We have a mere 10 days left in the MLB season, which means we are fully enmeshed in If the Season Ended Today madness, those timely projections of the standings. Without question, if the season ended today, we would all be very confused, and one suspects there would be considerable protests.

The fun part of If the Season Ended Today projections is imagining those matchups. When baseball teams play each other as many times as they do in a postseason series, you learn all sorts of new information about both teams. They can bring out the best and the worst in each other. So, today, we look at the If the Season Ended Today Projections and preview the series that would result … even if they may turn out to be imaginary.

• 2019 Postseason schedule

American League

Second Wild Card tiebreaker game, Sept. 30: Indians at Rays. Cleveland has crawled all the way back to a tie for the second Wild Card with Tampa Bay, which leads us to a play-in game. The game would be played in St. Petersburg, thanks to the Rays’ 6-1 series lead over the Indians this season. This is a rematch of the 2013 Wild Card Game that the Rays won 4-0 behind Alex Cobb. The good news of this tiebreaker is that the AL actual Wild Card Game isn’t until Wednesday, which means whoever wins will have a full day to get out to Oakland. This will also count officially as the 163rd game, allowing each team to use their full expanded September rosters.

Wild Card Game, Oct. 2: Tiebreaker game winner at A’s. The A’s, rather famously, have lost their last five playoff series (and 11 of their past 12), but, curiously, none of those losses have been to either the Rays or the Indians, two teams that have been to the playoffs over the past 15 years. Also: Whatever your thoughts about that stadium, it'll be a gas to see “Ricky Henderson Field” on a national stage. And the world needs to see the college football game that goes on in those bleachers.

AL Division Series: Wild Card winner vs. Astros. The Astros get this spot for being a half game up on the Yankees, though obviously by the end of the season they’ll have played the same number of games. Despite having won 100-plus games the last three seasons, this would be the first year the Astros actually came into the playoffs with home-field advantage throughout the postseason. The Rays are the only potential team here with a winning record against the Astros in 2019.

Twins vs. Yankees. And … it’s the nightmare scenario for the Twins. As will cause any Minnesota fan to weep while telling you, they’ve notoriously lost five straight postseason series against the Yankees, spanning 10 postseason games. (The Twins have actually lost their last 13 postseason games. Their last postseason victory was Oct. 5, 2004, over the Yankees; Johan Santana threw seven shutout innings, and Jacque Jones homered off Mike Mussina.) The Twins have had one of their best seasons ever this year, and set all-time MLB records along the way. And their reward, once again: The Damn Yankees.

National League

Wild Card Game, Oct. 1: Brewers at Nationals. The a-little-worse-each-year pattern for the Cubs ends up at the logical place: No playoff spot whatsoever.

2016: World Series win.

2017: NL Championship Series loss.

2018: Wild Card Game loss.

2019: Miss the playoffs entirely.

That’ll get the house cleared. The Brewers somehow reach the playoff for the second consecutive season despite losing defending MVP Christian Yelich with three weeks to go in the season. Their reward is Max Scherzer. The Nationals have never played the Brewers in the postseason. If the Brewers made it to this game, it would be the first Wild Card Game appearance for both teams; it would leave the Dodgers, Marlins, Phillies and Padres as the only NL teams that have never played in one.

NLDS: Wild Card winner vs. Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have taken on both of their potential opponents in the last three years, the Nationals in 2016, and the Brewers in '18. (They lost to the Cubs in '16.) The Dodgers will have the advantage over any team they play, but needless to say, the Brewers look a lot different without Yelich than they did in last year's NL Championship Series. (At least he and Manny Machado won’t be fighting this time.) The Nationals' rotation is one of the few that can match up to the Dodgers’. Los Angeles is good enough not to have to cheer for or against any potential opponent … but you’d have to think they’d prefer a Yelich-less Brewers than that Nats' rotation (not to mention all those young hitters and Anthony Rendon).

Braves vs. Cardinals. This is pretty much assured, if it happens, to be known as the Infield Fly series. Braves fans are still furious with how the infield fly was called in the 2012 Wild Card Game, snuffing out a potential Braves rally in what was Chipper Jones’ last game. It is worth remembering, as MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds pointed out at the time, that the umpires did make the correct call.

Suffice it to say, that explanation has not assuaged the fury of Braves fans. You’ll see that highlight over and over this whole series if it happens. The Cardinals and Braves have met four previous times in the postseason: That Wild Card Game in 2012, in the 2000 NLDS (which the Cardinals swept; the first game of that series was the Rick Ankiel wild pitch game), the 1996 NLCS (in which the Braves came back from a 3-1 deficit to win, in Tony La Russa's first season as Cardinals manager) and in the 1982 NLCS (which the Cardinals swept, beating Braves manager Joe Torre and Braves pitching coach Bob Gibson).