The World Series is finally upon us. How quick the year has gone, we are down to 2 teams. The New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals who are returning as last season’s runner up. The Mets strolled on through the NLDS with a 4-0 series sweep of the Cubs. While the Royals continued to show their fight and defeated the peoples team the Toronto Blue jays in 6. It’s been a few days since a pitch has been thrown so let’s get straight to it.
2015 World Series Preview
Starts Wednesday 27th AEST 11.05am
New York Mets vs Kansas City Royals
Mets ($1.92)
Royals ($1.92)
Both teams have really hit their strides in the last few games and both look likely to win on any given day. However, over the course of the series each teams strengths and weakness will be on show. Let’s take a look at them and see if we can pick the winner.
Starting Pitching
This one category I feel the Mets really over power the Royals. Kansas tried to fix this issue with the mid season acquisition of Johnny Cueto. However his form in a Royals uniform has been poor, one good post season showing aside. New York will be starting Game 1 with Matt Harvey, then following up with deGrom, Syndergaard and Matz. Wow. Those 4 have a combine average ERA of 2.69 over the regular season. Plus lets not forget fitting Syndergaard into a home start where he went 7-2 with a 2.46 ERA. The Mets are flamethrowers and they have been hitting their spots incredibly well over the last few weeks. deGrom has been lights out this post season, does it stop here ?
Kansas will be throwing up the erratic combo of Ventura, Volquez (who would walk a bag of cement) and Cueto. Possibly also one of the suspect arms of Chris Young or Kris Medlen. Kansas have a had serious starting pitching issues in 2015 ,they rank 24th in quality starts yet 10th in ERA. Which ironically shows us exactly where their strength is. However only one way to lean here.
Advantage
Mets
Bullpen
If the starting pitching is the Royals Achilles heel this is their safety net. The combination of Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera is filthy. Imagine it with Greg Holland. Goodnight. If Kansas have the lead after 7 it tends to be game over. Losing only once all season when leading after 8 innings. Throw Ryan Madson and Franklin Morales in for mid game relief. Its solid.
The Mets are no slouches with Jeurys Familia being the designated closer, he has been amazing all season. The one issue being their mid to late relief. Veteran Bartolo Colon, and John Niese have filled in nicely in the post season plus the crafty yet struggling Tyler Clippard is there abouts. However you can’t compare it to the Royals main strength.
Advantage
Royals
Hitting
The fun stuff. The Mets have been on a tear since the August additions to the squad. Ranking 4th in OPS post all star break and averaging well over 4 runs per game since the addition of Cespedes. Post season lest not forget the freakish performance of Daniel Murphy.
Kansas know how to get on base and know how to score those runners. They have shown tremendous speed running the basese, one area the Mets are actually rather weak in. Good situational hitting has won them key games. Most notably game 4 of the ALDS against the Astros. How they won that is an example of playing small ball. Base runners and converting them is key. They used this to great effect in the 2014 world series also.
Advantage
Royals
Overall
There seems to be a good story behind this Mets team and they really dismantled the 4th best team in the league in the Cubs over 4 games. Starting pitching will win them 2 games at worst in this series and their ability to hit home runs (post All Star Break) keeps them as a threat at all times. The one weakness being base running though. Fielding has been great all year with Wright, Duda and Flores doing the work so far this post season. Cespedes, Murphy and Duda provide power. The arms are red hot, deGrom is a the one pitcher in the whole MLB I would want if I was a GM, and Harvey and Syndergaard have been solid all year.
Kansas had been quiet in the last few weeks of the regular season and they had look liked they kept that running till that inning against the Astros in the ALDS. They get great fielding from Cain, Hosmer, Escboar and Moustakas. Throw in the versatile Ben Zoborist and it’s possibly the best fielding team in the MLB. Morales and Perez can hit the long ball plus they get great speed on base with Cain and the sub Jarrod Dyson. I think their one weakness though in starting pitching may be the weakness that once again lead them to being runners up. The Bullpen will get the job done if they get the chance and I feel that alone wins them at least 1 game this series.
You get the felling the Mets starting pitching can get this done, however I feel the key really is Game 1. If Harvey wins game 1 for the Mets I’ll put my head on the chopping bloke and suggest the Royals can’t come back. However even if the Mets lose game 1 they have deGrom up 2nd then head home. I don’t think we will see a sweep as the Royals at some stage will get the job done with solid hitting and bullpen help. 5 days rest for the Mets after their NLCS win could have an impact as it has on teams in the past. However it also has helped them plan out the rotation as they want. Kansas have the experience in the situation but I can’t look past their weak (in comparison) starting pitching. If this goes deep the Royals will have to face Harvey and deGrom twice. Venutra, Volquez and Cueto are much more likely to implode.
Prediction
Mets in 6
Suggested Bet – Mets to win World Series $1.92
Value Bet – Mets -1.5 Games series result $2.65
Series Bet – Mets 4-2 $6
World Series MVP
Mets to win
Unless they pitch twice I can’t see a pitcher winning this so have to go with the bats
Curtis Granderson $21 (value)
Daniel Murpy $11
Yoannes Cespedes $13
Royals to win
If Royals win it will be on the back of Johnny Cueto so you have to respect that.
Johnny Cueto $15
Lorenzo Cain $19
Official TheProfits Plays
Mets to win World Series $1.92 (3u)
WS MVP Cespedes $13 (0.2u)
WS MVP Graderson $21 (0.2u)
WS MVP Cueto $15 (0.2u) Saver
All prices quoted via Crownbet at time of writing.
For records. Best Bet 2 Units, Next Best 1 Unit, Multi 0.5 Units (unless stated otherwise)
Hope you all have a good week with your MLB betting. Hopefully your thoughts on the games match up with mine. As always these are only a select few games I was interested in, feel free to share your opinions on any games at @MLB_TheProfits on Twitter. Happy Punting.
