Ranking the Most Battle-Tested Rosters of the 2015 MLB Playoff Races
The San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals own October.
At least one of those teams has appeared in the National League Championship Series in each of the past five seasons, and the clubs have combined to win four of the last five World Series titles. Simply put, the Giants and the Cardinals have been there and done that.
In the process of ranking the most battle-tested squads of the 2015 MLB playoff races, there were a few key factors taken into consideration:
- Experience navigating tight September dogfights
- Experience winning in the postseason
- The number of World Series winners on a given roster
While the Giants and the Cardinals were left to jockey for the top spot, there was also room in the top five for a first-place club led by an ace who has all sorts of experience but who has never throw a pitch in the big-league postseason.
Honorable Mention
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All the teams that are currently in the chase in either the National League or the American League were taken into consideration for the top five that follows. After digging through the recent postseason track records of all those clubs, here are the two teams that came the closest to making the cut:
- Pittsburgh Pirates: Dating back to the start of 2013, the Bucs have been doing a lot of winning. Pittsburgh claimed a wild-card spot in each of the past two seasons and is in position to make it three in a row. Unfortunately for manager Clint Hurdle and his team, the Pirates haven't been doing much winning once the calendar flips to October. Pittsburgh lost out in the NL Division Series in 2013 and got knocked out in the wild-card game a season ago.
- Baltimore Orioles: Half a game out of the second wild-card spot, the Baltimore Orioles have work to do. But it's worth pointing out that the O's had a monster year in 2014, and that much of the roster has returned for the current campaign. Last season, Baltimore was tied for the second-most wins (96) on the way to making an AL Championship Series appearance.
5. Texas Rangers
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The Resume
- Lost in the World Series in 2010 and 2011
The Texas Rangers are far from a lock to make it to the postseason. As the stretch drive ramps up, the Rangers (58-57) are 1.5 games out of the second wild-card spot and four games off the pace in the AL West.
If the Rangers manage to punch their ticket to the postseason, there will be a couple of key contributors on the roster who have some serious playoff experience. It's easy to forget, but the Rangers lost in the World Series in back-to-back seasons in 2010 and 2011.
Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton (now in his second stint with the club) and Colby Lewis were a part of both of those AL Championship clubs. Meanwhile, Adrian Beltre was a star for the 2011 team.
With the Rangers hanging around in the race, Hamilton has drawn parallels to those old playoff teams—especially the current club's ability to always keep an even keel.
“It’s a mentality that we had in the years when we went to the playoffs,” Hamilton said, via Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News. “Somebody would score three or four runs on us, and there was no stress at all.”
The Rangers also recently imported an ace who knows all about dealing with postseason stress. Back in 2008, Cole Hamels was the MVP of the World Series while pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies.
4. New York Yankees
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The Resume
- 2009 World Series Champions
- Advanced to the ALCS in 2010 and 2012
Admittedly, it's been a long time since the New York Yankees claimed the World Series title way back in 2009.
There are four players left over from that roster in Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia. And it's worth noting that two of those players (Gardner and Teixeira) were All-Stars this summer and a third (A-Rod) should have been.
But the most battle-tested player of all in the Bronx is the staff ace who's never thrown a pitch in the major league postseason.
Masahiro Tanaka was instrumental for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2013 when the club won the Japan Series. That year, Tanaka went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA in the regular season before putting his team on his back in the playoffs.
After taking the loss in Game 6 despite throwing a 160-pitch complete game, Tanaka came back to record the final three outs of the clincher.
“No matter what we said, Tanaka wanted to go in there,” Manager Senichi Hoshino said, via Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times. “We’ve come all this way because of him, so we thought he deserved it.”
With the Yankees clinging to a 1.5-game edge in the AL East, the team's spot in the postseason isn't assured just yet. But if the team does get into the playoffs, it sure will be fun to see how Tanaka performs.
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3. Kansas City Royals
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The Resume
- 2014 AL Champions
The Kansas City Royals snag the No. 3 spot in these rankings on the strength of the club's electric run, which started in the middle of 2014 and which is still going on today.
