MLB League Championship Series Questions That Still Need to Be Answered

The dramatics from the previous round seem to be missing from the MLB championship series.

The Kansas City Royals and New York Mets have leaped out to dominant leads and find themselves a win away from capturing a pennant and securing a trip to the World Series. It is a long way from the division series round when three of the four series went to a deciding fifth game.

But even as these series seem to be a matter of when, not if, the Royals and Mets win them, questions surround each team involved, though not all of them have a negative tint. They aren't just about the current championship series but also going forward for the rest of the playoffs.

Some of these questions are close to being answered, at least in the short term, but for others, we are still more than a week away from drawing true conclusions. For now, we can ask and then wait and see.

Should the Royals Be a Feared Lineup Going Forward?

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Nobody asked this question a couple of weeks ago, before the Kansas City Royals took the field for their first postseason game of 2015. That is because the definitive answer was a resounding “no.”

The Royals hit the second-fewest home runs in the American League during the regular season. Their OBP was seventh, as was their OPS and wOBA. Their wRC+ was eighth, according to FanGraphs. They were not a terrible offensive team, but they were hardly the kind of intimidating lineup that Toronto or Los Angeles possessed.

But nine postseason games into it—including Tuesday’s 14-2 blowout of the Blue Jays to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series—the Royals are an offensive mammoth. They lead all postseason teams in batting average (.284), OBP (.343), slugging percentage (.469) and OPS (.812), and are second in home runs (12) and doubles (16).

In Games 3 and 4 in Toronto, the Royals had 15 hits in consecutive games for the first time since September 2011, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. They also became only the fifth team in playoff history to collect 15 hits in consecutive games. And to throw another one out there, the Royals are hitting .331 against the Blue Jays. The highest average for any team in a best-of-seven championship series was the Boston Red Sox’s .318 in 2007. 

“It's just you get to this point and what you need are guys to get hot and they have,” manager Ned Yost told reporters after Tuesday’s win. “They've been table setters. They've been run producers. It's been fun to watch them go to work every day.”

Will Jake Arrieta Pitch Like an Ace Again?

Julie Jacobson/Associated Press

The Chicago Cubs had their ace every fifth game for the entire regular season, but over his final 15 starts, Jake Arrieta took things to another level with his 0.75 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 107.1 innings.

That dominance continued into the postseason when Arrieta pitched the Cubs through the Wild Card Game over the Pittsburgh Pirates—he threw a complete-game shutout with 11 strikeouts and no walks.

However, in his last two outings, Arrieta has not looked like the ace the Cubs leaned on for the previous six months. He has allowed eight runs in his last 10.2 innings. The Cubs offense bailed him out of one of those games, but when he allowed four runs in five innings in Game 2 of the NLCS and the Cubs lost, questions followed concerning Arrieta’s innings total and a suspicious dip in velocity.

“I mean, I can't deny that it might be,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon told reporters when asked if Arrieta’s workload could be catching up to his production. “I don't know that. If you ask him, he'll tell you no. In [Game 2] if that gun was correct on the field, he might have been down a mile an hour or two. That's what I saw.

“Overall, and when that happens, the breaker, the commitment to the breaking ball is not as definite from the hitter's perspective, because they're able to see everything better.”

Arrieta is not scheduled to start again until Game 6, although he had not been officially announced as the starter as of Tuesday. If the series gets that far, and if the Cubs are going to have any chance of advancing past the New York Mets, Arrieta has to revert to his second-half form.

Can Mets Rotation Be Too Much for Opponents to Overcome?

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

In a postseason that has been highlighted by home runs and offense, the New York Mets have taken over as the dominant rotation, though they have not faced much competition for the moniker. 

Jacob deGrom (1.80 postseason ERA), Matt Harvey (2.84), Noah Syndergaard (2.77) and Steven Matz (three runs allowed in five innings through one start) have led the Mets to an overall rotation ERA of 2.79. That number is easily good for lowest of the postseason, and it has helped the team oust the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and take a 3-0 lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS.

Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters: 

"

I was pretty comfortable they were going to handle [the postseason stage]. I think these guys have tremendous confidence in themselves and their abilities. They know what they have to do to get outs, and they just go out and try to apply it. I think the big stage helps. I think there is a little bit more intensity involved, so a little bit more focus involved, so I think that's helps a little bit also.

But if you believe in yourself and trust your stuff and your stuff's as good as theirs, you're going to pitch fine.

"

To this point, the Mets’ entire staff has been better than fine, including closer Jeurys Familia, who has not allowed a run in 8.2 postseason innings. If the group continues that kind of production, it just might be enough to carry the franchise to its third World Series title.

Is This the Year of the Offensive Champion?

Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

Improbable offensive performances are taking over this postseason’s narrative more than the traditional dominant pitching performances we saw last year with San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner or in 2013 with Boston Red Sox ace Jon Lester.

In all of last year’s postseason, the 10 teams hit 57 home runs in total. This year, before we even have the World Series matchup set, the teams have combined to hit 73.

While the New York Mets have a rotation capable of dominating October, they are also getting plenty of help from an offense that has hit 11 home runs in eight games. They also have Daniel Murphy, who has stolen the playoff show with a completely unimaginable power binge.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs are not making their postseason runs because of their pitching. Each of those teams, and the Mets to an extent, is using offense to fuel its rush into the Fall Classic, as teams that have won the homer battle in each postseason game are 16-7.

Aside from the Mets, none of those teams that have played more than one game have a rotation postseason ERA lower than 3.67. While pitching might have helped most of these teams reach the playoffs, so far it has been a tournament built on offense.

Can the Blue Jays Count on David Price?

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

This question might have already been answered, and it certainly has been if the Blue Jays cannot win Wednesday and extend the series to a sixth game back in Kansas City. For that, Toronto first has to be able to count on Marco Estrada, the Game 5 starter. 

But aside from all that, the question is valid. David Price, the team’s ace, has a 5.65 ERA over his last eight postseason appearances (51 innings), and his ERA is 7.02 for this postseason (13 earned runs allowed in 16.2 innings).

Because of those numbers, Price has started only two of the Blue Jays’ first nine postseason games. And he is not scheduled to start again until Friday’s Game 6, if things get that far. Then again, he might have to pitch out of the bullpen Wednesday for a second time in these playoffs if the team needs him in that role, which would scratch him from a possible Game 6 start.

“It doesn't matter,” Price told reporters earlier in this series. “I mean, whatever this team wants me to do to try and help them win, I'm all about it.”

When the Blue Jays needed a strong start in a big game during the regular season, Price was the guy. In games as a Blue Jay against the New York Yankees, his team’s chief competition for the division title, Price allowed five runs in 26.1 innings over four starts for a 1.71 ERA.

But right now, on this stage, the Blue Jays still do not know definitively if they can count on Price to lead them to a victory with everything on the line. They gave us a hint in Game 5 of the division series when Marcus Stroman started that series-clinching game.

If this series gets to a sixth game, Price might have another chance to answer the question.