Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2018: Playoffs...Who Do Ya Like?

MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2018: PLAYOFFS...WHO DO YA LIKE?

I had to wait until these one game wild card and tiebreaker for division crown type games are over because who the heck can predict winners in those kinds of games anyway? I mean, it's one lousy game? It's been a little easier lately when one team has a Bumgarner or an Arrieta pitching. At least you can go with the Ace and guess right.

This year we had the NL Central tiebreaker with the Adorables at the Ivied Hallowed Halls of Heroes versus the upstart slightly chemically augmented Milwaukee Brew Blasters. I picked the Cubs at home and of course lost. The Crew continued their run of discombobulating the Chicagoans as Maddon kept pitching to Yelich who continued his hot hand and murdered their pitchers.

This forced the Baby Bears into a wild card game at home against the Rockies. They lost again and looked really bad doing it. The game went 13 innings and had the hometowners bringing in starters Cole Hamels and Stork Hendricks to face the Rockheads. They couldn't score to save their adorable souls and went down in fairly pitiful fashion.

The highlight of that game was Javier Baez running into the arms of Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado and hugging him to keep Arenado from throwing to first and doubling up Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras who was limping down to first with a leg cramp after grounding weakly to third. It looked really stupid. Baez just embraced Nolan with great Latin passion and Arenado seemed to forget what he was supposed to do. It was like “You feel so good in my arms Jave! Let's do the Habanera!” And Jave was like “I'm Puerto Rican, make it the Bomba! And hold me tighter you Cuban Hunk, you!”

So now I'm expecting...that's it! The fatal mistake! Now the Cubs will score the winning run in this, the 12^th inning of Doom, and people will be talking about this play for a baseball eternity. But no, the Cubbies didn't take advantage of this Javier Baez Dancing with the Star moment and now this too, the “Merengue of the MVPs” will fade from memory.

So the Rockies, who had just lost their chance at the division crown by losing badly to the Dodgers, are now playing the Brew Crew in a five game set in Milwaukee.

I like Milwaukee in 5 games because the Brewers have been beating everybody lately. And Yelich has been awesome. His swing is so perfect that he's hitting everything on the sweet spot and going to all fields.

Everybody seems to concede the MVP to Yelich because he's had his hot streak late. It's been very impressive, but Baez had some hot streaks earlier and pretty much carried the Cubs offensively in a really down year for the Baby Bear bats. And Baez was playing all over the field wherever Joe Maddon needed him. With Addison Russell in trouble for slumping and for beating on his woman, Baez was mostly at shortstop, and last time I looked that's a much more important defensive position than left field. And Baez is one of the best at short.

In case you forgot, the importance of the defensive positions after pitcher goes something like this:

1/catcher (by a wide margin) 2/shortstop 3/second base 4/center field 5 and 6/third base and first base (pretty much a tie...third basemen get a few more grounders because of more right handed hitters in baseball and have to have a stronger arm. But first basemen handle the ball a lot more and have to dig out throws.) 7/right field (because a right fielder has to have a stronger arm so he can throw that long toss to third when a runner rounds second and goes for it.) 8/left field (where you can hide a weak arm and get away with playing guys who can't field anywhere else.)

Now that doesn't mean that a player at a less vital defensive position can't still be more valuable defensively. A Mookie Betts who plays so well in the difficult right field at Fenway is more defensively valuable than a bad second basement like Danny Murphy. But Murphy is an anomaly. Most fielders that bad get traded to the American League so they can DH.

Yelich is a great left fielder. But Baez is a great shortstop and that trumps whatever Yelich does in left field. So, with their offensive stats being so similar, I give the MVP to Baez by a hair because I think he did more to help the Cubs win as much as they did in a down year for them. I'd rather watch Yelich hit because I like that style better than Jave's swing for the downs and never walk style. Both of them hit in the clutch like Champs.

Both the Rocks and the Brews depend upon their bullpens to control the game. Rocks have one stud starter in Kyle Freeland. Brews have the scary relief closer in Josh Hader. I think the Brews are more ready to win.

The other 5 game playoff in the NL is between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Bravos. The Bravos clinched a while ago and now everybody has forgotten about them. With Freeman, Markakis and Acuna, they are a dangerous bunch. But I don't think they have the pitching or the experience to beat the Dodgers yet.

It took the Bluebloods all year to get their team squared away, but now that the pitching staff is reasonably healthy and deep and Manny Machado and Brian Dozier have adjusted to the National League, L.A. is just too powerful for the Bravos. They also have home field advantage in this series and they should cruise.

Over in the American League, the Yankees woke up and pounded the Oakland Clones in Yankee Stadium. The key moment in that contest was Aaron Judge hitting a rocket homer (finally) and reassuring the faithful that his broken wrist has healed. Judge seems to be the thermometer for the Yanks. If he's hot, the team gets fired up.

So now we have the long awaited next chapter in the Playoff Saga of the Yankees versus the Red Sox. The Fine Young Bombers against the all time winning-est Red Sox ever.

I have stated before that I think the Sox are in trouble against this team. Chris Sale is the only starter who has been able to control the Yankees this year, especially in the Stadium. Chris is hurt. He has no velocity on his fastball after shoulder problems. It's doubtful he can go long into a game and the Yankees have killed the Red Sox bullpen. I don't think Porcello and Price can beat the Yankees and I don't trust the bullpen.

I think to have a chance in this series, the Sox will have to get Betts and Martinez at the top of their offensive powers and they'll have to hold serve at Fenway. But it's going to be hard to ask Sale to win two games coming off that injury.

The Yankees have to feel good about how Severino looked against the Oaklands. If he's the Ace again, they've got to be feeling confident. They've got the Beef Trust of Judge, Stanton, Voit, Andujar, Sanchez and Gleyber Torres all hitting for power. The one fly in their ointment? Sanchez is such a bad catcher that the Sox may be able to run wild just on passed balls! The Yankees should play Romine.

Yankees in 5.

Who remembers the Houston Astros? Remember? The team that won last year? That old fashioned team that has actual Starting Pitchers? This whole new trend of pitching your bullpen every game instead of having an actual starting pitcher go 6 or 7 innings is not the Astro's bag. They have Verlander, Cole, Morton and Keuchel. Now that Jose Altuve is healthy, they have their sparkplug. Alex Bregman took up the slack when Altuve, Correa and Springer were hurt and pretty much saved their season when Oakland started to surge. Mookie Betts probably overtook Bregman for MVP with a sizzling September and you can't ask any player to do more to help his team. But Bregman was a true hero as well.

He's a little behind Mook stat-wise, but 51 doubles and 31 homers is still pretty good.

The Astros aren't as scary this year offensively because Carlos Correa, their great young shortstop, has back trouble and hasn't hit since coming off the DL. Springer has been sluggish as well. More pressure on Altuve, Bregman and people like Gattis and Gurriel.

The Clevelanders are the true dark horse team of this year's playoffs. They could win if Encarnacion has a good run and Joe Ramirez and Lindor keep up their hotting. (Shorthand for 'hot hitting'!)The Tribe has a starting staff second only to the 'Stros. Their bullpen is just as good. Could be a classic series.

Astros in 5.

I'm going to postpone my predictions for the rest of the playoffs until we've seen the first round.

Hasta La Vista Baby!