The curse. The dynasty. The newcomers. The surprises. They're all a part of the MLB playoffs this season. The Toronto Blue Jays are the leaders of the pack to win it all in spite of the fact that they didn't win the top overall seed in the American League and home field advantage throughout the playoffs, but as is always the case in October, anything can, and frequently does happen.
ODDS TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES
Toronto Blue Jays +300
Kansas City Royals +500
St. Louis Cardinals +550
Los Angeles Dodgers +620
New York Mets +700
Texas Rangers +1000
Chicago Cubs +1100
Pittsburgh Pirates +1150
New York Yankees +1500
Houston Astros +1500
We'll start over in the American League, where clearly, the Jays are the team to beat. They've got their ace all revved up in David Price, a man who legitimately could change an entire postseason as he did in 2008 for the Rays coming out of the bullpen. Yes, the rest of this starting staff is a question mark, but go ahead and look up and down this lineup and find the outs.
Ever since Toronto acquired Troy Tulowitzki, this has been the best offense in baseball by a country mile. Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista both blasted 40+ homers, while Edwin Encarncion came up just one shy. All three drove in over 110 runs and largely built each other's seasons.
There are flaws, though. This bullpen isn't particularly great, and there is a ton of inexperience when it comes to playing in the playoffs. Furthermore, a first round date with Texas poses problems, knowing that the Rangers and their new ace, Cole Hamels have been here and done this before. Texas might be amongst the big underdogs to win the World Series, but it has been here before and has gotten to the Promised Land.
The Royals were one game shy of a championship last year, losing out to Madison Bumgarner and the Giants, but they are back and know that the road to the World Series goes through Kauffman Stadium.
Johnny Cueto hasn't panned out as a top-flight starter, and not having James Shields to man that rotation is a big issue. So too is the issue in the bullpen. We're not worried about Wade Davis as a closer. We're just worried that not having Greg Holland is going to prove to be a problem.
The Astros are favored in the Wild Card game against the Yankees, but only by a small -120 margin. The winner will head to KC.
Three teams won more than 95 games this season in the bigs, and they all happened to be in the NL Central. The Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs all finished three games apart from one another, and they are now going to have a battle royal of sorts to figure out who moves on to the NLCS.
The Pirates will start off this show at home against the Cubs, who will be sending Jake Arrieta to the mound. These two teams were both ridiculously hot down the stretch and should put on a show. The winner taking on St. Louis will be facing a big challenge, one which we know is tough to pass. The only team to knock the Cardinals out of the playoffs since 2009 is San Fran, a team which is already out on the golf course.
The Mets and Dodgers fought for home field advantage in their best-of-five series throughout the whole end of the year. LA won the battle, and now, it is going to have a huge edge in the war as well. Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw don't have a great history in the postseason, and once those two are passed in the rotation, the Dodgers are in a lot of trouble. However, even with Jacob deGrom and the young studs throwing out west for the Mets, they are going to be big underdogs against what might be the best one-two punch we have seen in baseball in quite some time.
If Kershaw and Greinke get hot at the right time, the Dodgers might be the team to beat in the NL.
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