Some of those players already have had a big influence on this year’s postseason.
You all know the names of the big stars on the Yankees and Dodgers who will take the field tonight at Dodger Stadium for Game 1 of the World Series: Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman, among others.
Many postseason series, including World Series, have had big performances by players who are not household names.
We’ve seen some of that already in this year’s postseason.
Tommy Edman, who was constantly a pest to the Cubs as a Cardinal, was named NLCS MVP for batting .407/.393/.630 (11-for-27) with a home run and 11 RBI.
Luke Weaver, who was a failed starter in Arizona after they acquired him — also a former Cardinal! — has become a lights-out closer for the Yankees. He has thrown 10⅓ innings this postseason, allowed three runs, struck out 12 and posted four saves in five opportunities.
Another Yankee who doesn’t always get the credit where due is shortstop Anthony Volpe, who hit .353/.476/.412 in the ALCS. My six-degrees connection to Volpe: One of my fellow Wrigley bleacher season-ticket holders is his cousin. Quite a few of Volpe’s family traveled to Chicago in September for the Yankees series at Wrigley. My friend brought Volpe’s dad over to our seats and introduced him. Really nice guy, we talked baseball for a while. He says he absolutely loved Wrigley Field — also, he keeps a scorecard!
Teoscar Hernandez had a great offensive season, batting .272/.339/.501 with a career-high 33 home runs, but often gets shunted aside when star Dodger players are discussed. Last week, Josh asked in BCB After Dark whether you’d be interested in the Cubs signing him, as he’s a free agent after this year. I’m a “no” on that; he’ll command big money coming off this season and at 32 (and not good defensively), I think the Cubs should go in a different direction.
Then, of course, there’s beloved former Cub Anthony Rizzo, who had a rough season due to injuries and is still playing this postseason with broken fingers that haven’t quite healed. He batted .429/.500/.500 (6-for-14) in the ALCS, even with those broken fingers. I can’t root for the Yankees, but… if Rizzo gets another ring, that wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Kevin Kiermaier was never a Cub, but if he gets into a World Series game you might want to root for him, as his brother Dan is the Cubs head groundskeeper.
So while Ohtani, Betts, Soto, Judge and others get the pre-World Series headlines, it could be one of these other players — or another Dodger or Yankee — who makes the difference in one of these games.
My personal desire is to see a seven-game Series, because more baseball is always good, and to have some of these games be compelling to watch, no blowouts.
My pick? Dodgers in seven. We’ll have a game thread here for Game 1 that will post at 6 p.m. CT, an hour before game time, and the same time for all the World Series games.