World Series Done; Giants are the champs!

The boxscores can be found either on the playoff boxscore link off of the standings page or on the boxscore link for either team.

The actual Giants couldn’t defend their title, but Jim Casey’s crew did.  After making the DCS in ’09 and finishing as the runner-up in ’10, Jim’s Giants won the whole thing in 2011.  The Giants and the Bosox were well matched, with each team posting a +16 WOR and more than 100 wins.  But the Giant pitchers showed up for the series in top form, holding Boston to a total of 8 runs and only 4 in the last 3 games.  Ellsbury (traded from the Bosox to the Giants) went 4-4 in the 4th game with a HR, and Daniel Hudson pitched into the 8th before giving the ball to Casilla who converted the 4-out save..Interestingly, the Giants and the Bosox made an 6-player swap in the 5th trade of the year…The Giants beat Tim Lincecum (traded to the Bosox for Ellsbury and others) in game #1, although Heath Bell took the loss.

Congrats to Jim and Tony on a great season.

And, thanks to everyone who’s sent me back-channel notes of encouragement.  I deeply appreciate how cool everyone is with the various hiccups we seem to hit every season, and it means a lot to me that there are 29 other people on the planet who get a kick out of this too.

Leo will be in touch with the payouts, and we’ll see you all next spring!

Jon

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LCS results

Boxscores are again accessible by clicking on the playoff boxscore link from the standings page.

Giants in 4:  The San Francisco pitching never allowed more than 3 runs and the offense never scored fewer than 4, the recipe for a 4-game win streak at just the right time.  Pujols and Berkman each homered in the final game, but those 2 shots accounted for the only runs of the game…Cardinal pitchers struck out 11 in the game but allowed 11 hits and the Giants mustered 6 runs…St.Louis came up just short in each of the first 2 games, 4-3 in each one…Congrats to Leo on another great season, and welcome Jim Casey to the second World Series in a row!

Bosox make it to the Series: The Rangers scored 27 runs in 5 games, but 15 of them came in game 3…The Bosox only scored 21 runs overall, but held the Rangers to 4 and 3 in the last 2 games of the series…Boston had only 4 hits but 6 runs in the final game…Pedroia and Saltalamacchia each hit a HR…Pedroia also homered in game 4…Vazquez allowed only 1-hit in the game 3 shutout for the Rangers…Another great season for Rick Wynne, who had his 3rd LCS appearance in 4 years…His +312 lifetime WOR record is the ASFBL record, and twice as high as the second-place finisher, fellow LCS manager Leo Leckie.

Giants and Bosox are lined up for the World Series…lineups due Friday by noon.

One more iteration of ASFBL for the year!

 

DCS results

Playoff box scores can be found by going to the standings page and clicking on the playoff boxscores.

AL Sweeps

Boston in 4: Detroit couldn’t get their bats uncorked until game 3 when they put up 6 runs, but unfortunately that was the day that Boston broke out for 12 runs.  Bosox pitching limited the Tigers to a total of 3 runs in the other 3 games.  Great year for Gordon Leckie, who won the sprint to take one of the most entertaining divisional races of the season.

Texas sweeps: Texas scored 5 or more in each of the first 3 games.  They were held to 3 in the final match, but Bucholtz, Bell and Salas combined to spread 10 hits over 9 innings and limit the Yanks to 1.  Great run for Michael G., who always keeps the Yankees at the top of the heap.

The ALCS features the matchup of the 106-win monsters.  Toni Bernacchi has led the Bosox to 4 straight years of 91 wins or more, and he’s back in the LCS for the first time since taking the A’s there in 2005.  Rick Wynne has his Rangers in the playoffs, as he has had every team he’s managed in the playoffs since 2001.  It’s been 10 diferent teams (he made it with Cleveland twice), and an interesting footnote is that he’s taking his crack at the ALCS after making the NLCS last year.

Since they tied the season series 5-5, home field was determined by a coin toss.   My 3-year-old threw the quarter for the Bosox.

NL going the distance

The Dodgers won the first game to take an early lead, and tied the series up at 4 on October 11, but had their bats shut down in the last 2 games 6-0 and 5-1.  Carpenter pitched a complete game in the 6th series iteration and Holliday knocked in 4 runs.  Chuck Ballingall took a team that was a real-life disaster and not only posted a positive WOR but also took them to the playoffs and won a series.  It’s his 4th playoff appearance since 2006 and as a Dodger loyalist has seen his team through thick and thin.

