Championship Winners, MVP, X-Factors and more

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers will meet in the World Series for the first time since 1981 to renew MLB's most frequent Fall Classic matchup, and there is no shortage of storylines.

New York vs. Los Angeles. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman vs. Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton. 2004 Boston Red Sox postseason hero Dave Roberts takes on 2003 Yankees postseason hero Aaron Boone in the managerial battle of wits. And many more topics of conversation that are sure to come up as the series progresses.

The Dodgers took two of three games from the Yankees when the teams met at Yankee Stadium in June, but both rosters have undergone significant changes since then. And of course the games in the World Series are managed very differently than in the summer.

Here's your guide to the most anticipated fall classic in years Sports Illustrated The staff selects X-factors for both teams and predicts how everything will play out in the country's two most populous cities.

1. What is the biggest X-factor for the Dodgers win?

Tom Verducci: Blake Treinen. His sweeper is insanely good for video games. He's Dave Roberts' best arm, meaning Roberts can't save him for the ninth inning. Time to condemn the law of exposure. Roberts must use Treinen at every key spot starting in the seventh inning against Soto, Judge and Stanton. His stuff is so good that you don't have to worry about batsmen seeing him multiple times in a row.

Stephanie Apstein: Whether Alex Vesia can pitch effectively after missing the NLCS due to an intercostal injury. As the Dodgers' best left-handed reliever, he is their best chance to find his way into a lineup that also includes Juan Soto. If he can't go or struggles, that will take a lot out of Anthony Banda, their only other left winger.

Emma Baccellieri: Start pitching. LA has a full rotation of starters on the IL. Of course, a great bullpen helps, but only to a limited extent. The Dodgers will still need it some Quality work from the trio Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Can Flaherty bounce back after his last disastrous performance against the Mets in the NLCS? Can they get meaningful length from Buehler? The Dodgers don't need standout starters. But they must at least be sufficient.

Laws of will: What will Freddie Freeman look like after an ankle sprain that caused him to miss Games 4 and 6 of the NLCS? He has gone 1 of 15 in his last three games as he tries to play through the injury. Los Angeles scored well against the Mets without him, but the Yankees' pitching staff is a whole different beast, and the former NL MVP makes the Dodgers' lineup much more fearsome at full strength.

Nick Same: Can every starting pitcher step up? The Dodgers' bullpen has been outstanding in the NLCS, but they need at least two serviceable starts from Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Walker Buehler. The Cleveland Guardians' vaunted bullpen wasn't enough to overcome poor starting pitching against the Yankees (Cleveland starters pitched just 38% of innings during the ALCS). Los Angeles doesn't need Sandy Koufax 2.0 to emerge, but it will be necessary something of his starters.

2. What is the biggest X-factor for the Yankees winning?

TV: Gleyber Torres. He was great at getting on base in front of the bulk of the team. You know he's feeling good when he's hitting fastballs for line-drive singles to right field. His defense and base running can be problematic, but the offense can make a difference.

SA: How deep the starting pitchers can go. The Yankees have a typically impressive bullpen made up of other teams' scraps, but it's less deep than in previous years, and the Dodgers become significantly more dangerous every time they see a pitcher. New York needs to limit the opportunities Los Angeles gets to show its leverage.

EB: Whether they can meaningfully attack the LA bullpen. The relief corps has generally been a major strength for the Dodgers in this playoff run, but they've had to carry a pretty heavy workload and it won't get any easier in the World Series. It's virtually guaranteed they'll have at least one (more) bullpen game here. Will the Yankees be able to make adjustments and benefit from facing this group again? This is especially important if this series lasts a long time.

WL: Carlos Rodón's starts have a particularly wide range of results, as we've already seen this postseason. If New York's likely starter for Game 2 (and possibly Game 6) can pitch like he did in his first ALCS appearance, New York will be in great shape. If he looks more like he did in the ALDS, that will put a lot of pressure on a bullpen that was already somewhat exposed in the last round.