Just a couple of games over .500 (48-46) at the All-Star break a season ago, the Royals were borderline contenders in the playoff chase. But Kansas City took off in the second half, compiling a 41-27 record after the Midsummer Classic, in the process of storming to the No. 1 wild-card spot in the AL.
In the winner-take-all game against the Oakland Athletics, the Royals refused to quit, engineering a couple of comebacks to get past Oakland 9-8.
"This will go down as the craziest game I've ever played," First baseman Eric Hosmer told the Associated Press, via ESPN.com. "This team showed a lot of character. No one believed in us before the game. No one believed in us before the season."
Kansas City went on to come within a game of winning its first World Series since 1985, and now everybody believes in the squad. The Royals (70-46) have boat-raced the rest of the AL Central in 2015, building up a 12-game advantage in the division.
Thanks to all that experience that the Royals picked up last year and based on the way that the team has cruised through the first five-and-a-half months of the schedule in 2015, Kansas City has cemented its status as one of the most dangerous postseason opponents in the bigs.
2. St. Louis Cardinals
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The Resume
- 2011 World Series Champions
- Lost in the World Series in 2013; Have been to the NLCS in four consecutive seasons
The bar is set awfully high at Busch Stadium. Just ask Matt Carpenter, the St. Louis Cardinals two-time All-Star third baseman.
"We enjoy making the postseason, but it's almost something that we expect," Carpenter explained via Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News last October. "When we get here, we want to win every round, but we expect to go to the World Series. Anything less is a disappointment. That's the culture that has been instilled here."
The Cards have reached the Fall Classic in two of the past four seasons and have advanced to the NLCS on all four occasions. As Feinsand noted, St. Louis is the first team to accomplish that feat since the New York Yankees did so from 1998 to 2001.
According to manager Mike Matheny, one of the keys to the club's success is that the older players are always teaching the rising stars.
"What makes a difference is how our veterans go about spending time with our young players, talking to them about what we've done in the past that's allowed us to be successful. Our guys invest a lot of time speaking with the younger players." Matheny said, via Feinsand.
One of those young players who has already made his mark in the postseason is Michael Wacha. During his rookie season in 2013, Wacha grabbed a couple of wins in the NLCS, shutting out the Los Angeles Dodgers in 13.2 innings of work across two starts.
Another young gun who is primed to step up for the Cards is Carlos Martinez. The 23-year-old is sporting a 2.62 ERA in his first full season as a starter in St. Louis.
1. San Francisco Giants
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The Resume
- 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series Champions
It doesn't get any worse than running into the San Francisco Giants in the postseason.
The NL West squad has piled up three World Series titles in the past five seasons, and the success all starts with skipper Bruce Bochy, who has a knack for always pressing the right button at the right time.
"I can't say there's a silver bullet on how you play each series except that every game counts, and it's every pitch, every play," Bochy told Carl Steward of the Bay Area News Group last fall. "The margin of error is not there like you have in April or May."
During San Francisco's recent run, the club has benefited from the fact that there has been an unusually high level of continuity within the organization. The following seven players have all been around for the Giants' last three titles:
- Jeremy Affeldt
- Madison Bumgarner
- Santiago Casilla
- Tim Lincecum
- Javier Lopez
- Buster Posey
- Sergio Romo
Thanks to all that experience, the stage is never too big for anyone on the roster. Manager Matt Williams, whose Washington Nationals were dumped out of the NLDS by the Giants last season, learned that lesson first hand.
"You talk about the Giants, and you say to yourself, 'They're battle-tested.' But you don't get battle-tested unless you get into battle," Williams said, via Steward.
Currently, the Giants aren't in playoff position, as the team trails the Los Angeles Dodgers by 2.5 games in the division and is 4.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the second wild-card spot. But if the Giants do sneak into the postseason, there's no question about it—this team is always a threat to go all the way.
Note: All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com.
If you want to talk baseball, find me on Twitter @KarlBuscheck.
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