FULL ALDS/NLDS Preview and Analysis with Ben Verlander! (Going through all 4 series!)
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. What is up everyone? Happy Friday. What a first round of playoffs we just got. That was awesome. We got three series, three of the four went to game threes. Only two out of 16 in history of the first four years went to game three. This year we got three out of four, which was awesome to see. Happy Friday, everyone. I am pumped up. Today we’re going to be previewing the ALDS matchups, the NLDS matchups, going through them, making picks, talking about how each team can win each series. Uh I I do I love these matchups. I’m excited to talk through them. That first round was honestly awesome. I I can’t get over it. What an absolutely electric first round of the playoffs. If that’s any indication of what we’re going to get the rest of the way, we are all in for an absolute treat the rest of the playoffs. Man, especially last night. Cam Schlitler was awesome. A legend was born in the Bronx last night in in game three with Cam Schlitler. 12 punch outs, eight innings. Props to Aaron Boon. You know what? I thought Aaron Boon deserved a lot of credit. Um, game one maybe not his best and I thought he did better and better game two and game three and a little less overmanaging and I thought he handled game two and three awesome. Deserves a ton of credit for letting Cam Schlitler go back out there and dominate the way he did. Um, but we’re going to preview these series. If you take a look right here, these are our matchups. The Tigers advanced over the Guardians. Um, the Yankees advanced over the Red Sox. The Dodgers advanced over the Reds. And the Cubbies advanced over the San Diego Padres’s. Excited to hop in on all this today. Talk to you guys in the chat. Uh, please leave some comments in in the chat here so I can I can see them and talk through them and answer any questions you have as we go through and um and and preview all these series. There’s a lot of heavyweight matchups here. Dodgers Phillies in my opinion. Man, I wish Dodgers Phillies was seven games. This would be an awesome sevengame series, but it’s two heavyweights in the NL in in the NLDS there with Padres’s or with the uh Dodgers Phillies. I did have the Padres’s advancing over the Cubs. That’s the one I missed. I got three of four right in the first round. Cubbies advanced to play the number one seed. Now we have on the American League side of things the Detroit Tigers against the two seed Seattle Mariners. And then we have the Yankees advancing to play the number one seed Toronto Blue Jays. Now they are the number one seed by way of the tiebreaker. The Yankees and the Blue Jays both tied for the best record in the American League. The Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker over the Yankees. So they are the one seed. The Yankees fall to four, but they both had the best record in the American League. So that’s going to be a great matchup as well. Um Dodgers would win all seven. Yes, very well said, JG Bull. Uh, yes, please drop your questions throughout. I’m excited to preview, but I’m also going to look over here at the questions and and answer anything you guys might have along the way. Let’s start with this first series here, Tigers Mariners. I want to for each series, I want to go through each team’s strength um and how each team can beat the other team, an X factor for the series, and who I think ultimately ends up winning the series. We’re going to start right here with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers strength is is pretty simple. The Detroit Tigers strength is Terrick Scooel. He’s in my opinion the best pitcher on the planet. There’s a Terk Scubble and Paul Skeion to be had, but Terrick Scooel is the best pitcher on the planet. And the big difference between these two teams is the Tigers have Terk Scooel and the Seattle Mariners do not. Whatever game TKO starts, I don’t know if it’s going to be game one. Uh, I do have the matchups um and and the pitching matchups and everything lined up, but I I don’t think either team has yet set their starter. Yeah. Okay. So, as we speak, this series is going to start. It’s going to be the 8:38 p.m. Eastern game. No team has set their starter. Is Scoo going to be able to go in game one? Who do the Who do the Mariners throw in game one? We don’t exactly know. But the Tigers have Terk Scubble and whenever they have him on the mound, they’re going to be favorites. So, he’s the Tiger strength, plain and simple. The Tigers struggled their way through the through the wild card round. They did not hit until the sixth inning of game three. They have been absolutely abysmal with runners in scoring position until the sixth, seventh inning of game three. They finally figured it out. So, their offense needs to get better. The Mariners strength is their entire pitching staff. The Mariners pitching staff is awesome. I know throughout the course of the regular season they weren’t as dominant as they usually are if you look at team pitching. The Mariners ended up finishing seventh uh which they were middle of the pack around the halfway mark of the year. So they really got better as the season went. Look, this Seattle Mariners pitching staff is elite. There’s no way around it. Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Brian Woo was an all-star. Andres Munoz in in the in the bullpen. They’re nasty top to bottom. So the Mariners big strength is their pitching staff as a whole that in the American League finished fourth, you know, fourth in the American League. In terms of erra, they finished sixth in the American League. So their pitching staff is nasty. That’s their big strength for me. The Detroit Tigers win this series if their offense doesn’t go 4 for50 with runners and scoring position like they had in their prior four playoff games before game three. They have to hit with runners and scoring position. They have to. If they don’t, they’re going to lose this series. The Mariners win if they can beat Terk Scubble once. You just have to beat Terk Scubble once and I think the Mariners win this series. Uh, is this live or pre-recorded? This is live. JP, thanks for hopping in here. Mariners have the MVP. Tigers beat the worst playoff roster I’ve ever seen. Mariners have the MVP. Cal Raleigh is uh who you are referring to. That’s going to be an interesting race as well. Cal Raleigh vers MV verse Aaron Judge. I am What are the majority of you? We haveundred 190 people in here right now currently. I need everyone to answer. Just one name, Cal or Judge. Who’s your MVP pick? What do you think of the Cubs chances of going all the way? Uh, I’ll talk more about the Cubs when we get to that series, but they looked really good in that first series against the Padres’s. When do you think Show will pitch? Uh, Shi is pitching game one. Game one against the Phillies will be Show Otani’s first first postseason appearance on the mound. Judge all day. Cal. Judge. Judge Cal Cal. This race is awesome. I love this MVP race. It’s so unique. It’s such unique race because Aaron Judge is the Cal Cal Cal Judge. Cal Cal Judge. I mean, it’s such a unique race because you have these two players. Aaron Judge is the best hitter on planet Earth. There’s no debating that. He had the best year offensively. There’s no debating that. But Cal doing what Cal did as a catcher, I think holds a ton of weight. You’re managing 13 pitchers. You have a pitching staff. You have two meetings you’re going into. So, we’re gonna get to see Cal Raleigh on this stage. You know what I think? You know what I think? A lot of votes for Cal. Wow. Well, M. Hawkeye is voting about a million times. So, that’s cheating a little bit, but count it. If these two teams advance, if the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees advance, Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge, if those two advance, here’s what I think we need to do. Scrap all the rules. Scrap the rules of it’s just a regular season. That’s all the voting is for. No. ALCS for the MVP for the pennant. Make it all happen in one place. I think that would be awesome. JG Bull loves ball. Raleigh has more impact on his team. Exactly. So, look, I don’t make this argument and and argue against the other player. Aaron Judge is the best hitter on planet Earth. He’s one of the greatest hitters of all time. His stretch that he’s in right now, 2022 to 2025, is Barry Bondsesque. It’s Babe Ruthesque. It’s one of the best stretches that we’ve ever seen. But you don’t win an MVP for a three-year stretch. You win it for what happened in this current year. and Cal Raleigh 60 homers as a catcher. Man, this is going to be an awesome, awesome race. All right, back to the Tigers and Mariners this series. Tigers win if their offense wakes up. They got to figure out how to score against a very deep Mariners pitching staff. The Mariners win if they can beat Terk Scooel just once. You’re probably going to have to face Terk Scooel twice. If you can beat him one time, I think the Mariners are are the better team with the offensive additions they made. Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez. Um, and I love those additions of of Josh Naylor, and Aueno Suarez adding some thump into that lineup. The X factor for me, um, in this series, especially with the Tigers. Jav Bayz is a playoff player. Think of Jav Bayz for a second. This guy has gotten a lot of crap his last couple years for swinging at a lot of pitches, striking out a lot. Think of the player Jav Bayz is, by the way. He’s raking in the playoffs. This guy lives for the moment. Comes up with the Cubs in Wrigley in Chicago. Big market. Loves playing there. Team goes to the playoffs. He’s awesome. They go to the World Series. He’s great in the World Series. And then the team starts struggling. The Cubs aren’t as good of a team and Jav Bayz starts struggling. He gets traded over to the Mets. He’s awesome with the Mets in the second half. He was electric. And then he gets signed by the Detroit Tigers. And look, I can admit this. I root for the Tigers. I played there for five years. That’s where I played professionally. I can admit this. Detroit’s not the sexiest place to play in the world. It’s not the It’s not the most electric market in the world. You know, March, April in Detroit, it’s freezing. There’s not a ton of people at those games yet. But Detroit’s a baseball city. Detroit loves baseball. He’s an all-star the first half. He struggles in the second half. The calendar turns to October and Jav Bayz is back. This guy lives for the pressure. Jav Bayz was electric for the Detroit Tigers in the first round. I don’t know if they advance without Jav Bayz. I think Jav Bayz needs to be bumped up in the lineup. The guy lives for October. He’s the Detroit Tigers X-actor in that series. You need Terk Scuba to pitch twice. You need to win twice. And you need Jav Bayas to step up in that offense to hit with runners in scoring position. I ultimately do not believe that ends up happening. I have the Seattle Mariners advancing and I still have the Seattle Mariners advancing. I think the Tigers offense is missing too much. I don’t they’re they’re struggling with runners and scoring position too much. They didn’t add much offensively. I think they needed another piece offensively. And I think what the Mariners did with the pitching staff they have been clamoring on for five years to please just add some offense. Seattle Mariners and they did that. They added offense. I think it helps them big time. I do think they’re the better team because of that. I think they’re the more complete team and I do think they end up winning this series. Seattle’s going to be electric. I can’t wait to watch playoff baseball in Seattle. That place is going to be absolutely nuts. So that’s Tigers Mariners. Let’s check in on the chat. see what you guys are saying. Uh, they’re saying Scooble in game two and game five. I think that’s most likely. Look, Scoobel pitched on Tuesday. Game one Saturday. So, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So, you’d rather wait if you’re going to have them pitch twice, you’d rather have them pitch on short rest once than both starts be on short rest, right? So, pitch them on