A Brewers Fan’s Guide On Who To Root For In The 2022 Postseason

For the first time since 2017, the Milwaukee Brewers missed out on the postseason completely. The players are back at home and we won’t have another Brewers game until next year. But there’s still another month of baseball left to be played.

Some of you may decide not to watch the postseason at all and don’t care about it since the Brewers aren’t in it, and that’s fine. But some of you will still watch the playoffs and are searching for a team to root for since the Brewers won’t be there.

So who should you root for this October? Who do we want to see win the World Series if it won’t be the Milwaukee Brewers? Well, we have this handy guide to help you decide.

Here’s a Brewers fan’s guide on the reasons to root for and against every 2022 MLB playoff team.

Houston Astros, AL West champion

Reasons to root for: Former Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado is the starting catcher for the Astros. He was beloved in his time in Milwaukee and still is by many fans. Also former Brewer Mauricio Dubon is on the Astros. He didn’t have much time to be beloved by most of the fanbase but he was a big piece of the Travis Shaw trade.

Also in the Astros bullpen is old friend Will Smith. These are three very likable players that are easy to root for.

Reasons to root against: Bang, bang, bang! The stain of the trash can banging scheme from a few years ago will always follow the Astros and make most of the country root against them.

Plus, the Brewers needed the Astros to sweep the Phillies to get ourselves into the postseason and they let themselves get shutout after a miracle comeback by the Brewers to keep their hopes alive. Houston didn’t keep up their end, so should they deserve our support? Perhaps not.

New York Yankees, AL East Champion

Reasons to root for: Aaron Judge has put up an incredible and historic season. It would be cool to watch him continue that into the postseason and see more history be made.

Reasons to root against: The Yankees are the evil empire. They have endless amounts of money, and they act as if not winning a World Series since 2009 is a long drought. Oooh it’s been 13 years since your last World Series and you’re crying like it’s never going to happen for you ever again? Give me a break.

They already have 27 rings and they don’t need another to make them and their fanbase even more insufferable to deal with.

Cleveland Guardians, AL Central Champion

Reasons to root for: The Brewers can see a lot of themselves in the Cleveland Guardians. They’re a small market, low budget team with an ownership group that doesn’t want to run up payroll to where it needs to be. Despite that, the Guardians won the AL Central behind a contact-oriented offense that is devoid of star players outside of Jose Ramirez.

They’re built on a strong pitching staff, it’s practically a carbon copy of the Brewers formula, except they have hitters that reach base more consistently. They’re a small market underdog, and we can empathize with that and they’ll be easy to root for.

Reasons to root against: Ownership slashed payroll to the bone for Cleveland. They have a payroll of just $69MM this year. If they can win the World Series on that kind of a budget, that might inspire Mark Attanasio to try to do the same, or at least continue to limit payroll.