Morning all, I hope everybody is having a good Friday so far!
Recently I read an article by David Schoenfield of ESPN about World Series Matchups he’d like to see, which can be read here.
He includes ones he doesn’t want to see as well, including ones like the Giants versus anybody (which I wholeheartedly agree with.)
There was one missing though and I’m surprised it didn’t make either list: The Cardinals versus the Houston Astros.
I could easily see why people wouldn’t want to see it: the whole hacker scandal thing would be brought back up and shoved in everybody’s faces and people would talk more about that and Jeff Luhnow’s relationship with the Cardinals than they would about the teams on the field. In fact I bet MLB secretly wishes this series doesn’t happen, so the hacker thing doesn’t get dragged back out into the open.
But what about why this would be a good series to watch?
Both teams have good pitching. The Astros have a solid rotation led by Dallas Keuchel as well as a deep and underrated bullpen. The Cards have a menagerie of good starters and a deep bullpen themselves, so there’s plenty of chances for some good pitching duels.
As for offense, while neither team is an offensive powerhouse, they both have functional offenses. Houston has plenty of power and have many hitters that can change the game with a swing of the bat. They just don’t really have the batting average to go with it, though Jose Altuve hits for a good average and they have others with the potential to do so as well.
St. Louis hits for a better average, but has less power overall, though Matt Carpenter is headed for a career high in homers (more than 20) and Randal Grichuk can bring the boom, as can Mark Reynolds and Jhonny Peralta as can Matt Adams and Matt Holliday when they return.
How about youth? Well, Houston is loaded with youth, from Carlos Correa and Lance McCullers this year, as well as second year players like George Springer.
The Cards have rookie Randal Grichuk and second year stud Kolten Wong among others. Plus guys like Carlos Martinez, wow still pretty young.
So, good pitching, solid offenses, and plenty of youth. Sounds like a good matchup to me.
What do you think Mr. Schoenfield?
As always, thanks for reading.
