Yes, sports fans, the playoffs have begun.  Game one of the league championship series is in the books and the home teams won both games!  That puts Pittsburgh and Brooklyn up 1-0 in their respective series!

Weirdly enough, both games ended as 2-0 wins for the home teams.  Even weirder is that the lines for the winning teams were both 2 runs, 5 hits, and 1 error.  Anyone else getting an X-Files vibe, here?

All four starting pitchers performed admirably tonight.

Ro: 8.0 2 hits, 3BB 4K

Conn: 7.1IP 5 hits, 3BB 6K

Nix: 8.0IP 5 hits, 1BB 3K

Alonso: 7.1IP 4 hits, 5BB 3K

Yet two of these players lost games tonight.  Brutality.

A standout start to the playoffs and one that should show a tense and interesting playoffs!

The league file is on the way up.  Give it about 20 minutes and you should be fine.  Next sim is Saturday by Mack with Game Two and the off day!  Don’t miss a minute of the action!

So, the 2007 playoffs begin. Here are the matchups.

Platonic League

Pittsburgh Pisces vs. Miami Masters of Their Domain

Pittsburgh boasts a league-best 107-55 record, a result of the best offense in OEL history. The Pisces crossed home plate 1,098 times this season and have a team OPS of .856. All eight regular starters had VORPs over 40.0 (something accomplished by only 13 other hitters in the OEL). Rookie Albert Jimenez led the team with a 1.002 OPS. Pittsburgh also had a strong pitching staff, putting together an ERA of 4.08, tops in the Platonic League. The Pisces are expected to go with a three-man rotation of Richard Ro, Gaby Duran, and Tsukijirou Tashiro, who combined for a 59-20 record this season. The back end of the bullpen is a bit of a weakness as the Pisces lost star closer Vincent Furness for the season back in April and have gotten inconsistent results from Douglas Isabell and Donald McIntyre as replacements. The defense is also a question mark as long-time Gold Glove centerfielder Oscar Woodworth has lost a step or three and is even more lost in rightfield and the Pisces field the first ever left-handed second baseman in major league baseball history in Jimenez. If the Pisces are able to repeat, it will be the offense that carries them.

Miami finished the season 89-73, the weakest record of the four playoff teams. But, their 94-68 Pythagorean mark is the second best in the league, as the Masters experienced some plain old bad luck this season. The Masters are also an offense-first squad as their mighty attack scored 979 runs this season. They have the Platonic League’s top home run hitter (Ben Towell, with 42) and best overall hitter in Richard Vuong (.361 batting average, 1.055 OPS, 89.8 VORP). The offensive attack is well-balanced, with eight hitters reaching double figures in home runs and six recording double figures in steals. The pitching staff put together a 4.52 ERA, with the bullpen posting a slightly better ERA than the starting rotation. Cruz Alonso led the starters with a 4.03 ERA while Robert Mullen recorded 16 wins. Miami was able to use the same five starters pretty much all year, and all five won at least 10 games and had a winning record. John Hering appears to have replaced William Carner as the closer.

Looks like we should all be prepared for offensive fireworks in the Platonic League.

Socratic League

Brooklyn Bombers v. New York Knights

Brooklyn won the division with a 99-63 record, the third division title in team history. The Bombers were paced by their stellar pitching. The team posted a 3.34 ERA, but the starters were even better, combining for a 2.97 ERA as a group. The star, of course, is Tyler Conn who went 18-9 with a 1.46 ERA. He won the pitching triple crown in the Socratic League and should be taking home his fourth consecutive Cy Young award. Other starters were also great as the team threw 19 shutouts. Nathan Funk finished second in the OEL in ERA with a 2.67 and Freddie Mendes is fifth at 3.23. The closer is Steve Corner, who led the OEL with 48 saves and also had a 7-7 record. Is his 4.17 ERA a cause for concern though? The Bombers on offense did not live up to their name, scoring a league-low 691 runs. Their best hitter was rookie first baseman Gary Moeller, who has 25 home runs and a .908 ERA. The other major offensive presense was David White, picked up from Cairo mid-season. Only five regular starters posted positive VORPs though, as the Bombers sacrificed offense for defense. They made only 86 errors all year, 17 fewer than the next closest team.

