Slayers eager for postseason

MINAS MORGUL - The Slayers completed step one of their title defense, return to the playoffs.

"Obviously, the most important step is to return to the tournament and we barely achieved that." K.L. spoke, "Fortunately, we were able to snap out of it and put ourselves in position."

For a while, i.e. most of the season, it looked like the Slayers were in a post-championship funk. They could never get going, and with Dagorlad playing inspired baseball, it looked like the Slayers would fail to even make the postseason.

But in the space of two weeks, the team went from nearly deadlocked to six games up to clinching the Troll Division. They won 9 of their last twelve over that span.

The only things left for the Slayers are a few decisions and awaiting who their first round opponant will be - all of them tough teams, no matter who the Slayers draw.

The decisions come in a couple forms. Does the team rest everyone? Should the players play to 'stay sharp' for the playoffs? The other question is Imrilron. He's .002 behind in the batting title race and is the margin seperating him from a possible triple crown season, which would be the first. It would be an impressive bullet on his potential Hall of Fame resumé as well. Not to mention that the proud and competitive Imrilron would love to get his 7th 50-HR season. That said, the team could ill afford to lose the one consistent presence they've had to an injury, even a "minor" one would hamper the team this close to postseason play.

"We'll have to evaluate the players' situations on an individual level and come up with what we think is the right thing to do." K.L. spoke, "I know personal achievements are important to players, and I don't want to stop them from having a shot at them."

K.L. did, however, stop short of saying that Imrilron would definitely play.

Posted at May 9, 2006 12:13 AM | more from Minas Morgul