More than two decades have passed since the New York Yankees won consecutive World Series titles between 1998 and 2000, so one might take the position that Major League Baseball is due to snap its drought of back-to-back champions sooner rather than later.

With the way Atlanta is playing right now, "destined" might even be the better D-word.

The defending World Series champs started slow with a 23-27 record through the first two months of the 2022 season. Then came a 14-game win streak to kick off June, and the good times basically haven't stopped, as they've won 62 of their last 86 games.

Though all this winning has yet to put Atlanta ahead of the New York Mets in the National League East, a six-game win streak resulted in the former finally securing a share of first place for the first time all season on Tuesday. Even if the division crown doesn't eventually land on Atlanta's head, the NL's top wild-card spot is there for the taking.

Accordingly, the chances of Brian Snitker's club making it two championships in a row are way up. FanGraphs put those chances at 6.3 percent on May 31. They're now 14.2 percent.

We could just wait to see how things play out in real life, but…come on, you know that's not how things work around here. It's time for a game of "Buy or Sell?" on Atlanta's prospects for a repeat, wherein nothing could possib-lie go wrong.

The Case for Buy

This section could simply read, "What part of MLB's best record since June 1 don't you understand?" But if we're really going to break it down, the home runs are the place to start.

The 142 long balls that Atlanta has hit since June 1 are by far the most of any NL team, besting the St. Louis Cardinals by 17. It's a performance reminiscent of the '21 squad, which finished only two home runs behind the San Francisco Giants for the top spot in the Senior Circuit.

As playoff omens go, this is about as good as it gets.