SB Nation Reacts: More Playoff Predictions

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Red Sox fans, sign up HERE to join Reacts.

We are a good chunk of the way through the Division Series at this point, and in fact it’s not impossible for all four of these series to end tonight if we see victories from the Braves, Astros, Rays and Dodgers. We’ll root against that simply to see more baseball. But we are not here today to talk about what’s happened, but rather what we thought would happen and our thoughts on what happened last week in the previous round. That was the focus of this week’s SB Nation reacts poll (for which you can sign up above), which came out at the start of this week. It’s all about the postseason this time around.

Wildcard Thoughts

Okay so I’m not going to totally begrudge people for going with the Marlins here. It’s totally wild that they are even here in the first place and even moreso that they swept a team like the Cubs with so many big names! In Chicago! Anything can happen in two games and the Cubs weren’t all that good for most of this year, but still. It was a legitimate surprise. That said, I feel like when one option is a team allowing zero (0) runs over two games, that has to be the answer. It’s one thing to sweep. It’s quite another to not allow a run, even against a Reds team with just about the worst offense heading into October that we’ve ever seen. That’s my answer here.

Division Series predictions

Obviously we have more information now than when these polls went out, but here’s how fans saw things going.

Looking good!

This one is not looking so good, though Oakland stayed alive on Wednesday and can do so again today to force a decisive Game Five. I also want to take a second to say that Houston rolling through this postseason so far is proof about 60 games being too small a sample. I don’t disagree with the overall point, but also I’m not sure we can really use four wins to prove something else is a small sample.

I’m actually surprised by this one. I know the Rays were the one seed, and if we’re being honest at this point it’s on me for sort of still not believing in them. But to me it’s less that than I was very high on the Yankees heading into this series. I am on the wrong side at this point, though, with Tampa Bay up two games to one as of this writing.

So, no surprise on the result, but I will say I’m surprised this number is so low, especially compared to Oakland and Atlanta. I know the Padres are good and we didn’t know the status of Dinelson Lamet and Mike Clevinger when this went out, but still. The Dodgers are so, so good.