FOOL-X 2045 Regular Season

[Alan T]

Washington clinches a playoff spot, eliminating the defending champion Havana Banana Sluggers! This will be only the second time in the last 8 seasons that Havana will not make the FOOL-X Classic and only 4th time in the last 14 seasons that they didn't make the playoffs at all!

[Alan T]

Entering the final day of the season, Cleveland and Waikiki battle for the final playoff spot:

Cleveland 90-71
Waikiki 89-72

Cleveland plays @ Spring
Waikiki is home vs Ann arbor

[Alan T]

10/1:

A 12 run first inning for Cleveland helps them clinch the final playoff spot for 2045!

Cleveland 17, Spring 2
Waikiki 10, Ann Arbor 6

[Alan T]

Final 2045 Standings:

Continental League Standings

Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10 St Cloud Raindrops 98 64 .605 - 98-64 0 50-31 48-33 11-10 25-27 Clinched W1 3-7 Washington Freedom 96 66 .593 2 102-60 -6 48-33 48-33 7-8 29-27 L1 8-2 Havana Banana Sluggers 94 68 .580 4 93-69 1 49-32 45-36 12-7 27-20 W6 9-1 Oshawa Mullets 87 75 .537 11 88-74 -1 42-39 45-36 5-6 20-23 L1 6-4 Plantana Pirates 76 86 .469 22 73-89 3 41-40 35-46 7-5 25-18 W3 6-4 Chicago Southpaws 71 91 .438 27 72-90 -1 41-40 30-51 8-10 23-29 L6 2-8 St Louis Hops 70 92 .432 28 75-87 -5 36-45 34-47 2-5 12-22 W1 4-6 Stafford Terriers 56 106 .346 42 56-106 0 28-53 28-53 4-5 21-16 L3 2-8

Republic League Standings

Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10 New York Legends 109 53 .673 - 109-53 0 53-28 56-25 6-6 32-23 Clinched W7 9-1 Cleveland Naps 91 71 .562 18 87-75 4 50-31 41-40 12-2 24-22 W1 5-5 Waikiki Beach Boys 90 72 .556 19 90-72 0 46-35 44-37 4-13 21-29 W2 5-5 Portland Axemen 80 82 .494 29 81-81 -1 39-42 41-40 10-9 24-28 W3 6-4 Maricopa Rattlers 80 82 .494 29 85-77 -5 42-39 38-43 6-12 22-20 L4 4-6 Spring Lions 79 83 .488 30 75-87 4 39-42 40-41 18-9 37-26 L1 3-7 Las Vegas Wildcats 69 93 .426 40 74-88 -5 28-53 41-40 4-6 20-30 L3 4-6 Ann Arbor Wolverines 50 112 .309 59 53-109 -3 30-51 20-61 5-8 21-23 L2 4-6

[Alan T]

League Leaders AVG J. López - NY .353 2 A. Trampakoulos WAS .348 3 M. Badía SPG .341 4 G. Verhoeve SPG .336 5 A. Persaud NY .335	League Leaders HR J. Lynn - CLE 55 2 F. Castillo WAI 44 3 F. Medina HBS 42 4 M. Hayes NY 41 5 2 tied with 40	League Leaders RBI D. Donlon - LVS 143 2 G. Verhoeve SPG 142 3 O. Robertson STL 140 4 D. Ducklow OSH 136 5 2 tied with 135
League Leaders W A. Pérez - NY 19 2 E. Martínez NY 18 2 A. Peña WAI 18 4 R. Edwards OSH 17 5 R. Sánchez WAS 16	League Leaders ERA R. Sánchez - WAS 2.43 2 A. Cruz STC 2.59 3 J. Espinoza WAI 2.75 4 A. Hernández NY 2.85 5 J. Molina WAS 2.90	League Leaders K J. Thompson - MAR 233 2 S. Fournier STL 217 3 J. Molina WAS 208 4 R. Quifel PLN 203 5 R. Theunen ANN 198

[Alan T]

Lynn's 55 Home Runs is the most in a single season since Teng hit 65 in 2008

[Alan T]

The new file is up. Playoffs run tomorrow morning!

[TeachEnEspanol]

Yay! Happy morning!

Congrats to my buddies hyde, Clebrownsfan, and matt!

[Wolverines]

Wow. Worst record in the league. Clearly this team was better off with the AI running it .

But, at least we had a no-no to put on the highlight reel.

