MLB: 2017 Playoff Predictions Using MLB The Show

Playoff Teams:

The playoff teams that resulted from simulation weren’t two surprising, however there was some shockers. There was some good teams from last year that did not repeat, and some surprising inclusions into October. Overall, I would say that the game did a fairly decent job at predicting the playoff teams, and although some are a shocker, they are teams that have potential to shock the world.

The division winners were the Nationals, Cubs, Giants, Red Sox, Indians, and Astros. As you can see, compared to last season those division winners aren’t too far off. The Giants replaced the Dodgers, and the Astros replaced the Rangers. However, the Giants have fixed their bullpen issue, which is what held them from winning the division this season. This is shown in the simulation with Mark Melancon‘s 55 saves, which led to a 98-win season. Also, the Astros have increased a ton over this off-season, which makes their division title seem justified. The Nationals had the best overall record with 101 wins, and the Indians had the best AL record with 99 wins.

As for the wild cards, well those were pretty surprising. In the National League, the Dodgers were the first wild card, which made sense as they are a good team and had a 95-win season. The second wild card however surprised me, it was a team with 92 wins. This team was the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have talent but flopped. Sure, on paper they are good and that’s why they succeeded here, but in 2016 they were pretty bad. As for the American League, the Tigers hosted the Angels in the wild card game. The Tigers aren’t too big of a shocker, they have potentially to be great. As for the Angels though, I would not be surprised to see them sneak into the wild card next year if they remain healthy. With Trout leading the way, anything is possible.