Prediction For 2021 MLB Championship

When looking back on the 2020 Major League Baseball World Series, an array of emotions come to the surface for baseball fans everywhere. If you are a Rays fan, no other hurt probably compares to the pain that you went through last month. If you are a Dodgers fan on the other hand, pain was the last thing you experienced when the Dodgers won the World Series defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 3 to 1 in game 7. Luckily for these Dodgers fans, because of their number of World Series appearances made, and the upward looking trend of Clayton Kershaw’s abilities, the chances of experiencing this champion-joy may not be far off from occurring again in 2021.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have definitely not struggled in the past in regards to World Series appearances. When it comes to the history of MLB organization’s making frequent World Series appearances, a few teams come to mind. In addition to the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals, the Los Angeles Dodgers is another organization that has made itself familiar with MLB World Series, and there is no reason why they can’t do it again in 2021.

Since the first World Series in 1903, The Dodgers have made 12 World Series appearances, with more than half of those resulting in a title, one of them being this past season. There are only three teams in history that have made more appearances than the Los Angeles Dodgers, making them one of the most likely teams to appear at the World Series each year. All of this to say, The Dodgers do not even need to be coming off a championship title with a stacked roster in order to make an appearance at the World Series. But, this year that is exactly how this organization will be coming into next season: high chances, talent-loaded and confidence high. Their chances are already high to make an appearance at the world series regardless, now add the caliber of the team at hand, and once they get to the 2021 World Series, I predict they will be unstoppable.

Another area in which the Dodgers succeeded in 2020 that will ultimately set them apart in the 2021 World Series is their Slugging Percentage. A team’s slugging percentage takes in to account the number of bases a player records per at bat. This statistic does not take into account walks, hit-by pitches, and differentiates itself from batting average as each hit does not share the same value. Ultimately these differentiations from other statistics make SLG effective in measuring a player and/or team’s offensive power and potential for the seasons to come.

In 2020, the Dodgers and theBraves had the highest SLG at .483. This means the Dodgers clearly have the potential to have the most potent offense in Major League Baseball. This 2020 season, Corey Seager dominated offensively leading the Dodgers with a SLG of .585. Following Seager, players like Will Smith, AJ Pollock and Mookie Betts all have slugging percentages over .560 putting the top four Dodgers hitters in the top 20 for SLG. Because of this team’s historical likeliness to apear at the World Series combined with the number of Dodgers player’s success in a stat related to power and talent offensively, like SLG, ultimately once the Dodgers get to the 2021 World Series, they will not be able to be stopped.

What sets apart the two best offenses in MLB (the Dodgers and the Braves) and what will ultimately seal the 2021 World Series Title for the LAD is their pitching. Clayton Kershaw is arguably the best pitcher of the 21st century, but his performance has suffered has been compensated due to a back injury. With the help of Driveline Baseball, Kershaw used his off season to fiercly look for solutions. Coming to the decision to make changes to his form to combat the minute compensations he was making for his weakened back, Kershaw is back on the rise. In 2020 his pith averaged 91.6 mph. In 2018 and ’19 combined he reached 93 just four times. Also, these changes helped Kershaw’s Strikeout to Walk Ratio (K/BB). In 2019, his K/BB was 4.66 putting him at 25th in the league. In 2020, this ration almost doubled to be 8.50 making him sixth in the league for the amount of strikeouts he has for each walk he allows. While the Dodgers pitching has been carried by pitchers like Walker Buehler in recent times, because of this comeback and new discovery for Kershaw, combined with LAD’s potent offense and likelihood to make an appearance at the World Series, the Dodgers should have no problem taking the World Series title in 2021.