November, 2016

2016 Playoffs Preview

It has been fifteen years since a team in the BDBL won back-to-back championships. We could very well witness that bit of history repeat itself this November. The Los Altos Undertakers are -- by every measurement -- the most dominant (that's dominANT, Jeff!) team in BDBL history. They are so dominant, in fact, that a team that won 115 games this season is considered to be the underdog should those two teams meet in the BDBL World Series.

We seem to have entered an era of the never-ending dynasty. Los Altos is now the number-one ranked team in the playoffs two years in a row, and are making their sixth playoffs appearance in the last eight seasons. The New Milford Blazers have now been in the postseason mix in seven of the past eight seasons. The Kansas Law Dogs have played November baseball in six of the past eight seasons. And this is the fourth appearance by the Chicago Black Sox in the past five years.

Anything can happen in the Tournament of Randomness, but it will take an upset of historical proportions to avoid a repeat of 2015.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	128-32	896	459	437	67-13	61-19	.830	.863	.818	2.67	.622	.593	.646
	87-73	792	668	124	43-37	44-36	.773	.780	.770	3.88	.695	.730	.668

Let's talk about how ridiculously dominant the Los Altos Undertakers were this season. Their 128 wins represents a new BDBL record, which obliterated the old record of 116 -- a record Los Altos had shared with the Southern Cal Slyme. Their runs differential (the best measurement of "dominance" that exists) of 437 also broke a long-standing BDBL record set by the famed 2002 Allentown Ridgebacks. Bear in mind that Los Altos broke that record while playing in a vastly different era where runs are much scarcer than they were fourteen years ago.

The Undertakers' team ERA of 2.67 barely missed topping the record set by last year's Undertakers squad (2.62). The Los Altos offense led the BDBL in runs scored, with 896. Only two other teams in the past five seasons have scored more runs in a single season.

That record of 128-32 is so hard to fathom that I couldn't help but wonder: how many games is it possible for any team to win? After all, no matter how good a team is, a perfect 160-0 season seems impossible. Even if you could imagine the greatest team ever assembled playing a lopsided schedule against far inferior opponents, the element of luck is so strong in the game of baseball that you would have to assume that winning more than 80 percent of a team's games is highly unlikely. So I conducted a little experiment.

I took the 2015 MLB disk and I traded all of the best players in baseball to the New York Yankees. The "new-look Yankees" lineup consisted of Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Joey Votto, Kris Bryant, Manny Machado, Buster Posey, Michael Brantley, and Matt Carpenter. The starting rotation included Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, and Jake Arrieta. I kept the Yankees bullpen intact out of laziness and because it's already so dominant. I then simulated a full 162-game season.

That team won 129 games.

In other words, the 2016 Los Altos Undertakers won about as many games as it is possible to win. That, my friends, is beyond impressive. If we play another hundred seasons in the BDBL, it would be highly unlikely that any team could have a better season than the Los Altos Undertakers. If I were Jeff Paulson, I would just drop the mic and walk away. He has nothing left to prove, and nowhere to go but down.

The success of the Undertakers this season begins with their starting rotation. The Undertakers are the second team in BDBL history to own three 20-game winners: Chris Archer (21-4, 2.39 ERA in 229+ IP), Gerritt Cole (21-7, 2.90 in 220+), and Chris Sale (24-5, 3.23 in 223). (Note: the Undertakers were also the first team in history to accomplish this feat.) With a record of 14-6 and an ERA of 3.54 in 193 innings, Kyle Gibson would be the ace of some BDBL pitching staffs. In Los Altos, he's a number four starter.

More than anything else, the Los Altos franchise is known for having a dominant bullpen. This year was no exception. Four Los Altos relievers managed to finish the season with 35+ innings and an ERA below 2.00. Two of them (Jeff Manship at 0.65 and Justin Miller at 0.76) managed to post an ERA below 1.00. Dellin Betances went 8-1 as a setup man, and posted a 2.62 ERA in 79 innings, striking out 134 batters. Ken Giles led the team with 38 saves, with a 2.67 ERA in 64 innings.

