MERBL Playoffs Begin This Week

By Anthony Jones, Reporter

With the pressure heightening in the final regular season games, several teams have played their best baseball as of late. Troy 6 has gone 4-0 in their last games, including dealing Maryville 2 their first loss of the season. Their loss left Collinsville 6 as the lone undefeated team in the league, but Maryville 2 defeated them to regain first place in the American League.

Collinsville 2 and Troy 1 have both gone 3-0 recently to finish strong. Perhaps the most interesting team in the last stretch has been Belleville 2, who have managed to go 4-2 after starting out 1-5-1. The last two winless teams, Dupo 2 and Troy 3, managed to receive their wins of the year, with Troy 3 snagging 2.

All teams in the league qualify for the playoffs, with the American League and National League being separated until the championship. The eleven teams that each league has will play each other in a single elimination bracket until a winner of each league has been determined. The winners of their respective brackets will then play a best of three game series to determine the champion.

WIth the game of baseball, it is hard to predict outcomes, especially with a one and done format. This means that the playoffs could offer huge upsets and underdog stories, but at the same time, the top ranked teams could continue their winning ways. In an attempt to predict the World Series strictly as far as American League versus National League, data has been compiled to see how the two leagues have fared against each other.

Of the 40 inter-league games, the American League has the slight edge with a record of 22-18 and has outscored their counterparts 326-297. On average, the team representing the National League in inter-league contests had a 0.563 higher winning percentage in games against other National Leagues than American League teams had in the American League.

This means that even though one league had an edge, the leagues were represented fairly close to equal in inter-league play. Based purely upon this data, the American League would be a slight favorite in the championship, but the leagues do seem fairly evenly matched.

Listed below are the final regular season standings.

  

  American League

Team / Coach                

W-L-T                              GB

             

M2 / McNamara

           9-1                        —-

C6  / Brady   

          9-1-1                       —-

T6  / Tonn      

           8-2-1                      1.0

C2  / Mullins

           8-3-1                       3.0

ESL2  / Mestemacher     

           5-5-2                       4.0

B2  / Hardester

          5-7-1                        5.0

T2  / James

          5-7                           5.0

C4  / Leopold

          5-9                           6.0

E2  / LaVite

          4-8                           6.0    

T4  / Lacefield                 

          2-9-2                       7.5    

7.5 D2  / Castaldi

          1-8                           7.5

National League

Team / Coach                

W-L-T                             GB

C3 / Kamp

        9-2-1                         —

C5 / Keinle

         9-3                           0.5

T1  / Vosholler

         9-4                          1.0

ESL1  / Conley

         6-6                           3.5

C1  / Romanich

         6-6                           3.5

M1  / Falbe

       5-5                             3.5

D1  / Stanberry

        5-5-1                         3.5

M3  / Wallace

  5-7                                 4.5

T5  / Stroud

        4-6-2                        4.5

OF1  / Portz

        4-10                         6.5

T3 /  Biagi

        2-11                         8.0

All standings are current from MERBL’s website as of 7/21/2019 at 9:20 p.m.