The Nashville Predators (84-78)
The Denver Broncos (114-48)
Quick Facts:
-Denver and Nashville faced each other in last year's Divisional Round. The Broncos prevailed in seven games.
-This is Nashville's second straight playoff appearance. Before last season, the Predators hadn't made the playoffs since 2044.
-This is Denver's third straight division title, and the Broncos' 11th consecutive playoff appearance.
-The Broncos won 11 of their 14 meetings with the Predators this season. The average score of their games was 7.2 to 3.4. The Broncos scored double digits in five of the games.
-Despite ranking only 17th in homeruns, the Predators were the fourth highest scoring team in the league. They were 7th in batting average and second in walks drawn, giving them the third highest team on base percentage. On the pitching end of things, Nashville ranked 16th in both ERA and runs allowed, easily the worst of any of the playoff participants.
-The Broncos ranked 1st in runs scored, 1st in batting average, 1st in on base percentage, and first in slugging percentage. They ranked 2nd in doubles and 7th in homeruns, and drew the 5th most walks. Denver's pitching staff had the league's best ERA and allowed the fewest runs. They walked the fewest batters and ranked 5th in strikeouts.
Batting and Pitching stats for Nashville and Denver:
Nashville Batting:
Code:
Name POS G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
C. Lei 3B 155 621 186 40 0 20 103 103 40 98 .300 .353 .461 15 2
H. Marzano RF 154 589 166 21 2 19 97 94 69 43 .282 .357 .421 10 2
C. Romero CF 155 562 179 32 6 35 132 135 106 90 .319 .426 .584 17 11
R. Perkins LF 146 559 174 25 2 5 75 90 54 57 .311 .374 .390 8 7
J. Hise 1B 157 549 166 24 0 3 78 76 86 91 .302 .396 .362 1 0
D. Vogl 2B 152 540 148 17 1 13 92 67 36 86 .274 .322 .381 0 1
D. Rosier SS 142 532 124 27 14 36 100 134 108 163 .233 .370 .539 39 8
D. Lane C 132 472 158 23 0 27 99 98 91 86 .335 .443 .555 2 0
E. Fudge C 85 233 63 21 3 4 37 39 28 42 .270 .350 .438 9 6
A. Wolfe 2B 78 191 46 12 1 5 22 23 18 37 .241 .310 .393 6 1
D. Lopez 3B 58 140 38 5 1 6 23 26 17 46 .271 .362 .450 3 0
R. Steele RF 62 133 27 5 0 1 11 14 11 30 .203 .262 .263 0 0
J. Miller SS 55 124 27 10 0 2 20 14 12 35 .218 .285 .347 2 1
A. Vazquez 1B 41 121 33 5 0 1 10 16 7 17 .273 .313 .339 1 0
F. Casler CF 43 50 5 1 0 0 6 15 11 15 .100 .274 .120 1 1
K. Lillibridge LF 15 29 2 1 0 0 0 3 1 12 .069 .100 .103 1 0
T. Sullivan Jr. RF 9 26 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 13 .077 .143 .077 0 1
C. Eberhart C 6 12 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 4 .167 .231 .250 0 0
M. Estell SS 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 0 0
K. Ables 3B 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
Nashville Pitching:
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SH
M. Urick 36 36 23 5 0 2.64 252.0 165 80 74 54 223 4 2
R. Romero 31 31 10 14 0 4.70 195.1 195 110 102 67 146 5 1
M. Nuņez 33 33 9 14 0 6.29 177.1 190 133 124 102 148 1 1
C. Pasley 68 0 2 8 4 7.00 117.0 135 99 91 50 68 0 0
S. Campana 19 15 8 3 0 3.97 113.1 113 54 50 30 40 4 0
R. Coy 18 17 6 5 0 6.14 104.0 129 79 71 68 74 0 0
J. Mather 57 0 4 2 3 4.79 88.1 97 54 47 27 61 0 0
S. Snow 19 17 4 8 0 6.98 86.1 87 69 67 65 55 0 0
C. Schulz 60 0 5 4 1 7.13 83.1 115 72 66 36 40 0 0
M. Tsumemasa 57 0 1 7 30 3.92 82.2 72 42 36 52 69 0 0
E. Braley 57 0 6 2 2 5.40 68.1 74 53 41 24 45 0 0
F. Margolis 10 10 4 4 0 7.83 56.1 59 53 49 39 40 0 0
P. Zena 21 0 2 1 2 6.64 20.1 27 15 15 16 13 0 0
M. Hewitt 3 3 0 1 0 23.83 5.2 13 15 15 7 6 0 0
Denver Batting:
Code:
Name POS G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
R. Thomas CF 148 624 233 32 1 20 99 120 51 36 .373 .424 .524 19 4
E. Bolling 1B 151 617 171 52 7 38 159 129 85 93 .277 .362 .569 1 1
A. Vasquez LF 149 616 200 26 0 42 141 110 44 87 .325 .372 .571 13 1
R. Diaz DH 140 563 172 23 1 31 118 99 52 49 .306 .367 .515 4 0
A. Fuentez RF 135 535 169 42 10 15 68 124 72 28 .316 .405 .516 54 17
J. Rumfelt 2B 143 529 151 35 1 7 76 72 64 36 .285 .363 .395 5 0
L. Chappel C 132 526 180 61 2 29 113 123 74 34 .342 .424 .631 7 0
M. Phillips 3B 142 500 137 26 0 13 78 96 97 48 .274 .399 .404 2 0
B. Romero SS 127 430 109 18 11 4 49 69 45 102 .253 .329 .374 25 3
M. Lore RF 76 249 82 21 0 6 46 35 27 41 .329 .395 .486 3 0
A. Mingo SS 76 211 52 10 7 2 29 33 34 25 .246 .351 .389 2 2
