Ranking the Top 20 Players Active in the 2014 League Championship Series
If, for some reason, you've yet to tune in to any of the action going on in the MLB playoffs this month, do yourself a favor and make it a point to tune in to Game 3 of the League Championship Series in both the Junior and Senior Circuit.
For there is some exciting, fantastic baseball being played by some of the best players in the world. It doesn't matter if you have a rooting interest that's still in the hunt for World Series glory or not—you'll find a new team to back for the next few weeks by simply tuning in.
It's impossible not to.
But when we talk about the best players in the world, a simple question with a not-so-simple answer is always raised: Who is the best of the best?
Here's how we'll go about figuring that out.
While we'll look at a player's entire career profile (some context is needed), we're most interested in how he's performed in 2014, both during the regular season and the pandemonium of the playoffs.
Who made the cut? Who fell short? Let's take a look.
Honorable Mention
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The players on this list are all remarkable talents in their own right, but they fall short of making our cut for a variety of reasons.
Some, like Mike Moustakas and Steve Pearce, have long track records of mediocrity, something that their hot streaks (Moustakas in the playoffs, Pearce in the second half of the regular season) don't make up for.
Others, like Wei-Yin Chen and John Lackey, lost out in the numbers game. There are only so many spots available, and those included ahead of them are there for good reason.
- LF Nori Aoki, Kansas City Royals
- CL Santiago Casilla, San Francisco Giants
- SP Wei-Yin Chen, Baltimore Orioles
- SS Brandon Crawford, San Francisco Giants
- RP Wade Davis, Kansas City Royals
- SS J.J. Hardy, San Francisco Giants
- SP John Lackey, St. Louis Cardinals
- RP Andrew Miller, Baltimore Orioles
- SP Jake Peavy, San Francisco Giants
- SS Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis Cardinals
- RP Yusmeiro Petit, San Francisco Giants
- CL Trevor Rosenthal, St. Louis Cardinals
- SP Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles
- SP Yordano Ventura, Kansas City Royals
20. C Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals
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If Salvador Perez had done something—anything—productive at the plate in the playoffs thus far, the 24-year-old backstop, widely considered one of the bright young stars in the game, would land higher on this list.
But Perez has essentially been a non-factor at the plate, hitting .148 (4-for-27) with a .327 OPS, one walk and eight strikeouts. It's hard to say that we didn't see this coming—Perez hasn't been swinging the bat well for months.
While he hit a career-high 17 home runs during the regular season, he posted a career-worst .260/.289/.403 slash line—including a miserable second half line of .229/.236/.360.
Yet for all of his offensive shortcomings, Perez has remained a steadying force behind the plate for Kansas City's pitching staff, despite being one of the game's worst when it comes to framing pitches.
19. 1B Matt Adams, St. Louis Cardinals
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Matt Adams doesn't have what you'd call a "refined" approach at the plate or a smooth swing. He's not the player kids should be emulating if they hope to have any chance of playing baseball professionally when they get older.
In fact, as Sports On Earth's Will Leitch detailed, watching Adams at the plate is, well, different:
"Watching Adams bat is to watch a man shift his weight back and forth awkwardly, a lava lamp on its side swaying one way to another. It is not a smooth process. It looks like, well, a fat guy trying to swing a baseball bat. I tend to liken him to Hunter Pence, another hitter with far too many moving parts who still somehow generates enough power, if by accident, once all those parts get moving in the right direction. Except Adams is Pence moving much… more… slowly. One of these days Adams is going to swing and miss and fall right on his face.
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While those multiple moving parts have resulted in Adams holding his own at the plate during the regular season, hitting .288 with a .779 OPS, he's struggled to hit for average in the postseason, mustering only a .211 (4-for-17).
But two of those hits have come courtesy of the long ball, one more dramatic than the next.
There was Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning against the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw, with nobody out and runners on first and second.
Kershaw made a mistake, hanging a curveball over the plate, one that Adams deposited into the stands for what would be a game-winning three-run blast.
