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| Preview: Round Two | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 are home games for the higher-seeded team in this best-of-7 series. Injuries are turned off for the playoffs, meaning injuries are only for that day's game. Starters are on a four-man skip rotation, meaning the fourth starter will be bumped if the first starter is ready to go on three days' rest. Since there are off days after games 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7, it's possible (but unlikely) that a team's ace could start three games in the series. Benched starters can be moved to the bullpen. Arkansas (#1) vs. Wanaque (#5)
In fact, facing Wanaque only gives Golden Falcon fans even more reason to expect a trip their eighth World Series. The Cutters took 5 out of 12 from the Golden Falcons this season -- which actually is tied for second-best against them. (Only the Newark Sugar Bears, who went 6-6 against the Golden Falcons, didn't have a losing record!) But Arkansas went 10-3 against the Wolverines, winning six of their last seven match-ups. One of Wanaque's strengths is their ability to mash left-handed pitching (23-16, fourth-best in the league), but they had a losing record against righty starters -- which is what they'll face against the Falcons. The mighty Pedro Martinez was just as tough against the Wolverines as he was against the rest of the league, going 1-0 with a 2.07 ERA and 15 K in two starts, and veteran Curt Schilling also pitched well against the Wolverines (2-0, 3.42 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 30 K over three starts). But who will be the third man? Although each won both his starts against them, neither Kevin Brown (4.50 ERA, 1.25 WHIP) nor Roger Clemens (7.71 ERA, 1.80 WHIP) pitched particularly well against Wanaque. A better choice might be youngster Brad Penny, 3-1 with a 2.17 ERA in four starts. Which Matt Morris will the Wolverines send to the hill in game one? Wanaque fans hope it's the one who dominated the Falcons on April 25, giving up 7 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 9 Ks in 7.2 IP in a 4-3 win, instead of the one who was bombed for 9 hits and 7 earned runs in 5 IP on Aug. 2. Even if the real Matt Morris shows up, the Wolverines may want to re-think Robert Person and Bartolo Colon as their second and third starters. Person was slapped around for 12 hits, 12 earned runs and 7 walks in 10 IP to drop both his regular-season starts against Arkansas, while Colon posted a 0-2 record in three starts, giving up 16 hits, 11 walks and 14 earned runs over 11 IP. Mike Hampton (0-2, 6.75 ERA) and Jeff Weaver (1-1, 4.57 ERA) have slightly better numbers, and both -- like Morris -- were much better in their first starts against Arkansas. Hampton gave up 4 hits, 2 walks and 1 earned run over 6 innings, only to see the bullpen turn his 3-2 lead into a 4-3 loss; Weaver scattered 8 hits, 3 walks and 1 run in a complete-game 5-1 win on March 26. There's some hope if Wanaque can get the game to the bullpen; closer Kazuhiro Sasaki (1-1, 1 SV, 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 ER) and stopper Antonio Alfonseca (1-0, 8.1 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 1 ER) were sharp against the Falcons this season. If there's one Wolverine that Arkansas pitchers fear, it's... Jeff Cirillo? His overall '02 numbers were merely adequate (.277, .720 OPS, 32 2B, 86 R, 75 RBI), but he pasted Falcon pitchers at a team-best .415 clip, with 3 doubles, a triple and two home runs... The series will get interesting if Alex Rodriguez (.299, .983 OPS, 55 HR, 128 RBI), Carlos Delgado (.240, .813 OPS, 39 HR, 96 RBI) and Mike Cameron (.293, .933 OPS, 9 HR, 45 R in 205 AB) get hot; the three have combined to hit .194 (21-for-108) with 5 HR and 13 RBI against Arkansas pitching this year. More often than not, Barry Bonds and Lance Berkman reached first base when they faced Wanaque pitching, each posting OBP's above 52 percent. Berkman drew 14 walks and also smacked a team-leading 5 HRs, for a .395 batting average and 1.366 OPS. Bonds drew 19 walks (the top three Wolverines combined drew 18 walks), tied with Berkman for the team lead with 12 runs scored, and drilled 4 doubles and 4 homers for a 1.225 OPS. Juan Gonzalez (.345, .961 OPS) and Phil Nevin (.309, .927 OPS) also were impressive. The Golden Falcons hit .280 with an .828 OPS against Wanaque, made all the more impressive by Larry Walker's struggles (.157, .428 OPS, 0 extra-base hits).
