The internet is full of “Los Angeles vs. New York” content. Are you going to eat palm trees or pizza? Are you for constant sunshine and lush beach days, or are you for seasonal change and the magic of snowfall on the Rockefeller Center tree? Do you prefer swimming pools and movie stars or city streets and…movie stars? Do you like traffic or traffic?

Well, the beauty of this year’s World Series matchup is that we can put all of those tired discussions aside and make LA vs. NYC solely a debate about baseball.

So as we wait out the endless hours leading up to Game 1 of Dodgers vs. Yankees on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, let’s take a look at these two baseball giants side by side and see which club comes out on top at which position in this highly anticipated fall classic clash .

(By the way, I personally prefer pizza in any scenario, but I promise I won’t let that affect the results here.)

Catcher
If we’re evaluating facial hair through October, Yankees rookie Austin Wells, with his cute beard, gets the nod over clean-shaven Will Smith for the 2,450 miles from New York to LA

But if we focus on baseball’s performance, it’s much closer.

Wells had a season that will earn him a lot of Rookie of the Year recognition. He ranked fourth in fielding run value among catchers (min. 500 innings) with a +13 grade and contributed a solid 103 OPS+ (3% better than MLB average). ). But his struggles in September and the postseason (.091 average, .349 OPS) necessitated a move to the eighth hole for Game 4 of the ALCS (where, of course, he hit a home run). Smith didn’t perform as well defensively, but he improved his performance significantly by shutting down opposing runners, with an NL-best 33% caught steals rate. And although he struggled in the second half, Smith was fifth-best among qualifying catchers with a 116 OPS+, he went wide a few times in October and has more experience at this stage.

But Rizzo came back for the ALCS and showed with an impressive 6-for-14 performance that he can still put together elite at-bats and find the grass in the outfield. Meanwhile, likely Hall of Famer Freeman has had some big hits this postseason, but he’s 7-of-32 overall and was so weakened that he had to sit out two games in the NLCS. We probably don’t want to see what’s going on under all that ankle wrap.

Second base
Both Gleyber Torres of the Yankees and Gavin Lux of the Dodgers increased their contributions in the second half – Torres with a .292/.361/.419 slash line; Lux with .304/.390/.508 markings. Defensively they perform similarly.

But Torres was a big catalyst in October, hitting .400 from the leadoff position to getting on base while also providing some power with a home run and two doubles. Lux has a .592 OPS in October, leaves either Kiké Hernández or Chris Taylor (depending on the outfield lineup) against lefties, and is suffering from a hip flexor issue. Hernández turns into a different player in this tournament with 15 postseason home runs, but he’s no ordinary player here. So Torres gets the nod.

But in an unsettled shortstop situation with Mookie Betts moved back to right field and Miguel Rojas ailing (he needs surgery for a sports hernia), utility and midseason trade acquisition Tommy Edman has the opportunity for the Dodgers used. He was the MVP of the NLCS and even took over the top spot in this loaded lineup with an 11-for-27 mark, a home run and three doubles. The sample size is small, but since there is no clear edge, we’ll ride the wave with this one.

Third base
Injuries limited him to 73 games, but Max Muncy returned with a flourish, finishing the regular season with a 141 OPS+ and 15 home runs in 293 plate appearances. He carried that into another productive October, hitting three home runs and a double in the first two rounds. The Dodgers can use Hernández here as well, and we’ve already mentioned his postseason prominence, which only adds to what the Dodgers can get from the hot corner.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. took third base for the first time since a midseason trade from the Marlins and immediately took on a starring role on offense. Under the hood, however, he had essentially the same hard-hit and pull tendencies as a league-average season in Miami, and he went 5 of 34 in October.

Left field
Teoscar Hernández was an underrated signing on a one-year deal in the Dodgers’ $1.2 billion winter, and no one will sleep on him after posting a 137 OPS+, 33 home runs, 32 doubles and 99 RBIs. He hit two more home runs in the postseason and has a lead over the Yankees’ Alex Verdugo, who had a .647 OPS in the regular season and a .544 OPS in October.

midfield
Andy Pages is young and talented, and he had a great Game 5 in the NLCS (3-for-4 with two home runs), and we reported back in October what Kiké Hernández is capable of. We also all realize that Aaron Judge has been better to pitch in this and previous postseasons.

But Judge managed to hit the ball over the wall twice in the ALCS, doing so 58 times in the regular season (while posting the best OPS+ by a right-handed hitter in the modern era in the AL/NL). By our calculation, that’s 60 home runs, which is a lot of home runs.

