According to MLB Columnist and contributing editor at New York Magazine, William Leitch, the New York Yankees will reach the World Series this year but won’t win it. This writer feels that trying to predict the future is a fool’s game. If we knew what would happen, we would adjust what we do to make sure that happened or didn’t happen. However, that being said, some predictions can be more accurate than others.
Predicting that Amazon’s stock price will go up with more and more buying online is probably one of the safer predictions. Under the category, less accurate is what teams will win the World Series over the next ten years. However, that is what Leitch is doing. Just for fun, let’s look at his predictions. For 2021 he has the Yankees going to the World Series and being beaten by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
I don’t know if the New York Yankees will go to the World Series, but in a few earlier articles, I did say that this year may be their best chance that they have had in the last several years. The reason for this is that at least within their own division, even if they are not a better team, their competition has wilted this offseason. It’s hard to believe that the Red Sox, the Orioles, or even the Rays, after losing pitching, would overtake the Yankees within the division. The team to watch this year is the Toronto Blue Jays that are probably not built up enough to beat the Yankees.
So, let’s say that the Yankees can win the East and beat the White Sox in the ALCS; they would, in fact, be in the World Series. However, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in that series would be a daunting task. Presently they are a superior team and appear to stay that way for the next few years. So, to predict that the Dodgers will have back to back wins is certainly in the realm of possibilities.
I’m not going to get into his predictions for each year, but he has the Dodgers and Padres winning more series in the decade than other teams. That prediction also made some sense. The Dodgers are the dominant team right now, and the San Diego Padres have done the most to improve their team this year, and the last few years, so it makes sense, they will have some positive results in the coming years.
Besides the Yankees losing the World Series this year, there is good and bad news for Yankee fans. The good news is that the Yankees will win a World Series, but the bad news is that it isn’t until 2030. In that matchup, the new decade begins with a throwback matchup between the franchise that has won the most World Series in the AL against the one that has won the most World Series in the NL, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Getting back to reality analytics can teach us much about what may happen, but at the same time, we have watched how gut feelings and guesswork can be just as accurate at times. One thing I can tell you is that hiring a big name does not assure winning. The New York Yankees purchased the services of Gerrit Cole, proving that last year. The team with the best pitching and the best hitting is likely to win it all. But in the end, we know that anything can happen in the future to derail the best-laid plans of any team. Think of the Yankees’ injuries the last two years.
New York Yankees, take notice, doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results, is also a fool’s game.
EmpireSportsMedia.com’s Columnist William Parlee is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research. Follow me on Twitter @parleewilliam