(but not the Twins' beat!)
The first round of the IBL playoffs was surprisingly academic – the first through fourth seeds advanced, and the fifth through eight seeds were eliminated. As I remember it, in addition to Brantford sweeping the Twins, Guelph and Barrie beat Oshawa and Kitchener respectively in five games, and Toronto knocked out the defending pennant winners (and seventh game championship losers) London.
Interestingly, Kitchener got close – very close, even – against Barrie, even if the 4-1 series win doesn’t show it. Two of their losses were by a single run, another was by 2 and the third by five. For a team that started the season 8-8 and then only won a single game the rest of the way, that ain’t bad at all.
So, the second round (semi final, actually) pairings feature Brantford against Guelph and Barrie against Toronto. Both series are already underway, and to recap:
Brantford dropped game one at home by a count of 5-1, but bounced back to win game 2 on the road 4-2. They had a week’s layover between their sweep of the Twins and game one, and let’s face it – they hadn’t had to play hard for the back half of the Twins’ series, either. Until Guelph can prove otherwise, I’m going to say that Brantford was just shaking off a bit of rust and are good to go for the rest of the playoffs.
I’m not too sure what the storyline going into the Toronto-Barrie series is. Toronto had a very see-saw six game first round against London, and there’s no question they had to be locked in all the way to the end. That would suggest to me that they carry some momentum into the Barrie series. As for the Baycats, though, I think their far-from-overpowering showing against Kitchener may have something to do with how early they clinched and the fact that they were on cruise control for what must have been a long time in a league like the IBL. Maybe the Kitchener series was just them getting back into the swing of meaningful baseball, and they could well be newly awakened giants from here on out.
Barrie won game one by a count of 8-7, so that could well bear my argument out. Game two goes tomorrow (Sunday) at Christie Pits at 2 PM, and I’m planning on being there. I fully expect an exciting game and great atmosphere tomorrow, as well as a competitive series the rest of the way!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
That's a Wrap
The Mississauga Twins were swept out of the playoffs tonight, losing by a decisive count of 14-1 in a game that they were never really in. Coach Held put it succinctly after the game – and this quote might go in my game story, as a point of full disclosure – when he said that “we were in it right up until the umpire said ‘play ball.’”
It’s true – the Twins never really were in this one, trailing 4-0 after one, 8-0 after two and 11-0 after three. It’s very much worth noting, I would think, that all four of the Red Sox’ runs in the first came with two out. Not good – but also a testament to the Brantford hitters.
The game’s biggest story was Brantford starter Brad Hogeterp’s no hitter, which he carried into, I believe it was, the sixth.
So, that’s a wrap. I could go into further detail about tonight’s game, how the big innings came together and so on, but I don’t think I will. I’m planning on (eventually) writing a game story for the Twins’ website, and anyone dying to know the nitty gritty can get their fix from that. Instead, I think I’ll talk a bit about the Twins’ season overall and where things are going to go from here.
Inaugural seasons are often tough, and I think the reason that this one seemed as tough as it did is because of the lofty expectations that a lot of people – myself included – had going in. The prevailing wisdom was that these guys would fight for a spot in the middle of the standings – and up until the last 3 weeks or so of the regular season, they were within a couple games of fifth place – and obviously it was tough for everyone to take when the fight wound up being over the eighth and final playoff spot.
There’s absolutely a core in place – Banski, Dickson, Joseph, Duke, Macleod and Pui are the ones that jump at me off the top of my head, but there are others who can contribute to a winning team in the future, I think. A lot of the Twins’ future success will depend on how GM Doug Kelcher goes about adjusting the roster in the off-season. I very much liked his mid-season pick ups (Banski and Macleod); they suggested to me that he had learned a feel for what kinds of players it takes to compete in this league, and I’m sure that will guide his off-season acquisitions.
Everyone I spoke to after the game was very non-committal as far as their future with the Twins goes – everyone seemed to want to come back, but at the same time went out of their way to defer to ownership/management’s decisions and their own personal situations. Ian Held never shed the ‘interim’ label on his managerial tenure, and I’m very interested to see what the Twins’ do about their coaching staff heading into next year.
It’ll also be interesting to see what happens from an off-field standpoint. Landmark Sports, I think, are going to spend a lot of time thinking things through from point A – attendance is a major, massive concern. Their expectations were 500 fans a game at the beginning of the season; obviously, on some nights it was a struggle to get to 100, and that will need to be addressed. I suspect that full-time staff will be devoted to marketing the Twins’ brand headed into next year, and it’ll be interesting to see what avenues they pursue. Social media – Facebook and Twitter – were only used much later in the season, and I think they made a big difference, so it’ll be neat to see what happens after the Twins’ personnel have a full winter to work on things and become more comfortable with the whole sports marketing gig.
