It will be the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series, and that's all the convincing anyone should need that it's going to be a good one.

It's OK to have questions, though, and now is the best time to ask them.

To help pass the time until Game 1 gets going at Dodger Stadium on Friday, let's dive into six questions that will define the 12th iteration of the Dodgers vs. Yankees rivalry in the Fall Classic.

These are capital-B Big ones, and they mostly focus on the many stars who will be on display in the best-of-seven series. Not to get too far into spoiler territory, but whether Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge has the better series is certainly a huge storyline.

In fact, let's go ahead and start there.

1. Who Wins the Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge Showdown?

Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge? In the World Series?

This must be how NBA fans felt when Bird vs. Magic was at its peak in the 1980s.

I will not apologize for being hyperbolic, because such a comparison feels eminently appropriate. Ohtani and Judge already have three MVPs between them, and nothing short of a rip in the space-time continuum will keep them from making it five come November.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com, this is also an ultra-rare World Series meeting between a given season's home run leaders:

Yet, even after a season in which Judge hit 58 home runs and Ohtani hit 54 to go with his 59 stolen bases, neither is necessarily where he wants to be at the plate.

Ohtani, 30, has a perfectly solid .934 OPS overall in these playoffs, but it is lost on nobody that he is batting just .138 with the bases empty. It's unbecoming for a leadoff man, especially one who had basically even splits with the bases empty (.311 AVG) and with men on (.308 AVG) during the regular season.

For his part, the 32-year-old Judge is batting .161 in this postseason and .154 for his last 30 playoff games overall. In his defense, he isn't getting much to hit. In his prosecution, he isn't hitting what he is getting to hit.

The situation has "Something's Gotta Give" written all over it. And should Ohtani and Judge both hit more like their regular-season selves in the World Series, even the Bird vs. Magic comparison could end up feeling insufficient.

2. How Much Higher Can Juan Soto Push His Earning Power?

Juan Soto is going to be a free agent in a couple weeks, and the discussion should no longer be whether he's going to get $500 million.

The new over/under, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, is $600 million.

The 25-year-old has been doing nothing but pushing the envelope all year, as his excellent regular season (.989 OPS, 41 HR) is now getting a proper encore in the playoffs. He has a 1.106 OPS in nine games.

Soto may not have won the ALCS MVP—more on the guy who did in just a moment—but it wasn't due to a lack of numbers or heroics. He was 7-for-19 with six runs batted in, with three coming on his series-clinching dinger in Game 5.

That whole at-bat was vintage Soto, which is to say a masterclass in hitting. Even after seven pitches and with the count at 1-2, he seemed to merely be toying with Cleveland righty Hunter Gaddis. It was only a matter of when he would strike.

"I mean, I was all over him. I was all over him," Soto said afterward. "That was the only thing I was thinking. I was just saying to myself, 'You're all over that guy. You're all over that guy. He ain't got anything.' And just try to make good contact, and I did."

Soto was a World Series hero for the Washington Nationals in 2019. If he can do it again in this matchup and on this stage, the Yankees and other suitors for him in free agency (side eye at the New York Mets) are going to need a bigger Brinks truck.

3. Can Giancarlo Stanton Keep This Up?

Again and again, the Cleveland Guardians just kept pitching to Giancarlo Stanton in the ALCS. And again and again, he kept making them pay.

The 34-year-old homered in four of the five games, and each successive tater felt bigger than the last. His three-run homer off Cade Smith in Game 4 was a backbreaker. His two-run homer in Game 5 took Tanner Bibee's soul and tore it asunder.

The lesson is that if Dodgers pitchers are going to make the mistake of facing Stanton, they must at least avoid making mistake pitches. The slugger has been around too long to not know what to do with hanging breaking balls like this one and this one.

And his playoff resume? It's getting more impressive by the swing. He has 16 home runs in 36 career playoff games, with the best ISO short of every slugger ever except for Babe Ruth.

Then again, what are the odds that Stanton's playoff magic runs out and he reverts, pumpkin-like, to his regular-season self?

It's a shudder-worthy thought for the Yankees. Though the 34-year-old still runs into one every now and then, he's only a .213 hitter with a .291 OBP for his last three regular seasons. He's struck out in 30.5 percent of his plate appearances.

