MARY LOUISE KELLY, Host:
Welcome.
PEDRO GOMEZ: Thank you, Mary Louise.
LOUISE KELLY: All right. So Sunday night, you've got the defending champions, the New York Yankees. And they're playing their biggest rival, the Boston Red Sox. Who should we put our money on?
GOMEZ: And when you look at the last 15 years, the Yankees have won four World Series, the Red Sox two. That is absolutely the lion's share of those titles.
LOUISE KELLY: Yeah, and, well, the Yankees won three of those titles back-to-back. Will they be able to do that again this year, you think?
GOMEZ: They certainly have the pieces to do it again. They start with their starting pitching. They've got the big guys at the top of their rotations, starting with CC Sabathia. And they've got all the offense. When you look at their infield, they have Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira. All of those players have contracts of over $150 million.
LOUISE KELLY: Wow. Well, let's look down, way, way down, toward the other end of the spectrum - the Washington Nationals, who've suffered two straight seasons now of at least 100 losses. However, good news, they have signed the number one draft pick, the pitcher Stephen Strasburg. But here's what I don't get, I understand they're sending him to the minors?
GOMEZ: This is somebody who is extremely polished. When you look at pitchers who have come out of either high school or college in the last 20 or 30 years, this is somebody who is at or near the very top of the list.
LOUISE KELLY: One other team I want to ask you about, quickly, and that's the Minnesota Twins. They just signed catcher Joe Mauer to a big contract - $184 million, eight years.
GOMEZ: They draft well and they teach their players how to play the game correctly. They really play the game the way it was played in the '40s and '50s and '60s. And that's one thing that other players and teams want to try to copy, themselves.
LOUISE KELLY: Thanks very much.
GOMEZ: My pleasure.
LOUISE KELLY: This is NPR News.
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