The Sugar Factory Elephants are in the business of manufacturing luck, not sugar. Preseason predictions put them at 74-70 and out of the playoffs, as their pitching crew (including Ace Connor Kyle) suffered brutal injury after brutal injury everyone thought they'd start picking up the losses.
But an elephant is stubborn.
In one run games, the Elephants went 37-12. That's insane. They went 12-6 in extra inning games as well. These guys were experts at delivering the critical hit or pitch when it was needed.
You could look at the top of the lineup and see a bunch of guys that simply refuse to strike out but the true cause lies with Stopper Max Collins. His services were called upon 88 times over the 144 game season and he delivered. He picked up 13 wins as a reliever and accumulated 26 saves, with the key stat being that over 127.1 innings of work he didn't concede a single home run. You're going to see a lot of Max Collins over this five game series.
The 1-2 punch of Jaxon Darnall and Wesley Stebbins has been devastating all season. Combined, these two got three pitcher of the month awards and their stats make opposition batter's eyes water.
The star of the batting lineup is catcher Kian Lehn who is impossible to pitch to. He walks a ton and hardly ever strikes out. He's got the power to really punish you if need be as well. He's only 23, and earlier this year signed a massive $146k/8yr extension that'll keep him in Shark colours until 1928.
Also of note is fellow 23 year old CF Sid van Kranenburg who looks set to be a five-tool player. His matchup with Sugar Factory's Sean Newton should be a good one.
Our final note will be on two mid-season acquisitions. 1B Zeke Reynolds was struggling on the Crimson Forest Falcons but has flourished in the Sharks environment. His burst of power behind Lehn in the lineup provides some nice protection for the star youngster. A less successful acquisition came from the Elephants themselves: Johnny Ralph. His production fell off a cliff when he arrived at the Sharks. From an OPS+ of 131 to 58. He'll be hoping to turn it around right now against his former team.
There's a surplus of lefties on the Shark batting lineup and they absolutely feast on right handed pitchers. Throughout the season, they went 61-40 against RHP but looked a little more human against LHP with a 22-21 record.
So that's the teams. The Spice District bookies are offering these odds for who's going to win the series, anointing the Elephants as favourites (guess they've been burned enough times!)
(to clarify I'm using the New Zealand way of expressing odds which is the total return you get from betting $1. So, if you put $100 on the Elephants you'll get $160 back -- $100 being your original bet and $60 your winnings.)