I pose to you a two-part hypothetical situation. 1) What if today was the first day of the All-Star Break. 2) What if the season ended today. If both of those statements are true, this is what the first ALDS matchup would look like. The second matchup would be dependent on the winner of one of the similarly hypothetical Wild Card rounds.
The ALDS is the closest matchup, not just because both the Yankees and the Angels had identical records going into the All-Star Break, but also because the overall levels of talent seem to stack up similarly. At the top of the Angels offense is a duo that could be the best 1-2 punch in all of baseball: Mike Trout and Albert Pujols. These two have averaged 15.5 points per game between them, and I'd wager that championships have been built on the backs of less talent. But Anaheim has a very top-heavy lineup: outside of the two stars, the lineup is averaging just 7.7 PPG. The Yankees have another All-Star caliber 1-2 punch in tablesetter Brett Gardner and switch-hitting slugger Mark Teixeira (they're averaging 14.6 PPG between them), but the rest of the lineup is much more capable, with an average of 9.8 PPG. I must confess that I don't know how these match up to league average yet, but it's clear which team has the advantage.
A lot of New York's magic though, is predicated on two things: whether Alex Rodriguez's nearly heartwarming comeback story is for real, and whether Japanese pitching ace Masahiro Tanaka has actually somehow found a way to beat Tommy John surgery. But then again, Los Angeles AL (i.e. Orange County) has a similar question in whether or not lefty Hector Santiago's breakout first half is going to last. Another similarity between these two teams is that they both have one of the most dependable ninth inning stoppers in the league. I'm predicting that the Yankees' reliance on an aging roster pays off and they win a long, grindy matchup against the upstart Angels.
The NLDS also features a classic East/West battle with the Dodgers in line to host the Nationals. We talked about how the Angels have a top-heavy lineup, but they don't hold a candle to what the injury-riddled Nats are throwing out there. Let's put it this way: Bryce Harper is perhaps the best offensive player in the game right now, but even factoring in his 18.9 points per game, Washington's entire startling lineup has an average of just 8.7 PPG. This is nearly 1.5 full points lower than their competitors in this round - Los Angeles's one true team is averaging 10.1 PPG, with the points much more evenly distributed between the top five batters in the lineup. It's a different story if/when guys like Denard Span, Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth, and Ryan Zimmerman come back from the DL, but as it stands, this offensive matchup is pretty one-sided.
Washington's pitching rotation is incredibly top-heavy too, with Max Scherzer leading the way among all pitchers in the game. The problem is that NL All-Star Game starter Zack Greinke nearly matches up with him in terms of fantasy points (100.0 PPG for Scherzer vs. 92.7 for Greinke), and then the Dodgers get to trot out Clayton Kershaw for game 2! Again, this would be a different story if Stephen Strasburg were healthy, but again, as of now, the pitching matchup looks pretty one-sided as well. But it's also true that anything could happen in the playoffs, so sound off in the comments about who you think would win these serieseses!
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