Red Sox fan’s guide for who to root for in AL Wild Card Game

ST PETERSBURG, FL – JULY 24: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits in the second inning during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on July 24, 2018 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Offense

Starting Lineup
Pos	Athletics	wRC+	Pos	Astros	wRC+	Pos	Yankees	wRC+
C	Jonathan Lucroy	71	C	Max Stassi	106	C	Austin Romine	96
1B	Matt Olson	113	1B	Yuli Gurriel	98	1B	Greg Bird	80
2B	Jed Lowrie	129	2B	Jose Altuve	135	2B	Gleyber Torres	125
SS	Marcus Semien	97	SS	Carlos Correa	101	SS	Didi Gregorius	118
3B	Matt Chapman	144	3B	Alex Bregman	165	3B	Miguel Andujar	128
LF	Chad Pinder	108	LF	Marwin Gonzalez	104	LF	Brett Gardner	93
CF	Mark Canha	106	CF	George Springer	117	CF	Aaron Hicks	124
RF	Stephen Piscotty	123	RF	Josh Reddick	92	RF	Andrew McCutchen*	114
DH	Khris Davis	135	DH	Evan Gattis	103	DH	Giancarlo Stanton	124
Bench
LF	Matthew Joyce	88	OF	Jake Marisnick	80	IF	Neil Walker	75
CF	Dustin Fowler	65	C	Tony Kemp	129	C	Gary Sanchez	86
LF	Nick Martini	128	1B	Brian McCann	77	1B	Tyler Austin	100
CF	Ramon Laureano	145	UT	Tyler White	172	IF	Ronald Torreyes	84
C	Josh Phegley	58	LF	J.D. Davis	39	1B	Luke Voit	160
2B	Franklin Barreto	102	C	Martin Maldonado	94	2B	Tyler Wade	42

For a little more context, the Yankees have scored 743 runs with a 109 wRC+, the Athletics have scored 715 runs with a 110 wRC+, and the Astros have scored 724 runs with a 112 wRC+. That’s about as close as any three teams can reasonably get in offensive production so any analysis I could do here would probably just be splitting hairs. There are a few important observations, however.

The first and by far the most important is that the Yankees are currently without Aaron Judge and it is unknown when he will return. With Andrew McCutchen in Judge’s lineup spot, the Yankees probably become the most toothless offense of this grouping.

The second is that the Astros, despite the fact that only two of their hitters have looked legitimately scary, have no real breaks in their entire lineup. Their weakest hitter has been Josh Reddick, but he had a .847 OPS last season.

And the third is that the Athletics have the most offensive weapons. Lucroy is a black hole at the plate, but Stephen Piscotty, Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, and Jed Lowrie are all hitting near an All-Atar level.

If Judge is back in the lineup, I’d definitely be most hesitant to pitch to the Yankees; however, if we are ranking the lineups as they stand I’d probably say the A’s look the strongest, followed closely by the Astros, and then a not insignificant dip to the weakened Yankee offense.

Offensive pecking order: Athletics > Astros > Yankees

Offense

Schedule