Bleacher Report's 2015 League Championship Series Awards
OK, so I turned off Game 6 as soon as Fox TV declared in the seventh inning that the Kansas City Royals had already won.
Nothing happened after that, right?
Hey, good for Fox. We all needed the extra sleep and an early start on figuring out how the unstoppable Royals are going to deal with the unstoppable Daniel Murphy.
And we all need a few extra minutes to sum up all that happened in the two championship series, including the classic that was Game 6 (OK, I lied. I did keep watching. All the way to the amazing end).
It was quite a night and quite a week, and now we end up with the teams that won the World Series in 1985 (Royals) and 1986 (New York Mets) and haven't won it since. We get a hitting coach who was fired by the New York Yankees (Kevin Long of the Mets) up against a pitching coach who was fired by the Yankees (Dave Eiland of the Royals). We get two great closers (Jeurys Familia of the Mets and Wade Davis of the Royals), neither of whom began the season as a closer.
We get Lorenzo Cain (above) and Murphy, who both might just show up later on in these Bleacher Report awards for the championship series.
Let's get started so we can finish before the World Series begins. And yes, Fox was right—in the seventh inning and again at the end. It really is Mets vs. Royals.
Best Game: ALCS Game 6: Royals 4, Blue Jays 3
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We'll start with an easy one, because the game the Royals and Toronto Blue Jays played Friday night was one of the best you'll ever see.
There were great plays (Lorenzo Cain scoring the winning run all the way from first base on a single), great performances (Wade Davis working in and then out of trouble in the ninth), great drama (Jose Bautista's game-tying home run after Royals manager Ned Yost inexplicably left Davis in the bullpen in the eighth) and great frustration (is David Price ever going to win a postseason game?).
It was great theater and great competition between two teams that went all-in to try to win this year.
Best Manager: Terry Collins, New York Mets
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His team was so dominant that he didn't have to make many tough in-game decisions, but Collins and his staff had the Mets ready to play. The Mets were 29th in the major leagues in stolen bases this season, but they understood right away they could exploit a Chicago Cubs weakness by running right through the National League Championship Series.
Collins is managing in the postseason for the first time in his long, long career, but you'd never know it by the way he's operating. He has shown the right amount of urgency, along with just the right amount of consistency.
And when the Mets finished off the NLCS at Wrigley Field, it was Collins who made a point of bringing a bottle of champagne to celebrate with Mets fans.
That by itself would have been enough to earn the best manager honor.
Best Player on a Losing Team: Troy Tulowitzki, Toronto Blue Jays
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Yes, Jose Bautista nearly won Game 6 all by himself with two home runs. But he didn't do much in the first five games of the series, and it was his eighth-inning decision to throw to second base that allowed Lorenzo Cain to score the run that won the series.
Troy Tulowitzki didn't get any hits Friday, but he had seven hits in the series, including the three-run homer that started an onslaught in Game 3 and the three-run double that broke open Game 5.
Dating back to his years with the Colorado Rockies, Tulo was a .179 hitter in 20 postseason games before the American League Championship Series began. He was a .223 hitter in a Blue Jays uniform, including 41 regular-season games and five in the division series.
He's a better player than that, a much better player. In the ALCS, it showed, even in a losing effort.
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Best Emerging Star: Alcides Escobar, Kansas City Royals
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As Joel Sherman pointed out the other day in a fine column for the New York Post, teams that trade Cy Young Award winners don't always get value. Two that did are about to meet in the World Series.
The Mets got both Noah Syndergaard and Travis d'Arnaud when they dealt R.A. Dickey to the Blue Jays in 2012. And the Royals got Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and Jake Odorizzi (who helped them get James Shields and Wade Davis) when they dealt Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010.
The Mets got good reviews for their trade right from the start. The Royals did not because not enough people understood what Kansas City scouts did: Cain and Escobar could become stars.
Cain was the MVP of last year's ALCS. He scored the winning run in Game 6 this year—but the series and the MVP award belonged to Escobar.
In six games, Escobar scored six runs and drove in five. He was on base 13 times.
He was everywhere, and if you didn't realize how good he was before the ALCS began, you know it now.
Best Midseason Acquisition: Ben Zobrist, Kansas City Royals
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No one made bigger July moves than the Blue Jays, Royals and Mets, and all three were rewarded by getting this far.
