End of the season wrapup!

Congrats to all on completing this challenging and historic season!  The COVID-shortened season was definitely going to be different, with multiple allowances implemented for roster spots and usage, but we ended up with a thrilling season highlighted by pennant race surprises and incredible individual performances. 

The 2020 MLB season, shortened by
COVID but enhanced by cutout fans!

Pittsburgh dominated the Moneyball division from day 1, rolling to a league-best 53-28 record!  Shane Bieber had the most historic season, capturing the Cy Young Award AND the Most Valuable Player Award on the strength of his record-setting season.  Bieber set single-season records for most wins (17) and strikeouts (233), incredible marks for what is at least the 40th year of this league!!!  Jose Iglesias won the batting crown, at .348! Eloy Jimenez provided the power, with 27 HRs and 66 RBIs.  Eloy had an 8 RBI game against Montreal!

Biebs entry in the Team Yearbook, lot of hardware this year! 

The Maine Loggers had a star-crossed season, victims of some bad breaks that affected their chances at a playoff run.  Maine led the league in one-run losses with 17.  Maine got a historic performance from Luke Voit, who ended up with an incredible 38 home runs, just one shy of Mark McGwire's all-time Friendship League record of 39!  Luke also had a league-leading 82 RBIs.  Adalberto Mondesi took the league stolen bases title, with 35 swipes. 

Las Vegas had a bit of a down year, but Chuck has much to look forward to next season:  Shohei Ohtani's legendary MVP card, and Marcus Semien's 45 HR card.   The Fremonts got 62 RBIs from third baseman/salsa maker Jose Ramirez, who earned 1st Team All Star honors.   Jackie Bradley earned a Gold Glove and 2nd team All Star honors.  Mark Canha contributed the only six hit game of the season, going 6 for 6 in a game against the Loggers. He only got 47 hits in the other 80 games :-)   Canha also racked up the second most beanings in league history, getting plunked 18 times.  Only New Jersey Gerbil David Eckstein had more HBPs (and Eckstein remains the ONLY Gerbil to hold an all-time single season record!)

Montreal finished the season far before anyone else, and the long off-season has manager Mike Walter dreaming of better days ahead.  The Grizzlies are armed with two more 1st round picks, the most bingo balls, and a bevy of pitchers on the rise (Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Cal Quantrill and others).  Mike gets the Cal Ripken Iron Man award for managing so many Minnesota games in addition to his own :-)  Thanks for the extra help this year!

The Natural Division, the "little brother" division this year, may not have had sparkling won-loss records but they did have a legitimate pennant race as Toronto and Wichita tied for the top record.  Toronto won the play-in game but congrats to Wichita for earning a banner this season!

Toronto's ageless Nelson Cruz hit .321 with 23 HRs, rookie Randy Arozarena hit .325, and a strong bullpen (team bullpen era was 3.61, compared to 5.00 for starters) helped Toronto claim the division title.

Wichita's TIm Anderson was second in the league in batting average, at .341, and added 18 home runs.  He finished 4th in League MVP voitng.  The Bandits had the most successful running game this season, leading all teams with 79 steals. 

Minnesota's Willie Castro hit .368, but didn't have enough at bats to qualify for the title.  Jose Abreu had a typical outstanding season (.286, 22 HRs, 54 RBIs) for the Men. 

Michigan continued its post-Fred Schmidt funk, dropping 52 games this year.  Francisco Lindor outplayed his card, delivering a nice season of .286, 13 HRs, and a Gold Glove in his farewell season.  Not much else went right for the Mammoth.  Particular lowlights were Roberto Perez and his .093 average in 140 at bats, and Adam Plutko with an astronomical 9.55 ERA in 49 innings!

The Sandlot Division will long be remembered as all four teams finished well above the .500 mark.   Boston and Lake Erie battled to the end, recording 52 and 51 wins respectively.  Kansas City's 48 wins was second-best in team history, but only third-best in this division.  Mount Pleasant was a true playoff contender this year, but the Gods of the Division Rolloff hurt them by placing them in this division.  

