Playoff Preview

With the playoffs coming up in March I thought I’d do a playoff preview.  The Champions seem to be the clear favorite – but will they close the deal?  I’ve looked at run differential, the likely pitching rotations, and if there are any part-timers who look to take a bigger role in the postseason…

Chicago Champions (+136) vs. Three Rivers Gamblers (+69)

Probable playoff rotation: A, CZ, CZ, CZ vs. BZ, B, BW, C

The Champs have to be the favorites to take it all this year, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have weaknesses.  This applies especially in Round One, as Lincecum can only pitch twice if the series goes five.  That means the Gamblers have a slight pitching advantage.  Both pens go reasonably deep, but the Champs have got good control all over the place, while the Gamblers are shaky.  Offensively both teams have great hearts of the order (A-Rod, Morneau, Sizemore, Lee and Rollins for the Champs, Pedroia, Jeter, Braun, Fielder, Glaus and Bay for the Gamblers).  Neither really has a "secret weapon" they can trot out in the playoffs.  The Champs should win this one – I’ll say Champs in 5.

Rising Bamm! Beanos (+67) vs. Molly Putts Marauders (+26)

Probable playoff rotation: AW, B, B, B vs. AW, BZ, BZ, BZ

The Marauders only scored 26 more runs than they allowed as they had the second worst offense in the league.  On the other hand, they’ve got a deep rotation, and the luxury of adding a couple of starters to their pen, making it also extremely deep.  The Bamm! Beanos, on the other hand, have an excellent offense with lots of depth; Hanley Ramirez and Mark Teixeira are top-notch while Matt Kemp, Russ Martin, and Dan Uggla are a good supporting cast.  Their pen is not as deep as the Putts but still adequate – they also can add a B starter to their pen.  It could come down to a couple of rookie part-timers; Denard Span for the Beanos and Kung Fu Panda (Pedro Sandoval) for the Marauders.  Neither will be able to play every day but will have a big effect when they are in the game.  In the end though, I think the Marauders have too many holes on offense – Sandoval can only plug one – and the Bamm! Beanos will advance to the World Series in 4 games.

Thunderchickens rebound after 0-5 start versus Molly

With Molly Putts Marauders on the schedule for December and both Don and I having busy holiday schedules, John was nice enough to pinch-manage Molly Putts today.  We took over a table at the local coffee shop for four hours and got the series done.

The Molly Putts took six of nine games from us Thunderchickens.  We’d be complaining ‘cept we feel pretty lucky.  They took the first five games and we managed to win three of the last four.

Our first win was Game Six and was pretty sweet.  Hendrickson a D plain versus Volquez a A with a W.  Well, we capitalized on that W with 10 walks for the game and demoted Volquez twice.  The score was 14-8 and Hendrickson got the win. 

The series ended with Joe Crede hitting a pinch hit walkoff solo homer giving us the win 6-5.  That was only the beginning of interesting and odd things about that game:

• There were TWO pinch hit homeruns by us (Eric Hinske hit a three run shot in the 5th).
• Manny Parra was taken out after 5 innings with a perfect game going (manager enforcing strict pitch count, I’m sure).
• Reliever Jesse Carlson gave up 4 earned runs… and got the win.

Hinske was our big bopper for the series.  He hit 4 homers with 10 rbis.  Mark Hendrickson didn’t exactly pitch well (he pitched terrible… 18 earned runs in 23 2/3 innings) but thanks to incredible run support, he got 2 of the 3 wins for us. 

Congrats to Don and Molly Putts for the 6-3 series and thanks to John for helping us out!!

Ichiro Breaks IAL Hit Record

originally posted Winter 2005

Molly Putts Marauder outfielder Ichiro Suzuki can now officially claim the single season hit record.  For the 2005 season, Ichiro collected 208 singles, 26 doubles, 7 triples and 10 homeruns for a total of 251 hits.

Ichiro’s 251 hits eclipsed Al Oliver’s 1981 total of 231 hits which remained the record until this year.  He is 6th on the list when he got 224 hits in 1998 with the Marauders.

Ichiro’s 208 singles and 704 at-bats also broke IAL single season records