The 2017 World Series kicks off tonight.
Here we are at the culmination of all the baseball-y things that leads to the World Series. A lot of teams are on the outside looking in now, well, 28 to be exact, but I’m here to talk about the 2 that made it. That’s right, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New Yor.. wait, what? The Astros bats woke up just in time to find themselves squarely in the big dance? Well, now we’ve got a matchup. Big bank versus little bank.
2017 Opening Day Payrolls:
2-17. A bunch of other teams you love to hate
Yeah, that’s another level of “fuck you money”. To be honest, I hate the Dodgers the least of all the evil, big market teams. And in reality, after a couple years, if the Astros could even afford to keep their young star players, they’d probably pass the Dodgers.
Let’s talk about how they got here though because they both walked obscenely different paths. And I’m not just talking about this postseason.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers front office has long been beleaguered for their ineptness to throw money at such a sport as baseball. For all its quirks and mishaps, it’s always been a sport centered around a “just the right time” modus operandi. Since their last WS title in ‘88, it only seems to get worse with their player payroll only decreasing for the first time in the last couple of years. BUT they finally added some baseball IQ to their portfolio and have been developing players (while still throwing a lot of money around).
I’ll be the first to let you know, money doesn’t walk in baseball. It does, however, garner a lot of above-average replacement level guys at your disposal for the unavoidable baseball-y things that happen over a 162 game season. It adds a nice buffer zone for mistakes, be it in the form of overpaid contracts, player injuries, or dismal coaches. Where they started to show some baseball IQ was first seen in 2005. Some guy named Kenley was drafted as an amateur catcher. Albeit a bit burly for a catcher, but the Dodgers needed one, and this one had an arm. Well, he could barely eclipse the Mendoza line on his best days and don’t even get me started on how he pitch framed behind the plate. Overgrown and underperforming, Kenley was coerced into pitching and the rest is history. Ever since then, they finally stop putting so much pressure on Kershaw to go beyond his already otherworldly talents and they let Yasiel Puig be the movie star he always wanted to be.
It’s that type of acumen that wills a team to the World Series, sure money helps but it will hardly ever buy you one. And it’s hard to hate the Dodgers right now. A lot of their core group is all homegrown talent.
DRAFTED
Clayton Kershaw: Drafted in the first round, June 2006
Joc Pederson: Drafted in the 11th round, June 2010
Corey Seager: Drafted in the first round, June 2012
Ross Stripling: Drafted in the fifth round, June 2012
Cody Bellinger: Drafted in the fourth round, June 2013
FREE AGENT SIGNINGS
Kenley Jansen: Signed as an amateur free agent, Nov. 2004
Pedro Baez: Signed as an amateur free agent, Jan. 2007
Yasiel Puig: Signed as an international free agent, June 2012
Justin Turner: Signed as a minor league free agent, Feb. 2014
Charlie Culberson: Signed as a minor league free agent, Nov. 2015
Kenta Maeda: Signed as an international free agent, Jan. 2016
Brandon Morrow: Signed as a minor league free agent, Jan. 2017
VIA TRADES
Austin Barnes: From the Miami Marlins. Dec. 2014
Kiké Hernandez: From the Miami Marlins. Dec. 2014
Alex Wood: From the Atlanta Braves. July 2015
Rich Hill: From the Oakland A’s. Aug. 2016
Logan Forsythe: From the Tampa Bay Rays. Jan. 2017
Tony Watson: From the Pittsburgh Pirates. July 2017
Yu Darvish: From the Texas Rangers. July 2017
They’ve rolled through these playoffs with great ease, but they face a battle-hardened team ahead of them in this upcoming World Series in the Houston Astros.
Houston Astros
The Astros have gone about things in a more Sisyphean manner. It’s apparent even in their postseason trials. They’ve relied on facets of baseball that aren’t even the reason they got here in the first place. They, presumably, made Justin Verlander strike a deal with the dark arts in order to regain a few more starts in his ghost of ace’s past. They made Jose Altuve face his own Goliath, Aaron Judge, for seven straight games. They made a former janitor turned “El Oso Blanco” into their sole hope of winning said game 7, and now here they are. Facing a fully rested and just as scary, richer, Los Angeles Project of nerds in the World Series.
The regular season is a trial of stamina, and during those 162 games all the guys with computers behind the scenes that you don’t see are working on the team they are playing and the next two teams ahead. Everyone’s focus is split into a million different hypotheticals. But the postseason, especially the World Series, is a whole different beast. The front office of the Dodgers is in full geek mode, and the scene looks a bit like this:
Analytics Manager:
“You, decipher how to get Marwin Gonzalez out”
“You there, find out what kind of pitch sequence makes Jose Altuve go to bed with nightmares”
“You, figure out how to make Justin Verlander age again”
It’s all this and more that the Astros will have to deal with if they expect to finish this historic run with a ring on their finger at the end.
It’s no secret the Astros have been the best offense in the MLB this year, though.
Best MLB offenses since 1903
Team Year wRC+ Result Yankees 1927 126 won World Series Yankees 1930 124 3rd place in AL Yankees 1931 124 2nd place in AL
Astros 2017 121 in World Series
Reds 1976 120 won World Series Brewers 1982 120 lost World Series
Red Sox 2003 120 lost ALCS