On a personal level, I’d like to thank Scott Rogers for giving me the chance to be the Twins’ first ever beat writer – it was awesome having my own beat to work and I really did have a blast doing it. I’d like to thank Doug Kelcher for his helpfulness as far as keeping me up to date on roster moves and for always getting back to me quickly; I’d like to thank Ian Held and Adeo Calcagni for their co-operation and availability during each of their respective managerial tenures; I’d also like to thank all of the players – especially captain Henry Duke, who was always willing to talk and always had something intelligent to say – for their friendliness and availability. Most importantly, I’d like to thank everyone who read this blog and followed my coverage on MississaugaTwins.ca – despite your refusal to comment, my new hit counter proves that you do indeed exist!
I’m not quite sure just yet what the future of this blog is – I’m more than happy to remain on board with the Twins and write articles for their site as things come into focus for next year; obviously, if I do that, that content will also go up on the blog alongside my own analysis. I’m also considering blogging a bit about the rest of the IBL playoffs – and going out to a few Toronto games if they’re still in it after I get back from the cottage.
Check back within a week to ten days and there will definitely be some sort of update on what’s going on!
It’s true – the Twins never really were in this one, trailing 4-0 after one, 8-0 after two and 11-0 after three. It’s very much worth noting, I would think, that all four of the Red Sox’ runs in the first came with two out. Not good – but also a testament to the Brantford hitters.
The game’s biggest story was Brantford starter Brad Hogeterp’s no hitter, which he carried into, I believe it was, the sixth.
So, that’s a wrap. I could go into further detail about tonight’s game, how the big innings came together and so on, but I don’t think I will. I’m planning on (eventually) writing a game story for the Twins’ website, and anyone dying to know the nitty gritty can get their fix from that. Instead, I think I’ll talk a bit about the Twins’ season overall and where things are going to go from here.
Inaugural seasons are often tough, and I think the reason that this one seemed as tough as it did is because of the lofty expectations that a lot of people – myself included – had going in. The prevailing wisdom was that these guys would fight for a spot in the middle of the standings – and up until the last 3 weeks or so of the regular season, they were within a couple games of fifth place – and obviously it was tough for everyone to take when the fight wound up being over the eighth and final playoff spot.
There’s absolutely a core in place – Banski, Dickson, Joseph, Duke, Macleod and Pui are the ones that jump at me off the top of my head, but there are others who can contribute to a winning team in the future, I think. A lot of the Twins’ future success will depend on how GM Doug Kelcher goes about adjusting the roster in the off-season. I very much liked his mid-season pick ups (Banski and Macleod); they suggested to me that he had learned a feel for what kinds of players it takes to compete in this league, and I’m sure that will guide his off-season acquisitions.
Everyone I spoke to after the game was very non-committal as far as their future with the Twins goes – everyone seemed to want to come back, but at the same time went out of their way to defer to ownership/management’s decisions and their own personal situations. Ian Held never shed the ‘interim’ label on his managerial tenure, and I’m very interested to see what the Twins’ do about their coaching staff heading into next year.
It’ll also be interesting to see what happens from an off-field standpoint. Landmark Sports, I think, are going to spend a lot of time thinking things through from point A – attendance is a major, massive concern. Their expectations were 500 fans a game at the beginning of the season; obviously, on some nights it was a struggle to get to 100, and that will need to be addressed. I suspect that full-time staff will be devoted to marketing the Twins’ brand headed into next year, and it’ll be interesting to see what avenues they pursue. Social media – Facebook and Twitter – were only used much later in the season, and I think they made a big difference, so it’ll be neat to see what happens after the Twins’ personnel have a full winter to work on things and become more comfortable with the whole sports marketing gig.
On a personal level, I’d like to thank Scott Rogers for giving me the chance to be the Twins’ first ever beat writer – it was awesome having my own beat to work and I really did have a blast doing it. I’d like to thank Doug Kelcher for his helpfulness as far as keeping me up to date on roster moves and for always getting back to me quickly; I’d like to thank Ian Held and Adeo Calcagni for their co-operation and availability during each of their respective managerial tenures; I’d also like to thank all of the players – especially captain Henry Duke, who was always willing to talk and always had something intelligent to say – for their friendliness and availability. Most importantly, I’d like to thank everyone who read this blog and followed my coverage on MississaugaTwins.ca – despite your refusal to comment, my new hit counter proves that you do indeed exist!
