With last night marking the final games of the succesful regular season, all playoff matchups are now set and we're just shy of a week from their kickoff! The byes had already been set with the incredible Cards taking the top spot, awaiting the lowest advancing seed in round two, while the tough guy Twins sit in second position. That means the powerful Phillies will host the bad luck Buccos, while the resiliant Rays secured homefield against the gutsy Giants last night.
With perennial MVP candidate Tal Grossman, the legendary Lipson and last year's playoff superhero Alan Akselrod, the Phillies will be a tough out for the injury riddled Pirates, who managed to get 3 pitchers to the 15 inning mark last Sunday to support star shortstop/pitcher Darrin Pruss and the broken thumb of captain Nick Moore. There's lots of questions to be answered here: Can Waylen and the Pirates get/stay healthy? Will Akselrod's winning ways rub off on Lipson? Will Seidel step away from third and take the mound? How many times will Tal get hit? Will Moore get his first playoff win? We'll soon find out!
Opening their series on diamond 7 Thursday, we'll no doubt see the Rays give the brilliant Chris Bascom the ball, while the Giants ought to counter with comeback player and Pitcher of the Year candidate James Allison. An evenly matched series, the defense should play big with both teams boasting Old Glove talents in the likes of Darryl Burton, Jimmy Anderson Jr., Jacob Klotz, Jordan Webb, Michael Zimmerman, and the aforementioned Allison. That said both teams can really swing it with talented two way players in Brock Wilimek and Jason Booth. Even the rookies ought to offer up some excitement with Rye, Gaston and Nguyen all playing important roles.
We fully expect these series to be exciting and hard fought, and hope you'll make it out to catch some of the action.Good luck to all and thank you for such a fun season!
