Another Seattle/New Orleans preview

[trmmilwwi]

Seattle vs New Orleans

The Doubleday Series went as expected with New Orleans and their league leading 107 wins defeated a tough Montreal squad and Seattle took out wildcard winner Marquette. New Orleans will be the heavy favorite going into the series due to their great performance during the season and their Landis win last season. However, Seattle does have some firepower and may have more chance than people may think. Here’s the quick rundown.

New Orleans
New Orleans is led my super phenom pitcher Jimmy McCabe. Jimmy had 6 more wins than any other pitcher in the Monty this year and will be the main force for the ‘Dads. Expect him to get at least 2 starts and to serve up some good pitching. Albert Martinez will be 2nd in line behind McCabe and will try to build on his experience form last year’s playoffs when he posted a 5+ ERA. Martinez and youngster Jose Linares will have to show that they can step up in the clutch against the powerful Seattle offense. If they each split a game then with McCabe New Orleans has this series in the bank.

It cannot be overlooked that as strong as the ‘Dads are in the field they may be even better at the plate. They have prolific homerun hitters in Bartolo “the other brother” Melendez who had 5 more homers than the next closest player this year and veteran Al Jones who also had 35. It is a powerful 1-2 punch that can help New Orleans out of a jam if need be.

Seattle
Seattle had 97 wins this regular season which is more than enough to have a legit chance at the Landis trophy. They have a very strong offense which should give the top 3 pitcher for New Orleans some trouble. While there are no superstars like Melendez or Jones on the roster they have a solid top to bottom squad that is led by switch hitter Dave May and veteran Roman Empire. Where the ‘Dads will hit the longball to win, Seattle prefers to keep the pressure on by getting onbase and frustrating the opposing pitchers.

If there is a weakness in the series it will be Seattle’s pitchers against the tough New Orleans offense. Ace starter Esteban Benitez has pitched will but has a 4+ ERA and a 1.32 WHIP. Starters Morgan Ackerman and Domingo Becerra have not given up a ton of homers (15 and 18 respectively) so maybe Seattle can withstand a few pushbacks from New Orleans.

Final Thoughts
In my final assessment of the series I took a look at the season numbers of both squads and while they are almost dead even on the offensive side of things (5.8 runs a game, 941 and 942 total runs, .837 and .815 OPS) they are not equals on the pitching side of things (3.8 runs/game for New Orleans, 4.7 for Seattle).

Prediction
I see New Orleans beating Seattle 4 games to 2. I predict that the ‘Dads starters will determine the series and that McCabe will win 2 games while the other guys split their games.

[Al-Hoot]

Thanks for that concise preview.

They are both great teams. Well, anything can happen in a 7-game series... Seattle won 3 of 7 against NO in the regular season. Given the closeness there, another measure, however imprecise, is each team's record against HAW: 0-3 for SEA, 3-0 for NO, so.... Or take any other similar series. Yes, please take it....

[agrudez]

Did I just hear al admit its a crapshoot afyer all?

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