Post by Commissioner Erick on Sept 9, 2018 18:03:29 GMT -5
Los Angeles Dodgers vs New York Yankees
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees have each made the playoffs their first three seasons, but it took until the third try for each to break through to the World Series. The New York Yankees have made it this far on the backs of their flexibility. An offensive onslaught in the Regular Season and Division Round gave way to a pitching-and-defense based approach in the League Championship Round. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers have relied on spectacular pitching from the top of their rotation, and a power-and-patience approach to advance to baseball's pinnacle.
Each team has built up its team on the backs of spectacular financial assets, with the Dodgers the most resource-infused team in baseball. The Yankees and Dodgers share the award of having the leagues two biggest markets, but the Yankees haven't put quite as many assets into their player salaries as the Dodgers have. Somehow, by monetary measures, the Yankees are the underdogs.
Yankees hitting versus Dodgers pitching
The Yankees have a deep, talented, and balanced lineup, and are able to boast that all but one of the everyday players has at least 20 homeruns. The Bombers hit the most home runs of any team in the American Legaue with 294 on the year; which is over 1.8 Yankee dingers per game! That number exploded in the ALDS as the Yankees battered the defending champion Chicago White Sox with 19 home runs in the divisional round, an average of more than 3 long balls a game. Houston did an exceptional job of limiting home runs, though, as they surrendered just three long balls to the Yankees in the ALCS. It's a testament to the Yankees resourcefulness that they still managed to get past Houston.
The Yankee offense is led by young superstars Gleyber Torres, Greg Bird, Esteban Robles, and Gary Sanchez all of whom are under the age of 29. Don't let the young age fool you though, these young players—particularly Torres and Robles—have taken leadership in the club house and are more than capable of taking the Yankees to a World Series title.
To get there though they will have to battle the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw, and a stable of strong Dodgers pitching. The Dodgers probably boast the best one-two punch in the PBA this year between Clayton Kershaw and Gio "the 46 million dollar man" Gonzalez heading the rotation. Behind those two the Dodgers are running out Kenta "Maeken" Meada, a four-year veteran who has been somewhat disappointing this year, and young Julio Urias who has all the talent in the world but hasn't been able to translate that into a successful season this year as he rocks an ugly 5.49 ERA.
While the Dodger rotation certainly is strong, the Yankee lineup is well built to combat it. The Dodgers postseason rotation features three left-handed pitchers in Kershaw, Gonzalez, and Urias and the Yankees have performed significantly better against Southpaws (0.652 winning percentage) than their right-handed counterparts (0.595 winning percentage). Getting through Kershaw will be extremely difficult but the Yankees should be able to harass and harangue Gonzalez, and Urias as long as their stars perform the way that they have all year. That being said I believe that the bottom of the lineup—particularly lefties Ji-Man Choi, and Didi Gregorius—will struggle against the Dodgers rotation which puts a lot of pressure on Torres, Robles, and Sanchez to carry the offense and not be off-put by the World Series stage.
Kershaw will be huge for the Dodgers. Not only did he work to a league-leading 2.23 ERA in the regular season, the second time he's led the league in ERA, he's gone to new heights in the playoffs. Aside from a Carlos Gonzalez three-run home run in Game One of the NLCS, he hasn't allowed any earned runs in 27.1 innings. Considering the Yankees have a 25.5% strikeout rate this postseason—which would be the third largest strikeout rate between the 2017 and 2018 Milwaukee Brewers if extrapolated out to a full season—Kershaw may have an easy time missing Yankee bats.
Dodgers hitting versus Yankees pitching
Unlike many playoff teams, the Yankees don’t have a dominant ace. The starting rotation has been good through the regular season, anchored by Masahiro Tanaka (3.74 ERA/1.22 WHIP/7.5 K/9) and Luis Severino (3.56/1.12/9.6). The strength of the Yankees’ starters is that they’re consistent—four guys started at least 30 games—and that, even without an ace, they’ve been good enough to go deep into games to open up what has been a dominant bullpen. Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Holder, Nick Rumbelow and Dellin Betances form a formidable fire crew.
