SUPPLEMENTAL REGIONAL A1:  This group had the reigning AL pennant winner and a gaggle of modern teams that made the post-season–along with the best White Sox entrant in this supplement, which requires going back more than 70 years to provide.  I had to put my money on those pennant-winning Blue Jays, figuring they would best the 2025 Brewers in the regional finals.  The ELO rankings portrayed this as an exceptionally strong bracket, with all of the teams except the play-in winner ranked among the top 1000 of all time.  Interestingly, those rankings did not go with the pennant winners; instead, it was the Brewers selected over the 2024 Padres based upon those season-ending ratings.

First round action

The 2025 Rays survived a tight play-in game, but in doing so they burnt their staff ace, taxed their bullpen, and now faced a team that finished 12 games in front of them in the same division.  That team was the 2025 Red Sox, who won 89 games and made  a brief post-season appearance, and they would have Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet (18-5, 2.59) on the hill against Tampa’s Adrian Houser (8-5, 3.31).  But the Rays continue their strong tournament start with a long solo shot by Brandon Lowe in the top of the 2nd, which rattles Crochet enough to yield a back-to-back shot to Danny Jansen for a quick 2-0 lead.  However, the Rays lose slick-fielding SS Taylor Walls to injury in the 3rd, and then two batters later 1B Jonathan Aranda also goes down, and the Rays are wondering if they’ll have enough bodies to finish the game.  They do still have young slugger Junior Caminero, and he smacks a solo shot in the 4th; Rafael Devers is thrown out trying to score with two outs in the bottom of the inning and the Boston faithful are yelling to trade him away.   Two walks and a single load the bases for Tampa in the 6th, and Crochet is gone for the literally unhittable Aroldis Chapman; he not only strikes out Josh Lowe, but injures him for 3 games in the process, and then whiffs injury replacement Ha-Seong Kim and the Red Sox escape with no damage.  Wilyer Abreu gets Boston on the board in the 6th with a solo homer, and the Red Sox get three straight hits to begin the bottom of the 7th, the last an RBI single from PH Romy Gonzalez.  Tampa Bay has nobody like Chapman in their pen, so Garrett Cleavinger is charged with preserving the lead, and he is in charge, recording two straight strikeouts to keep Tampa in the lead, 3-2.  In bottom of the 9th, Ceddanne Rafaela singles and Gonzalez follows with a double; the 1-16 Rafeala sets sail for home with the tying run, but the split is an 18 and there’s one away, with Gonzalez now on 3rd.  The infield comes in, but defensive replacement Nick Sogard lofts a sac fly and the game is tied, and extra innings are on tap.  Garrett Whitlock holds off the Rays in the top of the 10th, so Edwin Uceta comes in to begin the bottom of the inning for Tampa.  Alex Bregman leads off the inning with a single, and then it’s Abreu finding and converting Uceta’s prominent HR split for a walk-off 2-run blast, and Boston grabs its first lead of the game, the 5-3 final score sending them on to the regional semifinal.  

The 1952 White Sox would be by far the best version of my favorite franchise in this supplemental bracket, as they went 81-73 with a strong rotation and some MVP votes for Nellie Fox and Eddie Robinson, along with ace Billy Pierce (15-12, 2.57).  Unfortunately, they had to play the ELO favorite for the regional in the first round, that being the 2025 Brewers, who won 97 games and the NL Central before losing in the NLCS; they had far more pop in their lineup than the Sox, and Freddy Peralta (17-6, 2.70) finished 5th in the Cy Young voting.  Both of these top-of-the-rotation starters started out strong, with Peralta striking out high-contact Sox hitters like Fox, while Pierce was mystifying the Brewer bats.  The Sox break through in the top of the 4th when Sherm Lollar converts a SI* 1-4 split for an RBI hit, but the dice gods taketh away when the next batter singles and 1-17+2 Minnie Minoso is gunned down trying to score from 2nd with a 20 split.  Still, it looks like that run might hold up with Pierce in fine form, and when a single and a walk in the 8th are followed by a Robinson homer, the Brewers’ prospects are looking bleak.  Pierce rolls to a 2-hit shutout, but in the 9th Lollar is injured for 8 game, dealing a serious blow to the Sox prospects in later round; nonetheless, they will reach at least one later round with the 4-0 win.  

This first round matchup would force me to manage the 2025 Cubs, and to make matters worse they were a postseason team that won 92 games courtesy of a lineup with considerable pop, strong defense anchored by an all “1” DP combo, and a surprisingly deep rotation anchored by Cade Horton (11-4, 2.67).  However, they had a closely matched opponent with the 93-win 2024 Padres, who would have Dylan Cease (14-11, 3.47) on the hill, so it might take typical Cubs luck to pull out this face-off.  Kyle Tucker decides to leave nothing to luck as he crushes a solid 2-run HR in the bottom of the 1st, but their luck runs cold in the 3rd when 2B Nico Hoerner goes down for a 10 game injury, spelling a permanent exit from the tournament.  Horton hold the Padres scoreless until the top of the 8th, when San Diego gets runners on 2nd and 3rd with one away; the Cubs opt to let their ace try to finish out the shutout and bring the infield in.  That strategy works when Jackson Merrill grounds to 1st and Luis Arraez is nailed trying to score; however, Horton then walks Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases with two away.  Once again the Cubs stick with Horton, who whiffs Manny Machado to end the inning with no damage.   A leadoff double in the bottom of the inning chases Cease, and Jeremiah Estrada comes in to pour gasoline on the fire.  Ian Happ doubles to score one, and Tucker raps a single past CF-2 Merrill for another run; Estrada is fortunate to have AA stealer Pete Crow-Armstrong tossed out at 2nd to end a bad inning.  Armed with a four run lead, Horton dispatched the Padres in the 9th to close out the 6-hit shutout and the Cubs move on with the 4-0 win.

