With all but one playoff spot sewed up (thanks again, Mother Nature), I figured it was time to preview a few of the upcoming playoff match-ups, compare teams and make first-round predictions.
The first round should be like a UFC fight: quick, and fun to watch.
first up . . .
#2 Somerville Alibrandis vs. # 7 Revere Rockies
2007's Champion takes on a team that got bounced in the first round last season. The Rockies and the Alibrandis split their regular season meetings with the road team coming out on top each time.
I hear that Alibrandis Steve Durant will not be eligible for the playoffs, but a fresh Doc and Co. will take care of business on the mound. With Bucci setting the table and Steve Corda and Ned Coffee cleaning it up, Revere might be able to get some work done offensively, but the absence of base path menace Pete John will prove costly for the Rockies here.
Mike McCarthy is a solid number one starter, but he can't start every game and I don't have enough confidence in any other Revere pitcher silencing Somerville's bats long enough to escape with a win in this series.
My prediction is Somerville in two.
# 3 South Boston Saints vs. # 6 Medford Maddogs
This series could be the one to watch in the first round. South Boston's Jon Tenny is well rested and ready for the playoffs, only throwing 32 innings this season. Opposing him on the mound will be Cy Young candidate Sean Gildea, whose 0.50 ERA will be tested by an offense that was sixth in batting average, fifth in home runs and seventh in sacrifices this season.
The Saints' well-rounded offense is led by Rob Linn (only 5 K's in 103 AB, 20 RBIs), while Medford's cagey offensive game relies a lot on sacrifices, running and timely hitting.
Even though Southie took both meetings against the Maddogs this year, these two teams seem evenly matched. I want to give the edge to Medford, but I need to know if Gildea can put the 2007 playoffs behind him and keep his spectacular season going into the playoffs. Whoever wins game one wins the series.
Look for Gildea to step up and Medford to advance in three.
#4 East Boston Bluefish vs. #5 Brighton Brewers
Teams don't win championships with offense, but they could win a three game series with it. This series has the potential to be a barn-burning fiasco, with East Boston and the Brewers top three in the league in hits, hitting, slugging, RBI's and OPS.
The Brewers are the most patient team at the plate with 159 walks and they have nine players with at least 10 RBI's. The Bluefish are second in home runs (11) and first in triples (14), but have also swiped 47 bases and sacrificed 17 times, showing their ability to play different styles of baseball.
What East Boston possesses that the Brewers don't is power arms. East Boston's pitching staff has the most strikeouts in the league and they defeated the Brew Crew twice this season, 8-1 and 4-1 respectively. Their high walk numbers are a bit troublesome and may haunt them in later rounds, but against the Brewers, Kyle Jones and Chris Sandini need not worry. They should have just enough pitching to make it by the Iafolla-led Brewers in the first round.
East Boston in three lengthy, high scoring games.
Pitcher and Hitter of the week, 7/28 - 8/03
Pitcher
Pitching was Where It's At this week in the Yawkey League, as 9 shutouts were thrown and 21 times a team was held to two runs or less. Hooray, Location!
Another one of the Maldenites has earned himself one of these awards made out of milk chocolate, fiberglass and shrapnel.
Ken Olinsky threw his best game of the season against a Savin Hill team who came ready to play.Malden sqeaked out a 1-0 victory behind Olinsky's 10 K's, 0 BB's and two hits. He needed only 80 pitches to swat the hornets away in complete game fashion and the game took only 90 minutes to play. Umpires everywhere smile.
Hitter
I'd first like to acknowledge the Yawkey League single-game performance of the week. Doesn't happen very often (actually, it's never happened), so enjoy it. Somerville's Justin Crisafulli drove in all four runs in his team's 4-1 win over the South End Astros with two homeruns. He also hit a double.
In related news, Somerville is on fire at exactly the right time. Giggity.
