THE FRONT ROW with BRUCE BOURQUIN, Oct. 10, 2014
There seems to have been two primary theories of building a winning baseball team over the course of a few years that I have noticed as a baseball fan, especially since before last August, when I lived within an hour's drive of Dodger Stadium and a half-hour's drive of Angel Stadium.
ONE IS the tried and true, old-school method of drafting wisely, relying on your farm system, while adding a few key free agents, making sure you have top-notch pitching and going from there.
The other is a fairly recent phenomenom in the name of keeping up with the Joneses. It has something to do with jacking up that payroll, buying some hired guns and seeing what happens. The teams from Los Angeles - the Angels and the Dodgers - their fans know this quite well, looking to go the free agent route to try and buy that World Series ring.
I have been to a handful of games at both Dodger Stadium and Angels Stadium. Fans of both teams tend to rely on a so-called mystique that might as well be ancient history - the 1988 and 1981 Dodgers, who by the way were built largely on players like Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela who came up through their farm system. That and some gimpy guy in '88 in Game 1 of the World Series named Kirk Gibson. As an Oakland A's fan, the guy still gives me nightmares.
Angels fans have their 2002 team as their hat on the ring. Again, that team relied largely on homegrown talent, like John Lackey and closer Francisco Rodriguez (both of whom are still playing, with other teams), along with Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson and Chone Figgins, who later played for the Seattle Mariners.
But Dodgers and Angels fans - some of my family members and old buddies among them - had every right to be pretty excited this season. But for all the money these two teams spent? Wow.
There should have been at least one, if not more, World Series trophies among the two teams from southern California.
THE DODGERS have signed guys to huge contracts like shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who according to ESPN.com made $16 million. They also traded for mercenaries like first baseman Adrian Gonzalez ($21.86 million made this season), outfielder Carl Crawford ($21.1 million) and pitcher Zach Greinke ($28 million), among others, in a vain attempt to grab that World Series ring.
What's a bit funny is some of their younger homegrown guys - left-handed starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig and one of my favorite players in baseball, second baseman and leadoff Dee Gordon - were among their key players.
In Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Busch Stadium, Kershaw hung a big juicy curveball to Matt Adams, who did what several big leaguers do with such gifts and cranked it over the fence in right field for a three-run home run on St. Louis' way to a 3-2 win and a 3-1 series victory.
For all Kershaw's regular season accolades - two Cy Young awards, four All-Star appearances, four-time earned-run average leader, etc., he has a 1-5 postseason record and a 5.12 ERA. So it goes to show you that the regular season stuff can be pretty irrelevant.
On Dec. 9, 2011, the Angels went out and signed first baseman Albert Pujols - notice how farm system-reliant team like the St. Louis Cardinals let him go like it was no big deal, going with Adams, all 6-foot-3, 230 pounds of him, at first base. Besides, since Pujols signed with Anaheim, the Angels have not won any postseason games and the Cardinals have won 19. So there's that.
Speaking of the Cardinals, the 26-year-old Adams only cost them $516,000 in salary this season. Second baseman Matt Carpenter, he of the mighty three home runs, seven RBIs and 6-for-12 batting thus far in the postseason, cost $1.25 million, pretty affordable in the land of multi-millionaires in MLB land. Now will both of those players demand quite a bit more when they become free agents? Sure. But my point is, the Cardinals do things smarter, not necessarily bigger, than teams like the Dodgers.
FOR SOME reason, teams that follow the farm system route, like the San Francisco Giants, World Series champions in 2008 and 2012, and the mostly homegrown Seattle Mariners, who were very close to reaching their first postseason since 2001, appear to effectively chase those Dodgers and Angels.
It appears following your own pipeline from the minor leagues on up seems to work better. This doesn't always work (i.e., World Series champs like the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, 2009 New York Yankees and 2004 Boston Red Sox), but take a peek at the champs since 2001. The 2002 Angels, 2003 Florida Marlins, the 2008 Phillies, 2011 and 2006 Cardinals, the Giants teams, etc., have been homegrown squads.
AT LEAST Seattle gave its fans a lot of hope this season, albeit going for its own hired gun in All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano, falling one game short of my Oakland Athletics - who proceeded to choke away a 7-3 lead on the way to a 9-8 loss in the American League wild card game to the Kansas City Royals.
The boys from K.C., who have apparently inspired their fans who haven't seen postseason baseball since 1985 - or not at all, for the younger ones - have nothing to lose and everything to gain, seeing how they weren't necessarily considered the frontrunner to win it all before the season began.
But with speed merchants like Jarrod Dyson, who stole 36 bases in the regular season, Alcides Escobar (31 steals) and Lorenzo Cain (28 steals), slugger Alex Gordon - who are all, again, homegrown - and the Royals' one hired gun, ace pitcher James Shields (14-8 won-loss record in the regular season), there's no reason why they cannot take home the trophy.
Kansas City plays tonight at Baltimore in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, so the Royals can keep their magical season going.
Shoot, if the 2003 Florida Marlins did it - with pitcher Josh Beckett leading the way - why not the Royals?
The lesson for today is grow it from the farm. Don't always go with that storebought stuff.
Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com.