4 months ago it wasn’t clear if we would get any baseball this year.
2 months ago it wasn’t clear if we would be able to complete even 60 games (and several MLB teams won’t).
But, here we are. 1 week to go in the 2020*** season.
Week 2 Playoff Review
Tom Cat’s V Fajita Eaters
The battle of brothers was a whirlwind. Tom Cat’s took a strong early lead, but Fajita Eaters was able to narrow the gap after some strong hitting showings in the middle of the week, briefly taking the lead on Friday afternoon. But, it wouldn’t last. Although the victory wasn’t clinched until the final innings of the final game on Sunday night, Tom Cat’s managed to hold on to a consistent lead throughout the weekend. After benching all of his pitchers on Sunday, Tom Cat’s challenged the Fajita Eater’s bullpen to accrue the stats needed to secure the upset. However, as had been a common trend throughout the season, the Fajita Eater’s bullpen fell short. The entire week ended up coming down to Ty Buttrey and a couple bad pitches. After securing 1 out in the top of the 7th, Buttrey was asked to come in and finish the 8th inning for the Angels. Although this knowledge only comes with hindsight, if Buttrey had managed to secure 2 more outs that inning, the Fajita Eaters would have been victorious. Unfortunately, the very first batter he faced resulted in a solo homerun. Not all was lost at this point though, as Buttrey got the next batter to ground out, and once again, Fajita Eaters was 1 out away from winning the week. But it wasn’t meant to be, as the next batter resulted in yet another solo home run that ended Buttrey’s day, and the Fajita Eaters chances of moving to the championship. The difference in the AL champion for 2020 was the difference between a homerun and a flyball out by Derek Dietrich.
And with that, Tom Cat’s advances to their 2nd consecutive CPL Championship appearance.
Tom Cat’s MVP: Kyle Hendricks – 8 IP, 10 K’s, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 W. Although Tom Cat’s only ended up going with 5 starts (due to a combination of last second injuries, and a secure lead in most pitching categories going into Sunday), Hendricks ended up providing the difference in IP, W, K’s and ERA.
Honorable Mentions: Zach Eflin had a dominant outing as well, just not quite as impressive as Hendricks (7 IP, 9 K’s, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 W), and while Salvador Perez’s 10/20, 3 HR, 1 SB, 9 RBI week was impressive, none of those categories ended going to Tom Cat’s, so unfortunately it was all for not.
Ball Busters V Kelly’s Heroes
Another tight matchup throughout the whole week. Ball Busters led the majority of the week 8-6-2, but the weekend ended up providing plenty of drama. Kelly’s Heroes held the lead at various times throughout Saturday and into Sunday morning. But Ball Busters looked to have the advantage to secure IP and K away from Kelly’s Heroes with a strong Dinelson Lamet start and some bullpen help. And that’s exactly how it went down. Lamet left the game with Kelly’s Heroes having a mere 1 IP lead over Ball Busters, but Ball Busters bullpen gave them the extra boost to close the door. Iglesias came in to get the key extra few outs to tie IP, and Trivino followed to secure the category in full. Things got a little dicey when Trivino allowed a couple runs to score early in his showing, but ended up getting Darrin Ruf to fly out to center to end his IP. Interestingly enough, with 2 runners on base, if Ruf had managed to hit his fly ball a few dozen more feet, that would have generated enough ER for Kelly’s Heroes to win ERA instead. Even with that extra help, Kelly’s Heroes would have needed to break the tie in HR, or secure a few more Runs or RBI’s to have a chance to win the week. That extra homerun may have even provided the RBI’s needed to secure Kelly’s Heroes victory depending on the situation. It’s hard to say when it happened, but it’s very likely that the Ball Busters victory also came down to the difference between a flyball out and a homerun.
And with that Ball Busters advances for a chance to secure their 2nd CPL Champion title.
Ball Busters MVP: Dinelson Lamet – 13 IP, 21 K, 5 H, 4 BB, 2 ER, 1 W. With nearly every pitching category being so close, if Lamet hadn’t managed to pitch both of his gems last week, things could have been much different.
Honorable Mentions: All of Ball Busters pitchers threw decent, but Framber Valdez set himself apart from the rest with a brilliant 6.1 IP, 11 K, 1 ER performance that had a huge impact. And while Ball Busters was only able to take 2 hitting categories, they probably would’ve lost even those without the help of veteran Ryan Braun and his 6/16, 5 Runs, 2 HR, 6 RBI contribution on the week.
Playoff Week 3 – CPL Championship Review
Tom Cat’s V Ball Busters
Mediocre pitching and hitting versus great pitching and terrible hitting, we have truly the championship that we deserve in 2020. Much has been said about Ball Buster’s offensive shortcomings, but let’s not sit here and pretend that Tom Cat’s have been particularly impressive either. Both teams won the last two weeks by taking the majority of the pitching categories. With that in mind, it seems fairly likely that the best pitching squad will win this week as well. Ball Busters has multiple starts from Valdez, and potentially Cueto this week to give him a couple options to choose from. Meanwhile, Tom Cat’s is sitting on multiple starts from Sonny Gray, Jose Urena and potentially Zach Wheeler. At the same time, Gray and Clevinger are coming off small injuries that caused them to skip their last scheduled start, so there’s some extra risk there. Both teams have a handful of hitters who have been pouring it on the last couple weeks, but with the final 7 days of the season upon us, who’s to say if that’s even relevant. Either way, by the end of next Sunday, we’ll have our 2020 CPL Champion crowned.
Key Players to keep an eye on:
Ball Busters hitter: Jeff McNeil – the last two weeks have been extremely impressive, accruing a high number of counting stats in every category but steals (which Ball Busters has plenty of other help in generating). If he can keep this momentum going into the final week of the season, he could be the direct difference maker in any offensive categories that are close.
Ball Busters pitcher: Framber Valdez – 2 starts against weak teams is likely to help out the Ball Busters immensely in several categories.
Tom Cat’s hitter: Eugenio Suarez – While there are several Tom Cat’s hitters who are performing well right now, Suarez has not been. With only 6 hits in his last 40 ABs, Suarez needs to come alive if the Tom Cat’s offense is to have any chance at consistency.
Tom Cat’s pitcher: Sonny Gray – as previously mentioned, coming off of a short IL stint, and facing Milwaukee on Tuesday night, and (hopefully) Minnesota on Sunday night, there’s a lot of room for things to go wrong for Gray this week, likely reducing him to the make or break component of the Tom Cat’s rotation for the championship.
That’s all for today folks, hope you enjoy the final week of the CPL, and the final week of the MLB regular season. I hear the Twins have a decent chance to lose to the Yankees in the first round again, so if keeping tabs on the CPL championship isn’t your thing, you can look forward to that.
Until next year!
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