Al Becker takes home this week's trophy with this body of work: 7-for-12 over three games with a homerun, four RBI's and five runs scored. Becker's home run, his second of the season, came against the South End Astros, who seem to be giving up home runs to just about everyone, including the milkman. Becker is having himself quite the nice season in East Boston, where he's hitting a robust .407, and getting on base once every two at bats.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
24 comments:
Ryan,
With your team (for those who don't know ryan is on Mckay club)having 4 games left and Al Thomas having 1 left but that game being with you do you think you guys should have a play in game,or ride out the season to see what happen?
1 senario is that you go 3-1 losing to Al Thomas and still end up tied with 33 points.The other is you win out and advance to the play offs.The last is you don't win enough to tie.
let me know what you think because i am curious.
Chris D #4
We just need to win tomorrow against Al Thomas and that;s it. Without that, we don't have shit.
If you look too far up the stair case, you trip on the stair in front of you. One game at a time...
true.
well if it ever stops raining we will try to finish the regular season.
Chris D #4
RAINING STILL @ 1AM! Our teams and players have enduered a horrific summer. This is not the way we like to see things done in the YBL. Nature has taken a turn for the worse. Our weekend will be determined if games can be played and if teams can field an appropriate number of people to play a game. We are doing our best to play all games, but it is getting counter-productive at this stage. NEWS at 10:45PM from Ronan park tonight!
Ryan -
Are you aware the Brewers and Somerville still need to play this weekend to determine the second seed? That one game could shake up a few things.
Also, to go with your CURRENT preview of the playoffs, it is very hard to knock off a team four times in one season, just saying. Also we will have, finally, a healthy staff. Let's put a wager on this...if the Brew Crew makes it out of the first round with the current playoff lay out (prior to sunday's game) you let me post a league friendly blog on here. If we don't make it out of the first round I will gladly volunteer for a roasting of Mike "the little guy" Muccio. Deal?
Mucc #26
With regards to the Medford-South Boston series. Given it is a playoff series, Gildea will not do much. He had made his career on pitching against NON-PLAYOFF teams.
#44, stop your bashing. Have you ever used .400 Hitter? For the record, Six of Gildea's nine wins have come against teams that were in the top 6 when we played them. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of knowing which teams would be playoff teams back in May, June and July.
Gildea has more wins, innings pitched and K's than any other pitcher in the League over the past 5 years. It's not even close. He's been a horse. He has led his team to the playoffs every year. Isn't that the goal?
His record against playoff teams up to now is 11-9. If the McKay Club gets in this weekend it will be 13-9. In the playoffs he is 4-4, with half of those games coming on short rest.
Gildea has thrown 332 innings since we have been in the YBL. He has never thrown less than 53 in a season.
I don't ever remember Gildea arguing with an ump or an opposing player during a game. I'm pretty sure every team in this League would be calling him if we folded.
There are many great pitchers in this League, I don't want to start naming them because I'll leave some out. Some pitchers are better than Sean, he knows that. But he has stood the test of time and has put the numbers up.
Give the kid his due. 40 wins and over 400 K's in 5 years is amazing.
It's too easy to bash because of petty jealousies. Focus on the baseball and give the good players their due. Everyone playing in this League deserves credit for keeping baseball alive.
DH
Thanks Coach. I'll just put my head down and do what I've done all season.
Win or lose, at least I know I can count on my teammates to have my back and most likely quite a few individuals on other teams would say that I've done nothing wrong.
I do what I'm supposed to do as a pitcher: keep my team in the game. A 4-4 record in the playoffs with a 2.66 ERA is far from keeping my team out of the game besides ONE game in 2007 where the Brewers just flat out beat "me" and not the Maddogs as a team.
I joke about run support and all that stuff with my team, but all that matters to me is if we win or lose, whether it be 15-14 or 1-0. If I didn't keep the other team off the board with us scoring few runs, I didn't do my job, and if we're hitting the crap out of the ball and let the other team back in the game then I didn't do my job.
If that sounds wrong, then shoot me, because I've bled my blue and white (for my college team and the Maddogs) for the past 5 years and done nothing but support every teammate I've ever played with.
If I could be half as good as Marc DeRoches in his prime or Derek Bates, and I'll even throw out Scott Jamieson from Al Thomas (for the lefty pride), then I'd be thrilled.