Offensively, last winter's big-money free agent signing Michael Brantley had an MVP-caliber season, hitting .355/.423/.563 with 62 doubles, 18 home runs, and a team-leading 130.6 runs created. Anthony Rizzo (.261/.361/.505, 31 HR, 111.3 RC) and leadoff hitter Jose Bautista (.271/.374/.592, 41 HR, 104.7 RC) also created over 100 runs each.

Justin Turner (.343/.413/.631, 28 HR) had a tremendous season while limited in usage (379 AB). Nolan Arenado (.253/.288/.516, 42 HR, 116 RBI) led the team in home runs and RBI's. Stephen Vogt (.297/.363/.492, 20 HR) led all Ozzie League catchers in runs created (78.0) and OPS (.855), and his backup, Josh Phegley, posted a .862 OPS in 164 PA's. Almost an afterthought batting at the bottom of the lineup, Jason Heyward (.290/.360/.450) would have been the MVP of several BDBL teams.

As if all of that weren't enough, the Undertakers also owned the greatest pinch hitter in the league in the form of Franklin Gutierrez. In just 164 at-bats, Gutierrez crushed 16 homers, drove in 37 runs, and hit .323/.364/.671 overall. Another pinch hitter, Cory Seager, hit .341/.413/.591 on the season, in 88 at-bats. Yet another pinch hitter, Enrique Hernandez, hit .303/.370/.459. The Undertakers' bench was so deep that you could plausibly build a competitive team from their bench players!

And as if that weren't enough, the Undertakers' defense also led the entire BDBL in fielding percentage (.991) and fewest number of errors (57).

So, what do we have here? Three 20-game winners in the starting rotation, the most suffocating bullpen in the league, the most potent offense in the league, the deepest bench in the league, and the most error-free team in the league. That's quite an uphill battle the Ravenswood Infidels have to face.

With hardly any competition in their division, the Infidels cruised to the postseason without having to put up much of a fight. They won 33 games against the teams in their own division, which is second only to the Undertakers (who went a phenomenal 43-5 in divisional play.) They outscored their opponents by 124 runs, which is the third-greatest differential in the OL. Their team total of 792 runs scored ranks third as well.

Slugger Chris Davis (.237/.338/.493) led the team in home runs (39), RBI's (99), and runs created (98.0). Jason Kipnis (.311/.376/.443, 94.1 RC) was the only other hitter in the Ravenswood lineup that topped 90 runs created. The rest of the offensive production was truly a team effort. In total, eight different Infidels hitters slugged a double-digits number of longballs. Even seldom-used backup outfielder Mikie Mahtook contributed a .283/.349/.752 batting line, with 16 homers in only 113 at-bats.

On the other side of the ball, ace Max Scherzer (18-8, 2.65 ERA in 251 IP, with a 36/291 BB/K ratio) was every bit as good as advertised. No other Ravenswood starter posted an ERA below 3.50, with Jaime Garcia (12-7, 3.58 ERA in 140+ IP) coming closest to that mark. Eduardo Rodriguez (13-3, 4.02 ERA in 132 IP) and Jake Odorizzi (6-8, 4.03 ERA in 116 IP) will likely form the remainder of the starting rotation in the Division Series.

There was no conventional closer in the Ravenswood bullpen this year. TWELVE different pitchers earned at least one save this season, and Joaquim Soria (2-3, 3.95 ERA in 73 IP) led the team with only eight saves. Late-season acquisition Hansel Robles (3-5, 2.58 ERA in 59+ IP) could be the team's de facto "closer" during the playoffs, although Joe Maurer (.147/.202/.265 vs. LH) and Matt Capps (.179/.254/.196) would form a good situational pair as well.

Ravenswood went just 3-9 against the Undertakers in head-to-head play this season. They were outscored 68-32 in those dozen games. Ravenswood lost all three games started by Max Scherzer. That is the bad news.

The good news is that this is the Tournament of Randomness, and anything can happen. In seventeen BDBL seasons, the team that has finished the regular season with the most wins has won the championship only six times (a 38% success rate.) Granted, many of those teams did not win more than a dozen games more than the next-winningest team, but still...there is hope.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	115-45	889	546	343	57-23	58-22	.827	.800	.836	3.22	.613	.563	.682
	82-78	760	729	31	43-37	39-41	.773	.787	.769	4.24	.749	.750	.748

In any other year, we would all be talking about how the Kansas Law Dogs are so historically dominant that they are the rock-solid favorites to win the BDBL championship. Prior to this season, only two other teams had won as many as 115 games in a season. Only six other teams had ever outscored their opponents by more than 343 runs. The 2016 Kansas Law Dogs are among the greatest teams in BDBL history...and yet they aren't even favored to win the championship.

