Earlier this month, we introduced the next month-long series that I’ll be running, called Battle of the Yankee Decades! To see the introductory and explanation post for this series, check it out here.
Last week, I announced the rules, seeding, and team rosters for each of the sixteen teams that were added into the tournament. Check that out here.
We began our simulations last week, and continue the Sweet 16 today with the 1978 Yankees at the 2019 Yankees!
Match-Ups:
The great thing about Out of the Park Baseball: 21 is that in these simulations, you can easily see which team is favored (when the logos are different).
Luckily with this match-up, unlike our previous two, we are able to tell which team is favored as there is a clear distinction between the logos being used. We can tell that the 2019 team (white) is favored slightly on offense with a 6 player to 3 player advantage, yet it appears as though the pitching will favor the 1978 team with Guidry on the mound.
Game One:
When seeing the starting pitching match-up for Game One of this series, it definitely didn’t play out as we would’ve expected. Masahiro Tanaka went the furthest out of the 9 pitchers used from both teams, going only 4.1 innings total, as Ron Guidry made it through 4.0 innings himself. Each pitcher let up 5 runs in their appearances, with all of them earned off Guidry and only 3 earned of Tanaka. On offense, we had home runs from Roy White (solo) and Graig Nettles (2-run) which helped score the 6 runs for 1978, but Gary Sanchez and his 2 home-runs (a 3-run and 2-run shot) helped propel the 2019 team to an 8-6 victory.
Game Two:
After an almost-barn burner in Game One, we would expect from seeing our other simulations that Game Two may have been less of a slugfest. Turns out, these two teams love to hit as this game ended with 20 total runs scored. Dick Tidrow, who came in for 1978 in the 4th inning had the longest appearance of any pitcher, totalling 3.2 innings as starters Ed Figueroa (1.2 innings, 5 runs, all earned) and James Paxton (3.1 innings, 6 runs, all earned) greatly disappointed.
However, as a fan of offense, there was a total 5 home-runs hit in the game coming from the bat of Thurman Munson (2-run) for 1978 and off the bats of Edwin Encarnacion (3-run), Luke Voit (3-run), Aaron Judge (solo), and Brett Gardner (solo). With 8 runs coming off home runs alone for 2019, they took the game- and the series- with great power over 1978.
Series Statistics and MVP:
Looking at the pitching statistics might seem like a mistake to be made after going through those two games with a total of 34 runs scored, but the 2019 bullpen shined bright after poor starting performances. Interestingly enough, it appears as though Cory Gearrin gets the title of best pitcher as he went 3.1 scoreless innings. For 1978, Paul Lindbald was the best by pitching 2.0 scoreless innings in a Game One loss.
On offense, Graig Nettles proved to be the best for 1978 as his 1.000 slugging topped the team, but with only 5 at-bats to his name it would seem more fit to give that title to Thurman Munson who went 3-10 with a homerun of his own. On the winning side, Gary Sanchez with his two home runs may seem like the favorite, but Luke Voit won the MVP honors as he went an incredible 6-7 with 2 walks, 1 home run, and 4 RBI’s.
The Sweet Sixteen Finishes Tomorrow:
1910 Yankees (#15 Seed) @ 1998 Yankees (#2 Seed)!
