Geoghegan Series Preview: Phoenix vs New Orleans

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It's that time of the year once again. The marathon is over and it's a sprint to the finish. First team to 15 wins claims the Landis title. Unless you're one of the bye teams, then you only need 12. But that's for another preview. Here, we are handicapping the early rounds, the Geoghegan Series. Let's first take a look at the matchup between the Phoenix Talons and the New Orleans Crawdads.

Phoenix Talons
The reincarnated Phoenix Talons are making their first trip to the post-season since the franchise entered the league back in 2029. Note, this is not the first version of the Phoenix Talons. The team with a payroll under $50 million are the darlings of the 2035 post-season and may be the rooting interest of a lot of teams around the league. If for no other reason than because they slayed the dragons that are Montreal and Vegas, two regulars in the post-season who are currently at home watching this season.

New Orleans Crawdads
The Crawdads are pretty much regulars at this point of the season, having made the post-season more times than not it seems. This is their 22nd time in the post-season since 1995 if you're keeping track at home. The Crawdads have 4 Landis titles under their belt, the last one coming in 2019 that capped off their 4th Landis in an 8 year run. This is the Crawdads 11th time back in the post-season since that 2019 season, still searching for that next title.

The Offenses
The Talons come into the post-season with one of the most potent offenses in the Johnson League. Led by Mario Deortez (.293/.355/.551, 42 HR, 109 RBI) the offense was 2nd in homeruns and 5th in total runs scored (note, the HTML is not updated from the final sim so go with it.) There may not be a team that strikes more fear in opposing pitchers top to bottom to go deep than this team. Andres Martinez (.245/.338/.519, 34 HR, 91 RBI), the team's number 8 hitter, has more homeruns than some other team's cleanup guy. In fact, this team has 8 regular starters who hit at least 19 homeruns this season.

New Orleans' offense is led by Yancy Cravat (.284/.347/.589, 47 HR, 114 RBI). He led the Crawdads to the 6th most runs in the Johnson, slightly behind the Talons. While the Crawdads offense isn't as power laden as the Talons, the Crawdads hit their fair share of long balls with 5 guys over 19 on the season. The Crawdads will be more likely to swipe a few bases as they rank 5th in the Johnson led by Reynaldo Ruiz (.275/.306/.333, 0 HR, 38 RBI) with 58.

Advantage: Phoenix

The Pitching
The Talons were slightly better than middle of the road with their pitching stats, ranking 5th in runs allowed. Jose Trujillo leads the staff, entering the post-season with 19 wins and an ERA just under 4.00 for the season. Bob Corrigan (11 - 9, 3.99 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 143 K) and George House (10 - 7, 4.39 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 102 K) help give the staff some added post-season push with double digit wins on the season. Oh yeah, and there's this VODAK (2 - 8, 4.91 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 74 K) guy at the end of games to close.

Surprisingly, New Orleans comes in near the bottom 3rd in the JL in pitching stats. They've allowed the 10th most runs in the league and are hovering around an even RS-RA split. The club does have four double digit game winners in the rotation, led by Hector Amaral (17 - 9, 3.75 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 216 K) and Freddy Delgado (13 - 6, 4.01 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 189 K). In a shortened series as this one will be, those two guys at the top could be difference makers. The Crawdads have a special closer of their own as Luis Ortega (3 - 9, 2.62 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 94 K) saved 43 contests this season.

Advantage: Slight advantage to Phoenix

Head to Head:
New Orleans won the season series 6-4.

New Orleans has home field advantage in the series. They were far better at home than on the road. Phoenix was one of the few teams that had a winning record both at home and on the road.

Advantage: Slight advantage to New Orleans

Prediction
Ron already has a poll up for you to vote and discuss. I think this is a toss-up series. New Orleans has the experience. Phoenix has the new kid on the block fight to go deep. Hell, it's the post-season so anything can happen. Game 1 will be huge. If Phoenix can win behind Trujillo in game 1 that gives them a huge leg up. With that said, Phoenix will rely heavily on their long ball power to carry them, something that does not always translate well in the post-season. So which way am I leaning here?

Give me Phoenix in 4!!