(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!
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