Only one other team in the BDBL (Los Altos, of course) scored more runs than Kansas this season. Kansas led the entire BDBL in batting average (.297) and on-base percentage (.356), and their .471 slugging percentage was bested by only Los Altos. They led the BDBL in doubles. Three players hit 40 or more doubles on the year, and six different Law Dogs hit more than 30.

Nelson Cruz (.344/.406/.568) had an MVP-caliber season. He led the team in runs created (144.3), home runs (36), and RBI's (141). Teammate Lorenzo Cain beat Cruz for the EL batting title by just .0001 of a point. He hit .344/.399/.534 on the season with 43 doubles and 119.4 runs created. Eric Hosmer (.328/.383/.497, 45 doubles, 114.6 RC) gave the Law Dogs THREE batters with 200+ hits on the season.

Ben Zobrist (.293/.374/.446, 40 2B), Mike Moustakas (.294/.374/.464), Christian Yelich (.309/.393/.403), Asdrubal Cabrera (.304/.351/.532), and Salvador Perez (.305/.330/.496) all enjoyed all-star seasons as well. Brandon Crawford, acquired in a mid-season trade, was having an all-star season himself until he came to Kansas. He hit .254/.319/.506 overall, with 34 home runs, but hit just .212/.270/.403 (11 HR) in 71 games with Kansas.

On the pitching side, Kansas just missed tying the Undertakers' record by having three 20-game winners in their rotation. Dallas Keuchel (24-8, 2.71 ERA in 248+ IP) led the league in wins, and the team's big-money free agent signing, Jake Arrieta, finished second in wins at 23-7, and second in ERA at 2.31. Southpaw Francisco Liriano (19-6, 3.70 ERA in 197 IP) needed just one more win to join the club. Carlos Carrasco (17-7, 3.38 in 197) fills out the four-man rotation for the postseason.

Overall, the Law Dogs pitching staff ranked second in the EL in ERA (3.22), but ranked first in CERA (2.84), RCERA (2.94), and OPS allowed (.644). They allowed just 546 runs on the season (first in the EL, and second only to the Undertakers in the BDBL), and their defense allowed the lowest average in the EL on balls in play (.285), second only to the surprising Western Kansas Buffaloes. The Kansas defense's .989 fielding percentage was tops in the EL, and their catchers allowed only four passed balls all season and stingy 61% stolen base percentage (fourth in the BDBL.)

Despite winning 115 games, the Law Dogs had to battle to retain the top spot in their division, as the Great Lakes Sphinx were breathing down their necks from the moment the opening bell rang. The St. Louis Apostles seemed to have a battle on their hands as well during the first two chapters of the season. But then the Niagara Locks stumbled badly in Chapter Three, and the Apostles opened up a seven game lead in the division. It was relatively smooth sailing the rest of the way.

The Apostles were the only team in their division that outscored their opponents this season. Their runs differential of +31 is only the sixth highest in the Eck League, and their 82 wins is only the sixth best total in the league. Yet, while the Cleveland Rocks (96-64) and Buckingham Sovereigns (93-67) look on from the sidelines, the Apostles will keep playing ball past October. Sometimes, life just isn't fair.

St. Louis' wins total is padded by their 33-15 record against teams in their own division. Only the Cleveland Rocks (who faced much tougher divisional competition) own a better divisional record in the Eck League. The St. Louis offense ranks near the middle (fifth) in the Eck League in runs scored, and their defense ranks an abysmal ninth in runs allowed.

Nine different Apostles batters clubbed double-digit home runs this season, led by team MVP J.D. Martinez (.289/.347/.567, 44 HR, 124.7 RC), Andrew McCutchen (.281/.362/.501, 32 HR, 118.3 RC), and Yoenis Cespedes (.288/.319/.531, 30 HR, 98.4 RC). Buster Posey (.303/.356/.446) and Jung Ho Kang (.285/.349/.438) were also major contributors to the offensive machine that carried St. Louis to the postseason.

