10.25.2016

RACES TIGHT AS SEASON WINDS DOWN

One week remains in the 14th Bullard Alternative Reality Baseball season, and while a few spots at the top (and bottom) of each division have been locked up, more still needs to be ironed out to finalize the 2016 playoff picture and 2017 draft.

Who will take home the 2016 BARB crown? Who has the edge for the first pick in the 2017 draft? Both questions will be answered soon, and with the help of one more week of regular season play.

With six or seven games left (depending on the team), five teams had clinched playoff spots. The Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels sewed up the Cactus division thanks to New England’s win over Yuma on September 23.

The one playoff position still up for grabs is the Cactus wild card second seed. The Santa Barbara Angels, in that spot for much of the campaign, have suffered a 2-8 record in their last 10 games as the Brooklyn Moabs have gone 6-4. Those marks give Brooklyn a one-game advantage over Santa Barbara. Eric Caskey’s team finished with three games at Carolina, a day off and three hosting the Pottsylvania Creepers. Santa Barbara’s final six feature a three-game set at Grapefruit front-runner New England and then three hosting Cactus cellar-dweller Arizona. Carolina hasn’t been officially eliminated, but at five games behind Brooklyn they’ll need to win out and receive help.

Of course, lurking for the second wild card will be the Yuma Firebirds. Yuma has been long guaranteed a playoff spot despite hovering around 10 games behind Frostbite since the All-Star break, and they’ll have the higher seed in the Cactus wild card series. Chris Melkonian’s charges will have a chip on their shoulder entering postseason play after becoming only the third Yuma squad to fail to win their division (following the 2003 and 2008 Firebirds). Yuma is coming off back-to-back BARB championships and has won four of the first 13 titles.

On the Grapefruit side, the New England Yankee Stompers hold the top spot but have not quite wrapped up the division title. The magic number for James Herndon’s side is four, but the second-place St. Francis Kansans have won nine straight and trail by just three in the loss column. The darkhorse Oakland Larks, in Jay Parks’ first season heading up the team, remain mathematically in the division title race – but they would need New England to fall in each of their last six while Oakland wins every one of their final seven contests.

No matter what happens in the Grapefruit, all three playoff spots have been claimed. With Oakland three back of St. Francis for the first wild card, it’s likely Scott Hatfield will have homefield advantage in the wild card round as he continues to chase his first BARB championship.

As in 2015, the playoffs will start the day after the regular season ends (barring a need for a one-game playoff to decide the second Cactus wild card). The lower seed will host the first game of the best-of-three wild card round, and the higher wild card will host game two and the if-necessary third game. No days off will be scheduled into the wild card round. Each division’s wild card winner will then cross over and play the opposite division’s champion in a 2-2-1 best-of-five. The World Series will feature the two divisional-round winners in a best-of-seven, with the better record between the two earning home field advantage.

RECORD CHASES:

The Frostbite Falls club has, for much of the season, been chasing two separate marks from BARB annals. Until early-September, they had a winning percentage over .700. That has only been achieved once in league history – by the 2013 Worcester Eliminators. Matt Caskey’s club won 114 games that season and will not be passed in that category by the Flying Squirrels this year. The most Frostbite can win is 113. The squad of Rocky and Bullwinkle has already beaten their franchise high-water mark of 101, set in a second-place finish to Worcester in 2013.

The Flying Squirrel offense has already pounded out a league record in runs scored at 973, and becoming the first club with 1,000 on the season is within reach. Barring double digits in each of their last six, however, they’ll fall short of the loop mark for runs per game. That was set in 2004 by Brooklyn, who plated 968 in a 150-game campaign for a 6.45 average. Frostbite is averaging 6.23 per game and will need to score 1046 by the end of game 162 for the scoring average record.

2017 DRAFT:


One other position remains up in the air: the dubious mark of WORST team in the league. Of course, the team with the worst record will “earn” the first pick in each round in the 2017 draft (barring expansion). Riverside, at 57-98, and Casselton, 58-97, are neck-and-neck in the futility department after both teams suffered multiple injuries during the season. Lurking just a few games above those two is the traditionally cellar-dwelling Arizona D-Backs, 62-94. It will be an interesting end to the season, as Riverside and Casselton face off three times at the Rum Runners’ ballpark to finish the campaign. If the current results stand, it would be the first time since 2012 that Ronald Melkonian didn’t pick in the top-two.

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