The 2020 season comes to its conclusion on Sunday with the Bilabial Stops meeting West Coast Washout in the World Series. The Washout looks to avenge their elimination at the hands of the Stops in 2019 and the Stops looks to finish the job after coming up short in last year's series. Here is how they match up:
World Series Preview
Expert Analysis by Dan Rish
#1 Bilabial Stops (15-2)
vs
#2 West Coast Washout (14-4)
Stats shown below are from semifinals
Projected Starters: Stops
Eddie Brown
2-0, 3.00 ERA, 17K/1BB
Nick Usoff
0-1, 7.71 ERA, 13K/8BB
Projected Starters: West Coast Washout
Daniel Rish
1-0, 6.00 ERA, 18K/6BB
Karl Koch
1-0, 6.00 ERA, 8K/5BB
Projected Lineup: Stops
- Greg Nyssen
.307 AVG / .470 OBP / 1.085 OPS
- Eddie Brown
.583 AVG / .687 OBP / 1.937 OPS
- Nick Usoff
.714 AVG / .764 OBP / 2.121 OPS
- Ben Burkhardt
.555 AVG / .764 OBP / 1.320 OPS
- Bobby Vadnais
.076 AVG / .294 OBP / .371 OPS
- Francis Nyssen
.300 AVG/ .562 OBP / .862 OPS
Projected Lineup: Washout
- Jonathan Stevens
.500 AVG / .583 OBP / 1.283 OPS
- Daniel Rish
.500 AVG / .667 OBP / 1.867 OPS
- Andrew Winter
.385 AVG / .467 OBP / 1.082 OPS
- Jeremy Salvo
.600 AVG / .692 OBP / 1.692 OPS
- Jason Ciummo
.462 AVG / .462 OBP / .924 OPS
- Karl Koch
.500 AVG / .500 OBP / 1.500 OPS
Team Offense: Edge - Washout
Top to bottom, the Washout lineup performed in the semifinals against the Juice. For the Stops, the bottom half of the lineup came around for the Stops in the latter part of their semifinal series, with Burkhardt hitting for average and Greg Nyssen hitting for power, but there's no getting around that this is a top-heavy lineup.
Team Pitching: Edge - Stops
Anchored by the newly crowned Cy Young winner Eddie Brown, the Stops pitching staff was the gold standard in 2020. Usoff had a few bad innings in their semifinal - enough to cost them a game, but not the series. He bounced back, striking out all three batters he faced in the deciding game. Koch has been a model of consistency for the Washout, and that remained the case in the semis. Rish locked down after a rough first inning against the Juice.
Team Defense: Edge - Push
Stops .618 OPP BABIP
Washout .609 OPP BABIP
Both teams did slightly worse on getting outs when the ball was put in play than their season average. That's playoff competition for you.
Season Series:
Bilabial Stops 2, West Coast Washout 1 (7/12/20)
Bilabial Stops 12, West Coast Washout 0 (7/12/20)
2019 Semifinals: Stops win 2 games to 1
All-time Series: Stops lead 5-2
X-Factor:
What kind of games will the World Series produce? If the games are low-scoring affairs, it’s probably the Stops. If the games are shootouts, it’s more likely the Washout. The Stops are almost guaranteed to plate a few, but tend to stagnate after getting to the half-decade mark. The Washout lineup is more likely to be feast-or-famine.
Expectation
Consider the Stops narrow favorites. At the mid-point of the season, the Stops seemed invincible, but now they have a few chinks in their armor. It will all come down to execution.
The series kicks off on Sunday at 12pm. The Home Run Derby and All-Star Game will follow - all are welcome to participate. We'll see you there!
