Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

The Kodiaks face a familiar foe in the division series, the Seattle Mariners. We've faced our division rival 13 times this year, including a tie-breaker game just a few days ago, and we've come out on top 10 of those games. Our pitching has an advantage, while the Mariners offense has a big advantage. I do feel pretty good about our chances.

[JaBurns]

Looks as though that's what got the Kodiaks into the playoffs. Good luck in the playoffs.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Looks as though that's what got the Kodiaks into the playoffs. Good luck in the playoffs.

Thank you! I'm hoping that our pitching and defense can continue to carry us!

[illeracula]

That was an impressive season. Look at how much time your player spent on the DL and yet were able to win the big tie-breaker. I was feeling your pain seeing 6 players on the DL at a time, that just shouldn't be allowed...

Awesome job... Lets go Kodiaks.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

That was an impressive season. Look at how much time your player spent on the DL and yet were able to win the big tie-breaker. I was feeling your pain seeing 6 players on the DL at a time, that just shouldn't be allowed...

Awesome job... Lets go Kodiaks.

Thank you! I definitely agree about the DL. I hate seasons like this where it seems that everyone hits the DL. I'm happy that we were able to overcome the injuries though, and excited to see what are pitching can do in the playoffs.

[NYY #23]

Rob Whitfield was making his playoff debut for the Kodiaks after going 14-11 on the season with a 2.90 ERA. The 27 year old has been very good this year, and Whitfield would go 7 2/3 innings today and allow 3 runs. His performance put us in position to win, but our offense couldn't figure out Mariners starter Emilio Rodriguez, who held us scoreless in seven innings while giving up just 5 hits.

We couldn't get a hit off of three relievers either, and the Kodiaks fell 3-0 to drop the series opener.

[NYY #23]

It would be a wild Game 2 in Vancouver. We'd send rookie Cesar Delgado to the mound after a season in which he went 10-7 with a 2.47 ERA. We'd give Delgado a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Steven Borden and Lorenzo Moreno singled, and Jeffrey House drove in a run with a one out single.

That 1-0 lead would last until the top of the fifth when Delgado would lose the shutout and the lead when Mal Allen singled home a pair of runs to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead.

Delgado would leave the game in the sixth inning with a final line of 5 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts. He'd be relieved by Terry Brown who retired the final batters of the sixth, and the Kodiaks would tie the game in the bottom of the sixth when Lorenzo Moreno doubled, stole third, and came home to score the tieing run on a single by Jeffrey House.

Marshall Roberts would come on to pitch a scoreless seventh, and we'd get an RBI single from Antonio Tovar in the bottom of the seventh to take a 3-2 lead.

Jeff Gibbons would come on to pitch a scoreless eighth, and closer Keith Hahn would come on to try and preserve the 3-2 lead in the ninth. Hahn was 1-6 with 48 saves this year, and a 3.08 ERA. He couldn't do the job tonight though as he allowed the Mariners to tie things up in the ninth and the game would go extra innings.

Hahn would come on to pitch the tenth, and this time wouldn't allow a run. We'd get a huge relief appearance out of Carlos Martinez who would pitch four innings without allowing a run on two hits.

Unfortunately the Kodiaks could not score and we would send Carl Denton to the mound for the fifteenth inning. Denton would retire the side on seven pitches, and we'd head to the bottom of the fifteenth. Antonio Tovar would lead off the inning with a single, followed by a single by Flint Reed. A walk by Richard Williams would load the bases for the Kodiaks with nobody out. We'd watch as Carl Denton would strike out for the first out, but Lorenzo Moreno would come through with a walk off sacrifice fly as the Kodiaks won in fifteen innings 4-3.

The Kodiaks gave it all today, and tied up the series at a game apiece. I'm happy we have an off day tomorrow to allow our bullpen to recover.

[NYY #23]

Another day and another rookie starting pitcher making their debut. Today it was 25 year old Jesus Concepcion's turn to pitch after going 9-7 with a 3.04 ERA.

We gave Concepcion an early lead when Will Alvarez doubled and later scored on a fielder's choice by Jeffrey House. That one run would be all Concepcion would need today as he would turn in a dominant performance, pitching eighth shutout innings while allowing just 2 hits.

The Kodiaks wouldn't score another run, but Keith Hahn would pitch a hitless ninth to save the game as the Kodiaks take a 2-1 series lead.

