What questions do we have about the Brewers playoff roster?
On the Microbrew podcast, reporter Curt Hogg discusses the tough choices awaiting the Brewers on the playoff roster
The Milwaukee Brewers are diligently working this week at American Family Field, awaiting the National League Division Series that begins at the ballpark Saturday, Oct. 4.
National baseball experts, however, aren’t waiting around to fire off their predictions for the MLB playoffs.
Here’s a roundup of how a few pundits think the Brewers will fare in the postseason as the top seed:
ESPN: Brewers will reach NLCS
ESPN asked 25 of its baseball experts across multiple platforms to predict the winner of each series.
In the wild-card series that determines who the Brewers will play in the NLDS, the San Diego Padres got 15 votes and the Chicago Cubs 10.
In the NLDS, the experts gave the Brewers a narrow edge, 13-11, over the Padres, with only one picking the Cubs.
In the NL Championship Series, though, the Brewers only got three votes, with the Philadelphia Phillies getting 12, the Los Angeles Dodgers seven and the Padres tied with the Brewers.
Two of the 25 experts picked the Brewers to win the World Series. The Phillies are the top team, with 12.
The Athletic: Brewers have 0% chance to win World Series
The Athletic asked more than 20 experts to make predictions. The website’s writers are also high on the Phillies, giving them a 72% chance of reaching the World Series.
The Brewers were tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers with 12% of the votes picking them to win the NLCS.
Nobody picked the Brewers to win the World Series.
Two writers explained why they picked the Brewers to win the NLCS:
Levi Weaver: “Do I believe in this pick? No. But I didn’t believe in the Brewers in spring training either, and they went out and won more games than anyone. I didn’t believe in the Brewers at the All-Star break, and guess what: I was wrong again. Apologies to Brewers fans if our collective disbelief was the juju holding it all together and this pick jinxes it.”
David O’Brien: “Brewers are long overdue to make a deep run, and I just like how fundamentally sound they are and the vibe they have under manager Pat Murphy. Plus, Freddy Peralta is 9-2 with a 2.47 ERA in 16 starts since the beginning of July, including a 1.76 ERA in his past 10.”
Weaver then did an about-face by predicting the Dodgers to win the World Series: “I know, I know. I picked the Brewers to win the NL pennant. But the safe pick here is still the Dodgers. It just is, right up until the last out when it isn’t (and maybe for a few hours later, until the last nerve-and-muscle twitch has made its way out of the behemoth’s body). The talent they’ve assembled is just too vast, too elaborate, too sprawling to really ever not be the favorite. And oh by the way, they’re healthier than they’ve been just about all season.”
Bleacher Report: Brewers have no chance vs. Phillies
Kerry Miller penned a very detailed, round-by-round breakdown of the bracket.
He has the Cubs facing the Brewers in the NLDS and thinks Milwaukee will easily dispatch the Craig Counsell-led Chicago squad in four games.
Miller: “Hard to bet against Milwaukee, though, especially when it will have Freddy Peralta and the inexplicably invincible Quinn Priester on the mound at home for the first two games.”
In a trend among the national experts, he also thinks the Brewers have no shot to win the NLCS. He picks the Phillies to advance in five games.
Miller: “Milwaukee felt like the “Team of Destiny” for a good chunk of the season, but the Phillies have felt like the NL team to beat for about a month at this point, even after losing Zack Wheeler in mid-August.”
CBS Sports: One writer thinks Cubs will beat Brewers
CBS Sports had five writers fill out brackets.
Three writers think the Brewers will reach the NLCS, but fail to get past the Phillies (two brackets) or Dodgers (one bracket).
In a worst-case scenario for Brewers fans, both Mike Axisa and Matt Snyder think the Cubs will beat the Brewers before falling to the Phillies in the NLCS.
Sports Illustrated: Padres will upset Brewers
Sports Illustrated also had five writers take a crack at the brackets.
They are the most pessimistic on the Brewers’ chances, with four writers picking the Padres to knock out Milwaukee.
Stephanie Apstein, the lone writer to predict the Brewers to win the NLDS, then picked the Dodgers to win the NLCS.
Ryan Phillips made the case on why he is down on the Brew Crew: “The Brewers stumbled a bit down the stretch, going 12–12 in September, and now they’re missing two of their top four starting pitchers. Their offense has cooled a bit, too, as their 99 wRC+ in September shows.”