Then came Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the San Francisco Giants' Hunter Strickland. With the game tied at three in the bottom of the eighth inning and facing a 1-2 count, Adams saw his 97 mph fastball and sent it into the right field stands to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.
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18. CL Greg Holland, Kansas City Royals
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Anyone who believes a team doesn't need a shutdown option in the ninth inning to make a deep playoff run needs only to look at the Detroit Tigers to see the folly of his ways.
Of the four teams still standing, Kansas City has a significant advantage over the rest of the field thanks to Greg Holland, the American League's best closer. Consider this: Holland pitched to a 1.44 ERA and 0.91 WHIP during the regular season—and those numbers were worse than what he put forth in 2013, when he threw to a 1.29 ERA and 0.87 WHIP.
Over the past two seasons, he's converted nearly 95 percent of his save opportunities (93 of 98) while posting a 1.32 ERA and 0.89 WHIP.
He's been nearly as automatic in October, converting all four of his save opportunities (including the first two games of the American League Championship Series against the Baltimore Orioles) while pitching to a 1.50 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. If the Royals get through the eighth inning with a lead, the odds are heavily in their favor that it's going to stay that way.
17. SP Tim Hudson, San Francisco Giants
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If it seems like Tim Hudson has been pitching forever, it's because he sort of has been.
The 39-year-old is finishing up his 16th year as a major league pitcher—he debuted with the Oakland A's in 1999—and 2014 marks the first time that he'll toe the rubber in a League Championship Series, as he's never before advanced past the first round of the playoffs.
"The longer you play without having achieved that, the more magnified I think it gets with every year," Hudson told MLB.com's John Schlegel. "Obviously, I'm toward the end of my career here and this is the first time I've been past the [Division Series]. I don't think there's anybody on the field that's going to be more emotionally involved than I am the next series or two series, whatever it might be."
Hudson was stellar in his first postseason start for the Giants, tossing 7.1 innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts against Washington in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, and San Francisco will be looking for more of the same as he tries to give his club a 2-1 series lead against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the NLCS.
"Guys know how to win, they know how to win when it counts," Hudson told Schlegel. "That's the reason I came here, that's the reason I came to San Francisco, because they know how to do it on the big stage."
16. SP Lance Lynn, St. Louis Cardinals
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As I wrote last month, while St. Louis' Lance Lynn has no chance of winning the National League Cy Young Award, he belongs in the conversation.
Lynn was as good a No. 2 starter as you could find in baseball this year, pitching to a 2.74 ERA and 1.27 WHIP with 181 strikeouts over 203.2 innings of work.
Only two pitchers—the Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez (31) and Cincinnati Reds' Johnny Cueto (30)—had more starts in which they allowed three earned runs or less than Lynn did, his 29 such starts putting him in a four-way tie for third place.
He gives the Cardinals a chance to win nearly every time he steps on the mound, and he's continued that performance in October, with a 3.09 ERA and 1.37 WHIP over two playoff starts.
15. 1B Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals
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In the span of two weeks, we've seen Eric Hosmer transform from "young guy still trying to find his way" to "superstar in the making."
Not sure about that last part? Raul Ibanez disagrees, as he told The Kansas City Star's Andy McCullough after the Royals swept the Los Angeles Angels in a three-game ALDS:
“I think he is a superstar in the making. The ball he hit the other day, at night, at Kauffman Stadium, a missile, on a line, a no-doubter, off a left-handed pitcher — that’s the stuff that special players do.”
The ball Ibanez speaks of—a two-run shot to center field off Hector Santiago in the fifth inning of Game 3—is only one of a multitude of big hits that the 24-year-old has delivered for Kansas City in October.
After hitting .270 with nine home runs, 58 RBI and a .716 OPS during the regular season, Hosmer is hitting .435 (10-for-23) with five extra-base hits (two home runs), seven RBI and nearly as many walks (six) as he has strikeouts (seven).
14. RF Nick Markakis, Baltimore Orioles
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Nick Markakis isn't your typical leadoff hitter, as he lacks the world-class speed and base-stealing acumen we've come to expect from a table-setter atop a team's lineup.
