Astros ace Gerrit Cole hit the nail on the head with this statement over the weekend: "if you don’t understand that the playoffs can be somewhat of a crapshoot sometimes, then you don’t watch enough baseball."
To simplify that even further, anyone can win a game at any time, but it also applies to entire series. There may not be any sport in the U.S. with more parity than baseball. Think that's crazy? LeBron James went to eight straight NBA Finals and Tom Brady has been to eight Super Bowls and eight straight AFC Championship games. Since Brady came into the NFL, 28 MLB teams have been to league championship series, 19 have been to the World Series and 12 different teams have won it.
There is no telling who will win the World Series this year, despite the Astros being heavy favorites, and if any of the 10 teams won, it really wouldn't be all that surprising. So we are going to go through each team and give one reason they could all win the World Series, starting with Tuesday's wild-card contenders.
MLB playoffs 2019: One reason Nationals, Brewers could win the World Series
Nationals: Max Scherzer missed a month's worth of starts
Normally it's not a good thing when a team's ace misses time, but hear us out on this one. Scherzer has not been great in the postseason since coming over to the Nationals. He has been OK, posting a 3.72 ERA in four games (three starts), but he has by no means matched his ridiculous regular-season numbers.
But in our opinion, a big portion of that was because he was overworked during those two years. In 2016 when he posted a 3.75 ERA in two starts, he had thrown 228 1/3 innings on the season. Then in 2017 he eclipsed 200 innings as well and his stuff was clearly not as good in the playoffs.
This year, though, he got nearly a month off after the All-Star break as he was dealing with back and shoulder problems. That saved him about 30 innings. In 2016 and 2017, he was close to his best in his final 30 innings of the year. This year his final 30 innings could come in the postseason.
That may very well lead to better performances in the postseason. And if the Nationals get past the wild-card game Tuesday, they may get the dominant version of Scherzer in the postseason rather than the worn-out one they have had in the past.
GUESS. WHAT. DAY. IT. IS.#Scherzday // #STAYINTHEFIGHT pic.twitter.com/PxxUPMapxt
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) October 1, 2019
Brewers: Craig Counsell
Milwaukee's manager can catch some grief sometimes for how he uses his pitching staff, with openers going one batter into a championship series game or simply going away from starters too soon, but here's the thing: Counsell found ways to win games last season when the Brewers were massively undermanned against the Dodgers and partially undermanned against the Rockies.
We could say the reason the Brewers could win the World Series would be because of their scrappiness and determination, which was part of why Milwaukee was one game away from the World Series last year, but that is really hard to quantify. At the same time, the Brewers had a much better bullpen last season and Christian Yelich was healthy.
This year they don't have the same bullpen and Yelich is out with a broken kneecap. If the Brewers are going to win the World Series it will be because Counsell manages his rear off and finds ways to get the matchups he wants both with his pitching staff and his lineups. If Milwaukee wins it will be because of Counsell and expert maneuvering. But that is a tough proposition without a doubt.