World Series Preview

The time has finally arrived. We started this back in late March. 30 MLB teams had a dream of holding the Commissioners trophy over their heads. Now we have two teams left going head to head for the biggest prize in all of baseball. The 117th World Series is finally here.

This time, its the National League Champion Atlanta Braves taking on the American League Champion Houston Astros.

For the Braves this is the tenth time the tam is in the Fall Classic, its first appearance here since 1999. They won the NL East with an 88-73 record. They dispatched the Milwaukee Brewers in four games in the NLDS, and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the NLCS to reach the final round. They will face Houston, who won the AL West with a 95-67 record. They beat the Chicago White Sox in four games in the ALDS and followed that up with a six game series win over the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. Its the 3rd world series appearance for Houston in the last five years and fourth time overall they have played in the fall classic.

What's amazing is that the Braves have done what they've done without Ronald Acuna Jr, who's been out of action since July 10th with a knee injury. Adding Joc Pederson to an already balanced and pretty stacked Braves lineup has done the job of filling the void till their best player comes back and is healthy. Plus, it also doesn't hurt when you have a guy like Freddy Freeman hitting in the middle of your lineup. The real big offensive story for the Braves has been Pederson and Eddie Rosario. Rosario hitting over .400 in this years playoffs and he's driven in 11 runs. But if the Braves want a chance in this series, they need both Charlie Morton and Max Fried to keep pace with what they've been doing both during the regular season and early on in the playoffs. As for Houston, Lance McCullers and Famber Valdez have been lights out all playoffs on the hill. Meanwhile, at the plate, Alvarez, Gurial and Brantley have been hitting the cover off the ball during this stretch run.

This series has all the makings to go the distance and it will. Houston has been getting it done with late inning heroics most of the season and that's going to be a key factor for them in this series. Atlanta started really heating up as a unit at the right time at the end of the year and they kind of haven't stopped. They did after all take out a 100 plus win team this year in the Dodgers.

Pick: Braves in 7!