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Canadian Baseball League
2011 Articles


CBL Playoffs Preview 2011

Part III

(CBL Newswire) - by Niko Jackoman for the Moose Jaw Melorist

Fishermen League

Charlottetown Blues (95-67) vs. Moose Jaw Dragons (108-54)

Since, thankfully, there is no interleague play in the CBL and this is
the first BFTB appearance for each team there are no historical and
meaningful head to head statistics to compare. Here is what we do know
both teams fought their way through some really excellent teams to get
here and this has the makings of an excellent series.

Since we have no head to head statistics to examine we will adopt a
slightly different format for this preview. A position by position
comparison of the two teams.

Catcher:
The Dragons have All Star Archer Joecks behind the plate while the
Blues backstop platoon is competent but unremarkable.
Advantage Dragons

First Base:
The Dragons Gold Glove First baseman Devontay Wisell is better both
defensively and offensively than the platoon of Bill Brown and Baron
Krichell.
Advantage Dragons

Second Base:
There are not very many second basemen in the CBL who are better than
the Dragons Langston Burrel. The Blues Richard Miller is one of the few
however that could be considered to be but it is very close. Miller is
almost a clone of Burrel the differences Miller has a little more power
and Burrel has a better arm defensively.
Draw

Third Base:
Here again the Blues platoon of Enos Kosar and Tes Bryson is competent
but not up to matching the Dragons Jerry Alverado.
Advantage Dragons

Shortstop:
The Blues Jim Kipper has more power but gets on base less than the
Dragons Phil Apt. Defensively Apt is superior but many scouts wonder if
his reaction time has suffered as he has aged especially handling
liners hit right at him.
Draw

Left Field
The Dragons have another All Star here in Champ Supino and he and
platoon partner John Herring are clearly better than the Blues platoon
of Osse Meluso and Demonte Mikula. Even though the Blues do have an
edge here defensively the offence provided by Supino clearly offsets
that.
Advantage Dragons

Center Field
The Blues pulled CF Scipio Lamar out of the trash heap and are they
ever glad they did. He has hit up a storm (pun intended) since coming
over to the Blues and his recent performance ranks him ahead of the
Dragons CF Stewart Gilks.
Advantage Blues

Right Field
Although converted from second base, his natural position, Blues right
fielder Isreal Carroway has an edge on the Dragons trade deadline
acquisition Augie Imondie.
Advantage Blues

Designated Hitter
The Blues young DH Ramon Stark is an excellent hitter but he is no
Menachem Gamba. At 39 Gamba is still one of the most feared hitters in
the CBL.
Advantage Dragons

Starting Rotation
The Dragons rotation of Caden Sharif, Aron Faville, Elisha Rhymer and
Ellis Nale clearly outclasses the Blues top four starters. The Blues
pitchers are all competent but can't dominate a game the way the
Dragons Big Four can.
Advantage Dragons

Bullpen
Both teams have excellent closers, probably the two best in the CBL.
The Blues Asmar Coleburn was lights out this season and the Dragons
Ross Becker was dominant as well. Getting to the closers there are some
really good arms in both pens. If the Dragons setup man, former Blues
closer Derrel Hoke was not injured then this might go in the Dragons
favour but as it is...
Draw

Out of the 11 categories that we looked at the Dragons have the
advantage in 6 while the Blues lead in only 2 with three draws.

Statistically speaking during the season the Dragons outhit and out
pitched the Blues but as the Blues showed in their series with Guelph
the have no fear and the regular season means basically nothing so we
will just have to see what happens. If Bernier Ratings mean anything
then the Dragons should have an advantage as they ranked second overall
in that stat while the Blues placed 12th. However since the numbers
were generated against entirely different leagues it make this part
really difficult to predict. In the end in the playoffs it just comes
down to which team is hotter. The Dragons sure finished the regular
season hot and the Fans in Moose Jaw are hoping that the Dragons seven
game battle with Cold Lake didn't cool them down. So how will this
battle of Fishermen versus Farmers play out? Who knows. But since you
kept reading this long I'll take a stab at it...

Prediction: Dragons in 6

But enough yakking let's play ball.

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