Geoghegan Series: Twin Cities vs San Fernando

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Geoghegan Series: Twin Cities vs San Fernando

Post by 7teen » Wed Aug 22, 2018 7:45 pm

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 final matchup between the Twin Cities River Monsters and the San Fernando Bears.

Twin Cities River Monsters
The River Monsters came into the league as a 2029 expansion team and it hasn't taken them long to make themselves known around the league. In their 5th season in existence, they made the post-season. Last year they missed out of making it for consecutive seasons by losing out in a 163rd game. The 2035 version is back again, fresh off a franchise record 93 wins that was only good enough to take a wild card spot.

San Fernando Bears
The San Fernando Bears, formerly the Havana Sugar Kings, gave their fans something to cheer about in year 1 out west by making it to the post-season immediately. Granted, San Fernando inherited a franchise that not only made the post-season last season, they won the Landis Title. So yeah, a Landis Title then relocation. That's one way to spoil a new fan base. The franchise as a whole though hasn't seen a whole lot of success through the years. Since 1995, they've only made the post-season 10 times total. Of course the Landis last year makes many forget about all of those other failed seasons, isn't that right Buffalo fans!

The Offenses
Twin Cities' offense is a difficult one to put a pulse on. They ranked no better than 7th in OBP, AVG, or SLG. They were 10th in hits and just 9th in homeruns. But they did walk a lot which I guess helped them come through with the 5th most runs scored in the Frick League. Four guys had over 20 homeruns for this team but oddly no one drove in 100 RBI. Ray Cooper (.290/.371/.526, 22 HR, 85 RBI) is the man in the middle who will look to do the damage, however he's coming off the first year in 4 years without 100 RBI. If not him, then maybe Hunter Eisenhower (.247/.346/.466, 24 HR, 90 RBI) can. But the River Monsters will need more out of Boogie than his career .209 batting average in 83 post-season games.

The Bears come into the Frick portion of the post-season as the highest scoring offense in the league. In fact, they are top 5 in everything but strikeouts. The Bears are the best offense in the opening round on either side. Former Wolves player and reigning Gillstrom winner Luis Maldonado (.283/.350/.545, 44 HR, 119 RBI) is a dynamic player (fucking kill me now for even trading him.) If Maldonado doesn't strike your fancy, then what about Silk front runner Tai hoi Wie (.306/.417/.585, 42 HR, 146 RBI)? The duo combined for 86 homeruns, the most of any duo in the opening round. And oh yeah, they have
Jared Gillstrom (.335/.396/.537, 34 HR, 94 RBI). And oh yeah, they led the league in steals.

Advantage: San Fernando by a wide margin

The Pitching
Chris Kelly's (10 - 4, 3.04 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 127 K) injury could possibly hurt Twin Cities very much. The 23 year old was having a very good season and at this point in the season his arm would have been real nice to have in a shortened series. The River Monsters staff allowed the 7th fewest runs in the Frick this season. They have a bevy of 10+ game winners but none of them stand out quite like Kelly. Jessie Stewart (12 - 6, 3.43 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 60 K) led the team in wins with 12. But he's a reliever!

On the flip side, the Bears pitching was not good. And that's being nice. They allowed 816 runs which was tied for the 11th most in the league. They had the worst bullpen in the Frick and walked the 14th most batters as a staff in the league. Ernie Kinney (17 - 5, 3.32 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 141 K) led the team in wins and ERA, but he doesn't exactly scream ace starter in a post-season game to me. Jon Reed (12 - 7, 4.36 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 205 K) has the stuff and lead the team in strikeouts, but if he loses his control it's over. The same can be said for Leon Ramirez (8 - 8, 4.31 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 179 K).

Advantage: Maybe slightly towards Twin Cities

Head to Head
San Fernando won the series 5-4.

Both teams were way better at home and Twin Cities has home field advantage. Combined, the two teams were even .500 on the road with Twin Cities being 1 game over .500 and the Bears being 1 game under. Both teams finished 2 games over .500 against Madison, if that sort of thing matters.

Prediction
This one is a tough one to predict. Neither team's pitching seems to be good enough to really take the team to the end. Twin Cities would stand a better chance if Chris Kelly wasn't out for the post-season. The rest of their starters don't seem to be the type of guys you can call on two or three times in a series to do it. But then again, neither do San Fernando's. But the Bears do have some starters that if they are clicking can get on a short roll and that's all that's needed at this point. So we have the defending champion going against one of my Heartland comrades. Ron may kick me out of the Heartland after this, but I'm going San Fernando in 4. The offense is just too good and I think the pitching could be good enough to keep them ahead of the Monsters.
Chris Wilson

LB Surfers 95-96
FL Pac Champs: 95

Madison Wolves 99-2039
JL MW: 99-2009, 17, 20, 21
JL WC: 12
JL: 01, 04, 09, 12
FL Heartland: 32
FL WC: 31, 33
BBA Champs: 04, 09

Portland Lumberjacks 2040-
FL Pacific: 50
FL WC: 49, 51
FL Champs: 49, 51

Vic Caleca TN of the Year 2046

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Re: Geoghegan Series: Twin Cities vs San Fernando

Post by ae37jr » Wed Aug 22, 2018 8:07 pm

The key to this series for me is walks. San Fernando needs to throw strikes to win. The Bears are next to last in the Frick in pitcher walks, Twin Cities is 3rd in the Frick in batter walks. Wareham and Limon VS Ramirez and Reed are the matchups in particular to watch.
Alan Ehlers
GM of the Twin Cities River Monster
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