Main League Baseball’s divisional sequence start on Saturday afternoon with the eight remaining groups nonetheless standing after the wild-card spherical. Let’s take a fast stroll across the 4 matchups and rank them based mostly on potential pleasure, high quality of play and storylines.
1. Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies. On the prime of the listing we’ve got a rematch of final yr’s Nationwide League Division Collection that the Phillies received in 4 video games on their option to a World Collection berth.
This sequence truthfully has the whole lot you can need in a postseason matchup, from star energy to a divisional rivalry to extremely raucous crowds. They’re additionally two excellent groups which are positive to placed on one heck of a sequence.
The Braves enter the playoffs boasting a number of MVP contenders, together with Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson, whereas the Phillies lineup is led by Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber.
5 of the top-10 residence run hitters in baseball this season shall be participating on this sequence, with Schwarber becoming a member of Atlanta’s Olson, Acuna Jr., Marcell Ozuna and Austin Riley. No workforce hit extra residence runs than Atlanta’s 307 through the common season. In actual fact, the hole between Atlanta and the No. 2 residence run workforce was as giant (58 residence runs) because the hole between the No. 2 (Los Angeles Dodgers) and the No. 15 residence run-hitting workforce (Chicago Cubs).
2. Texas Rangers vs. Baltimore Orioles. This simply looks as if it has the potential to be a very enjoyable sequence with no clear-cut favourite. Baltimore is among the league’s finest younger, up-and-coming groups and is swimming in younger expertise with catcher Adley Rutschman and infielder Gunnar Henderson main the way in which.
Texas is available in with a robust lineup that simply acquired executed dismantling the Tampa Bay Rays pitching workers in a wild-card sequence sweep and can pose an enormous problem to a quickly bettering Orioles pitching workers.
The Orioles haven’t had a playoff sport at Camden Yards since 2014 and shall be able to erupt when the sequence opens on Saturday.
This sequence additionally options two completely different types in team-building. The Orioles spent years assembling expertise by means of the draft and their farm system, subjecting their followers to a methodical rebuild. The Rangers, in the meantime, spent big cash on veterans like Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Nathan Eovaldi.
The ends in each circumstances have been excellent groups which have a professional shot at reaching the World Collection.
3. Minnesota Twins vs. Houston Astros. The Astros are not any strangers to this time of yr, having reached the ALDS (and advancing to the ALCS) in every of the previous six seasons. They’re the usual for which all different MLB groups are measured by proper now and look poised for one more deep playoff run.
The Twins, however, lastly snapped an virtually unimaginable postseason dropping streak by sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays to get right here.
This sequence has an excellent subplot with Twins shortstop Carlos Correa going up towards the workforce that drafted him No. 1 total.
Whereas Houston may need a few of the larger names on its roster, particularly its pitching workers after the addition of Justin Verlander, the Twins truly are available in with the superior workers from the common season. They’d practically similar ERAs, however Twins pitchers led the foremost leagues in strikeouts, walked 100 fewer batters than the Astros and surrendered fewer residence runs.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks. This isn’t essentially a nasty matchup, however it does appear to be essentially the most mismatched on paper. The Dodgers completed 16 video games forward of Arizona through the common season, had a run differential that was 222 runs higher and received eight of the 13 regular-season conferences between the 2 groups, together with every of the previous 5.
The Dodgers are the established World Collection contenders with outfielder Mookie Betts and first baseman Freddie Freeman main the way in which, whereas the Diamondbacks are the upstart workforce led by the rising celebrity in outfielder Corbin Carroll.
