end as quickly as possible please. For other series, I prefer one of the teams, but my number one goal is entertaining games. And then there are the series where I just really don’t care which team wins, whether that’s a mutual dislike or being happy with either team ultimately winning it all.
The second method is gut feeling we’ll call it. It is not a measure of who the better team is. Sometimes you just have a feeling based off – to be honest it’s not much more than just “vibes.” You know what I’m talking about. The 2025 Guardians are pure vibes, because you honestly cannot make a great argument that they’re a great team. Or even a good team.
Lastly, I will literally flip a coin. Heads will go to the higher seed, tails to the lower seed. Imagine if the coin flip method produces the most accurate results. I would enjoy that very much actually.
American League
Wild Card
Tigers at Guardians
Want to Win: Tigers
This was honestly a tough pick. I don’t care who wins. Cleveland hasn’t won in a while, but neither has Detroit. I’m showing my age here, but if neither has won in my lifetime, does it really matter which has been the longest? Also being from St. Louis, I have affinity for both cities, as both are sometimes punching bags of the rest of the US like St. Louis and I have a deep defensiveness about St. Louis that extends to those cities. The tiebreaker is that I just don’t really like how cheap Cleveland is and I know it’s being used as a model for Bill Dewitt.
Gut feeling: Guardians
This is baseball so would it be surprising if the Tigers won? Absolutely not. They are the better team. People will disagree with that, especially if Cleveland wins, but they absolutely are. At the same time, it would be surprising because Cleveland seems to have a magic luck factor and Detroit seems to have the opposite of that. This was an easy one.
Flip of the coin: Guardians
Of course luck is on their side.
Red Sox at Yankees
Want to win: Boy do I not care at all. Umm, I’ll go with the Yankees because the Red Sox and Boston in general have won too damn much in the past 20 years.
Gut feeling: Red Sox
I have zero strong feelings about this series. I will watch it completely uninvested in the outcome. Sometimes I think that, and when I’m watching the game, my sympathies lean towards one team to my surprise. So we’ll see if that happens. Anyway, Red Sox are the worse team, but it’d be a better bet to pick the Red Sox than the Yankees in the past 20 years.
Flip of the coin: Yankees
Two heads in a row, okay. I’m rooting for a tails next just so that my coin flipping ability is not called into question.
Division Series
Okay, because I have three different methods, I could make this really confusing, but I’ll make it a lot simpler. We’ll follow each thread instead of doing three different methods for every potential matchup. In some cases, I think the answers would be the same though.
Guardians/Tigers at Mariners
Want to win: I will run into complications in the future, at least I think, but this one’s easy. I’m rooting for the Mariners either way. We might as well have not done the first series “want to win” because Mariners are ideally in my ALCS.
Gut feeling: We’re dealing with three franchises that seem to be cursed in one way or another. Well Cleveland and Seattle certainly feel cursed at least. Detroit just had an epic collapse. Historically speaking none of these teams would be a good gut feeling pick. But Seattle has great vibes, so again my gut feeling has to go to them
Coin flip: Seattle
Okay, I lied. I said I wanted a tails, but I didn’t realize the implications of that and now I’ve very worried, because I am due for a tails and look at the following matchup.
Yankees/Red Sox at Blue Jays
Want to win: I mean obviously the Blue Jays.
Gut feeling: Well clearly my gut is telling me the Red Sox because I am 100 percent expecting the coin flip to go the way of the Red Sox. Trust me I don’t want this. If the Red Sox beat the Yankees, I would actually end up kind of surprised if the Blue Jays won that series. It’s just kind of how the tide goes for both of these teams.
Coin flip: Blue Jays
HEADS IS COMING THROUGH. Okay seriously, I need to get a tails, because I’m starting to be concerned I am flipping a coin wrong. And yes I know four straight heads is not actually that weird.
Championship Series
Want to Win: Mariners at Blue Jays
I’m forced to pick a team, but to be perfectly honest I don’t actually care. I’m rooting for Seattle because they’ve never won. But the Blue Jays are in a tough division every single year and I don’t really think they’re going to have that many chances at this in the future. I would be very happy if the Blue Jays won a World Series.
