Friday, August 23, 1996

Prairie Dogs already making plans for the post-season

By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer

Abilene Prairie Dog manager Phil Stephenson doesn't want to look too far ahead; after all, there are still 11 games left in the regular season and his team is hanging on to first place by a thread.

But he also knows that he can't afford to not start making plans for the postseason, which the Prairie Dogs are already a part of after winning the Texas-Lousiana League first-half championship.

There are lineups to be sorted out, as well as pitching provisions to be made such as what three starters will remain in the rotation and how he'll use his bullpen in the playoffs.

But first things first, and that is the race between Abilene and Lubbock for the second-half championship. The Prairie Dogs are one game up on the Crickets as the teams start play tonight.

Both teams have 12 games left in the season, but none against each other. They finished their head-to-head series in Lubbock last Thursday. The two teams split their 20-game series.

Abilene will play Amarillo three times at home, followed by four against Rio Grande Valley and will then finish the season with four at Amarillo. Lubbock starts a three-game series at Rio Grande Valley tonight and then four games at Tyler before returning home to finish the season with four games against Alexandria.

Both teams could also have a rainout game to make up, but only if it will alter the final standings.
However, instead of looking at all the matchups and trying to decide who has the advantage over the last 12 games, Stephenson prefers to boil it down to simple logic.

"The way I look at it is that if we win out, and they win out, we win by one game," he said. "It's as simple as that. It's in our hands at this point. If we go out and keep playing well and putting up W's, we won't have to worry about what Lubbock's doing."

If the Dogs approach the final 12 games of the second half the way the did the final 12 games of the first half, they could end up running away with the second half and winning a bye into the league championship series.

Abilene finished the first half by winning its final 12 games on its way to a 35-15 first half record.
The Prairie Dogs might have gotten a big push in that direction Wednesday night when they rallied from a 6-0 hole to beat Tyler 8-7 on Barry Jones' two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth. The Dogs had tied the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the seventh on Jack Johnson's two-run home run.
Johnson said the win might help the club focus on the task at hand, which is winning the second half.

"We needed that one," he said. "We've been playing horribly the last three weeks. Maybe a win like that will throw some life into this team."

And if the Dogs do finish the regular season on a 9-3 or 10-2 roll and win the second half, they'll avoid something Stephenson absolutely reviles: the best-of-three series.

Abilene is the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, but would have to face the No. 4 seed (the team with the fourth-best overall record) in a best-of-three first round series if it loses the second half title. Right now Amarillo leads Alexandria for fourth place and would be that first-round opponent.

Abilene and Amarillo have split 12 meetings going into tonight's game. However, Abilene has won six of the last eight between the teams.

"The advantage of winning the second half is avoiding the best-of-three series," Stephenson said, "which is one of the biggest jokes ever invented. In this league you play 100 games to get to a point where if somebody plays two good games you're out. The only disadvantage to winning it is that we'd be off for nine days."

Indeed, if the Dogs do win the second half, they'll finish the regular season on Sept. 2 and not play again until the championship series is scheduled to start Sept. 11.

"That's a long time to try to stay sharp," Stephenson said. "It's tough on the pitchers who can't get regular work, and it's tough on the hitters, because they lose whatever edge they might have."

One of the biggest decisions to be faced by Stephenson and pitching coach/No. 1 starter David Haas is the pitching rotation for the playoffs.

Barring an unforseen turn of events, Haas and Kerry Knox will be the top two starters in the Prairie Dogs' three-man playoff rotation. The third spot will go to either Sam Arminio or Lance Schuermann, and who gets it will be based more on matchups than anything else.

Fifth starter Jared Baker will likely go to the bullpen for the playoffs.

"We'd just look at the matchups and how guys have fared against certain teams," Stephenson said. "If we played Alexandria, they're predominantly a right-handed hitting team, but our left-handers have had more success against them. The same with Lubbock."

And that means that Schuermann (a left-hander) could slide into the No. 3 spot with Arminio (a right-hander) being the first right-handed option out of the bullpen.

If Abilene plays Amarillo somewhere in the playoffs, that scenario could be flip-flopped.

"But we probably won't determine that until we know what the matchups will be," Stephenson said. "If we clinch the second half pretty soon, or are eliminated from contention, we'll start setting up our rotation to make sure Dave throws the opening game."

But no matter what happens over the next three weeks, Stephenson knows only one thing matters: how the Prairie Dogs finish.

"We still want to go out as a winner," he said. "If we win the second half, that's great, but we still have to win the whole thing. Nobody remembers who wins halves or regular-season championships; they only remember who wins league championships."