Pool C - Synopsis

To read about Pool A, Click Here

To read about Pool B, Click Here

NOTES: 

1.  It was reported in the Pool A review that the Grisslies had the league's best record in the second half.  That was incorrect.  The best record was held by the Brew Jays at 10-2.  Inexplicably I had them at 8-4.  Don't know why.  The Grisslies record of 8-3-1 was good enough for 2nd.  
2. This edition has been released 5 and 1/2 hours early due to the infernal badgering from Doris Casullo.  Enjoy! 

The Group

If Pool A is the pool of death, then Pool C is the pool of angst.  Both pools are likely to have a team that the majority of people thought would be playing on Sunday; making an early and unfortunate exit.

• The Joints are the only one of the number one seeds to have the best record against their pool.
• The Joints had the best "D" in the league but are second in the pool in runs allowed.  The also have the second best +/-. 
• The Joints are the only team in the pool to have not been swept by an opponent.  
• The Dodge City Rounders have the 4th best record in the pool, tough draw for the #2 seed. 
• The Dodge City Rounders have the best defense in the pool despite ranking 10th in the league during the regular season. 
• The Dodge City Rounders have scored the fewest runs in the pool despite being 6th in the league for the regular season. 
• The Lucky Stiffs are in the bottom 3 in the league in +/- and runs allowed and are last in both categories in this pool despite being the 3rd seed. 
• The Lucky Stiffs have managed to cobble together a +.500 record against the pool competition in spite of their statistical improbability for runs allowed. 
• The Lucky Stiffs had 5/7 games decided by 7 runs or less. 
• The Rusty Rebels have a 1-6 record against the pool yet only have a -6 +/-.  
• The Rusty Rebels have given up the most runs in the pool and scored the second most. 
• The Rusty Rebels had the best second half regular season record and are the hottest of all 5 teams in the pool. 
• The Dog Catchers had the highest scoring game of the season with 29 runs against the Lucky Stiffs. 
• The Dog Catchers are tied with the second best record within the pool. 
• The Dog Catchers in the 5th seed have the best +/- in the pool. 

Teams are reviewed by order of finish

The Dislocated Joints were the story of the league in the 1st half.  At the half way mark they had a 10-2 record and a full 2 game lead on the Brew Jays, Dodge City Rounders and Red Dogs.  The second half wasn't quite as pretty finishing 6-6 but still well ensconced in 3rd place overall. 

The Joints are the only 1 seed that has a record that looks pretty dominant against their competition.  They dropped 2 run decisions to the Rusty Rebels and Dog Catchers, but beyond that, they've had their way in this pool. 

The Joints are a really balanced squad. The are a consistent squad.  I think one of their best attributes is that the guys show up.  When you have attendance, you can build a team.  Everyone on the Joints has over 60 at bats.  10 of them have over 70. Four players, McGovern, Gyori, Kapp and Doucet never missed a single game. That's second best in the league to the Red Dogs.  

The defense of the Joints is the story.  The Joints were the only team in the league to give up fewer than 10 runs per game over the course of the season.  When the swooned in the second half, it was offense that wavered, not the defense.  And that offense wavered because the team wasn't together as consistently.  In the first half they lost 12 total man games to injury, vacation or work.  In the second half it doubled and they lost 24 man games.  Bring in the subs and the inconsistency shows up.  

However they're all back now and look more like the first half team.  Wynnyk has anchored the strong infield defense at first base and has had a resurgence at the plate hitting over .700.  Beside him, Doucet has played great at second and also hit over .700.  Doris remains an athletic and smart short stop who elevates the whole infield.  And Dave McGovern at 3rd base really isn't fair.  He has a short stop glove and a rocket arm.  In the middle of the infield is Derryl Gaudet who's even temper and ability to keep teammates focused AND field his position make him invaluable.  

The outfield defense is definitely buoyed by the play of super rookie Emeil Edwards.  Emeil is a threat offensively.  A big threat, falling just a single hit short of .700 in his rookie season.  However, Emeil is a lot like the rest of the team in that his story is defense too.  He is an absolutely rock steady outfielder who makes every routine play and has had some of the most spectacular high light real diving catches of the season too. Their other rookie Martin Ramby started terrific, slumped in the middle third of the season but has rebounded smartly to finish back over .600.  A third rookie Jeff Buttgieg has struggled from time to time with the bat but has proven to be a solid defender. 

Then you have Gyori who is excellent at 3rd, Sherman (1st), Kapp (OF) and captain Brown (anywhere he wants to play).  Gyori give you defense flexibilty and Kapp provides steady outfield play.  Sherman continues to make every defensive player make perfect plays as he hustles everything out to the tune of a .630 average and the old captain legged out 41 hits this season to finish a strong .526.  

For the Dislocated Joints to do well:  First off the team they were in the 1st half of the season needs to be back.  They need to play like the best defensive team in the league like they've been all year.  If they have their full lineup scoring runs shouldn't be an issue, but they'll still need to avoid getting into too many shoot outs. 

