Here is to a (probable) Giants-Rangers World Series!
I am extremely excited about this possible matchup. The Giants have a great premise. They are built on pitching and defense. They have sneaky good 2nd and 3rd options. Their ace is in the interesting position of being the reigning two time Cy Young winner and yet having a lot to prove because of his youth and the rough middle of regular season he had. The team is interesting offensively, with a few guys you know, and a few you don’t. People seem to appreciate the post-Bonds Giants for how they built this team and have succeeded.
I have truly loved how the Giants utilized the regular season and examined their roster. Bengie Molina was one of their most recognizable offensive players. However, they saw they had an elite talent waiting to play catcher, and traded Molina (ironically, to the Rangers). They activated Buster Posey, who has been dynamic for them and may win NL Rookie of the Year. They replaced several other key position players with others that got the job done. They even replaced Pablo Sandoval, who was supposed to be their big hitter, when he wasn’t performing.
The funny part is how Bruce Bochy went about it. He replaced players as he saw fit, but somehow kept the players that he benched happy and ready to play. Many players, especially veterans, would react negatively to being replaced. However, what happened was the complete opposite. For example, Pablo Sandoval came off the bench for Thursday nights’ NLCS game 4 and had a couple of huge plate appearances. By upgrading the main roster, Bruce Bochy was able to upgrade the bench as well. That depth has served them well.
The Rangers are a completely different story. This team was built via some key free agents and deals. They have some good players built through the farm system, but some of the big personalities and styles for this team are represented by people they acquired on the open market.
Over the last few years, this has been a fun team. We knew that they score runs; we also knew they had young, bad pitching. They took a chance on Josh Hamilton, a guy with massive talent but also many legal and substance abuse problems. Hamilton brought even more fun to the team (along with many home runs). He became a symbol of the Rangers, abusing everyone at the Home Run Derby last year. This off season, they added Vlad Guerrero. Molina came during the season. They now had a good mix of veterans wanting to prove something and youth with energy.
While Bruce Bochy was making shrewd moves to manage his team, Ron Washington has had a different kind of year. He admitted to cocaine use during the 2009 season, and this season has truly been redemption for him. The Rangers in general have been comeback kids. They have raised their win total the last 4 years consecutively, and filled in the areas of need.
The biggest area that needed fixing was pitching. Mostly, they have built from within. However, the clearly defining moment this year was when the team saw Cliff Lee available and snagged him. Now, I was stunned then and am stunned now that Lee got to the Rangers. I was sure the Yankees would grab him. Perhaps they figured that they could win this year and still be able to get him in free agency without giving up anything in a trade. Well, if that is true it is going to come back to haunt them. Cliff Lee has been dynamite in the playoffs (as he was last year, why did the Phillies trade him again?).
However, I have just given you the reason why these teams are interesting. I could just end this with saying we have had too much of the Yankees and the Phillies and end the conversation there. However, I am not. Because there is more than the fact the Yanks and Phils are boring as to why I want to see the Giants-Rangers in the World Series. You see, baseball is broken.
I tweeted earlier this week how a boring MNF in a terrible city beat the League Championship game that night in ratings and viewership. That should be an indictment all on its own. Never mind the fact that even the decent fan cannot actually watch a whole game completely through from beginning to end. Games over 4 hours should not exist. Bill Simmons wrote a great column a few months back on ways we could speed it up (a pitch clock, having teams ready to go after commercial breaks, limiting time between at bats, true instant replay so managers don’t spend 10 minutes a game arguing). Baseball is already a slow game by nature, but it can be done in 2.5 hours, 3 max. The 4 hour wait fest doesn’t hold peoples’ attention.
However, baseball is broken in even more egregious ways. Now, I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day about a comment she made about the Miami Heat 2010-2011 team being unfair. I found this interesting because she is a diehard Yankees fan. Now, don’t get me wrong, I hate the Heat. I have never liked Lebron in Cleveland. I hate the way he goes about his life, and specifically how he went about acting this summer. He just seemed mean and so self centered. However, I don’t blame the Heat for doing what they did. But, there is a cap in the NBA. The Heat had to fit their guys under it, and they did. They did the same thing the Lakers and Celtics did in the years before them. There is a set of rules in the NBA, and while it isn’t perfect, it does create a good product. I am okay with teams dominating over others, just not the complete inability of other teams to ever rise to that station. There are no rules in MLB. At least the Heat had to follow a set of rules, and they succeeded within a constraining system.
I have a problem with the MLB system with no cap. It lets a few teams spend with impunity year after year. And, seemingly, the MLB doesn’t care. They seem to want the Yankees and Phillies (and Red Sox and Cardinals) to spend and win every year. They don’t want instant replay to give us the true results of the game. They don’t want to put the games at a pace that makes them watchable. They don’t want to give the fans of Pittsburgh, Toronto, Cleveland, or Kansas City a legitimate chance to actually compete other than in a really freakish outlying year. Only in the Majors do we have SUPPORTED INEQUITY. Selig just doesn’t care, and this offseason again, we will hear about the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels bidding 170 million for Cliff Lee and then 150 for Carl Crawford.
So, you know what? Let’s have Giants and Rangers in the World Series. And let’s have a Giants victory, winning in 5 games that are all 2-1 games, with low scoring and good but not awesome pitching. Let’s finish the games in 2 hours each, and get no commercials in. Lots of short pop ups, bloop singles, and ground ball outs. And, let’s have at least 4 blown calls that anyone with a television set made after 1950 can see in about 4 seconds. Think baseball would get it then? Yeah, probably not.
BLISS
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