Monday, August 29, 2005
Analysis you can't get anywhere else
During Sunday night's Phillies-Diamondbacks broadcast, Joe Morgan shared with his viewers his "keys for September." What will teams need if they want to capture a playoff spot? Surely, Joe would enlighten viewers with something special, right?
Of course, it's special because it's coming from a Hall of Famer. A rube like me (baseball career ended before high school) would never know that teams would need to get good pitching, good offense and "leadership."
So, to recap: contending teams will want to give up few runs, thus pitching is very important. Also, they'll want to score more runs than they give up, because as Joe Morgan pointed out "you can't win if you don't score enough runs," thus you need some offense (guys who can get on base? home run hitters? speedsters? Joe doesn't say, although I'll venture to say making outs will be bad and scoring runs will be good). Finally, you'll need players "who've been there before, or who at least know how to act when under the September pressure."
For example, the 2003 Marlins were LOADED with playoff experience... well, actually they weren't. They actually beat out the far more experienced St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros for the Wild Card, the defending National League champs in the Divisional series (led by postseason veteran Barry Bonds), and the Dusty Baker-led Cubs in the NLCS (a team led by vets like Moises Alou, Kenny Lofton, Eric Karros, Damian Miller, Mark Grudzielanek and Sammy Sosa). Oh, and they beat the mother of playoff-experienced teams (with leadership provided by the steady Joe Torre and Derrek Jeter) in the World Series.
But..... the Marlins did have the pitching and the hitting. In fact so did the Red Sox in '04, the Angels in '02, the Diamondbacks in '01, the Yankees in '96 and again from '98 until 2000, and the Marlins in '97.
Next, John Madden will list his keys to a good NFL season: a good defense that yields few points, an explosive offense that scores a lot of points, and a mistake-free special teams that scores points and allows none.
Of course, it's special because it's coming from a Hall of Famer. A rube like me (baseball career ended before high school) would never know that teams would need to get good pitching, good offense and "leadership."
So, to recap: contending teams will want to give up few runs, thus pitching is very important. Also, they'll want to score more runs than they give up, because as Joe Morgan pointed out "you can't win if you don't score enough runs," thus you need some offense (guys who can get on base? home run hitters? speedsters? Joe doesn't say, although I'll venture to say making outs will be bad and scoring runs will be good). Finally, you'll need players "who've been there before, or who at least know how to act when under the September pressure."
For example, the 2003 Marlins were LOADED with playoff experience... well, actually they weren't. They actually beat out the far more experienced St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros for the Wild Card, the defending National League champs in the Divisional series (led by postseason veteran Barry Bonds), and the Dusty Baker-led Cubs in the NLCS (a team led by vets like Moises Alou, Kenny Lofton, Eric Karros, Damian Miller, Mark Grudzielanek and Sammy Sosa). Oh, and they beat the mother of playoff-experienced teams (with leadership provided by the steady Joe Torre and Derrek Jeter) in the World Series.
But..... the Marlins did have the pitching and the hitting. In fact so did the Red Sox in '04, the Angels in '02, the Diamondbacks in '01, the Yankees in '96 and again from '98 until 2000, and the Marlins in '97.
Next, John Madden will list his keys to a good NFL season: a good defense that yields few points, an explosive offense that scores a lot of points, and a mistake-free special teams that scores points and allows none.
