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D2-D4 Recaps
Note: I ran the promotion/relegation system before writing this, forgetting that it is therefore impossible given the limitations of OOTP to actually look back at yearly standings after doing so, so my recaps will be short for D2, D3, and D4 - the top teams remained in D1, so I had more to work with there.

D2 - Regular Season
For much of the early part of the season, the D2 East was a two-team race between the Bees and the Detroit Stars. The Stars, led by ace and eventual Pitcher of the Year Zack Root, spent some time early on in first place, but by midseason Boston had claimed the top spot. Their booming offense, led by first half star Rogelio Ventura, promising young CF Adam Andersen, and a revelatory breakout by MVP C Rick Wilde, put them over the top by June. They built on their lead week by week, ending the season with ten more wins than the Stars. The 2038 D2 East titleholding Baltimore Terrapins, meanwhile, were slow to start. The 2038 MVP Omar Juarez fell apart, with a difficult season that saw him go from 7.6 WAR in ‘38 to just 2.6 in ‘39. They were also devastated by a season-ending injury to CF Wayne Richard, who appeared on the cusp of superstardom. But, driven in part by a strong starting rotation, Baltimore climbed their way up the standings, ultimately finishing in second place, a game ahead of the fading Stars.

The West was far less dramatic, as a surprising Houston Buffaloes squad went wire to wire. Most commentators saw the Buffs as a year or two from contention, as a young core established themselves, but youngsters Aaron Ferguson, Justice Slaton, and Tony Adams drove D2’s second best offense all the way to the Conference title. The Buffaloes were also the Division’s third best run-prevention squad, mostly due to an airtight defense that gave Houston’s middle-of-the-road pitching staff outstanding cover. The combination resulted in a 97 win season, the most of any team in the NABF in 2039. Despite this, though, Houston fell short of promotion, as the 90 win Mounties - D2 Champions the season before - held a points advantage. Had Houston defeated Boston in the Championship series, they would have been headed back to D1, but that wasn’t to be.

Division 2 Championship
The squad from Boston outclassed a young Buffs team in the Championship series, winning their four games easily around a classic see-saw Game 3 that gave Houston its only win of the series. RF Russ Mesaros, only two years removed from a 42 homer season, put one over the fence in each of the series’ first four games to be named MVP, and Bryan Murphy won the first and final games of the series, allowing just a single run on a Jose Garza homer in Game 5. The victory ensured the Bees’ promotion, and prevented one by Houston, who now go into Cycle 12 as the favorites.

Division 2 Awards
MVP: Rick Wilde, C, BOS: .308/.383/.519, 22 HR, 70 RBI, 7.2 WAR - Wilde became only the second catcher in NABF history to win an MVP with a startling season at age 27. Wilde, who in 2038 put up just 1.1 WAR and a .645 OPS, led D2 in both categories in 2039 while taking the Bees all the way to their first franchise championship since 2029.

Pitcher of the Year: Zack Root, SP, DET: 17-9, 2.72 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 5.7 WAR - Root came close to the award in 2038, his first year in Detroit, but narrowly missed out to Vancouver’s Buxkemper. To follow it up, he almost replicated his season: 248.1 innings instead of 248, 237 K instead of 255, a 2.72 ERA instead of a 2.87, and 5.7 WAR instead of 5.4. This time, the voters recognized his accomplishments with his first Pitcher of the Year.

Rookie of the Year: Matthew Miller, LF, KCM: .273/.343/.486, 15 HR, 2.1 WAR - in a quiet year for D2 rookies, Miller rose to the top. The 24 year old LF was a Rule 5 pick from El Paso, and far exceeded expectations, nailing down a starting job for the Monarchs and becoming their most productive regular hitter.

Reliever of the Year: Tim Potter, CL, BOS: 36 Saves, 2.14 ERA, 12.7 K/9 in 59 IP, 0.97 WHIP, 1.8 WAR
Potter was near automatic for the D2 Champion Bees, riding a devastating fastball-change combo to 83 Ks in 59 innings of work. It was a huge step forward for Potter at age 32, and there are certainly questions about whether he can replicate it, but those questions don’t take away his new hardware.

D3 - Regular Season
The East was more a coronation than a season, as the Nashville Sounds won 94 games (their fourth consecutive 94+ win season) and went wire to wire, finishing a comfortable seven games over the surprising Columbus Red Birds. Nashville was strong on both sides of the ball, scoring 658 runs (behind only the Salt Lake Gulls and that same Red Birds club) and allowing only 579, fourth lowest in D2. The consistent Bobby Cook led the way, as the 32 year old LF posted his sixth straight 5+ WAR, 30+ homer season, while future Hall of Famers Ivan Castillo and Mel Irving contributed strong years at the plate and with their up-the-middle defense. The rotation wasn’t flashy, and lacked a bona fide ace, but they were able to hold opposing bats down enough to make it through the season. That included the powerful Columbus Red Birds, headlined by Ricky Ponce’s ultimately unsuccessful assault on Pedro Quiroz’s NABF single season HR mark; though he was on a 70 homer pace through June, he ended with “only” 59, tying Steve Mauck’s 15 year old mark. He did set the Division 3 RBI record with 145.