I’m not quite sure just yet what the future of this blog is – I’m more than happy to remain on board with the Twins and write articles for their site as things come into focus for next year; obviously, if I do that, that content will also go up on the blog alongside my own analysis. I’m also considering blogging a bit about the rest of the IBL playoffs – and going out to a few Toronto games if they’re still in it after I get back from the cottage.
Check back within a week to ten days and there will definitely be some sort of update on what’s going on!
Monday, August 3, 2009
(Settling into) The Noose
The noose that I suggested the Twins were trying to slip is now fitted firmly around their necks, and their only way out is to somehow pull off four consecutive victories against the defending champions.
They dropped tonight’s tilt in Brantford by a score of 14-2 – it was a great game for most of it; the wheels came off in the bottom of the eighth when the Twins surrendered 10 (ten!) runs, putting it far out of reach.
In that eighth inning (as will be documented in game story, to be posted soon on the Twins’ site), Mike Bonnano was put in to do mop-up duty and he was just all over the place – at one point, the bases were loaded and all three runs scored on passed balls. Not pretty.
Other than that one inning, the Twins absolutely showed up tonight – in terms of defense and pitching, at least. They kept it close; it was a 1-run game for a lot of it and only a 2-run game as of the sixth inning. The big problem, though, was that the bats just would not come around – they couldn’t get hits in key situations, and they ran themselves into a lot of stupid outs (Brendan Emmett making the third out stealing third; Branson Joseph hosed at the plate on a hopeless send; Jonathan Slattery picked off second to end an inning).
Bonnano being put into the game was more or less a waving of the white flag of sorts. After the game, coach Held conceded that he was basically out of options. The only real bullets he had left in his chamber were Derek Gordon and Adam Banski, both of whom will be needed at full capacity for Wednesday’s elimination game (although they’re all elimination games from here on out, which is obviously a bit of a problem).
Held obviously had no intention of taking Bonnano out of the game – I wonder just how long it could have gone on for – and I suppose that’s fine. It must have been a bit demoralizing for the players on the field – and Bonnano himself – to have to string it out, but what other options were there? Throw in another position player and hope he gets better results? I suppose that was one of them, but in the grand scheme of things it’s hardly a debate worth having.
But really, in case I’ve overlooked it – this was, up to the eighth, an absolute jewel of a game and I had a blast watching it in the Brantford press box with some IBL lifers who really knew their stuff and had a ton of knowledge to share about the league.
So, then, to the future we now look. And the view isn’t pretty – I don’t really care to research the exact percentage chance that teams down 3-0 in best of sevens have of coming back, but we can all imagine it’s a very low one. I’ll say this for the Twins, though: the Boston Red Sox in 2004 had a far lower chance of coming back against New York than Mississauga does against Brantford, and we all know how that one turned out (or we shouldn’t be reading a baseball blog if we don’t, anyways).
And dammit, the Twins have been so frustratingly close. Surely, surely, surely, if the baseball gods have any sense of justice whatsoever, they manage to rattle off a win or two in this series. It’s true – it would require the full wrath and fury of the baseball gods being directed at the Red Sox for the Twins to come back and win this thing, but a few wins hardly seem out of the question.
Anyways, I guess we’re standing on the abyss – I’ll be back on Wednesday with coverage of game four, and with any luck there’ll be a fifth one. Stay tuned!
They dropped tonight’s tilt in Brantford by a score of 14-2 – it was a great game for most of it; the wheels came off in the bottom of the eighth when the Twins surrendered 10 (ten!) runs, putting it far out of reach.
In that eighth inning (as will be documented in game story, to be posted soon on the Twins’ site), Mike Bonnano was put in to do mop-up duty and he was just all over the place – at one point, the bases were loaded and all three runs scored on passed balls. Not pretty.
Other than that one inning, the Twins absolutely showed up tonight – in terms of defense and pitching, at least. They kept it close; it was a 1-run game for a lot of it and only a 2-run game as of the sixth inning. The big problem, though, was that the bats just would not come around – they couldn’t get hits in key situations, and they ran themselves into a lot of stupid outs (Brendan Emmett making the third out stealing third; Branson Joseph hosed at the plate on a hopeless send; Jonathan Slattery picked off second to end an inning).
Bonnano being put into the game was more or less a waving of the white flag of sorts. After the game, coach Held conceded that he was basically out of options. The only real bullets he had left in his chamber were Derek Gordon and Adam Banski, both of whom will be needed at full capacity for Wednesday’s elimination game (although they’re all elimination games from here on out, which is obviously a bit of a problem).
