The Major League Baseball postseason is something that's supposed to build to a crescendo, with the most memorable note being sounded in the seventh game of the World Series.

The National League Wild Card Game is anything but a warm-up or an appetizer. It is a full-fledged marquee matchup between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets, featuring two of the best pitchers in the league: Madison Bumgarner vs. Noah Syndergaard.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello loves to fly fish whenever work doesn’t get in the way. This year, he may reel in the American League Cy Young Award or baseball's ultimate catch—a World Series ring.

Cubs win?

Seriously?

Yeah, seriously. The Chicago Cubs will win...at least one game...which would be better than what they did the last time they entered the postseason with the best record in the National League. That would be in 2008, when they made history by having all four infielders commit errors in the same game.

This year's 103-win Cubs will do better than that, I promise. But will they win it all?

This season, the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles couldn't have played each other closer.

In 19 games, Toronto won 10 and Baltimore nine.

Each team protected its home-field advantage. The Orioles went 5-4 at Camden Yards, while the Blue Jays were 6-4 at Rogers Centre. MLB couldn't have hand-picked two better teams to pit against one another in the American League Wild Card Game.

The next stop on the 2016 Bleacher Report MLB 300 will be brief. It's time to look at the top designated hitters in the league.

Only 15 teams get to use the DH, and relatively few of them have a full-timer at the position. We're only going to look at the top five DHs for 2016. Due to their lack of defensive value, their scores add up to only 80 possible points:

Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss has resigned, the team announced Monday.

Weiss, 52, just completed the final year of a three-year contract. 

The Rockies have gone 283-365 in Weiss' four years as manager, failing to reach the postseason during his tenure. The team went 75-87 this past season.

For all their successes in recent seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals enter their National League Division Series matchup as relative strangers. They have not met in the postseason despite combining for seven division championships in the past five seasons.

The Dodgers' two NLDS battles against NL East champions came during the two campaigns (2013 and 2015) where Washington was sitting at home.

After a brilliant 11-game winning streak in September allowed them to move into first place and clinch the American League East title, the Boston Red Sox (93-69) played indifferent baseball in the final week of the season and lost five of their final six games.

That allowed the American League Central champion Cleveland Indians (94-67) to take advantage and finish with a better season-long record than the Red Sox and earn home-field advantage in their American League Division Series.

For the second time in his career, Rick Renteria will try his hand at managing in Chicago.

After an exciting September that featured tightly contested postseason races in both leagues, the 2016 MLB playoffs are finally upon us with the field already set despite the regular season ending on Monday.