We’ve got one final series before the Major League Baseball season is over. The World Series begins tonight with the National League Champion Washington Nationals head to Houston to take on the Astros. Several of Redleg Nation’s writers chimed in to give their take on the World Series.
Jim Walker
Strictly as a fan, I hope the Nationals are first to four wins. I know they have a chance because they are in the series; and, I recall 1990 when the Reds were supposedly just there to provide the opposition for the other team. The Nationals starting pitching looks deeper, which could factor in. Also their pitching and entire team may be more rested which could play big at the end of the long road.
Jeff Carr
Prediction – Astros in 6. It feels like the 2019 baseball season has been the year of the Astro and I am not deviating from my initial prediction, but this is not because I think the Nationals are pushovers. They deserve to be in the World Series and the reason should excite Reds fans. They’re rotation is led by a two-headed monster named Scherzer-Strasburg. Yeah, I know, doesn’t really roll off the tongue, but can you really sit here and tell me without a doubt that there are two guys you’d rather have on the mound? Sure, an argument can be made for the two guys the Astros have, but it’s not as if they are head and shoulders above the Nationals pair of aces. If anything, that’s a push. Washington will be competitive but the Astros are just too good and will take the series as the most complete team in all of baseball. This series will be a lot of fun, though.
Sidebar, get excited Redleg Nation. If the front office holds up it mandate to get the hitting (like it got the pitching), our Reds will be dangerous in the next playoffs because of the two-headed monster named Castillo-Gray at the top of their rotation.
Doug Gray
From a starting pitching standpoint, this World Series could be amazing. Max Scherzer, Stephen Stasburg, Patrick Corbin, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Zack Greinke – if that doesn’t get you excited then I’m not sure how you wound up here at Redleg Nation reading about baseball.
The Houston Astros are the best team in baseball. They have been all year. They’ve got elite pitching. The offense is the best in the game. They are just, on paper, better than anyone else. But baseball takes a long time to determine who is actually the best. The Astros were a truly great team. Yet they lost 55 games this season. In football terms – they were an 11-5 team. In the NFL you’d never argue that an 11-5 team were great. But baseball is a different animal.
The Washington Nationals weren’t even the winner of their own division. They went 93-69 and finished in second place – taking the top wild card spot – in the National League East. But that record isn’t indicative of the team at play now. The early part of the season saw the Nationals beat up and banged up. From the start of June they were healthy and they went 69-36 the rest of the season. That’s a .657 winning percentage and a 107-win pace for an entire season if you round up. That’s exactly the number of wins the Astros had.
As you would expect, both teams in the World Series are pretty strong on both sides of the ball. They can both pitch. And they can both hit. If I had to bet money on a winner, I’d bet on the Astros. I just think they are a little bit better overall. But I’ll be rooting for the Nationals for a lot of reasons, but mostly because the Astros are about as slimy as it comes.
Seems like a cheap shot Doug. Not sure I would rely on one article from SI as evidence that Houston is as slimy as they come. I mean SI has never written any hit pieces to drive traffic, right?
I think pretty much all of the teams in baseball have slimy elements, just like most businesses have some of these elements.
I hope the series is well played and the results are determined by the players doing their best. Looking forward to some place where we can turn off the environmental drama for awhile.
This is being covered by all kinds of outlets and is backed up by eyewitness accounts from multiple other writers from different publications. And yes, many organizations have slimy elements to them. This one is one of several the Astros have been involved in in recent memory. They suck.
Pete – it’s reality because people allow it to be by accepting that winning is far more important than being good people and trying to do what’s right. And it will always be that way until people start standing up for what is right in favor of “winning”.
Doug: I missed this news. What did the Astros do?
Rooting for Nats. Scherzer is everything you could ask for in a player. Love the way Martinez is using his best pitchers as often as possible……something Matt Williams and Dusty Baker failed to do with teams that were arguably better.
I’m pulling for Washington. Too many memories of the old Washington Senators; ‘first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.’ Houston is probably a better team but looking forward to some well played baseball.
Family has forced me to become a Nats fan (2nd to the Reds of course). What I see is Houston’s big 3 starters vs. Washington’s big 4 and I will take Sanchez over the Astros bullpen in game 4. Both of these teams can really hit. It should be a 7 game series with Nats taking home the trophy (Corbin over Greinke). Cole wins 2 games but it won’t be enough. Soto or Rendon will be MVP, but watch out for Zimmerman to have a big impact as well.
Zimmerman is on his way to making you a prophet!
but Soto is so good right now…at such a young age… how good can he become???
the playoffs are just getting harder and harder to watch every year. it just seems like these teams are getting better and better while the reds are getting worse. in previous years I could picture the reds playing at the level of the world series teams but realistically, not anymore. I know some how we swept Houston but the Nationals Dominated us.
I will be rooting for the Nats, but i don’t think they have enough fire power.
To me , i don’t think Strasburg will be able to handle the pressure .
The Houston offense is just to much for the Nats.
Houston; has basically 5 all stars on offense. Altuve, Bregman, Correa, Springer ,Alvarez and Gurriel and Brantley aren’t to shabby either.
Washington; has basically 3 all stars on offense. Rendon, Turner, Soto
Because i believe the Nats pitching won’t be as effective as it was in the national league and they don’t have enough fire power on offense .
I have the Astros in 5
These teams are even in so many ways. It will come down to old-school “clutch” hitting, and I think the Astros simply have more of that. HOU in 6.
Nats all the way. CertainAstros players are pretty repulsive, and their FO moral hypocrites; they state one standard, and then don’t live up to it, and then behave Incredulously when called on their behaviour. But hey, that’s 2019 America…
Pulling for the Nats as my kids are tagential fans since there first baseball team (t-ball) was the Nationals.
If you don’t want to pull for the Astros, at least pull for the nats from a positive viewpoint, hate watching only leads to misery. Its lose-lose.
If we only pull for teams and sports that pass some sort of social/behaviour purity test, we likely will not have anyone left to root for. Its a fine line between holding someone accountable for their actions and denying them any redemption. We have to guard against our desire for accountability turning into the hatred we are decrying.
‘are tangential’ that is.
The Nationals have gone from having the nickname ‘the Harpers’ to ‘the Sotos.’
It is a crazy good streak they are riding right now.
Reminds me of the ’90 reds team.