Sticking Points 2037.9: Doubleday Preview

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Sticking Points 2037.9: Doubleday Preview

Post by aaronweiner » Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:46 am

The Rockville Pikemen, coming off their third consecutive first-round bye, will once again have to play the games to win in the playoffs. Their foe is a familiar one: division rival Brooklyn, who have made the playoffs for the second time in three seasons and come in hungry to knock off the favored Pikemen.

While the Rockville Pikemen come into the 2037 postseason with more issues than they've had in prior seasons, they also had more wins than any team in the BBA, so they're still the favorites. Rockville will be down superstar first baseman Manuel Marino and dependable third baseman Larry Blake for this series, and that's a big blow to the offense. Brooklyn, on the other hand, comes in completely healthy.

"We obviously are going to miss Manuel and Larry in this series, but we have some really great ballplayers to pick up the slack," said Rockville manager Chet Rouse. "Plus, the pitching staff is completely healthy."

The matchup does seem to favor the Pikemen. While Brooklyn had the #2 pitching staff in the Johnson League this year behind the superb 1-2 punch of Mauro Flores and Francisco Ruiz, the team they trailed was - you guessed it - Rockville, who gave up almost seventy less runs than the Robins this season. Rockville features Triple Crown winner Arthur Dempster, who will almost certainly win his third Steve Nebraska Award in four seasons, but backs him up with Dan Cannon and Dave Martin, two star pitchers in their own right. The Rockville bullpen has also been rock-solid since starting the year off shaky. So if there's any team that can neutralize the Robins' strength, it's Rockville.

Brooklyn's weakness is offensively, and while the team will have some positive matchup issues with the Rockville lefties, they finished second to last offensively in the regular season, and scored just 20 runs in five Geoghegan games. In fact, their run differential was that of a .500 ballclub, second-worst in the playoffs behind only Omaha, and had far and away the most one-run wins with a 40-18 record in those ballgames.

"This should be an exciting series," said Rockville shortstop Chip Puckett. "We're still young and we still get excited at every bit of this."

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