December 21, 2024

101 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Here is why Yankees-Dodgers World Series is must-watch”

  1. From Jayson Stark at The Athletic:

    We know that in middle America and elsewhere, there are people grumbling about the combined $627 million in payrolls that have brought these teams here. And if you’re a fan of the Royals, Pirates, Guardians or some other teams, we get why you might be turned off instead of fired up by this matchup.

    But is it OK to mention that the Royals, Guardians and Tigers have all played in a World Series more recently than the Yankees? Or that four of the 10 teams that spent at least $200 million on their payroll this year didn’t even make the playoffs — and two more didn’t win a game once they got there?

    So if you want to quibble about or boycott this World Series for whatever reason, hey, do what you need to do. But for the rest of us? This is one of those matchups you wait a lifetime for.

  4. Bill Bevens and Cookie Lavagetto, Billy Martin, Mantle, Scooter and Berra vs Duke, Pee Wee and Campanella, Podres, Larsen, Koufax, Reggie and GOAT Brian Doyle.

  5. The ratings will be huge. The Yankees are America’s most loved (and hated) team in all surveys. Depending on what you’re reading the Cubs or Dodger or townies are second most popular.

  6. I did not realize in ’81 that Gator and Tommy John combined for 27 innings of 4-run baseball. Two relievers submarined the whole damn Series and Bob Lemon kept trotting them out there.

    Aaron Boone is gonna find his Ron Davis and George Frazier, ain’t he?

    3. Its amazing which details you remember from these series almost half a century ago.

      Who could forget Bob Lemon sending in a pinch hitter for Tommy John in the fourth inning of a tie game. As I write this, I realize that its normal to pull a starter that early now, it was lunacy in 1981 I don’t even remember watching the the rest of the game. I’m not sure that I did.

    2. Mickey Lolich is a local out here in Portlandia. He owned a blueberry farm and farm store on the edge of the Hertz map, which gradually surrendered from being farmland into subdivisions and condos over the years I’ve lived here (since ’95) About 5 years ago they finally bought him out and it is now medium density condos, townhomes, and snout houses.

      I am sure the developers paid good coin to the land, so good for him. The worst thing that can happen is for civilization to spread to just short of your land, leaving you unable to sell out, but with all the problems of town and none of the benefits of rural.

      Just checked, he is still alive. I hope he is well.

  12. What’s the RLYW breakdown on watching plans?

    At home?
    At a bar?
    Gathering in Times Square to watch the crude illuminated scoreboard on the side of the Times building over the din of Model Ts and street trolleys?

    1. Generally at home. Although I was exploring the idea of getting a ticket for at least one of the NY games. At the prices on the resale market, however, I will not. But I was thinking about it.

      Just saw Sturgill Simpson at Forest Hills and was driving home past the stadium the next day and I was thinking about how I’ve never been to a playoff baseball game let alone a world series.

    3. I also thought about trying to go to a game, but pretty much immediately put that to bed when I saw the prices.

      I’ll mostly watch from home, but will catch at least 1 game from a bar.

    2. He just said it in passing, in the flow of speech. It’s not as if Bill James wrote an article with that claim. I assume he meant that he not only hits very well, but has speed and can not only throw, but even pitch with the best of them.

    3. Because he is? Judge is the only hitter in baseball who is clearly better than him but Shohei also pitches and he just stole 50 bases. As much as I love Judge it’s hard to argue Ohtani isn’t better and he’s certainly more sensational as a two-way player.

      Also most people think of him as the best player in baseball and maybe even the best ever. I would guess Judge is honestly one of those people.

    4. Judge is the superior offensive player even with the stolen bases. The pitching is the argument. It’s a compelling argument, but also take into account that he does NOT hit like this, or steal this many bases, if he’s pitching that year.
      More specifically apropos of Judge’s comments, two things:
      A) right now, Ohtani is NOT a two-way player, and
      B) Judge kept coming back to the base stealing in that interview, but his silence suggests he wasn’t saying that with the (once and future?) pitching aspect of Ohtani’s game in mind.

    5. There is no legit argument that Ohtani is the best player ever. He isn’t. And SB? People ignore that stat, bigly for decades, there isn’t even a metric about it that I know of. As my original post mentioned, he’s a DH, he doesn’t play the field.

    6. Ohtani is 100% the best baseball player in baseball. He’s not the best hitter, or the best pitcher, but he’s a top 5 hitter and top 30 pitcher. That’s wild.

    7. He’s been injured pitching twice now. And he’s a pure DH (8.1 total innings in the OF), he doesn’t play in the field. Also, MLB needed to make a special rule for Ohtani, on days he starts as a pitcher and can also be written in twice once as the SP, once as DH, such a BS rule.

    8. Judge being Jeter.

      If Judge beats him out, he’s an aw-shucks guy who outdid “The Best Player”. If he loses, he lost to the best. No downside, all upside for his image and legacy.

      If he challenges it, he comes off like Reggie. Whom I loved, but not everyone’s cup of tea.

    10. It depends upon what you mean.
      A. If, as Clay does, you add up the value of each of his talents, you’d probably argue that he’s the best.
      B. If you look at what he is right now, this year – e.g., sans pitching, sans fielding – then he’s definitely not the best, although still extraordinary.
      C. You also might consider what he can actually do, practically – that is, if he pitches, he won’t be hitting as much or as well as this year. His top effort – hitting and pitching and fielding as much as he can simultaneously – might well make him the best in baseball, but it’s not nearly as clear a case as approach A. would provide.

    11. Ohtani has put up one of the best offensive seasons of this era including being the first ever 50/50, he’s been near MVP level as a hitter before and on top of that he’s put up Cy Young caliber pitching. Yes, he lacks a long track record, especially as a pitcher. He also has nearly 44 combined WAR. Injuries and the toll of pitching and hitting will keep him from being the all-time WAR leader and maybe from getting 500 HRs and some other milestones. But if you were building a perfect baseball player, it would be him. He has more baseball skills than anyone we’ve ever seen at this level. He’s literally doing something we all thought was impossiboe until he did it, and then he kept getting better. And don’t act like Judge doesn’t have blemishes due to injury, late start and inconsisten track record. We can’t act like Judge has always been who he’s been for the past 3 seasons. Or like he’ll be that for much longer.

      I think it’s perfectly reasonable, if no inarguable, that Ohtani is the best player ever.

  14. “I’m being honest, telling them, ‘I’m as good as it can be,’” Cortes said.

    Yankees manager Aaron Boone said there is a “decent chance” the club will carry Cortes, envisioning him as a relief option who could neutralize Dodgers lefties like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy.

    Boone said on Tuesday that the Yankees may carry 13 pitchers for the World Series; they had 14 position players and 12 pitchers for the ALCS against the Guardians.

    …

    “Coming out of the bullpen, I’ll be restricted to throwing 20 to 30 pitches, so they’re not going to bring me in to face three righties,” Cortes said. “I know those are the guys I’m going to face. It’s a tough task, but I know I’m able to do it.”

    https://www.mlb.com/news/nestor-cortes-hopeful-for-world-series-roster

    2. Going by playing time, the most like to be left off would be Trent, the most certain to be retained would first-base wizard Berti.

    2. See, and I think it sounds like a massively welcome distraction.
      Puts the little things, like the election, in context.

  17. Discussing paying $1k+ for a WS ticket. I’d do it if I knew they’d win the game. But imagine paying that and sitting in 40 degrees and a bit rainy to watch them lose 7-2. Ugh.

    1. Yep. It takes a lot of confidence if you’re buying on the resale market. $2000+ for a seat in the right field 100s, $14k for a seat behind the Yankee dugout. That could be worth it if I can shit talk Boone’s decisions.

  18. Six times the leagues’ home run champions have met in the series.
    This will be the seventh.
    In seven of those seven meetings, the AL home run champion will have been a Yankee.

    2. By the way, if THAT LINE is the rule, then NONE of those calls were swings. None.

    3. That line is crazy. If the intent is to make it easier check a swing, then it makes sense, but this makes me think they want more check swings to be called balls. I don’t think I agree with that.

      I think the core of the checked swing problem is the clarity of the rule and the enforcement issues are primarily a symptom of that. It definitely should be a rule that is enforced automatically by a camera. The line they are using needs to be reconsidered though.

    4. I th8nk they should eliminate the check swing, as in, if you try to stop your swing, it’s not a swing ans the pitch is called for its location. tmThis would immediately reduce strikeouts and improve run scoring, and we could do away with the guessing that umps do to enforce a totally vague rule.

    5. It needs work, which is why it is being experimented with in the AZFL first, but headed in the right direction.

  21. It’s interesting that the 2016 Cubs, who seemed tipped for a dynasty, didn’t have a single future Hall of Famer. I’m sure that happens from time to time but that team seemed so good at the time.

  22. Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the Yankees’ last World Series appearance. The last drought, from ’81 to ’96, seemed a lot longer though. I suppose that’s because (1) until ’95 they didn’t even make the playoffs – which were harder to make back then and (2) 15 years at that point was almost half my life. Now it’s only a quarter. Funny how time works.

  26. I think it’s perfectly reasonable, if no inarguable, that Ohtani is the best player ever

    This is so absurd.

    They made a special rule, violating the entire history of baseball, so he could be written in TWICE in a lineup on days he was the SP, once as SP, once as the DH.

    He’s a DH, having played 8.1 innings in the field.

    1. What does that have to do with anything? Name a player who can hi anywhere near as good as him and even credibly pitch. Or explain why excelling at the two major and completely distinct skills of baseball isn’t unheard of?

    2. Best player EVER?
      Ohtani’s not the best player ever. Almost all the time Babe was a pitcher, for example, they didn’t let him hit they way they have Ohtani (the did for a short stretch, and it was… impressive). Ohtani’s never going to outpace his entire sport the way Ruth did, and when he starts hitting numbers like 700 home runs we can start talking about it.
      Best player NOW – that’s an argument you can make. But it depends on what you *mean* by that (I wrote about that above, won’t repeat it here).

    3. I don’t think Ohtani is the best player ever, that’s a tough argument even when you get into the difficulty of comparing across drastically different eras. But he’s definitely in the running for right now (I believe he is).

      I will be interested to see how the Dodgers handle him compared to the Angels. I think we could see him in the field far more often.

    4. What makes you think they’ll play him in the field more often? He’s only played in the filed 8.1 innings in his career, none in 2024. First base? I suppose, but what suggests they will do that?

    2. He’s been saying how much he hates the fact that the Yankees’ gap between World Series appearances is such a big narrative, because he feels that they were cheated out of trips to the World Series in 2017 and 2019.

    3. Okay, but why is it hilarious?
      Is it not true?
      If he said that openly, kind of makes me like him a bit more.

  29. If they have to keep boone, and maybe he’s good with a lot of intangibles (maybe)… can’t they just get him his very own Don Zimmer to tell him what to do during the games?

    3. Well, since he’s pitched far less because of injuries, we can only really base the totality of his career to date on his hitting.

    4. You are so intent on proving he’s not that great that you want to ignore his pitching? OK whatever dude, I forgot how not worth it it is to debate things with you.

  31. Present value of his contract $28 mil per. He must’ve really wanted to be a Dodger. Think there’s any chance Soto would do a sweetheart deal or Judge would defer some money? Nah.

    1. It would be awkward drinking by yourself in an empty office in the middle of the night

  38. Slight moves in the betting markets at the sharpest baseball book in the business. LAD opened -124 and they’ve moved twice. Once to -123 and today -121. Small moves but indicates some sharp action on the Yanks.

  39. Cole not against Yamamoto is a game we really need to win.

    G Torres (R) 2B
    J Soto (L) RF
    A Judge (R) CF
    G Stanton (R) DH
    J Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B Maybe switch 5 and 6
    A Rizzo (L) 1B
    A Volpe (R) SS
    A Wells (L) C
    A Verdugo (L) LF

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