I May Sound Old But..

In today's sports landscape there are two types of managers, the old school "use my intuition/go by the book" manager and the new school "go by the numbers" type of manager. The Houston Astros just won the World Series in an unconventional way, they relied on piggy backing starters. Which means that instead of having a traditional reliever come in and work an inning or two the Astros used another starter who can go longer than your traditional reliever. The Kansas City Royals on the other hand relied on their relief corp to help carry them to a World title in 2015. Neither team is an old school type. To really find an old school type of team to have won a title was maybe the Red Sox who relied on timely power hitting and a strong starting staff to win them a title in 2013. Baseball is an ever evolving sport and with the introduction of advanced analytics it is growing and growing fast. Ways to win championships have evolved from the time tested "pitching and defense" method that I've been hearing about since I first put on my first catcher's mask.

Gone are the days of Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa, Jim Leyland, and Jack McKeon. These are legendary managers who lead their teams to the promise land using old school tactics that in today's game is getting harder and harder to quantify. These guys have been replaced by the AJ Hinch (manager of the Astros), Dave Roberts (manager of the Dodgers), Mike Matheny (manager of the Cardinals), and others who now have to run their lineups by the front office suit wearing types to make sure that the analytics of the hitters they're using line up in favor against the particular pitcher the team is facing that night. There's no way in hell that Jim Leyland would allow a pencil pusher tell him where to bat Miguel Cabrera against a tough rightie or whether it was time to pull a starting pitcher. The game has evolved to the point where pitchers aren't seeing a lineup for a third time and a leftie hitter is most likely not going to face a tough lefty even though the hitter has a hitting streak going. There are too many chefs in the kitchen nowadays with too many ingredients trying to cook up a plate that for a very long time relied on one guy throwing a ball at another guy who's trying to hit the ball to the moon.

What a Series

The current World Series may not be between the teams most people wanted (most folks would've preferred a Yankees VS Dodgers match-up) but it has turned out to be a spectacular showdown between two very good teams that have both veterans and youth impacting the games. The thing about the World Series is that it brings players to light that casual fans would never be introduced to. Like Astros third baseman Alex Bregman who has made his mark on these playoffs by homering off of Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale, and Kenley Jansen all of which are either the best at what they do or at the top of the list of players at their positions and has made spectacular plays defensively at third base. Not only did he hit home runs off of these pitchers they were crucial home runs to support the run the Astros have ridden this far. Before his break out in the classic game 5 Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger was in an a horrible slump, but he is a rising star. In the regular season he hit 39 home runs and had 97 runs batted in. Between Bellinger, Corey Seager, and Justin Turner the Dodgers are set with a core of players that are ready to carry this team to multiple runs at titles.

The Yankees and Nationals have young studs of their own, but what has unfolded between the Astros and Dodgers in this series has been nothing short of amazing. No doubt this series is headed to a game 7. No doubt will it be a good game because there are talented players all over the field, but also because baseball needs it to be a good game. With baseball being as young as it is and the loud complaints about how the sport is slow and boring this World Series is showing how much fun baseball can be. These two teams and all the young talent on these teams are going to be around for a long time. Altuve, Correa, Springer, Bellinger, Seager, Turner, and Taylor these are just a few names that are going to be on SportCenter or on back pages of the newspaper for the next 10 or so years and believe me there are going to be more names popping up and soon.