Ranking all 25 of the potential World Series matchups for 2015
MLB postseason field is set, with 10 teams now vying to advance to the World Series. That’s 25 potential matchups that could be coming our way in the end of October.
TheGeography could give us a cool finale — like the St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Kansas City Royals. A clash of stars could make a righteous World Series — like Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke vs. Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista.
[Related: The MLB postseason field is set! Here’s the schedule for the opening rounds.]
Excited? We are. So much so that our panel of Big League Stew bloggers ranked every possible World Series matchup. We put the results together, gave you a quip about each potential series (some more serious than others) and now you’re left to debate which series you’d like to see most. Here’s our list:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays: It’s the best offense in baseball vs. a team with two Cy Young candidates, what’s not to like there?
2. St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals: Not only is it the Battle for Missouri, but it’s the team with the best record in the AL and best record in the NL.
3. Chicago Cubs vs. Blue Jays: So many homers would be hit and we like dinger parties.
4. New York Mets vs. Blue Jays: Finally, we could figure out who “won” the R.A. Dickey trade.
5. Cubs vs. New York Yankees: Two storied franchises that have combined for 27 World Series wins since 1909. Not to mention all the pizza fights it would inspire.
6. Mets vs. Yankees: Subway Series 2K15. The 2000 World Series was cool and all, but now we have Twitter, so this would be even better.
7. Cardinals vs. Blue Jays: The best pitching staff in baseball (according to team ERA) and the best offense in baseball (according to, ya know, runs). Sign us up.
8. Cubs vs. Royals: We’ll take Joe Maddon vs. Ned Yost, just for the thinkpieces it would inspire.
9. Cubs vs. Astros: We’d call this the “We’re not supposed to be here yet” World Series between two teams who arrived early.
10. Dodgers vs. Royals: Two teams with postseason ghosts to exterminate. Bring your proton packs.
11. Dodgers vs. Yankees: L.A. vs. N.Y. is always fun, plus this would be the most expensive World Series ever, with over $500 million in salaries between them.
Hack World Series, we love it. Everybody put a password on your computer.
12. Cardinals vs. Astros: The13. Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers: After the seven-game 2011 World Series between these two, the revenge storyline is ripe for the Rangers.
14. Mets vs. Royals: Yoenis Cespedes and Johnny Cueto battle to see who’s going to be more rich this offseason.
15. Cubs vs. Rangers: Kris Bryant vs. Joey Gallo in a seven-game home-run derby. Who says no?
16. Cardinals vs. Yankees: Two of baseball’s most vocal and loyal fanbases would mean a much-talked-about World Series.
[Elsewhere: CC Sabathia enters alcohol rehab, will miss Yankees’ postseason.]
17. Dodgers vs. Astros: The highest payroll in the postseason vs. the lowest. How’s that for a storyline?
18. Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Blue Jays: Andrew McCutchen vs. Josh Donaldson?!? Frankly we’re not sure how this ended up so low.
19. Pirates vs. Yankees: aka The Revenge of A.J. Burnett.
20. Dodgers vs. Rangers: aka The Revenge of Adrian Beltre.
21. Pirates vs. Royals: aka The Revenge of Edinson Volquez.
22. Pirates vs. Astros: Dallas Keuchel’s beard vs. Pedro Alvarez’s beard would be an important matchup.
23. Mets vs. Astros: Fun fact: Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon is older than Astros manager A.J. Hinch.
24. Mets vs. Rangers: Loser has to eat all the cotton-candy hot dogs in Arlington.
25. Pirates vs. Rangers: We’d be excited to see Gerrit Cole vs. Cole Hamels for all the Cole talk. Especially if Cole from “Martin” threw out the first pitch.
VOTER BREAKDOWN
Now you’re probably wondering who voted for which series, so you can figure out where to send your hate e-mails or scathing Twitter retorts. Here’s the voter-by-voter breakdown from The Stew’s Chris Cwik, Israel Fehr, Mike Oz, Kyle Ringo and Mark Townsend:
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz