2014 MLB American and National League Championship Series preview

With the Championship Series round set to begin on Friday, let’s see how the teams match-up, position by position.

Kansas City Royals vs Baltimore Orioles

First base: After hitting just nine regular season home runs and suffering a fractured hand in August, the gold glove first baseman exploded in the ALDS, hitting two home runs and putting up silly numbers vs LA. It was the Hosmer everyone has been waiting for since he debuted in 2011 as a 21-year-old, with credit going to a late-season tweak to his swing. Hosmer also gets plaudits as one of the Royals who picked up a $15,000 bar tab to help fans celebrate their series victory. The Orioles have Steve Pearce at first base, a career journeyman who became one of the most important cogs in Buck Showalters’ lineup this season, hitting 21 homers out of nowhere while playing several positions for Baltimore. It’s a productive position for both teams, but Hosmer is scorching right now...or at least he was five days ago.

Edge: Royals

Second base: Omar Infante didn’t hit a lick in the ALDS, a slump that may have been spawned by a sore right shoulder. The 13-year veteran had a down season, his first in Kansas City after moving over from Detroit and signing a four-year deal with the Royals. Meanwhile, if Curucao native Jonathan Schoop had put up the kind of numbers during the regular season that he did in during the ALDS, he’d be an all-star. The offensively challenged slick fielding second baseman hit just .209 in 2014, but in limited time vs Detroit he posted an OPS of .764. At just 22 years old, there’s a lot of upside for Schoop, and for that, he gets a slight edge in this match-up.

Edge: Orioles

Shortstop: Alcides Escobar recovered from a down year in 2014 to save his job and put up more than respectable numbers. His so-so defense is overlooked thanks to speed that allowed him to swipe 31 bases this season. Meanwhile, J.J. Hardy liked Baltimore so much he decided against testing the free-agent market this coming offseason, signing a three-year contract extension on the eve of the ALCS, annoying the New York Yankees. Of all the coming Baltimore free-agents, manager Buck Showalter made re-signing Hardy job one because of what he brings - power and defense - qualities that lie at the core of the Orioles renaissance. Hardy’s pop was down in 2014, but he did have a blast vs Detroit in the ALDS as he continues to be at the center of all things Orioles.

Edge: Orioles

Third base: Mike Moustakas had a pair of homers in the ALDS for a home run-starved Royals team that’s suddenly found its power stroke. The O’s are missing Manny Machado who was lost to a season ending knee injury in August. Ryan Flaherty, a career .221 hitter, can’t match his offensive production, but has been steady defensively.

Edge: Royals

Catcher: Salvador Perez is a beast in waiting. Sure, the Venezuelan needs to be a bit more disciplined at the plate, but the power is there, and he made his first all-star team last season. We also can’t forget that some of his best work comes via videos from his Instagram account and his fabulous harassment of Lorenzo Cain. Matt Wieters is out for the season and the O’s have a catching platoon of part-timers Caleb Joseph and Nick Hundley that can’t beat the real thing.

Edge: Royals

Outfield: Alex Gordon has seen it all in Kansas City and so it was fitting that his base-clearing three-run double in the first inning of Game 3 vs LA helped his Royals to their first ALCS since 1985. The left fielder is one of KC’s chief power threats, having hit 19 homers this season. Lorenzo Cain led KC in batting average in 2014 and made to key catches in Game 3 of the ALDS. Nori Aoki himself made two important circus catches in Game 1 vs LA and was also serviceable with the bat. For Baltimore, all-star Adam Jones is one of the best all around players in the game while the defensively strong David Lough splits time with the more offensively minded Alejandro De Aza in left field. Veteran Nick Markakis survived the lean years in Baltimore and is finally enjoying a taste of playoff baseball in right.

Edge: Even

DH: Don’t get me wrong - we all enjoyed watching the the turtle-like DH Billy Butler steal a base in Game 3 of the ALDS (as did a local KC church), but for entertainment value, you can’t do much better than Nelson Cruz right now. Cruz’ season-long tear continued vs Detroit, hitting two more home runs in the ALDS after a regular season during which he popped 40 out of the park.

Edge: Orioles

Bench: If you were thinking that Chris Davis might mosey into the Orioles ALCS lineup after concluding his 25-game suspension for amphetamine use, guess again. Including the O’s slugger on the playoff roster would have meant playing short a player until a Game 6, something Baltimore Orioles manager did not want to risk, and rightfully so. Depending on the O’s lineup they could have a somewhat skillful bench combination of Delmon Young, Kelly Johnson, Caleb Joseph, David Lough and Alejandro De Aza. The Royals keep speedy trio Jarrod Dyson, Christian Colon and Terrance Gore on tap to meddle on the base-paths, something we saw a lot of during the Wild Card win against he Oakland A’s.