But he hits for average, has some pop in his bat and, most importantly, knows how to reach base consistently. As Orioles manager Buck Showalter told Eduardo A. Encina of The Baltimore Sun earlier this season, Markakis is one of those players that it's easy to take for granted:
"Nick’s one of those guys that you only really miss him when he’s gone, when he’s hurt. He’s so consistent [in] everything that he does. I don’t think he feels the pressure to do things from the leadoff spot that he might feel in other places, but he’s capable of hitting about anywhere you want to hit him in the batting order.
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A career .290/.358/.435 hitter over parts of nine seasons in Baltimore, Markakis has never hit below .270, and only once did he finish a year with an OPS below .700, posting a .685 mark in 2013.
He may not be a superstar, and he doesn't command attention the way some of his other teammates do, but Markakis is as consistent a player as you'll find still playing meaningful baseball in mid-October. Markakis may not be underrated, but he's certainly underappreciated—at least outside of Baltimore.
13. LF Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals
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As Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes, Matt Holliday and the postseason aren't exactly a match made in baseball heaven:
"Holliday's postseason experience has been a mixed bag in St. Louis. He's had little impact in some series — and underrated if not overlooked impact in others.
[...]
In 48 games and 200 plate appearances in the postseason as a Cardinal, Holliday has batted .249 with seven homers, 23 RBIs and eight doubles. He's also batted .222 with runners in scoring position.
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But this is a player who, in five full seasons with St. Louis, has hit .295 with a .879 OPS while averaging 24 home runs and 93 RBI a year. If he gets hot, he's capable of carrying a Cardinals offense that could use some help.
Aside from Matt Carpenter, St. Louis has advanced to the NLCS without a position player raising the level of its game at the plate. (Yes, Jon Jay is hitting .471 with eight singles, but he's accounted for a total of two runs—one that he scored, one that he drove in.)
12. CF Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals
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Finally, the rest of the baseball world is learning what those in the Ozarks have known for a long time—Lorenzo Cain is a damn fine baseball player.
In the first six postseason games of his career, Cain is hitting .370 (10-for-27) with three doubles, four RBI, eight runs scored and a pair of stolen bases. The lack of power isn't something that bothers him, as he's never been a power-hitting kind of guy.
“I want to be an all-around player,” he told reporters, including Kent Babb of The Washington Post after going 4-for-5 in Game 2 of the ALCS. “I want to be able to swing the bat, steal bases and play solid defense. That’s what I pride myself on, just being a complete player.”
That defense has overshadowed his accomplishments at the plate, as nearly every playoff game that he's played in has featured at least one spectacular catch in the outfield by the athletic center fielder.
“He makes one in the center, then moving to the right and makes one there,” Baltimore Manager Buck Showalter told Babb his team’s loss in Game 2. “I expected him to make one in left field before the game was over.”
Cain's defensive chops should come as no surprise to anyone. Since the start of the 2013 season, Cain is tied with Atlanta's Jason Heyward for the second-most defensive runs saved among outfielders with 48—five ahead of his teammate, Alex Gordon. He's also second in UZR/150 with a 24.3 mark, trailing only the New York Mets' Juan Lagares, who leads all outfielders at 29.9.
11. 3B Matt Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
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If you were to make a list of all the things that Matt Carpenter does to help St. Louis win games, hitting for power would be pretty low on that list.
After all, this is a player who has a total of 25 home runs in parts of four major league seasons, reaching double digits in a single season only once, with 11 in 2013.
That makes what he's been able to do in the playoffs all the more remarkable. As noted by Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter before the League Championship Series began: "After hitting just two home runs against left-handed pitching all season over 183 at-bats, Carpenter had three in three nights."
After adding another home run in Game 1 of the NLCS against San Francisco, Carpenter's four home runs puts him in a dead heat with Kansas City's Mike Moustakas for the MLB postseason lead.
"He doesn't get intimidated by a situation or by the circumstances that he's in," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told reporters after his club dispatched the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, per The Associated Press (h/t Fox Sports).
