VS. 
The Rochester Rhinos have the highest payroll in baseball. Most of it goes towards their pitching staff, where they have the luxury of the best pitcher in the league,
Segundo Narbaiza, leading the rotation. The Rhinos finished the year third in runs allowed. The only teams who allowed fewer runs were Miami, and..... Rochester's opponent, the San Jose Sharks.
Despite the Rhinos' high ranking in runs allowed, most of it is due to Narbaiza alone. The rest of Rochester's pitching staff is rather ordinary, with only two other above average starters, and only one particularly good relief pitcher. In a short series, though, that may be enough.
Rochester's lineup is less inspiring. Of the playoff teams, only Miami scored fewer runs than the Rhinos. They do have some dangerous hitters, most notably
Louis Guerriero, but the runs will be tough to come by against San Jose.
Rochester's hitting and pitching stats:
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
N. Colin 157 637 176 28 4 25 85 99 29 70 .276 .319 .451 39 19
L. Guerriero 158 591 206 58 5 45 127 134 59 140 .349 .415 .692 12 6
S. Serrato 142 558 160 17 4 15 65 84 28 34 .287 .319 .412 4 1
P. Bibbs 146 520 151 18 0 22 92 80 53 50 .290 .360 .452 0 1
R. Ahn 144 516 157 54 8 20 101 107 90 108 .304 .407 .556 3 1
J. Adams 151 507 137 30 6 12 83 63 20 26 .270 .297 .424 1 6
B. Lent 149 485 134 26 8 25 88 81 88 119 .276 .387 .518 10 11
S. Salo 140 463 149 14 1 18 80 83 90 56 .322 .430 .473 1 0
M. Kennerson 74 224 65 8 2 2 31 40 10 24 .290 .332 .371 11 10
R. Crawford 86 163 43 14 0 8 30 25 18 41 .264 .337 .497 0 0
S. Narbaiza 37 101 7 0 0 0 5 3 3 34 .069 .094 .069 0 0
E. Jimenez 40 92 17 4 0 4 13 14 16 10 .185 .325 .359 1 4
B. Sebastian 37 89 5 2 0 0 3 5 8 32 .056 .134 .079 0 0
D. Briese 72 81 17 1 0 1 10 9 10 9 .210 .293 .259 3 0
B. Kennett 41 79 22 4 1 1 10 7 4 18 .278 .310 .392 1 0
M. Evert 35 72 23 6 1 0 10 20 17 18 .319 .456 .431 0 2
J. Strickland 30 68 8 1 0 0 7 6 3 25 .118 .153 .132 0 0
J. Vavra 30 67 12 4 0 0 3 5 4 17 .179 .247 .239 1 0
A. Parra 24 66 18 1 0 3 13 8 2 21 .273 .300 .424 0 0
A. Gaier 25 51 7 3 0 0 3 1 1 23 .137 .154 .196 1 1
A. Martinez 23 47 10 3 0 0 3 5 3 19 .213 .260 .277 0 0
J. Plazas 20 36 9 2 0 1 4 4 2 11 .250 .289 .389 0 0
D. New 14 32 11 2 2 2 5 7 5 10 .344 .421 .719 0 0
J. Stone 10 27 5 0 0 0 2 3 2 4 .185 .233 .185 0 0
J. Romero 19 27 3 0 1 0 0 3 1 7 .111 .143 .185 0 0
R. Mansell 10 24 3 0 0 0 3 1 0 10 .125 .120 .125 0 0
E. Ikeda 10 12 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 .167 .231 .167 1 0
P. Levasseur 14 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 .125 .222 .125 0 0
M. Morison 3 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 .000 .000 .000 0 0
J. Vivier 46 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 .000 .000 .000 0 0
B. Harvey 3 6 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .167 .167 .167 0 0
N. Owen 56 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 .000 .167 .000 0 0
V. Rodriguez 65 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 0 0
A. Guardado 41 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
C. Gouin 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
E. Oropesa 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 0 0
A. Melendez 19 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
W. Rieth 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
S. Narbaiza 36 36 26 6 0 1.71 299.2 237 67 57 31 236
B. Sebastian 37 36 18 10 0 4.42 269.0 266 141 132 99 159
J. Strickland 30 30 10 13 0 5.49 190.1 213 123 116 100 119
A. Gaier 25 25 6 11 0 5.27 155.1 181 95 91 68 100
A. Martinez 23 22 12 5 0 4.34 141.0 147 71 68 23 101
V. Rodriguez 65 0 3 3 1 5.48 67.1 68 43 41 35 61
R. Mansell 10 10 4 4 0 4.96 65.1 91 36 36 16 45
J. Vivier 46 0 4 4 2 4.35 60.0 58 35 29 20 50
N. Owen 56 0 7 7 27 4.98 59.2 61 36 33 23 48
F. Domingo 54 0 2 1 2 3.10 58.0 51 21 20 10 55
A. Guardado 41 0 2 3 3 9.00 42.0 56 46 42 29 35
M. Morison 3 3 1 1 0 5.06 21.1 25 14 12 5 15
A. Melendez 19 0 0 2 0 7.84 20.2 33 19 18 8 13
L. Luna 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 1.0 2 0 0 0 0
San Jose may be the most well rounded of the playoff teams. They are the only team to finish in the top 5 of both runs scored and runs allowed, ranking 4th and 2nd, respectively.
Offensively, they are led by the most devastating power hitter in the game,
Ugo Momoru, plus two more sluggers,
Orlando Escobedo and
Charles Seaver.
William Natali and
George Ormiston are some of the best top of the order hitters around. The Sharks also benefit from a fairly deep bench, and pretty strong fielding all around the field.