Sunday in game two. Is game two gonna be? Is game two? Let’s see. See the schedule because I know they start staggering game. Wait, where is this? 2025 playoff date game one. Game two is going to be So, the ALDS does have the game two on Sunday. So pitch TK Scooble on Sunday on regular rest and then that leaves him for game five if if you can get there. I like that because you’re probably not going to go game one and then a a game four. I think start him on regular rest and then start him on short rest if need be. Who starts game one for Detroit? AJ Hench is going to do an AJ Hench special. He’s gonna he’s gonna just go with Chaos that game. Um, hope we get through Phillies and Brewers, Motor City Kitties. M’s already beat Scooble twice. They can do it again. Look, playoffs is a different beast and TK Scubble rises to the occasion. You could say the same thing about the Cleveland Guardians, right? Cleveland Guardians just came back from a 15 and a half game deficit and passed the Tigers biggest collapse ever. It doesn’t matter until October. Nobody’s going to talk about that big collapse now. Why? because they eliminated the team that passed them. October’s a different beast. Terrick Scooel is an absolute beast in the playoffs. Beating him twice is no easy task. It really isn’t. Mariners a different beast. Who’s got the deeper bullpen? Deeper bullpen. I do look if the Tigers did any if the Tigers did things right at the trade deadline, it was with the bullpen. Adding Finnegan was was big. I do like that addition. Kaneley in the off season. Um, I I think maybe deeper, uh, Will Vest at the back end is good. Deeper, I’ll give a maybe a slight edge to the Tigers, but I have to give the bullpen edge to the Mariners just because of Munoz in the back end. Munoz is filthy. He’s an absolute stud of a closer, so I feel better pitching staff-wise. Look, the the Tigers have TK Scubble and then maybe some more good arms at the in the bullpen, but the Mariners have a better staff and the best closer. Get get some innings out of your starters, hand it to the back end of the bullpen, and you’re going to be golden. I I do like the Mariners back end of the bullpen a lot. Where do you rank Yamamoto among the best pitchers on the planet? Terrick Scooble, Paul Skins. Um, Max Freed’s in that discussion. Cam Schlitler’s clearly the best pitcher in baseball. Cam Schiller’s a legend. Best pitcher in baseball. Pass Terrick Scubble and Paul Skins and everyone in one start. Um, just kidding. But seriously, um, Yamamoto’s I look, Yamamoto’s got to be top five for what he did this year for sure. Flity is a playoff legit. Guardians offense just bad. Flity arises to the occasion for sure, but the Guardians offense is bad. Um, Dingler, lots of Tigers fans in here. Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, all right, back to this. Let’s move on to the next series. Let’s talk Yankees Blue Jays. Number one seed against the number four seed. Again, though, the Blue Jays and Yankees tied for the best record. The Blue Jays just held the tiebreaker. So, let’s talk through this series. I’m excited about this one. First two games. Look, all these games are best of five, by the way. These are best of five series. The Yankees strength is their studs in the rotation. And Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge is the best player in this series. I hear you with Vlatty Jr. and and the depth that the Blue Jays have in their lineup, but it’s not close. Aaron Judge is the best player in this series. is the best offensive player on the planet. This is going to this series is going to be a lot of fun. So, the Yankees strength is Aaron Judge plus the three-headed monster at the top of their rotation. I was a huge Cam Schlitler fan coming into the playoffs and then he goes out and in his first start in the postseason as a rookie punches out 12 guys in eight innings and made that call look really good. JG Bull, not a fan of the Blue Jays manager. Okay. Uh, I don’t know how much I Look, the managerial matchups ma matter a lot. I thought Aaron Boone got a lot better throughout the first round. We’ll see how Schneider does in in the playoffs as well. Um, but I’m excited for this series. Blue Jays on the other hand, their strength, Blue Jays strength is their starting pitching depth. Okay, so yes, the Yankees have freed Rodon and and Schlitler. I think in the playoffs you need a three-headed monster and they have it. If you want to go further than that, I think the Blue Jays have the depth. But look, I I don’t look at this series and see a huge advantage for the Toronto Blue Jays in any one department. Where’s the huge Blue Jays advantage? Let me hear it. Anyone in in the chat right now? I’m going to I’m going to move my camera over this ad in the corner because it’s so close to covering it up and I’m really uh I’m really it’s really annoying me. So, we’re going to move that there and we’re going to baby is that better. We love that. Um ability to not strike out. Yeah, true. Blue Jays have lineup depth, defense, and bench. Yeah, I’ll argue on I’ll argue you on on lineup depth. I I don’t exactly know if if that’s the case. Um I think Jazz really extends the Yankees lineup. Um I I’m worried about the number of lefties that the Blue Jays have to get out Jazz, Ben Rice, Austin Wells. This series sets up well for the Yankees in in my opinion. You know, you’re they’re they’re probably gonna go Gauzeman in game one. I don’t think this is lined up yet. Um, let’s see. Um, preview. Okay. Nobody’s officially announced their guys, but they’re there. This is at 4:08 Eastern. You’re probably going to go Gauzeman in game one. And I Shane Bieber, Jose Bereos, Chris Basset. Like, who are you turning to? A bunch of righties. And who’s the dominant lefty in the back? I I worry about their Thank you, Sierra. I appreciate that. I I worry about their their bullpen. Hoffman hasn’t exactly been shut down. I don’t know. Yeah, I’ll give you defense. The Blue Jays defense is good. Um Bette is still going to be out for the first round, which is huge. Their injuries are going to be huge. Jimenez is going to be playing shorts