As the regular season comes to an end, if your team is not getting ready for the playoffs you’ll be watching just like most of us. That doesn’t mean that it can’t still be exciting to watch.
Since six teams have already clinched their division, it is gearing up to be an exciting October of playoff baseball.
The teams who clinched their division are the Indians, Dodgers, Astros, Nationals, Red Sox and Cubs.
In addition to those teams, there will be two Wild card games to play into the Division Series. The teams playing in those games are the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Yankees and Twins. The Yankees defeated the Twins 8-4 in the AL Wild card game to advance. Also, the Diamondbacks defeated the Rockies in the NL Wild card game to advance as well.
Dominating teams certainly happen almost every year in the regular season but the post-season is a whole different situation.
The Dodgers finished with the best record in the league this year, with 102 wins and only 57 losses. Alongside them, there are the Cleveland Indians and the Houston Astros, both of whom reached the 1oo wins mark.
The favorites to win the World Series are the Indians and Dodgers with the Indians taking the odds 12/1. Now, this does not totally eliminate the chance for other teams to win it all, as it has happened before and anything can happen in baseball.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a team that has a lot of good players, thus creating their success all season. They are the runner up to win the World Series, despite the Cleveland Indians.
With their powerful offense behind Justin Turner, Yasiel Puig, Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger, the Dogers also have a solid pitching rotation. This includes dominate Clayton Kershaw along with Yu Darvish and Rich Hill. They seem to have a lot of veteran players with a couple young players which helps with their success.
Yet, the Indians are the favorites to win it all. Although you don’t want a team full with veterans or young players, it has been done before. The 2008 Philadelphia Phillies team’s average age was 30.1 which isn’t great nor bad. This suggests that whether the age or skill of the team is bad or good, it does not determine the outcome.
With the playoffs already being exciting as is, there are some players to pay special attention to. One of those players is Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees. Judge, who is a rookie, owns the rookie home run record, as well as the American League with (50) home runs.
The Yankees have advanced from the play-in Wild card game against the Twins, after defeating them 8-4. Judge may be an important piece in the Yankees’ process to win their 28th World Series championship; however, Judge could be a huge bust for the Yankees’ playoff run as he holds the MLB record for strikeouts with 205 out of 535 at bats.
From the Washington Nationals, players to watch would be Bryce Harper, who is coming off a knee injury, and Daniel Murphy. Murphy is one of those guys who is extremely underrated as his .319 avg and (23) hrs speaks for itself. Harper will contribute with (29) hrs this season and continues to be a big part of the Nationals‘ offense.
Along with their offense, they also have a tough pitching rotation which includes Max Scherzer, Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg who all are in the top 10 of most strikeouts this season in the National League.
It would not be surprising if the Nationals finally pull off a World Series Championship with the team they have this year. The Washington Nationals and Seattle Mariners are the only two teams in the MLB that have not appeared in a World Series. This year, the Nationals could finally break the trend.
While the Chicago Cubs try to make their repeat run, they have the Nationals to go through first.
Another team to watch would be the Boston Red Sox.
They were one of the last teams to sneak into the playoffs after a AL East title race with the Yankees. The Red Sox are a sneaky team.
Chris Sale and Rick Porcello, along with their dominating offense seems to be a good combination that is working for them. Their offense could either make their run or end it early.
This postseason is gearing up to be a very interesting one. The Twins-Yankees wild-card game lasted one hour before reaching the second inning. This postseason has a lot of teams who are not usually in it which makes it interesting. This year could be one of the best years to watch playoff baseball with the players and teams that are involved.
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