Playoff Preview: Maple vs. Boston

It's the Commissioner Series! Baseball Stars commissioner Gray Ulery leads his Cardinals against Adult Baseball commissioner Jason Goldberg's Marauders. Boston led all of baseball with 103 wins, while Maple snuck into the playoffs in the final weeks, capitalizing on San Francisco's September collapse. But none of that matters now. Let's take a look at how these two teams match up.

Catcher. Boston's George White batted .252 with 14 home runs. Maple would love such production from their backstops: Pancho Álvarez batted .223 while backup Jorge Rodríguez batted .170. Advantage Boston.

First Base. Both Don Strickland and José Gonzáles will miss the series. Maple was dealt a severe blow when Strickland strained his back in September. Boston's Gonzáles has recurring back spasms. Both teams will have below-average hitters playing at first. Even.

Dave Lane

Second Base. It's offense versus defense. Maple's Tom Hunter batted .201 with no power, but he plays a solid second base. Boston's Dave Lane slugged 20 home runs. Advantage Boston.

Third Base. Boston's Miguel Rámos fractured his thumb. Defensive wiz John White will start in his place. Maple has light-hitting Anastacio Rincón at third. Even.

Ed White

Shortstop. Boston's Ed White stroked 68 doubles, leading all of baseball, and played the best defensive shortstop in baseball. Since arriving from Minneota, Derek Beimer provided Maple with some offensive spark, but he has a bruised knee and will miss the first few games of the playoffs. Advantage Boston.

Anthony Shelton

Left Field. Maple's Anthony Shelton missed several months of the season but slugged 14 home runs in only 54 games. Boston's Alex Austin hit 55 doubles and drove in 77 runs. Advantage Maple.

Center Field. Maple's Anthony Lewis provides power, hitting 25 home runs to go along with a .275 average. He also plays a solid center field. Boston's Javier Ramón bats leadoff and provides tremendous on-base skills: he has a .411 on-base percentage. Even.

Frank Powers

Right Field. Abel Baker is another Boston doubles machine. He hit 41 of them along with 18 home runs. Maple's Frank Powers won the Munson League batting title with a .367 average, and he posted a .449 on-base percentage. He led all Munson League batters in WAR. Advantage Maple.

Designated Hitter. Maple's Eric McSwan batted .299 while Boston's Will Bauer batted .297. McSwan hit more home runs, 34 to 24, while Bauer hit more doubles, 48 to 29. Even.

Norm Jackson

Starting Pitcher. Do you realize that 20-game-winner Norm Jackson finished second among Cardinal starters in ERA? Adam Thomas edged Cheers out by the narrowest of margins, 2.97 to 2.96. Jackson gains a lot of value by working deeper into games: each started 32 games, but Jackson pitched over 40 innings more than Thomas. They make a tremendous one-two punch.

Boston's rotation also has depth. Jim Fleming (15-8, 3.93 ERA) had a strong year and is only 24 years old. Veteran Marshall Hamilton (9-3, 3.61) has impressed since his promotion from Triple-A. Jimmy Drake (11-12, 4.34) may not have performed as well as expected but is a solid back-of-the-rotation pitcher. Very few pitching staffs can match up with Boston's.

Roberto
Martínez

Maple's pitching staff, however, is one of those staffs. Roberto Martínez matches up with Jackson. He went 17-8, posted a 2.37 ERA, and gave up the fewest hits per inning of any Munson League pitcher. Dave Krause posted an unremarkable 10-8 record while Pat Sellers led the Marauders by going 18-10, but the underlying statistics of the two pitchers are very similar. Krause pitched seven more innings and struck out three more batters. Sellers walked 19 more batters, but Krause allowed 21 more hits. Krause ended up with a 3.51 ERA while Sellers ended up with 3.79. Jesse George (12-13, 3.69 ERA) and James Dooley (8-10, 3.64 ERA) round out the staff: Dooley struck out 154 in 153 innings. Advantage Maple.

Millard Marshall

Relievers. Maple's bullpen is solid. Millard Marshall saved 38 games. Brandon Wilson (2.21 ERA) and Brad Austin (18 saves, 2.29 ERA) made the seventh and eighth innings difficult for batters around the league. Dan Wilder (3.25 ERA), Emmanuel Villa (3.42), and Keith Thompson (3.66 ERA) round out a strong pen.

R.J. Lukies

The Cardinals have the most dominate relievers in baseball. As a group, they posted an astounding 2.12 ERA. Javier Solís saved 28 games and struck out 110 in 83 innings. Brock Maddox saved 19 games. But neither matched the setup man, R.J. Lukies. He was virtually unhittable, striking out 111 in 92 innings, walking only 13, and posting a 0.97 ERA. Nathan Wilson (2.30 ERA), Joe Nelson (1.73 ERA), and Dan Morris (1.97 ERA) would be closers or setup men on most teams. The Cardinals can comfortably hand over the game to the bullpen in the sixth inning. Advantage Boston.

Overall. Maple has top bats in the outfield, but late-season injuries to Don Strickland and Derek Beimer have left big holes in the lineup. Frank Powers, Eric McSwan, Anthony Shelton, and Anthony Lewis will have to score and (considering Boston's bullpen) score early.

Boston's top bats are not quite as good as Maple's, but the Cardinals lineup is more balanced. Where Maple will rely on sudden bursts of offense via the long ball, Boston can grind out rallies and double a team to death. The challenge for Boston will be to sustain a rally: Maple's pitching and defense make few mistakes.

Boston is a clear favorite on paper, but Maple has enough top-shelf talent to pull off an upset.