Sports Illustrated Predicts Dodgers to Win 107, Lose in World Series to Yankees
Sports Illustrated's 2020 MLB Preview has dropped. You'll find division and pennant predictions, along with info on all 30 teams at SI.com now. Look for the hard copy issue on newstands shortly, and get it via the United States Postal Service by subscribing here.
SI's baseball staff predicts a 107-win Dodgers season, followed by a World Series defeat at the hands of the Yankees. A third Series loss in four years for Los Angeles? I think not.
First of all, the Dodgers are not going to win 107 games. They're not going to win 107 games because they don't need to win 107 games. That's simply not the goal. All that matters is a World Series victory. The last team standing. Period, end of discussion.
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani.
L.A. will coast through the regular season, all right, but secure in the knowledge that 98, 99 or 100 wins is a great regular season. A great regular season. So is 95, 96 or 97 victories. The Dodgers will play for home field advantage, certainly, but not for a record number of wins. They set a franchise record of 106 Ws in 2019, and what did it get them?
This is the year the Dodgers win it all. They do that by being smart during the 162. They'll periodically employ a six-man rotation and use their pitching depth to pace their key starters like no other team can through the summer and into the fall. They'll pace their relievers too, for that matter.
They'll rest Justin Turner more than in recent seasons because he's 35 years old, and because that's the smart thing to do. If you want to win a World Series, anyway. They won't run stars like Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts into the ground chasing an arbitrary win total.
"World Series of bust" no longer applies. Not here. It's "win the whole thing or GTFO" only. No specific win total or National League flag will suffice.
And remember, glove conquers all.
