LOS ANGELES – It's easy to roll your eyes at this World Series match and consider it a giant market battle, these Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers still play simply because they ranked # 1 and # 3 in payroll and have resources beyond almost any other deductible.

Yet it's not just money that puts these teams above others. Two examples will be on display as the third match begins Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

Walker Buehler and Andrew Benintendi are not nine-digit free agents like J. D. Martinez and David Price, nor are they highly profitable international investments like Yasiel Puig or Hyun-Jin Ryu. These were rivals of the Southeast Conference, blossoming as the 2015 project approached and, in the case of Buehler, accessible to 23 more teams before the Dodgers chose it.

Friday, Buehler will take the mound for the third game, the best hope of the Dodgers to dig a deficit of 2-0 in the World Series. Benintendi, with four hits in the first game and an important trick like ballet in the left field of the second match, is perhaps halfway to the trophy of the most useful player of the series.

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The fact that they are in positions as important as just three years of school is not a reflection of their teams' money, but of their culture, and the chance to be recruited by clubs that, far to be perfect, have confidence in their power and entrust them with autonomy. and wing development.

"Looking back, I'm very lucky to be in this type of organization," Buehler, 24, told USA TODAY Sports. "There were 23 good players in front of me. I know a lot of them personally. And part of the development did not happen, or the organization put them in a bad position, or something like that.

"I was happy that the Dodgers chose me and I think they made an excellent choice. But development is an important part of it. The project is a strange situation where the higher you climb, the worse the team you lead is. There are not a lot of badly led, really good teams. So being drafted where I was is a step forward to where I am today. "

Fourteen of the 42 choices in the first round of 2015 have been ranked in the majors. Only Alex Bregman, the No. 2 pick of the Houston Astros, has produced more wins over substitutes (14.2) than Benintendi (7.0) and Buehler (3.3).

Although there were not a lot of break-ins in the half-dozen choices before the Red Sox picked Benintendi seventh in the overall standings, the jury decided on a significant number of choices that preceded the choice of Buehler by Buehler at 24.

Like every potential project, Buehler and Benintendi had their warts. Buehler had a kicking elbow in his first year at Vanderbilt and eventually needed surgery from Tommy John, as suspected by the teams. At 5-10 and 170 pounds, Benintendi had a relatively small frame for a corner player, and a single productive season in Arkansas under his belt.

The fact that both clubs chose the right guy was a triumph of trust and process.

The Red Sox's Benintendi record spread to high school when local scout John Pyle noticed his athleticism by watching him play basketball. Benintendi caught the attention of Plains Red Sox scout Chris Mears at a Connie Mack tournament in Farmington, MN.

In a stroke of fate, Mears was rebadigned to the Southeast more fertile as Benintendi headed for Arkansas. A limit obsession was hatched.

After a difficult start season, Benintendi avoided the summer wooden bat race and stayed in Arkansas, gaining strength, polishing his approach and becoming, for his second year, a different player.

"My freshman year," says Benintendi, "I was in the lead and I hit the ball in the other direction.

"My second year was when I almost said," Fuck it, I'm just going to drive the ball. "Since then, I'm where I am."

He led the SEC on average at batting and home runs, but as the Red Sox held an unusually high pick after a 71-91 season, senior management would need to convince.

Mears is as impressed by Benintendi's quiet confidence as by his beautiful swing. He made what Mike Rikard, who was running his first draft as Red Sox Scouting Director, called "a very aggressive report".

"It was a revelation," says Rikard, now vice president of recruiting for the Red Sox. "We had no history of wooden bats. And on top of that, he was a bit of a little player. "

This is where continuity matters: Mears, Rikard and a group of Red Sox scouts have been working with the organization for at least 11 years. They also survived a purge of the facade when former general manager Ben Cherington was replaced later in 2015.

When Mears wrote this aggressive report, Rikard knew where he was coming from. Finally, he went to see Benintendi himself, at a time when he had hit only six times this season.

"I saw four bats," recalls Rikard, "and he hit three. My head is spinning a little. Needless to say, after this game, I changed my flight very quickly and I got stuck the next day.

"It was important for me not to be stubborn compared to what I saw."

At the same time, the club badyzed the history of the Benintendi players 'major leagues and found favorable results that go hand in hand with Mears' comparison of Benintendi to a young Jacoby Ellsbury.

On the day of the repechage, Benintendi was second on the Red Sox board, behind only Bregman.

"We have been together for a very long time," says Rikard. "Getting to know each other has been an integral part of our success. We have a continuity and we understand the subjectivity of each. "

Mears said, "Great things are happening here and I can see that these are based on the trust we have in each other."

Some 3,000 miles across the country, a new Dodgers regime led by baseball operations president Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi was making its first project.

According to Zaidi, the Dodgers considered Buehler one of the top 10 players – they were not alone there – but an uneven junior season and worries about the right elbow scared many teams. According to Zaidi, Screening Director Billy Gasparino and Executive Director Josh Byrnes remained steadfast.

The club opted for number 24 and opted for a big win against Buehler, although Tommy John's operation seemed imminent. Less than two months after drafting Buehler, the Dodgers announced he would need the procedure.

"We felt that this talent was worth waiting for a year and a half," said Zaidi.

Only two years after this operation, Buehler was in the big leagues.

So what happened between the surgery and the arrival at Chavez Ravine?

"We spend a lot of time with our players in the process, allowing them to self-evaluate and play the game in ways that showcase their own strengths," Zaidi said. "If you're a pitcher, it's really about what your best shots are, what part of the hitting area you should be working on.

"Raw materials are always at the rendezvous. Then you have to make sure they understand what makes them good. It sounds very simple, but sometimes it's a more nuanced process.

"Nowadays, with all the information available, being able to use it and better understand what works and what does not work is a key part of the development process."

And perhaps what separates Buehler from his peers who are still working a step away from the majors.

He dropped 163 batters in 146 2/3 this season and, with a casual and fearless mentality, he continues to have the ball in the Dodgers' biggest games: The playoffs to beat the Colorado Rockies for the NL West title , Game 7 of the NLCS where they defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, and now the third game on Friday to save the season.

The second batter to face will be Benintendi, who, he said, was loved in college and still holds high regard for his qualities and dynamism.

"He has an air, a self-confidence," says Buehler about Benintendi. "There are a lot of great personalities on the Red Sox, and he's one of those guys who's OK as a second fiddle, because he's really a good player and a very good guy, but he does not necessarily have to to be a superstar. "

It may not have the choice. Benintendi, 24, scored .366 on the base, paired 16 home runs with 21 steals, was considered gold glove finalist and scored a decisive win in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series .

Two more wins, and he will be a World Series champion, a happy result for the player and the team to find the perfect match.

"Throughout the process, the Red Sox have distinguished themselves by the greatest interest. And thank God, they did it, "he says. "Honestly, you have to fall to the right place.

"I think I've played pretty well to be able to progress quickly, but it takes the right organization, the right people to push you through the organization and the miners, pretty quickly. And I had the chance to do that.