Newark (#2) vs. Vancouver (#3)
This time, Vancouver will hope to follow in those footsteps and play the role of spoilers themselves. It will be the third time the Iron Fist and Sugar Bears have locked up in the post-season; the Sugar Bears, of course, defeated Vancouver in the '97 and '01 World Series. But in 1999, the only time they met before the big dance, Vancouver -- then, as now, the #3 seed -- knocked off #2 Newark, 4 games to 2. Newark is hosting four of the seven games, and that could prove critical: Although Vancouver is the league's third-best road team, they went just 1-5 in the Cereal Bowl this year. (Newark went 2-4 in Vancouver and the Sugar Bears won the regular season series, 7-5.) Vancouver will look to steal one of the first two games of the series to erase Newark's homefield advantage and have a shot at wrapping up the series inside the Iron Dome. The Iron Fist will likely turn to staff ace Greg Maddux to set the tone in Game 1. Whether it was due to a quirk of the schedule or a deliberate attempt to hide him until the playoffs, Maddux had just one start against the Sugar Bears this year, giving up 7 hits, no walks and fanning 8 in 7.1 IP for a 3-2 win on May 16... Against Tijuana, Vancouver slotted Al Leiter as the No. 2 starter. He had one decent outing (6 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K) and one brutal one (4.1 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 0 K), going 1-1 with a 6.10 ERA. The third hurler in the first round, Joe Mays, was mediocre in his only start against them as an Iron Fist, picking up a loss after giving up 5 hits and 3 runs in 6 innings. He didn't fare much better while he was with the Bean Counters, going 0-3 with an 8.52 ERA in four starts... If the Iron Fist brain trust decides to go a different route in Round 2, they may turn to rookie Brandon Lyon, who put together two brilliant starts and one mediocre one to go 2-0 with a 1.96 ERA. He did yield 10 walks in his three starts, however. Brian Lawrence had two feast-or-famine starts against the Sugar Bears, but with surprising results: He won the start in which he gave up 12 hits and 6 earned runs in 6 innings, but lost the one where he yielded 6 hits and 3 runs over 7. It averages out to 1-1 with a 6.23 ERA. Brad Radke was a long shot to make the post-season roster, but you can cross him off completely after looking at his regular season numbers against Newark: 0-2, 6.75 ERA in three starts... If the Iron Fist can get the game to the closer, they're in good hands with Billy Wagner, who didn't yield a run against the Sugar Bears in 4.1 IP. Newark's starters were inconsistent against the Iron Fist. Ace Randy Johnson posted a 1.80 ERA and fanned 32 in 20 IP, but for all that went 1-2 in his three starts against them. All the run support went to John Burkett (2-1, 4.15 ERA) and John Thomson (2-0, 5.40 ERA). Somehow, Eric Milton managed to go the whole season without facing them, as did spot starters Ismael Valdes and Pedro Astacio. Newark's fifth starter, the late Darryl Kile, was 0-1 with a 9.72 ERA in two starts, but he was laid to rest in the final week of the season. The Iron Fist need Sammy Sosa to get hot in a hurry. He hit just .209 (9-43) with 3 HR for a .775 OPS during the regular season. In fact, Slamming Sammy did almost all his damage in just one game -- an 11-2 shellacking of the Sugar Bears on April 23. In that game, Sosa went 4-4 with 4 R, 7 RBI, a double and 2 HRs. Outside of that outburst, he hit just .128 with 1 HR, a .482 OPS. Moises Alou and Shawn Wooten had just two games against the Sugar Bears after they joined the Iron Fist in a May 22 trade, but are familiar with them from their days in Stanhope: Alou hit .250 (6-24) with 1 R and 2 RBI in six games, while Wooten hit .454 (10-22) with 3 R and 4 RBI. Newark led the league in offense, scoring 995 runs and leading the league in every offensive category except triples (they were third) and stolen bases (fifth), hitting .285 with a .874 OPS as a team. They lit up Vancouver pitching along with everyone else, with 32 doubles, 26 home runs and an .885 OPS -- not only better numbers than Arkansas put up against Wanaque pitching, but better numbers than any team against any other in the first or second round. The charge was led by the team's offensive core of Manny Ramirez (.408, 1.442 OPS, 6 2B, 7 HR, 14 RBI), Chipper Jones (.320, .973 OPS, 3 HR, 9 RBI) and Bobby Abreu (.297, 1.063 OPS, 4 HR, 6 RBI). The team will get an even bigger boost if Jim Thome (.182, 17 K) and Jeremy Giambi (.154, 3 RBI) wake up.
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The Wolverines became this year's Cinderella story
after they shocked the fourth-seeded Hoboken
Cutters in a three-game sweep. But they'll turn
the baseball world on its head if they can pull off
one of the greatest upsets in league history by taking
down the heavily favored Golden Falcons, who are
coming off a record-setting 120-win season, have a
league-best +332 run differential and have played in
three of the last four World Series.
The last time Newark won the World Series, in 1997,
they followed it up with an even better '98 campaign,
setting a team record with 109 wins. They entered the
post-season as the #2 seed but were unceremoniously
dumped from the playoffs by the third-seeded Golden
Falcons -- who went on to win the World's Championship
over the heavily favored Iron Fist.