Edge: Even

Starting Pitching: The Orioles no-name starting rotation got solid performances out of Bud Norris and Chris Tillman in the ALDS, while Taiwanese hurler Wei-Yin Chen got hammered and Miguel Gonzalez did not appear. Lunch-pail starter Tillman is back as the Game 1 starter, simply looking to keep his team in the game before handing it over to the pen - a formula that worked well for Baltimore for most of the season. The Royals have a similar set up, but do have more of a pronounced front of the rotation starter in James Shields, who will start Game 1 for KC - he’s enough to give them a slight advantage over the O’s rotation.

Edge: Royals

Bullpen: Both relief cores are an enormous source of strength for these ballclubs. Against the Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS, the renowned Royals group gave up exactly one run on four hits in 12 innings while striking out 12. They even had a reliever who pitched in college THIS SEASON - Brandon Finnegan pitched 1.2 very important scoreless innings for KC during their sweep of the Halos, while closer Greg Holland kept a clean sheet in all three games, the very same week he had a son. The O’s were slightly more porous, with lefty Andrew Miller, acquired from Boston at the trade deadline, proving to be worth the price in the postseason. The Royals are dominant in the closer position, with Holland having the advantage over a capable if less overpowering Zach Britton. That that makes the difference in this department.

Edge: Royals

Manager: Ned Yost hasn’t made many friends with his colorful blend of speed and sac-bunts. Bringing young starting pitcher Yordano Ventura into the AL Wild Card game vs the Athletics during a pressure packed mid-inning situation didn’t help either. Meanwhile, the lore of Buck Showalter continues to grow and grow. Showalter got fired by the New York Yankees in 1995 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2000 and both of those teams went on to win World Series titles in the following seasons. Years later, Showalter is one of the more well-liked personalities in the game and regarded as one of the smartest baseball men on the planet, facts that make this a no-brainer.

Edge: Orioles

Series prediction: The Royals are an extremely tough match-up because no one in baseball plays like they do. They got to the playoffs with minimum power, and now that they’ve added some pop to their small-ball strategy they’re even tougher to beat. Add serviceable starting pitching and an extremely daunting relief core and there’s trouble for opponents everywhere you look. The Orioles simply have to use their power to bleed KC’s starters to win, and that’s something this group has already proved it’s capable of doing. Trust Buck - O’s in seven.

San Francisco Giants vs St Louis Cardinals

First base: “Big City”, or as he is sometimes known, Matt Adams, etched himself in baseball lore with his three-run homer off Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in Game 4 of the NLDS. His offensive numbers dipped somewhat during his first season as the full-time Cards first baseman, but there’s still plenty of upside there with the bat, which pairs nicely along with his acceptable defense at first base. Who knows where the Giants would be without Brandon Belt, who hit what became the game winning home run against Washington in the 18-inning marathon in Game 2. A highly touted prospect, Belt suffered through a broken thumb and a concussion this season and may only just starting to warm up after playing in just 61 regular season games.

Edge: Cardinals

Second base: Joe Panik is a former first round pick who has acclimatized quickly to the big leagues as a 23-year-old. Panik shifted from shortstop to second base to help the Giants fill the gap Marco Scutaro’s injuries left - San Francisco started seven players at the position until landing on the rookie, who leads first-year NL’ers in batting average and on-base percentage. Kolten Wong, who started three of the four NLDS games, is known for getting picked off first base to end Game 4 of the World Series last season, and now, somewhat more positively, for hitting a two-run homer in Game 3 vs LA to down the Dodgers. Wong is also young and coming around - he may be a touch more developed at this point.

Edge: Cardinals

Shortstop: Brandon Crawford made headlines and history in the NL Wild Card game, becoming the first shortstop to hit a grand slam in the postseason against Pittsburgh, and while his bat is above average for the position, it’s his glove that generally makes the highlights. Jhonny Peralta on the other hand is a power threat whose defensive is wanting. He led the Cards in home runs this year, but like many other Redbirds struggled with the bat against LA.