On the pitching side, it's difficult to believe this is a playoffs-caliber pitching staff by merely looking at the numbers and ignoring the names. Midseason pick-up Noah Syndergaard (11-5, 4.25 ERA in 137+ IP for St. Louis) wasn't the ace everyone expected him to be when GM Bobby Sylvester acquired him. He allowed far more hits (139) and home runs (22) than expected.

Michael Wacha (12-11, 4.83 in 197+) pitched like a mopup man rather than the solid number two starter many expected him to be. Carlos Rodon's numbers (6-7, 3.62 in 136+) almost identically mirror his MLB performance, and the team's de facto ace Carlos Martinez (16-12, 3.57 in 191+) performed as well as expected.

The one pitcher whose performance defies explanation is closer Aroldis Chapman (4-9, 2.94 in 70+, with 22 saves), who allowed far more hits, walks, and runs as an Apostle than he did in MLB 2015. Kevin Quackenbush (6-3, 2.87 in 62+) and Trevor Rosenthal (3-1, 2.88 in 78) performed decently in their setup roles.

St. Louis went just 4-8 against the Law Dogs this season. They were outscored 69-49 in those dozen games. On paper, this looks like a classic mismatch. Although anything can happen in a short series, the odds don't look good for St. Louis. Assuming Kansas advances to the LCS, their regular season record would seem to favor a match-up against Great Lakes. The Law Dogs went 9-7 against the Sphinx this season, but just 5-7 against Chicago. A contest between Kansas and Los Altos in the World Series would represent the most combined wins for the two competitors in league history.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	101-59	844	568	276	67-13	61-19	.791	.738	.812	3.21	.661	.684	.649
	90-70	725	662	63	50-30	40-40	.752	.761	.750	3.66	.700	.732	.670

Six straight division titles. Five straight years with 100+ wins. Eight years with 90+ wins. All BDBL records. And there doesn't appear to be any end in sight to this deplorable dynasty.

The New Milford Blazers had the advantage of playing in a division where no other team even attempted to challenge them. New Milford finished thirty-two games ahead of the second place team in the McGowan Division. All three of the other teams in the division won between 66-69 games. Not surprisingly, the Blazers went 30-18 against teams in the McGowan Division. Also to no one's surprise, they won 60 games at home -- the highest total in the league outside of Los Altos. New Milford's 237-point difference between home and road winning percentage is -- by far -- the greatest disparity in the league. New Milford owns the home-field advantage in this series, but will need to get to seven games in order to take full advantage of it.

A deep-dive into the numbers reveals some startling observations:

The Blazers scored exactly the same number of runs at home (422) as they scored on the road. Yet, when they won at home, they won BIG. They averaged EIGHT more runs scored per game when they won at home than when they lost!

New Milford finished second to the Undertakers in many offensive categories, including batting average (.272), on-base (.337), slugging (.454), and runs scored (844). Four New Milford batters tallied more than 100 runs created. The most ridiculous performance of them all (and the most ridiculous performance in the BDBL, by far) was Shin-Soo Choo, who led the team with 143.1 runs created.

Choo finished the year with an OPS (.970) that was 132 points higher than his MLB OPS. His slugging percentage against righties was 112 points higher than his MLB performance, and he even managed to out-slug his lefty slugging percentage by 63 points. Overall, he hit .324/.402/.568, and led the Ozzie League in RBI's, runs created, and total bases.

David Peralta's 2016 performance was equally ridiculous. He hit .335/.387/.567 overall, far eclipsing his MLB numbers, and somehow managed to hit .306/.375/.412 against lefties (compared to his MLB averages of .250/.311/.375). He was aided by a team-leading .405 average on balls in play. As a team, New Milford hit .326 on balls in play, which ranks second only to Kansas (.343).

Mookie Betts (.310/.355/.502, 61 doubles, 116.8 RC) and Matt Carpenter (.287/.390/.512, 43 doubles, 27 HR, 132.3 RC) rounded out the Big Four for New Milford. Troy Tulowitzki (.283/.328/.431, 69 RC) was the only other Blazer to accumulate more than 340 at-bats this season.

