It is time, after a whole season of baseball, the fall classic is now upon us as the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays will begin their quest for their first respective ring tonight.
On paper, I think the Brewers are the better overall team. However, when you look at it both teams are fairly equal. Both of these teams are built on speed, small ball and defense. The Rays have players like Chandler Simpson, is one of the fastest players in the entire league, Jorge Mateo who ranked third in sprint speed in the MLB, Johnny Deluca who is also really fast too. Simpson and Deluca along with Cedric Mullins also are some of the best outfielders in the league too. The Rays infield is good offensively but this season has been weaker then their outfield.
When you look at Milwaukee, it’s the same thing. Brice Turang, Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio, Joey Ortiz and Garrett Mitchell are their young/veteran now talent that can steal a base, get a simple hit and rob a hit with the best of them. You also got the young rookies in Cooper Pratt who has helped improve the left side of the infield along with Luis Lara who just has done nothing but rob hits defensively and get hits offensively.
Both also are built with power, Junior Caminero headlines the Rays power obviously, but Yandy Diaz can still hit home huns same with Jonathan Aranda who are tied for 2nd on the team with 22.
The Brewers power is headlined by Jake Bauers who has hit 26 this season. Chourio and Turang are close behind with 25 and 21. The catching duo of William Contreras and Gary Sanchez both have 18 and 12 respectively, Captain Christian Yelich rounds out the leaders list with 12.
My prediction for the World Series is: Milwaukee Brewers in seven games.
The difference in this series will be pitching. Don’t get me wrong, the Rays have a very good pitching staff, especially in Drew Rasmussen, Freddy Peralta and Nick Martinez. Overall though I think the Brewers staff which consists of Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser and duo of Shane Drohan/Dustin May is better. Also Milwaukee’s bullpen definitely is better.Throughout the postseason, the Brewers bullpen collectively has put up a 1.33 ERA. Their pen is headlined by closer Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe, but Aaron Ashby had a real case to be the NLCS MVP, especially with the Houdini acts he put up to escape game 4 of that series with no runs.
Homefield will definitely be an advantage in this one and Milwaukee will have that advantage with the MLB’s overall No. 1 seed. While the Brewers are 4-4 at Tampa Bay since 2022 (the series in 2025 was played at TB’s temporary home field due to Tropicana Field being unplayable from hurricane damage), the Rays are 2-6 at American Family Field since 2022. Two of those Rays losses in Milwaukee came back in April this season when the Rays fell 6-2 and 8-2 to the Brewers.
I think that Milwaukee will will drop 2 of the 3 games in Tampa but win 3 of the 4 games at home to get their first ever World Series Championship.
Maybe I’m wrong and Tampa will take it or Milwaukee will crush them but we will see.
(All info is from Statmuse and MLB.com)
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