stop. He’s a stud defensively. Daltton Varo’s a stud defensively. They are better defensively. I’ll give you that. But I lineup depth. I don’t I don’t know if I agree with that. I think the Yankees lineup depth is is better. I the three-headed monster in the rotation. The Yankees is better. The back end of the bullpin. The Yankees is better. Look, Devin Williams has been much better as of late. David Bednar has been good in the back end. Hoffman’s been a struggle in the back end for the Blue Jays. I I just don’t know where their big advantage is. Um but we get another division rivalry in the ALDS round. Uh there’s one on the National League side as well. Look, the the New York Yankees beat the Blue Jays if their starters perform as they did in round one. There’s no beating the New York Yankees if Max Freed, Carlos Rodon, and Cam Schlitler perform as they did in round one. Freed and Schlitler were disgusting. Rodon’s stuff looked good. If it weren’t for his own error, they they’d probably win that game as well. Um, but the Toronto Blue Jays win this series if they keep Judge and Stanton quiet. Look, I would Judge I wouldn’t say exactly ended his postseason narrative in the first round of the playoffs. He got a couple of hits, drove in a run, the run he drove in in that in in game two, misplayed ball by Jiren Duran in the outfield, then he dives, clanks it, so technically it goes in the books as a hit. He had a broken bat single to center. Had a couple hard hit balls, but he all singles. I wouldn’t exactly say the postseason narrative has yet gone away. Judge needs an extra base hit in this round. Stanton needs to hit balls over the fence because it’s a struggle for him to get to second base when he doesn’t hit balls over the fence. If the Toronto Blue Jays can keep Judge and Stanton quiet, I think they win this series. Obviously, a very tall task, but there’s Judge isn’t firing on all cylinders right now. And I I think they can. Blue Jays starter Blue Jays starters are good. If they keep them quiet, they can win the series. Let’s see what you guys are saying. Uh the conversation around Aaron Judge will be so interesting if they get bounced and he doesn’t perform well. Absolutely. Gman verse Heel in game one is what you’re thinking. I could absolutely see that being the being the case. Homefield record defense. Yankees have a deeper offense. I mean, yeah, I think so. I mean, let’s go through their last their last few games, but yeah, I think the Yankees offense is is deeper right now, especially with Bo Bashette being out, right? I Let’s Hold up. Go scores schedule. When was that game? Okay. All right. So, let’s take a look through the Yankees lineup right now. How do we get to the box score? God. Okay, let’s look at this box score. Yankees lineup. Tran Gisham, Aaron Judge, Bellinger, Stanton, Rice had a really good regular season. Uh, against a righty, you’re probably then going to go, and again, there’s no there’s not many lefties for the Blue Jays. You’re probably going to go Jazz. Vulpi had a good series and Austin Wells and in the nine hole. I do think that’s a pretty I think that’s a pretty good and deep lineup if you ask me. Let’s compare that to the Blue Jays. Um, let’s compare that to the Blue Jays. We’re going to go get to them, their schedule, and we’ll back that up and we’ll go to this series against the Red Sox at the end of the year. Springer, Luke’s, Vlatty, Barger, Santandere just back from injury. Bad hit 180 on the on the year with a 576 OPS. He’s not exactly the same guy he was last year, but he was injured all year. I think I think Anthony Santandere is the X-factor of this series. If he can if he can be any semblance of what he was last year, that’s huge. Vo, Clement, Jimenez, and then Hineiman. I look the let let me know if you think I’m crazy. I I feel like this Yankees lineup this Yankees lineup is is deeper than this Blue Jays lineup, especially with Bo out and he’s not going to be in this ALDS series. So I I yes I think I think lineup depth goes to the New York Yankees in my opinion. So back into the bullpen. I I just the path for the Blue Jays to win this series I I do think is tough. I think the Yankees are firing on all cylinders right now. I think their starting pitchers are throwing great. I think their lineup depth is better. I think the back end of their bullpen is better. So I’m going to have the New York Yankees surviving and advancing to the ALCS out of this series. It It’s deeper only because Bo is out. Exactly. But that’s what I’m previewing this series. So I do Bo is out unfortunately. I wish he wasn’t. I wish the I wish the Blue Jays were at full strength but they’re not. So I think the Yankees lineup is going to be deeper. Trey Savage. H I think he’s awesome. Um Jay. All right, that’s this series. Let’s move on to maybe the best series of the DS round and that is Dodgers Phillies. What a heavyweight bout this is. Two of the most favored teams to win the World Series. Dodgers Phillies. Dodgers advance over the Reds in what was a blood bath of a series. That series went about as expected. The Dodgers offense is way too much for the Cincinnati Reds. The Dodgers bullpen is an issue. They tried to blow every game, but they just overpowered them offensively and end up winning that series two games to none. It’s the only one that didn’t go to a game three. But the the Dodgers reward is they get to play the Philadelphia Phillies, which is going to be an awesome series. In game one of this series, we get Show Otani against Christopher Sanchez, which is going to be an awesome matchup. Christopher Sanchez a 2.5 erra on the year. Show Otani a 287 erra in his limited starts, but he was awesome. Um has been unhitable his last few starts. Christopher Sanchez, one of the most underrated pitchers in all of baseball. He was an absolute star this year for the Philadelphia Phillies. I hate that Zach Wheeler went down. I hate that they don’t have him, but their pitching staff is still deep enough to win this series if they can pitch well. So, the Dodgers strengths are are simple in my opinion. The Dodgers strengths are there three MVPs. There are