2021 World Series
Los Angeles Dodgers (4), New York Yankees (1)
It will be back-to-back championships for the Dodgers as their league-leading payroll has bankrolled another World Series title for L.A. With plenty of references to the three battles in the late 70s-early 80s between the two giant franchises, the first pitch for the 2021 edition of the Series will come from the Dodgers former manager from that era, the 94 year old Tommy Lasorda, who will fire a fastball right down the heart of the plate to great applause at Chavez Ravine. While the games will be close and will reveal the Yankees to be a team on the verge of being the next AL dynasty, there is no competing with the Dodgers rotation as each of the three starters will pitch into the seventh inning. Series MVP Clayton Kershaw – the graybeard of Dodger pitchers – will pitch two complete games and strike out Yankee slugger Bryce Harper 6 times over his two starts, including the final out of Game 5 to keep the World Series in Southern California.
In the good ol’ days (like 2010), big market teams did not employ a strategy to stockpile as many of the Top 100 / Elite prospects as possible that the Dodgers, Yankees, and Cubs have acquired now to augment their financial advantages. It is tough to see a small-market team like the Moneyball-era A’s or the Extra 2% Rays breaking through in the next five seasons but there will always be innovators to create new organizational strategies. If there is a team that you see building themselves into a 2021 contender that I missed, please leave who you think in the comments and why. It is interesting to speculate about the future that the current General Managers are building.