5. How good are the Mets pitchers?
Good. They’re real good. But will they elevate to next level status in the World Series? Matt Harvey will be pitching on 10 days rest and the rest of the Mets rotation will be taking a long hiatus from touching the mound. This could either help or hurt the Mets young arms. Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz have had great performances and in particular deGrom has been nothing short of ‘deGromin-ant’. Their bullpen has help pat for the most part with Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese taking roles in the bullpen setting up for Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia.
In the 2015 playoffs, Familia’s ERA is 0 in 9.2 innings pitched in 8 appearances with 6 strikeouts. deGrom is 3-0 in his 3 appearances with a 1.80 ERA and 27 strikeouts, Harvey is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA with 16 strikeouts and Syndergaard is 2-1 with 2.77 ERA and 20 strikeouts. This staff is the real deal and it might be a tough situation for Kansas City.
4. Who is the most important player on the Royals?
Alcides Escobar won ALCS MVP, Lorenzo Cain is a great bat, Salvador Perez is the team leader and the catcher who doesn’t miss any games, Eric Hosmer is the big bat, Alex Gordon is the longtime veteran dating back to the days when the Royals were horrible and Mike Moustakas has some pop in his bat that keeps the Royals lineup alive. The most important player could end up being a pitcher, in particular Edison Volquez. He’s been showcased as KC’s ace with the recent struggles from newly acquired Johnny Cueto. He’s pitching in game one against Matt Harvey and he’s going to need to rely on his fastball to get through this start.
Volquez throws a fastball, curveball and changeup, but the most notable aspect of his postseason has been his increased fastball velocity. His fastball averaged 93.8 mph on the season, but his three highest single-game averages have come in his three postseason starts: 94.7, 95.3 and then 96.2 in his second start against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series.
3. Will Daniel Murphy stay hot?
History says no but history also says a lot of things that have been proven wrong. Murphy has ripped off a streak of hitting a homerun in six straight games which is a postseason record. He’s batting .421 with seven total homeruns, 11 RBI’s and a 1.462 OPS. Murphy’s bat is on fire but did the long layoff for the Mets hurt him? Only time will tell in game 1 of the World Series. He’s been the big bat for the Mets but hopefully for New York, the trend from game four of the NLCS will continue and more guys will start hitting and bail him out.
2. Can the fastball pitchers control the fastball hitters?
The Royals are fantastic fastball hitters. Against fastballs of 94-plus mph in 2015, they led the majors in wOBA, hitting .307 compared to the MLB average of .249. They had a strikeout rate of just 11.4 percent against those fastballs, nearly 6 percent lower than the No. 2 team and well below the MLB average of 21.9 percent.
Check out the Royals’ lefty hitters against right-handed fastballs on the outer third of the strike zone:
Ben Zobrist: .206/.372/.324
Eric Hosmer: .379/.463/.707
Kendrys Morales: .400/.494/.662
Mike Moustakas: .300/.385/.500
Alex Gordon: .340/.407/.698
It’s going to be a tough test for Harvey, deGrom and the crew but if there’s any staff that could buck the trend, it’s the Mets staff. Then again, if there’s a lineup that could hit this Mets pitching around, it would be the Royals.
1. Who will be the X-factor for each team?
For the New York Mets, Daniel Murphy has come out of nowhere to dominate in the postseason. He’s been the Mets best player in the playoffs but he’s going to have a huge target on his back. Yoenis Cespedes is the power bat, David Wright is the captain and all the Mets pitching, including Jeurys Familia, is very hyped up to be one of the best staffs in recent memory.
For the Kansas City Royals, their lineup has bailed them out along with a their fantastic bullpen. They have a lot of great players in the lineup with Perez, Moustakas, Cain and Hosmer all with the ability to smash any pitch out of the park. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Luke Hochevar have posted 0 ERA’s as relievers for the Royals and they’ve been pushing their rotation to get to the point where the relievers will come in and shut the team down.
X-Factor for the Mets, catcher Travis d’Arnuad. He has the ability to throw out speedy guys like Jerrod Dyson and Lorenzo Cain which might be key if the Royals decide to play small ball and get men on base as opposed to trying to hit every ball out of the park. d’Arnaud’s bat has been questionable at times this postseason as he only has a .206 average but he does have the second most homeruns on the team and third most RBIs. His defense, command of these ace pitchers and his bat could be the biggest reason the Mets equal out the production of the Royals star catcher, Salvador Perez.
X-Factor for the Royals, second baseman Ben Zobrist. They acquired him from the Oakland Athletics earlier this season and he played 59 games in the regular season for Kansas City, finishing with a batting average of .284, with 7 home runs, 37 runs scored, and 23 RBIs. In the postseason, he’s hitting .326 in 43 at-bats with 2 homeruns, 7 RBIs and 10 runs scored, the most on the team and his 14 hits are the most on the team. Zobrist’s defense at second base has been huge for Kansas City. He has the third most putouts on the team with a perfect fielding percentage. His fielding and his ability to get on base has been key to KC’s success and it shouldn’t be any different in the fall classic.
