Introducing your St. Louis River Walkers of the Midwest Baseball League (revised)
 

Well, my Cardinals dynasty died about a week and a half ago about midway through the 2022 season.
This is my second attempt at this, as in the first one I set something up incorrectly and a bunch of five-star players (mostly relief pitchers) showed up in the draft and messed things up.
I thought about switching over to Madden, as I have in past years, but the NFL has lost much of its appeal to me to the point where I hardly pay attention to it. (My x-box stick skills also are not what they were now that I am 54).
So I deciding to try something new, as I have almost always concentrated on Cardinals' dynasty featuring the real franchise, I set up a 24-team fictional league, featuring real MLB players distributed through a fantasy draft.
The league consists of two leagues each boasting two six-team divisions. Only the division winners will make the playoffs and there is no designated hitter. Each franchise also will have one AAA level minor league. There is no interleague play.
The players were distributed through a 60-round draft, with a $180 million dollar cap. I'm not sure if I set it up correctly, but I am hoping each team will have to play under a $205 million salary cap.
All 24 teams are in Midwestern cities, with the divisions set up based on region. I will be playing as the St. Louis River Walkers, based on the city's proximity to the Mississippi River and the TV show The Walking Dead's term for Zombies. The team's mascot is Wally the Walker. He's shown below at a recent meet-and-greet.
In my Cardinals dynasty, I posted frequently, with every box score, news and mail items and end of week player of the week and stat packages.
I will probably severely cut back on that in his thread. But I will probably post end of week standings and award winners and other newsy items as the franchise moves along.

St. Louis River Walkers regular season roster
 

This is the River Walkers' roster going into the opening day of the regular season.
My draft strategy, at least for putting together the main roster, was to alternate pitcher and position players, with an emphasis on putting together my pitching staff.
I think I had the fifth pick in the serpentine draft and took Jacob DeGrom first, followed by outfielder Michael Confronto. Aaron Nola was the third round pick with Andrew Benintendi coming aboard in the fourth.

MBL news: Pre-spring training standings and predictions
 

Here is a look at the league set up and preseason predictions as put together by the computer at the start of spring training.
The River Walkers are tabbed for a second-place finish in the South Division of the MBL. Jacob DeGrom and Aaron Nola are expected to be among the NL's best pitchers.

April 2: River Walkers 5, Pit Master 4 (10 innings)
 

Andrew Benentindi hit a solo home run with one out in the top of the ninth inning of Kansas City reliever Liam Hendricks to snap a 4-4 tie and help give the St. Louis River Walkers a 5-4 win in their 2018 season opener.
Both teams scored three times in the first innings, and St. Louis led 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth before Andrew McCutchen scored on a Jerry Blevins wild pitch.
Reliever Chaz Roe pitched a scoreless ninth inning and closer Sean Doolittle was perfect in the 10th to earn the save.

MLB news: Week 1 wrap up
 

The River Walkers opened the season by dropping three of four games in Kansas City, but bounced back with a road sweep of the Rockford Lightning.

MLB news: Week 2 wrap up
 

The River Walkers had a great week going 5-1, taking two of three on the road from the Twin Cities Snow Cats and then sweeping the first-place Springfield Prairie Fighters in a three-game series at home. They now sit atop of the South Division of the National League, with a one-game lead over Quad City and Kansas City.

MLB news: Week 3 wrap up
 

The River Walkers winning streak reached seven games with a three-game sweep of the Cedar Rapids Golden Grapplers, before they dropped the opening game of a three-game series against the Milwaukee Keg Lifters. The Keg Lifters would end up taking two of three in that series.

MLB news: Week 4 wrap up
 

The River Walkers went 4-2 for the week, yet dropped back to 1.5 games behind Kansas City and Springfield in the NL West standings.

MLB news: Award winners for April
 

MLB news: Award winners for April

MLB news: One last award and End of April standings
 

MLB news: One last award and End of April standings

MLB news: AL leaders at end of April
 

MLB news: AL leaders at end of April

MBL news: NL leaders at end of April
 

MBL news: NL leaders at end of April

River Walkers news: Team statistics for April
 

River Walkers news: Team statistics for April

River Walkers news: Team awards for April
 

Player of the Month: Outfielder Michael Conforto batted .323 with six home runs and 19 RBIs in 25 games. He scored 14 runs and had an on-base percentage of .394. His slugging percentage was .570.
Starting pitcher of the Month: Right-hander Jacob DeGrom was 2-0 in five starts with a 2.25 ERA. He pitched a total of 32 innings, posting a WHIP of 1.09 and striking out 34 batters.
Relief pitcher of the Month: Right-hander Brad Boxberger was 2-0 in 11 games and posted one save. He didn't allow an earned run in 11.2 innings and had a 0.86 WHIP. He struck out 20 batters.