Carpenter has become adept at working counts, getting on base consistently and generally being a thorn in the opposition's side. Now that he's found his power stroke, the two-time All-Star has another way to inflict pain on those that stand between his club and another trip to the Fall Classic.
10. DH Nelson Cruz, Baltimore Orioles
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When Nelson Cruz broke into the major leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005, his first big league manager was Ned Yost, who now helms Baltimore's opposition in the ALCS, Kansas City.
“I always thought he would be a good player, but he's turned out to be a much better player than I ever envisioned him being,” Yost told Jon Meoli of The Baltimore Sun.
Exceeding expectations is something Cruz has been doing all year. After signing a one-year, $8 million deal with the Orioles, he went on to lead baseball in home runs (40) and has been the team's most consistent threat at the plate in October, hitting .476 (10-for-21) with two home runs, seven RBI and an OPS of 1.310.
Should the Orioles fail to mount a comeback against the Royals and advance to the World Series, there won't be a shortage of people to shoulder the blame for the team's demise.
Cruz won't be one of them.
9. SP James Shields, Kansas City Royals
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It's true that James Shields hasn't been very good in October—any October—making more than few scratch their heads at how he's deserving of the "Big Game James" moniker that followed him from Tampa Bay to Kansas City.
There's no fighting the numbers, and Shields' numbers in the 2014 playoffs—10 earned runs and 21 hits allowed over 16 innings of work—aren't very good.
But there's also a reason why he's considered one of the three best pitchers set to hit the free-agent market after the World Series ends: He's a heck of a pitcher.
More often than not, Shields puts his team in position to win. Those wins may not be dominant, and they may not be pretty, but a win is a win—nobody cares how a team got there so long as it gets there.
Is he miscast as an ace? Probably. But he's been everything that the Royals could have hoped for in the two years that he's worn their uniform. If the biggest thing he offers to the club is to inspire confidence among his teammates—most of whom are experiencing playoff baseball for the first time—that's more than enough.
8. CF Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles
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Baltimore's Adam Jones rarely sees a pitch that he doesn't think he can hit, and that aggressive approach at the plate has made him a target for those who like to jump on the "he's overrated" bandwagon.
That chatter only grows louder when you look at his October numbers: a .238 batting average, one extra-base hit (a two-run home run in Game 2 of the ALCS against Kansas City), one walk, six strikeouts and a .685 OPS.
But when you get past his approach at the plate, as noted by MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince, you find one of baseball's most productive players:
"Only five qualified hitters in the Majors took a lower percentage of pitches than Jones (44.5) did this season, so he knows all about aggression. But he also knows about production. Each of the last four seasons, he's hit at least 25 homers, driven in at least 80 runs and had an adjusted OPS+ over 110. Only one other player can say that, and his name is Miguel Cabrera.
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To his credit, Jones recognizes that playoff baseball is a different beast than regular-season baseball, and adjustments need to be made.
"What I do in the regular season, I think I need to cut back a little bit more in the postseason, the aggression in the regular season," he told Castrovince. "I think it intensifies when the postseason comes on, the strike zone is smaller. Every pitch is that much more important. And you've got to lock in better. It's the same game, it's just the focus has to be stronger."
Baltimore is going to need a productive Jones in the middle of its lineup to climb out of the 2-0 hole it finds itself in in the ALCS. That Jones acknowledges he has to change his approach at the plate is a good sign that, perhaps, all is not yet lost for the AL East champions.
7. C Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
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It's been something of a forgettable season for Yadier Molina.
Not only did the unquestioned leader of St. Louis' clubhouse miss nearly all of July and August due to a thumb injury that required surgery to repair, but he was never able to get on track at the plate, hitting .282 with a .719 OPS, the first season since 2010 that he failed to hit .300 or post an OPS above .800.
He's struggled mightily at the plate in the playoffs, hitting .238 (5-for-21) with a .524 OPS, and was forced from Game 2 of the NLCS in the sixth inning with a strained oblique. As ESPN's Buster Olney notes, if Molina is deactivated for the rest of St. Louis' battle against San Francisco, he'd be ineligible for the World Series.
