Baseball: The World's Game - Page 142

FuzzyRussianHat · Yesterday, 09:48 AM

China entered the 2041 World Championship at 6-6 all-time in the finals, although they had a two-decade cold streak since their last title in 2016 over Venezuela. Their other wins were 1970 (vs. Russia), 1979 (vs. Nigeria), 1993 (vs. India), 1994 (vs. the United States), and 2002 (vs. the USA). France was 1-2 in the finals with their run of success in the 2020s. The French won their lone title over the Americans in 2024, then lost in 2026 to Austria and 2027 to Bulgaria.

The Chinese opened with a 12-4 win, getting a two home run, five RBI day from Yi Zhao. France countered 6-1 in game two with 7.1 strong innings from Joris Cousin. In game three, Bucky Hein narrowly outdueled Justin Douchez for a 2-1 pitcher’s duel win for China. The French fought back with big bats 9-5 in game four.

Game five went 11 innings with a 4-3 walkoff win for France on a sacrifice fly by Diongolo Ganame, a dual Ivorian-French national. China answered with a combined three-hitter for a 3-1 result in game six, sending the championship to game seven for back-to-back years.

Pitching won the day for China in game seven with Bucky Hein tossing seven innings with one run, three hits, and eight strikeouts. Renjie Zhang pitched the final two innings perfect with four strikeouts as the Chinese held on 5-1. China’s seven world titles places them third behind the US (49) and Canada (8).

China’s top performer offensively by WAR was C Te Liu with 2.3 WAR, a 1.107 OPS, 35 hits, 24 runs, 10 homers, and 28 RBI. He only narrowly missed out on MVP honors. 3B Peng Zhang had 1.9 WAR, .993 OPS, 32 hits, 27 runs, 11 homers, and 29 RBI. LF Yi Zhao led the power output with 19 homers, 1.8 WAR, 1.002 OPS, 33 hits, 28 runs, and 33 RBI. Chinas 220 runs scored were the second-most in WBC history and their 318 hits the third-best. Their pitching staff also posted the third-most strikeouts (522) and tied the record for saves (17).

Bucky Hein became only the second pitcher in World Baseball Championship history to record eight wins, joining Abdullahi Ali from 2039. He was 8-0 over 57.2 innings with 1.09 ERA, 79 strikeouts, 329 ERA+, 29 FIP-, and 3.1 WAR. The 32-year old’s WAR was the sixth-best by a pitcher in WBC history. Hein was a four-time Pitcher of the Year with Guangzhou, but left Chinese League Baseball for Africa in 2041 on a six-year, $172,800,000 deal with Cape Town.

It was not Hein who won Best Pitcher for the event, but closer Zuqing Wei with 16 saves, tying the event record set the prior year by Zane Ogden. Wei had 20 games, one short of Ogden’s record, posting a 0.59 ERA over 30.1 innings, 72 strikeouts, 606 ERA+, and 2.4 WAR. The 27-year old lefty was entering his sixth season for Dongguan.

Tournament MVP ended up going to Austria’s Michael Weiner, who was an MVP in the European Second League the prior year to help Lyon earn a promotion. The 25-year old lefty in 26 games had 39 hits, 24 runs, 8 doubles, 14 home runs, 29 RBI, .394/.451/.899 slash, 283 wRC+, and 2.6 WAR.

Other notes: There were 12 no-hitters in the 2041 WBC, but notably three perfect games, bringing the overall total to 18 perfectos in WBC history. Two happened on January 5 with Iraq’s Abdul Muhaimin Akbar striking out 18 against Hong Kong and Ivory Coast’s Sylvain Zinsou fanning 14 against Croatia. The third was January 18 by Madagascar’s Victor Fydelis with 14 Ks over South Sudan.

The expanded field and more games certainly creates far more possibilities for such milestones. Also notable was the 18^th-ever four-home run game on January 8 by South Korea’s Sun-Jae Cho facing Libya. Only the 28^th cycle came on January 18 by Kazakhstan’s Arif Abenov facing Switzerland.