[Alan T]

Best Bang for the Buck Award(Batters) (Hitter that did the most while being paid the least.)
Name Team VORP Salary Score Allen Hunt CHI 66.9067 100000 66.91

Best Bang for the Buck Award(Veteran Batters) (Veteran hitter that did the most while being paid the least.)
Name Team VORP Salary Score Howard Ávila CHI 28.3954 158400 17.93

Best Bang for the Buck Award(Pitchers) (Pitcher that did the most while being paid the least.)
Name Team VORP Salary Score Alejandro Cruz STC 74.5128 100000 74.51

Best Bang for the Buck Award(Veteran Pitchers) (Veteran pitcher that did the most while being paid the least.)
Name Team VORP Salary Score Simon Rose POR 39.4343 100000 39.43

Worst Bang for the Buck Award(Batters) (For the most overpaid hitter in the league.)
Name Team VORP Salary Score Héctor Palmeiro ANN -37.4484 3200000 -11983488000000.00

Worst Bang for the Buck Award(Pitchers) (For the most overpaid pitcher in the league.)
Name Team VORP Salary Score Walton Watts PLN -44.1384 6045000 -26681662800000.00

Home Run or Nothing Award (For the hitter that hit home runs and not much else.)
Name Team HR RC Score Héctor Palmeiro ANN 34 67.392671 0.4393

Selfish Pitcher Award (For the pitcher that has all of the headlines but none of the wins.)
Name Team W L K BB IP Score António Peña WAI 18 11 177 88 205.0 15044.1366

Unluckiest Pitcher Award (For the pitcher that would likely win an award if on a better team.)
Name Team W L K BB IP Score Juan Molina WAS 10 12 208 73 177.0 1047.20000157

Running on Empty Award (For the baserunner that keeps attempting to steal and fails.)
Name Team SB CS SB % Score Júlio López NY 29 26 0.5273 9.50

Can't hit his weight Award (For the hitter that can't even hit his weight.)
Name Team Weight Batting Avg. Score José Carrasco LVS 235 lbs 0.213 0.90523540

Should have stayed home Award (Batters) (For the Hitter that did so poorly he should have just stayed home.)
Name Team Batting Avg. HR RBI VORP Tung-chi Ta ANN 0.194 20 53 -55.6513

Should have stayed home Award (Pitchers) (For the Pitcher that did so poorly he should have just stayed home.)
Name Team W L ERA VORP Karl Carey STA 3 10 11.56 -75.0326

Stone Statue Award (For the Shortstop that had so little range that he resembled a statue.)
Name Team Total Chances Assists Put Outs Range Ángel Moreno POR 635 413 208 3.8386

Cannon-Arm Award (For the Catcher that showed off the best cannon-arm in games.)
Name Team SB attempts against Runners Thrown Out RTO% Score Emílio Santellano WAI 169 68 0.4024 61.7

Early Checkout Award (For the Starting pitcher that left games the earliest.)
Name Team W L ERA GS IP Score Albert Pérez STL 4 14 8.78 32 123.0 0.2602

Never met a pitch he didn't like award (For the Hitter that never liked to watch a pitch go by without hitting it.)
Name Team Batting Avg. H BB Score Oliver Robertson STL 0.330 227 49 178

Take the Money and Run Award (Batters) (For the Hitter that stopped showing effort after signing a large contract.)
Name Team Contract Batting Avg. HR RBI Score Alfredo Palma SPG 9504000 0.245 25 90 46.3354

Take the Money and Run Award (Pitchers) (For the Pitcher that stopped showing effort after signing a large contract.)
Name Team Contract Wins Losses ERA Score Carlos Galindo HBS 6232149 10 10 4.50 32.9552

Anger Management Award (For the pitcher that hit the most batters during the season.)

Name Team W L IP Hit Batters Carlos Galindo HBS 10 10 164.0 12

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Washington clinches a playoff spot, eliminating the defending champion Havana Banana Sluggers! This will be only the second time in the last 8 seasons that Havana will not make the FOOL-X Classic and only 4th time in the last 14 seasons that they didn't make the playoffs at all!

Yup, if it's possible to be disappointed in a 94 win team, this one qualifies for it. I will be very interested to see what happened when I get home tonight. Thanks to the extra awards, I already know one issue--two time Morales winner (and the no doubt runner up for it last year) Carlos Galindo went 10-10 with a 4.50 ERA. That's rather unlike him.

I guess I'll see.

In any case, big time congrats to the playoff squads this year. Good luck to hyde and Teach in your efforts to keep the trophy in the CL.

And, Teach, see? 45 seconds == playoffs!

