The 2026 Major League Baseball (MLB) Postseason comes Tuesday when the eight teams from the American League (AL) and the National League (NL) who didn’t clinch an opening round Bye (TB-HOU-MIL-LA), will face off in the scary as Frankenstein best-of-3 Wild Card Round series.​

In the AL Wild Card Series (ALWCS), we find one of sports’ greatest rivalries with Aaron Judge and the AL champ Yankees battling the Red Sox starting Tuesday with Game 1 (NBC, NBCSN, 8 EDT/7 CDT/5 PDT) and the Astros hosting the upstart White Sox (NBC, NBCSN, 5 EDT/4 CDT/2 PDT).​

In the NL Wild Card Series (NLWCS) round, it’s Pete Crow Armstrong and the Cubs facing the host Padres on Tuesday (NBC, NBCSN, 10 EDT/9 CDT/7 PDT) with the NL East champion Braves facing the Phillies in the other Senior Circuit NLWCS opener (NBC, NBCSN, 2 ET/1 CT/11 PT).​

All eight teams were in a position in the MLB Wild Card standings in August and September, and the only team that can probably be frustrated about not making the playoffs is the NL West’s Diamondbacks (86-76), who went down to the last games of the season to taste sour sadness.​

How did we get here? The Tampa Bay Rays finally played their perfect season in winning the rugged AL East behind the AL’s best Home record (55-26) to earn the AL playoff berth and some rest while the other two Junior Circuit divisions were lucky to have three teams advance here.​

The Astros and Rangers (AL West) struggled to taste .500 and have positive Run Differentials (RD), yet Triple Crown acrobat Alvarez and Houston find themselves in the biggest professional baseball tournament with a chance to make the Fall Classic. Even losers win these strange days.​

The NL has six of the best nine teams in the 2026 MLB Playoffs: the NL East champion Braves and 2nd-place Phillies, the NL Central champion Brewers and 2nd-place Cubs, and the two-time defending World Series champions Dodgers and NL West 2nd-place Padres.​

Taking over from ESPN-ABC, the MLB Wild Card Series airs on NBC and NBCSN, with some games streaming on Peacock. The NLDS and NLCS are on FOX, with the ALDS and ALCS on TBS and truTV. FOX has the World Series for a 27th straight season. ESPN Radio will have all games.

We will cover all of the MLB Playoffs for you here at The Prediction Report. The main narratives are: Judge and Shohei Ohtani healthy enough to lead to a Dodgers-Yankees rematch (2024), can LA win a third straight WS, is TB finally for real, can the Cubs or Red Sox continue 2026 dream runs?

Also, can ace fireballer Jacob Misiorowski and the Brewers cap off their dream season and bring the WS trophy back to Milwaukee, and can one of the teams with an average record get through the WC Round and scare one or more of the big boys? Enjoy, as a possible strike looms in 2027.​

The 2026 American League Champions race is a little imbalanced and embarrassing, with the three best teams all from the same division (AL East) and three teams with average records—the AL West-winning Astros, the AL Central-winning Guardians, and the WC White Sox all alive.​

Behind Triple Crown threat Yordan Alvarez, Houston (81-81, -32 RD) held off another mediocre Texas team, Texas (80-82, -46 RD), to sneak into the AL Playoffs, while Cleveland (85-77) overtook upstart Chicago (84-78, -1 GB) for the AL Central lead in mid-September and held on last week.​

So if this seems like the AL East Invitational, it is. Traders at Kalshi are firmly behind the division’s three best teams, the Rays (29%), the Yankees (23%), and the Red Sox (12%), who rallied after a miserable 32-46 start to make a magical run and face their ALWCS rivals.​

Cleveland (23%), Houston (10%), and Chicago (8%) followed in trading late on September 27 with heavy volume ($7,086,854), as expected for a market that has been open so long.​

​The 2026 National League Champions race may be the real MLB title race, but we thought the Thunder-Spurs NBA West Finals would determine the NBA champions earlier this year, and the entire world was wrong when the Knicks proved the NBA Eastern Conference still has talent.​

Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers (42%) are the traders’ favorites at Kalshi, followed by the Brewers (27%), Braves (11%), Padres (10%), Cubs (9%), and Phillies (8%). All six teams in the NL Playoffs could hypothetically compete with Tampa, New York, or Boston for the AL pennant.​

