Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

The final in a series of four posts on divisional series for my Dynasty League.

New York Daytraders (Mets) 94-68 2nd place NL Beta (3rd Seed)

Offense: The Daytraders finished tied with the Giants for most NL homeruns (140) led by 1971 AL MVP Willie Stargell (.331 Avg 32 HR) , Norm Cash (22 HR) and Craig Nettles (20 HR). Stargell & Ted Simmons (.281 13 HR 30 2B) drove in 91 each tied for 8th in the league. Leron Lee hit .328 (4th in league) 2nd in Slugging and OPS, with 8 Triples and 16 HR of his own. Willie Mays acquired from Montreal 1/3 of the way through the season managed to draw 51 walks with the Daytraders

Defense: The Daytraders .983 fielding percentage is decidedly ordinary. Their catchers only threw out less than a quarter (9 of 39) of baserunners stealing although Ted Simmons only committed 4 errors in 1245 2/3 innings. The 2nd base platoon was either perfect (Leron Lee no errors in 627 errors) or sloppy (Wayne Garrett 12 errors in 508 1/3 innings Norm Cash did well at first (.995). Stargell might have been a terror at the plate but in the field his seven errors and only 2 assists were much more friendly for their opponents. Both Leo Cardenas (ss) and Craig Nettles (3b) committed 18 errors with an above average fielding percentage for their position

Pitching: With a starting 3 of Tom Seaver Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro all throwing over 300 innings (Seaver 303 2/3 ip Carlton 310 Niekro 304 2/3) each with over 20 (Carlton 23, Niekro 22 Seaver 21) wins. 66 wins in 66 Complete games a bullpen is almost an afterthought. 3rd in NL ERA 3.10 and batting .227 and 1st in strikeouts in the majors with 1224 with Carlton (329) and Seaver (320) one and two in the majors by far. Roger Nelson acquired in a trade with KC went 13-7 in 26 starts and 2 relief appearances with a WHIP of 0.96 and an avg against of ,195 both 4th in the league. Alas their closers were only 64% effective with Lerrin LaGrow saving 8 of 12 the teams 16 saves 19th of 20th teams with only the 46 win Dodgers having fewer.

Atlanta Bananas 98-64 1st place NL Alpha (2nd Seed)

Offense: Atlanta’s offense begins and ends with Triple Crown winner and presumed MVP Billy Williams .386 39 HR 143 RBI who also led the league in OBP, Slug OPS hits and 2nd in runs (116) and Hits (203) Dusty Baker at .315 avg .389 OBP, .481 Slugging and .870 OPS 96 Runs and 185 Hits is no Williams but would lead most teams. Cesar Cedeno drove in 95, 15 SB, scoring 106 runs (3rd) and 52 doubles leading the league. The teams 132 runs are just behind the Giants. and their .269 Team avg leads the NL

Defense: The Bananas defense will not be putting the fear of God into anyone, at .982 they near the bottom of the league with Pittsburgh (.981) the only playoff team worse. More respectable is their caught stealing percentage of .419 4th in the NL but there are some bright spots like Aurelio Rodrigues with only 11 errors in 1424 1/3 innings at 3rd and young Toby Harrah with only 15 errors in 667 chances. Ralph Garr (4 Errors) Cesar Cedeno (5 errors) and Dusty Baker (6 Errors) will give guys a chance but Baker added 11 baserunner kills and Cedeno 16 to keep them honest. While Billy Williams did not impress at 1b he was errorless in over 150 innings in the outfield.

Pitching: Catfish Hunter, Fergie Jenkins and Mike Cuellar make a formidable 1-3 starting lineup with Sonny Siebert and Dave McNally (acquired in the Dave Giusti deal with SF) makes it even deeper. Add to that Rollie Fingers 18 saves in 21 chances and you have a team that can shut down anyone top to bottom. The downside, While the team gave up the fewest walks in the majors (376) that meant a lot of pitches over the plate quite a few going out of the park with Cuellar (24) Jenkins (20) and Catfish Under (15) and Siebert (10 in 149 1/3 innings) and McNally (8 in 115 1/3 innings all vulnerable to the gopher ball. Still with a .228 team avg against and a 3.10 team ERA clearly the long ball hasn’t counted them out.

Series 1 April: Opening day at Atlanta

An injury to Catfish Hunter ended his day after 1 2/3 inning but no matter 3 other Atlanta pitchers shut out the Daytraders while Toby Harrah, Ed Kranepool each drove in runs and Dusty Baker drove in 2 one on a solo shot off loser Tom Seaver to give the Braves a 4-0 win. In game 2 Fergie Jenkins gave up only 5 hits, two of them solo shots while Steve Carlton was shelled giving up 10 run (9 earned) on 15 hits for a 10-2 rout. The Daytraders took the final game as Phil Niekro outdueled Mike Cuellar 4-1 as two errors along with a strong start in the first doomed Atlanta.

Series 2 May at NY

Atlanta and NY split their second series Tom Seaver winning game one over a healed up Catfish Hunter. All the scoring was in the first with a Billy Williams solo shot in the 1st for the Bananas and a two run double by Norm Cash give NY their 2-1 final. In game 2 Ken Reynolds held the Daytraders to a single run on a fourth inning grounder while Billy Williams drove in two and Tito Fuenties, Leron Lee and Caesar Cedeno each drove in one for the 5-1 margin.

Series 3 at Atlanta

Atlanta swept the short series Catfish Hunter giving up 5 in 9 inning but the final three after his team had already scored 9 Dick Billings and Billy Williams treated Phil Niekro’s flutterball with distain as the bananas piled on 12 hits. In game 2 Fergie Jenkins also gave up 5 in only 5 innings but got the win as Atlanta put up 11 in 5 innings pounding Roger Nelson. The 12-8 final was not nearly as close as it seemed.

Series 4 at NY

The final series took place vs the 2nd Atlanta manager and the Daytraders paid back the Bananas in kind with a sweep. Game one saw the Daytraders again get to Fergie Jenkins early chasing him after 3 with 5 runs including a 2 run shot by Craig Nettles who would drive in 3. That was equal to the number Nelson gave up (2 earned) as NY won 6-3 Game 2 saw Catfish Hunter give up a pair of long ones to Stargell and Lee while Seaver only allowed two runs over nine (Both driven in by Billy Williams) in a 5-2 win. In the finale Steve Carlton in contrast to his first meeting with the Bananas gave up his only run in on a 9th inning solo shot. Hard luck loser Mike Cueller made one crucial mistake but it was to Craig Nettles with two on which gave the Daytraders a 3-0 lead. Leron Lee would get 3 hits and drive in the 4th run for the 4-1 final.

Season Series 5-5

This is likely the most evenly matched series so far in the playoffs which makes sense as these two teams fought for the division title all season. Atlanta was held back by chaos in the dugout with three different managers this season but their current leader put together a surge that clinched the division. The wildcard is the fact that the Daytraders have yet to face the new Atlanta manager.

The Bananas have a great top 3 starters actually a solid top 5 but the Mets have the most frightening top 3 in the league with a solid 4th. On the other hand while the Daytraders have an great offense Atlanta counters with the triple crown winner Billy Williams. Neither team has a great defense so it will come down to the starters. That edge has to go with the Daytraders although Fingers makes the Atlanta Bullpen decidedly better. This series should definitely go five and it’s as close to a pick-em as you can get but if you force me to choose I’d have to go Daytraders in 5 but by the smallest of margins. I suspect the Bananas vulnerability to the long ball will be the difference.

Daytraders in 5