What are the Keys to Success for Every Remaining Playoff Team?

Cal Raleigh hitting for the Seattle Mariners, CCed by Liscense 2.0

The best time in the baseball calendar is here with playoff baseball. With all the divisions

and wild card teams locked and ready for the playoffs, it is the best time to refresh how they got here and why these standout pieces of the team will help their odds in chasing the world series

title. With lights out pitching, great lineups, and excellent hitting, along with how wide open the

playoff picture is. This is the most expensive playoffs in a long time. So here are the 4 teams left

gunning for the crown this year.

American League:

Toronto Blue Jays:

This year's AL 1st Seed and AL East winner are the Blue Jays. After making trades and

signings like Jeff Hoffman and Andres Gimenez, they made it back to the top of the AL East for

the first time in ten years. This year, their hitting core has been elite. You have the notable names

like George Springer finding resurgence in his age-35 season after moving off center field to be

the team's DH. Posting 35 homers and 84 RBIs, which are highs for his Blue Jays career. Along

with him, Bo Bichette had a sneaky good season on a contract year, posting 44 doubles and

having a .840 OPS. And their pitching staff, while shaky, still has a great deal of arms that can

give you 6 or 7 strong on a good day. Kevin Gausman leads this rotation with a 3.59 ERA and

189 strikeouts on the year. Their key to success is that their hitters in the lineup need to set the table for their starts to not worry as much in their starts. They can not get cold this postseason as they roar of the crowd and the elite power and contact that this lineup gives them an edge that will make it one of the harder teams to get through this postseason.

Seattle Mariners:

The Seattle Mariners are one of the favorites by the many odds makers. Led by MVP

candidate Cal Raleigh and a resurging Julio Rodriguez, this team has shown up and shown out

during the second half of the season. While Cal Raleigh and his 60 home runs are something that

helped the Mariners win the AL West this year after overcoming both the Rangers and Astros,

this rotation is something that needs to be highlighted the most for this team. Bryan Woo, Luis

Castillo, and Logan Gilbert is a nasty three headed monster that will give the Mariners an edge

over their opponents in the ALCS. Woo leads this team in his best year for his young career with

a 2.94 and 198 strikeouts. With Castillo and Gilbert having 173 Ks and 162 Ks respectively, and

their 4 and 5 starters George Kirby and Bryce Miller had bad years can still give you a solid 5

innings in any playoff series. Once the starters do their work, they have an underrated bullpen

that can hold the line for the team, headlined by all-star closer Andres Munoz with a sub 1 ERA

with 38 saves to his name. Along with other notables like Gabe Speier, and Eduard Bazardo, this

helps them be as strong as they can heading into their next match up in the Championship Series.

National League:

Los Angeles Dodgers:

The defending World Series champions have seen both improvement and regression when

it comes to this season. While ending the month of September strong with bounce backs from

Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, they did see another MVP caliber season from Shohei

Ohtani and a solid campaign from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who looks like a dark horse for the Cy

Young this year, posting a 2.49 ERA across 173.2 innings. The main key for them repeating

as champions is that they need their starters to go deep into games. As many Dodger fans have had frustrations with their bullpen as of late, they need as many innings from all their starters as possible so that they can not only avoid turning to the bullpen as often, but to also allow their great hitting core to the opportunity to add much needed insurance runs if something goes wrong during must-win starts, like any Ohtani, Yamamoto, or Snell start. If they can limit the times that they need to use Tanner Scott or Blake Treinen, then they will be practical locks for the World Series, especially if Roki Sasaki can continue his lights-out form coming out of the bullpen.

Milwaukee Brewers:

The #1 seed in the NL always has that title for a reason. In a year where they traded their

all star closer Devin Williams, this team was expected to fall off hard. However, they saw career

years from both young and veteran players. We saw a great year from Freddy Peralta, who had 17

wins on the year while posting a 2.70 ERA. Quinn Priester had a revival season coming via

trade by the Red Sox, as he posted a 13 win season with a 3.30 ERA. You also can't forget Jacob Misiorowski, who has cooled off but shows that he can be one of the most formidable pitchers in the future. On the hitting side of this team, Jackson Chourio stands out as this team's breakout star, posting a 20 HR/20 SB season and posting 112 OPS+. They also saw a return of Christian Yelich, who drove in 103 RBIs and had 29 home runs to boot as well. Not to mention great seasons from Brice Turang and Sal Frelick, who have taken massive jumps in their third year of being regular starters for the Brewers. The key to success for this team is the whole team. On paper this is one of the most complete teams this postseason as they really have no net negatives. If there was one flaw to this team it would be the thin bullpen. While it is not as bad as say the Dodgers' arms, there have been moments where the bullpen can get shaky when trying to close the game. Trevor Megill has been a great closer this year, but outside of him there isn't really much that sparks confidence when we get to reliable 7th and 8th inning guys. However, even with that glaring flaw, they should pose a serious threat when they are on the field, as their mixture of speed, defense and pitching will make them hard to put away this postseason.

These playoffs are the most wide open it has been in sometime. Aside from the Dodgers

who pose as a legit threat for the repeat, these playoffs could see a team make the world series

for the first time in a decade minimum, along with a team who has never made the world

series in the history of their franchise. So it's amazing to see the playoffs be as wide open as

they've been since there is no clear lock to make the World Series.