Aaron Division
CAQ. The Quakes won their second championship (their first was in 2006), with a league-leading 97 wins. They were a solid team -- they hit well (4th in RS), pitched well (2nd in ERA), and fielded well (1st in X-out %). They had some issues at the top of the order (OBP of .311 and .302), but the middle of the order posted OPS's well into the .800 range. The pitching was top-notch, with Cole Hamels (18-6, league-leading 2.23 ERA), Rick Vogelsong (13-6, 2.83), and Johnny Cueto (13-5, 3.21) starting, and John Axford (7-0, 42 saves, 1.17 ERA) finishing things out. What the hell? Andrew McCutchen hit .210/.337/.333. Preview: With Jason Heyward's bounceback from his sophomore slump, McCutchen's emergence as an elite player, and no noticeable decline in any of Castaic's regulars, the Quakes should definitely be in the hunt for a third championship ring.
LIT. The Rockies fell just short, falling in the championship series, and also seemed a balanced team, leading the league in runs and finishing 3rd in ERA. That last figure is deceptive, though; they actually finished 7th in runs allowed, their league-worst .694 X-out % leading to a league-high 85 unearned runs. But man, could they hit, with seven players clubbing 20 or more HR's. Team's best kept secret, though, was a bullpen sporting 7 pitchers with an ERA under 3.00, and the bullpen's 3.24 ERA was 2nd best in the league. What the hell? Micah Owings faced 158 right-handed batters, who hit .194 off of him. He faced 30 fewer lefties, who clubbed him to the tune of a .406 average. Tha's what a 7R balance rating will get you. Preview: Pujols' decline (he's lost about 250 points of OPS in the last three years) is a problem, although his salary, oddly enough, isn't: he'll actually cost Littleton less next year than he did this year, plus the extra roster spot. Bigger concern is loss of Berkman, who provided 42 HR's to Littleton this season, but was held by injuries to only 81 AB's in 2012.
CRP. All good things must end, as did the Patriots' run of three championships. They just barely made the playoffs with an 82-80 record. They could still hit the ball (3rd in RS), but their team ERA slid from 3rd to 10th. Jered Weaver was the only effective starter, and the leader in saves had 15. What the hell? Chief reason for the Patriots' pitching woes was the 58 starts given to Jhoulys Chacin (5-18, 5.05 ERA) and Ubaldo Jimenez (6-14, 6.61). Preview: Jose Reyes lost 50 points of BA, Brian McCann lost 40, Ryan Roberts lost his power, Josh Hamilton will make $12 million more, and the Patriots pitching is paper-thin after Weaver. So they'll probably win 90 games.
WAC. The Cheesewedgers just missed the playoffs, going 81-81. Big problem was hitting; despite playing in a bandbox, West Allis scored fewer runs than all but three other teams. And although they finished in the middle of the pack for homers, it was very concentrated: only four players finished in double figures. The pitching outside of three players -- Jason Motte, Matt Cain, and Javier Vazquez -- was shaky. What the hell? Shows how important that closer rating is. Motte had a 3, and finished with a 4-3 record, 1.43 ERA, and 35 saves in 37 chances. Preview: Matt Kemp's injury will hurt (only 403 AB's), and Cory Luebke was lost to Tommy John surgery, but Buster Posey's MVP season and Chipper Jones last hurrah should put West Allis in the hunt.
MMM. The Maulers lost 96 games, and it's not hard to see why: they had a .242 BA and .306 OBP, both league lows, scored only 595 runs, and their top starter finished with an 11-9 record; the only other pitcher with double-digit wins had 10. The Maulers may have been more competitive than at first glance: they finished 41-43 for the months of April, May, and August, and 25-53 the other three months. What the hell? Despite their offensive woes, Maui hit 6 grand slams; only Littleton, with 7, had more. Preview: David Wright's resurgence, Giancarlo Stanton's continued growth, the emergence of Aaron Hill, plus some good draft picks for pitching could make Maui competitive, but they're probably still a year away. One thing they have to do is decide whether they want to pay Ryan Howard $20 million for 260 AB's of 14 homers and a .219/.295/.423 line.
BOW. After winning 90 games in 2011, the Bay Sox lost 99 this past season. The hitting wasn't the problem; Bowie finishing 11th in RS, but it finished 12th the season before. The pitching was another story, with the team ERA going from 2.72, best by nearly 40 points, to 3.86, 9th in the league. The starting pitching was thin after Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, but the lineup was even thinner; only two players, Michael Bourn and Jason Bartlett, had more than 400 AB's. What the hell? If anything, the bullpen was even worse. Sean Burnett led the team with six -- count'em, six -- saves, and the team had only 18 (out of 34 chances) for the season. Preview: Halladay and Lee had off years, and nobody had a good one. Some good drafting and a lot of luck will be needed to make this team competitive in the next two years. Part of the problem is continuity; team will be on its fifth manager in five years.