May 4: River Walkers 10, Long Haulers 9, 16 inning
 

In one of the longest OOTP games I have played, and I have played 1,000s, the St. Louis River Walkers defeated the Green Bay Long Haulers 10-9 in 16 innings.
It was tied 7-7 after nine innings and remained that way until the top of the 16th, when the Haulers' Kevin Pillar hit a two-run home run off the Walkers' Alex Cobb, who was scheduled to start the next day but was pressed into duty when the bullpen ran out of arms.
St Louis, however, answered with three runs in the bottom half. Andrew Benintendi connecting for an RBI single off Chris Tillman to make it 9-8. Rhys Hoskins followed with another single to tie it. Alex Bregman won it with a third straight single.

MBL news: Week 5 wrap up
 

MBL news: Week 5 wrap up

MBL: Week 6 update
 

MBL: Week 6 update

May 14: St. Louis 3, Quad City 0
 

St. Louis River Walkers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer turned in one of the biggest rarities in the game, tossing a shutout in a 3-0 win over the Quad City Thunder on Thursday, March 14 at Busch Stadium.
The only hits Bauer allowed were a double to Will Myers to lead off the game and a lead-off single to Orlando Arcia in the fourth.

Bauer (2-3) retired 18 of the next 19 batters. He struck out nine and walked two in the contest.

MBL news: Week 6 update
 

MBL news: Week 6 update

Walkers news: Bauer blanks Snow Cats for second shutout of season
 

The St. Louis River Walkers' Trevor Bauer became the first pitcher in the Midwest Baseball League in 2018 to throw two shutouts, blanking the Twin City Snow Cats 5-0 on May 25 at Busch Stadium.
Bauer (4-3, 3.71) allowed just two hits in the contest, a bunt single to Jonathan Villar in the second inning and a two-out double to J.P. Crawford in the eighth, while striking out nine and walking none. He did hit Gregory Polanco with a pitch with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, but got Carlos Santana to fly out to end it.

On May 14, Bauer had gone the distance in a 3--0 win over the Quad-City Thunder, also in St. Louis.

MBL news: Week 7 update
 

MBL news: Week 7 update

MBL news: League awards for May
 

MBL news: League awards for May

MBL news: Rookie awards for May
 

MBL news: Rookie awards for May

MBL news: AL leaders at end of May
 

MBL news: AL leaders at end of May

MLB news: NL leaders at end of May
 

MLB news: NL leaders at end of May

Walkers news: Team stats at end of May
 

Walkers news: Team stats at end of May

Walkers news: Team awards for May
 

Player of the Month: Outfielder Anthony Benintendi batted .414 with six home runs and 21 RBIs for the month in 26 games. He scored 21 runs while posting an on-base percentage of .459 and a slugging percentage of .667. He was the NL Player of the Month.
Starting pitcher of the Month: Trevor Bauer went 3-1 with a 2.43 ERA in six starts, throwing a pair of shutouts. He pitched a total of 40.2 innings, during which he posted a WHIP of 0.89 and struck out 41.
Relief pitcher of the Month: Right-hander Keone Kela was 3-1 with a save in 10 appearances covering 15 innings. He posted an ERA of 2.40 with a WHIP of 0.80. He struck out 22 batters.

Walkers news: Organizational report for June 1
 

Walkers news: Organizational report for June 1

MBL news: All-Star voting on June 3
 

MBL news: All-Star voting on June 3

Walkers news: St. Louis downs Milwaukee in 18 innings
 

I've been playing OOTP for 5-6 years now, and for the most part I play every game from start to finish. (When I lose, I want the outcome to be on my decision not on the CPU).
This 18-inning game was one of the longest I have played, I can only remember a few that may have equalled it in the 1,000s of games.
The Walkers won in the bottom of the 18th inning when Andrew Benintendi led off with a single off Danielson Lamet.
A walk to Rhys Hoskins moved him to second.

A Michael Conforto sacrifice fly moved Benintendi to third and chased Lamet, in favor of Jameson Tallion.

A walk to Nicky Delmonico loaded the bases.
St. Louis won it when Adeiny Hechavarria singled to right field.
(Note: Why is it, when you're on a plan to play x-number of games in a day, it goes smooth and you are ahead of schedule, so you play one more, and that's when you get that 15-inning plus marathon?).

