Phillies Should Want Arizona Diamondbacks in Wild Card Round

The Philadelphia Phillies should want to face the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card Round as they get ready for playoff baseball.

The Philadelphia Phillies have taken control of the National League Wild Card standings, sitting four games above the second place Arizona Diamondbacks and five above the third place Chicago Cubs.

They close out the season facing the sub .500 New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates, almost ensuring that they'll make the playoffs in back to back seasons.

So with that in mind, the Phillies can start looking ahead to potential matchups they'll get in the NL Wild Card 'Round during the postseason.

The team they should want to play is the Diamondbacks.

Despite there being some young talent on that roster, Philadelphia matches up extremely well with them.

For one, Arizona doesn't score a lot of runs.

They're averaging roughly 4.64 runs per game, which is much lower than the Cubs' 5.10 runs per game.

The Phillies' biggest issue right now is their pitching staff.

The bullpen has given up late leads down the final stretch of the year and the starting rotation still doesn't look as dominant at the top end as last year.

Facing the Diamondbacks, who don't have that high of an octane offense, should limit the damage that can be done against this unit.

On the flip side, besides NL Cy Young contender Zac Gallen, there aren't high end starters on Arizona's staff.

Philadelphia has been crushing the ball lately as their lineup has found their groove at the right time of the season.

The Diamondbacks' bullpen is also 18th in the MLB with an ERA of 4.32.

That's the second worst out of any potential team who could slide into the second Wild Card position.

While facing Chicago or the Miami Marlins would also have its benefits, those teams also present a much bigger challenge.

The Cubs can score with anybody. Having that lineup face the questionable bullpen right now is a scary thought, especially in a best-of-three series.

The Marlins aren't a great team, but the familiarity between the two clubs being in the same division and top level starters that Miami could throw is also daunting.

If the playoffs started today, the Phillies would face Arizona.

They should hope the standings stay the same once the regular season ends.