Ranking the best World Series matchups since 2000 - ESPN

Here's a hot take: We're going to have an epic World Series between the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers and the underdog Toronto Blue Jays (who, by the way, won more games and have home-field advantage).

At least, we're due for one. None of the past five World Series went longer than six games and none would be described as a classic or especially memorable World Series. We've had longer no-Game 7 droughts before (including eight years in a row from 2003 to 2010), but after a stretch of four series going the distance in six years from 2014 to 2019, we had grown to expect those drawn-out affairs. Here's hoping we get one.

The big storyline this year is the Dodgers seeking to become the first repeat champion in 25 years, riding their billion-dollar rotation and coming off Shohei Ohtani's greatest performance ever to wrap up the National League Championship Series. The Blue Jays are riding the hot bats of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer to make their first World Series since 1993.

In terms of World Series annals, it's a strong matchup, so let's rank all the World Series since 2000 to see where Dodgers-Blue Jays fits in. This ranking is based on hype, the quality of the teams and their star power heading into the World Series. It's not a ranking of the quality of the World Series itself, although we're going to include a grade on that for each matchup. Let's get to it.

The Yankees were back in the World Series for the sixth time in eight years while the Marlins had rebuilt after their fire sale following their World Series title in 1997. Trust me when I say: Nobody wanted the Yankees in the World Series yet again. And the Marlins were merely a 91-win wild-card team. Most notably, however, both teams had spoiled