There's no question about it—the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs are the two most dangerous squads in the 2015 MLB wild-card conversation.
As the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals demonstrated a season ago, wild-card winners can make a lot of noise in October.
Like the Giants, Andrew McCutchen and the Bucs have a knack for getting big hits in big moments. Pittsburgh has also built a bullpen that rivals the dominance of the Royals' relief crew in 2014. Meanwhile, the Cubs have an ace in Jake Arrieta who's plenty capable of doing a Madison Bumgarner impression.
In the process of ranking all the wild-card contenders based on possible postseason impact, there were three key factors:
- The strength of the top of the rotation
- The strength of the bullpen
- The team's ability to get big hits in clutch moments (two outs with runners in scoring position)
As it turns out, the American League team that was ranked the highest also happens to have an airtight bullpen.
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