The 2019 World Series Preview

Jose Altuve sent the Yankees packing with a walk-off home run that will surely mark collective memory. He allowed the Astros to take the series, and join the Washington Nationals for what will be an electrifying World Series. Both teams boast terrifying starting pitching. Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg will potentially be expected to work overtime for the Nationals, while the Astros will put forward their trio of death: Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke. In the following article, I want to take a quick look at each team’s strengths and weaknesses coming up to the final series of the year. Today, the Astros:

1) The starting pitching:

A. J. Hinch’s team is going to the World Series for the second time in three years and, on paper, the Astros are expected to be the better team, due in part to their pitching rotation:

- Gerrit Cole:

Cole has arguably been the best pitcher in baseball during this season. He also made a strong case for a Cy Young award by setting career-high numbers. During his 212.2 innings pitched, the right-handed pitcher led both leagues in strikeouts-per-nine with 13.82 batters K’d on average. His 0.89 WHIP, 2.50 ERA, and 7.4 WAR also speak volumes about his production for the Astros. However, Cole is in a great position as he is bound to become a free agent after the world series, and his postseason performance has been stellar. His worst start of the postseason came during game 3 of the ALCS and is still, by normal pitching standards, amazing, with 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 5 BB and 7 SO. The Nationals will have to face Cole in game 1.

- Justin Verlander:

Equally terrifying is Justin Verlander. The 36 years old has, over the past years, completely reinvented his approach to pitching, and is posting numbers unseen since his 2012 season. His fastball losing a few ticks, Verlander had to compensate with a deadly slider that he now throws more than 28% of the time.

The slider in question.

2019 also saw him record his 3rd career no-hitter, this time against the Blue Jays, boosting his case for a Cy Young award. His numbers look impressive across the board, as they usually tend to be with Verlander:

21-6 W/L; 223.0 IP; 12.11 K/9; 1.70 BB/9; 1.45 HR/9; .218 BABIP; 2.58 ERA; 3.27 ERA; 0.80 WHIP.

- Zack Greinke:

Zack Greinke joined the Astros in the summer. During the regular season, Greinke had respectable numbers but hasn't been able to produce on a steady basis in October. During game 3 of the ALDS against the Rays, Greinke allowed 6 runs to score, while striking out 5 and walking 1 in 3.2 innings pitched. The right-hander will start game 3 against the National, and A. J. Hinch will have to hope for Greinke to shake his bad starts off.

2) The lineup:

The Astros batting has been as lethal as their pitching and they have the numbers to show for it. They lead the MLB in OBP (.352), SLG (.495), OPS (.848), and OPS+ (119). Alex Bregman has been absolutely dominant, he is 2nd to Cody Bellinger in WAR (8.4), third in OBP to Yelich and Trout (.423) and leads both leagues with 150 runs created during the 2019 season. The rest of their lineup has also excelled in high-leverage situations. As I mentioned earlier, 5’6” Jose Altuve who was once considered too short to play baseball hit the walk-off home run that destroyed hundreds of thousands’ Yankee fans’ dreams. On the same caliber are Carlos Correa and George Springer who both went deep for 3 RBI home runs each a few days prior (still against those poor Yankees). When healthy, there is almost no holes in that lineup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77jKOQVIH3Y

And If that’s not enough to scare you, let’s just say that the 2019 Astros are 5th in wRC+ in MLB history.