San Fran and Philly had the only 7-game series, and traded off every game with SF winning games 1, 3, 5, and 7.  In the decisive game 7 Bumgarner and Romo, two actual Giants, held the Phillies to 1 run and Seth Smith’s 2-run HR provided all the necessary offense.  Danny Wildes has had 2 playoff appearances in the past 3 years and got his team to the same round as their high-payroll reality equivalents.

The Giants and Cardinals had the 2 best records in the league.  Jim Casey is working his annual magic with the Giants, and has posted 3 straight 100+ win seasons with them.  He’s made the playoffs 3 straight years after making it only 2 times in his first 10 seasons with the Cubs, Indians, and Blue Jays.    Leo has been in the playoffs every year since 2004, and took the Cardinals there the last 2 times he had the club, in 2006 and 2007.

LCS games will start on fantasy date 10/19, and lineups are due by Wednesday.  Good luck to our final four!

Wild card round

All boxscores can be viewed through the normal pages.

The magic number is one: The Dodgers beat the Astros in 3 straight one-run games, outscoring their opponents by precisely 3 runs for the series…Kershaw pitched a shutout game 1…Game two took 12 innings to decide…Dee Gordon hit .667 in 9 at bats…Sands had a 2-RBI pinch hit in the final game that the Dodgers took 4-3….

In the AL, the Angels smashed the Yankees 10-1 in the opening game, but may have peaked too early…the Yankees took the next 3….The Angels outscored the Yankees 16-15 over the course of the series…The clinching game was a 3-2 affair with Rivera getting a 2-inning save…Ex-Angel Mark Teixera had 5 hits and 5 RBI…Ex-Angel Bartolo Colon had an ERA of 6.75….

Congrats to the Astros and Angels on a great season….both owners got teams to the playoffs that couldn’t make it in real life!

Newsletter for games through 9/28

NO HITTER ON THE LAST WEEK!  Cory Luebke of HOU threw a no-hitter against STL on 9/28/2011…both teams are in the playoffs, but it served notice that the Astros aren’t going to concede anything to the higher seed….it was also a morale-boosting event, since the Astros were on a 1-7 slide to finish the season.

AL WILDCARD: The Chisox were mathematically out of it, but refused to fade to irrelevance and played spoiler, taking 2 of 3 from Toronto, who needed a perfect 3-0 sweep and the Angels to lose all 3 to the Rangers to force a playoff….The Rangers obliged, taking all 3 in Anaheim, but the Angels can buy the Chisox a cold root beer on their way to the wild card round.

NL WILDCARD: Without the distraction of a pending divorce, Chuck Ballingall pulled off a miracle and got the Dodgers into the last playoff spot….Incredibly, every wildcard contender swept the last series of the season…Nobody can fault the effort of the Reds, who allowed 4 runs in 27 innings and swept the Mets in a series that featured to 2-1 victories….The Braves were even better, allowing the division-leading Phillies a mere 1 run over 3 games and sweeping the series…But the day belonged to the Dodgers, who held serve and swept the Diamondbacks to finish 1 game ahead of the surging Cincinnati team.

WOR warriors: Congrats to the Mariners, Rockies, and Reds, who all finished in the positive WOR numbers….Steve Skrovan of the Indians won bragging rights against childhood friend and current Indians team President Paul Dolan by finishing +2 over the acutal club.  Andy Somers’ +34 is truly staggering.

Wildcard round: Dodgers at Houston, Angels at the Yankees.  The playoff teams should set their lineups and rotations by Friday at 10am.  Remember that overuse figures from the regular season are frozen, but pitcher use is not reset, so the starters will still need rest.  The playoffs start on 10/1, so there are 2 rest days in there, and the series follows the 2-2-1 format with travel days built in.

Jose Reyes of BOS had 5 hits against BAL on 9/26/2011
Jered Weaver of CWS had 11 strikeouts against TOR on 9/26/2011
Mike Napoli of TEX had 7 RBI against LAA on 9/26/2011
Adrian Gonzalez of BOS robbed 3 hits against BAL on 9/27/2011
Ryan Howard of CWS had 5 hits against TOR on 9/27/2011
Brent Lillibridge of CWS struck out 4 times against TOR on 9/27/2011
Dee Gordon of LAD had 5 hits against ARI on 9/27/2011
Blake Parker of CHC had 11 strikeouts against SDP on 9/27/2011
Chance Ruffin of DET had 10 strikeouts against CLE on 9/28/2011
Cory Luebke of HOU had 13 strikeouts against STL on 9/28/2011
Billy Butler of KCR had 5 hits against MIN on 9/28/2011
Nick Hundley of SDP had 5 hits against CHC on 9/28/2011