Yankees-Dodgers: Matchups

                                                             This is a position-by-position match-up of the Yankees and Dodgers. The Dodgers have been bitten by the injury bug all season.  The biggest casualty of that is the starting pitchers. Yamamoto is the last man standing from the five starters they began with. Paxton was traded, Miller demoted to the minors. Stone out for the season and next year too. Glasnow out for the year.  They lost other starters to injury too, Ryan, Kershaw, Buehler, who is now back, Gonsolin and May were already out and not expected back until mid-season, but both incurred setbacks. 

                                                            They lost position players for some time also. Betts played in only 116 games.  He was down with a broken hand. Muncy played just 73 games. Freeman missed 15 games during the season, and the freak injury to his ankle has cost him time in the postseason. The Yankees come into the series with most of their players healthy.  But the Dodgers even with all the injuries have gotten solid performances from the scrubeenies. It should be a very interesting series. 

                                Catcher: Yankees. The Yankees catching combo consists of rookie, Austin Wells, 28, and veteran Jose Trevino, 39.  Wells has 3 hits this postseason in 33 at bats with a homer and 3 driven in. Trevino, the backup is 1-2 with an RBI.  Wells has some pop, he had 13 homers in the regular season, Trevino had 8. Both are adequate defenders, but neither is adept at throwing out runners. Dodgers: The Dodger’s catching duo consists of two veterans, Will Smith and Austin Barnes. Smith had an up and down regular season, and he has struggled this postseason. But he does have 2 homers among his six hits, and he has driven in 6 runs. Austin Barnes on the other hand has only 1 at bat this postseason.  It is odds on that Smith will be in there almost every game. Defensively, both are good game callers, and Smith is one of the best in the league at throwing out baserunners. He has cut down 33% of runners trying to steal off of him this year. Barnes not nearly as good. Advantage: Dodgers. 

                             First Base: Yankees The Yankees depth chart shows four players who can play first base. Anthony Rizzo will be the primary first baseman, and since the Dodgers have no left-handed starters, he most likely will be in there every game. Jon Berti, Oswaldo Cabrerra and DJ Lemahieu are his caddy’s. Rizzo played in all five of the LCS games against Cleveland. Although he has not shown any power thus far in the postseason, he did manage 6 hits in 14 at bats. Dodgers: Freddie Freeman has said he will definitely be starting game one. After that, it is wait and see. If Freeman were 100%, this would be a no-brainer. But with Freddie hobbled, it is a much closer match. Freddies backup will be Max Muncy.  Advantage: Yankees

                            Second Base: Yankees primary second baseman is Gleyber Torres. He has a homer and 5 RBIs so far this postseason. Berti is his backup.  He is slightly above average as a defender. He had a good series against Cleveland, but the Royals kept him pretty quiet. Dodgers: Gavin Lux would be starting against RHP with Kike Hernandez or Chris Taylor getting the nod against lefties. Lux is banged up and hasn’t played second base since the 18th. His last appearance was as a PH. He did have a homer and 3 driven in against the Padres. Kike and Taylor are both excellent defenders and Lux has been very good there most of the year.  Dave Roberts confirmed today that Lux will be starting game one despite his injuries. But Torres bat makes the difference. Advantage Yankees. 

                            Third Base: Since his trade from the Marlins, Jazz Chisholm has been playing third most of the time for the Yankees.  He has a lot of speed and some pop in his bat, but he is an extreme pull hitter. But this postseason he has just 5 hits in 42 at bats. Only 1 is a homer. Defensively he is below average. His backups are the same guys who backup Rizzo. Dodgers: Max Muncy is the Dodgers every day third baseman. Although Max only played in 73 games, he still managed to hit 15 homers. He is also an on base machine. He and Ohtani set team records for the most times reaching base in a single series, 17. At one point, Muncy reached base 10 straight times. He did not have a good series against San Diego, but he definitely picked up the pace against the Mets. He hit 2 homers and drove in 4 in that series. He has 3 homers total this postseason. He also tied Seager and JT for the most postseason homers as a Dodger with 13. His backups are Taylor and Hernandez. Advantage: Dodgers. 

                          Shortstop: SS is manned for the Yankees by Anthony Volpe. Volpe, in his second year in the majors, improved his BA, but his power production dropped. For a contact hitter he strikes out a lot. But he has played well this postseason posting a .310 BA and .429 OBP.  He is a work in progress defensively, and at this point in time is about MLB average. Cabrerra and Berti are his backups. Dodgers: Deadline pick-up, Tommy Edman has been getting the bulk of the playing time since Miguel Rojas went down with hamstring problems. It looks for sure like Miggy Ro will not make the playoff roster. No problem. Edman has proved to be one of the better trades AF has made. He just came off of an NLCS where he had 11 hits and drove in 11 runs to capture the MVP of the NLCS. Edman is a little worse than Volpe defensively but is is based on only 18 games played at SS in the regular season. He has been much better in the playoffs. His backups are Chris Taylor and Kike. Advantage: Dodgers. 

                          Left Field: Yankees use Verdugo, Cabrerra and Dominguez. None are huge power threats. Dominguez has power, but he is a rookie. Verdugo is a contact hitter like he was in LA. But he is not having a productive postseason. Dodgers: The primary Dodger left fielder is Teoscar Hernandez. Teo had a career year in homers and drove in 99 runs. Teo had a great series against the Padres and then disappeared until the last game against the Mets when he got 2 hits. Dodgers need him to play like he did when they visited NY during the season.  Taylor, Pages and Kike back him up. Advantage Dodgers. 