The New York Knights finished with a 95-67 record, winning the last playoff berth with a 21-7 September. The Knights offense had the top OPS in the Socratic League at .781 and finished with the second-most runs scored, 862. Their attack was very balanced as they used a lot of platoons and had nine hitters post VORPs of 8.8 or more. The best hitter this year for New York was centerfielder Carlos Araoz, who led the team with a .929 OPS, 32 home runs, 108 RBI, and 98 runs scored. Rookie third baseman Erwin Herrero was third in the league in batting with a .333 mark. The Knights had a 4.30 ERA, but their bullpen was even better than Brooklyn’s, with a league-best 4.11 ERA. Starters Abe Nix and Charles Hults came through with ERAs under 4.00 while Daniel Nicholes led the team with 16 wins. Closer Paul Rollison had 43 saves and 9 wins to go with his 3.18 ERA.

So, that being said, let the talking of smack commence in the comments.

The final day has come and gone. The playoff teams, already knowing their position, have made their choices to set up game one. Who wins and who loses? We’ll find out shortly.

The only real tension in this sim was broken as Brooklyn lost to Gainesville 8-3 and therefore is denied the 100 win plateau towards which they’d been seeking. Tough, but scores on the field don’t lie!

No injuries to the playoff teams, thankfully.

I have NOT simmed the off day as the game requires all playoff teams to be at 25 players on their roster before moving past the regular season. Go get that done, gentlemen, and I’ll sim the off day and game one on Wednesday.

I’ll have game one of the playoffs on Wednesday. The file is on it’s way up. Give it about 20 minutes and go download it.

Since the playoff berths were decided going into this sim, I thought about going ahead of the holiday schedule I posted and just finishing the regular season, but decided against it because I didn’t think enough in advance to ask anyone. So, we’ve stopped on the last day of the regular season, with just the final regular season game to be played. We did all get new scouting reports, so hurray for that.

Brooklyn clinched the Socratic League division title and has a chance to win 100 games if the Bombers win the regular season finale. The draft order is all but decided, but Seattle has just one more win than Jersey City so those two teams could still end up tied. Dan Rushing and Ben Towell are still tied for the home run title with 42. Weekly and monthly awards were handed out. It looks like some minor league coaches were signed.

One injury to the playoff teams, as Brooklyn lost Ronald Gibby for 3-4 weeks to a pinched nerve in his neck. Tough to lose the team’s starting centerfielder, at least against RHPs, for the playoffs. There were a few other two-week injuries to players on non-playoff clubs, but that’s not very exciting.

League file is posted. Nate’s got a sim on Monday to take us up to Game One of the League Championship Series.

P.S. Jeremy was right. It should be a race between Moeller and Garnett for the SL Rookie of the Year. Sorry I overlooked him.

Well, the drama is over as all four playoff berths have been clinched. New York rode a 4-1 sim to a six-game lead over Jersey City and Seattle (currently tied for third). With only five games to go, that means it’s all over. New York could conceivably tie Brooklyn for the division title, as the Knights trail the Bombers by exactly five games, but they will be the two teams to face off in the Socratic League Championship Series. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh and Miami remain on a collision course in the Platonic League.

On the other hand, the race for the #1 draft pick next year has heated up. Cairo “leads” Maryland by only one game and currently holds the coveted slot of worst record in the OEL. Ramapough Mountain, Stockholm, Marietta, and Gainesville are all but locked into the third through sixth spots, respectively, and will have their first round picks next year protected from free agency compensation.

I don’t know who the pitcher of the month for September will be, but I know I would give it to Geronimo “Stitch” Rodriguez of Maryland. He threw his second shutout this month against my Pisces in this most recent sim, single-handedly giving the Pisces two of their three losses in September.

It looks to me as though many of the major awards are clear. Tyler “Ex” Conn leads the Socratic League with 18 wins, 274 strikeouts, and a laughable 1.47 ERA. I’m pretty sure he’s taking home his umpteenth Cy Young in a row. In the Platonic League, Pittsburgh’s Tsukijirou “T-Rex” Tashiro won his 23rd game of the year and has a league-high 230 punchouts and the second-best ERA in the PL. He seems like a shoo-in too. I also expect Pittsburgh’s Alberto “Nitro” Jimenez and Seattle’s “Frankie “The Little Ticket” Garnett each to win rookie of the year in their respective leagues.

