BNN Weekly Report
This Week in the CBO, BMU, and GBRL
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
4 October 2308
CBO Playoff Tree
CBO Playoff Championship Series Preview
NCA Playoffs - #5 Starlight Killers (71-49) vs #3 Bunker Hill 75ers (75-46)
Season Series
Starlight 7, Bunker Hill 5
June 12-14 @Star: BH 9-1, Star 4-1, Star 8-4
July 3-5 @BH: BH 3-0, Star 8-6, Star 11-0
September 4-6 @Star: Star 5-4, Star 8-7, Star 8-2
September 11-13 @BH: BH 7-1, BH 6-4, BH 9-8
Analysis
Under the full CBO, both Starlight and Bunker Hill are making their NCA Championship Series debuts. When the 75ers were still known as the Abernathy Adamantium, they reached the semifinals of the CBO playoffs in 2296 before succumbing to The Slog, which went on to win the first Sole Survivor Series over another former team, the Finch Farm Four Leafs.
While this is the Killers' 7th trip to the playoffs, in the previous six appearances, they lost their first series each time. That means Starlight's series wins over Nordhagen Beach and Salem mark their first series wins in franchise history. Now they get to face a league opponent in which they won the season series. More on that later.
Bunker Hill is in their third playoff appearance and first as the 75ers. As mentioned, they lost in the semifinals of an 8-team playoff in 2296 and then lost as the NCA's #2 seed in the first round to Easy Town in their second appearance in 2298. Since then, the Bunker Hill team missed the playoffs for nine straight years.
Both teams made impressive comebacks in the Semifinals from 2-0 deficits. In their season series, each team got a home sweep in September in which Starlight was trying to catch up, but the 75ers' sweep helped secure them in a tie with Sunshine Tidings for 1st place before losing the extra tiebreaker game. [Lee's note: I figured out why the league does not automatically schedule the tiebreaker game, I think. I did not realize that MLB changed that rule.]
Looking at matchups, the starting pitching lineups seem to favor the home-favorite 75ers with the interesting matchups starting in Game 1 where the Killers' Bill Sarnacki (16-6, 3.41) is expected to meet Bunker Hill's Jason Tonelli (15-9, 4.11). Should Tonelli find a way to pitch better than Sarnacki, this series could be lopsided in Bunker Hill's favor.
However, Starlight is the better-hitting team, with dominating performances against the 75ers by 1B Oren Gep (.432/3/7), RF Hurr Lee Reyes (.341/5/13), and SS Nick Maris (.333/2/12). Bunker Hill hit a lot of home runs versus the Killers, though, thanks to the efforts of 1B Matt Stickhouse (.386/3/5), CF Jig McGhee (.298/3/7), and RF Brightsun Ramos (.182/4/11). Ramos, however, struggled to hit anything other than the long ball.
Prediction
Starlight may have turned a corner by reaching the NCA Championship Series. They have experience and chip on their shoulder. However, Bunker Hill has home-field advantage. Should they shut down the Killers' offense, they could cruise to victory. We will call it in the middle of our thoughts, though. Bunker Hill 4, Starlight 2
SCA Playoffs - #3 Vault 81 Dwellers (72-48) vs #1 Oberland T-51s (73-47)
Season Series
Oberland 8, Vault 81 4
June 5-7 @V81: V81 7-3, Obe 3-0, Obe 5-1
June 26-28 @Obe: Obe 11-3, Obe 5-2, V81 5-2
July 24-26 @V81: Obe 5-3, V81 2-0, V81 4-2
August 28-30 @Obe: Obe 4-2, Obe 7-0, Obe 2-1
Analysis
Only one game separated Oberland and Vault 81 for the Railroad League title and the #1 overall seed in 2308. For the T-51s, their 8-4 season series record versus the Dwellers made the difference in that final result. Oberland went 5-1 at home in the series, meaning they have a significant home-field advantage heading into this series.
For both the T-51s and the Vault 81, recent playoff appearances and victories have been few and far between. Oberland won the Railroad League from 2296-2298 and went on to win the second Sole Survivor Series in 2297 over Nordhagen Beach. Since the CBO merger, though, the T-51s are in just their third overall trip, losing in the SCA CS to Goodneighbor in 2298 and falling in 2307 as the #4 seed to Spectacle Island in the Play-in Round.
Vault 81 is making its 5th playoff appearance with its best stretch coming from 2299-2301 when they made it all three years, including winning the RL in 2300. That same year, they made the first of their two SCA CS appearances, dropping Game 7 to Diamond City. The Dwellers reached the SCA CS again in 2306 when they won the RL for the second time, this time dropping the series to Roxbury in seven.
The question for the Dwellers entering this season's SCA CS is how their offense will handle Oberland's pitching. All five T-51s starters performed well against Vault 81: Ronnie Messenger (1GS, 1-0, 0.00) in a complete-game shutout, Trolley Dodge (3 GS, 2-1, 1.57), Mesquite Williams (3 GS, 2-0, 1.71), Emperry Alizm (3 GS, 1-1, 3.80), and Zaire Inquisitor (2 GS, 1-1, 3.86). Though only Scruffy Taguchi's ERA looked bad, he was one of three Dwellers pitcher to go 1-2 against Oberland, including Exxie Summerset (1-2, 2.79) and Ryan Goodpryce (1-2, 3.06).
Prediction
We cannot see any team that is better than the T-51s right now. Though Vault 81 has good numbers overall, Oberland is better. Our pick: Oberland 4, Vault 81 1