three MVPs in the lineup and their starting pitching. No matter where you turn with your starting pitching, they’re dominant. They are dominant at the in their rotation. They they had to play in the wild card round. They went Blake Snell and Yamamoto. Okay. Oh, no. We advanced, but we had to play another series already. Our starter is going to be Show Otani in game one. And then we’re going to be able to turn to whoever we want. Blake Snell or Tyler Glass. We haven’t even mentioned Tyler mentioned Tyler Glassnell yet. He hasn’t even pitched. He hasn’t even been mentioned. They could skip him in the rotation if they want, put him in the bullpen, which they might need to do because their bullpen is an absolute mess. So, what do they do? I don’t know. But their starting pitching is an absolute strength for them. Plus the three-headed monster at the top of their lineup in Show Otani, Muki Betts, and Freddy Freeman. The Phillies big strength, their lineup is so deep. This lineup is awesome. Trey Turner’s back thankfully for them. And then no matter where you turn, Schwerber, Harper, who’s a playoff hero, Real Mudo, whatever they do at the bottom of their lineup, what do they do with Nick Castanos? I I don’t know, but he’s he can be a stud when he plays. This team is awesome. The lineup depth is great for them. Sto had a good year at the bottom of the lineup. And I I another big big big advantage for them is their closer. I think Yand Duron is the best closer in baseball right now. He’s a huge advantage for them over the Los Angeles Dodgers at the back end of the bullpen. If you can get some depth and some get your starters to pitch deep into games and hand the ball to Duran, oh, that’s going to be a problem for the Dodgers. This series is going to be awesome. A heavyweight bout. The Dodgers win this series if Show, Mookie, and Freddy all show up. And why do I say that? It seems like an easy, obvious answer, right? Oh, sure, Ben. All three of your MVPs show up and have success. Well, yes. This is going to be a tough series for them. You need your guys to show up. If Mookie and Freddy have a down series and Shi goes off, I don’t think they win. If Show has a down series and and Mookie and Freddy go off, I I still don’t think they win because of the depth that the Phillies have. The rotation, the back end of the bullpen, I think is all I think those things are better than the Dodgers. Depth in the lineup, advantage Phillies. I’m not saying top of the lineup. I’ll take show Muki, Freddy over anyone. But depth in the lineup, advantage Phillies. Back into the bullpen, clear advantage Phillies. So if you can get into that bullpen early, that’s advantage Phillies. The Phillies beat the Dodgers if this one’s interesting for me. I like this. The Phillies beat the Dodgers if they get three or more quality starts from their starting pitchers. Three or more quality starts. That’s six innings. Six or more innings and three earned runs or less. If you can get that from your starters, I think the offense is good enough to put up some runs and then you can hand it to the back end of your bullpen. And I think if you can give three or more quality starts, I think the Phillies win this series. Also, think of this advantage for the Phillies. A lot of their a lot of their big good arms, Christopher Sanchez, who’s going to start game one, and then you have Lazardo, you have Suarez. Think of these guys that they’re going to be rolling out. Lefthanded pitchers, Dodgers big three, show Freddy, two lefties. Can can these lefty starting pitchers silence two of the three Dodgers big three? I think those are going to be that’s going to be a huge battle to look out for is those lefty on lefty matchups. But the Phillies rotation was really good, really good this year. And they’re predominantly left-handed, which matches up well against the Dodgers. So I’m not The Dodgers are never a perfect matchup for anyone ever. But if there was a good matchup for this pitching staff, it’s having to face these lefties. If there was a bad matchup for the Dodgers, it’s this rotation with the Phillies. Really good and left-handed heavy. So the the Phillies beat the Dodgers if they get at least three quality starts from their starting pitchers. They’re also starting at home. They have homefield advantage here. First two games at home. Look, in a fivegame series, I often I often don’t see a huge advantage in home field because if you’re the road team, you just have to you just have to split. Win one game and I think all the momentum goes to you. If you can split on the road in a fivegame series, there’s a chance the series doesn’t even get back. And then a game five is like all hands on deck for everybody. All bets are off in a game five. So, if you’re the road team and you win one game on the road in a fivegame series, I think all the advantage goes to you. Uh the big the big X factor for me in this series is is the Dodgers bullpen. This the course of 162 games tells you exactly what a team is. We know what the Dodgers are. They’re a team that rkes. They’re a team that has a great starting pitching staff. when they’re a team that really really struggles with their bullpen. They It happened against the Reds. They blew the Reds out of the water offensively and with their starters, but the second the series the second the games would go to the the bullpen, the Dodgers legitimately would almost blow blowout games because of their starting pitchers. Blake Snell in game one, seven fantastic innings, two earned. The very next inning, the bullpen threw the most pitches in a in a playoff game for the Dodgers of all time. Like 58 or 59 pitches in the eighth inning for the Dodgers bullpen. Gave up three runs, walked walked the world a bunch of hits, gave up some runs, let the Reds right back in it. Game two, the exact same thing. A massive lead when your starter comes out. Yamamoto was again good. Hand it over to the bullpen again. Almost blow it. It’s insane. The bullpen is a big issue for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They showed us that over the course of 162. They’ve already shown us that in the playoffs and now in this huge series, it’s going to be a factor. This Dodgers bullpen is going to blow a game. How many do they blow? I think becomes the question. That’s why the Dodgers bullpen for me is the big X factor in this series. Let’s see what you guys are saying in the chat about this series. Um Kershaw Sasaki Sasaki is a huge Xfactor. Um Sasaki’s been great. I I said it coming into the playoffs. He’s going to be the key for the Dodgers bullpen in the playoffs and he’s been great so far. Look, 100 101 with a nasty splitter. That plays. That plays. Show Otani starting on the mound in game one and leading off. He’s Think of this moment. Put yourself in this moment. When does this game start? 