The 2024 World Series begins tonight with the American League Champion New York Yankees facing the National League Champion Dodgers in Los Angeles.
How did these teams get here?
How do these teams compare?
Let’s take a look.
The Yankees won the AL East, finishing 94-68.
The Dodgers won the NL West, finishing 98-64.
New York was 3rd overall in runs scored with 815.
LA was 2nd overall in runs scored with 842.
The Yankees were 3rd in on-base %, and 4th in slugging %.
The Dodgers were 2nd in on-base %, and 1st in slugging %.
New York was 7th in era, while LA was 13th.
New York was 44-37 at home, and 50-31 on the road.
LA was 52-29 at home, and 46-35 on the road.
The Yankees were 58-40 before the All-Star game, and 36-28 after.
The Dodgers were 56-41 before the All-Star game, and 42-23 after.
New York was 8-8 in Extra Inning games, 19-18 in 1 run games.
LA was 9-7 in Extra Inning games, 21-17 in 1 run games.
The Bronx Bombers were 23-23 against the National League.
The Boys in Blue were 30-16 against the American League.
The Yankees and Dodgers had a 3 game series in New York in June, with LA taking 2 of 3.
While not yet announced, Shohei Ohtani will be the NL MVP, and Aaron Judge will be the AL MVP.
This will be the 12th all-time World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, the 5th time since the Dodgers moved to LA for the 1958 season.
The Yankees have won 27 World Championships, this is New York’s first World Series appearance since 2009.
The Dodgers have won 7 World Championships, this is LA’s fourth World Series appearance since 2017.
Since 2010, NY has won the AL East 5 times (2011, 2012, 2019, 2022, and 2024). They’ve been a Wild Card 6 times (2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021).
Since 2010, LA has won the NL West 11 times (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024). They’ve been a Wild Card 1 time (2021).
On Opening Day, the Yankees had the 2nd highest payroll in baseball at $303M, while the Dodgers had the 3rd highest payroll at $249.8M.
In the Playoffs, the Yankees had a bye in the Wild Card round. They then beat KC 3 games to 1 in the Division Series, and Cleveland 4 games to 1 in the American League Championship Series.
In the Playoffs, the Dodgers had a bye in the Wild Card round. They then beat San Diego 3 games to 2 in the Division Series, and the NY Mets 4 games to 2 in the National League Championship Series.
ESPN’s Analytics are giving the Dodgers a 52.2% chance of winning the World Series.
Injuries?
Former Oriole Evan Phillips was not included on the Dodgers World Series roster.
They were able to get back Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, and Miguel Rojas.
Tyler Glasnow was lost for the season in August with elbow soreness.
Clayton Kershaw was also lost in August with a bone spur.
Dustin May was out the entire year.
Nestor Cortes is on the Yankees World Series roster, despite not pitching since September 18th.
It looks like DJ LeMahieu was left off the WS roster.
Predictions?
ESPN’s David Schoenfield says analysis shows that it would take a Best of 75 to determine the best team in a matchup of two essentially equal teams.
Instead we will see a Best of 7, and pretend something can really be gleaned from it.
I like the Dodgers lineup and bullpen better than the Yankees.
I like the Yankees starters a bit better.
You’ve got plenty of star power in this series, not just with Ohtani and Judge; but also Mookie Betts, Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman, Gerrit Cole, Gincarlo Stanton, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, etc.
I’ll take the Dodgers in 6, with Betts being the World Series MVP.
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.