[NYY #23]

If you were to tell me before the series we'd score two runs combined in games three and four I'd be worried. I wouldn't expect to have won both games, but after another 1-0 win the Kodiaks will go up 3 games to 1 in the Division Series.

Rob Whitfield would pick up the win today with 7 shutout innings, with three relievers closing out the game, including Keith Hahn who earned the second save of the series.

The Kodiaks only managed two hits in the game, but one was an RBI double by Fernao Dimas who drove in Jeffrey House, who reached on an error.

The Kodiaks will try to close out the series tomorrow with Cesar Delgado on the mound.

[NYY #23]

The Kodiaks would send Cesar Delgado to the mound to try and close out the series, and for the first two innings the game would remain scoreless.

That would change in the third when Delgado would single and Fernao Dimas would hit a two run homer to give us a 2-0 lead. In the fourth Flint Reed and Steven Borden would pick up back to back walks to lead off the inning, and a Will Alvarez single would load the bases. Lorenzo Moreno would then double in two runs to give us a 4-0 lead, then Cesar Delgado would hit into a double play, which scored our fifth run of the game. A Fernao Dimas single would make it 6-0.

The Kodiaks would again score four runs in the seventh on an RBI single by Antonio Tovar and Steven Borden hitting a three run homer.

Delgado would leave the game after seven innings, allowing just 3 hits while walking 2 and striking out 4 with the Kodiaks up 10-0. Marshall Roberts would pitch the final two innings, and ran into some trouble in the bottom of the ninth allowing two runs, but ended up getting out of the jam. The Kodiaks would be heading to the NLCS after the 10-2 win.

[NYY #23]

I've been doing this a long time, and every once in a while I think about wrapping this up. I took a look at my history today and found out that in 2012 I won championships with 6 teams, 2013 it was 10 teams, 2014 7 teams, and this year it's only been 3 teams. That's really a stretch too because I counted the Mariners for this year, even though it was just the World Series games.

I don't even know if it's possible, but I would love to wrap up the Kodiaks and one more team this year, leaving eight teams for next year. It would be nice to wrap up by next year. Now let's see if I can make that happen.

[NYY #23]

While I was excited that we got to play the Mariners in the first round, our next opponent makes me nervous. We'll be taking on my last team, the 108-54 Expos. There are a lot of familiar names on the roster, and some players like Carl Parker, Denie Abeele, Roberto Otero, and Dave Waters who I brought aboard and are now having success.

I'm not positive, but I think the Expos may have been the best team that I've ever built, as they've finished first nine straight years, won three World Series, and won over 100 games five years in a row. We'll have to get through them though before I can get out of Vancouver.

[NYY #23]

The NLCS started with a bang today with a 12 inning game, after starting out as a pitching duel between Rob Whitfield and Nick Seaton. Their pitching lines would look pretty similar:

Whitfield - 6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
Seaton - 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR

Bob Williams and Aurelio Sanchez would go deep for the Kodiaks, and we'd go into extra innings with a 3-3 tie after Marshall Roberts and Keith Hahn did their job out of the bullpen.

The game would remain tied until the bottom of the twelfth, when Jeff Gibbons would allow a three run homer to Juan Ordonez to give the Expos a 6-3 win.

[NYY #23]

The Kodiaks were trying to even up the series today, and we sent Cesar Delgado to the mound. Delgado would pitch well tonight, giving up his only run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly to Bertolameu Henrich.

Delgado would exit after five innings giving up just the 1 run on 6 hits while walking three and striking out 5. While he threw just 88 pitches Vancouver scored two runs in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Danny White and RBI triple by Flint Reed, and Delgado turned the ball over to the bullpen to preserve the lead.

Terry Brown was the first out of the pen and did his job with two scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. Jeff Gibbons came in next and pitched a hitless inning. Closer Keith Hahn came in to pitch the ninth and get the final three outs to even up the series.

Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be as Ramiro Ayala singled and Dave Waters hit a two run walk off home run to win the game 3-2 and go up in the series 2 games to none.

[NYY #23]

Down 2 games to none the Kodiaks needed a win, especially playing in front of the home crowd. The Kodiaks would take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Flint Reed, but the Expos quickly tied up the game in the top of the second on a home run by Francisco Esparza.

The Kodiaks would take a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third when Danny White picked up an RBI triple and Flint Reed his second RBI single of the game.

In the top of the sixth Jorge Flores would hit a solo home run for the Expos to cut our lead to 3-2, but the Kodiaks would add a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth on a double by Lorenzo Moreno and single by Jeffrey House.