This team never saw anything worse the 4th place all year. Must be nice. 

If I was to describe this team, I'd call them "free and easy".  They have a crew that loves to play ball and man do they play it well.  I've commented about Ed and Al's (Sudden Sam and Idaho, if you will) ability to keep a team level in previous years and they just have a knack of not getting too high with success or too low with failures.  You could say that's easy with a team like this, but the truth is that they maintain that philosophy, year after year regardless of the record.  

And what a record this year was!  14-9-1, 5 games clear of the .500 mark, 4th in offense, 6th in +/- and 8th in defense.  Despite not having an established short stop their new guy seemed to do pretty good!  Actually Scott Mason had a spectacular rookie season, missing the .800 mark by a hit, tying for the league lead in runs and establishing himself as on of the best 3 shortstops in the league (discuss).  

however, Scott wasn't alone.  Scott Peters was also a hit short of .800 and Al Fry also tied for the league lead in runs.  Actually, Scott's accomplishments always seem to get missed behind someone elses fabulous year and Scott isn't the kind of guy to point this out.  This is the case again this year as in addition to Mason; Fry was off the charts!  Al was among the leaders all season in virtually every category all season long.

Dodge had the 5th best record in the league in the second half and they did that primarily with a potent offense and timely defense.  There "D" was statistically middle of the pack, but may have led the league in OMG  moments.  Bones at 1st, Peters (CF), Mason (SS), Beechey (2b), Lukassen (3b) and Fry (cf) all had plays that left opponents walking of the field shaking their heads.  

Like the Joints, Dodge is carrying 3 rookies with the 3rd one being Tom Enright.  Tom is yet another guy who has improved throughout the year and has the right attitude for the league.  Tom only missed 2 games all year and saw his average steadily progress throughout the season.  The often hurt, but always game Adrian Barry has contributed offensively and defensively.  He just missed a 100ab season while hitting . 684.  Adrian joins Al Fry, Ed McDowell, Scott Peters, Mark Bickford and Wayne Bickford in seeing their averages go up form last your to this.   

For the Dodge City Rounders:  This is less than the ideal pool for Dodge, but its not a tragedy by any stretch.  They need to score and score a lot.  Its what they do best.  They need to be opportunistic with the defense and rely on the guys who's gloves have been steady all year.  There is a good chance that 2 teams out of his pool are playing in a Saturday elimination game.  If one of those teams are the Rounders, they have the right make up to survive it.

Who's left on this team?

The poor Stiffs have had 3 years worth of injuries.  And through it all John Barlow showed up to every game, improved his average by over 100 points, scored 35 runs and had to be reintroduced to team mates as they came back from the infirmary.  Half the team has under 60 ABs which means that 6 guys missed 1/3 of the season each.  OUCH. 

The Stiffs had a 5-6-1 record in the 1st half of the season. Good enough for 9th place a the break.  They had a wild ride in that period fluctuating from as low as 11th to as high as 4th.  And despite the injury woes and more than a few people writing them off, the Lucky Stiffs duplicated their 1st half results going 5-6-1 in the second half as well and finishing 9th overall for the season.

Their record within the pool defies logic.  They played 7 games and are a -22.  Its the worst +/- in the pool and the second worst out of the 15 teams.  Yet, they are 4-3 against the competition and are tied with the group's 2nd best record.  Yes, lot can be explained by one mammoth loss to the Dog Catchers, but the numbers and the numbers.

Not knowing who's well enough for the playoffs, let me just highlight a few players.  Barlow, you know and defensively he's as steady as they come.  Lahey is a beast.  I don't know how else to describe him.  Strong as an ox, can pound the ball consistently, unofficially led the league in home runs, is one of the 3 finalists for Rookie of the Year (there's no such award) and is as smooth a shortstop as you'd ever want to see.

Call Steeves, I've seen move from the outfield to 2nd base where he's had some spectacular games.  Tom Ball has been a great addition in the outfield and nice bat as well. Rookie Jason Chiovitti seems to be swinging well after his return from injury and they'll need his bat for the playoffs.  McBain, Campbell and Stiff are also reasonably healthy and hitting and fielding pretty much to the norm.

That leaves Andy Gee who is the only other Stiff (Barlow) to see his average go up from last year.  Add that to being the leagues all star pitcher for the passed 3 season and an excellent fielder to boot and you have the glue that's holding this together.

The lucky Stiffs finished the season strong at 3-1-1.  During that span they beat the Joints (3rd), the Tap Masters, (8th), Gruesome Devils (7th) and tying the Grisslies (6th).  Of course, just to make sure that nothing makes sense, their only loss was to the 15th place Dusty Cleats.

For the Lucky Stiffs to do well:  The 3rd seed team look like decided underdogs in some ways and strong in others.  They come into the playoffs as the 2nd hottest team in the pool to the Joints (4-1) and need to ride that momentum.  They need everyone to contribute.  Not like, everyone needs to go 5/5, but just play to their norm so that 3 home run performances don't end being losses.  Normally I'd say health is an issue but that just seems like putting salt in a gapping wound.   