But, the Ted Williams Awards (best hitter) are far from clear. In the PL, Miami’s Richard “Wedge” Vuong leads the OEL with a .360 average, a 1.056 OPS and 88.0 VORP. He’s also tied for third in home runs with 35 and fourth in RBI with 127. I’d probably vote for him over Pittsburgh’s duo of Danilo “Spike” Henriquez (.960 OPS, 36 home runs, 153 RBI) and Jimenez (1.011 OPS, 30 HR, 143 RBI). In the SL, it looks like a dogfight between Gainesville’s Dan Rushing and Seattle’s Myles “Stretch” Horne. Rushing has a .339 average to lead the SL, but Horne is at .338. Rushing’s ahead on VORP 1.058 to 1.030, but Horne’s on top in VORP 88.4 to 87.2. It may come down to the fact that Rushing, with 40 bombs, is tied with Miami’s Ben Sugar Towell for the OEL lead and Horne’s strength, a .474 OBP, doesn’t usually figure into MVP voting.

As previously announced, the last days of the regular season will be simmed Saturday (likely morning) and Monday, with the playoffs starting Wednesday. League file is posted and web reports will also be updated tonight.

This was a relatively unfocused report, but that’s what you get when there are three kids bouncing off the walls around me. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and a happy holiday season to everyone else.

Here’s the schedule for the sims over the next few weeks.

12/23 (W) – Mack to sim to 9/26
12/26 (Sa) – Mack to sim to 10/1
12/28 (M) – Nate to sim rest of regular season and off day(s) before playoffs
12/30 (W) – Nate to sim Game 1 of division series
1/2 (Sa) – Mack to sim Game 2 of division series
1/4 (M) – Mack to sim Game 3 of division series

Then, continuing on 1/5 (Tues.), we’ll have a sim every weekday until the playoffs are complete. Nate and I will probably alternate, unless I’m still alive in the playoffs and the team I’m playing asks for Nate to run all the sims. As always, that’s fine with us if that’s what my opponent prefers. I’ve checked with Matt though and he’s ok with alternating sims for the first round. Since it’s a coin toss in the playoffs, there’s a 50% chance he’ll win and the issue will end there. (grin)

So enough with the injuries already.  Marietta lost a pitcher for 13 months and an outfielder for the remainder of the season.  You think, being in last, they’d be taking it easy or something!

In the standings it’s pretty much locked in at this point.  Pittsburgh and Miami in the PL and Brooklyn and New York in the SL as New York has extended their lead in the wild card to four games with ten to play.  It could happen but it grows increasingly less likely each day.

So it’s time for the playoff teams to start gaming the system and trying to set themselves up for the first round.  We’ll find out in less than a week, friends!

The file is on the way up.  Give it about 20 minutes and you can see for yourselves!  Mack has the next sim on Wednesday and then again on Saturday as I’ll by on travel.  Good luck to you all and I’ll see you on the other side.

In the Platonic League, blah blah, blah. That division is boring.

In the Socratic League, Brooklyn has a seven-game lead with 14 games to play. Pretty safe. In the race for the wild card spot, New York grabbed a two-game edge on Jersey City and a three-game edge on Seattle. The Knights dropped two to Brooklyn, but swept a two-game series with Seattle and won the first game of a three-game set with Jersey City. The Skeeters and the Pilots both struggled through 1-4 sims this round. Seattle’s offense went cold and Jersey City lost four close games in a row to end the sim.

No injuries with major effects on playoff races. The only significant transaction was Seattle locking Logan Scalise up to a one-year, $3.8 million extension.

Nate’s got the next sim on Monday, which will take us to September 21. I’ll take us to September 26 on Wednesday. League file is posted. I’ll get the web pages updated tonight too.

Again, no time for a recap. Give it about 20 minutes and the file will be up.

No real recap tonight, but I did notice that New York has closed within two of Jersey City for the Socratic wild card.

League file is posted. Nate’s got the next sim on Wednesday.