We are here!! It is the fall classic, and it should be an amazing matchup. After sweeping the Cardinals the Washington Nationals, coming all the way from the NL Wildcard, are representing the NL in their first-ever world series appearance. On the other side, the team with the best regular-season record in the MLB, the Houston Astros, are representing the AL. Let’s get into it, The 2019 WORLD SERIES.

Washington Nationals (NL 4) vs Houston Astros (AL 1):

The Astros have the Home field advantage because of their amazing regular-season record, so they will have the very important Game 1,2,6,7 home games. In their previous series, they beat the Yankees 4-2, with two of their four wins, caused by walk-off homeruns. After their electric ALCS series, they will now have to face the feisty Washington Nationals. They are coming off an NLCS series sweep, where they DOMINATED the Cardinals. The Nats never trailed in the whole series. The pitching has been amazing, only allowing 6 runs total in the series. In the first two games, Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer had No-Hitters going into the 7th inning. The Astros also pitched well against the powerful Yankees offense. Besides Game 1, with the struggling Zack Greinke, they never allowed more than 4 runs. Gerrit Cole has pitched AMAZING this postseason. In his 3 Postseason starts his stats are; 0.40 ERA, 22.2 innings, 3 wins, 0.79 WHIP, and 32 strikeouts. On the other side, Sanchez, Stephen Strasburg, and Scherzer all have under 2.00 ERA’s. This has been helpful because their bullpen, worst in MLB in the regular season, has only had to pitch a combined 18.5 innings the whole playoffs. They will be challenged against the explosive Astros bats, lead by Jose Altuve. Coming off a series-winning walk-off bomb, Altuve is hitting .349 with a playoff leading 5 homeruns. The Nats have Anthony Rendon, with the best batting average of players in this series. Although he is coming off of a loss, Justin Verlander has lots of WS experience, having pitched in 5 World Series games, in his career. I feel that Zack Greinke will bounce back and pull off a win in this series. I definitely think it will go 7 games, and be a thrilling finish. Although I will be rooting for the Nationals to win, I think the ‘Stros will pull it off. I can definitely see the Natitude being so real, and the Nats wanting it more, bringing a World Series trophy to Washington for the first time ever. The thought of Gerrit Cole pitching in Houston for Game 7, is what gives them the advantage for me, to win their second World Series in 3 years.

Astros over Nationals in 7 (4-3)

Wow, just wow. That was pretty crazy! The MLB Divisional Series is in the books, and we are deep into October baseball. The series brought many surprises, like the top two teams in the NL knocked out early, chokesaw was not a surprise, and the Rays taking the Astros to 5 even if they couldn’t pull it off. We are on to the “semifinals” and so, so close to what we have all been waiting for; THE FALL CLASSIC.

Nationals (4) vs Cardinals (3):

The Nationals pulled off the upset of the playoffs so far, and Natitude is oh so real. The Cardinals are coming in after the upset of the two seed Braves where, in game 5, their offense exploded winning 13-1. Now the booming offense will have to face the vaunting rotation from Washington. So far in the Postseason, Nats aces Max Scherzer and Stephan Strasburg have combined for 30 strikeouts and holding opponents to a .171 batting average in 22 innings. On the other side, Jack Flaherty struggled in his first start giving up 3 and taking the game 2 loss, but turned it around, with the big game 5 win. The Cards decision to pitch him 6 innings in that game even after 10 first-inning runs, could be costly. He will be starting game 3, and the only way they can get 2 starts out of him, will be him throwing in game 7. In those first 6, they will face either Max, Strasburg, or dominant starter, Patrick Corbin, who allowed 1 earned run in 6 innings of his sole start, at least 4 times. The Nationals bullpen has continued to struggle, giving up 14 of the teams 22 runs in the prior series, 6 were from Corbin coming out of the pen. Cardinals closer, Carlos Martinez also struggled, blowing one save and nearly escaping another, finishing with 6 runs in 3 ⅓ innings. The Cardinals have Paul Goldschmidt and Marcell Ozuna red hot, both hitting .429 with 2 homers, but the Nationals have an offense of their own. They are well rounded, with 5 different players with HR’s and powerful core Antony Rendon and Juan Soto. With the rotation of the Nationals, they will be hard to top, giving them an early series advantage. I think the Nats will continue to fight, just as they have all postseason long, and punch their fist trip to the World Series in franchise history.