Gut feeling: Red Sox at Mariners
I hate this so much. Here’s the problem. We’re talking about gut feeling here. And it’s not telling me that, broadly speaking, the Red Sox will make the World Series. What it is telling me is that my gut thinks they’ll win in each matchup they’re playing. And if the Red Sox actually made it to the ALCS and faced the Mariners, how confident am I that the Mariners would win? Not very. I would root very hard for the Mariners, but I would have a dread that I have seen this movie before. So in the interest of full honesty, sadly, the Red Sox are what my gut is telling me because baseball has not given me nice things in a long time.
Coin flip: Mariners at Blue Jays
Tails comes through in the end. The Mariners make their first World Series via the coin flip method.
National League
Wild Card
Reds at Dodgers
Want to win: Reds
I don’t have any particular interest in the Reds doing well this postseason, however, I can’t really root for the Dodgers.
Gut feeling: Dodgers
Sometimes gut feeling really is about who the better team is.
Coin flip: Reds
Well, this is probably my first coin flip result where I’m like…nah. I just don’t see it. But hey, you never know, baseball is a funny sport.
Padres at Cubs
Want to win: Come on
Gut feeling: Seriously come on
Coin flip: Cubs
The coin has failed me. It has failed all of us.
Division Series
Want to Win: Reds at Phillies
I wish I was one of those fans who rooted for teams in their own division because if the division is strong, it makes your team look better…. but I don’t care about that. I don’t particularly like the Phillies, but I want the Phillies to win no matter who they face.
Gut feeling: Dodgers at Phillies
This is a fun one. You know to my surprise these teams haven’t went head-to-head in the playoffs since 2009. I don’t know how the Phillies have managed to avoid the Dodgers in the past three seasons despite making an NLCS and a World Series. I kind of broke the rules on “gut” feeling here, but I went back and looked at the stats. Cause my gut isn’t really telling me anything here. Phillies have went 9-3 in the past two seasons against the Dodgers. This doesn’t mean much, but it is enough for me to go with the Phillies.
Coin flip: Reds at Phillies
Okay now we’re certainly entering territory where if real life reflects my coin flip scenario, there will be amazement. That’s right. The Reds are moving on.
Padres/Cubs at Brewers
Want to win: I don’t know when I got to the place where I don’t want any NL team to win but I am absolutely there. Give me the Padres over Brewers.
Gut feeling: Is the following statement partially trolling/partially my real belief? You decide. I’m going with the team with the better manager. Brewers.
Coin flip: Cubs
Okay coin, you’ve had your fun, but you better not go there. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.
Championship Series
Want to win: Padres at Phillies
If you couldn’t tell from my little jab earlier, I will be rooting for the Phillies.
Gut feeling: Phillies at Brewers
I feel like the Brewers are one of those teams where I’m not ever going to have the gut feeling that they’ll win it until they actually do. So I got to go with Phillies here too.
Coin flip: Reds at Cub
Oh thank god. This was about to be unfun really quickly. When I tell you how long I waited to reveal the answer to myself, it was a good 30 seconds. That said, I have the Reds making the World Series, which would certainly be an unexpected result. I don’t really like any of the NL teams, so there is a part of me rooting for this outcome just because the coin flip says it will be. This is the funniest possible coin flip outcome because literally no team would surprise me except the Reds. And I mean that literally. And you can lump them in with the American League and I’d still say the Reds are the team I least expect to make the World Series.
World Series
Want to win: Mariners at Phillies
So this just confirms that the Mariners are the team I want to win the World Series. Anybody but the Red Sox and Yankees, and I’m rooting for the American League. And there are scenarios where I root for the Yankees and Red Sox. Do not make me do that baseball.
Gut feeling: Red Sox at Phillies
So part of the reason my gut was telling me Red Sox was because of who they were facing. The Phillies carry no such burdens for me. It helps that I don’t really want the Phillies to win the World Series. I mean I would in this series, no question. But I think I would lean Phillies on this one as far as belief. I mean the Red Sox aren’t that good.
Coin flip: Reds at Mariners
The coin flip officially became a desirable outcome. Your 2025 champions: the Seattle Mariners.
Three different methods, two different results. Maybe it is the Mariners’ year.
