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luv2bunt
Play-off Preview
August 24, 2003 at 05:22PM View BBCode
With only forty-two games left to play its obvious that the Detroit Tigres & Milwaukee Meatheads are the class of the Billy Hamilton League with the Baltimore Charms & Pittsburgh Black Cats only a step behind. As owner & Mgr of the Spiders I have played against or dealt with all four of these outstanding teams. In the Al, the race would be even tighter had Boston & New York not suffered key injuries that helped drop them off the pace. I believe the Tigers have just too many weapons for the rest of us to deny them the Crown.In Jesse ( The Black Diamond) Crawford and Sheldon Moraga they have what must be considered the most formidable one-two punch in Baseball. Their pitching staff is well balanced with Delgado, 14-8, McGarr, 14-5, And the steady Ray Corridon at 14-6. Their 4 & 5 slots are rounded out by Bracenridge, 8-2, & Luther Chance, 7-4. In the pen for Detroit Holden, Caminitz, and Kennedy & Arnold are all outstanding with Datz having 19 saves, but both Datz & Arnold have era's over 7.0 which can't make the Mgr happy. They are a team that can score runs in clusters as my own young squad found out when we recently lost a game to them by the score of 13-12 . They are pretty much a veteran club with several players in thier thirties and late twenties.I do believe that they must win it all this season or next as the age of some of their talent will start to come into play after that. The Milwaukee club, which we have never played is led by a former Spiders star, Al Smith, who may be the best all-around outfielder in the league. His combination of speed and power and the ability to score runs as well as drive them in make him tough. Aaron, Grich, and Boyland,are all great talents,while not perhaps statisically on a par with Crawford and Moraga, still a great offensive threat with more youth in their make-up as has the majority of the Meatheads squad. It is also impressive to this writer that several of the players we have dealt to the Meats such as Al Rosen, Rocky Nelson, and Larry Doby, whom I know all have great ability, along with teen prospect Oswaldo Conlan are not strong enough to crack the day to day line-up of the Meats. As for their mound corps, that is really the strength of the team. The great Warren Spahn 15-4, Lew Burdette at 15-6, Slaton at 13-5 are maybe the best mound threesome in the Billy Hamilton League. Caldwell, 6-4, and Betzel, 4-9, are younger men , enormously talented but suseptible to mistakes.The real strength of the M Heads is in their pen where See, Garber, Gardner, Plesac and the great Rollie Fingers have a combined ERA of 3.27 and if you leave out Garbers 7.63 it is roughly an amazing 1.75 which in this year of the hitter with the sky high era's is phenominal. Fingers has 32 saves. So as you can see the weapons at the hands of these two squads are awesome. I think that both the Tigres & Meats will make it to the series although the Tigres could face the toughest challenge from a very talented but erratic Baltimore team. When and if these two teams meet this reporter looks for a great series but I predict it will go only six games with Milwaukee winning. We shall see. But either way it will be a great match-up.:D
hbomb42
I'm confident that we can finish the year in the top spot, but with lineups like Baltimore and Boston to contend with in the playoffs, there are no gaurantees.
I think we've got a great shot at the World Series, but even then good pitching beats good hitting. Milwaulkee in six sounds right no matter who they play.
Our game plan is basically double you to death, and keep our starters in for as long as possible. The back end of our bullpen is a major achilles heal, and we've blown more than a few saves this year. But with a team bat avg. of.321, and a team ERA of 4.37 we have what I would consider a punchers chance of KO'ing our opponents.
Speaking of bullpen help, if anyone has anything they would like to offer, I'm listening.;)
Detroit's chances
August 24, 2003 at 07:49PM View BBCode
The way I see it luv2bunt is pretty much correct. We've had a great streak of 13 games. But that streak is what it has taken to put even the smallest distance between us and Baltimore and Boston, not to mention that we have for the first time the best record in baseball, but only by one game.I'm confident that we can finish the year in the top spot, but with lineups like Baltimore and Boston to contend with in the playoffs, there are no gaurantees.
I think we've got a great shot at the World Series, but even then good pitching beats good hitting. Milwaulkee in six sounds right no matter who they play.
Our game plan is basically double you to death, and keep our starters in for as long as possible. The back end of our bullpen is a major achilles heal, and we've blown more than a few saves this year. But with a team bat avg. of.321, and a team ERA of 4.37 we have what I would consider a punchers chance of KO'ing our opponents.
Speaking of bullpen help, if anyone has anything they would like to offer, I'm listening.;)
Meathead44
C'mon....
August 27, 2003 at 09:38PM View BBCode
I appreciate the accolades, but Detroit is clearly the class of the league. My pitching makes me competitive for every game but I'm struggling to keep myself in the playoff. Detroit has that great balance of offense and defense. I'd pick them in 5 against anyone from the NL.
Meathead44
September 03, 2003 at 04:55PM View BBCode
The pitching staff has shown some severe problems lately. Gonna be a tough finish.
FuriousGiorge
September 08, 2003 at 09:36PM View BBCode
In the only pennant race that's still alive, our magic number is now 1. We have a tough 3-game set against Detroit coming up, which will be tougher since our offense has for the most part stopped scoring. For those on the injury watch, our superstar catcher Joe Donahue will miss the entire ALCS, giving us an even tougher hill to climb assuming we can hold off the Haymakers over the last week of the season.
hbomb42
Let's hope that the boys were just resting for the big series tomorrow, and that my recent bullpen shifting will make a big difference.:(
Let's go Tigres!:D
Detriot in mini slump headed into playoffs
September 10, 2003 at 05:44PM View BBCode
My guys team batting average has dropped 5 points over the past week, and my big hitters haven't done jack lately. Not to mention that we just dropped 2/3 to the same Baltimore club we will playing in the first series.Let's hope that the boys were just resting for the big series tomorrow, and that my recent bullpen shifting will make a big difference.:(
Let's go Tigres!:D
FuriousGiorge
September 11, 2003 at 01:31AM View BBCode
We're ready to go, Detroit, even without Big Joe Donahue. We'll wheel his carcass into the dugout to wear rally caps and give out hotfoots.Pages: 1