M. Shunji LF 70 166 46 10 2 12 24 28 18 47 .277 .348 .578 3 0
G. Lauritsen C 40 124 37 7 0 2 11 16 8 29 .298 .338 .403 0 0
A. Navarro CF 48 93 25 5 2 0 16 14 11 12 .269 .343 .366 8 3
A. Elbert LF 9 28 6 2 0 2 4 3 2 12 .214 .267 .500 1 0
E. Ashlock SS 13 27 7 3 0 1 3 4 2 8 .259 .310 .481 1 1
K. Christner C 8 23 4 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 .174 .174 .174 0 0
G. Leal 2B 7 19 5 1 0 0 3 2 1 1 .263 .364 .316 0 0
T. Teika 1B 6 17 5 2 0 1 1 2 3 5 .294 .400 .588 0 0
R. Naughton 3B 6 16 3 0 0 1 2 2 0 1 .188 .188 .375 0 0
T. Melton 3B 5 16 4 1 0 1 3 2 0 4 .250 .250 .500 0 0
J. Fuensanta 3B 4 13 3 0 0 1 2 3 0 4 .231 .231 .462 0 0
J. Gonzalez CF 4 11 3 0 0 1 3 4 2 5 .273 .385 .545 0 0
K. Alva RF 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000 .250 .000 0 1
Denver Pitching:
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SH
C. Kirk 30 30 16 7 0 4.33 224.1 237 116 108 46 152 6 3
G. Buentello 31 31 16 6 0 3.46 213.0 210 90 82 58 133 1 1
R. Lockridge 31 31 18 8 0 3.64 212.2 208 98 86 35 176 3 2
R. Mcnett 30 30 19 5 0 3.84 206.0 191 94 88 44 167 2 0
K. Pillsbury 29 29 21 4 0 3.09 203.2 193 77 70 40 161 7 4
J. Virgen 51 0 9 9 18 3.87 79.0 74 35 34 16 60 0 0
R. Gomez 49 0 4 3 18 2.84 63.1 48 24 20 11 70 0 0
L. Waltz 23 4 3 1 0 3.41 58.0 54 28 22 20 39 1 1
F. Lemire 37 0 2 2 2 4.56 47.1 50 28 24 18 41 0 0
O. Lopez 28 0 1 0 2 3.12 40.1 47 18 14 3 19 0 0
L. Gwinn 28 0 1 0 1 7.75 38.1 55 33 33 2 36 0 0
R. Soto 8 0 1 0 1 3.00 12.0 13 5 4 2 2 0 0
R. Marquez 2 2 1 1 0 6.35 11.1 16 8 8 7 14 0 0
V. Mcgurk 2 2 0 2 0 9.82 11.0 14 12 12 10 9 0 0
D. Weingartner 3 0 0 0 0 6.00 3.0 3 2 2 4 1 0 0
J. Whitchurch 2 0 0 0 0 0.00 2.0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Thoughts:
A year ago, Nashville backed into the playoffs, barely finishing above .500. The Predators had a mediocre offense and a pitching staff that was almost completely dependent on one man:
Mose Urick. They went up against a Denver team that had the league's best offense, and one of its best pitching staffs. It seemed like a big mismatch, but Nashville took Denver to seven games before finally succumbing.
A year later, the Predators' pitching staff isn't very different than last year's.
Urick is still the horse, and no one else really stands out that much. Youngster
Rene Romero did improve significantly from last year's 7.94 ERA, but the 24 year old is still only a slightly better than league average starter, and no-name
Sung Campana somehow gave Nashville around 10 pretty good starts before falling apart and getting booted to the bullpen in the final month. The 32 year old has a career ERA over 6.00, and has made only 61 big league appearances, so the success this season was likely nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
Nashville's offense is significantly better this season, and indeed, one of the best in all of baseball. The free agent addition of catcher
Daniel Lane was a big help, as was guys like
Carlo Romero and
David Rosier having bounce back seasons.
Romero has a career OPS well over .900, but managed just a .788 OPS last year. This year, he posted a 1.009 mark.
Rosier has a career OPS over .800, but had posted back to back seasons under .800, including a pedestrian .755 mark last year. This year,
Rosier has posted a .910 OPS.
Denver, meanwhile, has gone from having
one of the best pitching staffs, to having
the best in all of baseball. No team can rival the Broncos' fivesome of
Pillsbury,
Lockridge,
McNett,
Buentello, and
Kirk, and the tandem of
Virgen and
Gomez in the bullpen is as good as almost any other team has. The offense remains the best in the league, although Miami's could certainly be considered as good, once one considers the ballparks that the two teams play in.
What does this mean for the series? Both teams are better than they were last year, but the Broncos are without a doubt the best team in the league. And what about the
Lee Chappel factor?
Chappel isn't expected to return until the fifth game at the earliest. His absence diminishes the superiority of the Denver offense.
One other thing to consider: Nashville's offense is driven primarily by batting average and walks. Denver's pitching staff allowed the fewest walks in baseball and had one of the lowest opponent's batting average.
Prediction: The
Broncos in six games.