On the all-time leaderboard, American Alair White (125) and Vietnam’s Binh Tang (123) now are the top two for homers in the WBC. Filipino legend Jimmy Caliw’s 121 had held as the standard since 1989. White now has 258 RBI, approaching fellow American Connor Neumeyer’s record 265. Tang is now #2 all-time in WAR at 22.08 behind only the US’s Morgan Short (22.94). Tang has the most games played in WBC history at 335, passing Jude Hoffer’s 327. Elsewhere, Iraqi Jamil Naima became the first reliever to top 50+ WBC saves, now sitting at 53.

Below are the updated all-time tournament stats. The world title pushed China into the #4 spot, passing Mexico.

FuzzyRussianHat · Yesterday, 05:51 PM

The biggest free agent contract of the 2040-41 offseason went to 25-year old 2B Noel Goulet, the reigning Caribbean League MVP with Santo Domingo. He stayed in the Caribbean on an eight-year, $357,500,000 deal with Salvador. This briefly made him the highest-paid player in Central American Baseball Association history. Later on, Puerto Rico re-signed CF Tulio Arias at $358 million over eight years to just beat him out.

Below are the top free agent signings from the offseason. PROGRAMMING NOTE: I accidentally forgot to take the snapshot prior to the season, so the info reflects these players from AFTER the 2041 campaign. I also forgot to take the snapshot of the top ranked players in the world entering the season; my bad.

MILESTONE WATCH

On the world leaderboard entering 2041, veteran players Binh Tang (3977) and Jamel Forsyth (3955) are both primed to reach 4000 hits for their combined pro careers; a mark only met by eight in world history. Tang enters his fourth MLB season at age 41 and his second with Houston. He’s also chasing the 900 home run milestone and approaching the top 10 all-time for runs scored and top 20 for RBI. Forsyth at age 44 moved to West African Baseball for the first time and Bamako after struggling in his fifth and final MLB campaign.

Entering his 20^th season with Orlando, Jackson Brafford has 922 home runs and 2309 RBI. He’s just behind Isaac Cox’s 929 homers and 2333 RBI to become MLB’s all-time leader. 39-year old Neil Hollinger meanwhile has 883 homers and 2130 RBI. After three seasons in Toronto, Hollinger joined Washington on a three-year, $117,500,000 deal. Both are close to 2000 runs scored, which only four MLB players have breached. Pat Eichelberger (802) and Will Desbiens (800) are both also climbing MLB’s homer chart.

ALB hit king Ahmed Yasser Basha (3825) could join the 4000 hit club as well. He missed all of 2040 to a broken kneecap, ending a magnificent 20-year run for Muscat. Basha was a free agent at age 40 and signed a one-year, $16,400,000 deal with Alexandria. He has 746 doubles, giving him a shot at passing Abdul Rahman Abu Hamal’s ALB record of 773. Basha is at 2011 runs scored, likely to move to #2 in ALB, but he’s still two good years from catching Nordine Soule’s 2162.

ABF home run king Sultan Han at age 41 has a shot at becoming the eighth pro with 1000 career homers, sitting at 975. He’s also likely to be the first in ABF with 2000 runs scored. Han has 3205 hits with a good shot to move into ABF’s #2 spot, although the top spot of Mehmet Fatih Canaydin (3696) is still likely three good seasons away.

FuzzyRussianHat · Today, 08:12 AM

European Tier Three didn’t have any dominant teams in 2041, but you had a good chunk of teams in the mix for the four promotion slots into the European Second League. At the all-star break, it was Kosovo with the best record narrowly at 54-40. The Slayers collapsed late, going 1-9 in their final ten to finish seventh at 84-78. Nuremburg was another in the mix midway through the season, but ended up one of three teams at 81-81.

