Shooter McGavins (10-10) vs. TSFE (10-10)
The Venue: Seamens Neck 4 Dirt @ 8:30am
Both teams are trying to avoid playing Saturday Night Lights and each need a sweep to avoid that fate. Splitting won’t do it. Both teams have the same record and will bring their main squad to get the wins. A one game SNL game means playing Saturday night mist win game and then facing one of the top two seeds.
Preseason both teams were rated as top 3 teams but that was a long, long time ago. A slow first month for both teams meant they had a big hole to climb out of. Shooter McGavins and TSFE are both playing their best ball over the past few weeks so this matchup should be a doozy.
How They Got Here
Shooter McGavins:
Shooter McGavins finished in the semifinals last year and was the second seed. On top of that they added TK and SASL experts lost their minds. However, the hype was for naught as they started with a 0-6 record. Since then they have been 10-4 with some impressive wins against Hit Squad, Dynasty and sweeping a few teams. Players like Khurram, Mike Velez, Jojo etc are playing their best ball.
Shooter McGavins have a -1 run differential over 20 games. So not surprisingly they are playing .500 ball. Their defense is pretty good and ranked 4th overall but their weakness is their hitting which is ranked only 9th. There is a black hole at the bottom of the lineup which avoids big innings for opponents and some easy innings.
TSFE:
Preseason, TSFE were ranked #1 in the Power Rankings. The finalists from last year added prominent players like Jason Reis, Chris Mui, Saad Yousuf, Dheeraj, Jason Gregory to raise the expectations even higher. But they started a ghastly 1-5 this season, but has played much better since then. They have since gone 8-4 and are right back in the thick of things.
Currently they are -40 in run differential so they may be a little lucky to be at 10-10 record. Their offense has almost no pop. Chris Mui leads the team in OPS at 1.30 which is a league average type player. So they need to string together a bunch of hits to have any big innings and against good defensive teams it’s almost impossible.
On Field Matchups
Pitching/Catching:
Shooter McGavins have Aasheesh Shravah at Pitcher and he is one of the league leaders in keeping the walks low. Joel Enai should be catching and he has some sneaky power. Aasheesh is almost an automatic out at the dish but he does what his team asks of him which is to throw consistent strikes.
Rakesh Nankumar pitches for TSFE and was a write in all star last year. He is a consistent strike thrower who will make you hit the ball to his defense. Shazim should be catching and while he isn’t the hitter he was couple of years ago, he can still put some muscle behind those line drives.
Advantage: TSFE
Infield:
Shooter McGavins will likely start Rich Yun, Khurram Syed, Ronak Jain and Zulfikar Musliwala in the infield. Rich has had an uncharacteristically slow season with only 10 RBIs for the season. Khurram has been a savant at SS and has almost a .600 OBP so he has had a very good season. Ronak after a great 2019 season has taken a step back hitting only .491 but his bat is warming up lately. The weak spot in the infield is Zulfikar who his hitting below .400.
TSFE will probably play Chris Mui, Jason Gregory, Jason Reis and Prince Panicker in the infield. It isn’t the best defensive infield in the League, but that is some solid offense there. While the infield doesn’t have as much range as you would like, it makes the smart plays. Prince and Jason Reis are having expected solid seasons but Chris Mui and Jason Gregory need to have big games at the top of the lineup for TSFE to have a chance.
Advantage: Even
Outfield:
The big wild card will be if TK shows up to play as he has come only 4 weeks all season, so we don’t expect him to show up. Shooter McGavins still have a more than capable outfield with former MVP Mike Velez, Nick Tamayo, Jojo Rodriguez and VJ Samaroo from Left to Right. It is no coincidence Shooter McGavins turned their season around as soon as Mike went on a tear at the dish. Nick is a prototypical leadoff hitter with great range at LCF. Jojo and VJ are both having solid years at the plate and cover good ground on the right side of the field.
The Outfield of TSFE should be their biggest strength. Saad Yousuf at Left, Dheeraj Ramchandani and Travis Mahadeo at Center and Harvey Harding at Right field provides speed and range along with some good bats. Saad hasn’t produced his usual power we have seen past few years. Dheeraj and Travis have really picked it up the past few weeks and are great combo at the top of the lineup. Harvey as good as he has been on the field, is hitting only .333 for the season.
Advantage: Shooter McGavins
Keys To Winning
Shooter McGavins:
1. Bottom Of The Lineup Has To Hit: Kind if seems like once they get past the 5th or 6th hitter, opponents have an easy time and that means 2-3 easy innings.
2. Bring The Energy: Shooter McGavins play their best when they are loose and playing with energy. The team isn’t built to come back from behind so they need to throw the first punch.
3. Health: At various points they have dealt with injuries to their main players. This past weekend SS Khurram limped off with a leg injury. If he is out, that would be a huge, huge loss.
TSFE:
1. Bat 10 Guys: While it is still regular season, the playoffs already started for TSFE. They need to shorten the lineup and play their best players at their best positions.
2. Any Power?: Did someone steal the thunder from their bats? Middle of the order of Chris, Saad will need to step up and get some XBH.
3. Throw The First Punch: Shooter McGavins play well when they have the lead but have a hard time coming back from a hole.
Prediction:
A very even matchup on paper and it will come down to the wire. If Shooter McGavins players are healthy, we are going with a SWEEP FOR SHOOTER MCGAVINS!!
