5 Players Who Could Be the Madison Bumgarner of the 2015 MLB Postseason
Last October gave us one of the most impressive one-man performances in Major League Baseball postseason history.
Madison Bumgarner made seven appearances for the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 postseason, and they needed every single inning he gave them as they marched to their third World Series title in five years.
Bumgarner had a 1.03 ERA in 52.2 innings, and his five shutout innings in relief in Game 7 of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals was one of the more memorable relief outings of any playoffs in the game’s long history.
Bumgarner is not in this year’s postseason, but that does not mean there are no candidates to put together the kind of month that would rival his. While pitchers are part of the pool, there are also position players in the mix who could carry their clubs the way Carlos Beltran did for the Houston Astros in 2004.
As this postseason gets underway Tuesday, we'll look at some of the players poised to have that kind of impact. While all of them are entirely capable, the last one listed has the best chance to replicate Bumgarner's success.
David Price, Toronto Blue Jays
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The Blue Jays’ season and postseason outlook dramatically changed for the better on July 30, the day they traded for David Price. His status as a true ace made the Jays a serious playoff threat, and the 2.30 ERA and 2.22 FIP he posted in his 11 starts with the team show he has the kind of arm that can alter an entire postseason.
Since arriving in Toronto, Price’s strikeouts have gone from 8.5 to 10.5 per nine innings. In his first four September starts, the left-hander was on top of his game with a 1.38 ERA as opponents hit .185 against him. He stumbled in his final start of the season, allowing five runs in five innings, which dropped him to our No. 5 pick.
Price has had postseason issues before. He is 0-5 with a 4.98 ERA and a .773 OPS against in five playoff starts. His last playoff start was a good one, though, as he pitched eight innings and allowed two runs against the Baltimore Orioles as a member of the Detroit Tigers in 2014.
Price has already changed Toronto’s fortunes this season, so there is little reason to think he can’t do it during the postseason and help carry the club to a World Series title.
Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates
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Andrew McCutchen was once again one of the best hitters in the National League this season, producing a .292/.401/.488 slash line with an .889 OPS and 144 OPS+. He also hit 23 home runs and drove in 96.
However, he ended the regular season hitting .213 in his last 18 games (80 plate appearances). But one big performance in the NL Wild Card Game on Wednesday could be a springboard to a postseason onslaught the way it was for Bumgarner a year ago.
McCutchen is also hitless in his last three playoff games, including an 0-for-3 performance in last year’s Wild Card Game loss to the Giants.
"The game is the game. The game doesn't change,” McCutchen told reporters Sunday, including Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The atmosphere and situations may, but the game is the same."
That could mean McCutchen breaks out and puts the Pirates on his back. He is certainly talented enough to get on a hot run without notice, though he may have given a hint of it with three hits and a home run Friday.
Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals
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This was a breakout season for Hosmer, who posted career highs in OBP, OPS and OPS+, and it’s possible that it all started during last year’s postseason, when the Royals first baseman hit .351/.439/.526 with a .966 OPS and two home runs in 15 games.
With that playoff experience on his resume, we now know the October stage suits Hosmer just fine. And considering he had a .957 OPS in his previous 14 games going into Sunday, he's hot at the right time.
Hosmer has also been a beast at home, hitting .311/.383/.510 with an .894 OPS at Kauffman Stadium before he went 0-for-3 Sunday. The Royals have secured home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, a good thing for Hosmer’s production.
"It means a lot. We're built for our ballpark as a team," Hosmer told reporters. "What the fans do for us, the way they make the atmosphere there, it makes it tough for opposing teams to come in."
Propelled by his success during last year’s postseason, Hosmer might make it downright impossible for opposing pitchers to get him out.
Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs
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Arrieta has had an all-time great second half of the season, putting up a 0.75 ERA in 107.1 innings to put him in the running for the National League Cy Young Award. And over his last nine starts, he has allowed only two earned runs while striking out 73 and walking only seven.
It's easy to picture him getting on a Bumgarner-like run in October.
“I don’t know if we’re ever going to see another performance like what Bumgarner did—ever,” Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio told Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago. “That was phenomenal, basically taking the team, putting them on his back and getting every ounce of energy out of him.
“We’ve managed [Arrieta’s] pitch counts on his bullpens. We’ve managed his pitches in his games. We’re very, very aware of all that. We’re talking about a different animal here.”
Based on what Arrieta has done recently, a dominant postseason is a likely scenario for him. That run could start with a gem in the NL Wild Card Game on Wednesday.
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
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So much has been made of Kershaw’s postseason failures, but looking deeper into his small sample of eight starts, you realize he has not been as terrible as his 5.12 postseason ERA would suggest.
Last season, for example, he allowed 11 runs in 12.2 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals, but in that first start when he allowed eight runs, it was one bad inning that did him in. And in the second outing, which was a quality start for Kershaw, he misplaced a pitch to Matt Adams in the seventh inning, and it ended up costing him a dominant start.
On Sunday, after Kershaw recorded 300 strikeouts for the season, he was asked if he thinks he is better prepared for this postseason.
“I don’t know,” he told reporters. “We’ll find out.”
Kershaw is the undisputed best pitcher in baseball right now, and over his last 11 starts he has a 1.37 ERA. Opponents batted .170 against him during that stretch. That's the kind of stuff that makes it possible to imagine Kershaw finally dominating in the postseason the way he has the last seven regular seasons.
It is also why Kershaw has the best chance to be the one-man show that carries his team to a World Series title.
Stats via Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
