While the Los Angeles Dodgers may be heavily favoured in the World Series, the architect of the team certainly isn't overlooking the Toronto Blue Jays.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman gave a glowing review to the Blue Jays while appearing on the Jim Rome Show earlier this week.
Friedman was especially complimentary about the Blue Jays' diverse offence heading into Game 1 on Friday at Rogers Centre (Sportsnet, 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT).
"They're a really talented team," said Friedman, whose Dodgers have won two World Series (2020, 2024) since he got the job in October 2014.
"I think a lot is made of 'Hey, you've got to make contact.' And obviously, that's really important. There's a lot made of 'Hey, you've got to hit for power.' It's kind of like Goldilocks' porridge being (too) hot or too cold. It's hard to get it just right. The Toronto Blue Jays have (it) just right. They're making a lot of contact and they're hitting balls really hard."
The Dodgers, of course, boast the best starting rotation in the majors with Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani putting up outstanding numbers.
But the Blue Jays are coming off an ALCS where they mostly did quite well against top Seattle Mariners starters George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo.
The bottom of the order for Toronto, with guys like Andres Gimenez, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Addison Barger, was far better than Seattle's counterparts — another key to the Blue Jays' seven-game win.
"For us to game-plan against that lineup, obviously with Vlad (Guerrero Jr.) leading the charge, is going to be challenging," Friedman said. "Fortunately, we feel like we have a lot of really talented pitchers we'll be bringing to the party.
"But I think that matchup of our arms and their bats will be really interesting theatre, because they're doing something as an offence that's really hard to do. It will be fun ... to try to do what we can to combat that."
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