Result: Nationals over Cardinals 4-2

Yankees (2) vs Astros (1):

In the heavyweight matchup of the playoffs, the Yankees will try to knock off the baseball’s best team in 2019, the Astros. With a rotation that contains Zach Greinke, Justin Verlander, and the one and only Gerrit Cole, they have a major starting advantage. Considering that any of those guys could be number 1 options on almost every other MLB team, and one of them will be pitching in probably 6/7 of their potential games is unreal. Game 1 starter, Zach Greinke struggled in his first start but should bounce back after an unbelievable season. While the Stros were pushed to 5 games by the Rays, the Yankees made quick work of the Twins, in a 3 game sweep. Gleyber Torres has been on fire for New York, with a .417 average, 4 RBI’s, and a homer in 3 games. The starters were good but didn’t have to do too much to beat Minnesota, with most innings pitched by a starter, being 5 by Masahiro Tanaka. They will have a much bigger challenge against Yuli Gurriel, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Yordan Alvarez who are all hitting above .300. I think this will be a hard-fought series, but pitching will prevail with Cole pitching an unbelievable Game 7 at home.

Astros over Yankees 4-3

My picks weren’t the greatest for the last round, but the games were certainly exciting to watch! I’m still thinking Astros to win, but the Nats are very close. Can’t wait for the World Series!!

With “round one” in the books, I am ready to write another prediction article. I went 1-1 in the Wildcard games and hope to improve on that. Are you ready for the best of five National and American League Divisional Series?!?! I sure am, as we will start in Atlanta with the Braves taking on the Nationals:

Cardinals (3) vs Braves (2):

These teams arrived here by winning their divisions, the Braves taking the NL East and the Cardinals stealing their NL Central on the last game of the season, from the now eliminated Brewers. The Braves have homefield advantage in Atlanta, after finishing with the second-best record in the National League. Braves star, Ronald Acuna Jr was injured for Atlanta’s last 4 games of the season with a groin strain, contributing him to miss out on the remarkable 40 HR 40 Steal mark by 3 steals. He is expected to be back for the NLDS as with ailing teammate Freddie Freeman, but Ender Inciarte isn’t. For the Cardinals, young ace Jack Flaherty will not pitch game 1, as they had him pitch game 162 to clinch the division. He is available to pitch twice in the series if it goes all five. He has pitched amazing in the second half of the season, with a 4.1 war, which lead NL Pitchers. The Braves have won 4/6 of their games vs St. Louis this season. Braves late-season acquisition, Dallas Keuchel is pitching game 1, and although he has struggled as of recent, he has playoff experience. Keuchel has been 6-4 in 10 playoff appearances in his career. With a better offense than the Cardinals, 91 more scored runs, and a pretty even pitching matchup, with a difference in 4 starting pitcher wins, for the probable starters, I think the Braves will beat the Cardinals. Their offense will be explosive with Acuna, Donaldson, and Freeman leading the way. Atlanta will close it in 4 with Flaherty only able to start once, and struggling offensive production.

My Result: Braves over Cardinals 3-1

Nationals (4) vs Dodgers (1)

