Saturday, September 21, 2013

Postseason Preview!



It is that time of year.  Excitement is in the air.  The temperatures are dropping and teams are jockeying for playoff seeding.  With only a few games left to report, the playoff picture is coming into focus.

In the Tastes Great conference, the seeding is all but determined.  It appears that the Iron Pigs will return to the postseason as the #1 seed and the New Potatoes and Isotopes will duke it out in the first round.

The Iron Pigs need 2 wins in their final 9 games to clinch.  Midseason trades for Greinke and Halliday bolstered the regular season totals and helped the Iron Pigs to a league leading team ERA of around 3.25.  Offensively they are lead by Albert Pujols (119 rbi) and Billy Butler (100 rbi).

The New Potatoes rode their stellar offense to a TG East division championship in their inaugural NASBL season.  Led by an offense that recorded a stunning 70 triples, the New Potatoes led the league in most team offensive categories including runs, batting average, slugging and on base percentage.  They accomplished these lofty stats despite having a cavernous outfield that measures 520' to all fields.

The Isotopes used a balanced attack and solid pitching to grab the third playoff spot in the TG.  They rode a solid home winning percentage and an above .500 road winning percentage to roll to 96 wins.  Starter Richard led the pitching staff with a 16-2 record and and ERA 2.32.  Offensively the Isotopes showed amazing balance.  They had 10 players with at least 40 rbi and 9 guys with at least 40 runs scored. 

The Less Filling conference is much murkier.  At this point, the Haymakers and Spurs are separated by 1 game with 4 games left to report.  The winner gets the all important bye in the first round of the playoffs.  The runner up will play against the winner of the LF Central division which will be..... hmmm.  At this point, the Grizzlies lead the Fighting Souix by percentage points, but that race is too difficult to call at this point.

Good luck to all playoff teams!