Held obviously had no intention of taking Bonnano out of the game – I wonder just how long it could have gone on for – and I suppose that’s fine. It must have been a bit demoralizing for the players on the field – and Bonnano himself – to have to string it out, but what other options were there? Throw in another position player and hope he gets better results? I suppose that was one of them, but in the grand scheme of things it’s hardly a debate worth having.
But really, in case I’ve overlooked it – this was, up to the eighth, an absolute jewel of a game and I had a blast watching it in the Brantford press box with some IBL lifers who really knew their stuff and had a ton of knowledge to share about the league.
So, then, to the future we now look. And the view isn’t pretty – I don’t really care to research the exact percentage chance that teams down 3-0 in best of sevens have of coming back, but we can all imagine it’s a very low one. I’ll say this for the Twins, though: the Boston Red Sox in 2004 had a far lower chance of coming back against New York than Mississauga does against Brantford, and we all know how that one turned out (or we shouldn’t be reading a baseball blog if we don’t, anyways).
And dammit, the Twins have been so frustratingly close. Surely, surely, surely, if the baseball gods have any sense of justice whatsoever, they manage to rattle off a win or two in this series. It’s true – it would require the full wrath and fury of the baseball gods being directed at the Red Sox for the Twins to come back and win this thing, but a few wins hardly seem out of the question.
Anyways, I guess we’re standing on the abyss – I’ll be back on Wednesday with coverage of game four, and with any luck there’ll be a fifth one. Stay tuned!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
(Plotting to Slip) The Noose
I sort of fell behind the blogging curve because of being up north, but I’m back now and the Twins are in the heat of their first ever playoff series – not incidentally, they’re also teetering on the brink of disaster.
They wound up coming in seventh, passing Kitchener in the tiebreaker, which turned out to be run differential in head-to-head games. As a result, they drew second place Brantford in the first round. I heard several different descriptions of how the tiebreaker was settled throughout the season; I’m pretty sure that head-to-head run differential was not one of them.
Anyways, even before game 1 was played I saw a bit of a problem with this. I have always argued that a first round match-up with Brantford was the Twins’ best shot because they’ve beaten them and played them tight in the regular season, but my thinking shifted over the last week of the season: Barrie spent the better part of a week on cruise control after clinching; Brantford, on the other hand, have been playing hard to fight for second.
Trying to jump the complacent, cruise-control team and take them by surprise seemed to me, by far, to be a better bet than taking on the Red Sox. Reality, I think, bears me out: Barrie find themselves in a shockingly tight series with Kitchener, up 2-1 but with both of their wins being by a single run. Mississauga, on the other hand, trail Brantford 2-0. I think the Twins are a better team than Kitchener, so had they drawn Barrie it’s not unthinkable that they could have the 2-1 advantage.
But the punchline is that they didn’t – they’re in a hole against Brantford and have their heads in a noose heading into tomorrow (today’s) 8.00 tilt in Brantford. If they lose, the noose is substantially tightened as they’ll trail 3-0 in the series; if they win, they’ll come home with a chance to even the series up before heading back on the road later in the week, where they normally play far better than at home.
There’s some upside for the Twins. The two games that they dropped to open the series have been very tight – the real heartbreaker was a 2-1 loss in extra innings to open the series up on Saturday night (they took a 1-0 lead in the top of the ninth and coughed it up), and today they lost 7-4, and, from what I’ve seen and read, they were right there: it was a 1-run game until Brantford put up 2 in the ninth, and given the Twins’ season it’s very likely that a couple of the Brantford runs shouldn’t have scored and/or that they missed a few chances to punch in extra runs.
Branson Joseph, I’m pretty sure it was, told the Mississauga news today that he felt the first two games of the set were the best the Twins have played all year.
So, the following factors all go in the Twins favour right now, despite how ominous a 2-0 deficit strikes most people as: they have beaten Brantford in Brantford; they’ve come close to beating Brantford at home; they’ve played very well lately; they’ll have an acute sense of urgency that Brantford will not have, being down 2-0; and, most importantly, they play a hell of a lot better on the road than at home.
Like I said, all it takes is a W tomorrow on the road, and they get to come home looking to tie the series. They’ve been very close; tomorrow could well be their day.
I’ll be at the game tomorrow – to make up for missing the 2 o’clock long-weekend Sunday home game – and on Wednesday, and likely the rest of the games from here on out (for the first round, at least).
