We\u2019re less than a week from postseason baseball. No one, it seems, feels great about their team, really. This is true, certainly, for Brewers fans; the team is limping, literally and figuratively, into the postseason after the news that Brandon Woodruff is unlikely to pitch in the postseason and Trevor Megill tries to make his way back.<\/p>\n
And while the National League postseason picture is not yet set, let\u2019s look around at each of the teams that the Milwaukee Brewers could, potentially, run into in the NL side of the bracket. Why should we fear them? Why should we feel confident against them? I\u2019ve ranked these teams from top (scariest) to bottom (least scary). Of course, anything can happen in any round\u2014that\u2019s baseball. But let\u2019s see what you think.<\/p>\n
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Los Angeles Dodgers<\/p>\n
Reason to fear: They\u2019re the Dodgers. Reason for confidence: Pitching question marks.<\/p>\n
The lineup still features Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. Betts has put it together lately after a mostly un-Mookie-like season. Freeman has lost a little at age 34, but he\u2019s still solidly above average. Shohei is likely to win another MVP. Max Muncy is still hitting dingers.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are some questions in the lineup: Will Smith is recovering from a fractured hand and may not make it back. Tommy Edman, a hero of last year\u2019s postseason, has not been very good. The Michael Conforto signing did not work. Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez is having his worst season in years. Andy Pages has had a breakout season, but has come back to Earth a bit.<\/p>\n
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But the pitching is what scares you, somehow. After being held together with duct tape all season, they\u2019re as healthy as they\u2019ve been all year. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been this group\u2019s constant and will finish high in Cy Young voting. Blake Snell has only thrown 61 innings, but he\u2019s looked like the Blake Snell who has two Cy Youngs in his trophy case. Shohei Ohtani has a 1.91 FIP in 47 innings and has looked unhittable lately. Tyler Glasnow hasn\u2019t been as good as we have seen him in the past, but he\u2019s healthy. Emmet Sheehan has looked good at times.<\/p>\n
The bullpen is a different story; Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott, new additions, have been bad, as has Blake Treinen. Yates is hurt, and so are Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, and Michael Kopech, among many others. Alex Vesia is the only real reliever on this team who has had a solid, healthy season. They might get creative; Sheehan, Clayton Kershaw, even Roki Sasaki (who made his first appearance since May on Wednesday) could be involved, but there are real questions here.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Phillies<\/p>\n
Reasons to fear: Star power, experience, the top of the rotation. Reasons for confidence: No Zack Wheeler, defense, the bullpen (maybe).<\/p>\n
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Unless the Brewers go 0-3 and the Phillies go 0-4, the Phillies will finish with the number two seed in the NL. They have big names in the lineup, including two guys who could finish in the top three in NL MVP voting, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner. Bryce Harper is still a stud. J.T. Realmuto continues to be a steady veteran presence.<\/p>\n
But there are some holes in this lineup, and the defense can be a real problem. Harrison Bader\u2019s excellent play since being acquired at the deadline has solved some of those problems, and Edmundo Sosa has been a handy Swiss Army knife, but the Phillies aren\u2019t getting much production out of any of Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, Max Kepler, Brandon Marsh, or Nick Castellanos.<\/p>\n
Cristopher S\u00e1nchez has been one of the best pitchers in the sport, and Ranger Su\u00e1rez has had another good season. But the loss of Zack Wheeler really affects this team\u2019s depth; without him, they\u2019ll need to rely on at least one of Jes\u00fas Luzardo (who has been very inconsistent) or Taijuan Walker (uninspiring) to eat some innings. The bullpen has questions, too, though their other Twins\u2019 fire sale acquisition, Jhoan Duran, has gone a long way toward saving that group.<\/p>\n