6:38 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday. Put yourself there. It’s 6:38 Eastern time. Dodgers Padre Dodgers Phillies NLC NLDS is kicking off. Show Otani is walking up to the plate to be the leadoff batter to kick off this entire series. And then he heads to the mound when the Phillies come to the plate to start the series as well. How insane is that? That’s absolutely remarkable. Absolutely remarkable, man. I cannot wait. We are getting history. Show Otani leading off the game and the starter in game one. How awesome is that going to be? Show Otani is the best player in this series. Show Otani is the best player in baseball. He’s the best player in these playoffs. The Dodgers have Shi and the Phillies don’t. How can those lefty starters quiet him and Freddy? Are they able to? That’s the big story for this series. Two big juggernauts. Stars everywhere you look. But the big storyline and I think the key difference in this series is can the really good Phillies lefty starters silence show and Freddy in that lineup? My answer is ultimately yes. I do believe the Phillies advance out of this series. I cannot wait for this series. I think it goes five games. I wish this was a seven game series. This is going to be awesome. I have the Phillies advancing over the Dodgers in one of the best series we’re going to get all all playoffs. Maybe the best series we’re going to get all playoffs. Um Otani was hurt last year. Um Otani was hurt last year in the World Series. Yes, he was playing with one shoulder in the World Series last year. Dodgers are cooked unless they come up with a bullpen plan. I would use Shehan, Glassnell, Kershaw, Trinan, forget the rest. Roki closes. Well, I I hear you. Shehan was one of their pitchers in game two, by the way, that gave it up. I mean, he was he was not good. Couldn’t find the zone, but he’s been really good down the stretch. So, just a maybe a oneoff. I do agree with you. He’s going to be a factor in the bullpen. Hopefully, he’s better than he was in in game two against the Reds. Um, but yes, I I Roi is a huge factor in the back end of the bullpen, which is awesome. Think of that. Roki Sasaki in April was emotional in the dugout after a bad performance. We saw Roki Sasaki emotional after a bad outing in the dugout, ends up getting sent down. So, in April, Roki in tears in the dugout. In October, Roki on the mound to close out an elimination game in a playoff series. Close out the series with Dodger Stadium chanting his name. How awesome is that? What a turnaround. Really cool to see to be honest. The week off is going to play in uh be in play here. A lot of teams struggle with that. History says you’re right, JG Bull. History tells us that the buy isn’t necessarily a good thing. Um, and in this series specifically, the Dodgers are less hurt than anybody by having to play in that first round because the big the big deal is starting pitching, right? And we’re seeing that with the Detroit Tigers. Who do they turn to in in game one? Do they go scubble on short rest or do they go with a a a different pitcher altogether? Same with the Yankees. Do they go with Freed on short rest? Probably not. Or do they go with Heel in game one? Same with the Cubs. Who do the Cubs go with? But the Los Angeles Dodgers, the story becomes, okay, we have Show Otani going in game one or Glass now in game two or back to Snell in game two. It’s less of a factor for the Dodgers and the Phillies are in the situation that historically hasn’t been great for teams, although the Dodgers won the World Series last year with a buy. So, keep an eye on that. It’s it’s just big offensively. Are the batters able to stay ready and stay locked in after a buy? But we saw a lot of teams having, you know, inter squatting and playing against each other. So maybe maybe teams are learning from that and just acting like it’s business as usual and just playing a full-on inter squad and and letting your players stay hot. Tanner Scott didn’t have Phillies two weeks ago. What do you think of that? Maybe he has a secret weapon against their top of the order for sure. I mean, Tanner Scott’s going to need to step up with Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber. He has to step up. Um, Otani will get rocked. That’s doubtful. I doubt he gets rocked. He might not. Might might. Look, who knows? It’s his first playoff start. He might be too amped up. But for me, when Show doesn’t pitch well, it’s not getting rocked. It’s that he can lose the strike zone. I don’t foresee him getting getting rocked by any means. Uh, I do have the Phillies advancing in this series over the Dodgers. And what is, in my opinion, the most exciting DS matchup? Let me know what you guys think. Who do you have advancing? Dodgers or Phillies? Let me see it in the chat. And we’ll move on to the final series. We got Cubbies, we got Brewers, the NL Central rivalry. This series is there’s even another layer here because this series is look two years ago the Brewers who were the cream of the crop in the Central all of a sudden just lost their their manager. Their manager jumped ship to go to the Chicago Cubs. The team that was viewed as the better job, the sexier job. I’m leaving. I’m going to Chicago. The team’s set up better for the future. Well, last year that wasn’t the case. This year that so far isn’t the case. Brewers have the number one seed. So Craig Councel leaves the Brewers to go to the Cubs the better