PITTSBURGH, PA – OCTOBER 07: The Chicago Cubs celebrate defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the National League Wild Card game at PNC Park on October 7, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates with a score of 4 to 0. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

The final eight teams in baseball’s Postseason are set. One of the Royals, Blue Jays, Rangers, Astros, Cardinals, Dodgers, Mets and Cubs will be crowned World Series champion in the next four weeks, and baseball could have a very compelling matchup on its hands.

Baseball could also have a matchup that isn’t very friendly for its ratings. The 2014 World Series was a thrilling one on paper and in practice, but it didn’t deliver strong ratings for Fox – the 13.8 million average viewers made it the third-least watched World Series ever, and Games 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were the least watched respective games on record (1996).

There’s a very realistic chance we could get a repeat of 2014’s ratings this season, even though seven of the eight teams remaining in the Postseason haven’t won a World Series for at least 20 years (hi, Cardinals). We decided to rank the 16 possible World Series matchups from Fox’s point of view – which matchups is the network rooting for, and which matchups could have the network cursing under its breath?

16. Cardinals vs Astros. The reigning kings of the NL Central take on a former NL Central team. And it’s not as if this was a “close” division rivalry either – from Houston’s last division title in 2001 to their departure in 2012, the Astros finished above the Cardinals only twice…and once was by just a half game.

15. Dodgers vs Astros. Choosing between this series and Mets-Astros is a coin flip. The Dodgers beat the Astros in the 1981 NLCS.

14. Mets vs Astros. The battle of Mike Hampton, Carlos Beltran, Moises Alou, and Derek Bell? It’s also a rematch of the 1986 NLCS, but I’m sure another series from 1986 is much more memorable.

13. Mets vs Rangers. The only compelling storyline I can think of in a Mets-Rangers series is Cole Hamels vs the Mets once again. But hey, the New York market…

12. Mets vs Royals. Stud young starting pitching vs stud young relief pitching? At the worst, it’ll be a fun matchup involving a New York team.

11. Cardinals vs Rangers. A rematch of the incredible 2011 World Series? Yeah, Fox would be fine with this. Game 7 of that series drew 25.4 million viewers, the most for any World Series game since the Red Sox finished off the Cardinals in Game 4 of 2004. The 2011 series also averaged 16.6 million viewers, the most-viewed series since 2009’s Yankees-Phillies matchup.

10. Mets vs Blue Jays. R.A. Dickey won the Cy Young with the Mets in 2012, and they traded him to the Blue Jays months later. It would be very cool to see Dickey matched up with Noah Syndergaard, one of the prospects Toronto dealt in the swap. And while it’s a very east coast-centric matchup…you’re talking about a pair of big markets.

9. Dodgers vs Royals. LA market, reigning AL champion, David vs Goliath…yeah, Fox could work up a solid marketing campaign for this one.

8. Cubs vs Astros. This is the least appealing of all the Cubs World Series matchups, simply because it’s another former NL Central rivalry like Cardinals-Astros.

7. Dodgers vs Rangers. I don’t know why, but I feel like this would do really well. Texas vs California? LA vs Dallas? Massive payroll vs massive payroll? Josh Hamilton’s current and former team vs a team located in the region where he flopped so badly?

6. Cubs vs Royals. Two young teams with fanbases that are tuning into their teams a lot more this season than next season.

5. Cardinals vs Blue Jays. The St. Louis Cardinals are the team that does everything the right way and the team perfectly representative of America. They won a World Series in 2011 thanks to trading Colby Rasmus to the Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson. The Toronto Blue Jays, quintessentially Canadian, and with a huge payroll to boot. GOOD VS EVIL, BASEBALL STYLE!

4. Cardinals vs Royals. This would actually be a pretty compelling matchup, even if a pair of midwest teams are involved. It’s a rematch of the 1985 World Series (won by the Royals in seven games, thanks in large part to Don Denkinger), and both the St. Louis and Kansas City markets drew massive local ratings this season.

3. Dodgers vs Blue Jays. It’s difficult to choose a truly ideal matchup because of the four American League teams that have made it this far – you have two Texas markets (large, but lacking much in the way of long-term history or monster television ratings), a Canadian market, and a midwest market that dominates the local ratings but is relatively untested on a national scale. But Dodgers-Blue Jays is a pretty compelling battle – call it the battle of the Raul Mondesi/Shawn Green trade.

2. Cubs vs Rangers. These were two teams with great farm systems that took vastly different paths to get where they are today – Texas supplemented their veterans with a prospect or two while trading prospects for stars, and Chicago went all-in on the kids approach to succeed.

1. Cubs vs Blue Jays. The Cubs and Blue Jays are arguably the two most talented teams left in the playoff picture, and arguably have the most compelling storylines. Can Chicago finally win a damn World Series? Is their youth movement going to bring playoff success to the North Side? Did Toronto’s midseason trade deadline binge finally push them over the hump? Will stars like David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, and Jose Bautista finally get rings? This matchup would be a must-see.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

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