One advantage of playing the teams that I’ve acquired recently in a supplemental bracket is that the Friday Night Strat crowd gets another crack at glory with their preferred teams.  Such it was with Toronto area partisan Eaglesfly, who would get the opportunity to direct the pennant-winning 2025 Blue Jays, who faced a younger but inferior version of the team that stretched them to the limit in the ALCS, the 2024 Mariners, who still won 85 games.  It was the M’s Bryan Woo (9-3, 2.89) against Kevin Gausman (10-11, 3.59) for the Jays, and although they were not quite the players they would be next season, it didn’t stop Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez from going back-to-back with solo homers in the 4th to put Seattle ahead.  Not trusting Gausman’s ability to keep the ball in the park, Eaglesfly goes to his pen immediately in the 6th, and a succession of Toronto relievers then keep Seattle in check until Daulton Varsho can jack a 2-run homer in the 6th to tie the game.  But that’s the only mistake Woo will make, and he keeps Toronto off the board through the 9th so the game heads to extra innings.  Neither team can score in the 10th, and Tommy Nance holds serve for the Jays in the top of the 11th; with Woo having gone his maximum of 10 innings, I summon Collin Snider from the pen to try to extend the game further.  But that goes ill, as a leadoff double by defensive replacement Addison Barger greets Snider, and then a colossal blast from George Springer sends him home for a walk-off 2-run shot that caps the Jays 4-2 comeback win and sends them deeper into the tournament.

The survivors

I would try to continue my success with the 1952 White Sox, the best Sox entrant in this supplemental bracket, in the regional semifinal during Friday Night Strat with the Tall Tactician at the wheel of the 2025 Red Sox, a squad with far more firepower than the South Siders.  The White Sox did have a quality starter in Joe Dobson (14-10, 2.51), while Boston’s Brayan Bello (11-9, 3.35) was solid himself, but closer Aroldis Chapman had been burnt in their round one extra-inning win. True to form, both pitchers were sharp, with the game scoreless after six, with the teams only combining for four hits.   However, in the 7th it’s the soon-to-be-traded Rafael Devers with a solo home run that puts the Red variety of Sox ahead, and with Bello tossing a one-hitting at the time it looks like that one run might be enough.  But not so fast, as the Chisox bats come alive in the bottom of the inning; Hector Rodriguez singles in a run, and then a 2-run double from #9 hitter Chico Carrasquel gives the Pale Hose the lead.  Boston reliever Garrett Whitlock comes in but yields an RBI single to Eddie Robinson, and that proves to be it for offense in this game; both teams end up with only four hits, but the Chicago hits prove to be more timely as the White Sox move on with the 4-1 victory.   

The Friday Night Strat feature matchup would have Eaglesfly reprising his role as manager of the pennant-winning 2025 Blue Jays, this time facing a 2025 Cubs team that made the postseason with a 92-70 record and who could have been the Jays’ opponents in the Series.  Brother Chuck tapped Matt Boyd (14-8, 3.21) to get the start for the Cubs, while with a bullpen depleted by an extra-inning first round game the Jays would need a strong appearance from Eric Lauer (9-2, 3.18).  Both offenses have difficulty getting untracked in the early going, but Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ knock run-scoring hits in the top of the 5th and the Cubs lead 2-0.  Swanson swats a solo shot in the 6th and that’s it for Lauer, but Seranthony Dominguez isn’t much of an answer as he walks himself into a jam and Matt Shaw singles in another run.  The Cubs then riddle the rest of the Jays bullpen in the 9th for additional insurance, with a two-run triple from Kyle Tucker ringing the death knell for the Jays, who never can get anything going against Boyd, who finishes with a 6-hit shutout and the Cubs cruise to a 7-0 win and a grudge match against their crosstown rivals in the regional final.

The Friday Night Strat game of the week was the regional final between the 1952 White Sox and the 2025 Cubs, with me against my brother Chuck in a crosstown matchup that invariably goes badly for the south siders.  Both teams had to deal with injuries to key players, but both had decent starters lined up for the third round, with Saul Rogovin (14-9, 3.85) for the Sox and Shota Imanaga (9-8, 3.73) for the Cubs.  Unfortunately, things go south quickly in the bottom of the 1st as Rogovin can’t seem to get anyone out, allowing RBI singles to Seiva Suzuki and Carson Kelly but it could have been worse as the Cubs leave the bases loaded.  The Sox get one back in the 3rd on Eddie Robinson’s sac fly, but a walk and a Jim Rivera error leads to a Cubs run in the 4th without a hit in the inning.   Cubs injury replacement Willi Castro doubles in a run in the 6th, and although Rocky Krsnich’s solo homer for the Sox in the 7th should entitle him to a few more vowels, it’s not enough as the Cubs’ Brad Keller closes out the 4-2 victory to clinch the first regional in the tournament supplement.

Interesting card of Supplemental Regional A1:  With the three seasons in this tournament supplement all being recent releases, I don’t find many cards that I think are very interesting, but this one is pretty good.  Aroldis Chapman is currently 38 years old and as of this writing, has an ERA under 1.00; this 2025 card reflects his performance last season, at age 37, and good luck finding hits on it.  Over the years the big lefty has had some great cards, and some that would make me queasy when used in a save situation, but the guy seems to just be getting better as he hits an age when most pitchers are watching games from the couch.  He just moved into 10th place all-time on the saves list, closing in on Dennis Eckersley for 9th. He has also moved into 2nd second place on the list of relievers with the most strikeouts all time.  Is he a lock for the Hall of Fame?