2055 Frick’in Doubleday Preview: Twin Cities vs Des Moines

[neugey]

Perhaps no other match-up screams Heartland more than the River Monsters vs the Kernels. These two teams always seem to butt heads and even sometimes trade with each other. In this contest, former River Monster slugger 1B Barney Miller will try to top his old team as a member of the Kernels. He’ll likely look to his teammate and superstar RF Aaron Haney to help lead the way. At age 36, Haney has shown no signs of slowing down and is in contention for his second Sawyer Silk award. His eventual induction into the BBA seems to be a long, long way off at this point.

Coming off by far the best regular season in franchise history, there will be a lot of pressure on Des Moines to advance and capitalize. They possess a lot of weapons to do so, especially in their outfield. Haney, Hasheem Makin, Hector Cano Jr and Jose Romero combined for a whopping 159 homers and 22.9 WAR this season. 2B Larry Barkin has put together a career year and made his first All-Star team in 2055. 3B Felix Parreno does struggle to hit for average and managed just .259 this year, but is a master of the extra base hit. He recorded 23 doubles, 28 homers and a league-leading 11 triples this season.

But you don’t get to 108 wins without some great pitching. The Kernels have a lefty-right duo of aces in Ji-e Woo and Tommy Akers. They won 33 games combined and both finished with ERA’s under 3.00. Manuel Camacho has been a godsend out of the bullpen, as evidenced by a 12-5 record and 32 saves with a 2.45 ERA.

Do the River Monsters stand a chance against this corn-fed behemoth? I think so. After dropping the first game versus Omaha in the Geoghegan, they rebounded and limited the Cyclones to just 1 run in each of the next 3 games to come out on top. SP Edward Crutcher has been fantastic and was an absolute bargain in free agency. The southpaw had turned back the clock and had been pitching like he did for Louisville several years ago. But in a very curious move, Crutcher is not on the playoff roster. So it'll be up to rotation-mates Erik Brooks and Jerry Stone to keep the River Monsters in games.

On offense the River Monsters are a solid, veteran-laden group, but overall they lack the run-producing firepower that the Heartland division is known for. RF David Simpson, who finished the year with a .299/.390/.592 line and a 5.2 WAR, is probably the only hitter to truly pitch around. Their offense does have a wildcard in LF Dane Licht, a free agent signee who missed a good part of the season due to a long-term knee injury. But Licht seems completely healed up, sporting a .337 average and 1.2 WAR in just 47 games.

Verdict: We’ll have to see how long these two teams shuttle up and down I-35. Des Moines seems to be the better team and is perhaps eventually destined for a titanic clash against Charm City for the championship. But they cannot look past their opportunistic Heartland rivals. I think the River Monsters will challenge the Kernels a bit, but Des Moines has the weapons to come out on top. Kernels in 6.

[ae37jr]

Nice preview. I left Crutcher off because Omaha played .600 ball versus LH starters this season. I could have used him in the pen, but had other options and I was worried that if I won in 5, I might not have a rested starter for game one here.

I haven't dug deep enough to say for sure yet, but Des Moines .711 winning percentage against RHP probably warrants a start or three from Crutcher.

I'm not super confident about this series. The Kernels are clearly the better team and don't have too many weaknesses to exploit So we are going to have to double down on some probability and mix it with some luck.

[Dington]

Good preview. Des Moines is tough but @ae37jr is crafty.

[RonCo]

Yeah...obviously, I agree on this one. That means, given my track record this year, you might want to reconsider.