For the second straight season, the Milwaukee Brewers had the best record in baseball in the regular season. This time around, they set a franchise record (again) with 103 wins. They should be the favorites to win the World Series and should feel in the clubhouse like they take a backseat to no one.
They should enter every series feeling confident that they are going to win it. They no longer have any virtual boxes to check in the regular season, but a few remain in the playoffs and it's time to get the job done. The franchise has never won an NL pennant (the lone pennant came in the AL in 1982) and is one of five MLB franchises without a World Series title.
There's been a theme in the playoffs this decade, too, with the Brewers. In 2021, they won 95 games in the regular season and grabbed the No. 2 seed in the NL. They lost three games to one in the NLDS to the 88-win Braves.
In 2023, the Brewers lost in the Wild Card Series as the No. 3 seed to the 84-win Diamondbacks. In 2024, the 93-win Brewers, again the No. 3 seed, lost to the 89-win Mets in the Wild Card Series. Last year, the Brewers reached the NLCS and lost to the eventual repeat champion Dodgers.
It seems fine, but that made it four straight playoff trips getting bounced by an inferior playoff seed. In Major League Baseball, much of the talk centers on market size because of the lack of a salary cap. With that spin, maybe it doesn't feel like the Brewers are perpetual playoff failures or anything, but how would we talk about the Mets or Cubs if they had the same playoff resume this decade?
And here's where I get to my plea for the Brewers. Don't act like the underdog. Don't act like David to anyone else's Goliath (even if we know the outcome there).
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