Take a look at my game story from the Kitchener playoff-clinching win at http://www.mississaugatwins.ca/gamenotes.htm and check back tomorrow night for post-game blogging!
They wound up coming in seventh, passing Kitchener in the tiebreaker, which turned out to be run differential in head-to-head games. As a result, they drew second place Brantford in the first round. I heard several different descriptions of how the tiebreaker was settled throughout the season; I’m pretty sure that head-to-head run differential was not one of them.
Anyways, even before game 1 was played I saw a bit of a problem with this. I have always argued that a first round match-up with Brantford was the Twins’ best shot because they’ve beaten them and played them tight in the regular season, but my thinking shifted over the last week of the season: Barrie spent the better part of a week on cruise control after clinching; Brantford, on the other hand, have been playing hard to fight for second.
Trying to jump the complacent, cruise-control team and take them by surprise seemed to me, by far, to be a better bet than taking on the Red Sox. Reality, I think, bears me out: Barrie find themselves in a shockingly tight series with Kitchener, up 2-1 but with both of their wins being by a single run. Mississauga, on the other hand, trail Brantford 2-0. I think the Twins are a better team than Kitchener, so had they drawn Barrie it’s not unthinkable that they could have the 2-1 advantage.
But the punchline is that they didn’t – they’re in a hole against Brantford and have their heads in a noose heading into tomorrow (today’s) 8.00 tilt in Brantford. If they lose, the noose is substantially tightened as they’ll trail 3-0 in the series; if they win, they’ll come home with a chance to even the series up before heading back on the road later in the week, where they normally play far better than at home.
There’s some upside for the Twins. The two games that they dropped to open the series have been very tight – the real heartbreaker was a 2-1 loss in extra innings to open the series up on Saturday night (they took a 1-0 lead in the top of the ninth and coughed it up), and today they lost 7-4, and, from what I’ve seen and read, they were right there: it was a 1-run game until Brantford put up 2 in the ninth, and given the Twins’ season it’s very likely that a couple of the Brantford runs shouldn’t have scored and/or that they missed a few chances to punch in extra runs.
Branson Joseph, I’m pretty sure it was, told the Mississauga news today that he felt the first two games of the set were the best the Twins have played all year.
So, the following factors all go in the Twins favour right now, despite how ominous a 2-0 deficit strikes most people as: they have beaten Brantford in Brantford; they’ve come close to beating Brantford at home; they’ve played very well lately; they’ll have an acute sense of urgency that Brantford will not have, being down 2-0; and, most importantly, they play a hell of a lot better on the road than at home.
Like I said, all it takes is a W tomorrow on the road, and they get to come home looking to tie the series. They’ve been very close; tomorrow could well be their day.
I’ll be at the game tomorrow – to make up for missing the 2 o’clock long-weekend Sunday home game – and on Wednesday, and likely the rest of the games from here on out (for the first round, at least).
Take a look at my game story from the Kitchener playoff-clinching win at http://www.mississaugatwins.ca/gamenotes.htm and check back tomorrow night for post-game blogging!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Taking it Home
The Mississauga Twins clinched their first ever playoff berth in my first ever non-Christie Pitts road game, doing so with a 5-4 win over Kitchener. It is now mathematically impossible for the Hamilton Thunderbirds to finish the season tied with the Twins for the eighth seed – and final playoff spot – in the IBL.
The win also means that I’ll be skipping tomorrow’s home finale against Guelph in favour of the cottage – is it that tough of a choice, really? – but I’ll be back for the playoffs!
The game tonight was a bit sloppy – a few runners thrown out on awkward plays where they probably shouldn’t have been running (or obviously shouldn’t have been running, in hindsight), but that applied to both teams. Both teams loaded the bases with nobody out and failed to capitalize one time apiece, as well. Kitchener booted the ball around a bit – with crisper defence, Mississauga wouldn’t have built up the 4-0 lead that it did in the top of the first and we would be looking at an entirely different outcome (and playoff picture) right about now.
Shane Cole was as good as I’ve ever seen him, both in terms of stuff (his ball was both quick and lively) and results – he pitched five innings, only allowing three runs and picking up the W. Adam Banski pitched three awesome innings of relief (including the bottom of the ninth) and he again proved himself to be GM Kelcher’s best mid-season pick up. The Twins would literally have 2 or 3 (maybe as many as 4) fewer wins than they now do without him; giving him a chance to play again after Tommy John surgery was literally a season-saving decision on their part.
