A Preview
WB2K3 News Special

Following last year's disappointing first-round sweep at the hands of the Holy Whites, Wiffolution will be looking for one thing: advancing.

Wiffolution, along with the Holy Whites, has the distinction of making the playoffs all three seasons we've had team playoffs. The Horsemen, last year's champion and 2001's runner-up, were eliminated at the league's last gameday on August 31st. The problem is, Wiffolution is yet to make it past the first round. In 2001, they battled the Horsemen to a three-game series, a great set of games that helped establish future Wiffolution/Horsemen games as "history waiting to happen," only to lose. Last year, they were handcuffed by the Whites, scoring only three runs and facing quick elimination in a two-game sweep.

This year however should be Wiffolution's best shot at beating their demons and doing something they've never been able to do: make it all the way to the Series at the Sac and give themselves the chance to win it all.

Jeff Morrison has qualified for all five years of playoffs. Only he and Carmichael can lay claim to that fact.

With a re-tooled offense that features a new and improved Jeff Morrison (24 homeruns, career-high) and white-hot rookie Matt Plummer (21 homeruns), it's apparent that this time round, Dean Evans (.335 batting average) and his attempts to get on base will not be ignored.

Dean himself is a career .500 hitter in the playoffs, seemingly oblivious to the pressure of big games. He's gotten on base 12 times in 23 tries, but has only crossed the plate twice, due mainly to teammates refusing to do the job. And possibly worrying about having to do all the work himself, Dean packed on some power this year and put up career-high power numbers (14 homeruns, 27 RBIs). It's no longer a surprise to see the slap-hitting lefty take one out.

Team captain in title only, Casey Sylvester has missed plenty of games, and Wiffolution will not be surprised to see him miss all of the playoffs. However, if he does make it out, he bolsters a questionable pitching staff. Despite playing in only a handful of games here and there, Casey has established himself as one of, if not the best pitcher in the league, posting a career-low ERA of 1.14 while allowing hitters to only bat .160 against him. His batting prowess, famous a couple years ago, has fallen on hard times, but the bottom line is, Casey brings in more runs than he allows.

Matt Plummer will be the workhorse if Casey misses games, as he's easily the best regular on the staff. He's recently been allowing many free passes (21 BBs), but when he's throwing strikes, he's nearly unhittable. His ERA rose to 2.75 over the last couple gamedays, but his 7.77 K/4 ratio topped the league, and hitters only hit .234 against him. Dean Evans (5.65 ERA) and Jeff Morrison (5.44 ERA) are consistently below-average pitchers, but tend to be far more successful when either Plummer or Sylvester (or both) are present. Dean Evans' accuracy problems (league-leading 43 BBs) improved greatly over the last third of the season, and Jeff Morrison (league-leading 33 HRs allowed) saw much fewer balls leave the yard on his watch. As a team, Wiffolution sported a remarkable 9-3 record to close the season. All of those games featured Matt Plummer, who had just returned from a broken hand. Prior to his return, Wiffolution was 8-16.

Wiffolution had better hope this trend continues as they take on Scott Carmichael and the always-powerful Holy Whites. It seems no matter who Scott surrounds himself with in the lineup, power comes out. This year, he traded Ian Byrd to the Horsemen in exchange for formerly "all-pitching, no-hitting" John Deatrick. As it is, John's .286 batting average and 15 homeruns were much more than any captain could hope for. Mike Walsh, the man who hit 33 homeruns in 2001, hit only one this year in 59 ABs and will miss the playoffs to injury. Tavis Beynon, the team's lone rookie, hit a respectable .260 with 4 homeruns in 73 ABs. Bad news for the Whites: Aside from one good game (out of 13), Tavis hit only .190. In that one good game, he went 7-10 with 3 homeruns. Good news for the Whites: That one good game came against Wiffolution.

Scott is still the horse, and always will be. His 35 homeruns led the league, and his .391 batting average put him in 3rd. He led the league in RBIs (72) and slugged over 1.000. He changes the dynamic of a game by simply being in the lineup, and will force Wiffolution to develop a strategy of sorts to make sure that the damage HE inflicts will be minimal.

Scott also boasts the best arm on the team, although his numbers were nowhere near his 2001 and 2002 numbers (0.59 ERA, and 0.40 ERA, respectively). At 1.80, he finished with his second-highest ERA in his 10-year career, and for the first time ever, finished with an opponents's average over .250 (.264). Still, when he's on, he's arguably the most frightening pitcher in the game.

John Deatrick also pitched below expectations, but remains a true talent. His 3.20 ERA was a career-high, and he seemed much more prone to walks (24 in only 35 IP). Not unlike Matt Plummer though, when he's throwing strikes, he's tough. When he's not, he becomes infinitely more hittable.

Tavis Beynon rounds out the staff and is, expectedly, probably considered the team's weak link. He's displayed flashes of brilliance and sports a good ability to throw strikes, but when he's not placing with complete precision, his 4.53 ERA tells you he's giving up runs.

As far as playoff performances go, we've already discussed Dean's .500 career mark. He also sports a 13.00 ERA, which could make or break a series right there. Jeff Morrison's got the second-most playoff ABs of anyone in this year's series (73), and he's thus far posted a solid .329 average. He's only hit five homeruns, but nearly half of those ABs came before he was considered even remotely powerful. On top of that, he's got 17 career playoff RBIs. And on top of THAT, his ERA is a very impressive (for him) 2.50.

Neither Matt Plummer nor Tavis Beynon have seen postseason action, so we move on to Scott, who leads all current playoff participants in career ABs (130). He has 21 homeruns in the postseason (2nd all-time) but is only hitting .315. His ERA (1.09) is par for the course.

John Deatrick came up big for the Horsemen in last year's title run, going 8-18 (.444) with 2 homeruns, and he tossed 4 shutout innings. The Holy Whites will be looking for a performance like that as they hope to become the first two-time team champions in the league.

As far as the head-to-head season matchup went, Wiffolution had a distinct advantage in the W/L department, but ironically, a distinct disadvantage in the Run/Oruns department. Despite winning the season series 6-3, Wiffolution was outscored by the Whites, 47-35. Why? Mainly because the Whites' three wins looked something like this:

9-2, 12-2, 13-2.

Yep, that works out to 34-6. Which means that Wiffolution's six wins equaled to a 29-13 difference. In other words, either Wiffolution was winning (somewhat) close games, or the Whites were beating the crap out of them. Can the Whites do it twice in three games? And just to further confuse those analysts, Wiffolution won the batting average race, out-hitting the Whites .367 to .340. Either way, these teams are capable (and willing) of scoring runs off one another.

Wiffolution will be hoping for their first trip to the finals. For a team that's "all about the 'W'," don't think they care too much about the numbers, so long as they're on the correct end of the wins column. For the Whites, the motivation will be in silencing the critics who think they've been passed by the Road Warriors.

But as you've read, they can't look past Wiffolution.

Comment on this news in the message board.