Jake Bauers and Milwaukee went 4-3 vs. the Dodgers this season after going a perfect 6-0 against LA in 2025. The problem? The BrewCrew were swept out of the NL Playoffs a year ago by the Dodgers in the NLCS (15 RF-4 RA) as Milwaukee only mustered 1 run a game in the sweep.​

📊Trading Thoughts: The Brewers seem hungrier this time and have The Miz. The AL may come down to bullpens, where the Red Sox (2.95 ERA), Yankees (3.00), and the Rays (3.76) should give that AL East troika a pitching edge. TB 3B Junior Caminero may be the breakout star in October.​

⚾MLB AL Pennant Winner Pick: Tampa Bay Rays, Yes 29¢

⚾MLB NL Pennant Winner Pick: Milwaukee Brewers, Yes 27¢

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the last two MLB World Series (2024, 2025), after the AL won the previous two (Astros, Rangers), after the NL won three straight seasons (Nationals, Dodgers, Braves), so there always seems to be league streaks lately in the Fall Classic.​

The American League (AL) has won the World Series 68 times, while the National League (NL) has captured the title 53 times in World Series history. The first World Series was in 1903, when gas was 56¢ a gallon, and the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates (5-3).​

In 1904, there was no World Series because of a players’ strike. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, and the New York Yankees have the most World Series wins (27), with Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, and the St. Louis Cardinals having the most WS championships in the NL (11).​

​At the 2026 World Series Winner at Novig, the modern-day Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, and the two-time defending MLB champion Los Angeles Dodgers (Yes 31%, No 71%) are still the trader’s top ‘Yes’ choice, followed by another NL club, the Milwaukee Brewers (Yes 21%, No 86%).​

The Fall Classic legend New York Yankees (Yes 17%) follow, with the AL East champions Tampa Bay Rays (Yes 17%, No 96%), San Diego Padres (Yes 17%, No 96%), PCA and the Chicago Cubs (Yes 8%, No 99%), and Atlanta Braves (Yes 16%, No 93%) behind the Bronx Bombers, SD, and TB.​

The Philadelphia Phillies (Yes 10%, No 98%), resurgent Boston Red Sox (Yes 9%), Houston Astros (Yes 8%, No 99%), and young Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami and the Chicago White Sox (Yes 14%, No 97%)—the MLB Playoffs longshots at the PM.

📊Trading Thoughts: This is a tough one, as conventional wisdom says the NL wins the World Series once again, with either the dominant Brewers or Los Doyers pitching and hitting their way to the 2026 Fall Classic with deep and healthy rosters. The ‘Yes’ value in LA seems lost, but who knows.​

That is what makes trading or betting or predicting or guessing or whatever we do—about or not about money—in sports so fascinating. It never ends. And we never know what will happen until we see it unfold live before our very eyes. This is why Sports will always be #1 in the roaring space.

Anyway, the value may be with a team like the Rays (Yes, 9.4¢, Kalshi; 9.4¢ Polymarket on September 20), who haven’t had the psychological ups-and-downs like others in the Junior Circuit where three of the teams are lucky even to be playing in the MLB, or any sport’s postseason.​

We reward mediocrity with too many playoff and tournament berths in the name of greed and fake progress. The NFL (Panthers 8-9), NBA (GSW 37-45, Play-In), and NHL (LAK, 35-47) also saw teams with below-.500 records in the regular season make the postseason.500 records in the Regular Season make the postseason. Milwaukee is due.

⚾2026 MLB World Series Winner Pick: Brewers, Yes 18¢ (Polymarket US)

Kalshi may be losing in the battles in most courts across the US. Still, the prediction market continues to set new Daily Total Notional Volume records every week, as the king NFL has started up (September 9) along with NCAA College Football (August 29) and all European soccer leagues.​

On Sunday, September 20, and Week 2 of the new NFL Regular Season—before Sunday’s slate of games had even kicked off—Kalshi unveiled on Twitter (X) that it had just set a new Daily Total Notional Volume of around $3.52 billion.​ The Los Angeles Angels are valued at around $4 billion.