Edge: Giants

Third base: Without Matt Carpenter, the St Louis Cardinals are almost definitely somewhere else right now, and that’s because the NLDS was as close to an offensive one-man-show as you’re ever going to see in baseball. Four games, three home runs, three doubles. Ridiculous. Carpenter was an all-star the last two seasons, so this wasn’t out of nowhere, but it was still a performance that staggered all who saw it. If anyone finds out why LA continued to pitch to the Cards third baseman, please let the universe know. Soon-to-be free agent Pablo Sandoval had just one extra base hit against Washington, but did have the honor of being in the batters box when an Aaron Barrett threw the wild pitch that scored Panik to give the Giants a late lead in the decisive Game 4. Even if Kung Fu Panda was not his normal self in the NLDS, he’s always a threat to break out.

Edge: Cardinals

Catcher: Few teams can count their catchers as the focal point of their lineup, but the Giants and the Cardinals are two of them. Posey is a former Most Valuable Player and Molina is always capable pulling off something supernatural. Posey didn’t hit for power in the NLDS, but at least he hit, batting .389 vs Washington, while Molina was uncharacteristically quiet considering his playoff pedigree - don’t expect that to last. Both backstops handle the pitching staffs extremely well, which is another reason why this is a stalemate.

Edge: even

Outfield: For the Cards, Matt Holliday is a given, still a hitter that pitchers fear at the ripe old age of 34. In Game 1 of the NLDS, Holliday showed flourishes of his younger self with a single and a three-run blast during the Cards eight-run seventh inning explosion. After the all-star leftfielder, the outfield seems to be something of a time share. Manager Mike Matheny is likely to use an outfield combination of John Jay, Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk to roam in the larger outfield in San Francisco, while super prospect Oscar Tavares could play in St Louis. Jay, AKA, “The Federalist”, deserves more at-bats after putting up the second most productive offensive numbers on the team during the NLDS. The Giants outfield was considerably weakened by the season-ending back injury to Angel Pagan, but as usual, they’re greater than the sum of their parts. Hunter Pence made a spectacular leaping catch during Game 4 vs the Nats that likely saved triple, while Gregor Blanco is anchored in center field and the light-hitting platoon of Travis Ishikawa and Juan Perez are serviceable defensively in left.

Edge: Cardinals

Bench: The Giants have little depth on the bench, and the first man off the pine will likely be whoever is the odd man out in left field, Juan Perez or Travis Ishikawa. Depending on who the Cardinals elect to leave out of the lineup, they could have a bench combination of John Jay, Pete Kozma, Daniel Descalso, Randal Grichuk, Pete Bourjos and Oscar Tavares, which is far more than the Giants can offer.

Edge: Cardinals

Starting Pitching: Take away Adam Wainwrights’ Game 1 NLDS stinker vs LA and the Cards rotation was superb, with Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller and especially John Lackey, who beat up on the Dodgers in Game 4. So what happens if Wainwright, who will start Game 1 for the Redbirds, puts it together? Dominance. Even if the Cardinals ace, who has had health issues this season, can’t measure up to his lofty standards the rotation is still formidable. The Giants couldn’t complain about what they received in the NLDS either, with Ryan Vogelsong finding his form, while ace Madison Bumgarner, bullish Jake Peavy and old raisin Tim Hudson combined to allow eight runs in 29.2 innings. Giants manager Bruce Bochy has yet to announce his Game 1 starter. The starting pitching has been so good for both of these teams that you get the idea these games will be decided elsewhere.

Edge: Even

Bullpen: Unless your name is Hunter Strickland, you were fantastic in the Giants pen vs LA. Jeremy Affeldt is reliable, closer Sergio Casilla is unshakeable, and no ballplayer looks better in a uniform than set-up man Sergio Romo. The Giants group seemed to perform a bit better than the Cards relief crew - closer Trevor Rosenthal bent but didn’t break as the Dodgers attempted to rally in the ninth inning of Game 3, while Pat Neshek made one bad pitch all series, taking the loss in Game 2 after Matt Kemp took him deep in the eighth inning. Both bullpens are valuable assets, but San Franciscos seems a slightly more trustworthy.

Edge: Giants

Manager: Bruce Bochy has guided his team to two unlikely World Series titles and three NLCS appearances in five years. As a rookie manager, Mike Matheny lost out to San Francisco in the 2012 NLCS and is now in his third postseason in his first three years as skipper. Both men are well liked and respected by the players and fans, but if I had to choose one it would be a no brainer.

Edge: Giants

Series Prediction: Bottom line, and I’ve said this before - these teams are National League cockroaches, capable of surviving any explosion, and yet, there can only be one. Personally speaking, I have no idea where to begin, and only because it’s my job to do so will I throw something out here. Will Cards in seven stick?

Click here for the 2014 MLB postseason schedule