Dodgers: Key World Series roster difference gives LA big advantage over Rays

The Dodgers roster has a ton of playoff/World Series experience.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the National League and advanced to the World Series three of the past four seasons. They’ve won the NL West and made it to the NLDS for eight straight years. That’s some pretty darn good continuity.

And they added even more World Series experience to their roster when they signed Joe Kelly before the start of the 2019 season and traded for Mookie Betts before the start of this season. On top of being stacked with talent, a lot of these guys have been here before.

Actually, 123 times to be exact. That’s the amount of World Series games played the current Dodgers roster has under its belt. That’s compared to two for the Rays — both of which were pitched by Charlie Morton when he was a member of the Houston Astros back in 2017.

Right off the bat, the Dodgers have an immeasurable edge here. “You may have a couple pounds on me, but nothing outweighs experience,” as famously stated by Johnny Drama in Entourage.

As for the Rays, this is just the second time in their franchise’s history they made it to the World Series and past the ALDS. The farthest this current Tampa roster has went was the ALDS last year, when they took the Astros to the brink in Game 5. Other than that, they hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2013.

And would you look at that. The Dodgers have arguably made better upgrades since their 2017 trip to the Fall Classic. Betts for Yasiel Puig, Muncy for Logan Forsythe, and AJ Pollock for Andre Ethier/Matt Kemp.

Additionally, they’ve made bigger losses not sting as badly. They’ve replaced Yu Darvish/Hyun-Jin Ryu with Walker Buehler; Yasmani Grandal with Will Smith; and a combination of Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Ross Stripling with Julio Urias, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin. And all of those guys have the least experience.

This is a dangerous Dodgers team, and they’ll be out to prove exactly why in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night.

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