The playoffs have been less consistent. Tanaka has been top-notch, allowing just two runs and 14 hits in 24.1 innings. Despite some control issues, Chapman has limited damage and has an unblemished ERA through 7.2 innings. Holder has been perfect, too. Severino, however has been terrible, losing all four of his starts with an ugly 8.50 ERA. That’s a bit deceptive, as his first outing against Houston was terrific. Then, he got lit up for 9 earned runs in just three innings. Rumbelow has had an ugly postseason as well.
The Dodgers line up fairly well against the Bronx arms, especially the all-righty rotation. All four of LA’s sluggers—Alex Verdugo, Nomar Mazara, Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson—are lefties who launched at least 33 bombs off right-handed pitchers in the regular season. The Dodgers’ hitters don’t have an eye-opening difference in how they handle righties versus lefties, but they’ve more than held their own against opposite-arm pitching.
In the postseason, the Dodgers have crushed 23 homers in 12 games. Justin Turner, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger had a huge NLCS and AJ Pollock stepped up his game against the Rockies. There’s still work to do, though, as the Dodgers do best when they have runners aboard to leverage that considerable power. If New York can limit baserunners and control home runs, the Yankees may win. Los Angeles hasn’t had it come together in either postseason series; if they do, they could be unstoppable.
Season Series
The two teams didn't play this year and have had just one series in their history. In 2018, the Dodgers got big games from Alex Verdugo, A.J. Pollock, and Yasmani Grandal to win a 10-3 opener. They followed that up with a big inning off Jonathan Holder, with Nomar Mazara and Justin Turner delivering bit seventh-inning hits to give the Dodgers a one-run win and the series. The Yankees got three unearned runs off Clayton Kershaw in the eighth inning of the finale, and a run in the twelfth to salvage the last game. Gary Sanchez drove in runs in both cases and had three RBIs overall.
Most players involved don't have significant history against the other team, but Jurickson Profar is 1-16 against Nathan Eovaldi lifetime.
Prediction: Dodgers in 7
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees have each made the playoffs their first three seasons, but it took until the third try for each to break through to the World Series. The New York Yankees have made it this far on the backs of their flexibility. An offensive onslaught in the Regular Season and Division Round gave way to a pitching-and-defense based approach in the League Championship Round. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers have relied on spectacular pitching from the top of their rotation, and a power-and-patience approach to advance to baseball's pinnacle.
Each team has built up its team on the backs of spectacular financial assets, with the Dodgers the most resource-infused team in baseball. The Yankees and Dodgers share the award of having the leagues two biggest markets, but the Yankees haven't put quite as many assets into their player salaries as the Dodgers have. Somehow, by monetary measures, the Yankees are the underdogs.
Yankees hitting versus Dodgers pitching
The Yankees have a deep, talented, and balanced lineup, and are able to boast that all but one of the everyday players has at least 20 homeruns. The Bombers hit the most home runs of any team in the American Legaue with 294 on the year; which is over 1.8 Yankee dingers per game! That number exploded in the ALDS as the Yankees battered the defending champion Chicago White Sox with 19 home runs in the divisional round, an average of more than 3 long balls a game. Houston did an exceptional job of limiting home runs, though, as they surrendered just three long balls to the Yankees in the ALCS. It's a testament to the Yankees resourcefulness that they still managed to get past Houston.
The Yankee offense is led by young superstars Gleyber Torres, Greg Bird, Esteban Robles, and Gary Sanchez all of whom are under the age of 29. Don't let the young age fool you though, these young players—particularly Torres and Robles—have taken leadership in the club house and are more than capable of taking the Yankees to a World Series title.
To get there though they will have to battle the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw, and a stable of strong Dodgers pitching. The Dodgers probably boast the best one-two punch in the PBA this year between Clayton Kershaw and Gio "the 46 million dollar man" Gonzalez heading the rotation. Behind those two the Dodgers are running out Kenta "Maeken" Meada, a four-year veteran who has been somewhat disappointing this year, and young Julio Urias who has all the talent in the world but hasn't been able to translate that into a successful season this year as he rocks an ugly 5.49 ERA.