For pitchers, the Sharks rely heavily on strikeout pitchers and ground ball pitchers, especially in the bullpen. In fact, the Sharks probably have the best and deepest bullpen in the game, anchored by the likes of
Bill Frisch,
Dennis Rank,
Anselmo Ortiz, and
Clinton Blanton. Starting pitcher
Benito Ortiz led the National League in strikeouts with 243, and they also got over 200 K's from
Jason Rubino.
San Jose's hitting and pitching stats:
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
U. Momoru 155 627 204 39 3 60 157 130 72 44 .325 .399 .684 1 0
W. Natali 152 624 221 40 5 25 109 131 36 76 .354 .393 .554 41 8
O. Escobedo 139 545 163 32 1 33 100 80 26 63 .299 .333 .543 1 0
C. Seaver 139 522 153 21 0 34 121 102 73 37 .293 .376 .529 5 0
A. Cisneros 125 488 169 38 6 4 77 63 43 20 .346 .399 .473 2 3
G. Ormiston 138 470 171 30 5 7 66 77 55 65 .364 .438 .494 5 0
J. Lumsden 124 433 140 32 8 13 77 70 32 27 .323 .364 .524 0 0
N. Stewart 97 301 74 19 2 3 31 47 32 48 .246 .320 .352 10 7
L. Romanowski 105 242 69 15 5 1 26 35 24 43 .285 .359 .401 1 1
S. Riva 93 222 56 11 2 0 17 47 44 56 .252 .381 .320 19 14
S. Martinez 89 219 60 13 5 5 28 43 33 56 .274 .368 .447 18 5
V. Zurcher 58 202 52 18 4 3 26 26 11 49 .257 .301 .431 0 2
E. Ketterer 63 117 29 8 0 0 13 11 8 11 .248 .299 .316 1 0
R. Perkins 41 107 16 5 0 1 11 16 13 16 .150 .240 .224 0 0
F. Conde 43 103 25 8 3 0 7 22 18 11 .243 .350 .379 0 1
R. Clear 23 84 26 7 1 1 11 16 7 11 .310 .370 .452 4 0
J. Rubino 33 80 5 1 0 0 2 2 2 31 .063 .085 .075 1 0
B. Ortiz 34 77 8 2 2 0 7 3 2 31 .104 .123 .182 0 0
B. Gowen 33 75 3 1 0 0 1 3 2 37 .040 .064 .053 0 0
R. Salazar 24 57 7 0 0 0 3 2 2 18 .123 .153 .123 0 0
M. Shunji 17 49 15 5 0 1 11 8 8 12 .306 .390 .469 4 0
W. Arcelay 22 43 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 10 .047 .068 .070 0 0
R. Tibbs 9 31 8 0 0 0 2 3 0 9 .258 .258 .258 0 0
S. Torres Jr. 10 25 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .080 .077 .080 0 0
A. Fiore 10 16 6 1 0 0 0 3 1 2 .375 .412 .438 4 2
C. Valentine 3 12 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 .250 .250 .333 0 0
S. Mchenry 6 11 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 6 .182 .308 .182 0 0
L. Anderson 5 9 1 0 0 0 1 3 1 4 .111 .200 .111 0 0
T. Lomeli 27 8 5 4 0 0 5 4 0 0 .625 .625 1.125 0 0
J. Elson 4 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 .000 .000 .000 0 0
R. Olinger 4 6 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 1 .167 .167 .167 0 0
K. Morgan 3 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167 .167 .167 0 0
T. River 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .250 .250 .250 0 0
L. Farnum 25 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 0 0
B. Frisch 45 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 0 0
C. Blanton 38 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .333 .333 .333 0 0
M. Segarra 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
S. Jackson Jr. 26 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 0 0
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
B. Ortiz 34 34 16 9 0 3.84 225.0 204 102 96 93 243
B. Gowen 33 33 18 4 0 3.53 222.0 212 93 87 48 108
J. Rubino 33 33 17 10 0 4.04 211.2 232 100 95 67 202
R. Salazar 24 24 11 3 0 4.09 165.0 173 84 75 22 93
W. Arcelay 22 22 11 8 0 4.81 127.1 140 74 68 67 93
B. Frisch 45 0 7 3 10 2.22 77.0 48 21 19 32 95
C. Blanton 38 0 6 3 8 2.33 65.2 65 18 17 13 49
D. Rank 46 0 3 4 13 2.63 61.2 50 19 18 24 78
A. Ortiz 37 0 3 4 6 2.58 45.1 39 16 13 10 37
L. Farnum 25 0 0 0 1 4.89 42.1 37 24 23 26 41
S. Jackson Jr. 26 0 3 2 2 3.29 41.0 47 15 15 8 34
S. Mchenry 6 6 2 3 0 4.95 40.0 38 22 22 17 37
T. Lomeli 27 0 2 0 2 4.14 37.0 40 18 17 15 27
J. Elson 4 4 3 1 0 4.09 22.0 20 12 10 13 9
K. Morgan 3 3 0 2 0 6.86 21.0 34 20 16 9 9
T. River 3 3 1 1 0 6.43 14.0 14 15 10 16 9
J. Turner 9 0 0 0 0 7.82 12.2 12 11 11 7 9
C. Saari 7 0 0 0 0 4.15 8.2 10 4 4 1 10
W. Breeze 7 0 0 0 0 6.48 8.1 10 6 6 5 4
B. Douglas 5 0 0 1 0 3.24 8.1 7 3 3 3 6
P. Duran 6 0 0 0 0 7.56 8.1 9 7 7 4 6
G. Parker 7 0 0 1 0 4.91 7.1 11 4 4 1 5
W. Londono 4 0 0 0 0 10.13 2.2 8 3 3 0 2
Next up: The final Divisional Round matchup-
San Diego VS. Pittsburgh