MLB Championship Series Takeaways

Photo by Matt Slocum from the Associated Press

The World Series is set, and it’s the same song different verse compared to the last two full seasons.

Let’s go over the championship series, and what we can expect for the fall classic.

Houston defeats New York 4-0

I don’t like the Astros.

I feel like a hefty majority of baseball fans don’t like the Astros.

But a hefty majority of baseball fans need to at least admit one thing.

This team is stacked.

There really isn’t a hole.

The rotation is amazing. The bullpen is phenomenal. There isn’t a single easy out in the lineup.

Hell, Jose Altuve has had a horrendous postseason at the dish, and the Astros are 7-0 so far this postseason.

And they have confidence.

Lance McCullers said to Jeff Passan that the Astros felt the only team that could beat them was the Mariners.

They feel on top of the world, and they should.

Philadelphia defeats San Diego 4-1

I said before the postseason started that the Phillies needed to improve defensively or else they will be in big trouble.

So, now that the Phillies are heading to the World Series, they’ve clearly fixed that, right?

Nope!

Their defense all postseason has made countless mistakes.

They should be dead in the water right now, but they’re not.

And that’s because the bats woke up.

And they woke up in a huge way.

Most important of all was the play of Rhys Hoskins, who was in quite a slump that ended with two huge homers in game four and a big homer in game 5.

Hey, if you can’t fix your problems, a good way of avoiding them is by playing so well that it’s impossible to notice them.

World Series Prediction

Look, this one should be easy.

The Astros are playing unreal baseball, and the Phillies are hot but they’re still making so many mistakes that the Astros will just kill them for. The Astros are just better.

But the Astros were better in 2019. They were better in 2021.

They lost both series, due to running into a red hot NL East teams that can’t be stopped.

Sounds an awful lot like the situation this year.

Maybe this is stupid.

Maybe I’m reading too much into the past World Series.

But it’s turning into a situation where I’ll believe it when I see it.

Phillies win the World Series.