Playoff Preview: Pess vs. Crawfish
1. Pessimistic Players (114-48)
8. Nebraska Crawfish (90-72)
Defectors old-guard members meet in the 2014 quarterfinals
Primer:
After a 6-game win streak in mid-August, Crawfish limped to a 5-10 finish, falling to 3rd place in the division (5 games back of Shape) but still easily secured the points wild card (edging next-closest Pelicans by 364.6 points). Their reward: the hottest thing the Defectors has seen since they last ventured outside some months back.
Pess went 30-2 in August, which we'll just go and assume is the best monthly record since ever. It was a month of streaking Frank the Tank would be proud of; an 18-gamer from July 30 to August 18 and, after catching their breath, a 14-gamer that ran from August 22 through the end of the season (Sep 2). Coupled with a Yahoo-stats-correction-aided overturned loss (5 IP ≠CGSHO? Who knew?), they were able to edge Otto for the #1 seed despite finishing the year 4th in points.
Keys to Victory:
As Victor Martinez goes, so go the Pessimistic Players. With 23 hits, 5 HR, 14 RBI and 121.2 points over the last 14 days, this SE Asian convenience store of mashing is the pillar of the Pess offense. He also, possibly as a tongue-in-cheek gesture, is only good enough to occupy the UTIL spot. Additionally fueling this offense is every last bit of smoke and mirrors Josh Harrison could buy up around the Greater Pittsburgh Area. On the pitching side, there's young Amish phenom Clayton Kershaw whose curveball and control are matched only by his barn-raising prowess. Tom Koehler and Jeff Samardzija (only took two attempts to spell correctly) have also been pitching well as of late.
There's no sugarcoating it: the Nebraska Crawfish will live and die with offense output. First in the league in Hits, XBH and Total Bases (and near the top in several other offensive categories), they will need a lot of balls clearing a lot of fences (insert your own joke, but no low-hanging fruit please) to make it to the Semifinals. As long as filming for Dude, Where's My Scooter? doesn't preclude Hunter Pence (101.5 points over last 14 days) from continuing to excel at every phase of the game, albeit in a clunky and arthritic old man fashion, the offense's beacon will remain intact. Ian Kinsler has re-acquired the Eye of the Jew intensity as of late and provides an excellent complementary piece for the offense. David Ortiz light Kenny Vargas has been hot lately but may just as soon remember he is a Twin and stop producing.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?:
For Crawfish, anything that has to do with a pitcher with a caret next to their opponent. Hiroki Kuroda is enjoying a rare strong finish to a season and Jarrod Cosart is finding a groove down in Miami's acid hallucination of an empty stadium. Other than that, pumpkins as far as the eye can see. Scrolling to the bottom of that roster is like quantum leaping to Halloween night. Wily vets who are capable of churning out clunkers like Garrity Motors, an injured Sean Doolittle and suicide closers from Milwaukee and the South Side. And with 3 extra position players, you run the risk of picking the wrong door on any given night.
The #1 seed runs the risk of the offense going cold around V-Mart, Sergio Romo not receiving any save chances in SF's new closer-by-committee setup (his only real chance at cashing in that category) and young pitchers either getting squeezed by September numbers games (see: Anderson, Chase and Nuno, Vidal in Arizona's new maybe-sort of 6-man rotation) and innings limits (perhaps Anderson again, also Kyle Hendricks).
Shakedown Street: Pess will score 625+ points and win the series by over 80 points.
