Most of us are having a hard time dealing with the fact that Summer is officially over but what will help to heal the pain is that October is upon us and that means the MLB Playoffs. This year there is the potential for some of the best playoff matchups in recent memory, and moreover, for perhaps the best World Series of all time so we wanted to look and some of these potential matchups and preview what would be the best one for the fans, the league, and the game itself.
Firstly, a little background for those that may not have been paying attention over the last month or so but we have a great wild card playoff race in both the National and American Leagues. In the NL the Nationals and Cubs (1/2 game back and only trail the Cardinals for the division by 2) currently hold the playoff tickets with the Brewers just one game back. In the AL the A’s and Tampa Bay Rays (1 game back) hold the playoff spots with the Cleveland Indians 1.5 games back, all this with about 10 games left to go. So, there is a lot that still has to be decided but we’re going to put the scenarios together based on the clubs that we see still in the mix.
Dodgers vs. Yankees – No apologies here, simply put the storylines for this series would be endless and I know we have some followers of the site who remember the last time these two met for the world championship in back-to-back seasons and would want them to meet again for the 12th time. Everyone else should Basque in some of the headlines like the two clubs with the best records Yankees 99-53 (+188 Run Differential)/Dodgers 97-54 (+240 run diff) finally meeting in a 7-game series for World Series Title. The lineups contain some of the biggest marquis names of the game today, Kershaw, Bellinger, Turner, Judge, Chapman, CC, Gregorius. The two biggest cities and TV markets in LA and NY squaring off to be the best baseball team in the country, among all of the other things from music, nightclubs, restaurants, fashion, etc. that these cities battle over. C’mon, the bill-caps alone, LA vs. NY? It just doesn’t get any better and the fact that they’re the two best teams and should be there anyway? We’re running out of excuses.
Dodgers vs. Astros – C’mon a rematch of one of the best 7-Game world Series in history? Anytime you can pit the two teams with the best record in their respective leagues that also have the biggest run differential (Astros +255, Dodgers +240), then sign me up! Houston won its first ever WS Championship in that series between two 100-game winners where 5 of the seven games were decided by two runs or less, two extra inning games, and who can ever forget the 13-12 game five win by the Stros’ to put them one win away from the title. This year it would be the big bats versus big name pitching. Justin Verlander, Zach Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, and Walker Beuhler.
Braves vs. Twins – For those of you who where watching baseball 18 years ago two team from small markets made it to the World Series and the rest of the baseball world was disappointed leading up to game 1. However, what the Twins and Braves put on was one of the best shows we have ever seen in the Fall Classic. Those lucky enough to witness it saw five of the seven games being decided by one run, amazingly all were done in the final at bat. Amazing individual performances by Jack Morris, David Justice, and the late Kirby Pucket, capped off with arguably the most dramatic games 6 and 7 in history as both went into extra-innings to decide the World Championship. Let’s do this again with the Twins and Braves!
If we’re playing money ball then the dream matchup has to be the Yankees vs. the Cubs. The largest television market in the country and the advertising capital of the world would combine to create a sports marketing utopia. Several big names and storylines, not to mention two of the oldest MLB franchises with history that reads like an encyclopedia (sorry, millennials an encyclopedia is big book that’s kinda’ like Wikipedia with pictures) of the game. This one would be high stakes for the network carrying the game, as there’s no denying the components that drive ratings are big markets, big stars, and long series. Unfortunately, if we were to get this matchup they would only have two of the three because the Yanks would sweep this.