2019 WORLD SERIES PREVIEW

Presented to you by Jarl Jackson – October 2019

Both teams handled their League Championship Series easily. Detroit makes it to the fall classic for the second time winning their first the title in their first attempt back in 2016. Tempe makes their 15^th appearance looking for championship title number 11.

Neither catcher registered within the top 12 on their league’s leader boards, but both are known for being solid offensive contributors to their respective teams. Their numbers would look very similar if they had the same number of at bats. Backup Martin Maldonado helps gives Detroit the edge with his 44.8 OSBP and 82 consecutive errorless game streak. Grandal almost matched him as he had a 75-game streak. Advantage Detroit

Only Votto showed up on the league leader boards as he was 11^th in OBP in the NL. Voit was the best hitter of the 3 and combined with the power of Morales Detroit has the edge. Advantage Detroit

Zobris bested Albies in AVG and OBP, but Albies pretty much dominated the other categories and he played in 162 games! In the National League Albies was 7^th in Hits, 6^th in Runs, and lead the entire MWBL in doubles. Advantage Tempe

Bogaerts big advantage in SLG was helped by his advantage in doubles and homers. In fact, he was 10^th in the NL in SLG. Advantage Tempe

The biggest offensive Star in Detroit is Machado with only a moderate average keeping him from being talked about in AL MVP considerations. Although his name was splashed all over the AL leader boards. Machado was 11^th in SLG, 7^th in Runs, tied for 11^th in doubles, tied for 3^rd in HR, and 8^th overall in RBI. Franco’s no slouch. Even though he didn’t qualify to be listed among league leaders he did have .844 OPS.  Advantage Detroit

Harper nearly had 40 doubles and 40 homers. He was 6^th in OBP, 12^th in SLG, 3^rd in Runs, and tied for 7^th best in long balls in the AL. Harper was also the MWBL leader in walks. Jones was the better between himself and Gardener although Gardener did have 18 steals. Defensively Jones had a 63 errorless game streak. Martinez turned in a MVP performance for Tempe. Martinez was 2^nd in AVG, 4^th in OBP, lead all MWBL in SLG, was 3^rd in Hits, 2^nd in Runs, 8^th in doubles, first in the NL in HR, and 2^nd in RBI. Martinez also did not commit an error all year! 158 games straight. His compadres also provided stellar outfield defense as Ozuna had a 95 errorless game streak while Brantley had a 91-game streak.  Advantage Tempe

Cabrera’s not the player he once was but his AVG, OBP, and SLG could be a huge boost for Tempe. Schwarber has the power to change the game in a hurry – if he can manage to connect. Advantage Tempe

Overall Tempe was probably better in starting pitching, but they didn’t have a 20-game winner. For Detroit Nola was 4^th in Wins, 3^rd in ERA, 2^nd in IP, tied for AL lead in CG, led in SHO, had the longest shutout inning streak at 36 ip, and was 4^th best in S-OBA at .164. Carrasco was 6^th in Wins, 4^th in ERA, 3^rd in SO/9, and 9^th best in S-OBA at .202. For Tempe Kluber and Mikolas tied for 4^th in starting wins at 17. Kluber was also 3^rd in ERA, 6^th in IP, third in CG, tied for 9^th in QS, tied for 2^nd in SHO, and was 4^th in S-OBA at .172. Miley was tied for 12^th in SHO and had the third longest SHO-IP at 26 innings. In addition to being tied with Nola for wins by a starter Mikolas was 4^th in ERA, #1 in IP, 2^nd in CG, 4^th in QS, #1 in SHO, and was third ins S-OBA at .170. Advantage Tempe

On the AL side Wilson 11^th in IP and Dominguez was 6^th in SVS and had the 8^th best R-OBA at .161. For the NL champions, Tempe they had one of the most dominating pens of all time. Sipp was 7^th in Wins and 3^rd in Holds. Yates was tied for 9^th in SVS, had the 7^th best R-SO/9 rate, and was 2^nd in R-OBA at .120. Finally, Hughes was 1^st in R-WINS, 4^th in Holds, 7^th in IP, and was 12^th in R-OBA at .163.  Advantage Tempe

Overall team stats and MWWL League rankings:

Offensively these two teams are pretty similar although Tempe had better slugging numbers than Detroit, but pitching wise while the Crime were pretty strong in the American League the Tempers were super dominant over in the National League where the whole pitching staff led the entire MWBL in OBA at .168.

Detroit has a chance to win it if their two big stars Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have big series, but the pitching from Tempe appears to be so dominant we could see the Tempers win the 2019 Mid-West Baseball League World Series in 4 or 5 games.