MBL news: Week 8 update
 

MBL news: Week 8 update

MBL news: Fan All-Star game voting for June 10
 

`MBL news: Fan All-Star game voting for June 10

MBL news:: Week 8 update
 

MBL news: Week 8 update

MLB news: All-Star fan voting update for June 17
 

MLB news: All-Star fan voting update for June 17

MLB news: Week 9 wrap up
 

MLB news: Week 9 wrap up

MBL news: All-Star game fan voting for June 17
 

MBL news: All-Star game fan voting for June 17

MLB news: Week 10 report
 

MLB news: Week 10 report

Walkers news: June 26 -- Green Bay 6, St. Louis 5
 

River Walkers closer Sean Doolittle came into the contest having yet to allow an earned run in his first 20 games of the season, but that ended in the bottom of the ninth of this one.
Leading 5-3, Miguel Cabrera opened the bottom half of the inning with a solo home run.

Doolittle retired the next two, before issuing a single to Omar Narvez.
David Freese then followed with a 325-foot homer to left field to win it for Green Bay.

Walkers news: June 27 -- St. Louis 2, Green Bay 0
 

Following their disappointing loss the previous night, when Green Bay homered twice in the bottom of the ninth inning off closer Sean Doolittle, the River Walkers responded with a tense 2-0 win over the Green Bay Long Haulers to secure a 2-1 series win.
Coming up from the minor to make a spot start, right-hander Shane Carle shined with 7.1 shutout innings against the Haulers. He scattered four hits while striking out six and walking one.
Jake Diekman pitched around a one-out single in the eighth inning. Keone Kela handled a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.
The Walkers managed just two hits, but both cleared the fence as early season MVP candidate smacked solo homers off Brady Rogers in the fourth inning and Wil Harris in the seventh.
For the season, Benintendi is batting .349 with 13 homers and 42 RBIs.

Walkers news: June 29 -- St. Louis 3, Springfield 2, 10 innings
 

In the second game of a four-game series between the top of the teams in the NL South Division, as well as the two best records in the Midwest Baseball League, St. Louis rallied late for an extra-inning win.
Down 2-0 going into the top of the ninth inning, the River Walkers evened it on a two-out, two-run home run from Nicky Delmonico off Carl Edwards Jr.
St.Louis won it an inning later, when Manny Pina led off the inning with a single off Juan Nicasio. A Sean Rodriguez bunt moved Pina to second and Brock Holt put the Walkers up 3-2 with a single.
Sean Doolittle, in his first action since allowing two homers in the ninth inning of a loss to Green Bay, pitched a perfect bottom of the 10th to seal it.

St. Louis starting pitcher Jacob de Grom was stellar allowed two runs over eight innings on eight hits. He struck out eight and walked none.
The Prairie Fighters' Gerrit Cole also was impressive with 5.2 scoreless innings.
The win drew St. Louis even with Springfield atop the NL South Division standings.

MBL news: All-Star game fan voting for July 1
 

MBL news: All-Star game fan voting for July 1

MBL news: Award winners for June
 

MBL news: Award winners for June

MBL news: Rookie award winners for June
 

MBL news: Rookie award winners for June

MBL news: AL leaders at end of June
 

MBL news: AL leaders at end of June

MBL news: NL leaders at end of June
 

MBL news: NL leaders at end of June

River Walkers news: Team reports for June
 

River Walkers news: Team reports for June

Walkers news: Player awards for June
 

Player of the Month: First baseman Rhys Hoskins batted .339 with 10 home runs and 21 RBIs in 27 games during June. He scored 27 runs, while boasting an on-base percentage of .442 and a slugging percentage of .651.
Starting pitcher of the Month: Right=hander Aaron Nola went 4-0 in six games (five start) and put up an ERA of 1.78 over 35.1 innings. He struck out 33 batters and boasted a WHIP of 0.96.
Relief pitcher of the Month: Right-hander Chaz Roe pitched 17.1 innings over 15 games and put up an identical WHIP and ERA of 0.52. He struck out 24 batters, while earning one save. He did not have a decision.

MLB news: Week 11 report
 

MLB news: Week 11 report

Walkers news: July 5 -- St. Louis 4, Des Moines 3
 

St. Louis completed a four-game sweep of the Des Moines Harvesters behind a five-hit effort from outfielder Albert Almora.
Almora's biggest hit came in the top of the eighth inning when his two-out single off Jose Junior Rivera scored Brock Holt with the game-winning run.

Walkers news: July 6: St. Louis 4, Kansas City 0
 

St. Louis right-handed pitcher Trevor Bauer tossed his third shutout of the season with a two-hit win over the Kansas City Pit Masters at Busch Stadium.
Bauer only allowed two base runners --both from Didi Gregorius, a double in the first inning and a single in the fourth -- while striking out 11. He retired the final 18 batters to close out the game.