This is the other NLDS series with the Dodgers, who dominated the NL West, and the Nationals, who outlasted the Brewers in the Wildcard game. They were down until the 8th inning, where a 3 run error put them ahead to win. The Dodgers come in red-hot, having won their last 7 games. They have played unbelievably this season, with a plus 273 run differential, which is the third-best of the century. Both teams have amazing starting rotations with the two best “big 3’s” in the NL. The Dodgers do this with Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Walker Buehler, and the Nats with Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, and Patrick Corbin. The rotations finished 1st and 2nd in era in the regular season. Washington has Corbin starting game 1 after the other 2 aces were used in the WC game. He has played great in the first year of his contract pitching for a 3.25 ERA and 14-7 as the team’s 3rd option! With Strasburg pitching 3 innings in the Wildcard, he might not be available for game 2, with the possibility of an Anibal Sanchez start. The Dodgers have major depth as a team, starting with their best player and probable NL MVP Cody Bellinger. He hit for a .305 average, 47 homers, and finished with a 9 war. The team finished 4th in HRs with Joc Peterson and Max Muncy hitting 36 and 35. The Nationals and Anthony Rendón, Juan Soto, and Trea Turner don’t have trouble scoring runs either, finishing 6th in runs scored, just 13 behind the 5th ranked Dodgers. The issue for the Nats lies in the bullpen. Their relief pitching was the worst in the MLB this year, with a 5.66 ERA. If their starters struggle, like Scherzer did in the Wildcard game, they will be out of luck, needing Strasburg to start as well. This will be hard against the explosive Dodgers, and the bullpen of the Nationals and the Dodgers home field advantage is why I have the Dodgers winning the series.

 My Result: Dodgers over Nationals 3-2

Rays (5) vs Astros (1)

After the Rays upset the A’s in Oakland, they will have to travel to Houston to face the 1 seed in all of the MLB, the Houston Astros. The Astros finished with 107 wins to take this honor, and Home Field advantage for as far as they go in the playoffs. As with the Dodgers, they only lost 6 games in all of September. The Rays come off of a win, where they dominated the A’s in front of over 50,000 fans in Oakland. Third Baseman, Yandy Díaz, hit 2 homeruns including one to leadoff the game. The thing is that they won’t be playing the Athletics in this series. The Astros look poised to make a big Postseason run with Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Zack Greinkie in their rotation. All three of those guys could easily be first options on most major league clubs. Greinkie has been lights out since dealt to the Astros, at 8-1 with a 3.02 ERA. With that, Verlander and Cole will probably finish 1st and 2nd in Cy Young Voting for the AL. The Rays will be without ace Charlie Morton for probably the first 2 games after he won the Wildcard game. That will be crucial in the best of 5 series. Even so, in his last game against the Astros, he gave up 6 runs and recorded a loss. With the rotation of the Astros, and a lineup with the likes of Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, and the young Yordan Alvarez, I don’t see the Astros losing a game in this ALDS.

My Result: Astros over Rays 3-0

Twins (3) vs Yankees (2)

The last matchup to be played in the divisional series is the Yankees and Twins in the ALDS. The Yankees won 4/6 of their games against the Twins this year. The Twins surprised many by winning the AL Central with over 100 wins, while the Yankees took the AL East. The Twins have had a ton of power this year, leading the MLB with 307 HRs, 8 players with at least 20, and 5 with at least 30. Veteran Nelson Cruz leads the team with 41, and he has lots of playoff experience with 41 games played. The Yankees finished just 1 HR behind Minnesota second in the MLB, with 306 homeruns. Offseason addition for the Yankees, DJ LeMahieu has played amazing for the team this year. He was signed on to play a bench/platoon role, and evolved into an MVP candidate, with a .327 average which made him finish 4th in the MLB. With many of their injured players back from injury, the Yankees are ready for a long run. Even with the hurt players, they have made it work with what they had this season and won 103 games. Breakout player, Max Kepler of the Twins, has a strain that kept him out for the end of the year but is expected to be back for the series. The Twins could really use his bat vs the Yankees, which hit 36 HRs in the regular season. Minnesota also has Byron Buxton and Sam Dyson out for the season, and Marwin Gonzales questionable. The main advantage for the Yankees is their bullpen that can eat innings. Their combination of Zack Britton, Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino, and to close it up Aroldis Chapman combined for a 1.98 ERA and 314 strikeouts. They have been able to stop just about everyone, this year. If the Twins win this series, they would surprise many, but with a recovered Yankee’s team and the banged-up Twins, I think New York will win this one.

My Result: Yankees over Twins 3-1

And there are my Divisional Series predictions. I still have the Astros winning the World Series, as the roster looks impeccable. I will be back for an AL/NL Championship Series prediction post next. Have fun and go enjoy some baseball.

As the grand month of October nears, playoff baseball is upon us. That means people making predictions posts that all fall apart by the fall classic. I, Mateo Arenas, am not here to do that, so as the playoffs progress I am going to do my predictions round by round. One-game Wild Card matchups are always exciting, and thats where we start this journey, on Tuesday, October 1st.

