Nice to see the Brewers take the Central and knock out the Cubs last week. I was selfishly hoping they'd play Miami so I could catch a playoff game, but I think they will take AZ. I read Woodruff is out for the next few weeks, which is a bummer.

They've been a fun team this year, but the Dodgers or the Braves are in their way. MLB playoffs are all about what team gets hot, so you never know.

I just really hope the WS isn't Astros, Dodgers or Braves. I'm so sick of those teams.

@porkchopbob 

I thought about heading up to Milwaukee just to have attended a playoff game. out of the countless ball games I have been to, never caught a playoff game. I was really hoping for a Brewers/Cubs series. That would have been the matchup. And how much fun would that have been to see Cubs fans invade Milwaukee? And the Brewers team trying to deny them tickets. They have done that before.

Well, Brew Crew has to win tonight!

Yeah bummer of a loss last night. Hopefully they bounce back. I doubt they'd get past the Dodgers or Braves, so I'm not too broken up about it. It's been a fun season, hopefully they can keep it going. Cubs might have even been a better matchup for Milwaukee since they've kind of had their number late in the year.

Milwaukee has really surprised me this year, especially in the second half of the year. This best of three is tough but as I saw Milwaukee's G.M. say recently, teams play 3-game series all of the time and the goal is to win the series. 

Of course, there is just more on the line now.

Regarding who you don't want in The WS, I agree with Astros & Dodgers. I kind of like the Braves. Texas laid an egg by not winning that division and making Houston a wild card. A team I am pulling for is Baltimore. How long has it been since they have been relevant?

@leeI like the best of the 3, definitely prefer it over the 1-game WC play-in.

I've always hated the Braves. The Brewers popularity in WI was huge in the 1980s, but started to thin during the 1990s as their play began to decline for the next 20 years. Dropping the ball-in-glove for the Motre Bame unis and switching leagues made them feel like a different team. Meanwhile, there were still some Braves fans clinging on, along with plenty of miserable Cubs fans, and both teams were regularly on WGN and TBS every afternoon. The Braves' tomahawk chop wore thin pretty quickly making their annual early 1990s NL pennants all the more annoying. Wish they would just go away.

Orioles would be cool to see go the distance. If the Brewers played the Os I think it would be the first time two teams that were once named the same played each other, since the O's played their first season as the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to St Louis and becoming the Browns.

Brewers go down at home, adios to a fun 2023 season. Bummer, but I'm not really surprised. Their pitching was their strength and if they couldn't handle AZ, they weren't going much further. I came to accept this is just how the MLB works long ago: small market teams won't win the WS unless they pay for it like the Marlins did. After years of hearing Cubs fans whine about how hard it is to be a Cubs fan, I've learned to just enjoy the games and the successes that come. And unlike Pittsburgh or Anaheim, at least the Brewers' brass makes move to try to win.

Anyways, Point Guards and Centers report to camp this month...

@porkchopbob 

You have to explain the Orioles/Brewers connection to me. I know the Brewers were the 1969 Pilots. But I don't know where the O's connection comes in. I could win a bar bet with that trivia!

As for the disdain for the Braves, I can understand that if you remember the Braves being in Milwaukee until what, 1966? My Tigers almost moved to Tampa years ago. Not sure what I would have done with that. Remember, the Braves were in Boston before Milwaukee for whatever that is worth.

Since you dislike the Braves and apparently the Cubs, I guess I can understand you thinking they kind of hit people over the head being on TV all of the time. Hell, when I grew up and we FINALLY got cable TV I loved it. Two nationwide networks? I'll take it. It was better than three channels and maybe 30 or 40 Tigers games. 

@lee

The Orioles were the Milwuakee Brewers in 1902, the inaugural season of the American League, before moving to St Louis and becoming the Browns the next year. The 1944 World Series between the Browns and Cards was the last world series played in the same ball park until that COVID WS in 2020. They were in St Louis until 1954 when they moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles. They nearly moved to LA in the early 1940s, but I think WWII austerity canceled the approval since travel would have been too costly.

Believe me, there were a lot of people in WI who grew up with the Braves and held on to that WS. Most of them have probably moved on by now, the Brewers are very popular. There were actually a few games maybe 20 years ago where the Brewers and Braves both wore Braves uniforms.

Brewers weren't even on local TV all that often when I was a kid. When we got cable, Cubs and Braves games were useless to me since the Brewers were still in the AL.

Good thing for the Tigers they didn't move to TB - they'd be playing to an empty house.

Well, the Final Four is all set and I don't like it. I really wanted Atlanta to beat Philly. I'm afraid this will be Philly/Houston in which case I might not even watch The World Series. Just kidding, I know I will.