This follows the platform rocketing past the $100 billion lifetime notional volume mark in June (then a new record of $31 billion in notional volume), driven by the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.​

Beyond this being a primetime sports season and rising retail sports interest, several factors are driving this data, including Kalshi now offering “combos” (parlays) and institutional trading desks, larger betting groups, and bots entering The Digital-Age trading frenzy.​

A recent Jefferies report on the investment potential of prediction markets said the biggest risk may not be these ongoing legal battles, but the slow “erosion of economics through taxes, compliance costs, geofencing, product restrictions, and state-by-state fragmentation.”​

The renowned global banking investment firm Jefferies threw some caution into the wind for those thinking of adding prediction markets to their portfolios:​

“For now, the distance between watching prediction-market prices and building them into a portfolio remains wide. The barriers are structural: thin, concentrated liquidity; limited standardization; contract-specific return profiles; and underdeveloped regulation.​

“None of these are necessarily permanent, and the infrastructure is visibly maturing, but until they ease, most managers are likely to stay in “monitor mode.”​

So it’s a wait-and-see approach, and that seems like sage advice. Industry leaders Kalshi and Polymarket are both private companies with more than their fair share of investors for now, as the prediction market boom continues. Will the Supreme Court throw up a tire-deflation device?​

Reports surfaced last week that two employees and engineers of Robinhood ($HOOD), Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, were charged with insider trading for using confidential information obtained from Robinhood to trade on perpetual futures.​

Jamie McDonald, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced last Tuesday, September 15, 2026, that his office had charged the two Robinhood employees with commodities and wire fraud for using things they knew and then using them in trading in the derivative market.​

McDonald, officially the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that Chai and Xiang had access to information on whether and when the exchange would open additional cryptos for trading on Robinhood Crypto.​

​“Misappropriating confidential information to trade in the derivatives markets for personal benefit is illegal. That is exactly what we allege Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang have done,” McDonald said.

“Today’s charges make clear that corporate insiders cannot evade the securities and commodities laws by trading on misappropriated information in derivatives like perpetual futures, tokenized securities, or other similar financial instruments.”​

The pair—Dim and Dimmer?—reportedly used the Hyperliquid ($HYPE) platform for the trades.

We will headline the 2026 NHL Regular Season and the conference and Stanley Cup winner markets in the next issue (#112) on Wednesday of The Prediction Report, but for now, we will microanalyze Tuesday’s Opening Night and Wednesday’s slate of four games on the frozen water.​

In this 109th season, the National Hockey League (NHL) will play 84 games, and the Regular Season will end in April 2027, with the Stanley Cup contested in June. The Carolina Hurricanes are the defending NHL champions after icing the Vegas Knights (4-2) last 2025-26 NHL Season.​

The first game of the new season sees the champion Hurricanes hosting the Panthers (ESPN, 5 ET/2 PT), followed by the Canadiens at Maple Leafs in Toronto (7 ET/4 PT) and the Bruins welcoming the Rangers to Beantown (ESPN, 8 EDT/5 PDT) for two Original Six matchups.​

Another all-Canadian skate sees Connor McDavid and the Oilers hosting the Canucks (10 ET/7 PT), with Opening Night wrapping with Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas to face Mark Stone and the Golden Knights (ESPN, 10:30 EDT/7:30 PDT).

🏒2026 NHL Opening Night 2-Leg Parlay-Combo: Oilers -285 + Golden Knights -250

TNT (with affiliates TBS, truTV NHL) is one of the networks covering the NHL this season, along with ESPN and all its affiliates (ESPN2, ABC) in the US. On Wednesday, the channel named after dynamite has a nice doubleheader for NHL fans worldwide.​

The night opens with an Eastern Conference rivalry, and the battle of Pennsylvania as the Philadelphia Flyers host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Xfinity Mobile Arena in the City of Brotherly Love and Crushing Crosschecks (TNT, truTV, 7:30 EDT/6:30 CDT/4:30 PDT).​

The Maple Leafs play a second straight night when they host the Islanders (7:30 EDT/4:30 PDT), then Cole Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, and the Avalanche host the Kings at Ball Arena in Denver in a Western Conference ice dance in the Rocky Mountains (TNT, truTV, 10 PDT/9 CDT/7 PDT).

📊Trading Thoughts: The Kings-Avalanche nightcap is the game we will handicap and pick and bet the first of many straight team picks on NHL games where Home ice might not be as big as it once was, but still carries some weight, as the SC champion Hurricanes proved last campaign.​

Last season, Colorado went 26-9-6 at home and had the best record all year, but VGK still swept them in the Western Conference Playoffs. Colorado is a solid favorite here (-180, DraftKings) with the Total at 5.5, but there are many reasons why. A home and new season opener is one.​

Another is how well the Avalanche have done against LA of late. Colorado swept the Kings in the 2025 WC Playoffs, outscoring them 13-5, with G Scott Wedgewood brilliant between the pipes. Colorado has won 7 straight games against LA (43 GF-18 GA) and 10 of the last 11. Use this one.

