The Tucson Diamondbacks (90-72)
VS.
The Miami Dolphins (104-58)
Quick Facts:
-These two teams met in the Division Round last year, with Miami winning in seven games.
-This is Tucson's fourth straight postseason appearance. They last reached the World Series in 2080, but have not won since 2038. They have been to the World Series five times since winning in 2038.
-The defending champion Miami Dolphins extended their own league record for consecutive playoff appearances to 39 this season. This is also their 11th straight division title.
-Miami won the World Series last year, beating San Diego in six games.
-Miami won 9 of 15 meetings against Tucson this season. The average score was 5.3 to 4.6
-Tucson scored the fifth most runs in baseball this year. The Diamondbacks don't hit many homeruns(they ranked just 20th) but they get a lot of hits(3rd in AVG) and walks(4th). Their .361 OBP ranked fourth in all of baseball. Tucson's pitching staff allowed the 10th fewest runs, and sported the 11th best ERA.
-Miami scored the second most runs in baseball, which is all the more impressive given that they play in one of the more hitter-unfriendly ballparks in the entire league. It is a pretty balanced offense that the Dolphins have, as well. They were 4th in batting average, 5th in on base percentage, and 3rd in slugging percentage. They hit the fourth most doubles, the fifth most homeruns, and drew the seventh most walks. The only thing the Dolphins don't do well is steal bases, ranking last in all of baseball in stolen bases by a wide margin. Miami's pitching staff allowed the fifth fewest runs, and had the 4th best ERA.
Batting and Pitching stats for Tucson and Miami:
Tucson Batting:
Code:
Name POS G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
R. Billips RF 158 583 151 43 10 30 112 127 80 94 .259 .349 .521 29 15
R. Vega 3B 152 557 139 23 1 33 113 97 106 141 .250 .367 .472 11 3
E. Giancola 2B 155 552 143 18 3 23 95 88 74 112 .259 .349 .428 13 0
T. Stallman 1B 143 521 146 28 2 25 103 92 94 100 .280 .396 .486 0 3
J. Osborn C 143 494 144 24 2 11 69 82 92 133 .291 .404 .415 0 0
J. Constantino LF 127 480 156 24 5 6 64 75 39 63 .325 .377 .433 18 4
S. Riva SS 154 453 120 21 3 2 57 71 69 119 .265 .362 .338 39 15
D. Guzman 2B 117 437 148 22 3 14 67 63 22 57 .339 .365 .499 8 5
C. Diemer C 120 313 106 24 0 4 66 41 17 24 .339 .376 .454 0 1
J. Ruelas CF 110 283 72 18 0 16 57 39 15 70 .254 .293 .488 1 2
C. Troutt 3B 91 257 59 24 1 6 34 36 33 65 .230 .314 .401 0 1
E. Lafferty LF 79 181 51 9 3 2 20 36 10 22 .282 .328 .398 6 4
L. Hawn SS 50 67 14 4 1 0 4 9 8 22 .209 .293 .299 1 0
R. Takanori LF 17 30 7 3 0 0 1 7 2 3 .233 .273 .333 1 0
J. Evans 2B 37 24 6 1 0 1 5 13 2 8 .250 .308 .417 6 0
O. Santos RF 6 9 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 .333 .333 .556 0 0
F. Shimizu 3B 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
Tucson pitching:
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SH
P. Boughner 34 34 15 11 0 4.83 261.0 312 146 140 46 109 12 1
W. Bergan 34 34 15 10 0 3.43 238.2 223 104 91 77 168 2 1
P. Reyes 34 34 14 11 0 5.22 234.2 253 149 136 88 238 8 2
W. Braun 32 32 13 8 0 4.68 219.0 209 118 114 78 144 3 1
K. Landon 26 25 7 12 0 5.60 154.1 159 114 96 88 132 2 1
B. Schrupp 34 2 2 3 0 6.09 75.1 107 56 51 35 47 0 0
O. Yother 63 0 8 5 39 2.88 68.2 67 26 22 20 73 0 0
R. Ugarte 23 0 1 3 0 4.40 45.0 34 23 22 33 33 0 0
B. Johnson 33 0 2 2 0 3.79 35.2 26 18 15 1 10 0 0
W. Winningham 44 0 3 2 0 4.84 35.1 31 19 19 14 25 0 0
B. Guertin 7 1 1 1 0 12.41 12.1 18 18 17 5 6 0 0
P. Padilla 8 0 2 0 0 9.82 7.1 12 8 8 5 2 0 0
A. Melendez 1 0 0 0 0 21.61 1.2 6 4 4 0 0 0 0
N. Parrino 1 0 0 0 0 9.00 1.0 2 1 1 1 0 0 0
Miami batting:
Code:
