ALPS Preview: New York vs. Nashville

American League Rankings:

14th - Offense - 3rd
8th - Pitching - 4th
1st- Defense - 5th

Preview: It's a tough world when you can win 99 games and not even sniff your division title. To make things worse for the Nashville Sounds, their opponent is a division winner despite winning only 85 games. Are the Sounds a little bitter that they don't have homefield advantage for this series? If they do, they're not showing it. The Sounds are all chomping at the bit to take on a Monarchs side that doesn't have much going for it.

The weakest playoff team on paper, the Monarchs are hoping the excitement of playing in front of their home fans to open the series can help them steal some early victories. It's tough being a home underdog and losing either of the first two, as it swings home field to the other team and is a virtual death sentence. But, hey, once you're in, you've got a shot, so New York should block out the doubters and just play some ball.

Offensive Analysis: Nashville features a pair of Silver Sluggers in 3B Adam Huff (.303, 48, 149) and 2B Danny Brunette (.328, 46, 143), who is an all-world talent. The Sounds have a lot of role players as well. Seven Sounds cracked 20 home runs this year and LF Dernell Carpenter (.256, 30, 70) stole 42 bases. That number is dwarfed by Monarchs' CF Richard Feng (.238, 4, 38) who took 129 extra bags this year. Easily the biggest threat in the bigs on the basepaths, he could prove valuable to a Monarchs offense that will need a spark. Only 1B Armando Romo (.292, 32, 112) stands out otherwise.

Pitching Analysis: The Monarchs rely on SP Robert Zimmer (16-5, 3.00) to win them most of their ball games, because only one other starter has a winning record. If the Monarchs can get a lead, though, CP Darrell Ingram (0-2, 1.49) is a virtual lock to protect it. He held opposing hitters to a .155 average and converted 38 of 41 save tries. The Sounds have a tremendous fireman of their own in CP Sonny Bell (0-1, 1.29) who hauled in 55 saves on the year. Trying to get the ball in his hands will be SP Jimmie Cannon (15-9, 2.84) and any of the interchagable #2 and #3 starters that Nashville possesses.

Prediction: The Monarchs best strategy might be to get Feng on any way possible and have him attempt to steal home. And considering the unlikely odds of that working on a regular basis, this series should be the Sounds' to lose. One last issue that might flare up, however, is the fatigue of the Nashville players, a lot of whom worked overtime during the regular season trying to bring home an AL South title that wasn't meant to be.

Nashville Sounds in 3