Last weeks predictions:
Gruesome Devils vs. Dodge City Rounders: Bigger, better, faster, stronger. To quote Kanye.
Kanye wins; I win; Dodge wins.
Dog Catchers vs. Sons Of Pitches: Health of the Dog Catchers captains remains a question mark. If this was Vegas, this game would be taken off the board. SOP are capable, but DC in a close one.
Not as close as I thought in the long run, but a tight game through 4 innings. DC wins.
Draft Kings vs. Grisslies: Why? We play close games against the Draft Kings. A 2 run loss and 4 run loss in our last two games against them. If we hit on all cylinders, it can happen.
And it did, Grisslies by 4.
Dodge City Rounders vs. Hurtin' Units: Rounding into playoff shape. The offense is there. The pitching has been very good. The defense needs to be a little crisper to be a deep threat in the post season.
A little crisper? Ya, I think they stepped up winning this one 7-4
Master Batters vs. Hot Tub Woody's: Shocked. I know.
And with this win the Master batters clincked 1st place overall.
Rusty Rebels vs. Sliders: The Sliders and Rebels should be a good match up. Neither team has an elite defense but both can be good. The Sliders will out hit the Rebs in this one.
Hmmmmm. A little bit better defense than I expected on both sides, 14-11 Sliders.
Tap Masters vs. Dusty Cleats: The Cleats bounce back from last week's blip.
My 1st miss of the week. The Taps strike back.
Hurtin' Units vs. Sliders: An interesting match up here. Similar offenses, but the Units bring more leather to the game.
Well I didn't predict a game shortened by the lights not working at Keogh park. But I did predict the Units win!
Beer Bros. vs. Rusty Rebels: Its not that the Beer Bros. aren't trying. But they seem to be running in mud. Working really hard but not really moving. Following up last weeks offensive explosion will be difficult.
Proven wrong, Beer Bros by two.
Sons of Pitches vs. Grisslies: Yes, the Grisslies WILL run the table after their take down of the Draft Kings.
In an injury filled game, the Grisslies would win again.
Gruesome Devils vs. Tap Masters: Expansion cousins that have had tremendous success since joining the league. This year there is a real possibility of finishing in last and 2nd last.
My faith in the Gruesome Devils was unfounded.
Grisslies vs. Dusty Cleats: Rob and Pully know each other pretty well. These teams rarely see a blow out against each other. Looking for a close Grisslie victory.
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong....1. wasn't close, 2. Grisslies lose, 3. Pully and Rob DO NOT know each other. A beat down from Pully and the Pylons
Week Record: 8-4
Total Record: 35-19
Money: +$160.00
Next week's games:
Sons of Pitches @ Dodge City Rounders At first blush, they're only separated by 3 wins and don't seem too dissimilar. But the difference in their plus / minus is 111 runs.
Tap Masters @ Sliders The Tappers suddenly have 10 wins. How did that happen? The Sliders suddenly took a loss, albeit after only only 4 1/2 innings, but a loss is a loss and they have to show rebound now.
Master Batters @ Grisslies. The Master Batters have won 19 out of their last 25 (funny eh?). They are 1st overall, they've been measured for their jackets, planned the parade route. Only thing left to do is beat the Grisslies, win the Beer Cup, reel off 7 more wins and call it a season. I think this game is bigger for the Grisslies.
Rusty Rebels @ Dusty Cleats. The Cleats just bead us by 19 Thursday night, how can I go against them? The only thing harder than winning a blow out is following that game with another win.
The Post Season (because playoffs are for hockey)
So, there has been a LOT of legion discussion on the playoff format for this year. I understand the confusion, we haven't used this format since 2010 so it merits a bit of a review.
Everyone seemed to really like the 3 divisions of 5 teams and doing the round robin that way. Unfortunately, this season has us with 14 teams and the 3 division doesn't work. (that's math that even I can do).
The system that we're using this year was devised by Jeff Dancey in 2010 after more coffee and midnight oil than you can imagine. We simply manipulated his version for this season's 14 team playoff. Here it is in the simplest terms.