Team ERA's correlate closely to wins this year.
Sandlot division had the to four team ERAs!

Boston enjoyed stellar pitching this year, from the likes of Marco Gonzalez (14-3, 3.31), Dallas Keuchel (12-4, 2.43 ERA) and Chad Heuer (0,83 ERA in 43 innings of relief).  Ty France hit .405 in 148 at bats!  Sal Perez and Ieimer Candelario each slugged 13 home runs. 

Lake Erie relied on the stingiest pitching staff in the league (3.13 ERA, league-best .202 opponents batting average) to roll to 51 wins.  Gerrit Cole was Bieber-esque, going 12-5, with a 3.01 ERA and 166 strikeouts.  Liam Hendriks won the Rolaids Fireman Relief Award, notching 31 saves (that's third all-time, BOS Greg Holland holds the all-time mark with 34 in 2013)

Kansas City has another year of high home run totals and low on-base percentages, giving them many big wins but also many close loses when we didn't hit enough solo home runs. George Springer (.280, 24 HRs, 53 RBIs) was Team MVP.  Zach Plesac went 11-3, with a 3.06 ERA. 

Mount Pleasant had perhaps the strongest bullpen in the league (17-11, 2.60 ERA) and got plenty of power from Mike Trout (.251, 26 HRs).  The Train Wreck was perfect in stealing bases, 28 steals with ZERO times being caught!

Odds and Ends

-Mike Trout (MTP), Nelson Cruz (TOR), and Eloy Jimenez (PIT) each had three-homer games

-Lake Erie had the league's only no-hitter, a combined effort from Rich Hill, J.B. Smoove, I mean J.B. Wendelken, and Liam Hendriks. Strikeouts ruled in Lake Erie, as even the batters got into the act.  Willy Adams set a new all-time record for most strikeouts by a batter, whiffing 134 times this season!

-Shane Bieber (PIT) threw two one-hitters, and Lucas Giolito had his own one-hitter

-Gerrit Cole (LAK) had the most K's in one start this year, with 18 against Minnesota

-Rough luck in the draft as 1st rounders Jesus Luzardo (LAS) and Nick Madrigal (MTP) were traded to the NL in real life.   Jesus and Nick, we barely knew ye!

Good luck to all playoff teams, we will certainly have a worthy champion this year!  

I do want to encourage everyone to check out the new and slightly improved League Encyclopedia    It now has thirteen seasons of league history, better looking reports, and team-specific history.  I always love that and the Team Yearbooks that are listed on the right side of this page as well.   Hope others enjoy them half as much as I do!

As a reminder for next season, we are protecting 17 players rather than the usual 16.  That was the last adjustment we made for the COVID-shortened season.  We are also going back down to one Yu Darvish player. 

