MLB Showdown Cards

Up-date on our 2011 30 team tournament. The Cardinals (1) bye/ Indians (8) vs. White Sox (9)

White Sox vs Indians

	Line Up	Rotation	Bullpen	Bench	Total
White Sox (9)	1,650	1,160	660	40	3,510
Indians (8)	1,550	970	420	106	3,046

               Prediction: Two Showdown oddities are going to swing this to the White Sox. The first is Brent Lillebridge being a tank 8 because of his strong performance in limited AB’s in 2011. The second (no pun intended) is that the Indians do not have a second basemen. By tournament rules the opponent gets to pick which player plays second and can’t be subbed with -2 fielding(likely be Sizemore as a 5, speed C). That two player swing should make this an easy win for White Sox in 6 games. Masterson is good enough to beat Buehrle but likely not twice. The Indians bullpen is awful. The best thing for the Indians is the White Sox do not have the speed to make them need to play Marson over Santana and lose another bat.

Game 1.

               Masterson is better than good he was fantastic. He set the bar high for best start of the tournament right off the bat with a 1 hit, 3 walk, 9 strike out complete game shutout. Buehrle picked a good day to have a slightly sub-par performance because nothing but perfection was going to beat Masterson. The Indians sprinkled hits with almost everyone helping on the 4 runs. Indians win game 4-0 up 1-0 in series.

Game 2.

               Leave it to Dr. Juice to get a homer out of not just Paul Konerko but also Gordon Beckham. Humber Pitched a solid 6 innings with 2 runs and Crain took it the rest of the way with a 3 innings for the win. He did give up 2 runs in the 9^th to make it interesting on a two run homer by Jim Thome. Even with the hats off White Sox win game 5-4 Series tied 1-1

Game 3.

               Floyd, Sale and Danks combined for 9 innings of 4 hit, 1 walk, 13 strike out shut out baseball. Floyd would get the win and Ubaldo Jimmenez never gave his team a chance picking up the loss. The same formula for the White Sox on offense, homers by Konerko and the unlikely Gordon Beckham. Beckham also had a pair of doubles. White Sox win game 8-0 up 2-1

Game 4.

               Masterson lost his form pitching in and out of trouble for 5 innings. In the sixth with a 3 run lea he finally got caught giving up 3 runs. Rafael Perez would give up a manufactured run when Pierre who stayed in after pinch hitting a double earlier lead the ninth off with a single. He would steal second, be bunted to third and driven on a groundball by Paul Konerko. White Sox up 3-1

Game 5.

               The Indians would take an early 2-0 lead in the first as Santana would have a double and an RBI in that inning. He would finish 4-5 with a homer, double and a walk. That still wouldn’t be enough as the White Sox would score single runs in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th off Tomlin and 7^th off Smith. When the Game went to extras you could sense Dr. Juice trying not just to win but to do so with style. Lillebridge would hit a 2 run homer in the top of the 11^th to provide that style. Sanatana would hit a solo homer in the bottom of the frame but not enough. The White Sox win the game 6-5 series 4-1

The Cardinals are the Number 1 seed and first Round Bye and will face the winner.

Tournament Pitcher Leaders

Player	Team	ERA	Player	Team	Wins	Player	Team	Whip
Sale	White S	0.00	Crain	White S	2	Sale	White S	0.29
Floyd	White S	0.00	Masterson	Indians	1	Floyd	White S	0.60
Masterson	Indians	1.80	Floyd	White S	1	Masterson	Indians	1.07
Crain	White S	2.57	Sale	White S	1	Crain	White S	1.14
Humber	White S	4.50				Tomlin	Indian	1.15

Player	Team	Strikeout	Player	Team	GIDP	Player	Team	Saves
Masterson	Indians	13	Buehrle	White S	2	Thorton	White S	1
Tomlin	Indians	8	Humber	White S	1	Crain	White S	1
Floyd	White S	7	Sale	White S	1
Jimmenez	Indians	6	Floyd	White S	1
Crain	Indians	6

Tournament Hitting Leaders

Player	Team	BA	Player	Team	RBI	Player	Team	HR
Beckham	White S	.421	Konerko	White S	7	Konerko	White S	2
Konerko	White S	.391	Beckham	White S	6	Beckham	White S	2
Santana	Indians	.368	Thome	Indians	6	Santana	Indians	2
Quentin	White S	.333	Santana	Indians	5	Quentin	White S	2
Pierrzynski	White S	.294	Quentin	White S	3	2 Tied		1

Player	Team	Runs	Player	Team	SB	Player	Team	TB
Beckham	White S	4	Pierre	White S	3	Beckham	White S	17
Pierre	White S	4	De Aza	White S	3	Konerko	White S	15
Pierzynski	White S	4	Lillebridge	White S	3	Quentin	White S	15
4 Tied		3	Choo	Indians	2	Santana	Indians	14
			Ramirez	White S	2	Thome	Indians	9

Next Week: Red Sox (5) vs Royals (12) and Ray (4) vs Padres (13)

For information on how to play series e-mail redsoxman2011@gmail.com

For bracket info check out http://mlbshowdowncards.blogspot.com/2012/12/2011-team-tournament-first-round-series.html#more