Name POS G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
R. Springs CF 149 609 185 27 6 36 132 119 49 75 .304 .361 .545 0 1
A. Shorts 1B 138 570 159 53 1 16 84 108 79 41 .279 .364 .460 1 0
T. Fuentes Jr. 3B 145 550 159 32 1 28 122 97 64 88 .289 .368 .504 0 4
B. Tovar SS 141 519 139 22 3 8 69 62 34 40 .268 .316 .368 1 0
F. Alvarez 2B 138 503 115 14 4 15 57 64 30 127 .229 .275 .362 6 0
E. Mcgurk C 131 473 123 18 9 41 109 127 90 72 .260 .376 .596 0 2
J. Foss C 117 453 142 38 0 27 96 105 66 73 .313 .398 .576 1 0
A. Chichester RF 113 443 151 44 4 15 95 88 35 56 .341 .403 .560 1 3
D. Fernandez LF 120 431 107 48 5 19 87 80 74 34 .248 .356 .515 0 5
B. Reid LF 95 329 93 14 3 14 71 45 22 51 .283 .324 .471 1 0
D. Armas RF 85 294 88 15 0 6 22 47 45 36 .299 .395 .412 1 0
T. Alder 1B 56 207 69 13 2 5 29 32 6 13 .333 .349 .488 0 0
L. Twigg CF 74 189 52 14 3 1 19 28 19 28 .275 .352 .397 18 2
F. Elliott 3B 56 146 40 6 1 1 13 24 21 36 .274 .365 .349 1 0
C. Cortes SS 40 119 22 11 0 0 11 12 13 12 .185 .274 .277 4 3
G. Esqueda C 25 82 18 4 0 1 8 12 6 11 .220 .270 .305 0 0
W. Mcalpine LF 28 64 15 5 1 0 9 13 6 15 .234 .296 .344 3 1
D. Bahena 3B 12 42 9 2 0 0 3 5 4 7 .214 .277 .262 0 0
R. Tejada 1B 19 31 8 4 0 2 9 8 8 2 .258 .400 .581 0 0
D. Roque C 9 27 8 2 1 0 1 5 2 2 .296 .345 .444 0 0
J. Zabala LF 11 26 8 3 0 0 1 5 0 8 .308 .308 .423 0 0
E. Abadia RF 7 21 3 1 0 1 3 2 5 6 .143 .296 .333 0 0
E. Lasa RF 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .200 .200 .200 0 0
Miami pitching:
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SH
C. Hokusai 33 32 20 6 0 3.05 227.1 179 78 77 41 197 4 1
J. Caceres 33 33 19 5 0 3.76 222.1 166 100 93 119 154 3 3
R. Baston 29 27 19 7 0 3.81 205.1 205 98 87 71 175 7 1
J. Brashears 25 25 10 12 0 4.93 173.1 183 103 95 73 87 5 3
M. Prior 26 25 12 6 0 4.17 172.2 186 90 80 60 154 1 1
J. Miller 13 13 5 6 0 7.32 78.2 104 70 64 24 41 2 0
S. Fierros 43 0 8 4 13 3.91 73.2 83 38 32 18 71 0 0
E. Morris 30 0 3 4 1 4.02 53.2 51 32 24 23 30 0 0
G. Carolan 31 0 2 0 1 4.66 48.1 57 32 25 11 21 0 0
J. Carpenter 39 0 1 1 5 2.85 47.1 37 17 15 4 36 0 0
J. Seder 30 0 3 1 4 5.56 34.0 45 31 21 7 25 0 0
C. Lain 28 0 0 1 19 3.20 25.1 14 9 9 11 23 0 0
J. Strahan 17 0 0 0 0 5.70 23.2 30 15 15 6 16 0 0
K. Hinkle 3 3 1 2 0 4.74 19.0 17 13 10 8 11 0 0
A. Ibaņez 6 2 0 2 1 17.00 18.0 49 34 34 6 15 0 0
J. Bohorquez 3 2 0 0 0 4.91 7.1 6 4 4 4 4 0 0
D. Hasson 4 0 1 0 0 9.95 6.1 13 9 7 2 2 0 0
C. Speakman 4 0 0 0 0 9.00 6.0 8 7 6 2 6 0 0
E. Salcedo 3 0 0 0 0 2.25 4.0 3 1 1 2 3 0 0
J. Matthews 2 0 0 1 0 13.50 4.0 8 6 6 1 2 0 0
Thoughts:
In some ways, this series is a reversal from last year's matchup. Last year, Tucson came in as a balanced team, able to score a lot of runs while also getting great pitching, while Miami came in with a tremendous pitching staff but a lackluster offense. This year, however, Tucson, while still having a good offense, has seen its pitching diminish, largely due to the losses of
Scott Council and
Cleveland Lauria to free agency, and a poor season by
Paul Reyes. Miami, on the other hand, enjoyed bounce back years from guys like
Thomas Fuentes, Jr. and
Dennis Fernandez, while also getting breakout years from
Edmond McGurk and
Albert Chichester. That kick-started the Dolphins' offense into becoming the second highest scoring team in the league. As for Miami's pitching, while guys like
Jim Miller and
Joseph Brashears showed their age, the emergence of
Ramon Baston picked up the slack and kept the Dolphins' pitching staff among the best in the league.
As it is, these are two very good teams. Like last year, this one could easily go to seven games. Miami seems like they might be just a little bit deeper.
Prediction: The
Dolphins in seven games.