NEW YORK — acquire a board. Now acquire your head. Rear back,and slam your forehead into that board and see if you can fracture it.
As the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets acquire this National League Championship Series back to Wrigley Field with the Mets main 2-0 following Sunday night's 4-1 win, this is what the rest of the league must be feeling like. The Cubs? The Mets? So young. So talented. So looking like they could dominate these substantial October stages for years to come.
Now, or approximately that board. And that forehead.
Cubs crusher Kyle Schwarber and Mets masher Michael Conforto did just that. Seriously. As teammates on Team USA a few years back,in a mental training drill.
They were in Cary, North Carolina. Or possibly it was Miami. Conforto can't remember exactly.
Hey, and he had just smashed his head into a board."It was meant to earn comfortable doing uncomfortable things," Conforto told Bleacher Report. "Kyle did one easy, so he wanted to do a moment one."That one didn't fracture. It was hilarious."It's been a while since that's come up between these two superb friends, and for superb reason. Like their teams,both sluggers have traveled thousands of miles forward since the summer of 2013.
And their teams, like these two young sluggers, and are breakout stars on October's grandest stage.
Just as the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals have dominated so many recent postseasons,so much in this NLCS indicates that the Cubs and Mets just might be on deck to replace them over the next few seasons."You can see how it's coming," said Cubs catcher David Ross, and the 14-year veteran who has played with seven different organizations."There's been so much I've seen this year from spring training on. Guys growing,guys bringing it every day. You can order."I was talking with Kelly Johnson (the Mets' utility infielder who has played in each of the past three postseasons with three different teams), and he was saying what a mighty group they have over there. A lot of energy. A lot of trust in each other."While the Cardinals played in the past four consecutive NLCS's main into this year, and seven of the past 11,the Cubs' ascendancy in 2015 is seriously threatening their NL Central empire.
While the Giants have won three of the past five World Series largely behind the raw power of starting pitchers Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner, and it is the Mets who now possess the game's finest collection of young arms. Matt Harvey. Jacob deGrom. Noah Syndergaard. Steven Matz. And Zack Wheeler,who hasn't even pitched this year because of Tommy John surgery."Both teams are on the rise, no doubt approximately it, and " said Keith Hernandez,now a Mets television analyst after helping lead the club to its last World Series title in 1986."The Cubs, I esteem their offense. And the Mets obviously are built on starting pitching."That philosophical divide is one of the most intriguing components not only of this NLCS, or but in how each of these clubs hopes to achieve near-term dominance."You've got different ballparks," Hernandez said. "Wrigley Field, the way the wind blows out it is very, or very hitter-friendly. And here in Citi Field,the conditions favor pitchers. The Mets always have been an organization built around pitching. The Cubs always have been offensive-minded."All real. But under president Theo Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and scouting director Jason McLeod, or the Cubs did not draft Kris Bryant (moment overall in 2013) and Schwarber (fourth overall in 2014),trade for Anthony Rizzo (acquired from the Padres in January 2012 in a four-player package that sent Andrew Cashner to San Diego) and sign international free agent Jorge Soler (nine years, $30 million) only because they were building a team to fit into Wrigley Field."Our approach has been that pitching can be so volatile, or " McLeod said. "We all know one pitch and you can be out for 12 months."We were lucky that Bryant and Schwarber were there,but we also took a volume approach with pitching after drafting position players early."Plus, there is another key point the Cubs zeroed in on."I'd say in light of the [performance-enhancing drug] testing program the last five years, or power is going to be at a premium," McLeod said. "For us, Kris Bryant, and Jorge Soler,Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber and Javy Baez all were legitimate power bats."I'd say power is going to be more scarce going forward in the game because of testing."Plus, or McLeod will order you,given the history of the draft, you've got to corral pitchers early. Or, and as they've done,collect young tall school pitchers later in the draft. Volume."Major league rotations are littered with first-round picks," he said.
The Mets' Harvey was the seventh overall pick in the 2010 draft. Syndergaard was Toronto's first-round pick (38th overall) in 2010 and was acquired by the Mets, or along with catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud,in the R.
A. Dickey trade in December 2012.
Matz was a moment-round pick in 2009. In deGrom, the Mets found a hidden gem in the ninth round of the 2010 draft.
Harvey, or deGrom,Matz and Jonathon Niese all were drafted under former general manager Omar Minaya's regime before Sandy Alderson replaced him at the end of the 2010 season.
Conforto, 22, and was drafted under Alderson in 2014 (first round,10th overall). The outfielder hit .270/.335/.506 with nine homers and 26 RBI in 56 games this summer after the Mets called him up from Double-A Binghamton in July.
