Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know around baseball, brought to you by David Adler. Today, we want you to make your World Series predictions.
Here we go. The World Series starts in just a few hours. Who you got?
It's Rays vs. Brewers for all the marbles. The No. 1 team in the American League vs. the No. 1 team in the National League, and one of them is going to be a first-time World Series champion.
Our experts have already weighed in with their predictions. (They like the Brew Crew.) Now we want to know your pick.
Before you vote -- the poll's down below -- here's some stuff to consider:
Who has the edge at each position? Some of the battles are clear-cut -- the Brewers win at second base with Brice Turang, the Rays win at third with Junior Caminero. But what about Jonathan Aranda vs. Jake Bauers at first? Yandy DÃaz vs. Christian Yelich at DH? The starting rotations? Here's our full position-by-position analysis.
The series could hinge on this strength vs. strength matchup. The Brewers are the hardest team to defend in baseball. When they're not hitting clutch home runs, they're spraying balls to all fields. But the Rays are the smartest defensive team in baseball. Their positioning is superb. So is their range. And they're the best at turning even hard-hit balls into outs. Mike Petriello breaks it down here.
We're going to see fire vs. fire. Speaking of strength vs. strength … how about Jacob Misiorowski vs. Junior Caminero? We get a true marquee matchup in Game 1. It's not just a Cy Young contender vs. an MVP contender -- it's baseball's fastest bat vs. baseball's fastest arm.
There's one X-factor you might not be thinking about. It's … the roofs! This World Series has the chance to be the first all-indoor Fall Classic in history. The Rays play in a dome, Tropicana Field, and the Brewers' American Family Field has a retractable roof. (The roof is closed for Game 1.) Those roofs have already impacted playoff games for both teams. The Brewers' roof took away a potential go-ahead ninth-inning home run from the Padres' Ty France in the NLDS, and The Trop's catwalks caused some chaos against the Yankees in the ALDS.
OK, that's enough. Time to make your prediction.
