Random take Tuesday

Jumping around the baseball world with a few random notes and takes.

Well at least this year the narrative that the top teams don’t win in baseball and that it’s hard to have a five-day layoff before the playoffs for division winners, were blown all to heck.

We need a new narrative!

Last year wild card teams played in the World Series when No. 5 seed Texas beat No. 6 seed Arizona.

This year’s matchup is the top-seed New York Yankees from the American League and No. 1 seed Los Angeles Dodgers from the National League.

The Dodgers won the most games this year, 98 and New York was third with 94 as the Phillies were second with 95.

At BetOnline.ag, the World Series opening line showed the Dodgers as favorites at -122 and the Yankees +102.

As of Monday afternoon, the odds showed the Yankees at +110 and Dodgers at -130. Those odds suggest the Dodgers have a 56.5 percent likelihood of winning.

You can even wager on which team will win and in how many games. The shortest odds there are for a seven-game series with the Dodgers to win in seven listed at 9-2 and 5-1 for New York.

Fox TV network got the matchup it wanted to try and max out the ratings. Big markets and star power. Game one Friday is at 8:08 p.m., which is first-pitch time for each WS game.

These teams have played 11 times in the World Series with New York winning eight times in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1977 and 1978.

The Dodgers won in 1955, 1963 and in their most recent WS meeting in 1981, winning in six games.

This is the first time since 1956 that the home run leaders of both leagues will meet in the World Series, as Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani will do so for the first time since Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider in a previous Yankees-Dodgers Fall Classic. It is also the first time in MLB history that two players with 50-homer seasons will play one another in the World Series.

What happened to this closer?: Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase allowed five earned runs during the entire 162-game regular season over 74 1/3 innings. Then he gave up eight earned runs in seven playoff games as the Guardians fell short of the World Series.

Clase gave up two regular-season homers and then three in the playoffs. What the heck was going on? Was he tired? Was he tipping his pitches?

His ERA was 0.61 with an 0.66 WHIP during the season and then it was 9.00 and 1.63 during the postseason.

Clase’s 2024 season is similar to Zack Britton’s 2016 season with the Orioles. Clase had a ridic 674 ERA+ this year although Britton was even better in 2016 with an 803 ERA+.

Buy hey still no reason to use Britton in a close extra-innings playoff game, right? One that was winner take all.

The O's club option decisions: Recently I have written here and here about upcoming roster decisions the O’s must make on 2025 club options they hold for Ryan O’Hearn and Seranthony Domínguez.

Clubs holding such options on their players for next year must make those decisions within five days of the end of the World Series.

The O’s list of club options on players for next year:

* Eloy Jiménez: A $16.5M club option for 2025 with $3M buyout. According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the White Sox would pay $1.5M toward the buyout.

* Seranthony Domínguez: An $8M club option for 2025 with $500K buyout.

* Ryan O'Hearn: An $8M club option for 2025.

* Danny Coulombe: A $4M club option for 2025.

* Cionel Pérez: A $2.2M club option for 2025. He is eligible for arbitration if the club option is declined.