2019 World Series

2019 has been a great year for baseball, with MLB’s new campaign, “Let the Kids Play.” This has led to many exciting plays throughout the MLB’s postseason.

In the current stage of the postseason, four teams are left to compete for the world champion. From the National League, the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals will play in the National League Championship Series (NLCS). From the American League, the New York Yankees and Houston Astros will compete in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The two winners of these series will compete for the title of world champion in the World Series.

Out of these four teams, the Houston Astros had the best regular-season record, 107-55. The Yankees followed with a close 103-59.

According to ESPEN analyst Tim Kurkjian, “The Astros are my pick to go the World Series from the American League side. The National League side is a lot more tough, though, as both teams had relatively close regular-season records.”

These two teams did have very similar records indeed, where the National had a 93-69 record and the Cardinals had a 91-61 record.

Kurkjian continued, “If I had to choose a team, I have to go with the Nats. The simple reason is that they had a better regular-season record. Kurkjian’s prediction is not only supported by the 2019 regular-season records of the two competing teams but also by past postseason teams.

The Washington Nationals finished second in their division, which meant that they had to play in the Wild-Card game to compete in the actual postseason. Based on the last twelve seasons, fifteen out of the twenty-four Wild-Card teams made it to the NLCS, which is more than fifty percent.

Based on these reasons, Kurkjian’s World Series matchup prediction of Nationals against Astros certainly seems realistic.

Junior Taeyoung Heo, who is a big baseball fan who often goes to watch live baseball games, gave his own predictions on the MLB Postseason. He said, “I think the Yankees actually have a better chance than the Astros to advance because they have better hitting.” In the 2019 seasons, the Yankees team combined did hit more home runs than the Astros team combined.

When questioned about pitching, Taeyoung said, “I think that the Astros actually have better pitching than the Yankees, but the difference is marginal. The Yankees should be able to easily overcome the gap with their hitting.”

With different predictions coming from people around the baseball community, the MLB World Series starts on Wednesday, October 23.