National League Wildcard Previews

The Milwaukee Brewers finished the season being National League central division champions. Many people had the Brewers missing the postseason before the season started. While a division title is a bit of a surprise, if you look at their statistics, it makes a lot of sense. On the offensive side, they ranked 8th in batting average (.248), 4th in on base percentage (.326), and 6th in runs scored with 777. Those rankings are no fluke, as they are near the top of the MLB in most offensive statistics.

The pitching of the Brewers is just as good as the offense is. Ranking 5th in ERA, 4th in shutouts with 14, and 2nd in saves. The overall team defense does help out their pitchers to the tune of only conceding 641 runs throughout the whole season. The pitching staff is lead by Freddy Peralta and Colin Rea. The starting pitchers are good with their ace, Peralta, being an elite pitcher in the MLB. They will be able to go toe to toe with any teams best pitchers and match them pitch for pitch.

New York has had quite the finish to the season. With them playing a double header on a day that no one was supposed to play, and end up clinching a playoff spot. Similar to the Brewers, the Mets were not expected to make the playoffs this season. You could say that they fell backwards into a playoff spot because they went 5-5 in the last ten and fortunately the Diamondbacks did the same. Arizona wins one more game and the Mets do not make the post season.

Now that they are in though, lets look at why they got there. The batting lineup is fairly top heavy. With guys like Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor being the stars, but after them it starts to dip fairly quickly. The players down the lineup are quality players just not stars. Sometimes that is what you need to go deep in the postseason though. They are deep, but will need players to step up to beat a very consistent Brewers team.

The pitching staff of the Mets is quite serviceable, but far from the star studded lineup that other National League teams have. They will need to improve on the season statistics for pitching as they were middle of the pack for most stats in the MLB. With that being said, the series will be determined on whose pitching will come through for them. With such a short series it will be vital for success.

My Prediction: Brewers in 3

The San Diego Padres are a team that could have easily been the division winner. They had a late season series with the Dodgers that had they swept, LA could be the team playing in this series instead. San Diego is full of star players from the hitting lineup to the bullpen. Statistically the Padres are a top offensive team in the MLB. While the team does struggle a little when it comes to defense and giving up runs when they really need to tighten it up. The team will look to bring that explosive offense with the deep pitching staff, into the postseason and make some noise.

San Diego has a top ten offense in the MLB. Ranking 1st in batting average, 6th in on base percentage, and 8th in runs. While the team has star players like Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, Jurickson Profar, and Fernando Tatis Jr., they will look to utilize the depth in the batting lineup to stretch out the opposing teams pitchers. The best thing the Padres can do is keep up the offensive numbers to support the pitching staff.

The pitching of the Padres is their strongest point with their top pitchers being Michael King and Dylan Casse. King has been reeking havoc on the NL West with his pitching ability. He went 13-5 with an ERA of 2.95, 201 strikeouts, and giving up 71 runs in 31 appearances. The next best pitcher is Dylan Casse. His stats rival Kings, while appearing in two more games this season. While they may be the cream of the crop for the Padres, it is their depth at this position that really sets them above the rest of the league. Just looking at the ERA for their pitchers make you wonder how they even can have that many quality players.

Atlanta is no slouch when it comes to pitching. If there was team in the NL that could throw out the same quality pitchers to match the Padres, the Braves may be the closest to their talent. Starting with Chris Sale. He had an unreal season that unfortunately may be forgotten rather fast as he currently has been ruled out for the series against the Padres. The next men up would be Max Fried and Reynaldo Lopez. They need those two to step and fill the shoes of Sale as that might be the only two guys to start on the mound for the Braves if they can’t. A darkhorse to see some time on the hill is rookie Grant Holmes. He pitched four innings and threw for 7 strikeouts and only conceded one hit in the game against the Mets yesterday. Obviously in a short series, quality pitching can be the difference between being on the right side or wrong side of a sweep.

The offense of Atlanta may be what sinks them in this series against a strong Padres team. They can homer like the best of them, but the getting on base and hitting in general has been average for the Braves this season. The leader in the clubhouse for home runs is Marcell Ozuna with 39, but the next closest player is Matt Olson who has 29 home runs. While home runs are not everything, the team as a whole ranks 15th with their batting average in the MLB, at .243. Atlanta will need to fire up the offense a little more often if they are wanting to make it out of the wild card round.

This series should be interesting for multiple reasons. The Padres with their stars against a team that is just pretty decent at everything they do. Atlanta won’t knock your socks off with their play, but they seem to be more of a sleeping bear that you just do not want to poke. All things considered though, the Padres should be the team to prevail in this series, especially if Chris Sale does not pitch.

My Prediction: Padres in 3

Area 51 will be along for the crazy roller coaster ride that is the MLB postseason, so make sure to follow along with us. Also check out the American League Wild Card preview here.