He's an all-or-nothing hitter, alright. And since the Yankees offense (5.0 R/G) trended ever so slightly behind that of the Dodgers (5.2 R/G) this season, whether the "all" Stanton or the "nothing" Stanton shows up in the World Series could have huge ramifications.

4. Will Freddie Freeman's Ankle Let Him Be a Star?

Elsewhere on the topic of MVP winners who will look to make their presence felt in the World Series, there isn't much doubt about Mookie Betts right now.

There have been times this year when he's loomed larger than even Shohei Ohtani, and one of those is ongoing right now. It was mostly on Betts' back that the Dodgers rode through the NLDS and the NLCS, wherein the 2018 AL MVP hit four homers with a 1.063 OPS.

But what of Freddie Freeman?

The 2020 NL MVP hurt his right ankle at the end of the regular season, and his efforts to play through it in the postseason have been...unpleasant, at best. He's had to sit out three games, and he only has seven singles to show for 32 at-bats.

It's been a breath-holding thing whenever Freeman has gotten on base, and it hasn't been much more comfortable watching him play first base. He'd be DH'ing in a perfect world, but that spot is Ohtani's until further notice.

With Enrique Hernández and Max Muncy filling in more than ably at third base and first base, the Dodgers will have to give some serious thought about whether to even put Freeman on their roster for the World Series. If he isn't good to go, that spot shouldn't go to waste.

Even if Freeman does play, there will be the question of what can be fairly expected of him. As much as everyone can hold out hope of the 35-year-old pulling a Kirk Gibson, it's worth remembering what Vin Scully had to say about that: not merely improbable, but impossible.

5. Does Either Side Have a Reliable Pitching Plan?

And now for a question that is liable to make both Dodgers fans and Yankees fans do one of those exaggerated, cartoon-style gulps:

How are you guys feeling about your pitching staffs entering the World Series?

There's an argument that the general advantage on the mound lies with the Yankees. They have a 3.27 ERA for the postseason, compared to 4.36 for the Dodgers.

New York has also gotten much better work from its two primary starting pitchers:

• Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón, NYY: 6 GS, 30.2 IP, 3.82 ERA
• Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty, LAD: 5 GS, 21.1 IP, 5.48 ERA

Context is everything, though. And in this case, Dodgers pitchers had a tougher road to the World Series than Yankees pitchers. The opponents faced by the former outscored the opponents faced by the latter by 85 runs in the regular season.

The Dodgers can be confident in their depth, not to mention manager Dave Roberts' ability to handle it. He has mostly been successful in his puppet mastery of 15 different pitchers in the playoffs, and particularly so amid a 33-inning scoreless streak.

That Yankees manager Aaron Boone has been able to keep things relatively simple is both the potential good news and the potential bad news.

It'll be good in the World Series if Cole, Rodón and core relievers Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver own their roles. It'll be bad if they don't, which is an especially real threat where Rodón and Holmes are concerned.

The battle between these two staffs is likely to become one of attrition. The Dodgers' depth could be an asset in this regard, but recent history suggests that will only be the case if they can keep the series from going too long.

In other words: It may not be a question of which staff is better, but rather which is less bad.

6. Just How Huge Is This Series Going to Be?

Both Dodger Stadium and Yankee Stadium can host over 50,000 fans. And as such, over 350,000 fans will attend this World Series if it goes seven games.

But how many will watch from home?

Ratings for this year's postseason are already way above where they were in 2023, and now MLB and Fox have the best possible ratings bonanza they could conceive of for the World Series.

The Yankees play in the biggest media market in North America; the Dodgers, in the second-biggest. And rest assured, many more will be watching in Japan.

The 2023 World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks was the least-watched on record, averaging barely more than nine million viewers. By comparison, 12.9 million people watched Game 5 of the NLDS between the Dodgers and Padres.

It may therefore be a conservative estimate to wonder if the 2024 World Series could double the average viewership of the 2023 iteration. And then there's what could happen if it gets really good.

The historic nature of this matchup calls to mind the 2016 World Series, in which both the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Guardians were trying to end long championship droughts. It was a hit, and especially when it culminated in 40 million people tuning in for Game 7.

That such numbers can even be thought of as real goals already makes the 2024 World Series a win for baseball as an institution. And if they actually come to fruition, it'll be a tough time for the "baseball is dying" crowd.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.