But in the ALCS, David Price didn't win, and Johnny Cueto wasn't good. In the NLCS, Yoenis Cespedes had a big steal and scored a big run but mainly played second fiddle to the great Daniel Murphy.
Troy Tulowitzki had a good ALCS, but his team didn't win. Ben Zobrist's team did, in part because Zobrist homered off Price in the first inning of Game 6.
Plenty of teams wanted Zobrist in July, and plenty will want him when he becomes a free agent after the World Series. The Royals paid a big price (including Sean Manaea) to rent him, but if they hadn't, perhaps they wouldn't be in the World Series right now.
Zobrist scored eight runs in the six-game series, and five of his eight hits went for extra bases. The Royals are happy they have him.
Best Rookie: Noah Syndergaard, New York Mets
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Jake Arrieta looked unbeatable when the NLCS began.
Noah Syndergaard beat him.
Sure, Syndergaard had a three-run lead before he took the mound in Game 2, but he also carried a shutout into the sixth inning. He didn't debut in the big leagues until May, but he's already become a huge part of the young guns rotation that has carried the Mets to the World Series.
It would have been a great story if he'd ended up facing the Blue Jays, the team that traded him to the Mets three years ago. But it's a pretty good story anyway: a 23-year-old kid going up against the Royals.
And with Syndergaard apparently being readied to start Game 3 (with Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom starting the first two contests), he could end up being in line to start Game 7 too.
Best Starting Pitcher(s): New York Mets
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It's not fair to just pick one of them, because all four Mets starters were outstanding against a Cubs team that was red-hot when the NLCS began.
Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz combined to pitch 25 innings in the four-game sweep, allowing just six runs and striking out 29. Add in regular-season starters Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese, neither of whom allowed a run in relief, and Mets starters had a 2.02 ERA in the series.
The Mets debated whether or not to rely on all kids in the rotation in October. They made the right decision.
Best Relief Pitcher(s): Kansas City Royals
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Again, it's not fair to pick one guy, even with what Wade Davis (above) did in the ninth inning of Game 6.
With Jeurys Familia, the Mets might have a closer to match Davis, but no team has a full bullpen to match the Royals.
Until Jose Bautista homered off Ryan Madson in the eighth inning Friday, the four relievers the Royals rely on the most (Davis, Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Luke Hochevar) had pitched 12 innings in the ALCS without allowing a run. Even with the Bautista homer, the four combined for a 1.32 ERA.
Given the Mets starting rotation, getting a lead early might not be easy for the Royals. But given the Royals bullpen, the Mets had better make sure they're not behind in a game late.
Most Valuable Player: Daniel Murphy, New York Mets
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Curtis Granderson said during the NLCS that he now knows what it's like to play with Babe Ruth. But Ruth never hit more than four home runs in any of the 10 World Series he played in (and, of course, there was no ALCS back then).
The Mets' Ruth has homered in six consecutive postseason games, a major league record. After homering off Clayton Kershaw (twice) and Zack Greinke in the division series, he began the NLCS with home runs off Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta. He hit another one in Game 3 off Kyle Hendricks and yet another in Game 4 off Fernando Rodney.
Mets hitting coach Kevin Long was still marveling about the homer off Rodney two days later, because Murphy went to the plate saying he was going to sit on Rodney's 83 mph changeup and still was able to turn on the 97 mph fastball that Rodney actually threw him.
"The whole Murphy deal now is one where you just shake your head," said Long, who is convinced Murphy is a much better hitter now than he was when the season began.
If the Mets front office believes that, or if other teams believe it, Murphy should really cash in this winter. When the World Series ends, he will become a free agent.
Best Team: Kansas City Royals
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This isn't a World Series prediction. And remember, Mets fans, when we did division series awards last week, we named the Cubs the most impressive team.
We could justify naming the Mets most impressive right now since they swept the Cubs in the NLCS. But the Royals are in the World Series for a second straight year, their 95 regular-season wins were the most in the American League and they look like a team that is always going to find a way to win.
It didn't happen in the World Series last year (although the Royals made it to Game 7 against the San Francisco Giants). It may not happen this year.
Right now, though, before a World Series game has been played, the Royals are the best team.
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