job and that has not been the case. Is this the series that changes that? Is this where the Cubs get over that hump of the Brewers and change the course of the NL Central and become the the team to beat in the NL Central? This series is a lot of fun because these two teams know each other very very well. Let’s talk through it. Let’s talk through these teams strength. The Brewers big strength is their starting pitcher. We know that they are starting Freddy Peralta in game one. Freddy Peralta is one of the best pitchers on the planet. Don’t overlook the year Freddy Peralta had because of what Paul Ske did. Paul Skins is going to win the NLS Sai Young award, but Freddy Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.7 erra and 204 strikeouts on the year. That’s how nasty he was. He’s nasty. This is going to be a huge advantage. Game one is huge advantage Brewers because of the starting pitching matchup with Freddy Peralta to go and the Cubs just going to have to figure it out. Um, but over the course of the regular season, Brewers starting pitching was nasty. They ranked number one in the National League. Um, in all of baseball, they were number two in all of baseball. Erra wise, uh, we’re not going to do the bottom. That’s the Colorado Rockies. Erra wise, the best team erra in all of baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers. a team 3.58 erra. That’s remarkable. A 230 batting average against this Milwaukee Brewers pitching staff is awesome. So that’s their big strength. The Cubs big strength is the the studs in their lineup, right? Kyle Tucker, PCA, Sey Suzuki, Michael Bush has been really good. So those guys need need to step up in my opinion. The Brewers beat the Cubs by dominating starting pitching. You have the best staff in baseball. You have the best starting pitching, the best team pitching in all of baseball over the course of 162 games. Can you keep that going in the playoffs is going to be is going to be huge for me. So, we’ll keep an eye on that. That’s how the Brewers win this series. Silencing that Cubs offense that wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders in the first round. Right. They they started to heat up a little bit, but this Brewers pitching is absolutely capable of shutting down the Cubs offense. The Cubs win this series by Kyle Tucker, PCA, and Sea Suzuki staying hot. Kyle Tucker was hurt for a strong majority of the year. He came back. He wasn’t great. He’s not yet playing the outfield, but you could see it as that wildcard round went on. You could see Kyle Tucker getting more and more comfortable at the plate. Game three of that wild card round. Seiya Suzuki uh or PCA with three knocks in that game. Sea Suzuki with a home run early in the series. He looked good offensively. Sey Suzuki has been good at the plate and been hot. If those guys step up, I think their star power can be too much for the Milwaukee Brewers. U worried about Keller after yesterday. Yeah, Keller was not good in in game three. Um Keller tried to give it up for sure. Cubs bullpen worries me for sure. Uh, this series is is going to be a lot of fun. Back and forth. I think it goes deep. Um, Brewer Brewers win by dominant starting pitching. Cubs win by Kyle Tucker PCA and Sea Suzuki stepping up. The X factor in this series is the Brewers offense. I look I I’ll say this about the Brewers. The Brewers are the number one seed in baseball. The Brewers had the best record in baseball. The Brewers over 162 were undoubtedly the best team in baseball. But I don’t I don’t look at this Brewers team and think necessarily that they are a team built for October. And what I mean by that, when we look at when we look at this playoff picture, teams built for October, you know, I I think all I think many of these teams, what I mean by that is just having some studs in your offense built with dominant starting pitching. And I don’t know if the Brewers offense is built that way. I don’t know if the Brewers offense, if the Brewers front office did enough at the trade deadline to make this Brewers team a massive threat come October. I don’t think this team is built for one for for October. I think they’re built to win over the course of 162 games, but I don’t think they’re built to be a dominant team in October. I could be wrong. The Brewers could throttle the Cubs, right? This could be a series that we look back and say, “Yeah, the Brewers were the number one seed for a reason. They dominated that series.” But I have big concerns about this Brewers team. They added Andrew Vaughn at the trade deadline. He was like unbelievable for the first few weeks with the Brewers, but he’s back down to earth. He’s not this big threat in the middle of the lineup that I think they needed. Obviously, back into the bullpen is very good. Migill is back and seemingly healthy. Abner Urebe was awesome at the back end of the bullpen for them this year. Starting pitching is very good. It’s going to be, this is why it’s my X factor. It’s going to be about can the Milwaukee Brewers score? Can this offense that has shown in the past few playoffs that they’re they struggle offensively, can they be better this year? Can these young guys learn from past playoffs? Jackson Cheurio, can he step up and be better? Christian Yelich needs to be an MVP type of player in the playoffs. Milwaukee, let’s see what the chat has to say about this. Milwaukee had a lucky 14game win streak playing some crappy teams. There’s no lucky 14game win streak. It’s it’s baseball. If you win 14 games in a row, the schedule the schedule is set. You have to play the teams you have to play. If you can win 14 games in a row against anybody, it’s it’s a remarkable stretch. Give every other team, 29 other teams, 14 games against the Colorado Rockies. I bet you no, nobody I bet you nobody wins 14 in a row. It’s a remarkable stretch no matter who you’re playing. Cubs pitching outdooled the Padres’s and they were second in MLB. Look, I I’ll say I’m not doing too much recapping of the other series, but I’ll say this about the the Padres’s. The Padres’s gave up three runs every single game of that series. There’s no excuse