Chicago Cubs know that power brings strikeouts
The Kansas City Royals won the World Series with a team that struck out the fewest times in the American League during the regular season and hit the second-fewest home runs.
The Cubs made it to the National League championship series with a team that led its league by far in strikeouts by their batters and finished fifth in home runs.
The difference in strikeouts between the Cubs and Royals was large. The Cubs struck out 1,518 times, while Royals hitters fanned only 973 times.
While it might be easy to say the Royals form some sort of template for success, don't expect the Cubs to emulate them, simply because of the personnel they have.
"When it comes to who we are, we're trying to add a little more contact," general manager Jed Hoyer said. "We're never going to turn into the Royals. That's not going to happen. The nature of our team is that we're going to strike out. But I think there's room for improvement.
"We have some guys who strikeouts are a part of their game. We have a ton of power."
The Cubs batted .236 with runners in scoring position, and .211 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
"We have to get better situationally," Hoyer said. "Some of it probably is something we can work on in spring training and during the season, and some of it is probably just experience. When you're starting four rookies, you can't really expect to be amazing with guys at third and less than two outs.
"We're trying to become more contact oriented. But I think our offense has a chance to be really explosive and dangerous for a long time."
Praising Starlin:
Even though rookie Addison Russell missed the NLCS with a hamstring injury, he established himself as the Cubs' shortstop for the present and the future.
Former shortstop Starlin Castro ended up at second base and played creditably after an August benching.
The Cubs have another natural shortstop, Javier Baez, who took over for Russell in the NLCS. It's possible the Cubs may try to trade either Baez or Castro this winter. If they keep both, it's possible they'll give Baez a look in the outfield during parts of spring training.
Castro, a three-time all-star (2011, 2012, 2014), finished this season with a line of .265/.296/.375 with 11 home runs and 69 RBI. In September, he put up a line of .426/.452/.750 with 5 homers and 20 RBI. He was 6-for-34 (.176) with a home run in the postseason.
"It's a very difficult year to digest because in some ways, the first half the season was his 2013 season (poor), and the second half of his season was even better than the 2014 season and 2012 for him," Jed Hoyer said. "As a teammate, he was fantastic. He took change very well. I thought he played great. I think he's a guy we want up in a clutch situation. He can get a big hit.
"It's a difficult season to digest. But ultimately what we come back to is he's a very valuable player who showed he can play in the postseason and showed he can hit in the clutch and who showed he can play second base."
Managerial opportunity:
Although the Cubs have made it clear all of their coaches are welcome back for 2016, bench coach Dave Martinez is expected to interview this coming week for the Los Angeles Dodgers' managerial opening. Martinez has been a longtime coach for Cubs manager Joe Maddon, both in Chicago and at Tampa Bay.