#2 Diamond City Swatters (64-45) vs #3 Atom Cats (64-44)
Season Series: Diamond City 5, Atom 3
April 16-17 @DC: DC 11-3, DC 5-2
May 14-15 @Atom: DC 11-3, Atom 13-1
May 28-29 @Atom: DC 8-5, Atom 7-6
August 27-28 @DC: Atom 1-0, DC 11-4
Diamond City Home Page
Atom Home Page
Game 1 Matchup
Analysis
The two-time defending champions get to defend their crown in 2301 against a team that has only one playoff appearance, and that was in 2296 as the overall 8th seed when the playoffs were not divided by association. Diamond City made its first playoff appearance in 2298 when the CBO did create two true associations for the playoffs. That team lost its first series as the SCA's 4th seed but has now won six straight postseason series to become the CBO's first two-time champions.
While the Swatters spent the past two seasons looking to be a sure-bet contender for the SCA title, this season they are back in the pack, having edged out Vault 81 for the Railroad League title through a tie-breaker game. Diamond City is the top-scoring team in the CBO with their 615 runs scored the only over 600 and 35 more than the second-best in the CBO, the Dwellers. We would say that the offense is not the strong point, but 2301 proved otherwise. The most surprising of their success stories has been RF Waze Waiting (.331/32/99) who seemingly came out of nowhere to win the team triple crown after replacing Wayne Lacy (.393/4/13) in the starting lineup after his production dropped off in 2300. Before this season, the former 15th-round pick in the Inaugural draft had been a backup outfielder with just 82 career starts. The actual team leader is 1B Oren Gep (.311/30/91) with another solid season. Other key contributors in 2301 include 2B Jim Synthseeker (.294/15/69), LF Cody Grime (.304/10/67), and CF Witcher Craft (.286/1/43, 33 SB). SS Wally Warwick (.249/14/60) had a down year from his career .315 average. Watch out if he figures it out this postseason where he already owns two series MVP awards.
Pitching has been the big disappointment in 2301 with the 7th-most runs allowed (525) in the SCA along with the 10th-best Starters ERA (4.85). To overcome that poor output, the Swatters traded for all-time great Sheng Kawolski (11-9, 3.18), though he struggled some with DC, going 4-4, 3.44 in 10 starts. Previous team ace, X10-44 Mannson (8-12, 4.93), and Tyler Powers (8-9, 5.22) had hugely disappointing seasons. City Moore (17-6, 4.46) had lots of wins based on the team's offense rather than his pitching. Even CL Josh Samm (7-4, 32 SV, 2.52) was not always on, but did finish fourth on the team in wins.
After making the playoffs in 2296, the Cats finished 5th, 6th, 6th, and 6th in the subsequent years in the Minutemen League standings. That they made the playoffs seems to be a miracle, though PAM did not seem to think so, accurately picking the Cats to be the 3rd seed in the SCA. (In fact, the only teams in the playoffs that PAM did not pick to be in are the Dwellers, Jamaica Plain Red Rockets, and the Concord Radstags in the NCA--the teams they replaced were Egret, Goodneighbor, and Salem). Why PAM predicted the Cats to finish that high and why they were, we will cover in the pitching analysis below.
Atom was a well-balanced team, finishing 4th in runs scored (544) and 2nd in runs allowed (460). 1B Will Ashfire, who was one of the few original stars to stick around, was the all-around team leader with a .275/30/78 season and sits one behind the Rockets' Cody Flatt as the all-time home runs leader. CF Earthbound Bussey (.307/12/42) proved to be one of the best leadoff hitters in the CBO. SS Jake Doucette (.305/18/72) and LF Jeremy Schoolboy (.297/23/70) were both highly productive. The pitching has proven to be the gem of the team with the emergence of two young stars and the turnaround of one veteran. In just his second season as a starter SP Scruffy Taguchi (13-7, 3.23) has become a solid ace. While he usually has to face the opponents' aces, he has held his own all season. Pete Pembroke (16-4, 3.07) finally broke through with the Cats after being a top starter in Lexington for years. Deedee Martinson (12-9, 3.81) had a solid first season as a full-time starter. From the bullpen, CL Danny Scorcher (29 SV, 0.90) was on fire after moving to the Cats from Warwick via Echo Lake (VimL) in a three-team midseason trade. He is likely to be the SCA's 2301 recipient of the Fallon's Reliever Award.
Prediction
While Atom could be the better all-around team, the addition of Sheng Kawolski will make all the difference in this 5-game series. We're predicting the defending champions to win their seventh-straight playoff series, 3 games to 1.