The 2014 MLB World Series

This MLB postseason has most certainly proven itself to be a time of upsets.  We have seen both the American and National Leagues lowest seeds, the Royals and the Giants respectively, persevere to the World Series, through much adversity.  This World Series berth solidifies the third trip to the Fall Classic for the Giants, in as many postseasons for them.  In addition, the Giants will be vying for their third World Series ring during that precise time span.  If postseason success in recent years is your basis for projecting a winner for the World Series this year, then the San Francisco Giants are your team.  However, the concepts of success and efficiency during this postseason are in favor of the Royals.  The Royals have set an MLB Postseason record with 8 consecutive victories thus far, leading to a perfect 8-0 start.  I had a feeling that that Royals would make a strong postseason push, take a look at the post The Legend of the 2014 Kansas City Royals. Similarly to the Giants, the Royals won the World Series during their last postseason trip.  Although, this victory for the Royals occurred back in 1985, when a current front office member, George Brett, was their franchise player.  In light of the commencement of the 2014 MLB World Series, I will dedicate this post to assessing a statistical comparison of these two teams, in order to project a World Series victor.

The statistics I will be implementing for my analyses are extracted from MLB.com and they only take into consideration the current postseason statistics.

Offense:  

	AVG	SB	Runs	HR	OBP
San Francisco	0.259	3	41	5	.313
Kansas City	0.244	13	42	8	.331

Defense:

	Field. %	Errors	CS %
San Francisco	0.992	3	25
Kansas City	0.991	3	25

Starting Pitching:

	ERA	WHIP	IP	K	AVG
San Francisco	2.4	0.99	63.2	51	0.207
Kansas City	3.8	1.2	45	33	0.232

 Relief Pitching:

	ERA	WHIP	Saves	K	AVG
San Francisco	1.78	0.88	5	30	0.164
Kansas City	1.8	1	6	36	0.179

As you can discern from viewing the charts above, the two teams have relatively similar statistics thus far into postseason.  The largest statistical discrepancies can been seen within the Stolen Bases and Starting Pitching categories.  For every category above (Offense, Defense, Starting Pitching, and Relief Pitching), I highlighted the team with the statistical advantage in green.  For each individual aspect, within the categories, the team with the greater statistic, has their number bolded.

Headlined by a dominant MadBum, the performances of the San Francisco Giants starting pitchers this postseason have greatly eclipsed those of their World Series counterparts on the Kansas City Royals.  Baseball analysts and avid fans alike have been boasting about the stalwart bullpen of the Royals for quite some time now.  This bullpen incorporates the talents of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland, who have effectively proved their values in the late innings.  However, despite not receiving the same level of praise, the San Francisco Giants bullpen actually has the statistical advantage.  The Kansas City Royals have outright recorded the better offensive statistics throughout the playoffs thus far.  Terrific, yet unexpected, power numbers along with their speed on the base paths have proved to be too much to handle, even for the American Leagues best.  The last category, team defense, verifies just how statistically similar these teams are.  The only aspect in which the two teams vary is fielding percentage, which the Giants edge the Royals in by .001.  Due to the infinitesimal differences for this category, I consider the teams even.  However, if I was to select a team that has a better defense, then I am inclined to opt the Royals.  The Royals have more Gold Glove talent that stems from Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, and several other notable contenders.

I believe that (statistically verified too, for the most part) the Royals have the offensive and defensive advantages, meanwhile the Giants have the pitching edge.  In terms of coaching, I believe that the Giants have the upper-hand.  Bruce Bochy has amassed 3 pennants and 2 World Series rings during his tenure, while Ned Yost is in the midst of only his first postseason appearance.  Everything considered thus far, the Giants and Royals are neck-and-neck on paper.  Although, I am inclined to favor the Giants as the winners for this 2014 World Series.  The majority of the Giants players have numerable World Series visits under their belts, meaning that they know how to handle themselves at this stage of the postseason.  Also, I believe that Buster Posey will be able to encumber the Royals base stealing propensities.  Posey has a 32% career caught stealing percentage, meanwhile none of the three teams, whom the Royals have played this postseason, have had catchers with caught stealing percentages remotely close to that.  The last key factor for the series is actually tonights game.  I believe that Madison Bumgarner should be able to deal the Royals their first loss of this postseason.  Being undefeated, the Royals have not had to face the task of being resilient after a loss.  With the pressure from a first loss, the Royals postseason very well could escalate to a brief end.  However, if the Royals are able to muster up enough runs to beat MadBum tonight, then they might have a fighting chance at a World Series ring.