Ranking MLB's division series matchups

Major League Baseball's divisional series begin on Saturday afternoon with the eight remaining teams still standing after the wild-card round. Let's take a quick stroll around the four matchups and rank them based on potential excitement, quality of play and storylines.

1. Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies. At the top of the list we have a rematch of last year's National League Division Series that the Phillies won in four games on their way to a World Series berth. 

This series honestly has everything you could want in a postseason matchup, from star power to a divisional rivalry to incredibly raucous crowds. They are also two outstanding teams that are sure to put on one heck of a series. 

The Braves enter the playoffs boasting multiple MVP contenders, including Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson, while the Phillies lineup is led by Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. 

Five of the top-10 home run hitters in baseball this season will be taking part in this series, with Schwarber joining Atlanta's Olson, Acuna Jr., Marcell Ozuna and Austin Riley. No team hit more home runs than Atlanta's 307 during the regular season. In fact, the gap between Atlanta and the No. 2 home run team was as large (58 home runs) as the gap between the No. 2 (Los Angeles Dodgers) and the No. 15 home run-hitting team (Chicago Cubs).

2. Texas Rangers vs. Baltimore Orioles. This just seems like it has the potential to be a really fun series without a clear-cut favorite. Baltimore is one of the league's best young, up-and-coming teams and is swimming in young talent with catcher Adley Rutschman and infielder Gunnar Henderson leading the way. 

Texas comes in with a powerful lineup that just got done dismantling the Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff in a wild-card series sweep and will pose a huge challenge to a rapidly improving Orioles pitching staff. 

The Orioles have not had a playoff game at Camden Yards since 2014 and will be ready to erupt when the series opens on Saturday.

This series also features two different styles in team-building. The Orioles spent years assembling talent through the draft and their farm system, subjecting their fans to a methodical rebuild. The Rangers, meanwhile, spent huge money on veterans like Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Nathan Eovaldi. 

The results in both cases have been outstanding teams that have a legitimate shot at reaching the World Series. 

3. Minnesota Twins vs. Houston Astros. The Astros are no strangers to this time of year, having reached the ALDS (and advancing to the ALCS) in each of the past six seasons. They are the standard for which all other MLB teams are measured by right now and look poised for another deep playoff run.

The Twins, on the other hand, finally snapped an almost unimaginable postseason losing streak by sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays to get here. 

This series has a great subplot with Twins shortstop Carlos Correa going up against the team that drafted him No. 1 overall.

While Houston might have some of the bigger names on its roster, especially its pitching staff after the addition of Justin Verlander, the Twins actually come in with the superior staff from the regular season. They had nearly identical ERAs, but Twins pitchers led the major leagues in strikeouts, walked 100 fewer batters than the Astros and surrendered fewer home runs. 

4. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks. This is not necessarily a bad matchup, but it does seem to be the most mismatched on paper. The Dodgers finished 16 games ahead of Arizona during the regular season, had a run differential that was 222 runs better and won eight of the 13 regular-season meetings between the two teams, including each of the past five. 

The Dodgers are the established World Series contenders with outfielder Mookie Betts and first baseman Freddie Freeman leading the way, while the Diamondbacks are the upstart team led by the rising superstar in outfielder Corbin Carroll.