Baseball Bytes: All Hail The Dodgers
Led by Freddie Freeman's all-time World Series hot streak, L.A. vanquished their cross-country rivals with relative ease. Plus, another year without sweeps.
Welcome to a special ✨Postseason Edition✨ of Baseball Bytes1 — my column in which I point out several byte-sized pieces of information that jumped out to me from my various baseball spreadsheets. If you’ve noticed a Baseball Byte of your own, email me and I’ll feature it in a future column!
⚾ Freeman and the Dodgers’ Place in History
No, it wasn’t a sweep. (More on that below.) But in storming back to win against the Yankees on Wednesday night, the Dodgers did secure their everlasting place in history as champions — doing it in a starry World Series that featured the game’s two highest-profile franchises.
Dodger fans have heard a lot of noise about the 2020 season over the years, as the only year of L.A.’s recent run of success in which they actually won the World Series came in a shortened 60-game season. They’ve also heard a lot of noise about the team’s tendency toward early exits in the surrounding seasons; the 2022-23 teams set a record for the most wins in any two-season span (211) by a team that failed to make the League Championship round either year.
It seemed that only by winning in a full, 162-game season — and preferably by beating a suitably formidable opponent in the Fall Classic itself — would the Dodgers ever satisfy their critics.
And so, that’s exactly what the 2024 Dodgers did.
The Yankees were the best the AL had to offer, and L.A. outclassed them for most of this World Series. The series wasn’t without its moments of intensity, right down to the multiple lead changes of Game 5 on Wednesday night; save for New York’s 11-4 romp to avert the sweep on Tuesday, each game got interesting at the end. But the Dodgers were simply the better team — on paper, and in reality.
This L.A. squad was not perfect. Its pitching was below-average during the regular season, particularly when it came to the rotation. And during the playoffs, it came ever-so-close to bowing out early yet again when it trailed 2-1 against the San Diego Padres in the NLDS. But the Dodgers were near-perfect in their response from there, winning 10 of their remaining 13 games to close out the postseason.
They won shutouts, tight games, high- and low-scoring affairs alike. They dug deep to mount comebacks like the World Series clincher. And they did receive a pretty perfect performance from series MVP Freddie Freeman, who went into the Fall Classic with a gimpy right ankle but left it having hit four home runs — one in each of Games 1-4, extending a six-game World Series HR streak that started in 2021 — with 12 RBIs in five games. His 24.5 percent of team RBIs was the seventh-highest share by any player in a single World Series:
It was enough to make up for the fact that Shohei Ohtani — the Dodgers’ perfect star during the regular season — seemed to be feeling the effects of the shoulder injury he suffered sliding into second base at the end of Game 2. The presumptive NL MVP was 1-for-11 since getting injured, and he was visibly grimacing with nearly every swing. But L.A.’s deep well of contributors meant Ohtani didn’t need to play his A+ game for the Dodgers to win.
That rang especially true with the Yankees getting up-and-down production (at best) from their top players. Perhaps surprisingly, Aaron Judge ended up with a respectable .836 OPS in the series after warming up a bit in Games 4-5. But his costly error on a routine fly ball helped set L.A. up for a huge inning in the fifth, turning what seemed like a blowout into a close contest the Yankees ended up losing.2 With New York committing so many self-inflicted wounds, the Dodgers simply needed to take advantage of their opportunities.
That’s what great teams do, and it’s part of what made the Dodgers fitting champs for 2024. In a year that appeared to lack superteams, L.A. was the closest to it that we were going to get. And instead of folding in the postseason when given the chance, the Dodgers played their best under pressure. Hopefully that should be enough to get this franchise’s critics to back off and let them enjoy a championship instead of having to justify its legitimacy.
⚾ How Sweep It Isn’t
Back in June, I wrote about how surprisingly few championship-round sweeps we had seen in recent years across the three major men’s series-based sports. No final round had produced a sweep since the 2018 NBA Finals (Warriors over Cavs), and only two total sweeps had played out since 2007 gave us a pair in the same year.
The 2024 World Series looked like it might change that, as the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead heading into Tuesday night. But with a victory in Game 4 against the Dodgers’ procession of random pitchers, the Yankees guaranteed that the big three leagues will go at least another year without a proper sweep (i.e., one of the non-Gentleman’s variety):
All of this is just fine with the TV networks, obviously. For instance, FOX must have been elated that this star-packed series — which has done great numbers on a per-game basis — was extended by one extra game. (They would have taken even more, but the Yankees blew that lead. What can you do?)
And as fans, we should generally be grateful for more baseball whenever we can get it. The long, cold, dark offseason leading up to next year’s spring training starts right now.
But it remains pretty bizarre how sweeps basically stopped happening around 2007, with only a few exceptions. Whatever your theories as to why — and I’ve put a few out there — we seem to be in a different era of pro sports, one in which each championship is probably going to be at least marginally competitive at baseline.
Filed under: Baseball, Baseball Bytes
Not to be confused with Baseball Bits, the excellent YouTube series from Foolish Baseball.
To be fair to Judge, it’s not like he told Gerrit Cole to forget to cover first base on what should have been an inning-ending ground ball later in the inning.
While I will admit that I didn't watch a whole lot of the Series, the outcome struck me as preordained after watching Game 1. Here are some observations:
*The NL was much stronger than the AL - the Dodgers were battle tested with SD and the Mets. On the other hand, facing Cleveland and KC while winning the weak AL East does not prepare you for LA. You don't know how good you really are, until you play someone really good. Well, NY just found out (queue the Gin Blossoms).
*One common evaluation method is the 5-tool analysis. The Dodgers are loaded with "toolsy" players who can beat you any number of ways on any given day - Kiki, Muncy, Ohtani, Freeman, Betts, Smith....good at so many things. The Yankees are loaded with older, lumbering 2-tool players who remind you of a church softball game where everybody is just trying to jack home runs for the faithful. The Yankees are not good on the bases, they aren't good in the field (watching Soto flail around in RF was painful and explains why SD moved him to LF to minimize the damage), and they are so awful on fundamentals. The Yankees are simply not built to compete with a team with a much deeper skill palette like LA.
*The whole Gerrit Cole not covering first criticism is just so off for me. There is the usual annoying little league windbaggery ("well, everybody who played little league knows that!!"), and then there is the reality that adults should occupy after moving on from their 8th birthday. There is no way in this universe - or in any alternative universe - that Gerrit Cole, with his level of fitness, is going to beat Mookie Betts to first to take a soft underhand throw for an out. That just ain't happenin' - sorry. Betts was hauling down that line...you know, the way a 5-tool player does. Unless Rizzo runs to the bag Cole doesn't matter to that play...except in little league I suppose.
*LA looks poised to reel off a few Championships. Their NL competitors outside of Atlanta seem older and fading a bit. The AL just feels so much weaker. Sure, that could change, but LA feels like they are ascending at the right time.
*Doesn't this answer the question, "should the Yankees pursue Soto?" Re-signing him for some absurd ransom to run it back with him in RF with likely lesser stats feels...well, misguided to say the least. As a Raiders coach once said, we lost with Khalil Mack, we can lose without him." There's something to that.
Off to the NFL. Thanks!