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Old 12-16-2015, 07:46 PM   #2
Kristy95
Bat Boy
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 6
Free agency has some interesting contracts!

2B Bill Keister got the biggest per year contract with 4 years, 26 million per year. He had a 5.6 WAR season, but he is 32 years old. He signed with Washington (previously Cubs).

LF Johnny Grubb got the biggest contract total, with 18 million per year for 6 years. He had a 3.4 WAR season in 108 games and is 30 years old. He signed with Philadelphia (previously Angels).

Some other interesting contracts are C Brian McCann 24 million annually for 4 years (San Francisco, previously Cincinnati), CF Johnny Bates 23 million per year for 4 years (Angels, previously Boston), SP Red Faber 25 million for two years (San Francisco, previously Cubs), SP Mort Cooper 25 million for 4 years annually (Colorado, previously White Sox) and LF Travis Snider 23 million for 4 years (Milwaukee, previously Houston).

Colorado gained the most WAR in the offseason with 12.7 followed by the Cleveland Indians with 10.4. Milwaukee lost the most at -8.3 and San Francisco at -7.6.

Here we see the standings at the all-star break of the new season (2015).



As we see, Baltimore is doing really well again, previous champs Atlanta is in the wild card spot right now. Some interesting divisional races still!

All-star teams have some familiar names on them. Here are the guys who have made it for the 2nd time:

Noodles Hahn, Addie Joss, Adonis Terry, Randy Johnson, Walter Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Willie McGill, Jack Baldschun, David Carpenter, Matt Thornton, Johnny Bench, Brian McCann, Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Alomar, Bill Keister, Joe Cronin, Bob Horner, Danny Litwhiler, Pee Wee Reese, Miguel Cabrera, Ed Delahanty, Matt Holliday, Joe Medwick, Sammy Strang, Ron Fairly and Johnny Grubb.

Clearly still a lot of guys who are above everyone else and you can clearly see the most known guys on this list. Amazing line-up I'd say!

No excitement towards the end of the season, as the playoff positions are all decided before the last day. Philadelphia ends up with 99 wins, the most this season. Arizona had 98, Baltimore 97, Kansas City and Seattle 96. The only close division was Milwaukee winning with 88 wins. Last year's winner Atlanta has 93 wins and is in the wild card. The World Series loser from last year, Tampa Bay only got 82 wins and is not in the playoffs this year. The AL West get three playoff teams. Boston ends up with 102 losses and the first pick in the draft. Here the full standings:



Three hitters had a close race for the WAR title, in the end Joe Cronin ends up with 9.9 WAR, Ed Delahanty with 9.7 WAR and Johnny Bench with 9.4 WAR. Delahanty had more than 200 hits for the 2nd time. Bob Horner wins the home-run race again with 48, tied with Beals Becker. Chris James had the most WAR among batting rookies with 6.4 for Seattle, adding 33 home-runs. Beals Becker also had the longest hitting streak with 35 games.

Among pitchers, we see a familiar picture. Noodles Hahn ends up with an incredible 11.1 WAR, leading the league in ERA (1.53), wins (27! 6 more than anyone else) and once again losing the triple crown, this time to Al Pratt, though Pedro Martinez, who ended up 2nd in the league in WAR with 9.9 had the most strikeouts in the entire league with 352.

Here the complete leaderboard section:





Starting the playoffs, the wild card games featured the Angels facing the Astros and the Braves facing the Giants.

Houston sent out excellent pitcher Joe Blong, facing Chris Carpenter, who was fantastic as well this season. Carlos Gonzalez and Ricco Petrocelli hit home-runs for Houston who got to Carpenter early and end up winning 9-4 and easily advancing.

The other wild card game had a ton of stars in it. Last year's winner, the Braves sent in Gerrit Cole who had 21 wins this season with a 2.20 ERA, while San Francisco sent in Red Faber, who was fantastic too. Despite the great starters, the game was a high-scoring game, being decided in the later innings and within the bullpen. Lou Gehrig hit a home-run for San Francisco but it was not enough, while Bob Horner does it again and hits a home-run in a 12-7 win for Atlanta.

In the next series, Houston faced Baltimore. Baltimore was definitely the favorite, especially given their star players like Stan Musial and Jay Bell, who had 6.1 WAR, as well as pitcher Adonis Terry. However, Stan Musial hit only .143 in this series with only two singles in the entire series. Adonis Terry ends up 0-2 in the series, while Bill Vinton, who had a pretty mediocre season goes 2-0 for Houston, giving up only two runs in 13 innings. Houston wins the series 3-1.

Kansas City was up against Seattle. Kansas City has a good offense, especially Johnny Bench and Edwin Encarnacion, however Johnny Bench was even more cld than Stan Musial, not getting on base a single time in this series. Wayne Garrett was great for Seattle, hitting two home-runs in the series and getting 7 RBIs. Noodles Hahn won game 1 with an 8 inning one hitter. Seattle sweeps Kansas City.

Last year's winner Atlanta faced the Phillies. Great offensive duel between Bob Horner and Ed Delahanty here. Horner couldn't do it again, hitting no home-runs in this series. Delahanty didn't have a great series either but he was decent. Jack Jones stood out, pitching a complete game shut out, three hitter in game two for the Phillies. Phillies end up sweeping Atlanta, we will have a new winner!

