When you get to the playoffs you can throw all that sabremetrics **** out of the window. The Royals were relentless & clutch.. We need to try and follow their mold as much we can with bullpen help & adding higher OBP hitters.
F**k their mold. We have our own plan, and it's a good one, we don't need to emulate anybody. They earned this WS, and I'm not going to discredit that. But we are still in our formative years and we went blow for blow with them. We do need to add higher OBP guys, but believe it or not that is some of that metric s**t, not a Royals trade secret.
Only thing you need to "follow" is the importance of a dominant, deep bullpen with guys that can fill multiple roles. I am glad the Royals won, I like how they play, they are a small market team that hadn't won in 30 years.... but for all the credit their hitters are getting, it is the pen that was soul crushing for other teams. There is no set mold, just build a great team that can compete year in and year out.... The Royals win will probably mean the cost of dominant pen arms will ever go up MORE than recent seasons and contact hitters with a good glove (Gordon) will get even more money than anticipated.
The most impressive thing about the Royals is they don't give up at bats or even pitches. Every hitter battles for every single pitch, it's amazing. The mental strength to do that over the looooonnnng baseball season plus postseason is amazing. Mentally they get it done but technically too!!! It seems every hitter is capable of (and does) changing their approach as required by the situation. In contrast to the young Astros, I felt we gave up a ton on some at-bats including this post season. Not naming names, you guys know, if it was 0-2 or 1-2 I knew it was over. I knew the player wouldn't change their approach and wouldn't battle. It was their AB way or the highway.
I think there is a misconception that the Astros look for HR or K players, and that's not the case. Luhnow looked for guys that could provide affordable improvement, not realizing we would be contenders. We had a flawed, but still productive offense. A high k rate isn't something that scares us, but a team full of guys that don't get on base isn't an ideal formula, and Luhnow knows that. This is still a work in progress.
The major difference between Royals and Astros are 2, bullpen and they have a DH, beside that, we have a better team and much better prospects for the future.
KC ranked 7th in OBP, we ranked 8th. A couple plays in the field, and we likely beat KC and go onto the ALCS. We don't need to try and follow anybody's mold.
They did also lead the league in fewest K's.... some may say that's not important, but I do think it helps them more than hurts them. Especially in late game situations where they find a way to put the ball in play.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“I was thinking about congratulat(ing) the Astros in my press conference,” Yost said. “I mean, I really was.” <a href="https://t.co/sJs9vQ5UTT">https://t.co/sJs9vQ5UTT</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/661202125888753664">November 2, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They had the champs. Royals' Lorenzo Cain on Game 4 of ALDS vs Astros “(I’m not gonna) lie, it was a little nervous” <a href="https://t.co/TR6k8f3ta4">https://t.co/TR6k8f3ta4</a></p>— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/661116622074216449">November 2, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
sucks right now, but this experience will make our team stronger in the long run. that 8th inning doesnt take away from our wildly successful season, nor does it damper our very bright future. Royals were a phenomenal team. We have a lot to learn from them (and we're not that far behind). Next year will be a dog fight with LAA reupping, and with Yu coming back. Time to focus on the offseason!
The Astros were the only team to beat the Royals at Kauffman in the postseason and had them on the brink of elimination. Not bad for a team in their first postseason in 10 years. I can't say enough about the Royals. That is one of the most amazing play-off runs I've ever seen. Their entire bullpen should have gotten the MVP, and they did it with Greg Holland being gone for the season before the play-offs even started. Talk about an embarrassment of riches. They forced teams to win the game against their starting pitching or it was GG. Even if you did score runs, their lineup was stacked that no lead was safe. IMO, Luhnow should roll the dice on getting a stingy bullpen, because I think the Astros can definitely beat the Royals in a play-off series.