Philly should have no problem with Arizona but how cool of a Cinderella story would that be?

I like Texas but their pitching just isn't that good. I could unfortunately see them losing in four or five games. 

Okay, Rangers are in the WS, which is great! Now we just need AZ to knock off Philly tonight. That might really piss off Vegas and most of the casual fans.

And so much for my predictions, right?  

Wait, baseball season is still going? Well, glad to see Houston out of it. Rather see Philly in than AZ, but as the man once said, I'm past the point of caring.

 Bob - As I said earlier, I would still watch it if it was Philly/Houston. I imagine you will too. Last night my with asked me if they were playing day games this weekend. I think 1984 was the last time they had a day game (game 5 of the WS). I didn't laugh at her.

Hell, it could be interesting. Who predicted THIS matchup?

I can never guess the WS anymore. More teams in the post-season and a random barely .500 team catches fire or catches a great matchup. Glad it's not Houston, but bummed the D-Bags made it - they always feel like a triple-A team to me. Maybe because they play in AZ and their uniforms look cheap.

But don't really care much. Hasn't been a WS matchup that interested me in years. Rangers haven't won it all so hopefully they can pull it off.

Glad neither Houston or Philly made it to the WS.

Nice to see some fresh blood have a chance at the ring.

Hard to pick a team to root for as I would love to see Montgomery have a great series and get a ring proving Cashman and the Yankees wrong that he was of no value in the post season. Just another of the bad trades Cashman has made in recent years.

On the other hand Texas spent big $$$, 4th in payroll this past year, on their roster and would not mind seeing the underdog DBacks with less than half the payroll, 21 out of 30 teams, win the Series.

World Series starts in a few hours. I'm really looking forward to this. I guess I want the Rangers to win since they never have. Either way, I think it will be exciting. They are pretty big favorites but if I were a betting person I think I would take a flyer with the odds and AZ. 

Bill, you brought up a good point about the payroll. And think about San Diego and The Mets. Huge payrolls and both underachieved.

Gotta love October baseball!

Posted by: @lee

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Gotta love October baseball!

And November baseball, glad to see the Rangers win their first. Good for them. Now both former Senators teams have won WS.

Meanwhile, the Cubs "managed" to lure Craig Counsellout 😉

The move makes a lot of sense for all parties, and not just the $40M. Brewers and Counsell seemed to have hit their ceiling, it was always hard to tell if he was overachieving by taking a small market club to the playoffs multiple times over 9 seasons, or underachieving by getting bounced out of the playoffs multiple times over 9 seasons. The 2018 team was probably his best, 1 win away from an NL pennant. But they still had the 3rd best record in the NL last season and quickly eliminated in 3 games they blew leads in. Maybe they should be the Blewers?

Meanwhile, the Cubs missed the playoffs by 1-game (if I recall) so I'm sure they feel confident a top manager will get them over that hump, at least. I'm curious how Cubs fans feel about losing Ross - not like he did a bad job last season. Definitely shakes things up, the Brewers are going to make some serious moves or accept a bit of a rebuild.

@porkchopbob 

Nice post. Yes, congratulations to The Rangers. I liked them from April forward. My only concern was the bullpen in particular. But they stepped it up. Arizona laid an egg at home. All they had to do was win one game at home to get back to Texas. Oh well. And they only even made the playoffs by one game over the Cubs as you mentioned. You probably don't recall but shortly before the playoffs, they came here and swept the Cubs three straight.

You would know much more about the Counsell situation than me. I did wonder why they gave the Mets permission to talk to him before the contract actually expired. Didn't that say something right there? Perhaps there was something behind the scenes between him and the Brewers? I have no idea.

Regarding fan opinions, I saw a story where someone at a ballpark in Wisconsin named after Counsell was defaced. Is that how the fans feel there?

In Chicago, I would say most fans are unhappy. Ross is on some sort of a different level here. Why? Because he was on the 2016 WS winning team. I think nostalgia only goes so far. But Cubs fans to a degree can be quite fickle. As you also said, Ross was okay as a manager. Certainly not bad. But the Cubs felt the opportunity to get Counsell was too much to pass up.

@lee I think the Brewers had such a history with Counsell that they were willing to let him explore his options after 9 years in Milwaukee. From what I've read, they thought the Mets and Guardians were possible, but talks with the Cubs were so sudden and secret that no one on either side saw it coming.

A lot of Brewers fans are fine with him moving on after so many years and the most success the team has had since the early 1980s, but there are always those that feel betrayed for what ever stupid reason. Remember, the rivalry with the Cubs is only 20 years old. Probably some stupid kids, who else has the time for shit like that?