SCHEDULE: ROUND 1 - REGION 1:
8) 1994 Montreal Expos vs. 9) 1949 Boston Red Sox
One of my personal favorites here with the Expos. They may have been so screwed when the strike ended things in 1994 and many of them experienced so much success elsewhere, I'd like to see them make a run here.
1994 Montreal Expos
8 Seed – Region 1
Record: 74-40
Result: 1st place in NL East when strike ended season
Entry to Tournament: Automatic bid (Best Expos team ever)
Elo Rank: 208
Key Players:
Moises Alou (OF) .339, 22 hr, 78 rbi, 81 r, OPS+ 153
Marquis Grissom (OF) 36 sb, 96 r, 5.1 WAR
Larry Walker (OF) .322, 19 hr, 86 rbi, 76 r, 151 OPS+
Pedro Martinez (SP) 11-5, 3.42 era, 1.10 whip, 8.8 K/9
Notes:
In true Expos fashion, their best ever team never had the chance to prove it, with the strike grinding baseball to a halt on August 12, 1994. They held a 6 game lead over the Braves after 114 games played. Not long after baseball resumed the Braves would return to dominance in the NL East as they had from ’91-’93, and continue a streak of more than a dozen straight division titles, while the Expos core of stars entering their prime years would move on to other teams, and the franchise itself move to Washington D.C.
Montreal was 3rd in runs scored in the NL and 2nd in runs against.
A 22 year old Pedro gets most of the attention for the pitching staff after the fact given his future dominance, but the entire staff was something else. Somewhat no-names in baseball history Ken Hill, Jeff Fassero, and Butch Henry all had lower ERAs than Pedro and all four of them were at least 25% better than the NL as a whole at 125 or higher ERA+.
Further reading:
https://athlonsports.com/mlb/1994-mo...son-unfinished
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-world-series/
https://nypost.com/2020/05/06/the-le...always-wonder/
1949 Boston Red Sox
9 Seed – Region 1
Record: 96-58
Result: 2nd place American League
Entry to Tournament: At large bid (Wild card – Key Player Ted Williams)
Elo Rank: 69
Key Players:
Ted Williams (OF) .343 / .490 / .650, 43 hr, 159 rbi, 150 r, 190 OPS+, 9.1 WAR
Vern Stephens (SS) .290, 39 hr, 159 rbi, 113 r
Mel Parnell (SP) 25-7, 2.77 era, 27 complete games in 33 starts, and 5 games finished in 6 relief games
Notes:
This version of the Red Sox rated quite high by a few measures and placed them on the bubble for this tournament strictly on merit, though they didn’t even win the AL. It was the absence of Ted Williams from the tournament otherwise that stamped their bid.
Williams just barely missed his third AL triple crown but did win his second MVP in one of the better offensive seasons baseball has ever seen.
Dom DiMaggio had a 34 game hitting streak which started to sniff his brother’s legendary 56 game streak, ended by lining out to Joe in his last at bat.
The pitching staff was this team’s weakness, ranking only 4th in the AL’s 8 teams in runs against, and putting up a team ERA just above average.
Further reading:
http://fenwayparkdiaries.com/1949%20...06-19-1949.htm
https://bosoxinjection.com/2020/05/2...s-1949-season/