REGIONAL #208:  I thought there was something fishy about the draw for this bracket, mainly because three of the teams were Marlins.  And, although most versions of the Marlins weren’t very good, this trio included one of the more improbable World Series winners in recent memory, the 1997 Marlins.  However, they weren’t the only unlikely Series champ in here, as the draw also included the Twins of 1987 of the homer hankies in the uncomfortably loud Metrodome, and with them on the other side of the bracket these two Series winners could potentially face off in a very intriguing final.  Most of the other teams in the group didn’t look like very stiff competition, although there was an Angels team that I guessed might have some potential.  I was picking the final I was pulling for, guessing that the Twins would prevail over the ‘97 version of the fish in the finals.   The ELO ratings confirmed my suspicions about the Angels, indicating that they were an appreciably better team than the Twins and picking them as victors over the pennant-winners in both the semifinals and the finals.  

First round action

I don’t believe I’ve ever run across a World Series winner with a worse ELO rating than the 1987 Twins, who weren’t placed among the top 1000 teams and with an 85-77 record were only the 12th best team in baseball in ‘87 by the ELO metric.  Even so, they had three guys in the lineup with 30+ homers in Hrbek, Gaetti and Brunansky, and that didn’t even count Kirby Puckett, who finished 3rd in the MVP voting.  Even though the back part of their rotation was suspect, Frank Viola (17-10, 2.90) was strong at the top, earning 6th place in the Cy Young votes before winning it the next season.  They looked to me like big favorites over the 2011 Marlins, who lost 90 games burning through three different managers in the process and had as their main claim to fame, one Mike Stanton before he became Giancarlo.  They also had Javier Vasquez (13-11, 3.69) as their staff ace in what proved to be his final year in baseball, and if needed they had some nice cards in the bullpen ready to go.  Puckett goes yard in the bottom of the 1st to deafening applause in the Metrodome, and then both pitchers settle in for a duel.  When Hrbek leads off the bottom of the 7th with a double, the Marlins bring in Steve Cishek to try to keep it close, but then his 3B-4 Greg Dobbs drops a grounder to make it 1st and 3rd; in comes the infield, and Gaetti finds his gbA++ to rip a single past 3rd and the Twins extend their lead. Cishek then walks the bases full, and although the infield manages to nail the runner at the plate on two consecutive grounders, #9 hitter Steve Lombardozzi draws a two out walk to put the Twinkies up by three.  However, in the top of the 9th Stanton leads off with a tape measure home run, and the Twins eye their pen and there is no relief in sight.  So Viola bears down to retire three in a row to finish out a 5-hitter and the Twins survive and move on with the 3-1 win. 

The 2014 Angels were the top seed in this bracket over two World Series winners, winning 98 games and the AL West only to get swept in the ALDS.  They boasted AL MVP Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, along with a pretty good pitching staff from whom Garrett Richards (13-4, 2.61) was selected for the round one start.  It seemed kind of wasteful to use him against the 112-loss 1965 Mets, who were one of the 25 worst teams of all time according to ELO and I thought they looked worse than their more infamous 1962 counterparts; they couldn’t really hit or field, and Jack Fisher (8-24, 3.93) managed to lose 24 games despite earning a pretty nice card.  The bottom of the 2nd proves dangerous for the Angels, as Pujols rolls an injury to lead off but he’s able to shake it off and stay in the game, but two batters later Josh Hamilton is knocked out with another injury.  That seems to wake up their bats, as David Freese leads off the bottom of the 3rd with a homer and the Angels get another run courtesy of a 2-base error by the Mets best fielder, SS-2 Roy McMillan.   From there, Fisher is in control, but unfortunately for him Richards dominates the feeble Mets lineup and he finishes with a four-hit shutout as the Angels scrape by with a 2-0 win, and Hamilton will return for their presumably more challenging semifinal against the pennant-winning Twins.