Darryl Pui hurt himself early in the game (a pulled hamstring, I’m told) and the Twins will need him back for the playoffs. Jeff Macleod, normally strictly a pitcher, filled in in right field and didn’t look a beat off tune the whole time. He was also smooth with the bat, having extra bases taken away from him by the Kitchener centre fielder late in the game.
His real contribution, though, came in the bottom of the ninth, when he hosed an ill-advised Panther who attempted to turn a single into a double at second base. It was actually a close play – I’m thinking it wasn’t altogether an awful decision by Kitchener to force the issue – and Macleod threw both a rocket and a strike to nail him. Without that throw, Kitchener would have had the tying run in scoring position with no one out and we could well still be playing.
The Twins and Panthers are now tied for seventh. I’m told, however, that Kitchener has the edge in a hypothetical tiebreaker, so if both teams lose tomorrow the seventh seed goes to them and the Twins fall to eighth.
That said, if Mississauga beats Guelph and Kitchener loses to Brantford tomorrow, the Twins finish the year with sole possession of seventh.
I’m not really sure anymore that there’s a real advantage to playing Brantford over Barrie in the first round. Mathematically, though, Toronto and Guelph are both still in the running for second place – so we’ll have to see how it all shakes out.
Oh yes – I didn’t update the blog to reflect some scheduling changes made on Sunday: the Twins did wind up getting in their make-up against Brantford, playing in Brantford on Monday night and losing 7-1. They were sloppy in doing so, making four errors over the course of the game.
The playoff schedule is still very much up in the air – the tentative (home) schedule that I saw had the Twins at home on Monday the 3rd, and then the following Wednesday and Saturday. But tonight there were rumours of a Saturday home game (which will be tougher for me to make, but I just might still do it anyways), so at this point I really don’t know.
I’ll try to update the blog to inform ya’ll of the dates and times of the Twins’ home games once they are confirmed, though!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Scheduling the Twins
The most important day of the Mississauga Twins’ season came and went without a single game being played that affected them. There were six games on slate for Sunday in the IBL – an absurd number for a nine team league – and only two were played; that was a doubleheader at Christie Pitts, where the Maple Leafs beat the just-clinched pennant champion Barrie Baycats twice.
All of the rained out games directly impacted the Twins in some way: Brantford-Kitchener was cancelled, and the Twins need Kitchener to continue losing if they are to have a shot at seventh place; both of the Twins’ games, including a pivotal contest against Kitchener that will determine whether or not the Twins even have a chance at the seventh spot and a rained out home game against Guelph that was only being played in Guelph due to diamond availability, were scrapped; and, lastly, the Hamilton/London game, in which a Hamilton loss would assure the Twins of a playoff spot and a Hamilton victory would force them to win at least one of their remaining games to not finish the season in a tie for eighth was also a wash.
The Hamilton-London contest will be played tomorrow, Monday, as the only game on the IBL slate, and its outcome will certainly dramatically alter, one way or another, the tone of the Twins’ final three games: there will be a big difference between playing for a playoff spot and playing with a playoff spot guaranteed and only the luxury of moving up in the standings hanging in the balance.
Mississauga’s schedule the rest of the way out is not entirely clear just yet, in part due to what appears to be an administrative error by the league. What we do know is that the Twins play Kitchener in Kitchener on Tuesday; however, the IBL website lists the Twins playing Guelph twice on Wednesday. The problem with this, of course, is that the Twins only have one game left against Guelph – their other remaining home game is a make-up against Brantford.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on – maybe there wasn’t an administrative error and the Twins actually are playing Guelph twice on Wednesday, instead of Guelph once and Brantford once. Brantford are in Kitchener Wednesday night, so it would obviously be very hard for them to play in Mississauga earlier in the day and get up there for a 7.30 start. In this case, they would have changed the schedule, obviously, having Guelph take Brantford’s place in a game against Mississauga, and while that seems highly improbable, the IBL are desperate to wrap the regular season up and it’s tough to imagine the season extending beyond Wednesday. Of course, it’s equally tough to imagine that they’d just substitute one team for another in the schedule, so I really have no idea whatsoever.
I’ve sent a couple of emails and I’ll probably follow them up with phone calls tomorrow if necessary to get concrete answers. If I do get a reply tonight that contains important information, I’ll put it up here and fire off a news post for the website.
One more thing before I go – looking at the standings, a very interesting development has cropped up: Toronto is now tied for second place with Brantford, each of them two games back of Barrie. The kicker, though, is that Brantford has played two games less than Toronto has – all the more reason to think, given that they’re now in a tie, that they absolutely must get that rain-out against Mississauga in.