Smoke and Mirrors.  Hugh's going to hate this, but I find the Rebels to be a lot like the Grisslies, let me explain. .....

When I say a lot of like, that includes some similar opposites.  Making sense yet?  The Rebels are the 13th best defensive squad in the league.  That sucks.  The Grisslies are the 11th best offense team in the league.  That sucks too.  Equal and opposite.  The Rebels are the 3rd best offensive team.  Awesome!  The Grisslies are the 2nd best defensive team. Awesome!  The Rebels were brutal in the 1st half (3-7-2) and so were the Grisslies (4-7-1).  The Rebels were great in the 2nd half (7-5) and so were the Grisslies (8-3-1).  Different routes getting there, but pretty much the same results.  

So why the dramatic 2nd half improvement?  Why were they suddenly knocking off teams like the Red Dogs and Dodge City Rounders and playing the Brew Jays to a close 6-3 loss?  Well, I'm sure there are plenty of reasons, but I see two significant factors.  

Factor 1:  Through their first 12 games the Rusty Rebels hit a very good .642 on .272 hits.  In their final 12 games they hit .679 on 345 hits. An extra 3 hits per game will do some damage.  From the first half to the second half Bill Sallustio went up .234, Brad Wadden .255, Gord Dol .161, Don Booth .079, Mike Ghaney .190 and Wilf Roblin .199.  That's not little improvements.  At you don't see Burton, Moon or Armstrong on that list event though they were team leaders all year.  Thats because their seasons stayed more constant. 

Factor 2:  Bob Vaughan.  Bob played 3 sporadic games in the 1st half.  The Rebels lost all three, but we'll count that as part of his record for now.  Once Bob was all healed up he played 10 the Rebels final 12 games.  The Rusty Rebels were 7-3 in those games.  With Bob out they were using backups and subs.  Its not that Mr Vaughan is Sandy Koufax, but with him throwing consistently the team could get more accustomed to the style and tendencies of a single hurler.   

I'm not going to bread down the offense.  Moon is unconscious.  Kahuna isn't far back of that.  Armstrong Wadden and Booth are simply peppering line drives to all fields.  Sallustio has hit .800 for the second half of the year.  

Defense has improved, but not by leaps and bounds.  Considering the quality of players, its a surprise that they give up so many runs.

For the Rusty Rebels to do well:  The 4th seeded team has a chance to make some noise here!  There's a lot to like about the Rebels but to move to Sunday they need to hang onto the ball.  Throwing to a base were someone is already safe can only result in nothing happening or something bad (extra bases, poor throw, lousy catch, moving base runners) happening.  Catch the ball, cut it off, give it to the pitcher, repeat.  Its a flawless formula!

The Dog Catchers are the only 5th seed to have a winning record against their pool. Coincidentally, at the time I finished writing this they had no votes to get the bye, I wonder if that will change. 

This 5th seeded team has the second best pool record and have scored the most runs!  The Dog Catchers were in last place after week 3 of the season and would never climb higher than 12th, finally landing at 13th at seasons end.  You would think that a 9-13-2 record would stand you in a better spot than 13th, but you have to remember that there was only 3 wins difference between 13th and 5th place.  Its tight.

The Dog Catchers lost their only game to the Dodge City Rounders, but have split with or swept everyone else.  Their +/- is best in the pool and they have won three straight.  That makes for a pool full of hot teams and reaching their peak.  

I've mentioned balance a few times throughout these reviews and the Dog Catchers are certainly offensively balances.  Their top hitter was Phil Glecof at .761 but he was followed closely by fellow .700 hitters Larry Turner and Bob Pearce.  

Bob's transition to pitching every game since Randy Hipkin went down has been flawless, going 3-0 and giving up 10.4 runs per game.  In comparison to the pool, the Dog Catchers are tied with the Joints in offense and ahead of Dodge in defense for the entire season.  This seems to legitimately be a case of a team being better than their record would indicate.  

Cal Russel, Jim MacDonald and Don Curran provide formidable gap threats to go along with the average batters mentioned above.  And Craig Escott (found his bike), Don Swabuk (lost his mind), Ingo Bartens (Ingofische), Paul Hargreaves (Chicka-bow-bow) and Vincent (COME ON!) Basachhi hit a consistent, combined .577 in setting the table.  No one on the team hit under .500.  

Balance.  

The outfield defense is very good with Curran, MacDonald, Glecof and Russel.  The have a lot of options to shuffle people there who have been fielders in the past but are now on the infield.  

For the Dog Catchers to do well:  Until I looked at the numbers I kind of dismissed the #5 seed in this pool.  I shouldn't have.  I will always lean to defense as the deciding factor and I would have thought that Bob pitching would have hurt their defense because he's such a good fielder anywhere you put him.  But it seems to have helped!  Maintaining the level of defensive play will be crucial to getting out of round robin play.