Last night, the Kansas City Royals came within an out of defeating the San Francisco Giants to win their first World Series in 29 years. They left a runner stranded on third and the Giants hoisted the trophy. Being there, however, may be the bigger accomplishment for the Royals.
This is a team that was mired in mediocrity for years. A team that would always fizzle out in the second half of the season. The Royals were always an afterthought when talking playoff contenders by August. They recently hosted an All Star Game and were praised for what a great up-and-coming team they are while their aging veteran played host to the league.
All of these things can be said about the New York Mets. The problem is that until the past month, the similarities also included both teams not making the playoffs. So what changed this season for the Royals? One very important thing: the youth began to play up to their potential.
The New York Mets are in a position where they’re waiting for the same moment to happen in Queens. That moment when the prospects “get it” and turn that corner to play up to their potential. Some already have. Some have a ways to go. In each case, they are closer as a whole than they were a year ago.
The Mets could get to that same pinnacle of success the Royals did and very soon. The 2015 Mets could share at least three things with the 2014 Royals: a strong defensive center fielder, deep starting pitching and a lights out bullpen.
First, the Mets have seen the rise of Juan Lagares in center field. He has become a steady and reliable presence they haven’t had there since the departure of Carlos Beltran. This is especially important as the team plays in such a pitcher-friendly ballpark where fly balls go to die in center.
They need someone reliable there. It may not show up in the boxscore or the pitcher’s ERA, but his defense saves games out there. Those games will add up in the future.
Secondly, the team will have at least six arms to choose from come spring training to put into the starting rotation: Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jon Neise, Jacob deGrom, Dillon Gee and, unless he is traded this offseason, Bartolo Colon.
Even if Colon is traded, the team can choose between Noah Syndergaard or Rafael Montero to take his spot, among several other prospects that are rising within the system. This lends to a formidable rotation that can keep a team in games deep into the season and into postseason if given the opportunity.
Thirdly, the Mets have their own back end bullpen blazers that throw massive heat and a solid bullpen that leads up to them. With the return of Bobby Parnell to a fireball bullpen that already has Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia, the last three innings can almost always be considered over if the team has a lead after the 6th inning.
The one major question in this comparison that remains, however, is whether or not the offense is capable of getting those timely, clutch hits that they so desperately need in order to support the pitching efforts. That remains to be seen and, hopefully, addressed further in free agency this offseason.
If all these things can come together for the Mets, it will be them we cheer on in October. If and when they do get there, hopefully, it will end with a better result than the Royals saw.
Said elsewhere: The difference between the Royals and the Mets, is that Dayton Moore pulled the trigger and made “bad” deals, signed “expensive” contracts and made his move.
He didn’t construct a minor league system, he didn’t hide his best prospect behind outrageous demands, and even though he was facing a team with incredible resources, a good GM, and fine talent on the field, Dayton Moore went balls for the wall to win a WS.
One other thing: he didn’t talk about winning 90 games. He gave his major league manager the tools to actually do it.
Well, 89 wins, anyway…
dead on JG. And now watch out for the Cubs in ’15. They have traded and saved and look to sign a top skipper, and go after the best arms available.
While we talk about 90, defend a crappy manager and staff, and move in the walls that defeat the purpose of all the pitching.
You could pretty much say the same thing for Billy Beane and the A’s.
The postseason is fun and exciting, but It’s all a crapshoot.
You could. But at least he took a shot.
We will save and horde our prospects like they are shining gold, while the GM tries to “win” every trade.
dont forget, we have wins with exit speed on batted balls, and our pythagorean record is more real that our real record.
well played, sir.
If Granderson and Wright had hit at 75% of their historical norms, SF might never had made the playoffs.. it could have been the Mets. Our prospects do need to continue to develop but its the veterans who need to step up in 2015.
Watching Herrera, Davis and Holland come out of the pen for the Royals this post-season I knew that some Mets fans would equate them with Mejia, Familia, Black and or Parnell. As a group the Mets guys look pretty good, but based on the smallish sample post-season work I would have to say that the Royals trio are as a good a group as I can remember. The Mets still have something to aspire to.