Right field
See, this is why we have a love-hate relationship with these position-by-position plays. I love the debate, hate that we have to choose and Really I hate that we get hate mail no matter who we vote for.

But the fight must go on.

And in that corner, Mookie Betts, who bravely pitched at shortstop earlier this season before switching back to his Gold Glove position on the right side, hitting .289/.372/.491. A day earlier this month, he had everyone talking about his “October struggles” just by posting a 1.063 OPS with four home runs in the NLDS and NLCS.

Betts is likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and is a two-time World Series champion. His defense is by far the best in this match. Soto already has a ring and is on a Hall of Fame career of his own. My editors won’t allow me to declare a push because we need to insert someone’s image into the graphic. It looks much nicer than an empty room.

I’m taking Soto because of his look and the way he beat his chest after breaking everyone’s hearts at Progressive Field on Saturday. He looks like a man on a mission to not only win it all, but also make some $11 billion in the process. I know that’s not enough to satisfy Mookie’s many fans (including myself), but in life we ​​have to make decisions and live with them. Nothing personal, Mookie.

Designated batsman
Giancarlo Stanton scored game-changing hits on back-to-back days in the ALCS, was named series MVP, passed Babe Ruth in postseason home runs (16), and has a postseason OPS of 1.019. He’s completely locked in at the moment and it’s a beautiful sight. And by the way, he’s a kid from California who hit 10 home runs and 26 RBIs in 25 games at Dodger Stadium, where he also won the 2022 All-Star Game MVP award.

But if I won Stanton over Shohei Ohtani – especially after I won Soto over Betts – I would be thrown into baseball jail and forced to wear pinstriped prison uniforms. And anyway, it’s not like Ohtani isn’t keeping up his end of the bargain. The “What’s wrong with Ohtani?” dialogue just because MLB’s first 50-50 man hadn’t hit a home run in a few days and was 0-fer for a while while the bases were empty was nice, but he has Corrected himself very quickly and is back to getting hits on a regular basis and has an incredible tally of 18 for his last 23 with runners in scoring position.

Start pitching
The Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Gavin Stone and Dustin May…on the shelf. Because of this, they had to struggle through several games in October – hardly what you would expect from a team with a payroll of over $300 million. A midseason trade for Jack Flaherty was a saving grace, although he struggled in two of his three postseason starts against the Padres and Mets. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who missed much of the year with a shoulder problem, has calmed down after struggling in Game 1 of the NLDS, and Walker Buehler appears to be figuring out how to succeed without the same fastball he had before Tommy John surgery. However, this group is thin.

Bullpen
It’s difficult to say what awaits us here, as it is quite possible that both units will run out of fuel. Bullpens were used to the max in October by both these teams and the others.

But both the Dodgers and Yankees have benefited from new looks down the stretch, with the Dodgers playing for Michael Kopech and the Yankees enjoying a standout performance from once-struggling starter Luke Weaver. The Yanks have posted a 2.56 ERA in 38 2/3 innings out of their bullpen, giving opponents a .609 OPS in the first two postseason series. The Dodgers’ relief ERA is slightly higher (2.94), but in more innings (49) and against superior offensive opponents in the Padres and Mets as opposed to the Royals and Guardians. In fact, the Dodgers’ top six relievers (Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Anthony Banda, Daniel Hudson, Kopech and Alex Vesia) have an ERA of 0.84 and an opponent OPS of .450 this postseason.

It’s close and the Dodgers’ group could be tested by another bullpen game, but LA’s relief corps is the deeper of the two.

In the 2024 regular season, the Dodgers defeated the Yankees twice in three meetings at Yankee Stadium. Now what does that mean? Absolutely nothing!

All that matters now is which personnel can contain an opposing offense capable of controlling the zone (the Yankees and Dodgers were 1-2 in walks this season) and then making pitchers pay . And in that regard, the Yankees appear to have the upper hand when it comes to starting these games right.

But the Dodgers’ baserunning (they have 11 steals in 11 postseason games) is better than the Yankees’. Their defense is better than the Yankees. Their performance this postseason with runners in scoring position (.311/.372/.594 slash) was much better than the Yankees’ (.181/.308/.319). Los Angeles also had a more difficult road through October.

All of these things will work in the Dodgers’ favor as they turn the historic tables and win their first complete World Series since 1988.

It will take a while though.