Because there was a Series-winning Marlins squad in this half of the bracket, it might be easy to overlook the 2004 Marlins but they had also been a Series-winner in the prior season and despite a dropoff, they were still over .500 at 83-79 with 21 year old Miguel Cabrera getting MVP votes and Carl Pavano (18-6, 3.00) finishing 6th for the Cy Young.  The 1991 Royals had a similar 82-80 record, with their main weapon being Danny Tartabull who led the AL in SLG% and received some MVP votes; Bret Saberhagen (13-8, 3.07) headed up a decent rotation and there was help in the pen if needed.  In the top of the 2nd, 38 year old KC icon George Brett singles in a run and then he scores on a Kurt Stillwell double and the Royals grab the lead.  The Marlins tie it in the 3rd, with an RBI single from Cabrera and then an error from 3B-3 Bill Pecota setting up a run-scoring fielder’s choice on a Damion Easley grounder.  The Royals respond immediately, with another elder statesman, Kirk Gibson, clouting an RBI double in the 4th, and they add to the lead in the 5th when Tartabull triples in one run and scores another on a sac fly.   KC seems intent on giving the game back as SS-3 Stillwell makes his second error of the game in the 5th to set up a Jeff Conine RBI single, but the Marlins leave the bases loaded and the Royals still lead 5-3 after five.  A Pecota single in the 7th and the Marlins quickly go to Armando Benitez and his 1.29 ERA, but with two away 1B-3 Jeff Conine drops a grounder and then Mike McFarlane knocks a 3-run homer and the Royals push out the defensive replacements to try to lock things up.  Saberhagen does exactly that, finishing with four hitless innings en route to a 3-hitter and the Royals cruise to the semifinals with an 8-3 victory.  

The 1997 Marlins were surprise World Series winners coming out of the wild card spot as a fairly young expansion team, but they won 92 games with Moises Alou and Charles Johnson both getting MVP votes and Kevin Brown (16-8, 2.69) was a formidable round one starter.  Fellow Floridians, the 2003 Rays lost 99 games, with their main bright spot being Aubrey Huff, who got a few MVP votes himself; however, their rotation was certainly not winning any awards with Jeremi Gonzalez (6-11, 3.91) the only decent option.  Johnson puts one into the cheap seats of Pro Player Stadium for a solo shot in the 2nd to put the Marlins ahead, but the Rays respond immediately, with Julio Lugo ripping an RBI double past RF-4 Gary Sheffield to tie it in the top of the 3rd.  However, Luis Castillo leads off the bottom of the inning with a triple and he scores of a Sheffield fielder’s choice to put the Marlins back up, 2-1.  Johnson adds an RBI triple in the 6th to provide a good foundation for a cycle, and he scores on an Edgar Renteria sac fly to extend the Marlins lead.  Carl Crawford singles home a run for the Rays in the 7th, and Brown hang in there until the 9th, when he allows a couple of squib singles and a walk to load the bases with one out.  After a mound conference, the Marlins decide to stick with their ace, and he fans Lugo to bring up Huff, who lofts a deep fly that’s hauled in on the warning track to seal the 4-2 win for the Marlins.

The survivors

A high profile semifinal here pits the top seeded 2014 Angels and Jered Weaver (18-9, 3.59), who led the AL in wins, against the Series champion 1987 Twins and Bert Blyleven (15-12, 4.01), who led the AL in home runs allowed with 46.  The Twins jump out to a lead when Angels C-4 Chris Iannetta drops a popup that ultimately leads to a run on a Tom Brunansky fielder’s choice.  However, the Angels’ bats wake up in the 2nd, with RBI singles from Josh Hamilton and Howie Kendrick giving LA the lead, but they leave the bases loaded which could come back to haunt them.  Blyleven begins the bottom of the 4th by committing a two-base error, and then he delivers a gopher ball to David Freese; the next batter is Hamilton and he rolls the same solid HR result on Blyleven to go back to back and the Twins opt to try Jeff Reardon out of the pen, even though he has longball issues of his own.  He proves more effective, and the Twins rally in the 6th with a couple of hits and a key error from LA 2B-2 Kendrick, setting up a two run Brunansky single and then a walk loads the bases.  At that point it’s the Angels’ turn to visit the bullpen, and Joe Smith and his 1.81 ERA is summoned to try to hold the lead; a whiff and a nice play by SS-2 Erick Aybar and lead holds at 5-3.  Kevin Jepsen comes in for the Angels for the 8th and 9th, and he chugs along nicely until with two out in the 9th, when Tim Laudner crushes a solo shot into the grandstand of Angels stadium and it’s a one-run game, with PH Randy Bush coming in to hit in the ninth spot.  Jepsen delivers, and Bush grounds out to Pujols and the Angels hold on for the 5-4 win and a spot in the regional final.  