The West was a strange contest between the Salt Lake Gulls - the best offensive club in D3 (maybe the best in the NABF) - and a win-every-way-you-can Saints team that on paper was far inferior. The two clubs were neck and neck almost all year, but neither dominated: the Saints finished the season 78-76, a game up on a Gulls team that played .500 ball despite a +101 run differential and an 88-66 expected record. The Saints, meanwhile, rode a lockdown rotation to the fewest runs allowed in D3. They, too, underperformed their pythagorean, though only by 4 games. Salt Lake’s stud 1B Ralph Keough - the 2038 D3 MVP - would have won his second straight had Ricky Ponce not exploded onto the scene: Keough hit .333/.382/.606 with 37 homers, 199 hits, and 27 stolen bases, the latter two D3 bests. His 7.4 WAR was actually half a win better than his MVP season a year before. He was merely the headliner of a booming offense that included two-way SS/SP Rob Cady (7.9 WAR combined), LF Tony Hines, and international signing Guo-fang Di, the team’s regular DH. But despite that offense, Salt Lake gave up runs in buckets, and the Saints got a career year from John McNayr, along with a stellar rookie campaign from Jerry Dudek. In the end, it was Saint Paul that stuck the landing, taking the conference title by a game.

Division 3 Championship
Nashville came in the overwhelming favorites, defending their crown against a team that won just two more games than they lost. But those dreams were dashed quickly: St. Paul took game 1, knocking Nashville starter John Giordano out in the third and holding on to win 6-4, then dropping seven on Nashville in each of the next two games, while keeping the Sounds’ bats quiet. Nashville returned the favor with a 7-1 win in game 4, but it was too little too late: the Saints came marching back with a resounding 9-1 win featuring two big homers by series MVP Kevin Walker. The win punctuated an improbable promotion for the Saints, who had been one of the NABF’s most moribund franchises since their four-peat in the Federation’s early days.

Division 3 Awards
MVP: Ricky Ponce, RF, CMB: .291/.355/.675, 59 HR, 145 RBI, 107 R, 6.7 WAR - Columbus’s Ponce, in his age 25 season, put together one of the greatest offensive displays in NABF history. For much of the season he was threatening Pedro Quiroz’s all-time HR record, and eventually tied the D3 mark with 59 while setting a D3 record with 145 RBI. He almost single-handedly elevated Columbus into some level of contention, and with Nashville up in D2, he may yet deliver them a conference title.

Pitcher of the Year: Tim Lank, SP, AUS: 17-11, 2.51 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 6.3 WAR - last year was the year a lot of people around the league finally noticed that Tim Lank is among the best pitchers in NABF history. Lank has always been a quiet ace, consistently valuable, with only one season in his last dozen under 4 WAR, all for the Austin Pioneers. At age 37, though, he may have turned in his finest season yet, with a career-high 6.3 WAR, 17 wins, and 2.51 ERA. The trophy is his second, having won it last in 2031, one of the longest gaps between two POYs in Federation history. Lank will be a free agent after the 2040 season, and it remains to be seen whether he will end his career with the Pioneers, his only career franchise.

Rookie of the Year: Guo-fang Di, DH, SLC: .249/.339/.534, 28 HR, 141 wRC+, 3.3 WAR - Di was one of the biggest bats in the biggest offense in the Division in 2039. At age 28, he was also old for a rookie, having been signed by the Gulls as an international free agent in the offseason. Di couples major power with a strong batting eye, and could provide stable offense for SLC for several years to come.

Reliever of the Year: Jonathan Marquez, CL, MEM: 34 Saves, 1.87 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 0.9 WAR - in a mostly forgettable season for the now-relegated Blues, Marquez stands out. He saved nearly half of the team’s 76 wins, and served as the last line of defense for the stingiest pitching staff in the D3 East. At 26, he has room to grow, and will now do so against D4 competition.

