Why the Los Angeles Dodgers are STILL World Series Favorites

Despite adding Zack Greinke at the deadline, the Houston Astros have a potential formidable NL opponent in the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I have my allegiances, and so do you, and those allegiances were on full display Wednesday, as fans sat idly by with their phones out waiting for deadline news benefiting their favorite team. My team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, were pretty quiet.

They acquired 30-year-old infielder Jedd Gyorko from the St. Louis Cardinals and southpaw Adam Kolarek from the Tampa Bay Rays. Other than that, their deadline day came and went fairly quickly.

Then they did a thing.

Hours after the deadline, the Dodgers announced that they’re calling up RHP Dustin May, their #2 prospect, to start Friday against San Diego. Not only is making your major league debut an amazing feat, but it looked unlikely that he would be here at all.

Reports had teams asking for May, as well as Gavin Lux and Keibert Ruiz, in any major deals. The Dodgers, though, are notorious for not trading their top prospects i.e; Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Alex Verdugo, Will Smith, and now Dustin May. The Dodgers refused to trade May to get an ace or a lights-out reliever, and now instead of getting them the answer, he could be the answer.

This goes to show just how deep the Dodgers really are, and how all the prospects they’ve refused to trade over the past few years are finally ready for the bigs.

May, however, was not the biggest news of deadline day, not even close. Moments after the clock struck 4 pm eastern, it was announced that the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Zack Greinke and cash to the Houston Astros for a handful of prospects.

I guess you could say the Houston Astros did a thing too.

Why the Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series Favorites

The Houston Astros did a thing too

This is the biggest trade news to come out of Houston since they acquired Justin Verlander two years ago. Now, Greinke joins Verlander, along with Gerrit Cole, in what is probably the strongest rotation in baseball.

I’m not over the Dodgers’ 2017 World Series loss (probably never will be) but any baseball fan, regardless of allegiance, can see that this makes the Astros lethal. The road to the World Series, for the AL at least, will probably go through New York or Houston. Zack Greinke is going to help these Astros down the stretch and it is going to be really hard for any team, even the Yankees, to slow them down.

So, say the Astros get to the World Series. Who do they face?

Now, this isn’t my alliances talking, it’s sheer, objective observation; it could very well be the Dodgers. They have been the best team in the National League, sometimes even all of baseball, all season long.

They were the first to reach 70 wins just a few days ago, and they have shown that any lead can be erased with the right lineup. Their bullpen needs a little bit of help, but Tony Gonsolin put on a clinic in Colorado Tuesday night in a win over the Rockies. Gonsolin is a very realistic bullpen option in October, so is May, so is Ross Stripling and Julio Urias.

What makes this all so insane is that all those names I mentioned were drafted by the Dodgers over the past decade.

The Dodgers didn’t do a lot at the deadline but, honestly, they didn’t need to. They can contend, they can win, and they can put on a show in the process with the guys they have.

So, now that we have established that a 2017 World Series rematch is all kinds of possible, let’s think about how it could go down.