- There is one pool.
- Each team will play 4 round robin games.
- Each team will play 2 round robin games during the week and 2 more on the Saturday
- At the end of the round all the teams will ranked 1 - thru - 14.
- The tie breaker (because there are lots of ties in this format) is: total points (2 for a win, 1 for a tie), Plus / Minus (all games are played to conclusion including the bottom of the 7th, even if the home team is ahead but not up by 7 or more runs), Head - to - Head, Runs Against (during the regular season runs for is the decider, in the playoffs it switches to runs against)
- The 13th and 14th seeded teams are eliminated after the round robin.
- The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeded teams become the home teams for the quarter finals on Sunday.
- The elimination games happen Saturday afternoon 12@5; 11@6; 10@7; 9@8.
- The winners are the 4 elimination games become the visiting team in the 4 quarter finals on Sunday. (The elimination game winners are ranked according to their finish after the round robin.
- From there on its normal, quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, semi, semi, final.
Although its not complete, here is how it lines up so far.
Hope that's clear for everyone. How about some stats?
Here are your nearly end of season power rankings. The Cleats and Grisslies were tied for 9th last week. The Cleats played twice this week and the Grisslies 3 times. They met this week too and the Grisslies were trounced (albeit in 6 innings) and still they remain tied through all that. The Master Batters claimed 1st overall and remain 3rd in the rankings. Go Figure.
1st half standings.
And your season to date with one night of games left.
Top 25 in at bats in the 1st half of the year.
Top 25 in at bats in the 2nd half of the season.
If there was any justice I'd be tied with Tucker, 2 behind Feehley with a game to play. I'm not.
Look at all the +100 ab guys this year though! A full quarter of the league has reached the century mark!
Barton's ridiculous start was only one of 10 players over the .800 mark.
There are a number of players deleted off of this list because they don't have the requisite 39 abs in the 2nd half to qualify. Seems like hits were tougher to come by in the 2nd half with only 4 guys over the .800 mark. There's no way any one is catching Cam in this one.
The only difference you'll see between this and the one on the website is that the league only requires 2 abs per game to qualify....I (because I can) require 3 abs per game. 2 has never sat well with me. 52 at bats? So you can get that in 10 or 11 games of a 26 game season. That's not enough for me to have someone qualify. Sorry Wolfe, unless you get 12 abs in your last game, and Douma and Doyle.
Did anyone notice that Tom and Peter Hollmann are tied at .720 and Tom is the only one with a game left. If he's 3/4 or 4/5 he'll get the extra drumstick at Thanksgiving!
First half hits was won pretty handily by Scotty Barton.
So, this looks like Cam's to me. I have 1 career 5/5 and I doubt I'll be lucky enough to get another one on the last day of the season. Ford, Richards, Feehely, Short, Young Pearce and Schrank all have a game left, but none have a serious shot at Clark. Nice 2nd half Cam.
Much the same story for the season. Brian, who has had a fantastic season has this won barring something ridiculous. Ford and Feehely and I have a reasonable chance to knock Gaudet and Stike out of the top 5. Should be an interesting finish.
Contgrats to Ani and Hags for winning the 1st half.
Well this is frightening. The Dog Catchers and Draft Kings are done. Which means if I score a run in my final game, Ford will need 4 to pass me. He could do it. And Richards would need 5 to pass me. This is choke time.
Could Jerry score 5 or Brian 6 to run down the legendary 61 by Doucet. Highly unlikely but shouldn't be completely dismissed. You never know, right?
Through the 1st 13 games of the season these were the most improved players.
From game 14 onward, these are your most improved players against last years averages. 5 Sliders speaks to their remarkable 2nd half.
This is the full season view and this list will look a little different next week as everyone under 78 at bats (3 at bats per game) will come out.
Your rookies over the .500 mark. Some great 1st seasons here and some excellent comeback stories after multiple years off.
Final stats and a playoff primer next week.
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