                        Center Field: The Yankees have a clear advantage in CF. Probable AL MVP Aaron Judge man’s center.  He is very good defensively and of course his hitting prowess speaks for itself. Trent Grisham, an excellent defender, and Dominguez are his backups. Dodgers. If Rojas was healthy, Edman most likely would be the starting CF. But that job falls to Andy Pages against LHP. The Dodgers may or may not leave him in there against RHP. But he is clearly better against LH. His defense leaves a lot to be desired. Does not read the ball well off of the bat. But he really has not had to make any spectacular plays. Kevin Kiermaier, excellent defense, weak bat, Kike, and Taylor are the other options. Advantage: Yankees.

                       Right Field: Yankees right fielder is Juan Soto. Soto is a very good hitter with a lot of power. He also has decent speed. What he is not is a great defender. Judge and Verdugo also start there. Dodgers: Right field is now manned by Mookie Betts. Mookie is one of the best RF in the game.  He also has the ability to be an offensive force. Mookie is trying to erase the memory of the last two postseasons in which he was horrible offensively. But like he showed in the 20 World Series, he can be a game changer with his bat and his glove. Pages, Taylor and Kike are his backups. Advantage: I am going against the analysts here and say the advantage goes to the more experienced Betts. Advantage: Dodgers. 

                      Designated Hitter: The Yankees employ Giancarlo Stanton as their DH. He has light tower power and also strikes out a lot. He was the ALCS MVP. Dodgers: Need I say more, Shohei Ohtani had a historic year as the Dodgers DH. .310/54/130 plus he stole 59 bases. This is Ohtani’s first trip to the postseason.  The Dodgers won over the Padres despite his mediocre .2000 performance. He was much better against the Mets, .364 with a pair of homers and six driven in. He has been nails with runners on base, and not so good with the bases empty. He will be counted on to do much better. In his career, he is only a .209 hitter against the Yankees. He does have 9 career homers off of their pitchers. He hits .332 at Dodger Stadium, but only .136 in the Bronx. That is going to have to improve. Advantage: Dodgers. Ohtani is a unicorn. No one like him in the game. He can get the Dodgers runs with just his legs. Yankee catchers not that great throwing out runners. 

                       Starting Pitchers: Yankees have a solid rotation led by Cy Young winner, Gerritt Cole. The Yankees can trot out two lefties, Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes, along with RHP, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil. Dodgers were decent against LHP this year putting up a .269 BA against them. Dodgers: Dodger pitching rotation not as set as NY. Flaherty, Yamamoto and Buehler, are the only healthy veterans left. Landon Knack could start, but he was roughed up by the Mets his last time out.   Seems to me LA will try to win the series with three starters and a bullpen game. Advantage: Yankees. 

                      Bullpen. Yankees have a mixed bag in their pen. They have 2 lefties, Tim Hill and Tim Mayza. LA knows Hill from his time as a Padre. He has been excellent in his 7 appearances in the postseason. Mayza has pitched in only 2 games, but he is unscored on in 1.1 innings of work. Also down there is former starter, Marcus Stroman, who could be the Yankees long man. Luke Weaver, former D-Back is the closer. Tommy Kahnle, Clayton Beeter, former Dodgers, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr. and Jake Cousins fill out the pen. Dodgers: Depending on the health of Alex Vesia, the Dodgers will employ either 1 or 2 lefties out of the pen. Vesia as of now is a question mark with a strained oblique.  The Dodgers employ basically a closer by committee. 14 different pitchers recorded saves in their total of 50. Amazingly, no saves were recorded during the Mets series. All of the games were won by big scores. Blake Treinen recorded the teams last two saves, both against the Padres. Mainly it will be Treinen, Phillips and Kopech in those situations. If LA has a big lead, then Hudson might shut the game down. Ben Casparius and Henriquez were both on the LCS roster, but if Graterol and Vesia are healthy, they will most likely make the roster. Joe Kelly is not healthy enough to be activate. Other arms include Brad Honeywell, who would be a long man or do mop up duty, and Ryan Brasier, who for the most part has been pretty effective, but he also gave up a couple of homers in the Mets series. Advantage: Experience counts, and the Dodgers have a ton of it. Dodgers. 

                Bench. Dodger bench will consist of Kiermaier, Barnes, Taylor and Pages when he isn’t starting in CF. Freeman could spend a couple games on the bench is he is not fully ready to go. The Yankees have DJ Lemahieu, Trevino Dominguez, Cabrerra and Berti. Hitting wise, Yanks have an edge. Defensively, LA can throw the leather at you off of the bench. Dodgers are better defensively. 

               Manager: Both managers, Boone and Roberts, have caught a lot of heat this year and many have opined that they both are on the hot seat. Roberts has one year left on his deal. Roberts has more World Series experience managing than Boone. Boone is more of a laid-back type. He tends to just let his players play the game.  One criticism of Roberts has been that he micromanages. Considering what he had to do to navigate all the injuries, this was probably his best managerial job in his career. Both teams have high expectations. The Yankees, in their first World Series in 15 years. The Dodgers, in 4 of the last 8 with just one win so far, and that in the pandemic season, are out to erase the stigma of not having won a full season Series sine 88. LA has home field. They need to protect that since they are much better at home than on the road, although they did take two of three in NY and split with SD. That is 3 wins in their last 5 road games. They did well when they went to the Bronx in June taking 2 of 3 and winning game one in 11 innings. Prediction. I am a Dodger fan, but I do not want to see a game 7 in Dodger Stadium. LA in Six.