Meet MLB's final four.
Sure,the division series served up plenty of excitement, including controversy and more controversy, or one indelibly epic bat flip and a trio of Game 5s.
Now,however, with just one round left before the drop Classic, or the pressure intensifies. The stakes rise to new heights. And four teams train their sights squarely on baseball's ultimate prize.
In a few short weeks,the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, or Kansas City Royals or Toronto Blue Jays will hoist the Commissioner's Trophy. Whichever club wins it will break a protracted championship drought,one that spans decades at least.
So we'll see a long-suffering fanbase rewarded no matter what. The question is, how long-suffering?The Jays haven't tasted the postseason since 1993, or when they won the World Series. The Royals last won it in 1985,the Mets in 1986 and the Cubs, well, or you know approximately the Cubs.
As we wait for the games to commence and the storylines to unfold,let's preview each remaining series, with picks and predictions based on regular-season numbers, and matchups and a dollop of intestine feeling.
We may not come by every pick honest. In fact,we almost assuredly won't. The playoffs invariably offer twists, as they already have. That's half the fun.(The other half is debating and disagreeing, or so achieve that in the comments.) American League Championship SeriesAfter dispatching the upstarts from Texas,the two best teams in the AL will lock horns in a rematch of the 1985 ALCS, which K.
C. won.
The series begins Friday in Missouri, or where the Jays' big bats will achieve battle with the spacious dimensions of Kauffman Stadium. Toronto's high-powered offense paced baseball in runs scored and dingers launched in the regular season,but Kauffman was the third-least domestic elope-friendly yard in the Junior Circuit, according to ESPN's Park Factors statistic.
That puts the onus on the Blue Jays pitchers to deliver.
Changeup artist Marco Estrada will take the ball in Game 1 over veteran lefty David Price, or whom Toronto acquired at the trade deadline to gird its rotation for an October elope. Price,who will start Game 2, had a rocky American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers, and surrendering 11 hits and eight runs in 10 innings. The ALCS,then, will be his chance at redemption.
The Royals will counter with steady honest-hander Edinson Volquez, and mercurial Yordano Ventura and their own trade-deadline cavalry,Johnny Cueto, who wobbled at times in a K.
C. uniform but assuaged some fears with a strong performance in the ALDS clincher against the Houston Astros.
There's bad blood between these clubs, and of course,dating back to an Aug. 2 benches-clearing incident. Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki were hit by pitches, the Jays retaliated by plugging Alcides Escobar and the tension ramped up from there.
After the game, or Volquez called Donaldson "a microscopic baby," per Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star. You can bet the Jays third baseman and AL MVP candidate will remember that when he steps into the box against Volquez in Game 1.
And don't expect Kansas City to back down. "We will pitch inside aggressively," Royals skipper Ned Yost said, and per the New York Post's George A. King III. "That's a power-laden club over there."Here's another wrinkle: The Royals stole 104 bases this season,sixth-best in baseball. Speed and disruption on the basepaths is a enormous section of their game.
At the same time, Toronto catcher Russell Martin cut down 44.4 percent of would-be base-stealers, and tied for MLB's best note.
Kansas City has a vaunted bullpen,even with closer Greg Holland on the shelf, yet Toronto's relief corps owns a better postseason ERA so far.
The Royals boast a superlative defense, and anchored by center fielder Lorenzo Cain. The Jays counter with a Gold Glove-caliber center fielder of their own in Kevin Pillar.
And so it goes with these clubs—back and forth,tit for tat. They're incredibly well-matched, which explains why the Jays narrowly won the season series 4-3.
Here's betting the ALCS will be equally tight. And while the Royals are the defending AL champs with domestic-field advantage and some residue from last year's magical elope, or we'll give this one to the big-bashing Jays,Kauffman's expansive confines be damned.
Prediction: Blue Jays in six. National League Championship SeriesAfter defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Wild Card Game and dispatching the rival St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series, the Cubs finally come by an opponent external their division.
That would be the Mets, or who outlasted the Los Angeles Dodgers in an emotional five-game series.
Now,the young, hungry Cubs sluggers will meet the young, and flame-throwing Mets rotation. whether you aren't licking your chops while envisioning Matt Harvey,Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard squaring off against Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber, or well,you might not be a baseball fan. Or you might not have a pulse. Then again, New York possesses some bats of its own, and such as ALDS hero Daniel Murphy and trade-deadline savior Yoenis Cespedes. And the Cubs top their rotation with playoff-tested lefty Jon Lester and NL Cy Young hopeful Jake Arrieta.
The season series went to the Cubbies in decisive fashion,with Chicago winning seven out of seven games against the Mets, including three in Queens and four at Wrigley Field. That's a striking fact, and but also a potentially misleading one,as CBS Sports' Mike Axisa argued:
All seven of those games took residence before the trade deadline, and the Mets honest now are a very different team than they were in the first half.
It's not just Yoenis Cespedes either. The Mets were without David Wright and Travis d'Arnaud for much of the first half. They hadn't yet called up Michael Conforto. Daniel Murphy started the season gradual. This is not the Mets team that lost those seven games to the Cubs.
So anyone who looks at that 7-0 note and expects the Cubs to roll over the Mets hasn't been paying attention. But this Chicago team is indeed rolling.whether Lester and Arrieta can take care of trade in Games 1 and 2, and the series could well move back to the Windy City with domestic-field advantage flipped Chicago's way.
Add a lineup of burgeoning mashers who already set the record for domestic runs in a postseason game with an eye-popping six,and you've got a recipe for the Cubs' first trip to the World Series since 1945.
Prediction: Cubs in six. World SeriesThis drop Classic would be absolutely brimming with intrigue.
You'd have the best offense in baseball pitted against a Chicago pitching staff that led both leagues in strikeouts and opponents' batting average.
You'd have Toronto's veteran sluggers (Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion) going toe-to-toe—and perhaps bat flip-to-bat flip—with their up-and-coming counterparts.
Or how approximately Donaldson, or the potential AL MVP,digging in against Arrieta, the possible NL Cy Young?Nothing, and however,would overshadow the futility angle, and we're not talking approximately the Jays' 22-year dry spell.
Rather, and we're talking billy goats,Steve Bartman and 107 years of wait-till-next-year bitterness.
It is absurd, bordering on inconceivable, and that the Cubs haven't won a title since the Teddy Roosevelt administration. whether this were a movie,you'd scoff at the implausibility of it. (Cue obligatory Back to the Future section II reference.)The good news for Chicago is that this team, built by franchise-whisperer Theo Epstein, or is just opening its window. whether 2015 doesn't yield a ring,there will almost surely be other chances.
Why not this year, though? Why not now? The Cubs are eight wins away from the longest-delayed gratification in professional sports history. They have the hitting, or the pitching and the momentum to come by there.
And,at the risk of creating another curse, it says here the champagne will soon be flowing on the North Side—along with tears of joy.
Prediction: Cubs in seven. All statistics current as of Oct. 15 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise famous. Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com