Nine Fun Observations & Musings from the Division Series
By Mike Cardillo
The baseball postseason doesn’t resume until Friday night with the Orioles hosting the Royals in Baltimore in Game 1 of ALCS. For me Wednesday was an “off” day on the schedule so, perhaps, a day late here are a couple observations made from watching the Division Series for six straight days.
* You Can’t Predict Baseball Vol. Infinity: Fortunately I was off on Wednesday and blessedly avoided the scorching hot takes heaped down upon Clayton Kersahw following the Dodgers exit at the hands of the Cardinals. Again Kershaw — the best starting pitcher in baseball — was undone in the seventh inning. If I knew why someone with a lifetime 2.48 ERA in the regular season bloats up to 5.12 in the postseason (51 innings over six series) I’d probably be working for a major league club vs. writing for a sports blog.
It’s the cliché of baseball clichés, but you really can’t predict this sport.
How does it make any sense that Kershaw is terrible come October, while Delmon Young — still just 29 years old — has played in the last six postseasons, hitting nine home runs and winning an ALCS MVP award in the process?
* Trend Pieces: Every October tends to produce some sort of trend in baseball. Whichever team wins the World Series, everyone points to them and says that’s the formula to copy for success. Right now the Royals are a fun story not only because Kansas City is playing in the postseason for the first time since 1985, but because they’re winning with speed and small ball, even in spite of manager Ned Yost. The easy thing to do here is point to the Royal’s baseball low 95 home runs and say there are other ways to win than mashing home runs. Yes, the Royals way is working now and yes, Terrance Gore is a late-inning weapon as a pinch-runner on the basepaths.
A little bit of caution before teams start re-installing AstroTurf and try to turn into the ’85 Royals or Cardinals. Let’s remember the Royals didn’t win their division and needed an all-time crazy comeback to beat the Athletics in the Wild Card game. In the ALDS the Royals won the first two games vs. the Angels by one-run in extra innings. So yes, the Royals are fun — Nori Aoki! — and their go-go style is enjoyable in the short series but expecting a sweeping, MLB-wide emulation of their tactics is a bit short-sighted.
Oh right, during the three-game sweep of the Halos, Kansas City stole five bases and hit four home runs.
If there is a trend from the Division Series worth exploring for the future its roster depth, which was on full display during the Orioles sweep of the Tigers. As out-lined earlier this week in my sad, weepy obit for the 2014 Tigers, in the post-PED, post-amphetamine baseball landscape you really need to take full advantage of both your 25-man and 40-man rosters, with even more in reserve in Double and Triple-A — even in the American League.
The Orioles offset injuries to starters Manny Machado and Matt Weiters, as well as a late-September suspension to Chris Davis and still have a chance to play in their first World Series since 1983. Buck Showalter’s team presses on, patching the holes through low-key deals (Nick Hundley) and low-key acquisitions (Steve Pearce). I’m not sure this is a great stat or not, but 15 players for the 2014 Orioles drove in at least 10 runs during the regular season.
As the Tigers showed with the season on the line ideally you’d like a better option off the bench than a middle infielder with five at bats during the regular season.
* The future: Yes, the Nationals were eliminated at the hand of the Giants, but I’ll go out on a massive limb there is going to be a lot written about Bryce Harper this winter. Let’s hope the media focuses more on the three home runs he hit in the series vs. the Giants than on his “attitude.” The kid is 21 years old, supremely talented and not even begun to scratch the surface of his potential. The last two seasons he’s played 118 and 100 games. If he can figure out a way stay on the field …
That swing is poetry in motion, isn’t it?
Unconventional thought: should the Nationals consider moving Harper to a different position other than outfield, if only to take some of the toll off his body? He’s had knee issues throughout this career and did play catcher during his teenage years. Do you lose too much value in Harper’s athleticism if you take him out of the outfield and try him at a corner infield spot?
* See ya?: Admittedly, I don’t follow the Dodgers on a day-in, day-out basis. Dodgers fans, judging by the comments here, want to see Mattingly fired — like two days ago. Benching Yasiel Puig, the team’s all-around best player, in the decisive Game 4 loss to the Cardinals sets yourself up for unnecessary second-guessing via an extremely tiny sample size.
Reports Wednesday make it sound like GM Ned Colletti rather than Mattingly will be the fall guy for the $240 million payroll team’s shortcoming in October. Making a change simply for the sake of change isn’t always the best course of action, but from afar it looks like Mattingly and the Dodgers have run their course. A few days after the fact using Scott Elbert — he of 4.1 innings in 2014 — during Game 3 seems less and less defensible, but even that pales in comparison to the self-inflicted Puig decision in Game 4.
* It’s what smart managers do to lose ballgames?: Matt Williams questionable bullpen decisions in the seventh inning vs. the Giants Tuesday night were fully taken apart by Dave Cameron at Fox, so I’ll just link that if you want to read something good.
* Snap shot: Hunter Pence’s best Michael Jordan impression is the best baseball photo we’ve seen in a while, non-locker room division.
* You … again: Congrats to the Cardinals and Giants for reaching the NLCS, again. While I’m not exactly thrilled to watch these two franchises contest another trip to the World Series — especially since they’ve both beaten my Tigers in the last eight years–I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m just a little bit jealous of the Giants and Cardinals sustained postseason success in recent times. If the Giants win, Madison Bumgarner better celebrate by doing a keg stand.
* One stat: Mike Trout went 1-for-12 in the ALDS, although his one hit was a home run. I’ll just leave that there are you can form you draw your own conclusions or frothing hot take. At the very least, Trout didn’t comment on Angels fans post-loss like teammate Josh Hamilton.
* TV Musings: For whatever small kernel its worth, the Fox production during the Division Series trumped TBS. The camera work for TBS seemed “off” a bit, so that every fly ball seemed like initially it was going to be a home run — especially at Camden Yards. Less is usually more, so I preferred the two-man booth of Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz to the others used during the Division Series — although sometimes the trio of Ernie Johnson, Cal Ripken and Ron Darling sounded like a two-man booth. Perhaps the Ironman’s new nickname should be “Silent Cal.”
(This has been Yardwork?)