I was struck by Denard Span's answer when Kolko asked him what defined the team.
This really is a sport where those who succeed have to be willing to persevere and bounce back from the setbacks.
I think this team might have even more than the normal share of players who have had to show resilience to get to this point:
- Harper and Strasburg are the least of these. But they are in a much different place than they were in 2012, when they were still the golden children of the franchise.
- There's Rendon, whose injuries cast huge doubts over his future.
- There are Frandsen and Schierholtz, who were kicked off two of the league's most terrible teams this year.
- There are Detwiler and Espinosa, who had to learn to deal with demotion.
- There are Werth and Span, who each had to deal with injuries that appeared for a time to have ended their careers.
- There is Zimmerman, who has had to deal with the deterioration of his shoulder.
- There is Ramos, who has had to deal with ... what hasn't he had to deal with?
- Roark, who persevered when there was little reason to.
- Barrett, who almost quit before he got started.
- Storen
That's quite a list. I don't know if it's normal for an MLB team, but it doesn't feel like our last few years have had this many stories of this kind.
One hopes that each of these players will be that much tougher in the playoffs as a result of these various tests. And beyond that, just think of how much more experienced and battle-tested each of the following players is compared to where they were in October 2012:
Strasburg
Zimmermann
Detwiler
Clippard
Stammen
Storen
Desmond
Harper
(Rendon?)
So many of these players are in the heart of their careers, still in their twenties but with at least a couple of full seasons in the majors. From that perspective, this team is right where it should be to contend for a World Series.