Yet for all of his issues, Molina's value—and how devastating his loss for the rest of the NLCS would be—can't be overstated.
Arguably the best catcher in baseball, the savvy veteran is a master at handling a pitching staff and shutting down the opposition's running game, throwing out nearly 48 percent of would-be thieves during the regular season, the highest caught-stealing rate among any catcher with at least 100 games under his belt.
6. 3B Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants
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Pablo Sandoval may not possess the requisite power that people expect from a corner infielder—especially one as physically imposing as Sandoval—but what he lacks in pop he makes up for with timely hitting, superb defense and uncanny athleticism for a man his size.
When it comes to the postseason, Sandoval raises his game to another level.
Named World Series MVP in 2012, the Kung-Fu Panda holds a San Francisco team record with 24 hits in the 2012 postseason and has picked up where he left off this October, with his 10 hits tied with Buster Posey for the clubhouse lead.
"He's a gifted player and a gifted hitter, and he had a nice night tonight," Giants manager Bruce Bochy told Daniel Brown of the San Jose Mercury News after Sandoval went 3-for-4 with a double, walk and run scored in Game 1 of the NLCS. "Hit some tough pitches. But he has that ability to expand the zone and get the good part of the bat on it, and he did that tonight."
That ability, along with his glove at the hot corner, firmly entrenches Sandoval as one of the premier talents still on display in October.
5. RF Hunter Pence, San Francisco Giants
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Those unfamiliar with Hunter Pence may look at his stats from both the regular season (.277 BA, 20 HR, 74 RBI, .777 OPS) and the playoffs (.241 BA, 1 RBI, .623 OPS) and wonder what the big deal is.
He doesn't put up gaudy numbers, isn't the best player on his own team and doesn't belong anywhere near the top half of our rankings.
But as USA Today's Jorge L. Ortiz wrote, you can't quantify Pence's impact on the game by numbers alone:
"The Giants right fielder is fast and strong, capable of impacting a game in a number of ways. His sixth-inning catch of a Jayson Werth drive to the wall Tuesday – already dubbed as "Pence at the Fence'' – is a perfect such example.
And yet, Pence is the first one to acknowledge he plays with all the grace of a giraffe. Pence's warm-up swings in the on-deck circle make people recoil, as if they had just strained an abdominal muscle. But he's easily the club's most inspirational player, the only major leaguer in the last two seasons to play in every single game, and delivers a pretty rousing speech to boot.
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The key piece of that is Ortiz's first point—Pence can impact a game in a number of ways. The opposition can pitch to him however it likes, but more often than not, at some point, Pence is going to do something that shifts momentum or changes the course of the game—whether it shows up in the box score or not.
4. LF Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals
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The next time you hear a player griping about having to change positions, keep one name in the back of your mind: Alex Gordon.
The second overall selection in the 2005 draft, Gordon struggled to hit major league pitching (.244 BA, .705 OPS) and still couldn't play a capable third base four years into his major league career. He was a bust in every sense of the word.
Since becoming a full-time left fielder in 2011, Gordon has become one of the premier talents in the game. He's figured out how to hit, both for average (.283 BA) and power (76 home runs, .809 OPS), made a pair of All-Star appearances and taken home three straight Gold Glove Awards.
Before you dismiss those Gold Glove Awards, consider this: Only one player, Atlanta shortstop Andrelton Simmons, has more defensive runs saved (DRS) since 2011 than Gordon does—and his lead is nearly nonexistent.
| Andrelton Simmons | ATL | SS | 88 |
| Alex Gordon | KC | LF | 87 |
| Jason Heyward | ATL | RF | 82 |
| Dustin Pedroia | BOS | 2B | 61 |
| Carlos Gomez | MIL | CF | 58 |
That's right—Gordon has saved his team more runs than every other outfielder in baseball, including Jason Heyward and Carlos Gomez, both far more lauded for their defensive chops than Gordon is.