Leading 5-2 Jesus Concepcion went back out for the seventh but allowed a single and walked three batters before leaving the game with one out. Marshall Roberts came on in relief, but allowed four hits and five runs scored as the Expos took a 7-5 lead. Concepcion's final line was 6 1/3 innings, 5 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 6 earned runs.

Things were suddenly looking bleak for the Expos. We did get one run back in the bottom of the seventh on back to back singles by Antonio Tovar and Steven Borden, and an RBI double by Will Alvarez. As luck would have it Steven Borden is one of our slowest base runners, but I think just about anybody else on the team would have scored to tie up the game.

It came down to the bottom of the ninth with the Expos leading 7-6, but Antonio Tovar hit the first pitch he saw out of the park to tie the game at 7. That would be all the offense we could muster though, and the game went into extra innings.

After the rough outing by Marshall Roberts we get two scoreless innings from Keith Hahn and two scoreless innings from Jeff Gibbons. Hahn was particularly impressive, striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced.

In the bottom of the twelfth with one out Jeffrey House would pick up a double, and he'd come home to score on an RBI single by Fernao Dimas as the Kodiaks walked off winners to win our first game of the series.

[NYY #23]

You would think with a closer that saved 48 games this year, but Keith Hahn has had a rough postseason blowing two saves, and Hahn picked up the loss today as we lost 6-5 to the Expos.

That ruined a decent start by Rob Whitfield, and a three run comeback in the bottom of the eighth. It was all for naught though as we went down 3 games to 1 to the Expos. It's been a close and exciting series so far, but we just can't seem to find a way to get the job done.

The Expos had the tieing run on second in the bottom of the ninth with one out after Antonio Tovar doubled, but we couldn't get him home. To me that just perfectly sums up this series so far. Close, but no cigar.

We'll go out and try and win game 5 tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic that we can beat the Expos. They're a better team than we are, but we showed signs of life, and while we have a gap to close I think we're getting close.

[NYY #23]

25 year old Cesar Delgado made the start today and would pitch a brilliant game today, going 7 innings while allowing 1 run and striking out 13. It's a hopeful glimpse into the rookie's future potential.

He left the game after the Kodiaks tied the game at 1 after a double by Lorenzo Moreno and RBI single by Alonso Navarro.

We'd have another game go into extra innings though, tied at 1. The game would end in the top of the thirteenth when Howard McDonald hit a solo home run against Dan Linder to take a 2-1 lead. We went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the thirteenth with all three batters striking out.

While we lost the game 2-1 and the series 4 games to 1 I view this season as a positive, and feel like we're heading in the right direction.

[NYY #23]

Congratulations to the Montreal Expos who won another Championship after beating the White Sox 4 games to 2.

On to our season wrap-up, where the Kodiaks got out first taste of the playoffs, winning our first series, and losing to the eventual World Champions.

Our owner rewarded our success with a bump in our budget. We'll head into the offseason looking for a new catcher to replace free agent to be Antonio Tovar. We'll also be looking for an upgrade at second base, and maybe for a new closer. I'm not sure I trust Keith Hahn after the postseason that he had. While our hitting coach Dustin Ackley is signed through 2045 I'm also considering a change if I can find an upgrade.

I'm also considering trying to move AC Bancroft, who is projected to make over $8 million in arbitration. After an 0.3 WAR season I'm not sure he's worth it.

Vancouver Kodiaks - 68-94 (.407) 39 GB
2041 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 62-100 (.383) 39 GB (Season Score - 1)
2042 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 73-89 (.451) 29 GB (Season Score - 29)
2043 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 85-77 (.525) 10 GB (Season Score - 59)
2044 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 88-75 (.540) - GB (Defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-1 in Division Series, Lost to Montreal Expos 4-1 in LCS, Season Score - 60)

[NYY #23]

We did two things today that I hope I don't regret. The first was trading AC Bancroft, and the second was trading him to a division rival, the Mariners. The trade saves us a little bit of money and brings back 32 year old centerfielder Tony Price. He was traded from the Braves to Mariners last year and hit .298 with 9 home runs, 49 RBI, and was worth 2.8 WAR. He's under contract through next year, and can play all three outfield positions.

[OmahaBaseball]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I hope I don't regret [...] trading him to a division rival

Trading with a divisional rival always makes things interesting. Hopefully it turns out well for you. Hate seeing a former player dominating the team.