There ended up a three-way tie for first place between Florence, Turin, and Newcastle at 93-69 with the tiebreaker for the top spot going to the Fireflies. The Tanks notably ended the season on a six-game winning streak. It was the first-ever promotion for the Fireflies and Night Train. Turin had just gotten demoted to ET3 this year and made a quick escape. The Tanks had been in the European Baseball Federation’s Elite Tier as recently as 2037.

The #4 spot went to Montenegro at 90-72, just ahead of Sheffield (89-73) and Kyiv (86-76). The Mountain Goats held on after a good first half, while the Steelhounds had been .500 early and the Kings sub-.500. This was Montenegro’s second bump up to E2L (2032).

In the semifinals, Turin swept Newcastle 3-0 and Montenegro swept Florence. The championship went to the Tanks 4-2 over the Mountain Goats.

Other notes: Newcastle’s Hunor Csank won MVP with the new ET3 home run record of 54. Sheffield’s Duncan Kavanagh set records for OBP (.411) and OPS (1.024) while Gdansk’s Lukas Lesko set the doubles high-mark of 50. Kyiv’s Harley Lopes was Pitcher of the Year with new ET3 records for ERA (1.27), H/9 (4.81), WHIP (0.71), opponent’s triple slash (.157/.207/.227) and OPS (.436). Nottingham’s Joseph MacDuff had a new record for K/9 at 13.31.

progen · Today, 11:54 AM

Glad you've been keeping this going. Great read! And like you, I still play OOTP25, having not made the jump to 26 or 27. Maybe with the next version, but I still enjoy 25 and it keeps me still interested in playing solo.

