Daily Archives: September 1, 2014

OLSON, DAHL FEATURED IN FANGRAPHS STORY

Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com

Photo: Steve Cummings/CalLeagueHeat.com

Stockton’s Matt Olson and Modesto’s David Dahl are part of David Laurila’s SUNDAY NOTES piece tonight on Fangraphs.com. Olson leads the Cal League in homers with 37 and has walked a lofty 117 times, which pushes is OBP to .405. He checks in as the Oakland A’s #2 prospect by MLB.com’s rankings.

Dahl is the #10 overall pick from the 2012 draft and he slashed .302/.341/.496 for the lo-A Asheville Tourists in 89 games this season. Dahl played 29 games in Modesto before heading back to  Asheville this week. Laurila’s piece has several quotes from the Alabama native.

FanGraphs.com is an invaluable resource of analytical baseball features. The way to look at this game is  up to the consumer. You can take a nostalgic view (none of these guys can carry Mantle’s jock) and you can go strictly by the number-crunching ideology (WAR, etc.) Fangraphs asks pertinent questions, researches appropriately to get to answers, and does it all with an approach that would be enjoyable if you had the conversation with its writers in the bleachers. You can take a break to grab a soda mid-article. Watch an AB. The intelligent baseball discourse is always there. My favorite site, as you can tell.

66ers ARE IN, WILL DEFEND 2013 TITLE

IE 66ersThe Inland Empire 66ers became improbable second-half champions of the South division tonight with their third straight road win against Lancaster. With the 9-5 victory, Inland Empire clinched at least a tie for the division title.

The South was a .500-fest in the second half, and the 66ers’ late surge was good enough to force no worse than a tie with Lake Elsinore, should the Storm win on Monday while IE loses. But, per California League playoff procedures, the fact that the possible tie atop the division is with the Storm, which is already assured a playoff spot via the “best overall record” qualification, there would be no tie-breaker. Inland Empire is in:

“An additional regular-season game to determine the Second-half Champion or No. 3 Seed will be played only if a playoff berth is at stake, and it will be played on the day after the regular season concludes. If the tying teams are already assured of a playoff spot (Lake Elsinore is), then a game will not be played and the seeding will be determined by the tiebreaking procedure.”

That last sentence, regarding the seeding, yields the following provisos:

“In the case of a two-way tie for a half champion or overall best record (No. 3 Seed), the home team for the playoff game will be determined using the following criteria:

  • 1) Head-to-Head record
  • 2) Winning percentage within the division
  • 3) Winning percentage versus third-place club(s)
  • 4) Winning percentage versus fourth-place club(s)
  • 5) Winning percentage versus fifth-place club
  • 6) Winning percentage versus other Division
  • 7) Coin flip”

So, let’s see the slate of season finales on the holiday Monday and find out where the cards fall. Here’s what we have at this point:

NORTH DIVISION

Visalia (wildcard) and Stockton (2nd half champion) in the mini series.
Bakersfield (1st-half champion) plays the winner.

SOUTH DIVISION

Lake Elsinore (wildcard) and Inland Empire (2nd half champion) in the mini series.
Lancaster (1st half champion) plays the winner.

One more day of a full California League schedule and then, starting Wednesday…

IT’S PLAYOFF TIME!