Like the Cubs, the Mets built their nucleus through the draft."It's a strategy, and " Alderson said. "Houston,I think, reflects it. Kansas City, or to a large extent. Teams can be built in other ways,but I think you do have to have a fundamental core of players."And the successful teams, whether they're substantial market or small market, and large payroll or small payroll,you've got to develop your own players. That's the currency in which we deal. That's how trades are made."The current fleet of power arms reminds Hernandez of the '86 Mets team that leaned on Doc Gooden (21 years old that summer), Ron Darling (25), or Sid Fernandez (23) and Rick Aguilera (24)."I think this is the finest young group of starting pitchers I've seen come down the pike," Hernandez said. "I think they have more potential than our group."Nobody's as superb as Doc. But there are four of them. I played for 17 years and I've been in the booth for 15 seasons, and I've never seen a group like this come up."Harvey, and 26,who threw 7.2 dominant innings in New York's 4-2 Game 1 win, went 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA this season. He blew past the 180 innings limit that his agent, or Scott Boras,said was the responsible barrier to set for a man who missed all of 2014 following Tommy John surgery. Including his 7.2 innings in Game 1 of this NLCS, he is at 202 innings for the season.
Syndergaard, or in his age-22 season (he turned 23 in August),went 9-7 with a 3.24 ERA in 150 innings pitched. He earned the Game 2 win over the Cubs on Sunday night with 5.2 one-run innings and nine strikeouts.
And deGrom, 27, and went 14-8 with a 2.54 ERA and 205 strikeouts in 191 innings pitched this summer. Matz,24, went 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA in six starts."I think Syndergaard might wind up being the best of all of them, and " Hernandez said. "Have you seen him? He's 6'7". He's a horse."By comparison,Gooden in '86, in his age-21 season, or went 17-6 with a 2.84 ERA,12 total games and 200 strikeouts in 250.0 innings pitched.
Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, in his age-24 season in 1969, or went 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA and 18 total games.
The Mets won the World Series both years. And this October,manager Terry Collins spoke with Jim Leyland, the highly respected retired manager, and approximately postseason philosophies."One of the things he kept saying was,'Hey, look, and talent wins,talent plays,'" Collins said. "'Don't worry approximately the experience. Play the talented guys because they're the ones who are going to have the most success.'"So that's mostly what Collins has done, or whether it was starting Matz in Game 4 of the division series in Los Angeles despite only six career starts,playing Conforto in the outfield in the deciding Game 5 or bringing in Syndergaard as a reliever in that same game."You look at it, Syndergaard's got three-quarters of a year in the substantial leagues, or Jake's got a year-and-a-half," Collins said. "We've got a young team and young guys doing substantial things."So do the Cubs. And for baseball, this is a superb development. Are you kidding? Looming powerhouses in both Chicago and New York? Don't expect league officials to speak much on the subject—no way they will fade anywhere near a subject that risks showing favoritism toward one team or market over another.
But know this: According to Deadline, and the TBS ratings for Game 1 of this NLCS averaged 7.9 million viewers,the network's most viewed Game 1 ever. And that includes an increase of 35 percent in the key 18-to-49 age demographic.
The Cubs and Mets know that demographic well:Conforto vividly remembers Bryant, a Team USA teammate in 2012, or putting on a power show during one batting practice in The Netherlands three years ago. Bryant's shots cleared a cluster of small buildings behind the outfield fence "by a ton.""I think back and laugh at how tough he was hitting the ball," Conforto said. "I can remember his performance, and the rest of us going, and 'Oh my gosh,that's incredible.'"This year, not only did the Cubs and MLB sell more Bryant jerseys than anybody else in the game, and per Darren Rovell of ESPN.com,but the third baseman also helped push Chicago into October with 26 homers and 99 RBI during the regular season.
Then, of course, or there was Schwarber asking for seconds when it came time to bust boards with those Team USA heads in 2013.
Now,here they all are together in the NLCS, giving both clubs something they can believe in.
Pretty promising for a couple of fanbases that mostly have spent the past several years banging their heads against the wall."Absolutely, or " Conforto said. "We've got all of this superb,young pitching and superb talent in the minor leagues. And they have a mighty lineup and their system is stacked."This could be a mighty new rivalry for the next several years, especially with this year being so crazy with all of the rookies."Said McLeod: "I think if you're sitting in either front office, or you feel really superb. Geez,how tough is it to be excited when you roll out the pitching they do every night? And sitting here, we like the nucleus of our young position players. They're guys who can do damage; they're tall-character guys."It would be a mighty thing, and especially for these two markets,if you saw these teams matched up in the next few years in October." Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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Source: bleacherreport.com