Matt Vasgersian and Ron Darling sat down on MLB Network today as part of the MLB Hot Stove segment and they discussed which team looked better on paper, the Atlanta Braves or the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's an argument that we are going to see a lot not only this year but for the near future. These teams finished as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the National League standings and have been at the top of the standings in the NL for years now.
During this offseason, the Dodgers made a splash by spending over $1 Billion to go out and get Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and more players to help bolster their roster. For the Braves, we went out and picked up a future Hall of Fame pitcher, Chris Sale, as well as Jarred Kelenic to help fill out an already loaded roster.
Matt Vasgersian is in agreement with Spencer Strider that "Despite what the Dodgers have done. I think soup to nuts, top to bottom, all 26, I give the Braves that award." Darling was in agreement with Vasgersian. "I get to watch the Braves so often and from the top of that lineup to the bottom, they are as explosive as any lineup in baseball to go along with the Rangers, Dodgers, Houston, and other teams. But the Braves can do it in so many different ways."
So when it comes to the batting lineups, the Braves matchup with the Dodgers as good as anyone in the MLB. Now onto the starting rotations. As I mentioned before, the Braves went out and picked up Chris Sale from Boston and the Dodgers picked up Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Glasnow. Ohtani will not be pitching next year due to injury, but he will star as the Dodgers designated hitter. If the Braves can get the Hall of Fame version of Chris Sale and not the injury prone version, I think Atlanta may have a better rotation than the Dodgers.
Strider, Fried, and Morton are all proven to be able to win big games. Yamamoto is an incredible talent, but we have yet to see him pitching any innings in the MLB. Glasnow is good, Buehler is good, but I would take our three guys over their three guys. It seems inevitable that these two teams will meet somewhere down the line in October, but they will both have to win the National League Divisional Series first.
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