9th Baseball ATD Round 2 NL New York @ Montreal

[Pwnasaurus]

New York Yankees


C - Roy Campanella, Jorge Posada
1B - Dan Brouthers, George Sisler
2B - Joe Gordon, Billy Herman
SS - Alan Trammell, Bill Dahlen
3B - Eddie Mathews, Bill Dahlen
LF - Paul Waner, Albert Belle
CF - Kenny Lofton; Jim Wynn
RF - Roberto Clemente, Albert Belle

SP - Roger Clemens, Grover Alexander, Mike Mussina, Old Hoss Radbourn, Harry Brecheen
RP - Dennis Eckersley, Billy Wagner, Tom Henke, Keith Foulke, Tom Gordon, Tom Bergmeier



Lineup:
1. Kenny Lofton (L)
2. Roberto Clemente (R)
3. Eddie Mathews (R)
4. Dan Brouthers (L)
5. Roy Campanella (R)
6. Paul Waner (L)
7. Alan Trammell (R)
8. Joe Gordon (R)
9. Pitcher's Spot


Bench:
Albert Belle - LF/RF
Jim Wynn - LF/RF/CF
Bill Dahlen - 3B/SS
Jorge Posada - C
George Sisler - 1B
Billy Herman - 2B


Rotation:
1. Roger Clemens (R)
2. Grover Alexander (R)
3. Mike Mussina (R)
4. Old Hoss Radbourne (R)
5. Harry Brecheen (L)

CL: Billy Wagner (L)
RP: Dennis Eckersley (R)
RP: Tom Henke (R)
RP: Keith Foulke (R)
RP: Tom Gordon (R)
RP: Tom Bergmeier (L)


Manager: Tommy Lasorda


Montreal Royals

Manager: Connie Mack

Position Players​

|

Pitchers​

|

Lineup​

C: Josh Gibson (R) | SP1: Nolan Ryan (R) | 1. Tim Raines (S)
1B: Willie McCovey (L) | SP2: Eddie Plank (L) | 2. Roberto Alomar (S)
2B: Roberto Alomar (S) | SP3: Don Drysdale (R) | 3. Alex Rodriguez (R)
3B: Alex Rodriguez (R) | SP4: Kevin Brown (R) | 4. Josh Gibson (R)
SS: Ozzie Smith (S) | SP5: Jim Kaat (L) | 5. Willie McCovey (L)
LF: Tim Raines (S) | | 6. Jim Edmonds (L)
CF: Jim Edmonds (L) | Mid1: Jim Brewer (L) | 7. Andre Dawson (R)
RF: Andre Dawson (R) | Mid2: Rick Aguilera (R) | 8. Ozzie Smith (S)
Bench: OF Kirby Puckett (R) | Short1: Mike Marshall (R) | 9. Pitcher's Spot
Bench: OF Bernie Williams (S) | Short2: Ron Perranoski (L)
Bench: OF Dave Winfield (R) | Closer: John Wetteland (R)
Bench: C Darrell Porter (L) |
Bench: 1B Roger Connor (L) |
Bench: 2B Bobby Doerr (R) |
Bench: 3B Ray Dandridge (R) |

Click to read more...

 

[td_ice]

Absolutely love both lineups, impressive.

But I love the 1-2 punch of Clemens and Grover to take this one.

 

[le_sean]

That's a damn good Top 2 and bullpen.

But there's a lack of power and speed in the lineup. Raines and Alomar have a career .387 and .386 OBP vs. RHP, respectively. I'd look for them to get on base and disrupt the pitchers on the mound.

This is pitching vs. offence but can the Yankees play small ball with a lack of speed and Gibson as the catcher?

 

[darko]

Good luck le sean.

 

[bluesfan94]

My analysis:

Infield: Man I love the Royals' infield. That middle infield defense is just absurd. Nothing is going up the middle. McCovey, Rodriguez, and Gibson provide for some pop plus Gibson is elite defensively. It's just not fair. That infield is insane. The Yankees' infield is also fine, but pales in comparison.

Outfield: I lean towards the Yankees but neither outfield really screams elite to me. Both are solid all around outfields, probably pluses defensively. Both have some pop. I think Edmonds plays up in this series for reasons given later in this analysis.

Rotation: The Yankees have the better rotation, pretty much unquestionably. Clemens and Alexander are both fantastic and Mussina and Radbourne aren't slouches either. However, there are no lefties in that rotation which is why I think McCovey and Edmonds will play up in this series. If Royals can steal one of the game against those two aces (and Ryan/Plank definitely offer them the opportunity to do so), their back end can definitely win the games with Drysdale and a (underrated) Brown. Still, advantage Yankees.

Bullpen/Bench: The Yankees have a fantastic bullpen as well. One of my issues with their bullpen in the regular season is that with Wagner as a closer, they only have one free lefty. That concern is alleviated with Brecheen dropping to the 'pen. Having Eck and Wagner is luxurious. The Royals have a very deep bench, however, and it's built that way. Their 'pen is a little light due to that, even with Kaat dropping down. The Yankees' bench also isn't bad enough to be a negative. Bullpen goes towards Yankees; bench, towards the Royals

Overall: This series boils down to pitching vs. offense. I'm generally of the mantra that pitching wins in the playoffs (and my team reflects this). However, I do have big questions if the Yankees can score enough against some still very good pitchers to win a 7 game series. Make your case

 

[le_sean]

Clemens is elite, one of the best of all time. But his ERA was 63 points higher in postseason action, and almost 70 higher than Nolan Ryan's. In adddition, Plank had a 1.32 postseason ERA vs. Pete's 3.56 ERA (admittedly, that was due to one horrendous playoff run, still something Plank never had). Drysdale had an identical 2.95 postseason and regular season ERA with 3 World Series championships; Mussina with a 3.42 ERA with 0 championships.

So yes, I can still admit he has the better rotation, but there is a better example of my top guys raising their level of play in crunch time.

You've mentioned the middle of the lineup. Well the Yankees have a single 500 HR hitter in their lineup. In fact they only have 1 player above 300 career HRs. The Royals have 5 guys in their starting lineup with 400 HRs (well Edmonds was only off by 7 and Gibson is just an easy assumption that he would have hit that milestone). That is a crazy discrepancy in power. I don't think Roy Campanella cuts it as a #5.

I think wth no real power threat other than Matthews, flamethrowers Ryan and Drysdale, as well as Wetteland, can be as aggressive as they want. With a lack of speed on the Yankees, groundball pitchers Plank and Brown can have a field day by having them hit to the Royals vacuum in the middle of the infield.

I think the Royals matchup favourably, but of course I'd say that . I hope that was a good enough case.

 

[Pwnasaurus]

Another nail biter of a series came down to a Josh Gibson RBI single in extras in a thrilling game 7 propelling Montreal into the NLCS.

Congrats guys, great teams that came down to a Game 7.

 

[le_sean]

Great team darko, that's one built for the playoffs.

 

[darko]

Well done le sean, I'm cheering for you rest of the way. I rate your team highly.