Sunday, January 30, 2022

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. 


1 comment:

  1. Nice end of season write up Pat. I enjoyed reading it and it was an interesting season with the Covid real-life shortened season. Lots of excellent relief pitcher cards.

    ReplyDelete