We’re mere hours away from the beginning of the 2014 MLB Postseason. James Shields will deliver the first pitch to Coco Crisp at roughly 8 PM eastern, and the Royals and A’s will do battle for the pleasure of facing the Angels in the AL Division Series. That being said, here are five things that we should keep an eye on in this game.
Will Ned Yost focus too much on speed for his own good?
Both teams feature bench players that are essentially pinch runners and nothing more – Billy Burns for the A’s, Terrance Gore and Jarrod Dyson for the Royals. But Ned Yost really loves his pinch runners – Gore was used as a pinch runner nine times this season (in a month of action), while Dyson came off the bench to run 18 times this season. In ten of those occasions, he was forced to stay in the game – twice to replace Billy Butler. Offense will be at a premium in this game, especially with Jon Lester and James Shields on the mound.
If Yost gets creative and ends up pulling one of his regulars too early for Gore or Dyson, the Royals will be in a bad spot – the best bats they have on the bench are Josh Willingham and Raul Ibanez, both of whom have platoon issues and shouldn’t be playing the field. In the event that Butler, Lorenzo Cain, or Nori Aoki gets pulled and replaced by one of the pinch runners, Yost had better damn well be sure that the Royals are going to get a run and win soon after. In the playoffs, you can’t give up a spot in the lineup for a tiny chance and maybe getting one extra run.
Will Kansas City’s lack of power doom them?
In the second half of the 2014 season, the A’s pitching staff allowed 67 homers, the fourth-most in baseball and only four behind the Twins for the top spot. The Royals were the only team in baseball to not homer 100 times on the season, and they went yard just nine times in the entire month of September. This is really quite a good matchup for Oakland: a team that doesn’t hit any homers being matched up with a team that allows quite a few. The biggest weakness of the Athletics’ pitching staff has been essentially canceled out, and that’s a huge boost for the A’s.
Is the result of this game going to rewrite history?
By rewrite history, I’m referring to the trades each team made to acquire their starting pitcher in the game: Wil Myers (and others) for James Shields (and Wil Myers), and Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester (and Jonny Gomes). The Shields trade was slammed from the getgo by those who said the Royals weren’t contenders, and that Shields wouldn’t push them over the top. The Lester trade was lauded, as it seemingly made the A’s into World Series favorites. Times have changed since the trades happened, as the Royals have contended with Shields in their rotation this year and the A’s have slumped with Lester leading their pitching staff into the Postseason.
If Shields and the Royals win tonight, will history look back on Dayton Moore pushing his chips all-in as the moment that removed the Royals from laughingstock status? Or will the Royals lose, and Moore’s trade be slammed for bringing just one playoff game to Kansas City? Meanwhile, will the Lester trade be welcomed warmly if the A’s advance to the ALDS for a battle with the Angels, or will Billy Beane be destroyed for ruining the chemistry of a team that was running on autopilot? The answer to all of these questions lies somewhere in the middle, but in the land of absolutes, the middle simply doesn’t exist.
Will Adam Dunn make his playoff debut?
Adam Dunn has never played in a Postseason game. He’s not in the starting lineup for the A’s on Tuesday. Is tonight finally going to be the night for Dunn, or is he going to have to wait until the ALDS or 2015 (assuming he doesn’t retire)? It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Dunn will be used to pinch hit tonight – Stephen Vogt is starting at first base, and he’s struggled immensely in September. Light-hitting Sam Fuld is starting in left field, and if he comes up late when Oakland needs runs, Dunn could be inserted, especially if neither of the two lefties in the Royals bullpen are available. It would be pretty great to see Dunn make his playoff debut in a huge spot for the A’s, and deliver in amazing fashion.
Can Ned Yost adapt his bullpen usage?
Ned Yost created chaos a couple of weeks ago when he stubbornly talked about how each of his relievers had a designated inning to work in. He won’t have Aaron Crow in the Wild Card game, and Brandon Finnegan is the lone lefty reliever in the bullpen for the Royals tonight (though Danny Duffy is also back there). Yost won’t be able to go into matchup hell in this game, so will be willing to possibly use one of his three best relievers (Greg Holland, Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera) in a key spot if it’s not the designated situation? One run could be huge, and the Royals need to prevent the A’s from getting on the board, especially considering the high pitch counts James Shields tends to rack up.
