The Dodgers beat the Astros last night in Game One of the World Series on the strength of a dominating performance by Clayton Kershaw and – of freaking course – homers by Chris Taylor and Justin Turner.
Kershaw was getting juuuuust enough off of the edge of the strike zone that, with his impeccable command and stuff, he became nearly unhittable. It’s been a good postseason for Kershaw, who perhaps has finally shaken off the “can’t pitch in the postseason” label, which we’d already discussed was not entirely accurate in the first place.
As for Taylor and Turner … man, it’s just nice to see them doing it against some other team’s good pitchers, and thus demonstrating that it’s as if the Cubs were just fools who couldn’t beat these two. Taylor, the 27-year-old who became a 4.7-win player for the Dodgers this year after languishing at AAA for nearly three years. Turner, the guy who was a totally nondescript player until coming to the Dodgers at age 29 and exploding. Good for them, and good for the industry if it ever figures out how the Dodgers (and the players) pulled that off.
And on Turner, one incredible factoid:
Fun way to contextualize unlikely nature of Justin Turner's stardom.
As a junior at Fullerton, he had 9 *teammates* drafted ahead of him.
— Matt Meyers (@mtmeyers) October 25, 2017
Here are those 9 players (h/t @baseball_ref ) pic.twitter.com/J3LtL6DVKh
— Matt Meyers (@mtmeyers) October 25, 2017
I guess the broader reminder here is that – although rare – guys *can* break out in their upper 20s even after having plenty of development time in the upper minors (and in Turner’s case, in the majors with the Mets).
It makes you think about a guy like David Bote – mostly considered an “org guy” type for the Cubs until 2016 – putting up video game numbers in the AFL. Maybe it’s nothing. But maybe the swing changes he made, together with natural development, have put him on a path to being a breakout bat. I mention Bote mostly because he’s fresh on my mind (he’s only 24 and played at AA last year, so I’m not at all saying he’s the next Taylor or Turner); the point being only that guys can surprise you, even if they seemingly come out of nowhere and “turn it on” quickly.