The Yankees and Nationals will play the first game of the 2020 MLB season on Thursday night, with all eyes fixed upon Nationals Stadium in D.C. as the 60-game sprint finally gets underway.
The three-game set scheduled for July 23, 25, and 26 marks the only time the calendar intertwines the two teams this year, but of course, there's always the possibility that they meet four to seven times in October, in a World Series where the Yankees look for No. 28 while the Nats look to become the first repeat MLB champs since the 1998-2000 Yankees three-peat.
Both local editorial producers, Chris Lingebach of thefandc.com and Lou DiPietro of wfan.com, believe their respective teams are indeed headed for the World Series – and both agree that the other has a pretty good shot at it too, so they've both provided three reasons from their perspectives as to why.
PITCHING BUILT FOR OCTOBER…AND AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, TOODIPIETRO: This postseason is going to be wacky, even wackier than the regular season, especially if playoffs expand sometime before first pitch tonight. And, there's a good chance a lot of players won't live up to the backs of their baseball cards, or maybe even have a chance in a COVID-19 plagued season. But look at the Yankees: the fifth man in their bullpen, whether you debate it being Chad Green or Tommy Kahnle, is a higher-leverage option than most bullpens' third or even second hurlers in the pecking order, and with Gerrit Cole having 324 million reasons to prove his worth and two (possibly three) starters heading towards free agency, there's a lot of urgency.
LINGEBACH: Scherzer-Strasburg-Corbin is enough to scare anyone, and Anibal Sanchez was a revelation last fall. The bullpen has two quality back-end arms plus newcomer Will Harris, who led the AL in reliever ERA last year, so they're just as strong 7-8-9 as that front-end 1-2-3. And last year, Dave Martinez proved he wasn't above using Corbin, at least, wherever he was needed in the World Series, so the Nats can certainly match up with anyone in a five or seven-game series.
THE SCHEDULE GODS SMILEDIPIETRO: Well maybe not on Opening Day if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate, but whenever the season starts, the Yankees play 40 games against the AL East, whom they went 54-22 against last year (that's a .710 winning percentage, which extrapolates to roughly 28-12 in 40 games) and their interleague slate is seven games against the Nationals and Phillies right out of the chute, six against a Mets team they just crushed twice, four games against the Braves split into two two-game sets with both having a day off before and after, and three at home against a bad Marlins team to cap off the season.
Fangraphs says the Yankees' .483 strength of schedule is the third-lowest in the league, behind Cleveland and Minnesota, who play each other 10 times. Easy to see 45 wins here, if everything goes to plan, and if the Yankees see the Astros in October? The 'Stros don't have Cole anymore, nor do they have garbage cans and buzzers, so third time may be the charm.
LINGEBACH: The Nats' .500 SOS is seventh in the NL, but the Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, and Reds (two through five) all play in the same division, so that's good, right? But yeah, the Nationals play the same pool of teams, the difference in strength of schedule is more games against a better NL East. Still, they dominated the Phillies last year (14-5), play 10 against the Marlins, and their interleague sixer is against Baltimore, clearly the least imposing team in the AL East. Central location also helps – as will not having to go to Toronto, even if they end up playing in Florida, as the lone away games at the Jays come right before a series in Miami – and three off days in the final 18 will help the team get right for October.
DEPTH IS DEEPEST WHEN IT'S NEEDEDDIPIETRO: The Yankees won 103 games last year with an opener making 19 starts, Aaron Judge missing 60 games, Gary Sanchez missing 56, and both Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar sitting out virtually the whole season. How? Well, if you had Mike Tauchman getting 300 plate appearances and hitting .277, raise your hand (put your hand down now, Mike's family), or raise your hand if you had Cameron Maybin hitting .285 or 14 guys hitting double-digit homers. This club is the ultimate interchangeable machine, in that even the spare parts run hotter than some teams' starters. With Judge, Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Luke Voit all healthy and Sanchez in the lineup, this team's No. 8 hitter is going to be a guy who hit .314 with 21 homers last year. That'll win you some games, and not losing the DH for the 10 road interleague games is only going to make a deep lineup even deeper.
LINGEBACH: Even without Ryan Zimmerman and maybe Juan Soto, the Nats still have a bona fide young stud in the outfield in Victor Robles, a burgeoning star shortstop, a Rookie of the Year candidate possibly at third, and a handful of quality veterans around them to pick up the slack. New York fans know what Starlin Castro and Asdrubal Cabrera can do if they get hot, and Howie Kendrick can literally play anywhere. That may come in handy if Soto is out for a long period, but like the Yankees, the Nationals are deep – how many teams can say their franchise cornerstone was maybe third on their depth chart at his position, or can replace a budding All-Star with a stolen base machine and/or a veteran who hit over .300 last year?
Follow Chris Lingebach and 106.7 The Fan on Twitter: @ChrisLingebach and @1067thefan
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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