🏒NHL Wednesday Side Pick: Colorado Avalanche -180 (DraftKings)

Ageless QB Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers (2-1, 0-1 Road) face QB Deshaun Watson and the Browns (2-1, 1-0 Home) to Huntington Bank Field (Kentucky Bluegrass) in Cleveland, Ohio for the NFL Week 4 lidlifter (Streaming—Prime Video, Radio—NFL | Westwood One, 8:15 EDT/5:15 PDT).​

In Week 2, Pittsburgh showed its true colors, scoring no TDs in a loss to the Patriots (20-3), while the Browns ruined a lot of Circa Survivor entrants when they held off Baker Mayfield and the Bucs on the last Sunday of the Summer where the Browns, Panthers, Saints, and Raiders all won.​

Here, Kalshi NFL traders like LB T.J. Watt and the visiting Steelers (55%) over WR Denzel Boston and the Browns (45%) in this October 1 game, with the point spread at Pittsburgh -2.5 and the Total at an expected low of 38.5 (-110 at DraftKings.​

📊Trading Thoughts: In the last 10 meetings in this AFC North series, the Steelers are 6-4-0 SU/ATS, with the Home team winning the last 9 consecutive meetings. The Total has gone 4-6-0 (Over/Under/Push) with 3 straight Unders (CLE 13-6, PIT 23-9, PIT 27-14).​

This may be the season we all realize that 42-year-old Rodgers is too old to be a starting QB in the rugged, long NFL season, and that the Steelers are no longer a team to be feared. Cleveland should win this because of the site, but it’s impossible to advise backing Dr. Watson.​

🏈NFL Week 3 Thursday Night Game Pick: None​

Northwestern (2-1, 0-1 Big Ten) plays #22 Penn State (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) in Big Ten Conference play on Friday night, where the Nittany Lions will scratch with the Purple Cats, who are opening the doors of the brand new Ryan Field (FieldTurf) In Evanston, Illinois (FOX, 8 EDT/7 CDT/5 PDT).​

Both head in here coming off losses in Week 4. PSU beat Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo before falling to Wisconsin in its Big Ten opener. Northwestern beat SDS and Colorado before losing at #4 Indiana in a game where QB Aidan Chiles (6 TD/0 INT) and the purple people shined, but still lost.​

​At prediction market Kalshi, visitors Penn State (63%) are big favorites at the New Wave Dyche Stadium with Northwestern (37%) dogs, yet still cats. NU humbled Colorado at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium in Week 3. At DK, PSU are 5.5-point chalks; the Total is 47.5o.​

📊Trading Thoughts: QB Rocco Becht (9 TD/0 INT) has been near-perfect to start the 2026 NCAAF Regular Season, and the Nittany Lions should move to 5-0 here and up another notch in the polls. The Cats are better than they have been and the stadium is new, but this is Penn State.

In the last 10 series meetings, Penn State has gone 7-3 SU and 6-4-0 ATS, with the Total also at 6-4-0. Last year, Northwestern upset the Nittany Lions (22-21) in a game it was a 20.5-point dog. This is a new season with new NIL-ly rosters, and a new stadium, so we throw out these numbers.

The state-of-the-art lakeside stadium (35,000 capacity) is designed for the football fan, with no bad seats and a more intimate experience than XXXL stadiums like the Big House (MICH) and Horseshoe (OSU), where 747s can land. It’s the smallest in the Big Ten and SEC.

The Nittany Lions will be bent on revenge here, and Iowa State-transfer Becht has some great skill dudes in RBs Carson Hansen and Quinton Martin, Jr. (3 receiving TDs), and WR Koby Howard. The thing that really stands out? PSU ranks #3 in the nation in Scoring Defense (7.3 PPG, 2 TDs).

🏈NCAAF Friday Night Week 5 Side Pick: Penn State, Yes 64¢

➠”In the next issue of The Prediction Report, we’ll headline the start of the 2026 NHL Regular Season, NHL Eastern and Western conference, Stanley Cup champion and Hart Memorial Trophy winner markets, the NYT story on fraud at Polymarket, and have previews and picks for the #7 Ohio State vs #17 Iowa NCAAF game on Saturday and the first of three NFL London Games, the Commanders and Colts, and the F1 race in Bahrain and the NASCAR Cup Chase race in Las Vegas, all on Sunday”