Battle of the Titans: A World Series Preview

We’ve made it to the final two teams of Major League Baseball’s 2024 season. This year the baseball gods have bless us with a top tier international city we know as, New York. Countering will be Hollywood, the hub of North American culture, Los Angeles.

NYC and LA have had their far share of battles throughout history. To some, the rivalry is no bigger than the East Coast – West Coast rap beef witnessed throughout the 90’s. Maybe you’re a basketball nut and nothing could top the Knicks – Lakers matchups of the late 60’s through the mid 70’s.

But now we are modernizing a rivalry that was heated between those two examples. The Yankees and the Dodgers met each other for the first time in a World Series in 1963. Only five years after the Dodgers moved to LA from Brooklyn of all places. And they took everyone by surprise, sweeping the two-time defending Yankees in four games.

They met three more times from 1977 to 1981. Where the Yankees took the first two then the Dodgers tied the head-to-head. This will be the first time the two franchises have met in the World Series since the 1981 edition. And we could call it the rubber match in their all-time best of five series.

Baseball is still the same game, nine batters in a lineup, nine players on defence and 27 outs a side. The bases still measure 90 feet, and the rubber is still 60 feet 6 inches to home plate. In 2009 the Yankees moved across the street to a new building but its still called Yankee Stadium. And the Dodgers still call Dodger Stadium home all the way back to 1962.

A lot is the same… but maybe even more has changed.

In 1981 the Yankees ranked first in payroll and the Dodgers followed at fifteenth. The Yankees payed 7.8 million to field their team for the year, where the Dodgers payed 4.5 million.

Come 2024 the Yankees have fallen to second at 260 million, but the Dodgers have found their way up to fifth at 172 million.

The introduction of advanced stats has changed the world, especially the world of sport. None more affected than baseball, players are looked at more like robots than humans as far as on the field production. Extremely expensive robots at that.

Now that we understand the brief history as well as where they stand today. Let’s preview the matchup. Stats courtesy of StatMuse.

Rotation

Without diving into it to much we are going to evaluate each respective teams front three as teams trim down their rotations come playoff time.

The Yankees have primarily used Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt. Cole has posted a 3.31 ERA in 3 starts over 16.1 IP. Rodón has been knocked around a bit more with a 4.40 ERA in 3 starts over 14.1 IP. Rounding them out Schmidt has tossed a sub 4, 3.86 ERA in 2 starts over 9.1 IP.

The Dodgers will counter with Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler. Flaherty comes in with a 7.04 ERA in 3 starts over 15.1 IP. Yamamoto to this point has a 5.11 ERA in 3 starts over 12.1 IP. And Buehler has a 6 flat ERA in 2 starts over 9.0 IP.

Before the season even started the Dodgers lost the luxury of having Shohei Ohtani on the bump and on August 16^th they also lost the services of Tyler Glasnow. Both of these arms would have made the rotation for the Dodgers look vastly different.

Same can be said for the Yankees who would have loved to see Nestor Cortes take the ball. He last started on September 18^th. The difference here is, the buzz around Cortes being ready for a World Series come back is real. Time will tell the tale.

We don’t have to look for long to see the Yankees take the early edge.

NYY-1

LAD-0

Bullpen

The bullpen is overrated by most everyone right from spring training in my opinion The best teams throughout the year have a solid farm of arms and the ones that go deep always have stand outs.

The Yankees have less depth but there’s no lack of talent with names like Luke Weaver, Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Tim Hill. Although not all of these may not be household names they can dice through a lineup.

After the top names the pen gets thin. They use a platoon of matchup-based relievers that have the tendency to get banged up.

The list of arms the Yankees trust is short and it shows but the job still gets done.

The Dodgers have options. Sometimes this can mean that they need different looks because there’s no domination. This isn’t the case.

Evan Philips, Ben Casparius and Alex Vesia have yet to give up a single earned run as a group. They’ve pitched a combined 14 innings.

Blake Treinen, Brent Honeywell Jr., Ryan Brasier, Michael Kopech and Anthony Banda haven’t been named yet and they are among the cream of the crop in the Dodgers pen. Over the 33.2, they have given up 11 runs. No, not spectacular but 3 home runs will taint numbers.

The Dodgers are a few mistake pitches away from total control deep in games. This gives them the edge.

NYY-1

LAD-1

Lineup

The Yankees lineup is laughable. A couple big trades will do that, the first one being Juan Soto in the offseason and the second one came at the deadline in Jazz Chisholm Jr.

The 2-3 punch in Soto and their captain Aaron Judge is unmatched. Soto is arguably the most complete hitter in the game today. Judge broke the AL home run record in 2022 with 62 long balls, coming close again this year with 58.

If picking hairs, the issue does come at the bottom of the order. The streaky play is concerning. And they don’t hit for average as well as you’d like but they do get on base. Even though this lineup is top heavy, they don’t have any real holes.

The Dodgers counter better than any team in baseball in my opinion and this is why they are fighting for the games ultimate prize.

As mentioned as a loss in the rotation, Ohtani is the leadoff hitter in LA and he casually made his own club, being the first player ever to record 50+ home runs and 50+ steals in a season. On deck is another face of baseball and a former MVP named Mookie Betts. Then from the top step in the dugout, sitting in the hole is another former MVP in Freddie Freeman.

If the Yankees 2-3 is unmatched, so is the Dodgers 1-3. From there the Dodgers have a nice collection of power hitter mixed with more on base guys. Leading them to be top three team in average, OBP and slugging through this years playoffs.

The Dodgers won the 2020 World Series with a lot of the same “depth” pieces. This proves the lights will not be too bright and the clutch gene has been bread into this lineup.

If you were to poll the 28 other GM’s, I bet all of them would trade what they had for this season, for either one of these orders.

If you polled all 30, only one wouldn’t trade and for that reason I’ve got to give the edge to the Dodgers here as well.

NYY-1

LAD-2

Defence

Gold Glove finalists have been released. Yes, this is regular season award but it’s the first measuring stick we will use.

The Yankees have three finalists, one on the infield and two roaming the outfield. On the other hand, the Dodgers only have two finalists. Nothing on the infield or outfield specifically. Rather the man behind the dish and the utility position are the strengths of this defence.

As far as postseason stats the Yankees get ran on a lot. They have thrown one baserunner out but have conceded seven stolen bases. Mix this in with five errors as a team, the Yankees rank bottom three in fielding, sporting a .984 fielding percentage.

The Dodgers on the other hand have been run on once, and they gave up the bag. The threat of being thrown out has stopped teams from trying to swipe an extra bag. That counts for more than throwing guys out, a sign of respect. It also shows signs of why the Gold Glove nominees are important.

Errors have also been rarer too. They have two fielding errors as a team leaving them with a third best .995 fielding percentage. This is first among teams who won a game… the Braves and Orioles both at 1.000 got swept in the wild card round.

We could dig deeper to efficiency or stats of that nature but when you boil the game down, its about making your plays and not letting baserunners advance when they’re on.

For this reason, the Dodgers take the edge on defence heading into the World Series.

NYY-1

LAD-3

Can’t argue stats so for this reason, put your money on the Dodgers if you’re the betting type. Just remember they play the games for a reason and in sports anything can happen.

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