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SF-NYM: A position-by-position Wild Card look
- Updated: October 4, 2016
The Mets and Giants have combined to represent the National League in the World Series in four of the last six seasons, so that alone makes Wednesday’s NL Wild Card game (8 p.m. ET/ESPN) fascinating.
Of course, it’s been an odd season for both teams. San Francisco had the best record in baseball in the first half, then had the fourth-fewest wins in baseball in the second half. Meanwhile, the Mets managed a late surge to the playoffs despite being crushed by injuries; Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, David Wright, Wilmer Flores, and Neil Walker are all out for the year, to say nothing of those playing at less than 100 percent like Juan Lagares and Lucas Duda.
Date Time Matchup TV Oct. 5 8 p.m. ET SF @ NYM ESPN Shop for postseason gear: Giants | Mets • Complete Postseason coverage
Above all, Madison Bumgarner against Noah Syndergaard may just be the best Wild Card pitching matchup we’ve seen. Let’s go position-by-position to see who has the edge.
CatcherBuster Posey (115 Weighted Runs Created Plus, where 100 is league average) was the fifth-best hitting catcher of the 24 with at least 300 plate appearances, and is still regarded as a truly elite pitch framer (+25 runs, second-best in baseball), but he also had his weakest full season and went two entire months without a home run. Neither Rene Rivera (70 wRC+) nor Travis d’Arnaud (74 WRC+) hit even a little, however, so this is still lopsided in San Francisco’s favor.Big advantage: Giants
First Base If it seems like Brandon Belt never gets enough respect, that’s probably true, because he stayed healthy and put up a star-level season (138 wRC+) that was actually about the same as what Paul Goldschmidt (134 wRC+) delivered. The Mets find themselves in the odd position of having the partially healthy lefty Duda sharing time with the slick-fielding lefty James Loney, neither one of whom can touch lefty pitching. Still, Terry Collins (probably) isn’t going to pencil Eric Campbell into the lineup. Big advantage: Giants
Second Base With Walker and Flores out, career Minor Leaguer T.J. Rivera has taken over at second base, and he’s been stunningly successful, hitting .333/.345/.476 (119 wRC+), although in just 113 plate appearances. Joe Panik, who dealt with concussion issues this year, took a big step back, hitting .239/.315/.379 (90 wRC+) after his big 136 wRC+ 2015. Panik is the better player with the longer track record, though the Mets can hold out hope for the hot hand here.Advantage: Giants
Shortstop Though he’s getting somewhat lost in the sea of new young shortstops, Brandon Crawford is an elite fielder with a strong arm …