Yesterday, 09:48 AM	#2821
FuzzyRussianHat Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 3,412	2041 World Baseball Championship (Part 3) China entered the 2041 World Championship at 6-6 all-time in the finals, although they had a two-decade cold streak since their last title in 2016 over Venezuela. Their other wins were 1970 (vs. Russia), 1979 (vs. Nigeria), 1993 (vs. India), 1994 (vs. the United States), and 2002 (vs. the USA). France was 1-2 in the finals with their run of success in the 2020s. The French won their lone title over the Americans in 2024, then lost in 2026 to Austria and 2027 to Bulgaria. The Chinese opened with a 12-4 win, getting a two home run, five RBI day from Yi Zhao. France countered 6-1 in game two with 7.1 strong innings from Joris Cousin. In game three, Bucky Hein narrowly outdueled Justin Douchez for a 2-1 pitcher’s duel win for China. The French fought back with big bats 9-5 in game four. Game five went 11 innings with a 4-3 walkoff win for France on a sacrifice fly by Diongolo Ganame, a dual Ivorian-French national. China answered with a combined three-hitter for a 3-1 result in game six, sending the championship to game seven for back-to-back years. Pitching won the day for China in game seven with Bucky Hein tossing seven innings with one run, three hits, and eight strikeouts. Renjie Zhang pitched the final two innings perfect with four strikeouts as the Chinese held on 5-1. China’s seven world titles places them third behind the US (49) and Canada (8). China’s top performer offensively by WAR was C Te Liu with 2.3 WAR, a 1.107 OPS, 35 hits, 24 runs, 10 homers, and 28 RBI. He only narrowly missed out on MVP honors. 3B Peng Zhang had 1.9 WAR, .993 OPS, 32 hits, 27 runs, 11 homers, and 29 RBI. LF Yi Zhao led the power output with 19 homers, 1.8 WAR, 1.002 OPS, 33 hits, 28 runs, and 33 RBI. Chinas 220 runs scored were the second-most in WBC history and their 318 hits the third-best. Their pitching staff also posted the third-most strikeouts (522) and tied the record for saves (17). Bucky Hein became only the second pitcher in World Baseball Championship history to record eight wins, joining Abdullahi Ali from 2039. He was 8-0 over 57.2 innings with 1.09 ERA, 79 strikeouts, 329 ERA+, 29 FIP-, and 3.1 WAR. The 32-year old’s WAR was the sixth-best by a pitcher in WBC history. Hein was a four-time Pitcher of the Year with Guangzhou, but left Chinese League Baseball for Africa in 2041 on a six-year, $172,800,000 deal with Cape Town. It was not Hein who won Best Pitcher for the event, but closer Zuqing Wei with 16 saves, tying the event record set the prior year by Zane Ogden. Wei had 20 games, one short of Ogden’s record, posting a 0.59 ERA over 30.1 innings, 72 strikeouts, 606 ERA+, and 2.4 WAR. The 27-year old lefty was entering his sixth season for Dongguan. Tournament MVP ended up going to Austria’s Michael Weiner, who was an MVP in the European Second League the prior year to help Lyon earn a promotion. The 25-year old lefty in 26 games had 39 hits, 24 runs, 8 doubles, 14 home runs, 29 RBI, .394/.451/.899 slash, 283 wRC+, and 2.6 WAR. Other notes: There were 12 no-hitters in the 2041 WBC, but notably three perfect games, bringing the overall total to 18 perfectos in WBC history. Two happened on January 5 with Iraq’s Abdul Muhaimin Akbar striking out 18 against Hong Kong and Ivory Coast’s Sylvain Zinsou fanning 14 against Croatia. The third was January 18 by Madagascar’s Victor Fydelis with 14 Ks over South Sudan. The expanded field and more games certainly creates far more possibilities for such milestones. Also notable was the 18^th-ever four-home run game on January 8 by South Korea’s Sun-Jae Cho facing Libya. Only the 28^th cycle came on January 18 by Kazakhstan’s Arif Abenov facing Switzerland. On the all-time leaderboard, American Alair White (125) and Vietnam’s Binh Tang (123) now are the top two for homers in the WBC. Filipino legend Jimmy Caliw’s 121 had held as the standard since 1989. White now has 258 RBI, approaching fellow American Connor Neumeyer’s record 265. Tang is now #2 all-time in WAR at 22.08 behind only the US’s Morgan Short (22.94). Tang has the most games played in WBC history at 335, passing Jude Hoffer’s 327. Elsewhere, Iraqi Jamil Naima became the first reliever to top 50+ WBC saves, now sitting at 53. Below are the updated all-time tournament stats. The world title pushed China into the #4 spot, passing Mexico. __________________ Baseball: The World's Game fictional world reports The Level Playing Field: Alternate MLB History From 1884-Onward Continental Baseball Federation world reports (8-tier promotion/relegation sim and college feeder)

