Larry Rooney
This year's regular season brought some joy to baseball fans across the country. The New York Mets are back in the postseason. The Minnesota Twins weren't horrible this year. The Houston Astros were in first place in the AL West for more than half of the season. The Chicago Cubs are back in the postseason. The Toronto Blue Jays are one of the best teams in the league and in the playoffs for the first time since 1993. This has been a true underdog season for the entire league.
With this interesting regular season coming to a close, all too quickly if you ask me, we look forward to what the MLB Playoffs have to offer. With all regulatory 21,870 innings in the books, each advancing team has wiped their slates clean. The playoffs are a whole different animal completely, with nothing more than home field advantage separating each team from the other. Any one of these clubs could come out as World Series Champs.
So who will that be you ask?
Unfortunately that's the beauty of baseball, you can never be certain. A bad bounce here, a poor decision there is all it could take to come out on top. One thing baseball writers can argue, though, is who is the most dangerous team? The team that has all the pieces: hitting, pitching, fielding, enthusiasm, grit, willpower, all these things and more are what distinguishes the winners from the losers. The team that can bounce back from a bad hop; the team that can roll with the punches, is the team that will hoist that World Series Trophy.
Now we have your typical playoff teams: St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. These are the teams that year in and year out battle through the physically taxing regular season and come out on top. These are the organizations that know what it takes to win and do it consistently. Then you have the new threats to the balance of the league: Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals, and Texas Rangers. The teams trying to become the year in and year out winners. The teams looking to build off of their success this year and to continue contend for a World Series title. And finally, you have the teams, seemingly forever, stuck in the rebuilding process who are now ready to contend: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and the New York Mets. These teams have suffered years of mediocre and sub-par seasons all in hopes of reaching that long term goal. These teams are finally ready to start contending again and are looking to do so in a big way.
So now that we've introduced the teams, let's talk about who my fellow writers feel is the most dangerous team in this year's playoffs. The most common answer probably won't surprise you: St. Louis Cardinals. Yes, the same St. Louis Cardinals organization that is seemingly always in the playoffs and seemingly always the best team in the National League. Not exactly a shocker, right? Well, the writers' runner up might surprise you, or if you watched any second half baseball, maybe not: Toronto Blue Jays. I guess that would mean the other writers for the 30 Minutes of Madness Blog are predicting a St. Louis/Toronto World Series matchup?
Nonetheless, I'm here to disagree with my fellow sports writers. The most dangerous team in this year's MLB Playoffs is the Chicago Cubs. No seriously, the Chicago Cubs...
This year's Cubs team has been leaps and bounds better than expected. The transformation of this team began with the signing of manager Joe Maddon. Maddon is and has been one of the best managers in all of baseball for years now. He was able to turn a perennial dumpster dweller, now Tampa Bay Rays, into consistent winner averaging 92 wins between 2008-2013, just two years after taking over the club. This performance also earned him AL Manager of the Year honors in 2008 and 2011. His reputation, obviously, precedes him. And surprise, surprise, Joe Maddon has achieved the same success with this Chicago Cubs team; albeit, the team's super prospect talents were finally ready to be unleashed this season.
Aside from Maddon, GM Theo Epstein was able to acquire SP Jon Lester, a proven veteran with playoff experience, via free agency. Lester has come into a perfect situation in Chicago. He is the proven leader of that pitching staff. He's been there, done that and has been able to take emerging star Jake Arrieta and young stud Kyle Hendricks under his wing. Lester hasn't even had to be the ace of the staff due to the late blooming of Arrieta.
Cy Young nominee and only real competitor to Zach Greinke for the award, Jake Arrieta has been phenomenal for the Cubs this year. He has pitched to an outstanding 1.77 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. He has taken any and all responsibility off of Lester's shoulders who by all means had a good season. Lester was able to hold a solid 3.34 ERA while dealing with some arm issues throughout the season.
Arrieta and Lester have formed a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation which seems to be the case with most of these playoff teams: Mets(Degrom/Harvey), Dodgers(Greinke/Kershaw), Rangers(Hamels/Gallardo), Astros(Keuchal/Kazmir), Pirates(Cole/Liriano), and Blue Jays(Price/Stroman). The one thing, however, that this Cubs team has over most of these other playoff teams is a solid 5 man rotation. Ultimately, a five man rotation is useless in the playoffs. But having five capable guys, is much better than only having two or three solid pitchers. Hammel has looked pretty good considering his track record and age, and Hendricks has shown raw skill and will likely move to the bullpen in favor of Dan Haren pitching in a 4-man rotation. Haren, a mid season acquisition, has struggled with keeping a reasonable ERA as a Cub, but has proven to be a very effective pitcher throughout his career and has some playoff experience. This impressive pitching rotation is just another piece of the puzzle.
A puzzle has big pieces, small pieces, average pieces, but perhaps the Cubs biggest and most important piece to their World Series puzzle is their young, talented lineup. The Cubs have been blessed to have nurtured and looked after the emergence of all their young stars. Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez, and Jorge Soler were all prospects with limited or no MLB exposure at all before this year, and yet they have all been major parts of this Chicago Cubs team.
Kris Bryant has been with this team virtually since day 1 and has done nothing but absolutely rake the baseball. Bryant is quickly developing into one of the best young hitters in baseball and is batting next to one of the already established best young hitters in baseball, Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo and Bryant are perhaps the best 3-4 combo in the National League, maybe even the MLB. These two will continue to mash the baseball for years to come, but I guess all that matters is the here and now. Pitchers will struggle all postseason long with these two young studs. Bryant and Rizzo bolster an uber-talented and deep Chicago Cubs lineup, which coupled with their strong rotation is a nightmare for the opposition.
With all things said, the Cubs still need to get passed the one game Wild Card playoff against the Pittsburgh Pirates, which will all but definitely feature Cubs SP Jake Arrieta and Pirates SP Gerrit Cole. I don't see the Cubs having a problem with the Pirates in this playoff game, but then again it is baseball and anything can happen. Again all it takes to lose is one bad bounce, one bad decision, one bad call, anything can happen. But one thing's for sure, this Chicago Cubs team is something special and will be for some time to come. Beware of the Chicago Cubs, the MLB's most dangerous team.
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