The Evil Empire vs The Evil Empire
World Series Thoughts
The Dodgers going to the World Series is always a Diamondbacks fan’s worst case scenario. Feels like most AZ fans think the only thing to make it worse is having them play the Yankees too.
Maybe a hot take here, but why exactly do so many Diamondback fans hate the Yankees? You’d think winning the 2001 World Series against the Yankees would eliminate any hatred against the Yankees, right?
THE YANKEES HAVEN’T GIVEN US A REASON TO HATE THEM
Post World Series, the Diamondbacks are 12-19 against the Yankees, their trade history is surprising pretty even with the Yankees. The blog Pinstripe Alley highlighted all 16 of their trades, but here are the biggest:
1/11/2005 - D-Backs traded Randy Johnson to the Yankees for Javier Vázquez, Dioner Navarro, and Brad Halsey. (RJ battled injuries wasn’t great in NYY, Vazquez was awful in ARI and demanded a trade, Navarro & Halsey didn’t play long in ARI, L for both sides)
12/8/2009 - D-Backs acquired Ian Kennedy from the Yankees (along with Edwin Jackson from Detroit), which was a great get from NY, but it did cost Arizona sending Max Scherzer to Detroit…
7/6/2014 - D-Backs traded Brandon McCarthy for Vidal Nuno (McCarthy was awful in ARI but got better with NYY, Nuno was a fine inning eater)
7/31/2014 - D-Backs trade Martin Prado for Peter O’Brien (Prado raked in NYY, O’Brien never panned out as the original Kevin Cron, Deyvision De Los Santos, Stone Garrett AAA home run hitter)
12/5/2014 - D-Backs traded Didi Gregorius to the Yankees for Robbie Ray & Domingo Leyba (via Detroit, Tigers got Shane Greene from NYY, both wins for ARI/NYY here).
My point is this, Diamondback fans should have no issue rooting for the Yankees in the 2024 World Series. We beat the Yankees in the 2001 World Series and have a neutral trade history with them…. and the alternative is the hated rival Dodgers. I’m not team meteor hit the stadium or root for a tie, I want the Yankees to whoop the Dodgers.
WHO IS THE REAL EVIL EMPIRE?
The early 2000’s Yankees (and probably before that) got coined the nickname “The Evil Empire” buying stars every season and winning. I made an argument on my Twitter/X that the Dodgers are the clearly the “new” evil empire.
Sign the best player in baseball (Ohtani/A-Rod in 2004 highest paid player)
Sign a Japanese rookie star (Yamamoto/Hideki Matsui 2003)
Star player in major scandals (Ohtani gambling/A-Rod steroids)
Have a team full of other team’s former faces of franchise (Ohtani Angels, Freeman Braves, Betts Red Sox vs A Rod TEX/SEA, Giambi OAK, Mussina BAL)
Win (Dodgers win NL West almost every year, make playoff runs, Yankees have been good but no World Series appearance in 5 years)
Bonus- Annoying fans… see Dodger fans delaying a playoff game because they wouldn’t stop throwing stuff at Padres players.
“I don’t want to watch the 2 highest payrolls in baseball play each other” crowd
Maybe you don’t like baseball? Seriously, this is an All-Star game World Series. Even if you hate both teams, we’re getting a truly iconic World Series.
It’s been a long time since 2 high payroll teams have played each other, this is unique. The best follow on twitter DBacksStatsInfo pointed this out:
Other than 2018 (Red Sox/Dodgers was an awesome World Series btw), there hasn’t been a top 5 payroll World Series. 2020 which was omitted in that tweet, featured the lowest payroll on this list in the Rays too.
Shohei Ohtani & Aaron Judge are the biggest stars in baseball, and are the most interesting players to watch too. As much as we hate the Dodgers and are annoyed the ML covered up Ohtani’s gambling scandal…. Ohtani is a once in a generation player. Judge is in his prime, and the other pieces in this series are stars too. Gerrit Cole, Mookie Betts, Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman, Giancarlo Stanton, this is a legit All-Star Game, which means these are going to be really entertaining games.
The casual and non-baseball fan are going to watch this World Series. The MLB could use a national spotlight like this. The World Series is going to pull insane ratings and a lot of people hopefully are going to get a reminder of how awesome baseball is. The Yankees & Dodgers are routinely top 5 in payroll, but havent faced each other in the World Series since 1981. Yankees havent been to the World Series since 2009. If you throw out the Mickey Mouse 60 game Dodger World Series title that no one honors or cares about, the Dodgers havent won a World Series since 1988.
OLD FRIENDS ALERT
If you really only care about the Diamondbacks and dont want to watch anything else, there are a good amount of former Diamondbacks in this series:
Anthony Banda (LHP, Dodgers)
Daniel Hudson (RHP, Dodgers)
Austin Barnes (Not a Diamondback but ASU alum)
Austin Wells (Not a Diamondback but UofA alum)
Luke Weaver (Closer, Yankees)
Let’s talk about Luke Weaver too. The failed starter and Diamondback bust has become a legit good closer for the Yankees. Luke Weaver posted a strong 2.94 ERA in 12 starts for the 2019 D-Backs including 69 K’s in 64.1 IP before injuring his elbow and never bouncing back as a starter. 1-9 6.58 ERA in 12 2020 starts, okay 4.25 ERA in 13 GS in 2021 before getting hurt again, 6.56 ERA as a RP with ARI/KC in 2022. 6.40 ERA in 2023 after bouncing around with 3 teams, but at age 31 Luke Weaver has finally figured it as a Yankee.
In 62 appearances for the 2024 Yankees Luke Weaver has a 2.89 ERA, 103 K in 84 IP, 0.93 WHIP and stole the closer job heading into the playoffs. This October Weaver has been elite with 2.61 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 4 saves and the go to Yankee reliever.
Weaver has tweaked his mechanics as he lessen his leg kick as a full time RP. The velocity is up across the board and Luke Weaver has finally been converted into a full time relief pitcher. The situation kinda reminds me of AJ Puk, once the starter dream was put to bed and you can focus on just getting 3 outs a night, and some guys thrive in this situation. Luke Weaver is a firey (and quirky) guy like an Archie Bradley, some people are just born to be relievers.
WORLD SERIES PITCHING
Another interesting thing about this series is that neither team is pitching well right now. The Dodgers gave up 5-7-12 runs in 3 of their 6 games against the Mets. The Dodgers Game 1/2 starters have 7.04 ERA (Flaherty) and 5.11 ERA (Yamamoto), as Walker Buehler had a 5.38 ERA this season and gave up 6 runs in 1 of his 2 postseason starts. Dodgers bullpen overall has been good, but they’ll likely do at least 1 bullpen game and are asked to go 4+ innings every game on top of that too. The Dodgers obviously can rake, but their pitching is hanging on by a thread.
As for the Yankees, they have an advantage with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt throwing the ball great in the playoffs, but the Yankees bullpen was dicey late in the ALCS. The Yankees blew a 6-2 lead in Game 4 of the ALCS, 5-3 lead in Game 3. Luke Weaver & Tommy Kahnle have been awesome though, Clay Holmes has been useable in middle innings with a mid 3 playoff ERA as Tim Hill holds down the lefty RP job.
WORLD SERIES PREDICTION
I believe the Dodgers lineup may be deeper than the Yankees, but the Yankees have great starting pitching that won’t make them use the lower tiers of their bullpen. I think they split in LA, NY takes 2/3 at home and the Yankees win the World Series in 6.
All Star lineups vs some okay to struggling pitching, it’s going to be a really fun and iconic World Series. Baseball is getting their time to shine and I can’t wait for this series to start.
-Goldy Happens