Entering the 2026 MLB season, not many were counting on the Milwaukee Brewers to be one of the major threats to win the World Series, or even to make the playoffs. Fangraphs gave Milwaukee just a 4.2% chance to win it all, good for only 11th in MLB and not even tops in their own division. The Vegas oddsmakers agreed, largely giving them middle of the pack odds in the spring. Despite the Brewers leading the National League in wins in 2025, the consensus was that the Los Angeles Dodgers, with their gargantuan payroll and bevy of future hall of famers, was going to steamroll the sport on route to a third consecutive championship. Milwaukee and Los Angeles finished at the top of the NL again in 2026, but when these teams met in the NLCS it was Milwaukee that overwhelmed the defending champs, sweeping all four games by an aggregate score of 21-11. The Brewers then dispatched of the Tampa Bay Rays to finish the postseason with an 11-2 record to follow up a 103-59 regular season. They lost five games in total after Labor Day. How did the sport’s 19th highest payroll go wire to wire as the best team in baseball?

The start of September marks the American sporting equivalent of Christmas Eve: another NFL season is just around the corner. While the next four months will inevitably be filled with twists and turns, injuries, and breakout performances, here is my stab at which teams will emerge as division champion as well as the teams I believe will grab wild card berths.

The 2025 New England Patriots entered the season with little fanfare nationally. Coming off of two consecutive 4-13 seasons and on their third head coach in three years, they were expected to finish second at best in the AFC East behind the Buffalo Bills, and few were expecting anything resembling a Super Bowl contender. While quarterback Drake Maye had shown flashes of star potential, his rookie year had largely been marked by injury and inconsistent play. The team did little to sway the doubters in their first three games, starting 1-2, including a home loss to the wretched Las Vegas Raiders. However, over the 17 weeks that followed, the Patriots completely flipped the script. Buoyed by MVP caliber play from Maye and an opportunistic defense, the team went 13-1 the rest of the regular season to end the Bills’ five-year reign over the AFC East. Gritty playoff wins over the Chargers, Texans, and Broncos put the team one win away from their seventh Super Bowl trophy. While they were ultimately overmatched by a superior Seattle Seahawks team in the Big Game, the Patriots had dramatically reentered the conversation of teams to be reckoned with in the AFC for the foreseeable future.

On the evening of April 25th, bombshell news hit the Boston Red Sox and their fans. Manager Alex Cora, who had led the team to the 2018 World Series title and was the longest-tenured manager or head coach in the city at the time, had been fired along with the majority of his coaching staff after the team sputtered to a 10–17 start despite high expectations. The Red Sox appointed relative unknown Chad Tracy, manager of the Worcester Red Sox, to fill the position on an interim basis.

The 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs have, to this point, belonged to Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask. With three of four series under his belt, Rask has firmly positioned himself as the Conn Smythe favorite, with a .942 save percentage and a goals against just over 2. Rask's tear has been the primary reason the Bruins find themselves four wins away from their seventh Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. If they finish the job by vanquishing the St. Louis Blues, Rask's run will go down as one o

The 2018 Boston Red Sox are having a year for the record books.  After a two game sweep of the lowly Miami Marlins capped by an 11-run seventh inning nearly a week ago, Boston sat 50 games over .500, and has the luxury of a 7.5 game lead over the injured Yankees with only 28 games to go.  That lead had expanded to 8.5 games as of Tuesday afternoon. After highly successful regular season campaigns followed by dismal playoff performances in each of the last two seasons, the Sox have fixed a great

After a two year run of supremacy by the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Stanley Cup will find a new home in the coming weeks.  In fact, it will go to a team and a city which are guaranteed to have never reached the NHL's mountaintop.  On one side is the first year Vegas Golden Knights, a ragtag group that was the longest of long shots entering the year.  In any normal finals match up, this would obviously be by far the more compelling story, and it still probably is.  But the team waiting for them out

NHL teams, and all professional sports teams in general, play all season to earn the privilege of playing at home in the biggest games of the playoffs.  Players will venerate the comforts of home, most importantly the roar of friendly fans.  In hockey, the home team even has the tactical advantage of last change, ensuring the coach has his preferred match up at all times.  In theory, home ice should prove the determining factor in separating two equally matched teams. In the NBA, homecourt play

The 2017 offseason has given the American League East baseball's a few of baseball's most gripping story lines in 2018.  Most prominently, the Red Sox and Yankees have positioned themselves with stacked rosters, leading to the tantalizing possibility of the greatest rivalry in sports reaching a level close to the zenith of the early 2000s.  Acquisitions JD Martinez and Giancarlo Stanton have, in the eyes of many, made Boston and New York the prohibitive favorites not only in the division, but th

