Here’s something I hope you find interesting. During the media sessions at Citi Field on Friday evening, I noticed that Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins and Cubs manager Joe Maddon were each asked to respond the Cubs winning the regular season series 7-0 over the Mets, and whether it mattered in the NLCS. Here is what they each had to say:
Terry Collins – No, we played good — I think we’re a different team for sure. I think we’re a different team. But they’ve got a good club. They’ve had a good club. They play very well. They played us extremely well. They have for two years.
We’ve got a lot of work ahead. I mean, their team has changed. They’ve got a few new guys, but we’re still going to see Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta, who are two very, very good pitchers. We just went through that with the Dodgers, so we’ve got to get ourselves ready, but we’re a different lineup, too. We’re looking forward to it. Again, I think postseason is a whole different game than it is in the regular season, you know, just by the way you work some guys. We’ll hopefully play better than we did during the season.
Sandy Alderson – Well, I’d say a couple things from our standpoint. In looking at the pitching, I think that our young guys are a little more experienced, a little better command, more confidence. So I think from that standpoint, we’re in a better position.
Offensively it’s a different team. Not totally but significantly. So I don’t think that 0-7 registers much concern on the part of our players, but we certainly have to turn that around. We’d like to be 4-10 at the end of this with the Cubs.
Joe Maddon: I really don’t believe it does. The only thing that matters is we know we can beat them. They know they can beat us because based on what they’ve gone through through this particular moment. So I don’t think there is any real weight to be attached to that whatsoever. They’re an entirely different team. We’re pretty different too compared to that particular moment, but they are really different.
Believe me, I don’t even take any — I take zero stock in that whatsoever, honestly. Those are some really close games, too, that we played against them. We won some close games. Things just happened to work in our favor in those moments. Their offense wasn’t nearly what it is right now, so I — I’m not even looking at that as being pertinent.
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Well as you can see, all the adults in the room pretty much agreed that both these teams are very different than the ones who last played each other in May and June. Buckle up and get ready for a great and very competitive NL Championship Series.
