PLAYOFFS!

Time for the moment everyone on Muff N Men has been waiting for! The great playoff preview! Granted the regular season isn’t over yet because our commish was scared to start the season on time, let’s just all assume that Fall-Tea Balls win their warm up game against MDC. If that doesn’t happen, then all that will be affected this week is 2 games, so pretty much half of this write up is contingent upon that game. So, Muff N Men locked up the BCS title and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. MDC finally got their first win by suckering TC into a kick away game. TC completed their collapse that started week 4 with a blowout loss and a forfeit. PW is limping into the playoffs and I can’t remember anything else because I’ve been in Vegas for the last 5 days and can barely remember yesterday. Here are the playoff rankings and odds of winning. To place any wagers, see Stevey, he’ll be the one with the shorts that hang down to his ankles.

Playoff Power Rankings

#8. The Closers - 80:1

TC has come a long way since being ranked #8 in the preseason… Then proceeded to fall back to the bottom after a late season collapse. Though, while MNM didn’t appreciate their forfeit last week (Probably should’ve considered your kickball career while searching for an apartment), I thought it was awesome. Hopefully TC can win that play-in game so they can play MNM this week and yes that whole sentence was sarcasm. What they need to do to win: They’ll obviously need a tremendous amount of good fortune to win. They’ve proved that they can hang with the better teams and did hand HML their only loss. They’ll need all their skill players to play flawless and Larry Bruni to get on base for the first time this season.

Edit: Buster Olney reports that The Closers have forfeited tonight and wasted my time

#7. Ma Dixon Cider - 60:1

If this was kick away, or slosh ball, or lack of bar attendance, I’d have MDC at the top and the favorites to win. Unfortunately, it’s buntball, and Lighthouse has already denied my application to join their league for playoffs only. MDC did have the best offense this season! (and 2nd worst defense). Am I proud that even though it included 14 runs in a kick away game? You’re damn right! What they need to do to win: Avoid the meltdown inning. Seemed like every game MDC had one bad inning that ended up either costing them the game or putting the game away for the other team. If they can tighten up that D and keep that blood alcohol at a manageable number, they can certainly beat anyone.

#6. Fall-Tea Balls 40:1

FTB had the worst offense in the league, a middle of the road defense, and the best team record in klam jam. Their defense vastly improved once their pitcher came back from a bruised conjoined fetus in week 4. Expect them to actually try this week in the playoffs, but that 9pm start could be doom once those Tea Lights pile up. What they need to do to win: Get their shit together. This is a team that has been a contender pretty much every season that I’ve played. They only lost a couple people from last season, but no one that would create this big of a swing in record.

#5. Prestige Worldwide - 25:1

PW was another team that cooled off as the season went on. They’ve been remarkably quiet with the complaining this season, which has cost them a game against one of the “easier” teams and home field advantage. Talbot’s butt cheek should be healed finally after injuring it getting his ass kissed so much for beating MNM, and maybe just maybe T2R will continue their season long streak of being awful. What they need to do to win: Put the correct people at the correct positions. Tired of saying this but Stevey is your best catcher. No disrespect to Timly at all. Figure out what you were doing right earlier in the season and no meltdowns.

#4. Time 2 Retire 10:1

Rumor has it that Bez is petitioning the league to force Houghton to serve his suspension during the playoffs, but this is WAKA, and we don’t make people serve suspensions in the playoffs… Sorry, that’s the MLB. T2R has been very pedestrian all season with all 3 of their losses and their tie coming against the three teams ahead of them in the rankings. What they need to do to win: Well a time machine would help, so they could go back and have Kerry sign up and not trade Kathy. Having everyone able to show up will help a ton, also. It’s the playoffs, so I expect T2R to play a little smarter and make less mistakes.

#3. Rum Riot - 8:1

Rum Riot had the best statistical defense in the league this season. I know the Muffs are going to take issue with that statement, but advanced saberkickmetrics, say otherwise. TJordan should be getting some Cy Kerry considerations and Joe Kane has come a long way as catcher. What they need to do to win: Keep the defense up to par and figure out how to score runs. RR ranked near the bottom in offense all season. Turf will help them a bunch as Travis throws a bouncy pitch and kicking could be a premium with a windy night coming up.

#2. Hand Made Love - 4:1

HML flew in Steve Ginn last week for their game against T2R (wish I could afford to pay $70 a game). His status is probable for this week and you know Floyd is going all Belichickian and not revealing whether or not he’ll play or not. The defense has been good all season and the offense has been surprisingly good with Shaker batting clean up. What they need to do to win: Keep doing what they are doing. This team has been the blueprint for so long of mistake free defense and scoring early. I’m sure we’ll see TShaw firmly planted on the sidelines throughout the playoffs with his league worst -2.7 WAR.

#1. Muff N Men - 2:1

The Muffs managed to lose only once this season despite a slew of solid teams from top to bottom. Bez has been campaigning hard to be this season’s Cy Kerry, but Joey has been the anchor of the team mastering the throw to 2nd. It’s almost like him and his wife practice it instead of having maritals. He is all but guaranteed to win the Ginn Glove award for best catcher. What they need to do to win: They’ve been doing it all season. The only glaring weakness is when Bez publicly gets pissy with his teammates and they stop having fun. Expect a few upsets this season, so don’t take any team too lightly.

Quick Predictions for Tonight

2. Hand Made Love vs. 7. MDC/FTB

Not sure of the match up but HML seems to get it done in the playoffs.

3. Rum Riot vs. 6. MDC/FTB

RR likes to squeak by everyone they play and regardless of which team they play it will probably be the case here.

4. Time 2 Retire vs. 5. Prestige Worldwide

No surprises this week. T2R is playing decent at best and PW is free falling.

Here’s my bracket

1. MNM

8. TC        MNM

4. T2R      T2R         MNM

5. PW

                                            MNM

3. RR

6. MDC     RR           RR

2. HML      HML

7. FTB

End of Season Awards!

I wanna get people to vote on who they think is the best person they faced at the 3 key positions. You cannot vote for your teammates. FB message me or email it to mainegmot@gmail.com. I’ll probably be harassing people over the next couple weeks and we can do a big reveal at the EOS party. So the sooner you do it, the less I’ll bug you!

Thanks

-Sparks