MLB 2022 World Series Predictions
Jarrett Borkowski
It has been a rough few years for Major League Baseball. A pandemic shortened 2020 season, a 2021 season that suffered outbreaks and echoes of 2020, and a squished 2022 season as a result of the owners locking out the players with the Collective Bargaining Agreement coming to the end of last year. It's been a wild ride, but we seem to finally be returning to normalcy in the MLB. What has remained the same each year though, is October baseball. The Playoffs. This year is the first of a new expanded playoff format with a third wildcard team being added. With the craziness that this month of baseball has given us so far, the time has finally come for the pinnacle of America’s pastime. On Friday, October 28th, the Philadelphia Phillies will face off against the Houston Astros in the 2022 MLB World Series. This series is set to have it all. Redemption, relief, destiny.
The Phillies, in all cases, shouldn’t be here. With two weeks to go in the season, Philly was doing everything in their power to lose a playoff spot. They secured it with three games left in the regular season after the Brewers somehow dropped the ball and couldn’t capitalize on the Phillies’ misfortunes. The Phillies do have some star power, most notably 2021 NL MVP, Bryce Harper. This is a big series for him. For years, he has been put under the microscope and compared to former fellow top prospect, Mike Trout. For over a decade, it has been a nonstop discussion on how Trout’s individual stats eclipse Harper’s. Let’s not get it wrong here, Harper is a Hall of Fame caliber player, but he had so much pressure on him that during the period between 2016 and 2020 when he ONLY played at an All-Star level, many people went after him as overrated and overpaid. But now, he can finally one-up Trout. With all the greatness that Trout has provided, he has only one career postseason hit. The incompetence of the Angels’ front office has, to the dismay of baseball fans everywhere, kept the greatest player of our generation out of October baseball since 2014. Harper has already put on a postseason to remember, with his huge go-ahead home run in game 5 against the Padres sending the Phillies to the World Series and making him a true postseason legend. If he can close the books on this improbable run that Philadelphia wrote, he will finally break through and be recognized as the player he was meant to be when he was first introduced to the world by Sports Illustrated as, “Baseball’s Chosen One.”
The rest of the Phillies’ roster is filled with players that have put on stellar performances so far this postseason. Zack Wheeler, who was voted on as the second-best pitcher in the National League last year, has put together a dominant playoff run that has seen him be practically unhittable. A player falling into a similar boat as Wheeler is Aaron Nola. Nola is also a former NL Cy Young finalist from back in 2018 when he finished third. While he did have a rough outing in the NLCS against the Padres, he has been great the rest of the playoffs and was on a roll heading into them as he was fantastic in the last month of the regular season. The offense is full of power bats that have come up big, namely Kyle Schwarber, JT Realmuto, and Phillies’ legend, Rhys Hoskins. Schwarber is no stranger to the World Series, having gone 10-20 practically with no legs back in 2016 when he was with that year's champions, the Chicago Cubs. JT and Hoskins are both in their first postseasons. Since the Phillies have not made the playoffs since 2011, the 29-year-old Hoskins has never experienced the playoff atmosphere. As for Realmuto, he played for another franchise that saw little success before coming to Philadelphia, the Miami Marlins who last saw the playoffs in 2020, after Realmuto left, and 2003 before that.
The Astros are no strangers to the World Series at this point. They come into this postseason with a chip on their shoulder. The 2017 World Series has been covered in controversy ever since a 2019 report came out and exposed the Astros for stealing signs electronically. This meant that they knew which pitch was coming, a huge advantage. It is alright if the pitcher accidentally tips them or a runner is able to see them and relays it to a batter, but the Astros used illegal cameras set up in centerfield to relay perfectly timed messages to batters for every single pitch. This year, the Astros look to push it behind them. The main reason that the Astros are here is that they have the best pitching staff in all of baseball this year and it isn’t close. Somehow, 39-year-old Justin Verlander is the American League Cy Young favorite. It constantly shocks me by how dominant he has been since joining Houston. The offense isn’t no slouch either, even though it took a step back from years past. Rookie Jeremy Pena has filled the shoes of former Astros Superstar, Carlos Correa, and gotten himself his own pair at this point. Yordan Alverez is probably the second-best offensive player in this series behind Harper. Let’s not forget about Jose Altuve, who has had more than his fair share of postseason heroics (even if he had a little help).
A big story following the Astros is Dusty Baker. Dusty Baker is the 73-year-old manager for the Houston Astros and the 9th winningest manager in baseball history. Even with over 2000 games won under his belt, Dusty has yet to win a World Series as the skipper for a team. These two distinctions combine to make him the winningest manager to not win a World Series, and it isn’t really close. The next winningest manager to never win the last game of the season was Gene Mauch, who last coached in 1987 and passed away in 2005. Even then, he had won nearly 200 fewer games than Dusty has. The biggest reason this is such a travesty is that Dusty Baker has consistently been recognized as not only one of the best managers, but one of the best people in baseball. His heartwarming attitude and caring nature has brought smiles to players and fans alike for two and a half decades. With him being 73, it's not known how much time he has left as a manager. In fact, he nearly retired from managerial duties back in 2017 after parting with the Washington Nationals organization. If the Astros win the World Series, Dusty Baker will finally have his ring as a manager and cement his place in Cooperstown.
With all these in mind, it's hard to tell who wins this World Series. On paper, the Astros are by far the better team. However, for all of the playoffs, the Phillies have been seen as the lesser team, yet here they are. When it comes down to it, the winner of this series is either going to be the one of logic, or the one of narrative. Do the Astros blow Philly out of the water, or do the Fightin’ Phils live up to their nickname? Personally, I like the idea of a good story more. I see Philly hoisting the World Series trophy in Houston as they win the 2022 Fall Classic in 7 games.