Thunder defeat Bandits to Secure Division and trip to face Phantoms

The Toronto Thunder defied Hal’s predicted last place division finish and secured a trip to the playoffs by defeating the Wichita Bandits 4 to 1. Game highlights: The game started with Dylan Bundy versus Matt Boyd. Boyd retired the first 9 batters of the Thunder to set the tone, but Bundy answered by doing the same to the Bandit squad. In the top of the 4th, Boyd struck out Jorge Polanco to start the inning but Randy Arozarena caught a hanger and sent it over the fence. Boyd settled down and proceeded to get Nelson Cruz to groundout and also struck out Aaron Judge to limit the damage to 1 run. The Bandits came out firing in the bottom half of the inning with Luis Robert lining a single into the outfield. The ever dangerous runner, then proceeded to steal second with ease. He just couldn’t get a good lead to try for 3rd, but never fear, J.P. Crawford lined a sharp double to drive him in. The Thunder manager came out to talk to Bundy but decided to trust the veteran right hander to get out of the jam. Bundy proceeded to strike out Tim Anderson and Tyler Naquin to get two outs. Sean Murphy was not having any of that however as he squeezed a seeing-eye single to move Crawford to third. Bundy, determined as ever, got Matt Chapman to fly out and end the danger and keep the game tied 1-1. Both pitchers quickly moved through the 5th inning with no damage and so started the top of the 6th. Boyd got Evan White to ground out for the first out. Polanco however hit a solid double into the gap. Up stepped Arozarena who had hit a home run earlier, but Boyd bore down and struck him out. Nelson Cruz then managed to work a walk, to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Judge stepped to the plate having yet to connect on anything in the game. However the Thunder star made the connection when it counted and shot a 3 run homer over the centerfield fence. Boyd got the next batter out, but the damage was done, with the score now Thunder up 4-1. With that, the Thunder moved to their bullpen to try and seal the game. The Bandits would get one runner on in the 6th, load the bases in the 7th, put two on in the 8th, and get one on in the 9th, but the Thunder relievers held them scoreless. The Thunder relievers of Jorge Alcala, Kyle Cody, James Karinchak, Chad Green, and closer Nick Anderson would record 10 strikeouts in the 4 innings of work to preserve the victory. Winning pitcher – Bundy 5 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 0 walks, and 7 Ks. Losing pitcher – Boyd 6 IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, and 5 Ks. Save – Anderson 1.2IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, and 5 Ks.

 

  Lake Erie throws a five-pitcher combined no-hitter vs the Men.

Rich Hill started and went 41/3 innings before being pull after 2 walks, a passed ball, a sacrifice fly and another walk. J. B. Wendlekin came in to put out the fire, but Lake Erie still trailed 1-0. The Commodores would score 2 runs in the 7th. Then Hendricks came in the 9th to seal the win. M. Mayer got the win, Hendricks the save. I then looked at the stats after the game and saw a 0 after the 1 in the Minnesota line score. Seconds later Mike told me congrats on the no hitter. I did not realize it had happened until that moment. I guess that is how you avoid jinxing yourself. :)

Regular season ends with a bang!

It was a crazy season with extraordinary individual performances, exceptional "super teams", and the most dominant division ever (the Sandlot Division is the SEC of the Friendship League!)   Still one "winner take all" game for The Natural Division title, but I have updated the stats for the regular season.  More to come on those shortly.  Will tease you with the historic seasons of two players in particular...

-Pittsburgh's Shane Bieber smashed two all-time records, recording 17 wins and 233 strikeouts (insane for an 81 game schedule!)

-Luke Voit finished just one homer shy of 1997 Wichita Bandit Mark McGwire's all-time record.  Luke finished with 38 home runs, 82 RBIs and a .285 batting average!

Luke "I am your father" Voit, Maine's "consolation prize" of the
Great Bingo Ball Trade of a few years ago, had a monstrous season

  Shane Bieber's 2019 Topps card referred to him
as 'Justin', leading to this great jersey response 

The bang referenced in the title of this post is the drama between PJ and I in the last series. My Butchers needed to sweep all four games just to tie Doug's Commodores. Our first game went into extra innings, and Mount Pleasant pulled out the victory in the 11th inning. Dream over for KC, and the Carr Collusion continued to be very ineffective as far as collusions go :-). The Train Wreck won the next two, leaving Kansas City on the verge of getting swept.  KC down 2, bottom of the 9th, two on, George Springer up.  I saw the meager 4% change of a homer, and pulled a Babe Ruth, sending PJ a message calling my shot.  BAM, it actually worked!!!!!  Walk-off homer to end the entire regular season!

George "The Bambino" Springer ends
KC's series with one swing!

Great ending to a historic Butcher season.  Second most wins ever in my thirty-one seasons (31 seasons, good God I am old!).  Happy with my Butchers and in awe of what my division-mates have done this year. 

Good luck to all playoff teams, I am sure much more drama is in store for all!