Yesterday, 05:51 PM	#2822
FuzzyRussianHat Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 3,412	2040-41 Offseason The biggest free agent contract of the 2040-41 offseason went to 25-year old 2B Noel Goulet, the reigning Caribbean League MVP with Santo Domingo. He stayed in the Caribbean on an eight-year, $357,500,000 deal with Salvador. This briefly made him the highest-paid player in Central American Baseball Association history. Later on, Puerto Rico re-signed CF Tulio Arias at $358 million over eight years to just beat him out. Below are the top free agent signings from the offseason. PROGRAMMING NOTE: I accidentally forgot to take the snapshot prior to the season, so the info reflects these players from AFTER the 2041 campaign. I also forgot to take the snapshot of the top ranked players in the world entering the season; my bad. MILESTONE WATCH On the world leaderboard entering 2041, veteran players Binh Tang (3977) and Jamel Forsyth (3955) are both primed to reach 4000 hits for their combined pro careers; a mark only met by eight in world history. Tang enters his fourth MLB season at age 41 and his second with Houston. He’s also chasing the 900 home run milestone and approaching the top 10 all-time for runs scored and top 20 for RBI. Forsyth at age 44 moved to West African Baseball for the first time and Bamako after struggling in his fifth and final MLB campaign. Entering his 20^th season with Orlando, Jackson Brafford has 922 home runs and 2309 RBI. He’s just behind Isaac Cox’s 929 homers and 2333 RBI to become MLB’s all-time leader. 39-year old Neil Hollinger meanwhile has 883 homers and 2130 RBI. After three seasons in Toronto, Hollinger joined Washington on a three-year, $117,500,000 deal. Both are close to 2000 runs scored, which only four MLB players have breached. Pat Eichelberger (802) and Will Desbiens (800) are both also climbing MLB’s homer chart. ALB hit king Ahmed Yasser Basha (3825) could join the 4000 hit club as well. He missed all of 2040 to a broken kneecap, ending a magnificent 20-year run for Muscat. Basha was a free agent at age 40 and signed a one-year, $16,400,000 deal with Alexandria. He has 746 doubles, giving him a shot at passing Abdul Rahman Abu Hamal’s ALB record of 773. Basha is at 2011 runs scored, likely to move to #2 in ALB, but he’s still two good years from catching Nordine Soule’s 2162. ABF home run king Sultan Han at age 41 has a shot at becoming the eighth pro with 1000 career homers, sitting at 975. He’s also likely to be the first in ABF with 2000 runs scored. Han has 3205 hits with a good shot to move into ABF’s #2 spot, although the top spot of Mehmet Fatih Canaydin (3696) is still likely three good seasons away. __________________ Baseball: The World's Game fictional world reports The Level Playing Field: Alternate MLB History From 1884-Onward Continental Baseball Federation world reports (8-tier promotion/relegation sim and college feeder)

Today, 08:12 AM	#2823
FuzzyRussianHat Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 3,412	2041 et3 European Tier Three didn’t have any dominant teams in 2041, but you had a good chunk of teams in the mix for the four promotion slots into the European Second League. At the all-star break, it was Kosovo with the best record narrowly at 54-40. The Slayers collapsed late, going 1-9 in their final ten to finish seventh at 84-78. Nuremburg was another in the mix midway through the season, but ended up one of three teams at 81-81. There ended up a three-way tie for first place between Florence, Turin, and Newcastle at 93-69 with the tiebreaker for the top spot going to the Fireflies. The Tanks notably ended the season on a six-game winning streak. It was the first-ever promotion for the Fireflies and Night Train. Turin had just gotten demoted to ET3 this year and made a quick escape. The Tanks had been in the European Baseball Federation’s Elite Tier as recently as 2037. The #4 spot went to Montenegro at 90-72, just ahead of Sheffield (89-73) and Kyiv (86-76). The Mountain Goats held on after a good first half, while the Steelhounds had been .500 early and the Kings sub-.500. This was Montenegro’s second bump up to E2L (2032). In the semifinals, Turin swept Newcastle 3-0 and Montenegro swept Florence. The championship went to the Tanks 4-2 over the Mountain Goats. Other notes: Newcastle’s Hunor Csank won MVP with the new ET3 home run record of 54. Sheffield’s Duncan Kavanagh set records for OBP (.411) and OPS (1.024) while Gdansk’s Lukas Lesko set the doubles high-mark of 50. Kyiv’s Harley Lopes was Pitcher of the Year with new ET3 records for ERA (1.27), H/9 (4.81), WHIP (0.71), opponent’s triple slash (.157/.207/.227) and OPS (.436). Nottingham’s Joseph MacDuff had a new record for K/9 at 13.31. __________________ Baseball: The World's Game fictional world reports The Level Playing Field: Alternate MLB History From 1884-Onward Continental Baseball Federation world reports (8-tier promotion/relegation sim and college feeder)

Today, 11:54 AM	#2824
progen All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,533 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	Glad you've been keeping this going. Great read! And like you, I still play OOTP25, having not made the jump to 26 or 27. Maybe with the next version, but I still enjoy 25 and it keeps me still interested in playing solo.