Beyond that, though, the exciting part is the possibility of Mississauga finishing in seventh and Toronto second – that would set up a Battle of the GTA first round, and I’m sure it would be a lot of fun for everyone. It’s certainly an angle I’ll keep an eye on as the next few days play out!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Where We Are
The Twins have dealt with two consecutive rainouts in the past two nights, and there’s a real possibility tomorrow’s game against Brantford could be a wash as well. It’s going to be a problem because there simply aren’t enough days left in the regular season to make them up. The season officially ends Sunday; the Twins, though, play in Kitchener to make up the Wednesday rain-out and then need to play into next week to get in the Guelph game. Word right now is either Monday or Wednesday, and possibly in Guelph (despite it being a home game).
The problem is that they want to wrap things up ASAP so they can have the maximum amount of time possible to rest up for the playoffs – presumably, if they play Monday they could start the playoffs Wednesday or Thursday, and if they play Wednesday they’d have to start Thursday. Maybe they’d start as late as Friday, but I doubt it.
And what happens if the Twins finish the year tied for eighth with Hamilton and require a sudden death, one game playoff after all of the regular season games have been completed? That pushes everything back further, since that game would obviously be absolutely necessary.
Speaking of which, let’s revisit the Twins’ playoff arithmetic:
Hamilton lost tonight in London; it was as close as could possibly be with a 1-0 final. The Thunderbirds now sit two games back of the Twins for the final playoff spot – but the problem is, one of those games is composed of two half games from games which Hamilton has played that Mississauga has not.
Mississauga has three games remaining; Hamilton has one. In order for the two teams to finish in a tie, the Twins need to lose all three of their remaining games and Hamilton needs to win their last game, at home against London on Sunday. The problem is, though, that Hamilton has been playing well as of late. Earlier in the season, they were as far back of the Twins as five and six games; of the past month and a half or so, they’ve narrowed that to one game (in real terms, anyways) and recently have played Brantford to within one run (losing 8-7 earlier in the week) and also lost games by a single run to Mississauga and, tonight, London.
Coupled with all the games they’ve won recently that the Twins haven’t, there’s a very credible chance that they could upset London at home on Sunday, inasfar as the chances of upsets can be credible.
The good news, though, is that the Twins clinch a playoff spot by winning one of their remaining games. At that point, they’d the most ground they could lose to Hamilton is the two games (which are actually worth one in the standings) that are made up of games Mississauga has in hand.
The one that they really want to win is against Kitchener on Sunday. It would pull them even with Kitchener for the seventh spot, and to overtake them they’d need to win one more game than Kitchener loses. Other than the game against each other, both teams have two games remaining: Kitchener plays Toronto tomorrow and Brantford Sunday, before they play Mississauga, and Mississauga, as we know, plays Brantford tonight (Saturday) and Guelph at a yet to be determined date.
There’s a good chance that Kitchener loses to both Toronto and Brantford – both teams are good, and they’ll be playing to kill because they’re very much fighting for leverage in the standings. The problem is that the same thing could be said of Mississauga’s chances against Brantford and Guelph. Twins’ fans can take heart in the fact that the Twins almost beat Guelph on Tuesday, in a game everyone says they should have won, and have already beaten Brantford earlier in the year and played them very close on other occasions. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that they’ll pick off one of those games.
I was at the park tonight and all the players and everyone was there, but even after the game was called I didn’t bother doing any story-chasing. If tomorrow’s game is cancelled, and that would create a huge mess for everyone, I’ll likely be at the park until it’s officially off because they’ll do everything they can to get it in. When I am, I’ll try to tie down some pre-playoff loose ends I’ve been trying to pin down – conversations with newcomers, like Banski and Dickson, as well as getting injuries updates on Asis and Pui. The Twins will need them to be hot to have a fighting chance in any playoff series.
Blog at you after the game tomorrow!
PS -- I almost forgot! Jake Eliopolis, who was drafted by the Blue Jays this past June (and who is younger than me -- my God) is supposedly still with the Red Sox right now, and I've been planning on trying to chat with him for a long time but I haven't seen the Red Sox play since May 23rd, prior to his being drafted. I'm not sure if I'll do a feature on him if I get the chance to talk, due to the lack of a place to publish it (although I may well shop it around -- who knows?) but if I do talk to him, I'll definitely either paraphrase or quote what he had to say on the blog.
