Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Game 1 of the division series will be on Thursday night.
Hickory @ Seattle
Cleveland @ River Cities
Congrats to the two first-time playoff contenders and to the two perennials.
Reports will be up in the morning.
Zev
I feel like a flower.
ReplyDeleteThe Los Angeles season in review:
ReplyDeleteBright spots: Starting and ending the season by shutting out River Cities.
Not-so-bright spots: Games 2-161.
Nate: So, you're all dewy in the morning?
ReplyDeleteWatch out, Mack. The ravening hordes of Hickory are coming for you, and they're going to... er... be competitive in at least one game!!!! So watch it.
ReplyDeleteFrank, I predict that at least one of the division leaders will get upset in the first round. I'm obviously pulling for Jeremy given the options, but it won't surprise me if the Hickory faithful are going bonkers in the Cecil Cup.
ReplyDeleteIn Monarchs news, Lutz fell short of his Triple Crown aspirations, so he'll have nothing but his lowly 112.6 VORP to take into the free agent market.
Meanwhile, Gerhardt stole four bases in the final four games to end with 102. Congrats on the record, Duane.
Shout outs to the other record-breaking hitting performances this year:
Walla Walla's Fred Smith tallied 235 hits, including 180 singles, both of which were records.
Maui's Imatarou Natsu had 57 doubles. That broke retired Monarch Derrick Raglin's mark of 54.
And, Brooklyn's Luis Jeon whiffed 180 times. Way to go Luis!
Mack, I think you are crazy to think that you or Nate will be upset in these upcoming series. Personally, I am 7-25 against Nate this season, yes a .219 winning percentage, while Frank is 10-22 against you, a .313 winning percentage. I know playoffs and small sample size and all, but over 32 games in the regular season it looks like the favorites should roll.
ReplyDeleteIn more detail, Villatoro was 6-0 in six starts against the Steamers with a 1.43 ERA and a .189 BA against; Ed Scull was 3-0 in 7 starts with a .237 BA against; Wooster was 6-0 in 7 starts with a 2.66 ERA and a .240 BA against. Does not look good for the Steamers at all, but my team will go out swinging and hope we hit like we have not hit all season and pull off at least one win for our fans.
Funny that River Cities and Seattle end up with identical records once again.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Natsu on breaking the single season doubles record. Always nice to find something for the fans in Maui to cheer about, no matter how small.
Good luck to the remaining teams! Well, mainly Jeremy and Frank.
Jeremy -
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not exactly brimming with confidence, I don't think my overall record against Seattle tells the entire story. That 10-22 record includes the period of time at the beginning of the season when I had no first baseman at all, had Kevin Stephens in the rotation, had Maclin on the DL for had no setup man, was wasting at bats on Danny Lorenzen, etc.
In mid-July, I traded for Beeks and Jackson. By the end of July, I had promoted Bill Spurrier and was starting him in place of Lorenzen (he's OPSed over .800 with 11 steals since then), had pulled Stephens from the rotation, and had more or less the team in place that I have now.
In 11 games since August 1, I am 8-3 against Seattle. But even that includes two losses with starts by Jeff Blevins and John Stalvey, respectively, neither of whom will be in the playoff rotation. In games started by Morales, Hunnicutt, Reuter, and Shipp (my rotation for the playoff series), Hickory is 8-1 against Seattle since August 1. I realize that some of this is attributable to Seattle playing its minor leaguers in September, but Hickory was 4-2 against Seattle in August (including one loss by Blevins) with all of Seattle's uninjured veterans still playing.
So again, I'm not particularly confident or anything, but hopefully it won't be the complete rollover that the head-to-head record superficially suggests it will be.
I'm standing by my prediction that one of the division leaders falls and I think it's a coin flip as to which one it is.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Frank that his team is playing much, much better now. Too bad I don't have a setting for "Walk Shunk every time he might hurt us" to select. :)
What's that old saying about Hank Aaron?
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah: "Make sure no one's on base when he hits one."
That capture the idea for you, Mack?
I admit that seeing a showdown with Shunk on one side and Lutz on the other should be a real tense one.
And I agree with Mack. At least 50-50 either Mack or I go down in the first round. 25% that we both do. That'd be a painful hoot.
Dear Lord, please let it be Mack. One Jew to another, baby, let it be Mack.
OK OK, I see that you guys are saying all of this just so on the off chance it happens you can say "I told you so" and then when you guys win as expected, you can say, "We got past the 'tough' first round opponent." Last year Paul's team was about as even as you could get with Nate's. They had the same record just about the entire season. And Nate went down. This season, not the case. I would say there is a chance that either of you will lose, but it is not 50-50, and Frank defiantly has much more of a chance than I do. I am going to have to start rookie Kaler in game one because of the injury to Gerth and the tiredness of everyone else. I sure hope my bullpen is ready.
ReplyDeleteYou should get an off day in there, remember, Jeremy. Factor that into your 'tiredness' quotient.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Jeremy, I am not really all that interested in being able to say "I told you so" and I certainly don't make statements on the blog just to set something like that up. As in prior blog discussions we have had, I'd prefer if you didn't ascribe motivations to me that don't exist.
ReplyDeleteWhether you believe it or not, I genuinely believe it is more likely than not that Seattle and/or River Cities will lose. I don't think it's a certainty, but it's a better than even chance.
I'll grant you this though, Jeremy, I went and did the math and the statistical odds are in favor of both Seattle and River Cities winning. It entirely depends on what you select as the odds of the favorite winning a single game. If you put the odds at 60%, which I think is probably low, the odds of the two division leaders prevailing in the seven-game series is a hair over 50%. If you assume the favorites will win at a .673 clip (the season-long winning percentage of River Cities and Seattle), then the odds of the favorites advancing is 70%. If you put it up at the head-to-head percentages for the season, then the odds rise to almost 82%.
So, you do have the math on your side on this argument.
By the way, if one of the teams weren't my own, I'd be totally rooting for the two wild card squads. I just think it's so much more fun when upsets happen and teams win titles somewhat out of nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm rooting for the Wild Card teams, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteAgh! The suspense is killing me!
ReplyDelete