D4 - Regular Season
After a 2038 that saw the Pittsburgh Crawfords - long the most miserable team in the NABF, and the only franchise without even a single Conference title in its history - finally take the top spot in the D4 East, all eyes were on ace Joel Ortiz and the rest of Pittsburgh’s young core to see if they could repeat. They did, almost going wire to wire in the East. The Crawfords built up a large lead before a late season slide nearly took it all apart, but they survived, and ended the season four games up on second place Indianapolis. They were led by D4 Pitcher of the Year Joel Ortiz, who - like Willie Rodriguez - was chasing Jason Blanche’s all-time strikeout mark all season. Ortiz came even closer than Rodriguez, ending with 334, a D4 record that was just three shy of Blanche. The Crawfords also benefited from one of the best acquisitions of the 2038-2039 offseason: C Ghi-cheng Miao. Miao, the D4 Rookie of the Year, proved an able defensive catcher and a major power threat, cracking 28 homers with a .501 Slug. Free agent 1B Donovan Bryant also provided 36 homers. In all, the Crawfords led the D4 East with the most runs scored and the fewest runs allowed, and should have won even more than their 89-65 record.

In the west, another improbable champ was emerging out of seemingly nowhere: the San Antonio Missions, who had never played outside of D4 and who had just two Conference titles and no Division Championships to their name, led all the way in the West. They allowed just 541 runs, one fewer than the Crawfords and the fewest of any D4 team, with a deep rotation led by young ace Bill Lorentz and the veteran lefty Mario Caudillo. 1B Justin Gulden provided the biggest offensive lift for the club, with an unusual 1B profile: Gulden led D4 with 21 triples and a .337 BA, but didn’t hit a single home run all season. Despite that, he put up 5.6 WAR for the Missions as they finished the season a full 15 games ahead of the second place Las Vegas 51s.

Division 4 Championship
In a year of relatively boring Championship Series, this one had at least a bit of drama. Game 1 was about as good a pitcher’s duel as anyone is likely to see, as Joel Ortiz and Bill Lorentz each threw shutout inning after shutout inning. Ortiz went seven, striking out 13, and then gave way to closer Chris Scott, while Lorentz went the full nine before handing off to Roberto Lopez. But, in a bizarre move, the Missions allowed Lorentz to stay in the game as the DH, and he delivered: the part-time hitter drilled a double against Scott in the bottom of the 11th that pushed Ray Bostick to third, and Steve McNellis drove him in with a single to give San Antonio a 1-0 victory. San Antonio won another close one in Game 2, riding a brilliant Pete Morin start to a 3-1 victory, and then replicated that score in Game 3 behind Eduardo Fernandez. It looked like the series was nailed shut, but the Crawfords refused to go quietly. Matt Hahn delivered a fantastic start, going nine and allowing just a single hit and a single run, as the Crawfords won 5-1. Then Ortiz returned to the mound with a vengeance in Game 4, delivering one of the most dominant postseason starts in NABF history: a complete game, 11 K four hit shutout as the Crawfords put up five on Lorentz and the Missions bullpen. Game 6, then, was an instant classic: back and forth until the Crawfords took a 5-2 lead in the seventh, leading to an epic comeback in which San Antonio scored two in the 8th, one in the ninth to tie on a pinch-hit RBI single by Ron Golden, and finally a walk-off RBI single by Alex Gonzalez in the bottom of the tenth to give San Antonio their first Division Championship and their first promotion. Bostick was named MVP, hitting .360/.360/.400 with three critical RBI in the series.

Division 4 Awards
MVP: Matt Armstrong, 2B, PHX: .272/.386/.527, 22 HR, 154 wRC+, 7.2 WAR - the Firebirds’ outstanding all-around 2B Armstrong, after winning the 2038 Championship Series MVP, won the full season version in 2039 with a great campaign for a disappointing team. Armstrong set career highs in WAR (7.2), hits (140), and OBP (.386), as he emerged as a genuine leader for the Firebirds franchise.

Pitcher of the Year: Joel Ortiz, SP, PIT: 18-4, 2.43 ERA, 334 K, 0.99 WHIP, 7.9 WAR - in just his second full season, the 23 year old Ortiz was a sensation, breaking Nate Mefford’s 2038 single season D4 K record by 40 (Mefford himself struck out 315 this season, now the Division’s second highest total). Ortiz also led D4 in ERA, WHIP, K/9, and WAR, and was a unanimous selection for the award - the first, one can imagine, of several for the bright young hurler.

Rookie of the Year: Ghi-cheng Miao, C, PIT: .240/.331/.501, 28 HR, 70 RBI, 4.1 WAR - the 28 year old Miao wasn’t a rookie in the strictest sense, but had an outstanding first season in the NABF, helping the Crawfords to their best ever season and a long-awaited return to Division 3. Miao emerged as a team leader, and was at the center of some of the team’s biggest moments of the season.

Reliever of the Year: Roberto Lopez, CL, SAM: 48 Saves, 1.16 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 2.0 WAR - Lopez tied Carlos Alaniz’s 30 year old D4 saves record with 48 for the runaway title-winning Missions, and was a huge part of the success of their bullpen, the Division’s best. In his fourth season since signing with Sacramento out of the Mexican League, the 32 year old had a career year that he will look to build on in Division 3.