I've also wanted to talk to Rick Johnston, a Red Sox coach/executive who has been around Baseball Canada, the Blue Jays & really everything else baseball in Canada for quite some time. The big thing I wanted to chat about was the future of the national team -- and Ernie Whitt's future as manager -- after that debacle in March, but I was also curios to get his thoughts on what's going on with the Blue Jays right now, since I'm pretty sure he guest-coached at spring training during the Gaston Era I. Anyways, nothing against Rick, but I kind of doubt that there's a market for an article about that conversation, but it'll definitely go up here because I'm sure it'll be very interesting stuff!
The problem is that they want to wrap things up ASAP so they can have the maximum amount of time possible to rest up for the playoffs – presumably, if they play Monday they could start the playoffs Wednesday or Thursday, and if they play Wednesday they’d have to start Thursday. Maybe they’d start as late as Friday, but I doubt it.
And what happens if the Twins finish the year tied for eighth with Hamilton and require a sudden death, one game playoff after all of the regular season games have been completed? That pushes everything back further, since that game would obviously be absolutely necessary.
Speaking of which, let’s revisit the Twins’ playoff arithmetic:
Hamilton lost tonight in London; it was as close as could possibly be with a 1-0 final. The Thunderbirds now sit two games back of the Twins for the final playoff spot – but the problem is, one of those games is composed of two half games from games which Hamilton has played that Mississauga has not.
Mississauga has three games remaining; Hamilton has one. In order for the two teams to finish in a tie, the Twins need to lose all three of their remaining games and Hamilton needs to win their last game, at home against London on Sunday. The problem is, though, that Hamilton has been playing well as of late. Earlier in the season, they were as far back of the Twins as five and six games; of the past month and a half or so, they’ve narrowed that to one game (in real terms, anyways) and recently have played Brantford to within one run (losing 8-7 earlier in the week) and also lost games by a single run to Mississauga and, tonight, London.
Coupled with all the games they’ve won recently that the Twins haven’t, there’s a very credible chance that they could upset London at home on Sunday, inasfar as the chances of upsets can be credible.
The good news, though, is that the Twins clinch a playoff spot by winning one of their remaining games. At that point, they’d the most ground they could lose to Hamilton is the two games (which are actually worth one in the standings) that are made up of games Mississauga has in hand.
The one that they really want to win is against Kitchener on Sunday. It would pull them even with Kitchener for the seventh spot, and to overtake them they’d need to win one more game than Kitchener loses. Other than the game against each other, both teams have two games remaining: Kitchener plays Toronto tomorrow and Brantford Sunday, before they play Mississauga, and Mississauga, as we know, plays Brantford tonight (Saturday) and Guelph at a yet to be determined date.
There’s a good chance that Kitchener loses to both Toronto and Brantford – both teams are good, and they’ll be playing to kill because they’re very much fighting for leverage in the standings. The problem is that the same thing could be said of Mississauga’s chances against Brantford and Guelph. Twins’ fans can take heart in the fact that the Twins almost beat Guelph on Tuesday, in a game everyone says they should have won, and have already beaten Brantford earlier in the year and played them very close on other occasions. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that they’ll pick off one of those games.
I was at the park tonight and all the players and everyone was there, but even after the game was called I didn’t bother doing any story-chasing. If tomorrow’s game is cancelled, and that would create a huge mess for everyone, I’ll likely be at the park until it’s officially off because they’ll do everything they can to get it in. When I am, I’ll try to tie down some pre-playoff loose ends I’ve been trying to pin down – conversations with newcomers, like Banski and Dickson, as well as getting injuries updates on Asis and Pui. The Twins will need them to be hot to have a fighting chance in any playoff series.
Blog at you after the game tomorrow!
PS -- I almost forgot! Jake Eliopolis, who was drafted by the Blue Jays this past June (and who is younger than me -- my God) is supposedly still with the Red Sox right now, and I've been planning on trying to chat with him for a long time but I haven't seen the Red Sox play since May 23rd, prior to his being drafted. I'm not sure if I'll do a feature on him if I get the chance to talk, due to the lack of a place to publish it (although I may well shop it around -- who knows?) but if I do talk to him, I'll definitely either paraphrase or quote what he had to say on the blog.
I've also wanted to talk to Rick Johnston, a Red Sox coach/executive who has been around Baseball Canada, the Blue Jays & really everything else baseball in Canada for quite some time. The big thing I wanted to chat about was the future of the national team -- and Ernie Whitt's future as manager -- after that debacle in March, but I was also curios to get his thoughts on what's going on with the Blue Jays right now, since I'm pretty sure he guest-coached at spring training during the Gaston Era I. Anyways, nothing against Rick, but I kind of doubt that there's a market for an article about that conversation, but it'll definitely go up here because I'm sure it'll be very interesting stuff!
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