This year’s matchup between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies is proof that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to building a World Series contender.is a copycat sport. Every five years or so, a team comes around and experiences so much success that everyone tries to emulate it. The mentality is: If it worked for them, maybe it will work for us.
There are lessons to learn every year and this one will be no different but opposing front offices will have to pick one approach or the other, because this is a World Series where there is no overlap. The paths these two clubs took to get here were nothing alike. Two years ago, the Phillies had the option of rebuilding after having been shut out of the post-season since 2013. Instead, they hired Dave Dombrowski to become their president of baseball operations. Teams don’t add someone like Dombrowski, a veteran executive with two World Series on his resumé, to be patient. They hire him to try to win a championship right away.
The Phillies’ improbable ride made for a cute story, but it wasn’t supposed to lead to much of anything in the playoffs. First it was the National League Central-winning Cardinals who were supposed to easily dispose of them. Then the NL East-winning Braves. Even in a matchup of supposed underdogs in the NL Championship Series, the Padres were considered superior.
Dusty Baker’s squad, which has yet to lose a game this post-season, could steamroll the Phillies just like it did the Mariners and Yankees teams that came before. But unlike the overmatched Bronx Bombers, who limped into the ALCS after barely surviving the Guardians, Philadelphia is better equipped to put up a fight.