Just goes to show that someone who puts the name "#44 Long Dong" is ignorant and has no idea about what it means to play baseball, be a teammate, and act with class.
On another note: This blog is starting to lose its focus from what Ryan intended which was to focus on the positives of the Yawkey League and what it offers young men: a place to play baseball and have fun, regardless of wins or losses. What Ryan intended has heavily skewed towards player and/or team bashing and it's just rude and childish.
I'm sure everyone's mom told them "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it at all."
I think that about covers it.
-- Gildea
all bashing aside Dave Hanley makes a great point. Gildea is an outstanding pitcher.A little cocky but still great( i can say that because i am cocky too). And again I would call him if Medford folded.
Hey Mucc I didn't mean to leave you guys out but I have been part of 3 "play-in" games and I think they are bullshit so I wanted to see what a team involved would think.
Chris D #4
Play in games....it depends. If the situation needs it then it is a must. We all know and love Bucky Dent! I would say get all the games in for the season before that has to be an option. Or you can always go with flipping a coin!! haha
This is a great time of the year; the best time!! Good luck everyone!
Also, it has to be a FAIR play in if it needs to happen. If teams cannot get their entire starting line up together for that game then it is completely BS. You know what I mean? With getting all these final games in, attendence becomes and issue.
"ALL" players involved should also be play off eligible because it is technically a post season game. That hasn't always happened in this league. You should never be able to throw some guy not on your roster or bring in some hitter that drops bombs and so on.
Chris D #4
Gildea is a horse, but 11-9 and 4-4career in playoffs would not exactly earn you the nickname Mr. October, or for our purposes, Mr. Mid-August
if we need a play in game, it is a regular season game. only 3 seeds are official( #1 malden, #3 sb and #8 althomas/mckay ) so the playoffs preview can change quite a bit in the next 2 days.
Let me ask you this. What happens when the season end date comes? Do we play until october or do we kill the remaining games by coming to a suitable agreement between all teams in play off contention?
The seeding is still up in the air so have somerville and the brewers play winner is #2 have Mckay and Al Thomas play winner is #8. Revere has 8 possible points to get so what do you do for them?
this is crazy lets play lots of double headers on saturday/sunday
Is Medford's coach actually blogging?!? TOOL SHED!!
All these forfeits at the end of a close race like this is SHIT!
I would like to know if the league intends on doing something about it in the off season.
I always thought if a team forfeits twice they have to reapply to the league,but i could be wrong.
Why is it ok for teams to pack it in just because they aren't in the play offs?
The League should be cut down to 10 to 12 teams. That way we eliminate all of the awful teams; we all know who they are. That way every game is competitive and has the best players.
I feel like the league is a government assistants program, letting anyone who watches or knows baseball play even though they can't play a lick. This results in forfeits when the playoffs approach and some awful games during the season.
I like the 17 teams because of the 32 games you get to play. if i wanted to play less i would just play mabl or park league. 32 games is one of the things that set us apart but i do think something needs to be done.
Chris D #4
i wrote the one about the forfeits being shit just forgot to sign my name
I do agree with Sean. I enabled comments here so that people could leave comments that pertain to the topic at hand. I enjoy it when people leave comments; I know you're reading it.
But to comment just because you may disagree with another commenter is not what I planned.
Please stick to the topic at hand, or suggest topics to me through e-mail and I will write about those topics in a well-informed and well-researched manner.
Here's a topic... someone said "tool shed"
Get down to 12 teams.
2 Divisions of 6.
Play your own division 4 times each (20 games), the other division 2 times (12 games), for a grand total of 32 (just like in todays YBL).
1) More Fields available for permits (only scheduling 192 games versus 272 games....that's 80 extra field slots for makeups).
2) Less need for umpires, which one would hope that we would get more of the top tier umpires then we are now....which results in...
3) Less rift-raft going on and....
4) More Competitive Games........which results in....
5) Less Forfeits at the end of the season....which results in...
6) Happier People
Oh look at that.......more rain
see you on the field in November
Chris D #4
Did I just read the words "Marc DesRoches in his prime"?????????
I'm not dead yet...
Post a Comment