JL Doubleday Series

[cramsey51]

Chicago Black Sox vs. Washington Bobwhites
Defending Champion Chicago have a tall task ahead of them if they want to repeat. The first step of climbing the repeat ladder is a series against Johnson League rival Washington Bobwhites. Chicago had to hold off Phoenix in order to make to the playoffs, and they did so by taking care of business at home, winning 49 of thier 81 home games, good for a .605 winning percentage. The Black Sox gave up about as many runs as they scored (4.8 vs. 4.9 RPG respectively), making them a middle of the road team in the JL. Chet Steadman heads up the rotation while Richard Wasson, James Kucharski and Daniel Marquette share the brunt of the work out of the bullpen. The bullpen is where the strength of the pitching staff lies, making up for some shortcomings in the starting rotation. On the offensive side of things, OF Max DuBois is the anchor in the middle of the lineup, and he feasts on LHP. Youngsters Resurrection Santos and Willie Armenta play the roles of table setters. Washu Hakubi plays behind the dish and should not have his arm tested, as he threw out 44% of the runners that tried to swipe a base on him. Unfortunately, that is about the limit of their stars on defense. The right side of the infield would be a good place to spot a hit if you were trying.

Over in the Bobwhite's camp, they didn't exactly have a cakewalk to the finish themselves. They had Louisville hot on their tails thoughout the season, but more on the Sluggers later. MBBA wins leader Shane Christen comes into the playoffs white hot, winning all eight of his last 8 starts. Ken Howell has stumbled into the playoffs only managing a 7.80 ERA in September whil going winless. Closing out the ballgames is Brendan Meyer who maintained an ERA of 3.92 and saving 85.4% of his opportunities. Seven of the eight starters in the lineup jacked 20 HR or more, that's some serious power. It's clear to say that the Bobwhites led the the JL in long balls. That's saying something in this offense savvy league. Ramon Echague led the way in offensive sitations for Washington. The 30 year old had 81 EBH, amounting to 46% of his total hits. He is aided by Waichirou Oronobu and Hank Carl. Moronbu is an up & comer while Carl is an aging vet that played above his head this season.

This series is a matchup of two teams that survived the season and gathered most of their wins from the bottom feeders. This will be a back and forth fight, but Washington's overall pitching will prevail, getting the series in 6 games.


Valencia Stars vs. Louisville Sluggers
The stars have a completely sick pitching staff. Only one of their arms actually posted an ERA over 4.00. But that doesn't mean that much, as the season series was pretty much split at 5-7 in Louisville's favor. I wouldn't go and discount Devon Hyngary and Joshua Francis Kellogg as they are deadly on any single day. In the bullpen, Jan Starr and Kenneth Mathieu are getting it done, plus they can come in for the occassional start. The outfielders provide the offense in this lineup. Gary Barr, DeMario Davis and Bo Jackson are the muscle in the lineup accounting for about 45% of the team's offense. Two things this team does not do well is they are not exactly fleet of foot and they tend to strikeout a bunch.

Down on the river in Louisville, there is the leading offense in the JL. A team batting average closing in on .300 is just crazy. The starting lineup is lttered with .300 hitters, with the exceptions making their case with the power side of their bat. David Smurf banged out 53 HR while knocking in 145, neither are career highs either, but the 186 hits and 145 K's were. Wings Hauser is Robin to Smurf's Batman. Hauser can do it all, from flashing leather in the field to flying around the basepaths. Speaking of being speedy, the SLuggers can steal a base or two as well. Over on the pitching side of things, Louisville runs a pretty light & loose staff. With only 9 arms on the staff, the Sluggers better be outscoring the opposition. The best of the bunch are Luke Nastay and Caton Gutieres.

Louisville is a streaky team, as evidenced by their monthly records and they are going against the steady, business-like Valencia Stars. It will take some hot hitting for Louisville to pull this series off. Valencia is coming into the playofs blazing hot while the Sluggers come in rather flat. Look for Valencia to pull this out winning it in 7 games.

[Afino]

The immovable object vs the irresistible force.

Cancel them out and my pitching is better than Valencia's hitting

BTW - I have more than 9 arms. They just aren't slotted into roles, which means on the HTML they don't show up. I am running a 3-man rotation for the playoffs though.

[cramsey51]

BTW - I have more than 9 arms. They just aren't slotted into roles, which means on the HTML they don't show up. I am running a 3-man rotation for the playoffs though.

Ah, sorry. I didn't open the game to these preview obviously.