Over the last decade, no team has enjoyed more regular season success than the Washington Capitals.  This decade has already seen the Caps earn three Presidents' Trophies, and playoff appearances in all years but one.  The 2017-18 edition captured the Metropolitan division for the third year in a row, and they still have one of the most dominant goal scorers in the history of the league in Alex Ovechkin. The playoffs, however, have been a completely different story.  Despite their incredible re

There's just something about the Masters that is unique in golf, as well as all of sports.  The pomp and circumstance is unmatched as Spring, and another major season is ushered in.  This year's tournament, the 82nd edition, promises to be even more special than usual.  The buzz around this year's Masters is as high as it has been in recent memory, largely due to the return of a certain past champion.  Let's take a look at the golfers to keep an eye out for as the world's best compete for the co

After a long, long winter, the best time of the year is once again upon us.  Major League Baseball is stacked with good, exciting teams that are sure to make this a year to remember.  Here is how the teams stack up to start the season. After an eventful offseason that saw Giancarlo Stanton and other faces of the franchise shipped away for pennies on the dollar, Derek Jeter is public enemy #1 in Miami.  The Marlins are an MLB team in name only this season.  It's become so bad that Marlins Man

Alexander Ovechkin is one of the more polarizing players in hockey, if not all of sports.  The criticisms will always be there, and many of them are valid.  Detractors will say he's not a winner, and it's hard to disagree, as Ovechkin has yet to reach the Conference Finals in his twelve year career.  Ovechkin's play in many of these postseasons has been lackluster, only giving these arguments more ammo.  He also has the reputation of being a poor captain and leader, evidenced by these continual

Another trade season has come and passed, and while it wasn't the most exciting deadline ever, it undoubtedly shifted the NHL landscape.  Monday alone saw 16 trades featuring 31 players and 18 draft picks moved, with a late flurry around the 3 p.m. EST deadline.  Monday was not the only day featuring blockbusters, as Rick Nash moved from the Rangers to the Bruins the day before.  Perhaps as intriguing as the deals that did happen are the ones that did not.  Max Pacioretty remains the captain in

The prior decade in the NHL has belonged to two teams: the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks.  After nearly a half century of futility, the Blackhawks returned to the hockey mountaintop, capturing Lord Stanley's Cup in 2010, their first since 1961.  The Hawks also won championships in 2013 and 2015, and challenged for a few more.  Led by three future Hall of Famers in Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith, and an impressive surrounding cast, Chicago dominated the Western Confere

Very little is expected out of a professional expansion team in its inaugural season.  The first incarnation of an expansion franchise is inevitably filled with an unhealthy mix of young, untested players and veteran castoffs nobody else wanted.  It is the sports equivalent of the island of misfit toys.  For this reason, nearly every expansion team in modern sports history has wallowed in the depths of the standings, often for more than one season.  The 1974-75 Washington Capitals remain the pos

Unlike the NBA and NHL, and to a lesser extent the NFL, MLB free agency doesn't occur in one fell swoop.  Baseball fans are accustomed to the hot stove being a gradual process throughout November, December, and January.  However, nothing in recent memory compares to the current free agency freeze gripping the baseball world.  The first pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training February 12th (Pirates, Mets), with the rest of the league following suit shortly after.  With the season just aro

The past three years have been dark times for the Boston Bruins franchise.  After a renaissance era which saw the club reach the Stanley Cup twice, win one, and capture a Presidents' Trophy for the league's best record, the franchise slipped into mediocrity.   The team missed the playoffs in consecutive years, followed by a one-and-done at the hands of the Ottawa Senators last season.    More than anything, this era of Bruins hockey was just...uninspired.  They never fell to the depths of franch

Finally. No longer must we suffer watching the Bruins routinely go 0-3 (or worse) in every shootout situation. Having done no research whatsoever, I feel confident saying the black and gold were the worst shootout team I had ever seen. Now, that’s less of a liability. In a change that was a long time coming, assuming a passing vote from the board of governors, the NHL will move from a 4 on 4 overtime period to a 3 on 3, with the goal of cutting down on the number of shootouts. A hot topic

One of the main critiques of Peter Chiarelli while in office as Bruins GM was his lack of agressiveness to try to better the roster. He would be attached to his own guys, and usually play free agency and the trade deadline close to the vest. In his first offseason on the job, new GM Don Sweeney has proven to be anything but conservative. On Friday, draft day, the bombshell dropped that Dougie Hamilton had been dealt to Calgary, and only hours later, fan favorite Milan Lucic was sent to LA. The