NL Wildcard Game: Brewers (5) @ Nationals (4):

The Brewers pulled off an amazing run, winning 13 of their last 18 games of the season. The remarkable thing is that those last 18 were played without their star outfielder, and NL MVP candidate, Christian Yelich. As the Brew Crew come in, after being swept by the Rockies who finished 4th in the NL West, the Nationals are coming in red hot. They have won 8 straight, sweeping the Phillies and Indians, who both finished 500 or better on the year. With the game being winner takes all, both are sending out their ace’s to the mound, Brandon Woodruff for the Brewers and Max Scherzer for the Nationals. While the Brewers bullpen is much better, the Nats have the ability to turn to starters, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin who have both had stellar seasons, should they need to. With the Brewers without Yelich and struggling as of recent, and the Nats at home with the 2nd year emerging star Juan Soto, and NL MVP candidate 3rd Baseman Anthony Rendón, I see the Nats going on to the NLDS.

Nationals over Brewers

AL Wildcard Game: Rays (5) @ A’s (4):

The race to get into this game was three-legged for most of the month of September, but the Rays and A’s emerged past the Indians to punch their ticket into playoff baseball. The A’s managed to snag homefield advantage and Ricky Henderson Field at O.Co (Oakland Coliseum for short) is expected to be loud and rowdy. The Rays will pitch All-Star Charlie Morton for the game. He has been one of the AL’s best pitchers this year, and Tampa Bay will hope he continues that here. The A’s are expected to start lefty, Sean Manaea, who has pitched amazing in his 5 starts this season, in which he missed most due to shoulder surgery in the off-season. He finished 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA in those starts. The A’s like the idea of the lefty matchup against the Rays, who have finished considerably better against righties. The Athletics have the ability to throw rookie lefty Jesús Luzardo out there as well, who has had a 1.50 ERA since his September call-up. The emerging factor in this game will be power, which the A’s have much more of, finishing 5th in HR’s in the regular season. That and the major home-field advantage will propel Oakland over the Rays.

A’s over Rays

After these sure to be exciting Wildcard matchups, I will do my NL/ALDS predictions. I will also say here, that my World Series Champion Prediction right now is Astros, and we will see if that holds up as the leaves turn brown.

The Red Sox shocked the baseball world late Sunday night, when the news was announced, of the firing of their President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski. This is especially crazy because this comes less than a year after the Sox won the World Series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Despite keeping much of their championship core intact, the Red Sox have fallen extremely low of 2019 expectations. They are currently 18.5 games out of the AL East, and 8 games back of the Wild Card. With 18 games left in the MLB season, they look to be eliminated from playoff contention. With an important off-season in front of them, Boston felt they wanted to go in a different direction with their decision making from Dombrowski.

They currently have the largest payroll in the Major Leagues at more than 220 Million dollars. With a potential opt-out for star DH, JD Martinez, and preparing to deal with upcoming 2021 Free agencies of top outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr, and 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts they have some hard decisions to make. The Red Sox will likely, not be able to hold on to Betts and Martinez long term, so one could be on the move this winter.

This comes after the Chris Sale extension, of 5 years $160 Million, and Nathan Eovaldi contract, 4 years $67.5 Million, of Dombrowski’s doing. After the extension, Chris Sale attracted inflammation of the elbow, which has sidelined him the rest of 2019. 2019 World Series star, Eovaldi, has struggled this year, getting hurt, and fluctuating between the pen and the starting rotation. He currently has a 5.77 ERA and is 1-0 on the season, not great for a near $100 million man.

Those Dombrowski moves, along with the 2016 $217 Million contracts for David Price, have given the Sox little wiggle room for the future.

The Red Sox have lots of young talent set for the future, including Xander Bogaerts, who was recently extended, Andrew Benintendi, Michael Chavis, and Rafael Devers, and their moves this offseason will determine if they are destined for another title push. This is a crucial time especially in the stacked Division with the powerful Yankees, up and coming Rays, and young Blue Jays, who could be a factor in the foreseeable future.