Editorials

Dodgers Not Favorited to Win World Series, per MLB Writers

Another February, another season of prognostications from everyone about which teams are the best in baseball. Jeff Passan already chose the Dodgers to win it all this year. Mike Petriello and William Fleitch at MLB.com are singing a different tune.

Damn Yankees

It actually should not be that surprising that overall, they chose the Yankees as the World Series favorites, even over the Dodgers. The Yankees won the Cole sweepstakes, except they’re paying him what amounts to a jackpot lottery ticket. He will lead their pitching staff but for a while, their staff may be thin. James Paxton is expected to miss a few months at least, and Luis Severino is currently shut down. Severino’s future is cloudy, and nobody is quite certain when he will again be ready.

Should their pitching staff take shape, the Yankees truly are scary. Luke Voit may possibly bat 9th, and this is a hitter whose OPS+ was 124 to go along with 21 home runs. Their offense is going to score a lot of runs.

Silver Streak

The Dodgers are number two on this list. Most fans would probably completely disregard the entire piece if they were anywhere but number one or two. Up until very recently, this was appearing to be an “upside off-season” based on the acquisitions. Blake Treinen, Jimmy Nelson, and Alex Wood are great pickups and all three could potentially contribute elite-level pitching if some re-vamping is done. “Upside” was not what fans were hoping for, however. Then, it happened: The Dodgers acquired Mookie Betts and David Price. An MVP and a post-season hero. There are few people who don’t believe this automatically makes Los Angeles the team to beat in the National League.

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Firepower

I was going to throw numbers down on a paragraph breaking down the offense in the Dodgers roster, but instead, I am just going to put a lineup down.

  • Mookie Betts
  • Justin Turner
  • Corey Seager
  • Max Muncy
  • Cody Bellinger
  • Joc Pederson
  • Gavin Lux
  • Will Smith
  • P

Deep bench full of starters:

  • Kiké Hernandez
  • AJ Pollock
  • Matt Beaty
  • Austin Barnes

Yeah, good luck to the pitchers facing this lineup in 2020.

Last Thoughts

The pitching rotation is going to be both up in the air and probably shifted over the course of the season. The upside to having an embarrassment of riches is that you can afford to have an unofficial 6 man rotation. Here’s how the starting pitching is tentatively looking.

  • Walker Buehler
  • Clayton Kershaw
  • David Price

The top 3 are locks for the rotation…

  • Julio Urias
  • Alex Wood
  • Dustin May
  • Tony Gonsolin
  • Ross Stripling
  • Jimmy Nelson

The other 6 depend on success, health, and inning rationing. While Dave Roberts did announce how the club would treat Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May this spring training, and essentially name Julio Urias to the starting rotation, injuries or poor showings at camp could quickly change things.

The starting pitching is possibly the only place I would give the Dodgers an 89/100. The rest of their team is solid and well-rounded.

This team could win the World Series.

NEXT: Alex Wood Thinks He Belongs in the Starting Rotation

AJ Gonzalez

AJ is a lifelong Dodgers and Lakers fan who grew up in California. His whole family is also lifelong Dodgers fans. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, two kids, his guitars, and beagle Kobe.

23 Comments

  1. It swings on Severino. If his injury is serious, edge Dodgers;if not, edge Yankees. Las Vegas has them both at +350 to win the WS.

  2. I’m happy with the Dodgers not being favored to win it all by the “experts”. Who had the Nats winning it all last year? 2 or 3 Nats fans? It doesn’t matter. Go Dodgers.

  3. I have been a big blue fan since 1954 win or lose I love them I have seen all the greats and have been to many games in Brooklyn and LA I’m happy every time they step on the field they r what baseball is all about if they win it this year great if not there is always next yr but they will give and play their best in every game Go Blue

  4. Pretty sure the dodgers are one of the best in the NL. Hard to tell when you play half your games against pathetic ( basically triple a caliber) teams in the NL west. At least 3 teams in american league who would win 110 games in the nl west, and could be 3/4 teams better than dodgers in nl. How do you tell? Wins are basically irrelevant. That is why the dodgers have had such a bad record in the playoffs the past 7 years.

    1. Get the facts. The Dodgers had a better winning percentage against NL teams OUTSIDE their division than within. They had a winning record against every team but the Yankees (1-2), Angels (0-4), and Cardinals (3-4) and they split with the Rays (2-2) and Nats (6-6.) That’s how you tell.

  5. The writers may have this one wrong if Serevino has health issues. That only gives them Cole but the rest are very hittable. But if Serevino and Cole are healthy they will be the team beat unless the Dodgers can pull off a trade later in the season.

  6. It will come down to pitching. Price replaced a better Ryu. No improvement there.
    Last year the Dodgers became the Mariners when they won 116 games. The managing will cost the Dodgers, again. Might make WS, but won’t win it.
    Houston is out. They’ve become a head case.

    1. The bullpen has the potential to be improved. Had Roberts and those feeding him his instructions had more faith in the pen last year, who knows how far they go. Price will be fine because they’ll pick their spots with him. Gonsolin and May will have more of an impact because they have more experience. Also the Dodgers won’t be as susceptible to left handers this postseason. If Bob Brenley can win a WS, Dave Roberts most certainly can.

    2. Don’t count the Astros out. They may use all the blowback as motivation to prove to people they can win it when they are right, cheating or not! I hope they fall on their swords and have the worst season in baseball history, but I expect that is not what is going to happen…

      1. The Astros won 107 games last year with absolutely no proof of cheating. Gerrit Cole said he saw nothing in 2018 and 2019. The Astros cheated in 2017 along with 8-11 other teams according to multiple reports. The whole scandal is ridiculous. Cheating has always been a part of baseball.

    1. I think it means that English is not a high priority subject in our school systems today.

  7. Look up the phrase “Sportswriter East Coast Bias” in the dictionary and a picture of this article comes up.

  8. If the Dodgers got Betts but traded Joc/Stripling I’d be worried for the Dodgers. Too much dog meat what-if guys in the pen. TheYankees are deep there and if healthy line-up & starters- the Yankees/Dodgers WS is gonna be something else.

  9. Lux and Smith are still unproven and that alone makes our lineup not as deep as people think. The Yankees have a full lineup of scary hitters. Our bench is overrated elite pitching will mow them down as well as most of our starters. We don’t have the starting pitching to shut down a lineup like the Yankees and we would need to with the little offense we’d get

    1. Bored to death with you Mister Right.

      The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.
      -Annie Savoy

        1. This team is FULL of All-Stars. Betts, Muncy, Turner, Bellinger, Seager, Pederson. That’s the non-pitchers. And when you have FIVE of those guys with MVP votes, two who have won it; I would say Smith and Lux are going to get a lot of good pitches to hit. You can’t try for the corners with them surrounded by the others. EXCEPT for the one who bats eighth. He will be walked a lot. And, oh by the way, Pollock also has been an All Star and has had MVP votes. THAT is reality. We have a strong, strong lineup. And Lux and Smith fit right in.

          1. Wrong you’ll see them look awful come playoffs that is the reality we see every year and got a nice preview of Lux Smith and Pollock last year

  10. Because of Roberts and pitching decisions we will not win it all. He needs to be replaced by someone so knows how to make pitching decisions or they will lose once again.

    1. Roberts is just a puppet it’s in his contract to work with the FO and keep the team together and on board with it

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