The #2 seeded 1997 Marlins were last of two remaining Series winners in this bracket, and their quest to meet the top seed in the finals involved getting past the #5 seed 1991 Royals, who had already upset one Marlins team in this bracket and looked forward to doing it again.  It was a pretty good pitching matchup with Alex Fernandez (17-12, 3.59) of the Marlins against Kevin Appier (13-10, 3.42), but Jim Eisenreich finds and converts Fernandez’ HR split as the second batter of the game, and the Royals rap three more hits against Fernandez culminating in an RBI single by Kirk Gibson and KC quickly leads 2-0.   Meanwhile, the Marlins can’t get anything going until the bottom of the 5th, in which they record four hits but only one run, and that on a Devon White sac fly, as Moises Alou whiffs to end the inning with the bases loaded.  However, in the 6th Darren Daulton ties it up on a solo homer, and with the game resetting for the 7th inning the Marlins bring in Livan Hernandez, who was four innings short of eligibility as a starter.  When Appier walks two in a row in the bottom of the 7th, the Royals counter with the unhittable Joel Johnson and his 0.40 ERA, but in the 8th the Marlins roll on their cards and Bobby Bonilla lumbers home (1-12) on a Daulton double to put the Floridians ahead for the first time in the game.  The Marlins then bring in defensive replacements and reliever Jay Powell for the top of the 9th, but Brian McRae finds a single on Powell to lead off and Terry Shumpert bunts him into scoring position to bring up the top of the order.  But Charles Johnson hangs on to a foulout, and Eisenreich goes down swinging and the Marlins head to the finals with the come from behind 3-2 win.  

In a rare regional final between the two top seeds, it was the favored 2014 Angels and Matt Shoemaker (16-4, 3.04), the Rookie of the Year runner-up, against the surprise Series winner 1997 Marlins who would be starting Rick Helling (5-9, 4.47) from among a few other equally suspect options.  Both teams had been forced to tax their bullpens in tough semifinal games which would limit their availability for the final.  And that quickly proves to be a concern for the Angels, as Shoemaker is injured getting the last out in the bottom of the 1st; they bring in rested closer Huston Street in long relief, going all-out to try to take the bracket.  However, Moises Alou singles off Street’s card in the bottom of the 3rd and he scores on a 2-out double from DH Darren Daulton and the Marlins lead 1-0.  Meanwhile, the Angels aren’t jelling against Helling, who throws 6-innings of one-hit ball, but the Marlins are nervous about Helling’s longball result and move to game one winner, rookie sensation Livan Hernandez, to begin the 7th inning.  The rookie holds serve, but he’s toast after two innings and the Marlins entrust Jay Powell to earn his second straight save of the regional in the 9th.  Angels #9 hitter Erick Aybar misses a DO -15/SI split to begin the inning, but Powell strikes out Howie Kendrick and then Chris Iannetta hits into the DP to leave Mike Trout in the on-deck circle and send the Marlins on with the 1-0 victory that earns them their third regional win, joining 2005 and 2013.  Hernandez, the 1997 Series MVP as a rookie, has to earn consideration for Regional MVP as well, with the win in the semifinals and a critical hold in the finals.  The win also brought back memories for me, as I watched that 1997 Series with my mother, who lived in South Florida and was rooting for the Marlins.  She has been gone for some time, but I think she would enjoy the fact that her Marlins defied my expectations once again.  

Interesting card of Regional #208:  The Strat cards for the 1991 season reflected a transition year in many respects.  It was the first season of “new” card patterns which we have seen ever since; it was the last season of basic statistical information at the bottom of the card before more extended stats like SLG% and OBP were included; and it was the only season with the heavy bold line between the year designation and the statistical information, the latter of which continued to have background shading apparently to insure that the aging eyes of their core customer base wouldn’t be able to read them without an electron microscope.   Of course, in this 1991 set there weren’t a lot of pitcher’s cards better than this one from 24 year old rookie Joel Johnston, who somehow managed to lose the Royals semifinal game in this bracket.  It’s hard to see how he could lose, as the guy only allowed nine hits in 22+ innings.  However, like the player presented in the last installment of this feature, Johnston never really got a chance in the majors; in addition to 1991, where his WHIP was 0.806, the only other season where he had more than 10 innings pitched was in 1993, when the WHIP was 1.069 in 52 innings.  He did pitch in three other seasons with fewer than five innings pitched in each of them, and his ERA in those was in double digits all three seasons, but it’s hard to argue that he really got much of a shot and he was out of the majors at age 28.   Having leafed through a lot of truly terrible relief pitchers on the 1,650+ teams that have played so far in my tournament, it’s hard to imagine that nobody was willing to give him a serious try after 1993.