The race is on. Our best minds are beavering away to find lessons from the post-season success of the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals – particularly, for the Toronto Blue Jays.
It’s a tough slog. I mean, how do you quantify some of the magic we’ve seen? And what about those bullpens …
I wonder if this is where the real lesson exists for the Blue Jays: The Giants devoted 14.9 percent of their Opening Day payroll to their bullpen while the Royals allocated 20.4 percent. In fact, the 10 teams who qualified for the post-season (including the four clubs that made it to the one-game wild-card playoff) averaged 15.1 percent of payroll spending on their bullpen. The Blue Jays, in comparison, devoted 8.9 percent of their payroll to the bullpen, more than just four other teams.
Understand this: The mathematics alone would suggest that teams with lower payrolls would spend a higher percentage on their bullpens. But maybe we need to move beyond the idea that a bullpen is a Shake’n Bake thing you just cobble together out of odds and ends. (I think I just aged myself.) At any rate, the Giants are in their third World Series since 2010 and four relievers have been there for all of them. The roles may have changed – Sergio Romo closed in 2012, Santiago Casilla is closing this season – but as a group they’ve put together a 2.40 earned-run average during this run and held opponents to a .182 average. No wonder manager Bruce Bochy pushes the right buttons so often; he’s had mostly the same buttons as two previous World Series wins. It’s just a matter of finding the right order.
AVALANCHE WARNING
Our Jonathan Willis does a nice job detailing why regression is to be expected from the Colorado Avalanche in 2014-2015. And he and others who wondered about Year 2 under head coach Patrick Roy — a season without free-agent departure Paul Stastny — will no doubt note that Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens left the Avalanche 0-3-1 on the road, a dramatic departure from last season’s charmed 6-0 start away from the Pepsi Center.
The Avalanche didn’t lose their third road game in 2013-2014 until Dec. 5, an 8-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 26. Road loss No. 4 came two nights later, a 3-1 setback to the Vancouver Canucks.
At least Jarome Iginla managed four shots on goal against the Canadiens. He’d been held to five through the Avalanche’s first five games and while it’s early, going into Sunday there were 208 players in the NHL with as many or more shots than Iginla. No wonder that Roy told reporters in Toronto that he would continue to preach about the need to “put more pucks on the net and let Jarome get rebounds.”
In the dressing room, at least, it’s been a good fit although Iginla admits his new teammates are different than the average young team. “It seems like they had a great room last year,” Iginla said. “They’ve got a lot of young studs. I mean, you look at Dutch (Matt Duchene) and you think ‘He’s only 23,’ and then you remind yourself that he’s in his sixth year. So, you’re talking about guys who’ve been around for a long time, young as they are, which means it’s not about getting up and saying something. It’s about coming in and working and preparing each day and accepting whatever role I’m given.”
WHAT I LEARNED
The things you learn in a week of hosting a sports talk-show:
“I see a little bit of myself in Luke (Glendening) as well. He’s just a character guy. He’s so strong on the puck. You can see he frustrates a lot of players. Funny, I see similarities in the way I played and Kirk Maltby. He gets in these scrums and keeps his hands down and he’s got a smile on his face the whole time. I just remember ‘Malts’ frustrating so many top players doing that.”
Detroit Red Wings special assistant to the GM, Kris Draper, sees similarities between some of the character players on great Wings teams of the past and the useful Luke Glendening — who was a walk-on at University of Michigan, eventually became team captain, and is on a three-year deal with the Red Wings.
Listen: Kris Draper on The Jeff Blair Show
“I don’t think it’s any different than during the regular season, the only difference is in a short series it’s magnified. In the course of the regular season … at least I had streaks where I’d hit three or four home runs in a series. The (Los Angeles) Angels, for instance, you had players on that team that had an 0-fer the whole three-game series. Josh Hamilton (0-for-13) didn’t get a hit the whole series. He had series during the regular season where the same thing happened, it’s just not magnified as much.”
Former Kansas City Royals first baseman Willie Mays Aikens, whose club-record four home runs in a series (set in 1980) was tied in the ALCS by Mike Moustakas, discusses the difference between a streaky post-season and regular season.
Listen: Willie Mays Aikens on The Jeff Blair Show
QUIBBLES AND BITS
– The Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets took one hour and 58 minutes to play Sunday’s exhibition game, which was played with the NBA’s experimental 44-minute length of game – composed of 11-minute quarters instead of 12. That was about 17 minutes less than the average regular-season game. I don’t know where this is going – my guess is it’s no coincidence the new clock ties in with the new TV contract – but it’s a reminder that with Adam Silver the new NBA commissioner replacing David Stern and Rob Manfred due to take over from Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, a lot of bets are off the table. That’s a good thing, I think.
– There have been stutter steps along the way, but MLB must be content with the way the video review system has worked because according to Ben Walker of the Associated Press it has used it to put together the seven-man umpiring crew for the World Series. Four newcomers – Jim Reynolds, Jerry Meals, Hunter Wendelstedt and Eric Cooper – will be working their first World Series, in part due to the fact that they get disputed calls right. Wendelstedt had just two calls overturned through replay this season, Cooper had three and Reynolds had seven. It’s a refreshing change to a system that has for too long seemed to be a gerontocracy.
– Let me be the first to make this prediction: as part of the fallout of the ‘Bloody Big Mess’ that is Toronto FC, midfielder Michael Bradley will join Jermain Defoe in an off-season exodus from the team. Hammer on U.S. men’s coach Jurgen Klinsmann all you want for his recent statement that moving to MLS was a bad career move for Bradley and Clint Dempsey; while you’re at it, ask Landon Donovan how much sway Klinsmann holds over a career. If I’m Bradley, I’m leaving a jet trail getting over to Europe ASAP. Better fled than Red, in other words.
– Finally, for those wondering whether the Baltimore Orioles are in this thing for the long haul: They are on the hook for a grand total of $45.325 million in salaries next season, including cornerstone players Matt Wieters and Manny Machado. In comparison, the Blue Jays have $96.2 million in payroll obligations, the Yankees $168.77 million, the Red Sox $105.9 million and the Rays $48.31 million. Be forewarned: Orioles GM Dan Duquette, plus payroll wiggle room, equals a nasty combination.