Bradford DoolittleĪLDS: Winner of Mariners-Blue Jays vs. But here's a stat: After the All-Star break, if you remove games against any AL Central team from the numbers, only the Dodgers and Astros had a better team ERA than Cleveland, and the Guardians were just a tick behind the Astros for No. You might think the Guardians' AL Central-heavy schedule accounts for some of their lofty numbers. But if games stay tight and terse into the late innings, the pendulum swings in the direction of Cleveland. The Yankees have the firepower to simply club the Guardians into submission. Both the rotation and the bullpen have contributed to that, but the relievers in particular have gone to another level. Since around the first week of August, this has been arguably the best staff in baseball. But upsets happen in October, and I like the way Cleveland's pitching staff stacks up against the Yankees.

Why do you think the Guardians can win?There's no doubt it would be an upset for the $68 million Guardians to knock off the $246 million Yankees.

New York YankeesĪ majority of our voters picked the Yankees. Dan Mullen American League Division SeriesĪLDS: Winner of Rays-Guardians vs. On the other hand, if the Mets do get through the opening weekend and Marte comes back playing like the star he is at any point this month, this is a Mets team that could still make a lot of noise this October. Now that there is a very real chance New York will have to start the postseason without their dynamic outfielder - and that could be enough of a difference to tip the scales in a best-of-three series. But when the Mets were really rolling this year, it seemed Starling Marte was in the middle of everything good going on in their lineup. Why do you think San Diego can pull off the wild-card upset against the 100-plus-win Mets? When it comes to the Mets, the conversation rightfully almost always starts with Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.

Who will win each round? And which squad will be the last standing at the end of the postseason? We asked more than 30 of our MLB experts - from, TV, Stats & Information and more - to give us their predictions.īelow are their picks for wild-card winners (two teams will make it out of each league), division series winners, league championship series winners and World Series champion.Įverything you need to know | Bracket| Watch on ESPN, ABC The Yankees, on the other hand, will try to return to their early-season form and make a run at the Fall Classic from the No. Meanwhile, the Braves have hopes of becoming baseball's first repeat champions since the Yankees won three straight from 1998 to 2000.

The Dodgers - who enter October with MLB's best record and a franchise record number of wins - look to add another title to prove their 2020 championship was no fluke. The 2022 MLB playoffs begin Friday afternoon, debuting a new format with 12 teams hoping to raise this year's World Series trophy.

Mlb 9 innings 18 combination cards