In early April, each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams had high hopes and expectations. Like the beginning of any season in any sport, the new year brought about a renewed sense of excitement. Even as I was anticipating the start of the Diamondbacks' season, I pushed aside the fact that my team had finished with the worst record in baseball in 2014. We had a lot of young talent ready to step in and make some noise, we had a new manager, and we had the best first baseman in the league. While the team certainly did progress in 2015, it was clear before the All-Star break that my team wasn't exactly championship caliber. It might have been disappointing, but in retrospect, I think the Diamondbacks did show quite a bit of improvement and in April of 2016, I will have those same championship aspirations, even though most people will probably find that laughable. However, sometimes laughable scenarios can turn out to be reality, and starting tomorrow night, we are going to see one of those times when fantasy becomes reality.
After the conclusion of the 2014 season, we were enamored with the progress that the Kansas City Royals had displayed, and we saw that hope of their organization had become reality, as they reached the World Series. While they lost to the San Francisco Giants, the Royals roster was littered with young and talented players, and it seemed as though the fans in Kansas City were only seeing the beginning of a stretch of great baseball. 2015 was no different, as the Royals motored from Opening Day into October, and now into the World Series. In an American League Central division full of mediocre competition, the Royals finished the regular season 12 games ahead of the second place Minnesota Twins, and their 95 wins earned them the top spot in the entire American League. So, if you told me in April that the Royals would be back in the World Series, I would not have been surprised to hear so. What would have shocked me though, is the team that they would be facing for baseball's biggest prize.
At the beginning of the season, I can't recall anyone saying that the National League East division race would even be close. The Washington Nationals had all the young and talented players, and they would run away and hide with the division crown easily in their grasp. Yet, a funny thing happened along the way, and it has become the new calling card of baseball over the past decade. The only thing to expect is the unexpected. The NL East saw a runaway winner, but the Nationals were on the wrong end of the race. The New York Mets, despite pretty much all preseason prognostications, took the NL East by storm, and they were actually the dominant team in the division. Bryce Harper had an MVP-caliber season for Washington, but the rest of the roster did not come close to meeting expectations, and because of that, the Mets will now be playing tomorrow night in their first World Series in 15 years.
Major League Baseball is in the midst of an unprecedented youth movement, the likes of which we have not seen before. Madison Bumgarner dominated the World Series last year, and he is only approaching the prime of his career. Guys like Harper, Mike Trout, and Giancarlo Stanton are outfielders who are not only household names right now, but will be household names for the next decade. In comparison, those guys are ancient compared to other youngsters who are only beginning to burst onto the Major League scene.
We saw the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros in the postseason for the first time in quite a while, and guys like Carlos Correa and Kris Bryant are already superstars despite being 21 and 23 years old, respectively. A youth movement is sweeping all across baseball, and the World Series will showcase that movement in full form. Last season, we learned names like Lorenzo Cain, Salvador Perez, Yordano Ventura, and Kelvin Herrera. This year, the league has been enthralled with the abundance of young pitching talent that the Mets have shown. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Noah Syndergaard are all flame-throwing studs, and their talents will be on full display in the 2015 World Series. Add Steven Matz to the mix, and the Mets have so much young pitching talent that, at least in my opinion, it has made the increasingly harder to like Matt Harvey actually expendable (however that is another story for another day).
I cannot say that I know what will happen once the World Series gets underway tomorrow, but what I do know is that it will be filled with a whole lot of young and talented players who are only beginning to scratch the surface of their unbelievable levels of talent. The hot bats of Daniel Murphy, Yoenis Cespedes, Alcides Escobar, and Alex Rios will all be ready, but they will be met with a whole lot of young, flame-throwing arms. I won't predict what will happen over the course of the next (at most) seven games, because if I did, I know I would be wrong. What I can tell everyone though, is that the names we hear over the next week or so will be names that we will be hearing for many years to come, and Major League Baseball should be ecstatic that on its biggest stage, they will be able to showcase some of the best young talent it has to offer.
Daily Rangers Update: A win last night over Calgary now puts the Rangers at 6-2-2, which is good for the second best record in the Eastern Conference, behind the red hot Montreal Canadiens, who have started the season with nine wins in their first nine games. Through the first 10 games, the Rangers are off to a nice start. After a few days of rest, the Rangers will be at home to face a Toronto Maple Leafs team that has stumbled out of the gate with only one win in their first seven games.
Daily Giants Update: A win against Dallas, paired with an Eagles loss to Carolina, has put the Giants back atop the division with a record of 4-3. I will get into more detail tomorrow with a full recap of the NFL weekend, but there are plenty of ways to spin this game positively, as well as many ways to spin it negatively. The bottom line is, the team is in first place, and like Bill Parcells once said, "you are what your record is." Right now the Giants have the best record in the NFC East.
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