Six Reasons to Keep Watching the Rest of Major League Baseball Postseason
October is an exciting time for sports fans. The National Football League is in full swing, the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League seasons are set to start and Major League Baseball turns a new leaf to the postseason.
In recent years, the traditional eight-team playoff has been slightly altered, drawing more attention to the sport with the win-or-go-home-one-game-play in wild card games. Expectations, tension and drama are always high for October baseball, especially this postseason. Droughts are due to end and curses are set to be broken. With the League Championship Series’ underway, here are six reasons to follow the rest of the MLB postseason.
1. The Curse of the Billy Goat
The Cubs championship drought has dragged for over a century now, 107 seasons to be exact. Although they have been close, the Chicago north siders haven’t celebrated a Cubs championship since 1908. They haven’t even won a pennant since 1945, the same year that Billy Sianis wasn’t allowed to bring his goat into a 1945 World Series game against the Detroit Tigers. Legend goes that Sianis said to have hexed the Cubs, deeming them to endless seasons of failures. After winning 103 regular season game this season, hope is as high as it has even been on the north side of Chicago.
http://www.history.com/news/how-a-billy-goat-cursed-the-chicago-cubs
2. Cleveland’s Stretch of Success
At least Chicago had the Bulls and Michael Jordan in the 90’s. The city of Cleveland was as tortured as it gets as they endured a 52 year professional championship drought, that was until LeBron James and the Cavaliers broke the stretch by winning the NBA Championship last June. But Indians fans specifically have been waiting a long time to celebrate another ring, with their last championship season coming in 1948. After sweeping the Red Sox in the divisional round and getting off to a fast start in the championships series against Toronto, Indians fans have earned the right to be optimistic.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/20/sport/cleveland-cavaliers-nba-championship-ends-drought/
3. Lock Down Bullpens
Each series showcase lockdown bullpen weapons. The Cubs and Indians both made deals with the Yankees at this year’s trade deadline for lefty relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller respectively. Both will be featured as Chapman tallied 90 strikeouts in 58 innings pitched this season while averaging a league high 100.88 mile per hour fastball, while Andrew Miller hasn’t given up an earned run while tallying 27 strikeouts in 16 postseason appearances.
Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna has been successful in the postseason as well, compiling a 1.26 earned run average and a low .350 walk and hit per innings pitched average in his young career. But the Dodger might have the hidden gem.
Closer Kenley Jansen anchored the Los Angeles bullpen in 2016, earning a 47 saves with a 1.83 ERA and .670 WHIP, all in the top five for relievers stats. Keep an eye on these games as they get into the late innings and watch all these numbers come to life in the highest leveraged situations.
4. The Next Generation
These four teams are not only geared to compete right now, but they are built for long term success with home grown talent. The Cubs core hitters of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and Javier Baez have an average age of 24.6. The left side of the Indians infield seems to be set for a while as shortstop Francisco Lindor (22) and third baseman Jose Ramirez (24), have parlayed their successful regular seasons into the playoffs. Again the Dodgers might have the best of the young crop in their shortstop Corey Seager. In his age 22 season, Seager slapped 194 hits with 26 homers and a .308 batting average. Lock him in as the national league rookie of the year. Oh yeah, and the aforementioned closer Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna is only 22-years-old himself.
http://m.indians.mlb.com/roster/
http://m.dodgers.mlb.com/roster/
5. The Blue Jay’s Offense
The Blue Jays offense is as potent as it gets in the league. This machine is driven by the meat of their order in Josh Donaldson, Joey Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Over the last two regular seasons, the trio has combined for 613 runs, 221 home runs, 643 runs batted in and a .902 on base plus slugging percentage. Keep tabs on these three as they have a flair for the dramatic and the ability to flip momentum with one swing of the bat.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/tor/year/2015/seasontype/2/cat/hits
6. Clayton Kershaw
This guy is the game changer.
Regular season Clayton Kershaw is dominant, working on a 2.27 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 1918 punch outs over 1760 innings pitched in his nine-year hall of fame caliber professional career.
But playoff Clayton is a different story. Going into this year, Kershaw only earned two wins with an ERA lurking just under 5.00 in 11 previous postseason starts. Dodgers fans are hopeful that their ace will pitch like his regular season self for this playoff run as Kershaw has earned two wins and a save to clinch the divisional round against Washington thus far in this Dodgers run. His most recent seven inning shutout against the Cubs all but guaranteed that we will see another start from the left hander in the championship series. Appointment television for baseball fans.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kershcl01.shtml
To the casual baseball fan, let these reasons entice you to at least take notice. Maybe catch an inning or two. Watch for some of these names and admire their efforts as they carry the weight of each clubhouse, front office and fan base on their shoulders from out to out.
