FanPost

Can We Win The World Series With 2 Rookie Players?

Baseball is moving into the stretch run now. The non-waiver trading deadline has passed and the World Series contenders have attempted to bulk up their teams for the post-season, most notably the Oakland A's and the Detroit Tigers. It wouldn't surprise anyone to see those two common foes match-up again in the playoffs, and it certainly would be exciting to if the final game came down to a duel between the recently traded aces Jon Lester and David Price. But what happens if the Tigers manage to advance past the A's and into the World Series? Detroit certainly has the rotation to win a championship but will their offense be able to hold up against tough playoff pitching and manage the clutch hitting so important to title aspirations? I'm especially interested in how the Tigers two rookies, Nick Castellanos and Eugenio Suarez, will fare in the playoffs. Some people felt that the Tigers would address the shortstop position in a trade, but short of a waiver deal this month it looks like Suarez is entrenched as the starting shortstop for the rest of the year. Everyone knows that post-season baseball is a whole different ball game and although both rookies have done a good enough job so far it remains to be seen how they will handle the pressure of October if the Tigers do make the playoffs. I was curious about the Tigers chances so I decided to do some research to see if any other team in recent history has ever won the World Series with two rookie position players.

The first discovery I made was that there is no comprehensive compiled source for rookie players who were in the World Series. It took me an hour of headache inducing web searching to compile the information I was looking for, but after painstakingly combing through every World Series roster for the past 11 years I determined that it is rare but not impossible for a team with multiple rookies to win a championship.

Several of the last 11 world champions have had at least one rookie player. The Giants had Buster Posey in 2010, Brett Gardner played for the Yankees in 2009, Tadahito Iguchi manned second base for the White Sox in 2005, and of course Miguel Cabrera played for the 2003 World Champion Marlins.

However, only one team in the past decade has had more than one rookie position player. In 2007 the Boston Red Sox had two rookie players who were future All-Stars, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. Ellsbury was called up on June 30, 2007 when outfielder Coco Crisp was injured. He excelled throughout the regular season and, after playing off the bench for the beginning of the playoffs, he earned the start in favor of a struggling Coco Crisp in game 6 of the ALCS against Cleveland. He ended up starting in center field for the remainder of the postseason while batting .360 and stealing 2 bases. He batted .438 in the World Series with 4 doubles and one of his stolen bases.

Dustin Pedroia was chosen to become the everyday second baseman for the Sox in 2007 and eventually won the Rookie of the Year award after batting .317 with 8 HR's and 50 RBI. Pedroia initially struggled in the playoffs but seemed to find his footing in the ALCS where he batted .395. He was a deciding factor in game 7, where he hit a 2-run HR and a 3-run double to send the Sox to the World Series. He went on to bat .278 with 1 HR and 4 RBI in the Series.

Not only were Ellsbury and Pedroia regular starters for the Red Sox in the World Series but they arguably may have been one of the main reasons behind the BoSox's success. Without the two rookies it's unlikely the Sox would even have made it to the Fall Classic let alone won their second championship in 4 years.

There are certainly some interesting parallels between the 2007 Red Sox and the 2014 Tigers but everyone knows that baseball is a fickle sport. Having two talented rookies on your team is no guarantee that you'll find success in October but the 2007 Red Sox certainly showed that having multiple rookies won't necessarily hurt your championship aspirations - and sometimes those same rookies might even help you win the final game of the season.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the <em>Bless You Boys</em> writing staff.