Wow, it's taken me a lot longer than expected to update this. I've been busy and sick and whatnot but I'll be posting more regularly. Anyway, as this unfolds I'm always interested in questions/constructive criticism/ideas etc.
2010 PROSPECT SYNOPSIS
The number of players in the Top Prospects league-wide for each franchise are listed below. It's looking good for the Jets' chances to compete for a long time to come right now -- GM Christos Antonatos appears to have done a fine job in the inaugural draft, as one might expect.
Aiyion(10)
Patrai(6)
Nakaia(6)
Ilioupoli(2)
2010 SEASON
The first game of the GBL involved Ilioupoli and Nakaia, with Ilioupoli's
Tymon Skouphas taking the mound first against Nakaia C
Colin Nomiko. It was very anticlimactic -- Nomiko walked on four straight pitches.
The first month of the new league was very competitive. At the end of June, Patrai and Aiyion were tied for the lead at 15-13, with Ilioupoli in last only 3 games back. A little over a week later, Patrai, Aiyion, and Nakaia were all deadlocked at 19-17, with the season 60% over. By July 18th, there was an incredible demonstration of parity -- all four teams were tied at 22-22, having accomplished nothing other than equality in the first three-quarters of the season. The final 16 games promised to provide plenty of drama, at the very least.
Continuing a strong month, Ilioupoli edged away from Aiyion while Patrai fell off a cliff -- by the end of the month the Clerics were a stunning 9 games out of first, having gone just 1-12 since the 18th. On August 2nd, Ilioupoli faced off against Aiyion, with the Avengers hosting and holding a two-game lead over the Jets with two games left. Aiyion scored 4 runs in the second, but Ilioupoli took the lead for good with a six-run fourth, leading 7-5 at the time and going on to win 11-8, clinching the first GBL championship in the process. After being in the cellar, 5 games out in early July, the Avengers were clearly the class of the league from that point on.
FINAL GBL STANDINGS
Code:
Ilioupoli 35-25 --
Aiyion 32-28 3
Nakaia 30-30 5
Patrai 23-37 12
The league era was 5.63, league batting average .286. Better than 43% of the league's runs(1000 out of 2300+) were unearned -- the GBL isn't a particularly polished product as of yet, that's for certain.
Ilioupoli won the title by doing a lot of things well. They were the best fielding team(.925), had the best ERA(5.33), and despite an unimpressive .279 average they were near the top in on-base percentage as a group(.417), averaging almost a walk a game more than their closest rivals in Aiyion. On the other end of the spectrum, Patrai was by far the worst in the league at drawing walks and also by far the worst in the field, with better than 5 errors a game.
In the long-term view, the extreme tightness of the race most of the way made for an excellent debut season. Antonatos couldn't have possible expected this month's drama. The folks in Patrai are feeling pretty miserable about themselves(having a share of the lead and then losing 15 of your last 16 games tends to do that), but overall the league's first year was a smashing success.