2048 Cartwright Preview: Rockville Pikemen vs. Las Vegas Hustlers

[lordtoffee]

Hello and welcome to a playoff preview. In this playoff preview, we will be looking at the matchup between the Rockville Pikemen and the Las Vegas Hustlers.

The Records:
Rockville finished the regular season with a record of 89-73, which had them sitting 4th in the Atlantic 9 games back of the Jacksonville Hurricanes. Las Vegas finished the regular season with a record of 107-55, which had them win the Frontier with the best record in the league. Head to head results between the two teams has Las Vegas winning the season series 5-1. The teams last played each other in September, with Las Vegas winning 2 of 3 in Rockville.

How They Got Here:
Rockville entered the first round of the playoffs facing off against Calgary, and quickly fell behind 2-0 after losing the first two games in Calgary. But behind the performance of Chip Puckett, the Pikemen rallied to win both home games before taking the decisive 5th game in Calgary to pull off the 0-2 comeback in the best of 5. Up next was Jacksonville in the Doubleday round. The Pikemen split the first two games in Florida before winning all three games in Rockville to advance into the Cartwright Cup round with a chance to line up their pitching.

Las Vegas had a bye into the Doubleday as division winners, and hold home field advantage throughout the playoff rounds. They faced the Atlantic City Gamblers, and after taking the first two games in Las Vegas, it looked like the defending champions would cruise into the Cartwright Cup. But Atlantic City would take all three games in New Jersey to push the Hustlers into an elimination game. But the Hustlers rallied on their home field to win Game 6 and Game 7 by comfortable margins to ensure that they would hold onto their title for another round.

Hustlers Analysis:
Vegas is a team that can win in multiple ways. With a pitching staff that only narrowly lost to the Mad Popes in the runs per game race, they can win by throwing great pitching at you. Don't forget, even though they had to survive a Game 7, Nathanael Davis will be on full rest for Game 1 and Game 5, with a potential to get some action in relief in a Johnny Wholestaff Game 7. Davis is a strong contender for Nebraska, and has grown into a great starter. On offense, the powerful Hustler lineup will be led by Blaine Tyler[/url. The third basemen continued to showcase his powerful bat in the middle of the Vegas lineup as he has since coming over a couple of years ago in the trade with Yellow Springs. The Hustlers were smart to have him sign a comfortable contract to get him signed for a couple of years, and if he continues his play from last year's postseason, then the Hustlers have a great chance to make it back to the Fall Classic. Especially when you consider that Jacksonville was the one team that got the better of the Hustlers during the regular season, but were taken out by Rockville.

Pikemen Analysis:
Rockville has been the most intriguing team of the final four teams left standing, as they have shown that Aaron deserves some serious consideration as GM of the year for the job he has done in the playoffs if you haven't voted for awards yet. But that is a subject of another piece and that is for another day. Rockville is a team that will beat you with offense, as their totals are near the top of the BBA ranks when you combine both the JL and FL. But what really intrigues me about the Pikemen offense is that the team isn't a power team. Instead they get baserunners on and are able to get said baserunners in with good efficiency. Pitching wise, the Pikemen haven't been great, but one leading light has been at the back end of the bullpen. Rookie closer [url=https://statspl.us/brewster/reports/new ... 55872.html]Edward Johnson has really been an astute callup by Aaron. Johnson won't overpower hitters, but instead will get them to beat the ball into the ground, which is refreshing to see something different than your typical flamethrower closer that is often seen in the BBA.

Who wins?:
This series is going to be closer than conventional wisdom tells you. Rockville has been impressive, and the Gamblers series took something out of the Hustlers in terms of extra games and tension pitches. (As an aside, I really wish OOTP would add a tension calculation to pitch counts in the next version, as it would be an extra layer of realism.) I have Rockville winning in 6 games, as I think that they can score runs. But I probably will be wrong.

[Dington]

Awesome preview. Have there been any studies on tension pitches?

[lordtoffee]

Thanks Dington. I would like to see if they could add it, but it was mostly based on what I read about the Scherzer use to close out the Giants.

[Joshua Biddle]

Nice write up!