It will be the No. 1 seed Toronto Blue Jays going up against the No. 3 seed Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. All the expanded playoff worriers can breathe a sigh of relief. No low seeds are getting into this World Series. Again, it is a big boy series. Maybe not quite as big as last time when the top two payrolls made it. The Blue Jays are no slouches when it comes to spending with the 5th largest payroll. Even being 5th puts you almost 100 million dollars behind the Dodgers. The Dodgers made a huge financial commitment to win back-to-back World Series. They are at the doorstep of making this all come true. What these teams did during the regular season seems to be pretty meaningless right now. The Brewers beat the Dodgers in all 6 meetings during the regular season. They were not competitive in the Championship Series and were swept by the Dodgers. Position by position these teams are pretty evenly matched. The Dodgers have the edge at catcher, second base, third base, shortstop, and DH. The Blue Jays are better at first base, all three outfield positions, and pinch hitting. We all know who the Blue Jays are. They are a team that puts the ball in play, walks more than the average team, and yet still hit for power. With the Dodgers’ new starting well-rested rotation, they have 4 pitchers that have some of the highest strikeouts per nine innings for starting pitchers in the majors. If they had enough innings, they would all be in the top 10. This will be one of the keys to the series. Can the Blue Jays continue to make contact against this elite rotation? Then there is what I call the X factor. How will having 7 days off affect the Dodgers? We talk about hitters being affected by this when they don’t face live pitching for longer than normal. Remember the Dodger bats were not exactly on fire in the Brewer series. The pitching could be affected also. Pitchers are a process and routine oriented bunch. Starting pitchers go through a routine every 5 to 6 days. Now that routine will be stretched to 7 days and beyond for some. Only time will tell. If the Blue Jays win the first two games of the series, many people will be pointing to the long wait the Dodgers had to go through. If the starting rotation of the Dodgers gets rocked in the first two games, it will really be brought up. The Dodger rotation was so dominant in the NLCS. In my view, this long delay for the Dodgers will be a factor. The Blue Jays could win the first two games, but it does not guarantee them a series win. The defending champs will not go down easily. I will be rooting for the Blue Jays. I still think it will be a hard-fought, exciting series that will go the distance. At this point, I think it is a toss-up.
I will go back to my Pirates Morning Report format for each of the World Series games. I will give the final score, tell why the team won, and what the key moment of the game was. It will boil down to which team can overcome the other team’s strength. If the Blue Jays can keep their strikeouts to 6 or below, then I think they have a real shot. The Dodgers are riding high. If I am wrong about this delay and the Dodgers grab game 1, then it is going to be very difficult for the Blue Jays to keep the Dodgers from repeating. If that happens, then the Dodgers have spent their money well. It all starts tomorrow.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 