After putting on a show in Game 1 of the ALCS against Baltimore, both at the plate (four RBI) and in the field, his teammates couldn't praise Gordon enough.
"That's what he's capable of doing every game," Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas told Jane Lee of MLB.com. "People don't realize how great of a player he really is. He saved us runs defensively and drove in four runs. Unbelievable. That guy is just a phenomenal baseball player. We're lucky to have him in this clubhouse."
3. C Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
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For all of Buster Posey's accomplishments—winning the NL Rookie of the Year (2010), the NL MVP and batting crown (2012) and a pair of World Series rings (2010 and 2012) among them—he's always played second fiddle to Yadier Molina when it comes to naming the best catcher in the Senior Circuit.
You'd think that would continue to be the case in the NLCS as Molina's St. Louis squad battles Posey's crew from San Francisco, but the times, they are a-changin'.
“I’ve said it a thousand times how similar these two teams are. That’s another example. Buster Posey makes that whole thing work just like Yadi (Molina) does for us,” Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Posey sits higher on our rankings than his counterpart for two reasons: His bat and his glove.
Posey's six-game postseason hitting streak that saw him hit .370 (10-for-27) may have come to an end in Game 2 of the NLCS, but he's coming off his second career 20-home run campaign and finished the season fourth in the NL with a .311 batting average, his third .300 season in five years.
Per Baseball Prospectus, Posey has surpassed Molina, who missed a chunk of the regular season with an injury, when it comes to pitch framing as well, ranking seventh in baseball among starting catchers.
2. SP Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
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After failing to go five innings in his second consecutive October start—the first time in his career that he's had back-to-back starts of less than five innings, according to ESPN Chicago's Jesse Rogers—chatter that Adam Wainwright was dealing with an arm injury began to gain steam.
"My arm, it doesn't feel great. But it should certainly be a lot better, results-wise, than that," Wainwright told MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. "I should be able to complete my pitches and deliver a lot better than I am. Those things will continue to get better."
Despite his balky right arm and poor postseason performance—an ERA of 8.00, a WHIP of 2.33 and 200 pitches thrown over his last nine innings of work—you'd be hard-pressed to find another pitcher as good as Wainwright is among the four teams left standing.
Lest we forget, Wainwright is coming off the third 20-win season of his career and is a lock to finish as one of the three highest vote-getters in the NL Cy Young Award voting for the second year in a row, the fourth time since 2009.
1. SP Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
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It takes a pretty special pitcher to knock a two-time runner-up in the NL Cy Young Award voting off the top of the mountain, but that's exactly what San Francisco has in Madison Bumgarner.
While Wainwright's numbers on the season (20-9, 2.32 ERA, 1.03 WHIP) are superior to Bumgarner's (18-10, 2.98 ERA, 1.09 WHIP), Bumgarner has been baseball's best playoff performer.
It's not even close.
Consider this, courtesy of USA Today's Bob Nightengale:
"Bumgarner has now pitched 26 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings on the road, the longest playoff streak in history. He surpassed Tommy John, Catfish Hunter, Christy Mathewson, Mariano Rivera, and the record-holder Art Nehf of the New York Giants, in a single night.
Bumgarner is perfect in four postseason road appearances, going 4-0 with a 0.59 ERA, giving up just two earned runs in 30 2/3 innings. He has made nine postseason starts in his career, and has pitched at least seven shutout innings in four of them.
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You can't really ask for much more than that, can you?
Bumgarner has supplanted Matt Cain as the ace of San Francisco's rotation and firmly established himself as one of the elite starting pitchers in baseball.
That he's no slouch with the bat—he hit .258 with four home runs (including two grand slams), 15 RBI and a .755 OPS during the regular season—doesn't hurt, either.
For what it's worth, Bumgarner's four home runs were more than 324 position players were able to hit during the regular season.
Unless otherwise linked/noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs and are current through games of Oct. 12.
Want to talk playoff baseball? Hit me up on Twitter: @RickWeinerBR
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