While the Dodger rotation certainly is strong, the Yankee lineup is well built to combat it. The Dodgers postseason rotation features three left-handed pitchers in Kershaw, Gonzalez, and Urias and the Yankees have performed significantly better against Southpaws (0.652 winning percentage) than their right-handed counterparts (0.595 winning percentage). Getting through Kershaw will be extremely difficult but the Yankees should be able to harass and harangue Gonzalez, and Urias as long as their stars perform the way that they have all year. That being said I believe that the bottom of the lineup—particularly lefties Ji-Man Choi, and Didi Gregorius—will struggle against the Dodgers rotation which puts a lot of pressure on Torres, Robles, and Sanchez to carry the offense and not be off-put by the World Series stage.
Kershaw will be huge for the Dodgers. Not only did he work to a league-leading 2.23 ERA in the regular season, the second time he's led the league in ERA, he's gone to new heights in the playoffs. Aside from a Carlos Gonzalez three-run home run in Game One of the NLCS, he hasn't allowed any earned runs in 27.1 innings. Considering the Yankees have a 25.5% strikeout rate this postseason—which would be the third largest strikeout rate between the 2017 and 2018 Milwaukee Brewers if extrapolated out to a full season—Kershaw may have an easy time missing Yankee bats.
Dodgers hitting versus Yankees pitching
Unlike many playoff teams, the Yankees don’t have a dominant ace. The starting rotation has been good through the regular season, anchored by Masahiro Tanaka (3.74 ERA/1.22 WHIP/7.5 K/9) and Luis Severino (3.56/1.12/9.6). The strength of the Yankees’ starters is that they’re consistent—four guys started at least 30 games—and that, even without an ace, they’ve been good enough to go deep into games to open up what has been a dominant bullpen. Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Holder, Nick Rumbelow and Dellin Betances form a formidable fire crew.
The playoffs have been less consistent. Tanaka has been top-notch, allowing just two runs and 14 hits in 24.1 innings. Despite some control issues, Chapman has limited damage and has an unblemished ERA through 7.2 innings. Holder has been perfect, too. Severino, however has been terrible, losing all four of his starts with an ugly 8.50 ERA. That’s a bit deceptive, as his first outing against Houston was terrific. Then, he got lit up for 9 earned runs in just three innings. Rumbelow has had an ugly postseason as well.
The Dodgers line up fairly well against the Bronx arms, especially the all-righty rotation. All four of LA’s sluggers—Alex Verdugo, Nomar Mazara, Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson—are lefties who launched at least 33 bombs off right-handed pitchers in the regular season. The Dodgers’ hitters don’t have an eye-opening difference in how they handle righties versus lefties, but they’ve more than held their own against opposite-arm pitching.
In the postseason, the Dodgers have crushed 23 homers in 12 games. Justin Turner, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger had a huge NLCS and AJ Pollock stepped up his game against the Rockies. There’s still work to do, though, as the Dodgers do best when they have runners aboard to leverage that considerable power. If New York can limit baserunners and control home runs, the Yankees may win. Los Angeles hasn’t had it come together in either postseason series; if they do, they could be unstoppable.
Season Series
The two teams didn't play this year and have had just one series in their history. In 2018, the Dodgers got big games from Alex Verdugo, A.J. Pollock, and Yasmani Grandal to win a 10-3 opener. They followed that up with a big inning off Jonathan Holder, with Nomar Mazara and Justin Turner delivering bit seventh-inning hits to give the Dodgers a one-run win and the series. The Yankees got three unearned runs off Clayton Kershaw in the eighth inning of the finale, and a run in the twelfth to salvage the last game. Gary Sanchez drove in runs in both cases and had three RBIs overall.
Most players involved don't have significant history against the other team, but Jurickson Profar is 1-16 against Nathan Eovaldi lifetime.
Prediction: Dodgers in 7