Everyone is rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers

Around the country millions of baseball fans are realigning their preferences after the fallout of the rather uneventful division series round. Temporary flags are about to fly for the Final Four in the championship series. The question is only the distribution.

Take every baseball fan. Subtract Red Sox, Astros, Dodgers, Cubs and Cardinals fans. Go ahead and stick a Brewers cap on the rest of them.

Only the foulest ne’er-do-wells root for the overdogs. Their numbers are too few to regard. The Brewers could be considered the overdogs in a traditional sense, given their 96 wins are four more than the Dodgers’ 92. However - in 2018 the true measure of overdog-dom among ordinary baseball fans is actually total dollars spent on payroll and overall advantage/success.

The 5-year trend supports the 2018 sample. Over the last 5 years the Brewers have averaged a much lower payroll than the remaining field in the championship series.

The pulse of MLB faithful may be measured in Hate Units (HU) – calculated by assigning one Hate Unit per every $10 million spent in payroll. Check out the 5-year trendline in HU:

The goal is minimum Hate. Despite the Astros being the Brewers biggest competition, their Hate has gone downright parabolic since reaching an epic, envious low in 2014. The Dodgers and Red Sox are on their own planet.

In terms of Hate minimization, advantage and privilege is a disadvantage. The more wins, the more Hate. The more money, the more Hate. Multiply wins by HU and you arrive at total amassed seasonal Hate:

Incorporate wins into the mix and the field separates even further. The Brewers have amassed by far the least amount of Hate over the last 5 seasons.

Other contributing less quantitative factors:

• Beer
• Bob Uecker
• Tailgating
• Christian Yelich
• Unconventional pitching staff
• Overall lack of historical success/happiness

Don’t let the Dodgers Hate nosedive in 2018 fool you - the amassed Hate from 2014-2017 blows everyone else away and even a novice baseball fan can smell a spike in the data.

David Stearns, Mark Attanasio and the Brewers’ brass have smartly leveraged long-term futility & market disadvantages into an enviable Hate position as the spotlights shine brightest.

Time to capitalize, and win over the welcome bandwagon fans across the country. There is plenty of room aboard this bus!