By: Alex Crowl
The New York Mets will meet the Kansas City Royals tonight for game one of the World Series. The Royals are not the surprising team in this series. They have now made it to the World Series in back-to-back seasons and have done so in an impressive fashion. They have done it with defense, speed, strategy, bullpen dominance and the stingiest offense in the league. Kansas City doesn’t have mega stars. They don’t have Thor or the Dark Knight. They have a Moose.
The Ned Yost led Royals worked the farm system like all organizations should. Kansas City created a culture of players that worked their way through the system and exploded onto the scene. The Royals have worked the market but never overextended themselves financially, and that is a very respectable attribute. Have the Royals been a bit riskier with free agency and at the trade deadline (Alex Rios, Johnny Cueto, Kendrys Morales)? Sure, but without risk, there is no reward. A team can only do so much within it’s own culture. Not every top prospect pans out like it has for the Cubs of late. What they have done is as respectable as it comes. Especially having not overpaid for anything.
The Royals are a lovable team from the heartland that is right on schedule. A very easy team to get behind, and they are not only who I will be rooting for, but also my selection to take the crown in the 2015 World Series. It won’t be easy for the Royals as they are facing a perilous Mets ball club with plenty of similar characteristics. It’s not that the Mets aren’t likeable, they just aren’t as likeable as the Royals. Nevertheless, the Mets are ahead of schedule and have formed the most impenetrable rotation in baseball. Harvey, DeGrom, Syndergaard and Matz have been astonishing and at such an early stage in their careers. Not enough can be said about their rotation, or Jeurys Familia who has been slamming the door shut ever since he arrived in Queens.
The sticks have it going a bit too. A lineup that was 29th in the league entering the All-Star break took off following the acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes. Was it just him that carried this team to one of the best hitting lineups in baseball? No, but something clicked offensively for the Mets and Cespedes was a huge part of that.
Michael Conforto hasn’t been talked about enough. The top prospect from Oregon State has provided the life this lineup needed in the regular season. He hasn’t shown up much this postseason, but I watched this guy play in Omaha and he is legit at the plate. I don’t need to speak much more on Daniel Murphy. The man has had one of the most impressive postseasons in the history of baseball. He has been doing it with the long ball as well, which makes it an even bigger deal. With the likes of Duda, Grandy, and Wright in this lineup along with the others I mentioned, they are certainly a force to be reckoned with.
The winner of the first game in the World Series has gone on to win the Fall Classic 69 times, which is 62.7 percent of the time. The first game is at the K, and Kansas City is going to be rocking for an Edinson Volquez/Matt Harvey matchup on a cool night in the best month of the year for baseball. I’ll take the Royals in game one and the Royals to win the World Series in 6. The Royals defense will be too dominant, the sticks will be too stingey, and the bullpen will be too remarkable for the up and coming Mets to defeat the back to back AL champs.