Ruth Division
MON. The Pool Sharks completed one of the most amazing transitions in league history, going from 54-108 in 2011 to 93-69. Run scoring improved somewhat, from 10th to 7th, but the big improvement was in run prevention: Montreal tied for a league-best .781 X-out %, up from 7th the year before, helping the team allow the third fewest runs, with Zach Greinke (13-9, 2.52), Brandon Beachy (13-3, 2.91), Ian Kennedy (18-11, 3.17), and Matt Scherzer (14-9, 3.54) providing one of the most formidable rotations in the league. If there was a weakness, it was the bullpen: although Craig Kimbrel performed spectacularly, going 42-46 in saves with a 1.42 ERA, there was a problem getting the ball to him, as evidenced by the bullpen's 4.18 ERA; only Richmond's was worse. Factoid. In 15 games against Virginia Beach, Adrian Gonzalez hit .406/.486/.969, for a 1.455 OPS. Preview: The lineup's thin after Gonzalez, Beachy threw only 81 innings before undergoing Tommy John surgery, and Kennedy regressed. But Montreal's taking a flyer on Kris Medlen (keeping him on the roster, despite only 2 IP) paid off big time, and Aroldis Chapman turned into a monster, so Montreal should be in the thick of it again.
TEX. After starting the season 19-29, the Armadillos played 30 games over .500 the rest of the way. This,despite relatively bad luck: nobody overperformed, and numerous players performed much worse than expected. Texas scored the second-most runs in the league, despite off-years by Prince Fielder (.151 points off his real-life OPS), Hunter Pence (-.145), and Ryan Braun (-.126). Huroki Kuroda (15-9, 2.68) and Madison Bumgarner (15-7, 2.81) did the heavy lifting on the mound, but Mat Latos (.87 above his real-life ERA), Tommy Hanson (1.21 above), and Heath Bell (23 saves, 3.93 ERA v. 45, 2.44) fell short. Factoid. Texas got at least 20 HR's out of every spot in the batting order except the 7th, where it got 5. Preview: Fielder will cost over $30 million next season, and Bell's collapse will require some patching of the bullpen, but Texas is too deep to run into much trouble. Braun's not going to have another off-year for them, and he's got to be the one of the biggest bargains in the league: he had a .987 OPS in 2012 with a salary of less than $7.4 million.
WES. Probably one of the most unbalanced teams in league history. Boy, could they pitch: Tim Lincecum, Mike Leake, and Jair Jurrjens provided an excellent front of the rotation, and the bullpen was simply spectacular: a 2.56 ERA, 70 points below the next lowest team, five relievers with ERA's under 2.00, J.J. Putz establishing a league record with 50 saves... Boy, couldn't they hit: a league-low 592 runs, with only 3 players in double figures for homers. Best indication of the woeful nature of the offense is that the catchers, in 572 AB's, combined to go .180/.265/.279. Factoid. In road games, Livan Hernandez went 2-4, with an 11.48 ERA and a 2.41 WHIP. Factoid #2: Westpark went 24-6 in August, best one-month record in league history, and 65-67 the other five months. Preview: With the collapse of Jurrjens and Lincecum, and no improvement among any of the non-pitchers, Westpark's looking at a 90-loss season.
VBO. The Oddsox backed into the playoffs with an 83-79 record, doing it the way they have for the last five seasons: on the strength of their pitching. They hit 103 HR's, the fewest of any team besides Bowie, and no regular (400+ AB's) had even a .270 BA. But Brett Myers put a 17-10 record on the board, Rickey Nolasco and R.A. Dickey chimed in with 15-8 and 14-8 respectively, and Brian Wilson picked up 28 saves in 31 chances. A sterling defense, anchored by Jimmy Rollins, helped: VBO's .774 X-out % lagged only behind Castaic and Montreal, both with .781. Factoid. Jonathan Sanchez was one lefty who beat the Strat curse, giving up only 5.9 H/9, 1.2 fewer than he did in real life. And despite a 4L balance, righties hit only .182 against him, 36 points less than lefties managed. Preview: Dickey had a great season, but Myers is now a reliever for the White Sox, Wilson's season was lost to injury, and nobody stepped up offensively. Virginia Beach is going to have to scramble for a playoff spot again next year.