On the hill, New Milford's 3.21 team ERA ranked second only to Los Altos. The New Milford staff led the league in both fewest home runs and fewest walks allowed. The Blazers bullpen ranked second to Los Altos in lowest rate of inherited runners scored. As usual, Clayton Kershaw (22-8, 2.76 ERA in 251+ IP) was the team's ace. He won 20 games for the fifth year in a row, and struck out a career-high 312 batters. I'm so fucking sick of him.

Masahiro Tanaka (10-5, 2.97 in 157+) will undoubtedly get the ball in Game Two, with Hisashi Iwakuma (15-4, 3.12 in 141+) the likely Game Three starter. If Game Four doesn't go to Kershaw, then New Milford manager Anthony Peburn has the option of going with either Jose Quintana (12-9, 4.11 in 217) or short-usage-starter-turned-full-time-playoffs-starter Adam Warren (10-9, 3.33 in 135+).

Francisco Rodriguez (3-2, 0.87 ERA in 62 IP, 34 saves) had an MVP-caliber season out of the Blazers bullpen. Jake McGee (0-2, 2.09 in 38+) and Darren O'Day (3-3, 3.03 in 68+) did most of the heavy lifting in the middle innings.

It took the Flagstaff Outlaws 161 games to reach the postseason this year, and they made it by the skin of their teeth. The Outlaws were one of only four teams in the Ozzie League that outscored their opponents this season (+63). They ranked third in the league in ERA (3.66), and fifth in runs scored (725).

Paul Goldschmidt (.285/.404/.493, 31 HR, 124.5 runs created) practically carried the Flagstaff offense on his back. He was the only Outlaw who created more than 85 runs this season, the only one who hit more than 20 home runs, the only one who scored more than 77 runs, and the only one to knock in more than 67 runs.

Dee Gordon (.306/.333/.391) had an excellent year at the plate, but was caught 19 times in 47 stolen base attempts. The hero of the one-game playoff, Gerardo Parra, hit a respectable .316/.353/.465 on the season, with 40 doubles. Russ Martin, who gunned down a base stealer in a key moment of that game, also excelled at the plate: .251/.324/.459, 18 HR. Chris Colabello, who was acquired at the Chapter Four trading deadline, was a huge factor down the stretch. He hit .375/.422/.587 with 12 home runs in only 70 games. In the second half of the season, he barely ranked second to Goldschmidt in runs created (58.3 to 59.1).

On the pitching side of the equation, Flagstaff's bullpen carried this team to 90 wins. Closer Luke Gregerson (4-3, 1.23 ERA in 65+ IP, 43 SV) led the league in saves. Tony Sipp (1.66 ERA in 59+ IP), Drew Storen (2.09 in 60+), Fernando Rodriguez (3.08 in 61+), and Justin Wilson (3.14 in 66) were also major contributors along the way. John Lackey (17-11, 4.21 in 237+) led the team in wins, followed by Tyson Ross (15-13, 3.98 in 212+), Collin McHugh (13-14, 3.98 in 217), and Alex Wood (11-9, 4.09 in 180+).

The Outlaws went 5-7 against the Blazers this season, and were outscored 50-69. New Milford won four of the six games played at New Milford's Nestle's Field. They won all three games started by Kershaw, who can possibly start three games in the Division Series if needed. Given New Milford's predominantly left-handed lineup, and Flagstaff's predominantly right-handed starting rotation, the match-ups seems to favor the Blazers on paper.

Should New Milford advance to the League Championship Series, and should Los Altos also advance, New Milford has the distinction of being the only team in the league this season who did not lose more games against the Undertakers than they won. The two teams went 6-6 in head-to-head games this season.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	109-51	844	654	190	56-24	53-27	.783	.733	.800	3.71	.708	.695	.717
	99-61	876	671	205	51-29	48-32	.799	.781	.806	3.82	.721	.720	.721

Although these two teams appear to be very similar in some regards, they are wildly different in others. The Great Lakes Sphinx began this season with low expectations. Not a single person predicted they would win their division in pre-season polling. But they got off to a surprisingly good start and maintained that pace until the end of the season.

The Chicago Black Sox began this season with high expectations, and were picked to win their division by about one-third of the league. They got off to a very poor start, however, and picked up the pace (big-time) in the second half.