Chicago Cubs<\/p>\n
Reasons to fear: Losing to the Cubs would be the worst. Reasons for confidence: The pitching, and the offense was better in the first half.<\/p>\n
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This is a good offensive team, even if they aren\u2019t as good as they were in the first two months of the season. Kyle Tucker is still a star, even though he\u2019s had some bumps this year. Pete Crow-Armstrong is not the hitter he was early in the year, but he can still do annoying things. Seiya Suzuki is a good hitter, Carson Kelly has had a good year, and Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, and Michael Busch have all been producing lately.<\/p>\n
But the pitching just doesn\u2019t scare me. Matthew Boyd? He\u2019s fine. Cade Horton? Yes, sure\u2014but he\u2019s a rookie. Shota Imanaga has a FIP of 4.78. A few relievers had decent seasons in the bullpen, but no one who really scares you.<\/p>\n
No, the thing that scares me about playing the Cubs doesn\u2019t really have anything to do with baseball; I\u2019m confident that the Brewers are a better baseball team than the Cubs. The fear is that this is baseball, and weird things happen in the postseason, and I just don\u2019t know how I\u2019d handle losing to the Cubs. That\u2019s the scariest thing about playing the Cubs.<\/p>\n
San Diego Padres<\/p>\n
Reasons to fear: The bullpen. Reasons for confidence: They\u2019re kinda good at a lot of things but not great at anything?<\/p>\n
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The obvious strength is the bullpen, but Jeremiah Estrada (who Danny Jansen homered off of on Wednesday) has cooled off and the Jason Adam injury hurts them. Robert Suarez is good and leads the NL in saves, and Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n has had an excellent year, and several of the other guys have big scary fastballs, but it doesn\u2019t seem quite as impenetrable as it once did.<\/p>\n
Nick Pivetta has had a good season. Michael King has been solid but he missed a bunch of time and has only made four starts since May (and one of them was bad). Randy V\u00e1squez\u2019s decent surface-level stats mask scary underlying numbers. Dylan Cease is kind of the opposite, but it\u2019s been a disappointing year for him. At age 39, time seems to have run out on Yu Darvish\u2019s excellent career.<\/p>\n
The lineup has big names, but it\u2019s been weirdly ineffective. They\u2019re 19th in runs per game and 21st in OPS+. Fernando Tat\u00eds Jr. has been good, not great. Manny Machado and Gavin Sheets started well but fell back. Jackson Merrill has been okay but not as good as he was as a rookie. Their two deadline Oriole pickups, Ryan O\u2019Hearn and Ram\u00f3n Laureano, have had mixed results (O\u2019Hearn bad, Laureano good). Luis Arraez is hitting .288 but has an OPS+ of just 96. The catcher position is a black hole.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not a terrible offensive team nor a bad pitching team nor a bad defensive team, but they\u2019re also not great at any of those things. In the way they bring balance, they resemble the Brewers\u2026 except not as good at, really, anything.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019ll go quickly through these last three, because only one of them will actually make the playoffs and we don\u2019t know who yet.<\/p>\n
New York Mets<\/p>\n
Reasons to fear: Deep wounds. Reasons for confidence: They\u2019ve been awful lately.<\/p>\n
Last season lives like a ghost in our minds, and surely will for a while. But the 2025 Mets\u2014despite featuring at least two in-or-near-prime Hall of Famers at the top of the lineup\u2014haven\u2019t been very good. Yes, some advanced stats think they have suffered from bad luck, maybe spectacularly so.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019ve collapsed magnificently lately. The pitching hasn\u2019t worked beyond Edwin D\u00edaz. They\u2019re probably going to rely on two rookie starters in the Wild Card round, if they make it that far. They were 62-44 on July 27; since then, they are 19-33.<\/p>\n
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Arizona Diamondbacks<\/p>\n
Reasons to fear: D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Reasons for confidence: Pitching<\/p>\n
