MLB Playoffs: What Did We Learn From the World Series?

Now that the World Series is in the books, and the Cubs have broken the longest drought in sports, we can now start to digest what we’ve learned over these past seven games.

It happened! For the first time in 108 years, the Chicago Cubs are the champions of baseball. In what was perhaps one of the most anticipated baseball games of all time, everything came together much of the way that baseball fans wanted. Terry Francona and Joe Maddon were forced to make tough choices, star players produced when it mattered, the curse seemingly came back after Rajai Davis went yard and we got extra innings to make Cubs fans unable to sit still when watching the game. The only thing that stunted the excitement was a short rain delay late in the night.

Looking back at the World Series, there were aspects that played out the way many thought, but there were also the usual surprises that happen in a seven game series. After the Cubs were heavily favored to win the World Series up through the MLB Playoffs, Cleveland shook up the Chicago faithful when they jumped out to a commanding 3-1 lead after four games, with their two most recent victories coming at Wrigley Field.

However, the World Series changed quickly after a couple of solid performances in games five and six. The Cubs used solid starts from Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta to stabilize their World Series hopes, which led to Kyle Hendricks surprisingly out-dueling a former Cy Young winner in Corey Kluber, who had stunted a talented Cubs offense twice before in the series.

So what did these seven games tell us about both the Cubs and the Indians? Well a lot. So let’s dive into some of the biggest lessons we learned from watching the Fall Classic.