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But I’m worried that Cleveland will struggle to get leads against the Cubs’ rotation, neutralizing the impact of reliever Andrew Miller and the rest of the Indians' powerhouse bullpen.

At this point, I probably should cut my losses, especially with righthanders Trevor Bauer and Danny Salazar possibly returning for the World Series. Godwinks and hallelujah: Cubs reward faithful fans with long-awaited pennantĬhampion: Genius that I am, I picked the Indians to lose both the Division Series and ALCS. He plays with a joy even the casual fan will notice. 301 this year with 15 home runs and 19 steals and is the best defender of the bunch. Sometimes he gets lost among fellow 20-something star shortstops like the Astros' Carlos Correa, the Dodgers' Corey Seager and even the Cubs' Addison Russell, but Lindor hit. He'll see plenty of righties in this series, as Ryan Merritt and Andrew Miller are the only two southpaws on Cleveland's staff.īreakout star: Francisco Lindor. 970 OPS against righthanded pitching this year, the seventh-best mark in baseball. Not only did Rizzo break out over the last three games of the NLCS by going 7-for-14 with two home runs and five RBIs, but he also posted a. Chicago also has the deeper lineup and better defense.

But the Cubs get a significant edge overall in starting pitching over the Indians, and these games will be decided early rather than late.

Tom VerducciĬhampion: Chicago's starting pitchers will have a hard time defending the running game of Cleveland, the best base-running team in baseball. The Series starts on Tuesday in Cleveland and will move to Chicago for Game 3 on Thursday. Nitkowski) are here to offer their predictions on what to expect: which team will win, how long the Series will last, who will be the MVP and which player will be the breakout star. Either the Cubs (108 years since their last title, in 1908) or the Indians (68 years since their most recent title, in '48) will be celebrating a long-awaited championship, and the baseball experts at SI.com (Tom Verducci, Ben Reiter, Jay Jaffe and Albert Chen) and Fox Sports (Ken Rosenthal and C.J. After three weeks, eight series and 29 games, the MLB postseason has been whittled down to two teams, and they just happen to be the ones with the longest World Series championship droughts in the game.