[buckinbranco]

Very exciting season in Waikiki. I'm pretty sure this is two years in a row that our season has come down to the very last game. Unfortunately we missed out on the playoffs, but hey, 90 wins is 90 wins! The excellence of converted reliever Jorge Espinoza is a great consolation prize. I was very nervous about having a starter with only 4 stamina, but he seems to have done pretty well. Best of luck to all of the playoff teams, let's go RL

[hyde4us11]

Molina wins the unluckiest pitcher award, what the heck didn't he get? I don't know how much more I could have given him. LOL

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by hyde4us11

Molina wins the unluckiest pitcher award, what the heck didn't he get? I don't know how much more I could have given him. LOL

Well he had the third best ERA in the CL, but lost 12 games.

So I would say you could have given him more run support!

Or maybe, that he had 16 unearned runs this season, he could have had some defensive support!

[TeachEnEspanol]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

And, Teach, see? 45 seconds == playoffs!

Why mess with a system that works?

Errrr...that is...like...every 20 years...or so.

[hyde4us11]

It was just bad luck at best. lol

[TeachEnEspanol]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Well he had the third best ERA in the CL, but lost 12 games.

So I would say you could have given him more run support!

Or maybe, that he had 16 unearned runs this season, he could have had some defensive support!

Sometimes Alan sounds mean when he's right.

[hyde4us11]

He was right some. Molina did suffer some but he was on a good team at least.

[mattcubs]

Congrats playoff teams. I was very unsure about the Legend lineup this year, but alas they came threw with a great season. In my experience a 100 plus win season sets up perfectly for a first round exit. I will hope for better. Good luck fellow playoff teams...Good Luck Tomorrow.

[hyde4us11]

For the record I had the highest Defensive Efficiency in the league and the highest Zone Rating in the CL. Bad luck played a factor right? I asked this as a question not a I told you so. I am just trying to learn something from this.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by hyde4us11

For the record I had the highest Defensive Efficiency in the league and the highest Zone Rating in the CL. Bad luck played a factor right? I asked this as a question not a I told you so. I am just trying to learn something from this.

Lets look at those numbers a little further in an attempt to understand how they matter for this conversation. We'll look specifically at your two best pitchers Sanchez and Molina.

Defensive efficiency seems to me to play somewhat like a reverse BABIP. So lets compare Sanchez vs Molina's BABIP.

Sanchez - .281
Molina - .305


Not an overly huge difference right? Not enough to warrant the difference in success between the two right?

That is the batting average of balls in play though. Lets see what the two pitchers had for their actual opponent's batting average to put some relevance on it:

Sanchez - .241
Molina - .218

Now that gives us a clearer picture of what is up. Opposing hitters hit only 4 percent better on balls in play for Sanchez, meaning the defense helped him out. Molina on the other hand was closer to 9 percent difference.

The biggest reason for this? Molina strikes out a huge amount of hitters where Sanchez is very low on his K/9 innings. Sanchez gives up less walks than Molina, but he gets a bunch more ground balls than Molina. Because of that, Sanchez benefits from many more double plays as well than Molina.

So, we look at the fielding of the infield for washington. The 2B, 3B and SS were all sound defensive players. thus a pitcher like Sanchez benefits greatly from that. As more of Molina's balls in play reach the outfield, the Washington outfield isn't -that- bad, but the two places where the majority of hits go to (left field and center field), at least part of the season was played by deficient fielders in those positions. The primary starter for both however appear to be pretty solid.

So the overall view I get from fielding is that the fielding likely didn' cost Molina many games, but it definitely helped Sanchez out a ton. So the other piece of the picture here is run support.

Washington had an average at best hitting lineup this season. They were only 5th in run support. On average this season CL teams scored 5.1 runs per game. Washington only scored 5.0 runs per game.

Sanchez this season got 3.27 runs of support per game which is pretty bad.
Molina on the other hand got 2.82 runs of support per game, which is really really bad. (keep in mind, I think OOTP only keeps track of runs scored for them while they are in the game, not for the entire game)

Since Sanchez (thanks in part to solid fielding), had the league's best ERA of 2.53, he won more games than he lost. Molina, despite having the third best ERA in the CL of 2.90, his team scored less runs for him than he allowed on average. Thus he had a losing record this year.


In retrospect, Washington's 5th starter, Jack Rich had an ERA near 4, but thanks to the team giving him 4.44 Runs scored per game of support, his win-loss record was 15-8 this year.


So that is why Molina was the unluckiest pitcher of the year this year

[hyde4us11]

Great info Alan, I appreciate the work you did. I love info like this. I wish I was capable of analyzing things to this extent, no wonder why I don't win very much. Again appreciate the time you took out to explain this. I learned a great deal from this talk.