The biggest difference between the Mets and K.C. is that the youth for the Mets is on the mound with their starters while the Royals youth is on the field. Kudos to the Royals and their GM Moore for taking the risks in “trying” to win and making the most of it while putting his job on the line. Yes I agree JG he made some bad moves but as you say at least he gave his team the tools to succeed
Hey Pete, mets360 doesn’t have a sarcasm font. I was meaning to suggest that everyone criticized him at the time for the trades being “bad” … meaning he “lost” the trade.
But I don’t think anyone regrets getting Shields now, or thinks the Vargas signing was an “overpay”.
The Royals played a game 7 in a World Series and Shields and Wade helped them get there. Myers was hurt this year in Tampa. In order to get something you have to be willing to part with something of equal value. (HInt hint SA)
I try not to be sarcastic in my replies here. But when you are listening to people like SA and the Wilpons who have this gift of talking out of both sides of their mouths at the same time how much BS can we as fans take? I keep scratching my head every time we get a forecast on the Mets outlook for the future. How many teams on their opening day start the season with 3 first base man on their 25 man roster? I would ask that fred and jeff get the clown fonts and SA gets the grim reaper or court jester.
Three ways the Royals are not like the Mets.
1. They value outfield defense and tailored the team to their park. They don’t keep changing the park to fit an outmoded vision of how to build a team.
2. The front office had the courage to trade a top prospect (Wil Myers) for James Shields and Wade Davis. This front office hoards every prospect.
3. The Royals promote young players (Ventura, Finnegan, Perez) and they are more worried about winning in the majors than in the minors. Perez and Ventura would almost certainly still be in Double A in the Mets organization. Finnegan would be in Brooklyn!
It’s funny how one good season can change everyone’s opinion. Before last year, the Royals (and the Pirates) were the king of pathetics. One world series appearance later and Dayton Moore is the second coming of Jesus. lol
I guarantee the same thing will happen with Alderson if we go deep next year.
or maybe its funny how four or five or six or 37 straight seasons of building up your minor league system actually means you are starving the ML team for talent.
The Pirates busted a move in 2013 – they gave up Herrera to get a much needed bat. It didn’t take them to the WS, but it got them into October.
Lagares is something special, but he alone doesn’t compare to the defense of Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain and Jarrod Dyson. We have Granderson playing adequate defense on one side, and ? on the other.
If you go to baseball reference and match the Mets to the Royals it is plain to see that the Mets have better offensive players at most positions. The Royals have better starting pitching but the Mets have potentially the better starting pitching in the future with the addition of Harvey and Syndergaard. The Royals have an elite bullpen but the Mets have a good bullpen and can expect it to improve with Parnell. Kansas City is the better defensive team. The conclusions I draw is that good pitching and defense with a slightly below average offense can make you a playoff team. The Met offense strikes out too much and does not hit situationally and the defense needs to improve in the middle infield and catcher.
The other thing you can see at B-R is that by Pythagorean Record, the Royals were only two games better than the Mets this year. Perhaps one day the Mets will exceed their Pythagorean record. Have no idea when that will happen again but the last time their actual record exceeded their RS/RA was back in 2007.
What strikes me about the positional players? Not that they are better or worse than the Mets players.
Every Royals starter got into at least 131 games, and I’d guess they got on average 140-145 games from the 9. Perhaps 20% more than the Mets got from their starting players.
You dip excessively into substandard depth, you get losses.
On the other hand, Salvador Perez (who really impressed me behind the plate) played in about 150 games. He looked like he was running on fumes during the last couple of games.
You’re correct about “substandard depth,” but everyone needs some time-off.
One of my complaints about TC is that he would not readily rest guys like Wright or Murphy when they seemed to be dragging. I don’t know if he wouldn’t stand up to them or he truly believed that every win was so important in keeping the Mets in contenderdom. Every manager should study the history of Leo Durocher and how he destroyed his Cubs front- liners by not giving them a break thus enabling the Mets to catch them
back in the day when……