Championship Series 2008
Two days into the 2008 EHCC Championship Series. It’s a familiar time and place for the Las Vegas Doggs, in line to win yet another championship. The opposing Bridgewater Weasels are also familiar with success, consistently at the top of the regular season standings in the EHCC, but have yet to take that final step to immortality with a Championship Plaque. It is a shortcoming that continues to haunt them, having made it to the Championship three times and fallen short three times.
Regardless of past performance, this will be a great match, but one has to think the two time champions have the advantage. Not only does the team know how to finish a season, but the Doggs have been on a torrid pace for since really the twelfth week of the season, taking only one match loss since that time. Statistically, the Doggs also have an advantage, outpacing the Weasels in every SV, K, ERA, WHIP, HR, RBI, and SB for the season.
Speaking from experience however, the season line is not necessarily the best prognosticator of a team’s success, this became readily apparent as I guided the Arlington Warriors to their first championship last year, carried by a slew of players who stepped up when it counted. Success finds those with the hottest hand.
For Bridgewater players such as Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, Andre Ethier, and Jimmy Rollins on offense as well as John Lackey, Chris Carpenter, Jon Garland, and Jonathan Sanchez on the staff will need to assume such roles. These names played a big part of getting the Weasels this far. Other stars will have to out-produce their recent performances however. In last week’s match up with Rakeville, 1B Derrek Lee contributed a line of 2R, 0HR, 4RBI, 0SB and a .167AVG. He’s shown signs early in this series of fulfilling expectations and the Weasels hope he’s ready to go on a tear. For On the hill? Yet to pitch in this series, but a long-standing ace, Mike Mussina has had a rough week, tossing five innings but failing to provide a win and leaving with a 9.00 ERA, and 2.00 WHIP: not the stuff champions are made of.
In Las Vegas, we see such stars as David Wright, Albert Pujols, and Mark Buehrle rising to the occasion over the last week, but also more non-contributors. Where are Adam Dunn, Brad Hawpe, Oliver Perez, and Roy Halladay? They need to find the stuff that marked them as league stars before a third parade hits the streets of Las Vegas.
The Championship Round is the most nerve wracking experience for a team manager, drawing each to spend more than their already exhaustive time on their team. Every performance is analyzed, match ups are considered, and each change in lead excruciatingly painful or overwhelmingly joyous. The best advice I could offer on a successful week would be to watch the match ups, and consider those categories your team is most likely to win. Pick and choose those battles, weigh whether gains in cumulative stats are worth potential sacrifices in those important averages: batting average, but especially earned run average and walk/hits per inning pitch.
Best of luck to both Las Vegas and Bridgewater, this will be a great series to follow!
P.S. Can’t leave without a prediction: it’ll be Las Vegas by a 6-4 margin.
By Matt Skinner, GM Arlington Warriors
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