As they have in the past, this team has good position players. Three of the best position players in the NL, I\u2019d say: Geraldo Perdomo leads NL position players in bWAR, Corbin Carroll is having an excellent season, and Ketel Marte is one of the most underrated players of his generation. But they also left a few holes after selling at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
And that pitching staff\u2026 I just don\u2019t see how that gets you through the postseason. Zac Gallen has been a little better in the second half but he has not been remotely close to the Cy Young contender we\u2019ve seen in years past. They traded away Merill Kelly. Shelby Miller is gone, of course. Ryne Nelson has been a bright spot since moving to the starting rotation, but there are a lot of questions on this staff, and I don\u2019t think the answers exist.<\/p>\n
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Cincinnati Reds<\/p>\n
Reasons to fear: Starting pitching, youthful naivety. Reasons for confidence: Offense, bullpen.<\/p>\n
Elly De La Cruz has a 110 OPS+; that\u2019s the best on this team for a player with 100 or more plate appearances, and only two other players (Austin Hays and Noelvi Marte) have even a 100 OPS+. The offense just isn\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n
The starting pitching, though, is. Andrew Abbott and Hunter Greene are studs. Nick Lodolo probably is too. Brady Singer is solid. In the bullpen, they\u2019ve got two good pieces\u2014Emilio Pag\u00e1n and Tony Santillan\u2014and no one else who I\u2019d feel good about.<\/p>\n
Almost none of these guys have ever played in the postseason. Does that mean the moment will be too big, or will they be that classic young team who doesn\u2019t realize that they\u2019re supposed to lose? Could go either way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re less than a week from postseason baseball. No one, it seems, feels great about their team, really.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[20492,19293,13091,8971,2317,73984,8974,8973,43581,24068,103035,9893,19290,7845,28629,89733,25919,479,2319,9307,30752,12946,39910,37404,24069,12947,7952,99323,19291,107055,57684,8965,104692,47126,26057,99198,25916,28641,59684,38902,107056,28626,37882,10002,19294,5528,10006,2323,59685,10004,99195,24067,3963,90190,4293,107054,19289,363,4286,1189,5530,75308,104693,25922,38337,4261,480,107053,52758,32036,12944,8972,95051,2328,37318,46560,3956,107057,99,28637,8967,4289,8968,107058,5531,59652,8970,4277,8963,47127,38788,61187],"class_list":["post-180795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alec-bohm","tag-alex-vesia","tag-andrew-abbott","tag-andy-pages","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-austin-hays","tag-blake-snell","tag-blake-treinen","tag-brady-singer","tag-brandon-marsh","tag-brandon-woodruff","tag-brewers","tag-brusdar-graterol","tag-bryce-harper","tag-bryson-stott","tag-cade-horton","tag-carson-kelly","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-confidence","tag-corbin-carroll","tag-danny-jansen","tag-dylan-cease","tag-edmundo-sosa","tag-edwin-diaz","tag-elly-de-la-cruz","tag-emilio-pagan","tag-emmet-sheehan","tag-evan-phillips","tag-fernando-tatis-jr","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-gavin-sheets","tag-geraldo-perdomo","tag-harrison-bader","tag-hunter-greene","tag-ian-happ","tag-j-t-realmuto","tag-jackson-merrill","tag-jason-adam","tag-jeremiah-estrada","tag-jesus-luzardo","tag-jhoan-duran","tag-ketel-marte","tag-kirby-yates","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-luis-arraez","tag-manny-machado","tag-matthew-boyd","tag-max-kepler","tag-max-muncy","tag-michael-busch","tag-michael-conforto","tag-michael-king","tag-michael-kopech","tag-mlb","tag-mookie-betts","tag-new-york-mets","tag-nick-castellanos","tag-nick-lodolo","tag-nick-pivetta","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-noelvi-marte","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-postseason-baseball","tag-ramon-laureano","tag-ranger-suarez","tag-robert-suarez","tag-roki-sasaki","tag-ryne-nelson","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-seiya-suzuki","tag-shelby-miller","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-shota-imanaga","tag-sports","tag-taijuan-walker","tag-tanner-scott","tag-teoscar-hernandez","tag-tommy-edman","tag-tony-santillan","tag-trea-turner","tag-trevor-megill","tag-tyler-glasnow","tag-will-smith","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto","tag-yu-darvish","tag-zac-gallen","tag-zack-wheeler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}