The 2024 Fall Classic kicks off tonight in Los Angeles, and with the Dodgers being slight betting favorites (-120), it should be a close series. Nothing plays on the way it looks like on paper, especially in Postseason baseball, but i think its a good time go position by position to see where each team has an advantage.
Starting Pitching:
Yankees: Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt, Luis Gil
Dodgers: Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buelher
The Bronx Bombers front line starters have done their job for the most part this postseason with the 4 starters averaging at a 4.00 ERA. Cole and Rodon especially will need to give the Yankees lengthy outings in Gm 1 & 2 if NY wants to take early control of the series.
The Dodgers have had multiple injuries throughout the season, which has led them to only having three true starting pitchers in the playoffs, with the three averaging at a 6.05 ERA. This is a clear advantage for the Yankees.
Relief Pitching:
The Dodgers bullpen has been workhorses so far, pitching 67 out of 97 possible innings. Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda, & Kopech have all been steller in their roles, and will be once again asked to do alot of heavy lifting in the World Series.
Yankees have used an island of misfit toys in a variety of roles throughout the season, which has led to Tim Hill & Luke Weaver being the two highest leverage arms. Besides game 3 in Cleveland of the ALCS, the Yankees pen has been shutdown this postseason pitching to a 2.56 ERA. This is a toss up, but since the Dodgers arms will be out there more, LA gets this one.
Catcher + Infield:
Yankees: C, Austin Wells, 1B, Anthony Rizzo, 2B Gleyber Torres, SS Anthony Volpe, 3B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Dodgers: C, Will Smith, 1B Freddie Freeman, 2B Gavin Lux, SS Kike Hernandez, 3B Max Muncy
As for the Yankees, Austin Wells & Jazz have done next to nothing at the plate, with each of them batting in the .100’s, but the real surprise has been the hot bats of Rizzo & Volpe. Rizzo who has struggled and been injured for the majoirty of the last two seasons is batting .430 in 5 games thus far, and Volpe is hitting .310. Torres has been the ideal leadoff man for NY getting on base 40% of the time.
LA has not seen production from Smith, Freeman or Lux, with Freddie playing on a severely sprained ankle. The Real story for them has been the postseason tear Kike is on. With an .863 OPS & 2 HR he has been an amazing surprise for LA who needed their other bats to step up. Yankees 5 man infield average a .693 OPS in the playoffs, where LA has a .707 OPS, so just by a small margin, Advantage LA.
Outfield + DH:
Dodgers: LF, Teaoscar Hernandez, CF, Andy Pages/ Tommy Edmand, RF, Mookie Betts, DH, Shohei Ohtani
Yankees: LF, Alex Verdugo, CF, Aaron Judge, RF, Juan Soto, DH, Giancarlo Stanton
Here come the biggest stars on the grandest stage, you know the names, and you know what they’ll bring to the table. Mookie Betts has been on fire this postseason after having a career filled of Postseason struggles. Ohtani is the best player in baseball and is essentially perfect when he steps up to the plate with RISP. His slash line is .667,1.333, with a 2 thousand OPS, yes you read that correctly. And we got to talk about Tommy Edman who won the NLCS MVP and is batting .341 with a team best 12 RBIs in October. There are truly no holes in this Dodgers outfield, and should cause nightmares for Yankees pitching.
The Bronx has two guys who live for big moments, and have delivered on multiple occasions this Postseason. Stanton has 5 HR, 11 RBI’s and a 1.179 OPS, and has cemented himself as a Yankee. Juan Soto had one of the greatest at bats you will ever see in Game 5 of the ALCS, which led to a 3 run game winning HR in the 10th inning. He is batting .333 with a 1.046 OPS. Aaron Judge however, has continued his multi-year playoff struggles batting just .161. He has been getting on base, and had a huge HR against the best closer in baseball Clase in game 3. It goes without saying, but if NY wants to win #28, #99 needs to have an incredible World Series. Im calling this one even.
Those are my comparisons for each position group for the Dodgers & Yankees in the World Series, but we are going to see some players that weren’t mentioned have signature moments as well. This has been a World Series fans could only have dreamed about in March, and first pitch is tonight.