NS: Base running may seem like a boring answer, but it could prove to be the difference. The Yankees ranked last in FanGraphs' base-running metric, 24th in stolen bases and 29th in speed rating. They had so many gaffes against Cleveland that radio broadcaster John Sterling exclaimed that they ran the bases “like drunks.” In a series that looks like it's going to be close, little things could determine who comes out on top in the end.

3. Which manager is under more pressure to win?

TV: Dave Roberts. It has nothing to do with “narratives” and the worthless psychobabble that dominates “analysis” this time of year. Roberts pitches fewer innings with his starting pitchers than Boone. He still needs to play one or two bullpen games, having already played three of them. The more buttons there are to press, the more likely you are to be wrong. That's pressure.

SA: I don't actually think either of them are under much pressure personally at this point – their arrival has almost certainly secured both their jobs for the future – but organizationally the Yankees' window of opportunity appears to be shorter, with Soto immediately taking over Free agency has ended the World Series.

EB: Dave Roberts. The fact that he has never won a World Series in a full season is still a testament to his record with the Dodgers. Yes, much of this was out of his control, but it is still part of his legacy. This group was always expected to play for a championship this year. (That standard was complicated by injuries, but certainly not compromised.) Getting to the World Series was always the goal. To cope with the pressure, Roberts has to actually win.

WL: Dave Roberts has the ready-made excuse that he has a terribly depleted pitching staff, but he's done a great job of getting here. This could be Aaron Boone's best chance to win a championship in the Bronx, especially considering Juan Soto could be heading to Queens in the offseason.

NS: Aaron Boone. It took place in a pandemic-shortened season at a neutral site with limited fan attendance, but Roberts still gets (and deserves) credit for leading Los Angeles to the 2020 title. As Dodgers fans become increasingly nervous about the lack of so many great seasons in this decade-plus stretch, there is more urgency for the Yankees to end their 15-year championship drought.

4. What is your prediction for the World Series?

TV: Yankees in 7. Flip a coin. There is no obvious advantage here. (The Dodgers are the better base-running team, but I don't see that as a deciding factor.) Both offenses can be relentless – the two most disciplined lineups in baseball. Both bullpens are excellent – ​​where most of these series are decided. The difference? Read more below.

SA: Dodgers in 6. I think their lineup and bullpen are a little deeper, which will make up for a more worn out rotation.

EB: Dodgers in 6. These hitters are so close together that it can easily go either way, but while the Yankees have some clear advantages over the Dodgers, LA's bullpen, slugging and baserunning put them over the edge for me.

WL: Yankees in 6. In a postseason dominated by bullpen talk, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón have the talent to get through the Los Angeles lineup mostly unscathed a few times. And if New York's big three hitters get support from the rest of the lineup, the Dodgers' bullpen will have a hard time continuing its dominance.

NS: Dodgers in 7. Yamamoto has been sharp in his last two outings, throwing 73 pitches in his last start. He will provide the boost this starting rotation needs to save the bullpen from additional wear and tear, making Roberts' life much easier in the late innings.

5. Who do you think will win the World Series MVP?

TV: Giancarlo Stanton. It's his time. He had the fourth-longest wait among active players to get to the World Series, and now it starts at the ballpark where he went to games as a kid, where he won the All-Star MVP and where he has the second-highest slugging percentage of anyone in the history of Dodger Stadium. He doesn't hunt. He looks like he's on a Corey Seager run.

SA: Shohei Ohtani. In his worst NLCS game, he reached base twice.

EB: Sometimes the most obvious choice is the best. Come on: Shohei Ohtani. And I still hold out hope that we'll see him make a wonderful bullpen appearance.

WL: I'll go with Jazz Chisholm Jr. Is this because I'm foolishly sticking with a bold prediction I made early in the playoffs? Perhaps. But his poor performance in the postseason so far would only further highlight a strong World Series in which he is the Yankee most likely to make a difference with his bat And its speed.

NS: Mookie Betts. There's no shortage of stars to choose from, and while it's tempting to go off the menu and pick a more supportive player (like Tommy Edman after his NLCS appearance), Betts will continue his strong performance in the final round and take home the MVP take.