The last series was the closest, Milwaukee versus Arizona. Amazing pitching duels here, the series had Orel Hershiser and Randy Johnson for Milwaukee and Walter Johnson for Arizona. Walter Johnson won game one against Orel Hershiser and Arizona took a lead in the series. Randy Johnson pitched a shutout in game two and ties up the series. Milwaukee takes a 2-1 lead in the series after game three. Walter Johnson is back for game four and ties the series up with his second beautiful start. He only gave up two runs in 16 innings and was 2-0. So we go to game 5 and Milwaukee is definitely the favorite, sending out Randy Johnson who pitched such a beauty in game two. However, game five was a different story. He was chased out of the game after 4 innings and Arizona wins the game 9-4 and advances to the next round!

Houston faced off against Seattle in the AL, but there is not much to tell in this series. Seattle dominated Houston and swept them, headed by Noodles Hahn who is just a dominant force. Two wins for Hahn, two runs given up in 16 innings in the series, winning game one and four, as Seattle sweeps Houston to advance to the World Series.

The other series was a lot more exciting! Walter Johnson continues his dominance, winning game one and giving Arizona the lead. Philly takes the next two games however with dominant offensive performances. Bibby pitched game 3 for the Phillies and pitched a beauty. Walter Johnson comes back for game four and ties the series up with yet another dominant performance. Series goes back and forth, as Arizona wins game five and takes the series lead. Bibby pitched another beauty for Philly in game 6 and ties the series up yet again and we go to a game 7! With Walter Johnson on the mound, Arizona is the definite favorite. However, this time he could not do it! Philadelphia wins the game 3-2 and the series 4-3 and will face Seattle in the World Series! Bibby, the hero of this series has 1.5 stars and only had 0.3 WAR this year with a 3.88 ERA during the regular season.

Seattle versus Philadelphia in the final. With Noodles Hahn and the dominant sweep, Seattle was definitely the favorite. Game one featured Noodles Hahn who got his next win of the postseason. While Ed Delahanty was bad so far this postseason, he did get a home-run off of Noodles Hahn but it wasn't enough. Game two featured surprise hero Bibby, who helps Philly tie the Series up and gets the win. Game three was a complete beatdown with a 15-2 win for Seattle, as they hit five home-runs, two of which came from Chris James, who as a rookie had 33 home-runs during the season and 6.4 WAR. Game 4 featured Noodles Hahn again, but the game was close for a long time, so Hahn did not get the win, though he pitched well again. However, in the late innings, Seattle once again destroyed the Phillies, winning 16-0 in the end, while James added another home-run. With two such dominant wins in a row, Seattle was now in a position to close the series out. They don't need many tries and Seattle wins the series 4-1 with a surprisingly low score in game 5 of 4-2. Ed Delahanty had a fantastic series, hitting .579/.600/.842 but he was really the only shine on the Phillies team. Almost everyone on Seattle had a great series, most of which Chris James, who won World Series MVP. Noodles Hahn would have been another good choice, though he only won one game.

I suppose the draft order was still the same as last year, I am not entirely sure if this was supposed to happen but I guess I kinda didn't see this until it was too late. I guess the draft last year was odd cause it was the first season and from now on it will be based on last season's results like it ought to be. Either way, Blue jays had the first pick again, Phillies 2nd, etc. Some amazing talent in this draft. The hitters stand out this year more so than the pitchers. We have guys like Mookie Betts, John Richmand, Sammy Sosa, Rogers Hornsby and Mike Trout. Pitching wise we have Harry Krause, Jeff Weaver, Dock Ellis, Bill Parsons, etc.

Rogers Hornsby goes first overall to the Blue Jays, he has fantastic talent, is only 17 years old but already great! I will add his ratings in a bit. Mike Trout goes 2nd overall to the Phillies. Tigers pick Sammy Sosa. Here a longer draft summary and Rogers Hornsby profile:





Gold Glove awards follow. The guys who won their 2nd gold glove are: Eric Sogard at 2B (first for Baltimore, now for San Francisco), David Justice in RF (twice for Miami), Phil Garner at 2B (first for Miami, now for the White Sox), Nolan Arenado at 3B (twice for Seattle), Lou Boudreau at SS (twice for the Indians) and Stan Javier in CF (first for Oakland, now for the Indians).

Andy Boswell wins reliever of the year in the AL for the Twins and Trevor Wilson wins reliever of the year in the NL for the Braves.

Two-time silver sluggers are the following in the AL: Johnny Bench at C (twice for Kansas City), Stan Musial at 1B (twice for Baltimore), Roberto Alomar at 2B (twice for the Twins), Edwin Encarnacion at 3B (twice for Kansas City), Joe Cronin at SS (twice for the Texas Rangers), Carlos Gonzalez in CF (twice for Houston), Yasiel Puig in RF (twice for Oakland)

Two-time silver sluggers are the following in the NL: Lou Gehrig at 1B (twice for San Francisco), Bob Horner at 3B (twice for Atlanta), Ed Delahanty in LF (twice for Philadelphia).

Rookies of the year go to Chris James in the AL for Seattle and Ron Grant in the NL for the Cubs.

Noodles Hahn wins his 2nd Cy Young in a row, deservingly so. Al Pratt finishes 2nd and Addie Joss 3rd. Willie McGill wins the Cy Young in the NL for the Dodgers with 9.0 WAR going 20-7 with a 1.77 ERA, very deserving as well. Pedro Martinez and Walter Johnson are 2nd and 3rd there.

Noodles Hahn also wins his 2nd MVP in a row, also quite deservingly so. Johnny Bench was 2nd there and Roberto Alomar 3rd. Ed Delahanty wins the MVP award in the NL, with over 200 hits and leading the league in average, on-base percentage and WAR. Beals Becker and Willie McGill are 2nd and 3rd.

Like last time, free agency will follow in the next post!
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