2019 World Series Predictions

Written by: The Sportsballers

Published: October 21, 2019

The Washington Nationals and Houston Astros will play for the World Series. While both teams have earned their way here, their paths were quite different. This will be a battle of one beleaguered franchise trying to get all the way home and another franchise attempting to build a modern-day baseball dynasty.

The Nationals have been contenders for nearly a decade now. They were the beneficiaries of two generational talents falling into their laps at the top of the draft in back-to-back years. It would be unfair, however, to say that they were lucky to accumulate such talent. The Nats successfully developed all-stars in Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman, Jordan Zimmermann, Juan Soto, and other great players over the last ten years. This, along with some shrewd free agent signings, has helped them build a perennial World Series favorite.

Unfortunately for the Nationals, they struggled in the postseason and could never get over the hump. Their window appeared to be closing when Bryce Harper skipped town and, after a 19-31 start, it looked like that window had slammed shut. With Rendon and Strasburg potentially leaving in the offseason, the Curly W’s were running out of airspeed and altitude.

Things turned on a dime in late May. The Nationals surged to a 39-12 stretch and immediately jumped into the postseason picture. After finishing the year strongly, the Nats were able to work some magic in the wildcard game and again in the NLDS. By the time they got to the Championship Series, the Nats were a buzz saw, cutting through the Cardinals in a sweep and finally delivering on their potential to win the National League Pennant.

The Astros’ story isn’t as cool. They’re just really $&@#ing good, so let’s dive into how they got here. Astroball began to take form in the early 2010s. Houston decided to go into a full rebuild by trading all valuable assets and accumulating prospects. The results were predictably catastrophic for the on-field product. The Astros produced historically bad teams, but acquired high draft picks as a result.

With their many assets in tow and the best talent evaluators in the business, the Astros built an absolute machine. Young prospects like José Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Dallas Keuchel, and Alex Bregman blossomed into rookies of the year, Cy Young winners, and MVPs. The Astros augmented their roster with outstanding veterans like Justin Verlander to seal the deal, and were able to capture their first World Series title in 2017.

Houston continued to build their roster to maximize their wide-open window as contenders, trading for Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke while also acquiring Michael Brantley as a veteran bat. As a result, the Astros rolled through the American League with 107 wins despite a litany of injuries to some of their best players. Now they’re fully healthy and enter this series as significant favorites.

So, without further ado, here are your Sportsballers’ predictions for the 2019 Fall Classic.

Houston Astros vs Washington Nationals

Game 1: Tuesday, October 22 at 8:08pm in Houston

Eric

I did plenty of waxing poetic in the intro, so I’ll keep this blurb more succinct. The Astros are better than the Nationals at literally everything. Yes, the Nats have incredible starting pitching. The Astros’ starters were better this year.Zack Greinke and Justin Verlander are just as Cooperstown-bound as Max Scherzer, and Gerrit Cole hasn’t lost a game since May.

While Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg can shut down any team at any time, they can’t pitch every night, and eventually that Nationals bullpen is going to have to show itself. Houston’s dominant offense isn’t going to miss many opportunities to feast on mediocrity, and I expect the series to turn when one of Washington’s starters gets hooked earlier than expected.

My pick: Astros in 6

Evan

The Houston Astros will win the World Series in six games over the Washington Nationals for their second championship in three years.

The Astros are a complete team, winning 107 games in the regular season. They bring an incredibly strong top three starting pitchers into this series in Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, and Zack Greinke matched up against the Nationals’ equally strong trio of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and (presumably, as the Nationals starter for Game 3 is TBD at the time of this writing) Patrick Corbin.

The Nationals come into this series with a 6-game winning streak, including a 4-game NLCS sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals (the Cardinals didn’t show up AT ALL in the NLCS). In the NLCS, just like in the NLDS, the Nationals were able to hide their terrible bullpen for the most part, but it is still a glaring weakness that the Astros should be able to take advantage of.

My pick: Astros in 6

Cory

I can watch any football game. I would watch a Dolphins/Bengals game if it didn’t fall during RedZone hours. Baseball is a different animal for me. I love my Yankees, but when they’re not playing my interest wanes.

I have no rooting interest in this World Series, at least not for the sake of the teams playing. I’m not going to root for the Astros just because “at least the Yankees would have lost to the eventual world championships.” And I’m also not the guy who is going to hop on the bandwagon of my hometown Nats the moment they finally break through and appear in a fall classic.

That said, I do hope the Nationals win for the sole reason that Dan Snyder would have to watch yet another D.C. sports team win a title. I think they have a chance to do it. Scherzer and Strasburg are incredible pitchers and their bats have been their postseason. But the Astros have been here before, they have home field, and their starting pitching isn’t that far off of the Nats, if at all. Houston’s bullpen is undoubtedly better.

P.S. I don’t trust an organization that has allowed “Baby Shark” to become their team’s postseason anthem.

My pick: Astros in 6