Doubleday Series Preview: New Orleans vs Rockville

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Doubleday Series Preview: New Orleans vs Rockville

Post by 7teen » Thu Aug 23, 2018 11:34 am

On to round 2 of the BBA post-season and the Doubleday Series. Here we meet our 4 division winners who all got byes and congratulate those teams who advanced out of the Geoghegan Series. The Series go from the best of 5 to the best of 7 as each team hopes to advance one step closer to the 12 wins now needed to take home the coveted Landis Series. Here, let's preview the Johnson Series between the New Orleans Crawdads and the overall #1 seed Rockville Pikemen.

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. After winning game 1 against Phoenix, the Crawdads lost games 2 and 3 and were one-game away from being eliminated in the Geoghegan Series. After a 3-run win in game 4 to force a game 5, the Crawdads held on to a 6-5 win to advance to the Doubleday Series.

Rockville Pikemen
After 5 consecutive losing seasons, the Rockville franchise emerged to post a winning season in 2033 and are now in the post-season for the second consecutive season. Their GM, Aaron Weiner, has one Landis Title to his credit, taking this franchise to the 2020 Title when it was located in Carolina as the Kraken. The organization also won the Landis in 1997 when it called Hackensack home. This the franchise's 15th trip to the post-season since 1995.

The Offenses
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. Cravat went on a tear in the Geoghegan Series against Phoenix as he hit .316 and hit a team high 3 homeruns and drove in 8 RBI over the 5 game series. The team as a whole pounded out 9 homeruns and scored 28 runs for the series, but only hit .238 as a team. 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. Ruiz only swiped one base in the opening round but Alex Ramirez (.266/.333/.349, 2 HR, 38 RBI) stole 3.

Rockville's offense looks a lot like my own in Madison. A lot of hits, high average, not a lot of power, score and manufacture as many runs that way you can. It has worked for the Pikemen as they were 4th in the Johnson League in runs scored behind a league leading .292 team average. Seven different guys on this team played over 100 games this season and posted a batting average of over .300. Manuel Marino (.330/.413/.573, 18 HR, 67 RBI) led the team in batting average while Mario Guerrer (.303/.376/.549, 35 HR, 114 RBI) followed him up in the lineup to lead the team in homeruns. Guerrer was the only guy to eclipse 30 homeruns in this lineup and was also the lone guy over 100 RBI. I'd be a fool if I didn't mention Chip Puckett (.301/.363/.419, 6 HR, 45 RBI). His 60 stolen bases led the team that finished 6th in the JL in total stolen bases.

The Pitching
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. In fact it was Amaral who came up big in the first round. He made 2 starts and got the wins in both games 1 and the clincher in game 5. It's assumed he'll have to rest before being able to go against Rockville. Expect Amaral in either games 2 or 3 depending on the dates. That will still open him up to potentially start a decisive game 7 if needed. The Crawdads have a special closer as Luis Ortega (3 - 9, 2.62 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 94 K) saved 43 contests this season. Ortega was a little shaky in the opening series but recorded the save in all 3 contests. He allowed 2 runs in the 9th inning of the deciding game, but luckily for the Crawdads they had a 3 run lead.

You don't lead the league in wins and be one sided. The Pikemen have one of the top pitching staffs in the entire league and ranked 2nd in the Johnson League in total runs allowed. Enrique Gomez (19 - 10, 4.05 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 168 K) led the team in wins and is a front runner for the Johnson League Nebraska Award this season. All this despite being the son of satan himself. Of course Arthur Dempster (16 - 6, 2.99 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 250 K) may have something say about that as he led the team in ERA and strikeouts. Andre Georges (16 - 9, 3.60 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 148 K) doesn't look imposing based off his ratings, but his stats say otherwise. These 3, especially the top 2, give Rockville a solid start to a short series.

Head to Head
Rockville took the season series 5-4.

Rockville was also dominating this season at home, going 58-23 overall, the best home field record in the entire BBA. They'll have home field advantage throughout the post-season which could play a huge factor in this and any upcoming series.


Prediction
New Orleans is riding a high of coming back from two elimination games to advance to this point. They have some momentum with that. Rockville has been sitting, waiting, to see who they'll get. Rockville has had time to rest up their aces. Do they come out rusty after over a week off? Or after claiming the most wins in the BBA this year, do they come out and show why they are the overall #1 seed. I know the random playoff thing will pop up at some point, but I don't think it is in this series.

Give me the Pikemen in 5.
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Re: Doubleday Series Preview: New Orleans vs Rockville

Post by RonCo » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:12 pm

After the defensive thing I looked at a day or two ago, I wonder how much of New Orlean's pitching struggles are rooted in their defense.
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