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Imperialism32 · 06-03-2020, 09:34 PM

September 20, 1960

Playoff Preview

It's the most... wonderful time... of the year! Yes, baseball fans, it's playoff time. Time for the remaining 16 teams to play down to one champion, the first ever true World Champion. The playoffs are formatted so that each of the four major leagues produces one winner that will represent their league and their continent in the World Series. The first-place team in each division plays the second-place team in their division, with the winners meeting in the league championship. The four league champions are then seeded based on their regular-season record. All series throughout the playoffs are best-of-7, played in a 2-3-2 format. The World Series is played at a semi-neutral site: A major-league city in the region of the team with the best record of the four teams is chosen as host.

Konami Cup

These teams are relatively evenly matched. Nobody in the AL won 80 or more games, and there's only an 8-game gap between the top team (Mumbai) and the bottom team (Shanghai). The Vipers are led, of course, by Taki Arakawa, who was profiled by Relay in the May issue. He wound up finishing second in the AL in both ERA and WAR. The Vipers are built on their pitching, but so is their first round opponent in Melbourne. The Mudfish lack the singular star like Arakawa, but they allowed the second-fewest runs in the AL South. Their series will come down to which offense is able to make enough noise going against a very solid starting rotation.

On the other side, the Yokohama Lynx are all about offense. Mathew Alkire leads the way but it's a difficult lineup to face because so many players can beat you. Shanghai has a quality offense too, but Yokohama outscored them by more than 100 runs this season. It's going to take a Herculean effort by the Pandas pitching to overcome the Lynx attack.

Serie del Caribe

The star power here belongs to the Caracas Rangers with Santiago Vecchio on the mound and Salvador Acquiel atop the lineup. They cruised to their division win, leading nearly wire to wire. Contesting them are the Panama City Seabees, who overcame a tumultuous season that was on the brink of falling apart with multiple teammates speaking out about star SS Sebastian Cajar. But winning cures all, and there haven't been any leaks since the Seabees turned things around. Cajar wound up hitting .348, and youngster Hefesto Navas was a very nice surprise at age 21.

In the North Division, Kingston enters as the favorite. The Palms backed their way into the playoffs, finishing 4-6 down the stretch as San Juan and Camaguey failed to do any better to pass them by. Maximo Loaiza, the hero of the World Baseball Championship back in March, turned in a very good season for a Kingston team that mainly flew under the radar in terms of international attention this year. But there's a reason they won 79 games, and Loaiza has the opportunity to shine again.

European Cup

Let's be honest: this is going to be the Kiev Comets Show. Either they're going to continue winning and set an extremely high standard, or they're going to get tripped up in a short series and go down as the best team to not win a championship. Okay, this is the first year, but still, that would endure for a long time. They were the talk of baseball all season, placing both Gianfranco Cochetti and Henry Jones on the cover of Relay. They crush the ball, and their starting rotation gives no quarter. The only "weakness" is their bullpen, which posted a fine-but-not-spectacular 3.98 ERA. But the starters work so deep into games that it minimizes their exposure. Their only weakness was that their #5 starter wasn't terribly good, but he's going to work from the bullpen as they move to a four-man rotation.

If the Comets don't advance, Lenny Sloan is the likely culprit. The Paris Pride ace starter won the EPL strikeout crown, edging Kiev's Jones (though Jones narrowly beat him on ERA). Sloan has been fantastic all season, including two wins in two starts against Kiev. Offensively, Lucas Dawson is the trigger man, getting things started. Led by Dawson, the Pride also play top-notch defense at nearly every position. The possibility of a Paris vs. Kiev matchup for the European Cup is tantalizing.

Fall Classic

By WAR, the best hitter in baseball this season was Toronto's Jacob Yoachum (and it wasn't particularly close). That you haven't seen his name in many updates reflects the kind of boring consistency he showed this season. He didn't especially hot at any point, he just knocked the cover off the ball all season long. Toronto went as he did, winding up with the second-best record in the sport behind Kiev. With a pitching staff headed by C.J. Gorski and Bryant Achilles, the Giants are a well-rounded crew. And as if they weren't strong enough, they dug into their minors for DH Raj Brown, a 19 year-old wunderkind. They're the favorite over the Boston Bombers, but you can't discount a team with Jay Givens, who of course was on the very first Relay cover. He tallied 6.1 WAR for Boston.

Vancouver and Kansas City are as evenly-matched as can possibly be. They were neck and neck all season, eventually settling the division in a Game 133 that, of course, didn't matter for either team as their playoff spot was assured. Kansas City is led by Josh Dillow, about whom you can read more of in August's issue of Relay. He'll have to try and solve one of the most interesting players in the entire world, Vancouver's knuckleballing ace Matthew Clock. He missed a few weeks early in the season with a bad elbow but was nearly unhittable over the summer. His ERA in June, July, and August was under 2.65 each month. Kansas City has the stronger resume (they boast the NAL's best run differential, even above Toronto) but anything can happen in a short series.

