for the love of baseball
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives"
- Jackie Robinson
Current Opinion Piece
may 2022
Who will win the 2022 world series?
After a short delay, it is finally time for the 2022 Major League Baseball season to begin. As a result, one of the biggest questions on people's minds is who is going to win the 2022 World Series. People have many varying opinions with some of the most popular being the reigning 2021 champion Atlanta Braves or the Los Angeles Dodgers who have seemingly assembled a superteam. I personally believe that it will not be either of those teams that wins the 2022 World Series. The team I think will win it all is the New York Mets. The Mets have been accumulating more and more talent on its roster each year since new owner Steve Cohen took over in 2021. Since his taking over as owner the team has started spending way more money than it had in previous years. Notable additions since he took over as owner have been Fransisco Lindor, Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, Starling Marte, Mark Cahna, James McCann, and Chris Bassitt to name a few. These players have been acquired through a multitude of trades and free agent signings which shows the commitment the Mets have made to winning a World Series. The Mets current roster is loaded both on the position player side and the pitching side. On offense they have a good balance of contact hitters in Starling Marte, Brandon Nimmo, Robinson Cano, Eduardo Escobar and Jeff McNeil to go along with the power bats of Francisco Lindor, James McCann, Mark Cahna, Dom Smith and reigning Homerun Derby champ Pete Alonso. This is a lineup that has the hitting abilities to get on base consistently with the power to drive these guys home. They also have a very solid defense with many plus defenders, especially Francisco Lindor who is a multiple time gold glove award winner and platinum award winner for best fielder in the league. The Mets strength is their starting rotation though, which is always very important come the playoffs. Heading the rotation is one of, if not arguably the best, 1-2 punch the game has ever seen in Jacob DeGrom and Max Scherzer. Jacob DeGrom is the consensus best pitcher in baseball at the moment. He won back to back Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019 and was on track to win one last year before an injury cut his season short. While it was only in 15 starts, DeGrom pitched to an absurd 1.08 ERA last year. Now, Max Scherzer is no slouch either and is considered by many to be the second best pitcher in baseball behind DeGrom. Scherzer is one of the best pitchers of our generation winning three Cy Young Awards and finishing in the top 3 of the voting for the award six times, including last season finishing in third place. Come playoff time there is no team who can match up starting pitching wise with the Mets 1-2 punch. The rest of the rotation is not filled with slouches either as they have 2021 All-Star Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco who is a crafty veteran, Taijuan Walker a former top prospect with a ton of upside and Tylor Megill/David Pederson who are both talented young pitchers. Between a potent offense and a star-studded starting rotation there is not much holding the Mets back from a World Series title. The two things that could prove to be obstacles are the bullpen and injuries. The Mets bullpen can sometimes be an issue as it has a tendency to blow leads late in games but has stars in Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo and Trevor May who hopefully can be enough come playoff time to complement the rotation. When it comes to injuries, the Mets have had some of the worst luck in baseball in recent years with so many key pieces going down for extended periods of time with injuries. The only thing that could hold the Mets back from a World Series title is injuries. If they can stay healthy, I believe this can be their year.