[daves]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

The Frogs finished up 2048 with a 109-53 record (+333, -5 pythag). This was a distant 2nd in the division to the Amberg Legends (128-34, +573), but plenty good enough to host the wild card game.

The opponent will be the Michigan Stags (105-57, +213). The Stags finished just a couple of games behind their division leader and will be attempting to 2-peat this season after winning their first PL title last week. It's a NFTP type of team judging by the fact they're playing LIVE Anthony Rizzo at 1B. But, the Stags have some nice cards as well: 100 Future Legend Vlad, 100 Mantle, 100 LIVE Trout, 100 All-Star Max Scherzer, 100 Dutch Leonard, 93 Buck Ewing, and 97 Phil Niekro mainly. If this team has a weakness, it would probably be the bullpen (4.44 ERA, 10th). With the Frogs trotting a rested Ed Walsh out there and having the home field, the game should heavily lean to the Frogs. Did you hear that, RNG?

Speaking of Ed Walsh...my dude is a shoo-in for his 3rd PotY award and for the 2nd week in a row. He went 22-5 and led the conference in ERA (1.96), ERA+ (224), GS (37), QS (32), IP (257.1), WAR (8.8), and RA9-WAR (12.4). The 22 wins was good for 2nd; Walsh was also 6th in Ks (208) and 2nd in WHIP (0.98). His 12.4 RA9-WAR bested the nearest challenger by a full 3.5 WAR.

Other accolades include SUPER Ichiro winning the batting title (.341) and being head and shoulders above all other contenders for the Great Glove in RF. Ichiro has 6.4 WAR in the bank right now, but it could approach 8 or so after the defensive stats are adjusted.

The Frogs also had 7 players with double digit homers, which is unheard of for this slap-happy/boa constrictor-defense team and its ballpark factors. Newcomer Christian Yelich led the way with 24 homers. Chipper Jones also got to 20. Berra, Henderson, Ripken, Pudge, and Appling were all between 10-12 HR. The previous team high was 121 HR and the Frogs thwacked 136 long balls this week.

The main thing I'm worried about going to the playoffs is the bullpen has been a little bit rickety. 100 Smoltz (10-3, 2.61 ERA, 20 SV) and SE Vida Blue (5-11, 3.16 ERA, 14 SV) combined for almost 8 WAR from their co-stopper roles, but they also blew 19 saves between them. In fact, my team's mini summer slump was basically due to Vida Blue coughing up a bunch of games in a short span. The other worrisome thing is the Frogs are heading into the 'yoffs cold. The team lost its final 5 games of the season and 7 of 9 (and its not like Jeri Ryan is walking through that door any time soon).

Good Luck in your Wild Card game. You were good enough to win a division, but you were in a tough one.

Doubledays finished 110-53 after winning a play-in game 6-2 against Asbury. We get to avoid the Wild Card game and we play the 110-52 Durham El Torres in the best of 5 series. El Torres is a defensive minded team with the top def eff of .724 in the league and 1st in runs against. The Doubledays were in the top 8 in the 6 major categories shown in the standings and were 4th in Average and ERA. Doubledays won the regular season series 4-2, which means nothing at this point as El Torres does have home field.

All 3 of my teams made the Perfect playoffs this season in PT 2.0.

Oren Owlz added John Henry Lloyd to the top of the batting order. They won 101 games for the 1st time in Perfect and are the top seed in their conference while there are 2 mega whales battling it out in the other conference.

Woodpeckers managed the final wild card spot and is hoping defense can stop the mega hitting teams.