End of the year stats fiesta!

Mike Trout taking home almost all the hardware this year!

With an exciting post-season underway (and GREAT write-ups by Steve and Scott!), I don't want people to miss out on the final regular season stats. 

There are a lot of updates and links you can use to kill a fair amount of time.  Take some time to review your team yearbook for a crazy amount of detailed statistical information on your season, links are listed on the right side of this page.

Final votes are in, and the big winners are  Mike Trout (MVP), Dallas Keuchel (Cy Young), and Andy Willnus (Manager of the Year...every year!). 

Click here to go to final Award Voting

For those who don't often look at it in the lengthy list of links on the right side of this page, the Record Book is a fun thing to check out, especially at the end of the year.

Click here to go to final Record Book


The Friendship League Encyclopedia encompasses the past eight seasons of the league, the "modern era" if you will.  Want to know which two players are tied for most homers over the last eight years?  Who has logged the most innings, or gained the most W's?  An amazing array of league and team stats for the eight-year period are available here...

Click here to access League Encyclopedia


Also wanted to share some of my favorite statistical oddities from the season.  Steve had  sent out an earlier note about the unorthodox but effective use of Jose Bautista (and his .211 batting average) as his leadoff hitter.  Power-hitting, bat flipping Joey Bats led the entire league in walks and runs scored, and finished near the top in OBP.  The Bearded One had a combined on-base plus slugging of .730 in the 3 spot in the lineup, .676 hitting second, and an astounding .920 as the leadoff batter!

One of the great things about baseball is that there are so many different ways to win.  Maine tied with Boston for most wins in the league, despite an 11th best in the league .236 team batting average.  Mount Pleasant tied for the wild-card despite a 2nd worst in the league team ERA of 4.47.

 Two new entries in the all-time league records were made this season, both are updated in the League History section in the links on the right hand side.  Free swinging Chris Davis set a new all-time mark for K's in a season, whiffing 127 times!  The Toronto Thunder's pitching staff enters the all-time record books by posting the 2nd highest team strikeouts ever, with 703 (only behind last year's edition of the Thunder, who had 747). 

Just one more win from the underachieving
Edinson Volquez would have helped
Mount Pleasant avoid their ill-fated playoff
 game against Minnesota

Edinson Volquez was a 2nd round pick for Mount Pleasant this year, and was expected to be a strong starting pitcher for the Train Wreck.  Volquez was 13-9 with a tidy 3.55 ERA in real life, but floundered in the Mountain Town, putting up an ugly 5-11 record with a 6.24 ERA for the Train Wreck.

Speaking of high ERAs, I am not sure ANY pitcher in league history with 96 innings or more ended our season with an ERA higher than the 8.29 that Las Vegas' Colby Lewis put up this year.  Shockingly, Lewis had a 6-6 won-loss record, despite that massive ERA. 

The Record Book showed some outstanding performances this year.  Three batters had three HRs in a single game this year.  Manny Machado, Jose Abreu, and Chris Davis all achieved the HR hat trick.  There were three pitchers to toss one-hitters this year - Danny Salazar, Felix Hernandez, and Scott Kazmir all came within one batter of a no-no this year.    Minnesota Men's manly man Jose Abreu drive in 9 runs in one game this year! 

Lake Erie hurler Hisashi Iwakuma had a forgettable outing early in the season, giving up 6 home runs to Toronto in just 3 and 2/3 innings. 

Mount Pleasant hit more home runs than anyone this year, with 119.  Lake Erie hit the least, with just 4 dingers.

Dr. James Andrews filed a group lawsuit against Kansas City Butchers owner/GM/manager Pat Carr for burning out his starters in a way not seen since Billy Martin blew out the Oakland A's starting rotation in the late 1980's.  Kansas City had 33 complete games from their starters this season!  Next highest was Boston with just 11.  It wasn't that KC's starters were any good (starters were a combined ERA of 4.16, relievers were at 2.84), just that limited reliever innings forced the KC starters to be hung out to dry numerous times, finishing games come hell or high water!  We will try to draft more than the minimum amount of innings next year to get some much needed flexibility!

Best of luck to Scott and Steve in the World Series, let us know when and where you will play it.  Hopefully Detroit News columnist and radio host Wojo will make a return appearance to help crown the champion!