BoSox Injection
Fansided

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

By Cole Witaszek

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 01: Gleyber Torres #25 of the New York Yankees celebrates his solo home run in the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on August 1, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 01: Gleyber Torres #25 of the New York Yankees celebrates his solo home run in the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on August 1, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
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)
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

Home/Red Sox News