In fact, to get a true comparison of these two teams, you really need to compare before Chicago's Chapter Three acquisition of Kris Bryant to after:

This gives us a more accurate picture of these two teams as they appear today. Bryant (.287/.407/.470) isn't the sole reason -- or even the primary reason -- why Chicago won their division, but he was a significant factor. Bryce Harper (.325/.426/.702, 47 doubles, 57 home runs, 144 RBI's, 172.3 runs created) is without doubt the team's (and likely the league's) MVP. He led the league in slugging, runs scored (136), RBI's, doubles, home runs, OPS, and runs created.

Ian Kinsler (.312/.357/.447, 106.4 RC) and Bryant were the only other Chicago batters that created more than 100 runs this season. Carlos Beltran (.309/.364/.531, 42 2B, 96.6 RC), however, came close enough. Evan Longoria (.286/.343/.456) and Andrelton Simmons (.304/.362/.399) were major contributors to the offense (and defense) as well.

The Great Lakes offense was all about two players: Josh Donaldson (.330/.388/.633, 46 2B, 47 HR, 133 RBI, 149.7 RC) and Manny Machado (.326/.385/.526, 30 HR, 124 RC.) No other Great Lakes batter reached 70 runs created. In fact, aside from those two, only Starling Marte (.275/.333/.429) and Josh Reddick (.257/.319/.383) accrued more than 375 at-bats this season.

The Chicago pitching staff is led, once again, by Madison Bumgarner (22-7, 3.44 ERA in 230 IP), who managed to win 20+ games for the third time in his brief BDBL career. He is backed in the rotation by Cole Hamels (17-9, 3.42 in 228+), Jordan Zimmerman (17-11, 4.71 in 218), and Mike Leake (13-9, 2.59 in 208+). In the bullpen, Brad Ziegler (4-3, 2.17 in 58, with 16 saves) and Koji Uehara (3-1, 3.00 in 36, 19 SV) split time as the closer.

For Great Lakes, 2016 was yet another year where we ask: "How the hell did this team win so many games with this pitching staff?" Clay Buchholz wasn't bad in MLB in 2015, but he was somehow lights-out (10-1, 1.67 ERA in 124 IP) in the BDBL. Unfortunately for the Sphinx, he will be limited to nine innings in each round of the playoffs.

Trevor Bauer posted a middling 4.55 ERA in MLB 2015, yet went 13-6 with a 2.63 ERA in 178 innings for Great Lakes. Nate Eovaldi was a decent mid-rotation starter in MLB (4.20 ERA), but went 14-3 with a 3.18 ERA in 164+ innings for the Sphinx. Midseason acquisition Shelby Miller owned the best MLB stats of any Sphinx pitcher, but went just 3-4 for Great Lakes, with a 4.09 ERA in 92+ innings.

Great Lakes won an incredible 12 games in extra innings this year, which help to explain how two Great Lakes relievers managed to win 13 games in only 100 innings combined. Keone Kela went 7-1 with a 1.59 ERA in 39+ innings, and closer Kelvin Herrera went 6-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 61 innings (with a team-leading 22 saves.) In addition to leading the league in extra-inning wins, Great Lakes also led the Eck League in most wins when tied after seven innings (12-1), most wins in one-run games (31-13), and -- most incredible of all -- most come-from-behind wins when losing after seven innings (14). Obviously, the Great Lakes bullpen had a lot to do with their success this season.

In head-to-head play, Great Lakes edged Chicago with a 7-5 record. The home/road split is interesting, in that Chicago went 6-2 against Great Lakes at home and 1-7 on the road. It's a point in Chicago's favor that wild card teams are not given the home field advantage in the BDBL. Of course, the series will have to get to seven games for that to be a factor.

Another potential factor in this series is that Great Lakes' best starting pitcher can only start one game, while Chicago's ace can potentially start three (given his Ex endurance rating.) Great Lakes struggles against left-handers, and Chicago could potentially throw both Bumgarner and Hamels at them in five of the series' seven games (as Hamels is also an "Ex".)

This looks to be a tightly-fought series. Should the Law Dogs win their Division Series as expected, then Chicago would seem to have a better chance of upsetting them, given their 7-5 regular season record against Kansas and the presence of Bumgarner.