06-03-2020, 09:34 PM	#61
Imperialism32 Major Leagues Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 341	September 20, 1960 Playoff Preview It's the most... wonderful time... of the year! Yes, baseball fans, it's playoff time. Time for the remaining 16 teams to play down to one champion, the first ever true World Champion. The playoffs are formatted so that each of the four major leagues produces one winner that will represent their league and their continent in the World Series. The first-place team in each division plays the second-place team in their division, with the winners meeting in the league championship. The four league champions are then seeded based on their regular-season record. All series throughout the playoffs are best-of-7, played in a 2-3-2 format. The World Series is played at a semi-neutral site: A major-league city in the region of the team with the best record of the four teams is chosen as host. Konami Cup These teams are relatively evenly matched. Nobody in the AL won 80 or more games, and there's only an 8-game gap between the top team (Mumbai) and the bottom team (Shanghai). The Vipers are led, of course, by Taki Arakawa, who was profiled by Relay in the May issue. He wound up finishing second in the AL in both ERA and WAR. The Vipers are built on their pitching, but so is their first round opponent in Melbourne. The Mudfish lack the singular star like Arakawa, but they allowed the second-fewest runs in the AL South. Their series will come down to which offense is able to make enough noise going against a very solid starting rotation. On the other side, the Yokohama Lynx are all about offense. Mathew Alkire leads the way but it's a difficult lineup to face because so many players can beat you. Shanghai has a quality offense too, but Yokohama outscored them by more than 100 runs this season. It's going to take a Herculean effort by the Pandas pitching to overcome the Lynx attack. Serie del Caribe The star power here belongs to the Caracas Rangers with Santiago Vecchio on the mound and Salvador Acquiel atop the lineup. They cruised to their division win, leading nearly wire to wire. Contesting them are the Panama City Seabees, who overcame a tumultuous season that was on the brink of falling apart with multiple teammates speaking out about star SS Sebastian Cajar. But winning cures all, and there haven't been any leaks since the Seabees turned things around. Cajar wound up hitting .348, and youngster Hefesto Navas was a very nice surprise at age 21. In the North Division, Kingston enters as the favorite. The Palms backed their way into the playoffs, finishing 4-6 down the stretch as San Juan and Camaguey failed to do any better to pass them by. Maximo Loaiza, the hero of the World Baseball Championship back in March, turned in a very good season for a Kingston team that mainly flew under the radar in terms of international attention this year. But there's a reason they won 79 games, and Loaiza has the opportunity to shine again. European Cup Let's be honest: this is going to be the Kiev Comets Show. Either they're going to continue winning and set an extremely high standard, or they're going to get tripped up in a short series and go down as the best team to not win a championship. Okay, this is the first year, but still, that would endure for a long time. They were the talk of baseball all season, placing both Gianfranco Cochetti and Henry Jones on the cover of Relay. They crush the ball, and their starting rotation gives no quarter. The only "weakness" is their bullpen, which posted a fine-but-not-spectacular 3.98 ERA. But the starters work so deep into games that it minimizes their exposure. Their only weakness was that their #5 starter wasn't terribly good, but he's going to work from the bullpen as they move to a four-man rotation. If the Comets don't advance, Lenny Sloan is the likely culprit. The Paris Pride ace starter won the EPL strikeout crown, edging Kiev's Jones (though Jones narrowly beat him on ERA). Sloan has been fantastic all season, including two wins in two starts against Kiev. Offensively, Lucas Dawson is the trigger man, getting things started. Led by Dawson, the Pride also play top-notch defense at nearly every position. The possibility of a Paris vs. Kiev matchup for the European Cup is tantalizing. Fall Classic By WAR, the best hitter in baseball this season was Toronto's Jacob Yoachum (and it wasn't particularly close). That you haven't seen his name in many updates reflects the kind of boring consistency he showed this season. He didn't especially hot at any point, he just knocked the cover off the ball all season long. Toronto went as he did, winding up with the second-best record in the sport behind Kiev. With a pitching staff headed by C.J. Gorski and Bryant Achilles, the Giants are a well-rounded crew. And as if they weren't strong enough, they dug into their minors for DH Raj Brown, a 19 year-old wunderkind. They're the favorite over the Boston Bombers, but you can't discount a team with Jay Givens, who of course was on the very first Relay cover. He tallied 6.1 WAR for Boston. Vancouver and Kansas City are as evenly-matched as can possibly be. They were neck and neck all season, eventually settling the division in a Game 133 that, of course, didn't matter for either team as their playoff spot was assured. Kansas City is led by Josh Dillow, about whom you can read more of in August's issue of Relay. He'll have to try and solve one of the most interesting players in the entire world, Vancouver's knuckleballing ace Matthew Clock. He missed a few weeks early in the season with a bad elbow but was nearly unhittable over the summer. His ERA in June, July, and August was under 2.65 each month. Kansas City has the stronger resume (they boast the NAL's best run differential, even above Toronto) but anything can happen in a short series.