The 2015 World Series consisted
of the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets. I had hoped we’d see the Rangers versus the
Cubs, but that was my wishful thinking, as opposed to my baseball instinct. (I really want the Cubs to win one of these
years!)
The Royals made it into
the World Series for the second consecutive time, as they barely lost to the
San Francisco Giants in 7 games last year.
Since then, the Royals’ team hasn’t changed too many players; so, it’s
not a surprise that they were able to make it back to the World Series. Their manager, Ned Yost, has publicly
stated that each of the retained players have targeted winning this year from
the minute they lost last year.
Additionally, the Royals learned a lesson that the Yankees and their
fans have known for a very long time:
Don’t over-celebrate on the path to the World Series, hold in your main
outbursts until you (hopefully) win the World Series because that’s the
ultimate prize. It’s similar to a boxer
being told to avoid sex until after the fight so that he gains even more drive
to accomplish the championship. Sorry,
but the rest of this article is “not” about sex.
The Mets, unlike the
Royals, were a surprise team to have made it to this year’s World Series. There are many reasons for that, but the main
reason that most (including me) would rationalize from is based on the
Nationals who were, without question, this year’s most disappointing team. As for the Mets, there’s no disputing their
starting pitchers are amongst the best, especially when it comes down to
velocity and age; but, as anyone who knows baseball very well can tell you, great
pitching is reliant upon great (or at least good) defense! The Mets not only lacked that, but they have
also lacked quality in their collective bullpen and in their collective offense;
yet, they were somehow able to defeat the Dodgers and then sweep the Cubs in
the playoffs.
I do feel that this
year’s AL (American League) was overly stronger than the NL (National League). Of course, I’m not just basing that on the
fact that the AL defeated the NL in this year’s All-Star game 6-3. That would be silly because as recent as last
year, the AL also defeated the NL; yet, it was the NL’s San Francisco Giants who
won the World Series. Still, statistical
results do support the AL’s dominance this year over the NL. In 2015, the AL defeated the NL in
head-to-head outings with its third highest winning percentage (.557) during
the 13 years since the interleague games were incorporated. As for the Mets, they lost 11 games and only
won 9 in interleague play, while the Royals won 13 and only lost 7. Also, I watch a lot of baseball (not just the
Yankees) and I witnessed the AL’s dominance in most of the games I had watched. It just seemed inevitable that this year’s
World Series championship team was going to come from the AL.
Even with the
aforementioned stats, I believe that the Mets could have defeated the Blue
Jays. That’s because, overall, the Blue
Jays were a lot like the Cubs - they depended on the homerun and didn’t have a strong
bullpen. The Royals, on the other hand, had
the best bullpen in the Majors and typically don’t swing for the fences - they swing
for singles and doubles.
In the end, most of the
stats did indeed support the game results.
The Royals hit, especially in the latter innings, as they always had
this year. The Mets’ starters did fairly
well, but none of them were dominant enough to avoid at least a few runs for
each of their outings (although Matt Harvey’s effort in Game 5 was great
through his first 8 innings) in the World Series. Besides Yoenis Cespedes lacking base-running skills, the Mets’ defensive flaws were magnified
during the Series. These highlights each
led to a Mets loss:
- David Wright bobbled a
ball in the 14th inning in Game 1 (now I know why the Mets made a
bobble head of him).
- Daniel Murphy, in Game
4, reminded the Mets’ fans of Bill Buckner as Murphy similarly failed to get in
front of a ground ball.
- David Wright cut off
Wilmer Flores in the 9th inning of Game 5 with Eric Hosmer threatening
to charge for home plate and Wright then made a sidearm throw to first which
led to…
- Lucas Duda threw
wildly to home plate to allow the Royals to tie the game in the 9th
inning of the same (last) Game 5 play!
- Daniel Murphy failed
again in Game 5’s final inning (12th) when Paulo Orlando grounded a
simple 1-hopper to him! I guess they
tried really hard in Game 5 to avoid traveling back to Kansas City!
- Travis d’Arnaud in
Games 1 through 5 not only failed to throw “any” runner out in 7 attempts, his
throws were downright awful. Furthermore,
his throw-out record during all of the playoff games totaled to ZERO on 11
attempts! That's enough to make the Mets’ fans
“throw up”.
The Royals didn’t
exactly look great defensively either, but they didn’t as many untimely mistakes. The Mets’ bullpen, as anticipated failed them. In fact, their best bullpen pitcher during
the World Series was not their closer Jeurys Familia (who had 3 blown saves and
gave up 2 runs) but, ended up being Bartolo Colon who was a “starter” for them during
the season! On the other hand, the Royals’
bullpen lived up to their high expectations.
In all, the Royals’ starters and bullpen collectively kept the Mets to a
.193 batting average.
As a Yankees’ fan, I am
overly disappointed that the Yankees failed to go deeper into the playoffs, but
I also know that a failed World Series to most of us Yankees’ fans equates to a
failed season. Perhaps, this year, the current
Mets learned that bottom-line point.
Their team and their fans were way overconfident, especially after
sweeping the Cubs. It’s understandable
that celebrations were in order for the Mets, after not being in the playoffs for
9 years and not winning a World Series for 29 years; but, they celebrated way
too much and became overly cocky. For
instance, after their wins in each step towards the World Series, they publicly
enjoyed spraying and drinking champagne, which is not uncommon, but they seemed
to do it to no end - I’m not sure if it helped the TV ratings or hurt them. Then, after sweeping the Cubs, they extended
their celebratory ways by appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show - led by the
captain, David Wright. We all know (because
we witnessed it) that Derek Jeter would have done everything he could to avoid
such premature celebrations. Even Sports
Illustrated jumped on the Mets’ band wagon before the World Series began, as
they promoted Daniel Murphy’s photo on their cover.
Hopefully, the Mets
learned that a hero, such as Murphy, during one round of playoffs is not
necessarily a hero in the next round.
Likewise, a hero in the regular season, Cespedes, will not necessarily
be hero in a World Series. Perhaps the
Mets and Noah Syndergaard learned that purposely throwing a 98 MPH “weapon” towards
an opponent’s head (Alcides Escobar) was not the smartest thing to do, especially
just for the ridiculous, senseless reason that Escobar swung at first pitches
during the Series - wow, that’s a sin!
That act may have been the final stamp of team unification the Royals
needed to win the final two games.
Lastly, perhaps the Mets’ fans learned that evaluating their team’s
starters is not enough of an evaluation; that they should analyze the whole
team and they should also analyze and give kudos to their opponents.