to not win. You lost two of three games only giving up three runs. The offense just didn’t show up. Tatis and Machado went two for 22 with seven punch outs. Tatis looked lost at the plate. You needed your guys to step up and they didn’t. It was as simple as that. They pitched really well. The Padres’s pitched really well back into the B the the bullpen as a whole was disgusting, but their offense just didn’t step up. Machado had the one homer, but other than that, the two of them combined. In a team full of studs in the offense, your two biggest studs went two for 22 at the plate. You couldn’t score four runs. You couldn’t score four or more runs more than one time. If you do, you win the series. Cubs pitched. That was going to be the big question is can the Cubs pitch? What does the back end of their bullpen look like? They still have some question marks in the back end of the the bullpen. But Palencia 101 nasty stuff at the back end. He’s awesome. Um he looked awesome. So we’ll see. We’ll see how this series shakes out. I got the Mariners winning it all. Um I actually have the Mariners advancing out of the American League as well. Uh Ben to have a team that can fight for the championship. Does he need at least two good starting pitchers and two home run hitters? Um that the blueprint in my opinion is at least three studs in a starting rotation. So you look at teams that have that, right? The blueprint to winning in October. Three studs in the rotation. The Los Angeles Dodgers, check. Philadelphia Phillies, check. No. No. Blue Jays, I’ll say check. They I mean with they with Bieber the Bieber addition he absolutely can be a stud in the rotation. Gosman and then whatever direction they go from there they they have some good options. Yankees check. Freed Rodon Schlitler disgusting. Mariners check. Tigers no. So from my from this is just my formula have three studs in the rotation and some guys in just some guys in the offense some stars in the offense and all of those teams have it. Dodgers, Phillies, Blue Jays, Yankees, Mariners. Those five teams in my opinion have the blueprint to win it all in October. We’ll see if my blueprint is a load of crap or if it is actually something. You know, we’ve we’ve seen it in the past like the Dodgers didn’t have the right, you know, the stud starters last year. They I mean, they had them, but they weren’t pitching on all cylinders and they relied on their bullpen a lot. If Woo is unable to play in the DS, how much does that hurt Seattle? Um, it’s definitely it’s definitely a negative, but I think they’re good enough to to be okay without him. I think they’re you’re able to turn to Castillo, Gilbert, and then whoever else they want really. I mean I mean the team as a whole. Let’s look at it. Let’s look at the Mariners pitching this year. Uh where’s Seattle? Why am I missing? What? All teams. Oh, they’re up here in the American League. Okay. Regular season Mariners pitching. Brian Woo, the best of the best, right? Uh Luis Castillo, he’s probably going to be your He’s probably starting game one is my guess. Luis Castillo. Logan Gilbert’s going to be another guy that’s a starting pitcher. Are you going to turn to a George Kirby? My guess is yes. My guess is you turned to Kirby instead of a Woo in game three. but like with a quick hook because then you can go to Bryce Miller, you know, like you can turn to a lot of these guys out of the bullpen and then the back end of the bullpen has just been disgusting. Munoz, um, Brash is Munoz had a 173 on the year. Brash had a 247. Bizardo’s disp really good. So, Woo not being available does hurt the Seattle Mariners, but in my opinion, I still think they can advance out of this series without Brian Woo pitching. Um, but that’s it, guys. We’ve gone through all of these series. Um, bunch of good matchups all starting tomorrow. Detroit Tigers against the Seattle Mariners. Let’s take a peek at the schedule as we finish up here so you guys know what games are first, the timing of all of those. Uh, actually, it was right here on the main page. First game at 28 20:8 Eastern time, we’re getting Cubbies at Brewers. At 4:08 Eastern time, we’re getting Yankees at Blue Jays. 6:38. It’s not often the New York Yankees are kicked out of the prime time spot, but that’s how good the Dodgers Phillies series is. They’re taking the prime time spot. We’re getting Dodgers at Phillies 6:38 p.m. Eastern time and the night game Detroit at Seattle 8:38 p.m. Eastern time. And all of these games are tomorrow. We get four on Saturday. The ALDS game twos are on Sunday. The NLDS game twos are on Monday. And then and and we’re off and running from there. Bunch of exciting series about to start. This has been a fun show, guys. Really fun show. Thank you all for for watching. Enjoy these games. Um, make sure you’re all subscribed to the MLB YouTube channel, by the way. Uh, we’re going to be doing these all throughout the playoffs, previewing the series. We’re going to be doing it ahead of the the CS’s, ahead of the World Series, and who knows, maybe some more sprinkled in between there ahead of uh some elimination games or something like that. But these are a lot of fun. I really appreciate you all watching and listening and having fun along with me. Hope you enjoyed these previews. There’s a lot to talk through. Um, a lot to talk through when it comes to these games, but it all starts tomorrow. So again, make sure you’re subscribed here. I’m Ben Verlander. I appreciate you all for watching and enjoying this preview with me and asking a bunch of questions. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you, MLB. Thanks for being here, everyone. Um, thanks for being in the chat asking all these questions. This is awesome. really fun show. Appreciate you all and we’ll do it again soon. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey.
Ben Verlander is hopping on our channel to break down all 4 Division Series as we went into Wild Card Series!
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1 comment
luv Ohtani, I wish I were his daughter or wife, Ohtani the best player ever! Just summing up what he's gonna say.