MAR. The Bones Demons led the league with a .273 BA, but a better indication of their offense is that, despite playing a hitter's park, they were outscored by six other teams and outhomered by seven. Other than Miguel Cabrera and his .955 OPS (still 80 points below real life), the story was the same: decent batting averages (nobody hit below .245), but no real production. Bad luck was a problem, too, as indicated by Dan Haren's 12-17 record, despite a 3.12 ERA. Factoid. Haren must really enjoy home cooking; he went 9-5 with a 2.42 ERA at Chase Field, but the on the road he was 3-12, 3.82. Preview: Haren's been the mainstay of the starting staff for years, but gained more than a run in ERA in 2012. Shaun Marcum was limited to 124 innings this past season, and Tim Hudson is getting long in the tooth. Angel Bastardo, who went 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA and 27 saves in 30 chances, and was supposed to shore up a weak bullpen -- Marriottsville's relievers allowed 35% of inherited runners to score, worst in the league -- finished 2012 with a 4.33 ERA. Cabrera had another monster season, but he'll cost $28 million, and he was about the only one who did; Troy Tulowitski's injury (only 181 AB's), and the decline or collapse of players like Orlando Hudson, Marlon Byrd, and Nyjer Morgan puts Marriottsville in a definite rebuilding mode.
RAZ. Playing in Coors Stadium pretty much dictated Richmond's strategy: bludgeon the opposing team's pitchers more than the opposing team bludgeoned Richmond's. The Razz led the league in runs scored every year since the league was founded, and has never finished better than 11th in team ERA. Only half that formula worked this season: the Razz finished 5th in RS, while their team ERA was half a run worse than anybody else's. Besides Corey Hart (.349/.415/.563), nobody had a standout offensive year, and the pitching problems were exemplified by Daniel Hudson, who went 5-18 with a 6.37 ERA, compared to 17-13, 3.49 in real life. Factoid. Clayton Kershaw actually pitched better in Coors than on the road: 12-4, 2.68 versus 5-7, 2.77. Preview. It remains to be seen if Hanley Ramirez' move out of Florida to the Dodgers can revive what once looked like a Hall of Fame career, but with Hudson's injury (45 IP), Anibal Sanchez' move to the AL, and the continued decline of Dan Uggla, Richmond will need its low draft picks to get back to a competitive state. The biggest offseason decision they'll have to make is whether to move out of Coors.
CAQ. The Quakes won their second championship (their first was in 2006), with a league-leading 97 wins. They were a solid team -- they hit well (4th in RS), pitched well (2nd in ERA), and fielded well (1st in X-out %). They had some issues at the top of the order (OBP of .311 and .302), but the middle of the order posted OPS's well into the .800 range. The pitching was top-notch, with Cole Hamels (18-6, league-leading 2.23 ERA), Rick Vogelsong (13-6, 2.83), and Johnny Cueto (13-5, 3.21) starting, and John Axford (7-0, 42 saves, 1.17 ERA) finishing things out. What the hell? Andrew McCutchen hit .210/.337/.333. Preview: With Jason Heyward's bounceback from his sophomore slump, McCutchen's emergence as an elite player, and no noticeable decline in any of Castaic's regulars, the Quakes should definitely be in the hunt for a third championship ring.
LIT. The Rockies fell just short, falling in the championship series, and also seemed a balanced team, leading the league in runs and finishing 3rd in ERA. That last figure is deceptive, though; they actually finished 7th in runs allowed, their league-worst .694 X-out % leading to a league-high 85 unearned runs. But man, could they hit, with seven players clubbing 20 or more HR's. Team's best kept secret, though, was a bullpen sporting 7 pitchers with an ERA under 3.00, and the bullpen's 3.24 ERA was 2nd best in the league. What the hell? Micah Owings faced 158 right-handed batters, who hit .194 off of him. He faced 30 fewer lefties, who clubbed him to the tune of a .406 average. Tha's what a 7R balance rating will get you. Preview: Pujols' decline (he's lost about 250 points of OPS in the last three years) is a problem, although his salary, oddly enough, isn't: he'll actually cost Littleton less next year than he did this year, plus the extra roster spot. Bigger concern is loss of Berkman, who provided 42 HR's to Littleton this season, but was held by injuries to only 81 AB's in 2012.
CRP. All good things must end, as did the Patriots' run of three championships. They just barely made the playoffs with an 82-80 record. They could still hit the ball (3rd in RS), but their team ERA slid from 3rd to 10th. Jered Weaver was the only effective starter, and the leader in saves had 15. What the hell? Chief reason for the Patriots' pitching woes was the 58 starts given to Jhoulys Chacin (5-18, 5.05 ERA) and Ubaldo Jimenez (6-14, 6.61). Preview: Jose Reyes lost 50 points of BA, Brian McCann lost 40, Ryan Roberts lost his power, Josh Hamilton will make $12 million more, and the Patriots pitching is paper-thin after Weaver. So they'll probably win 90 games.
WAC. The Cheesewedgers just missed the playoffs, going 81-81. Big problem was hitting; despite playing in a bandbox, West Allis scored fewer runs than all but three other teams. And although they finished in the middle of the pack for homers, it was very concentrated: only four players finished in double figures. The pitching outside of three players -- Jason Motte, Matt Cain, and Javier Vazquez -- was shaky. What the hell? Shows how important that closer rating is. Motte had a 3, and finished with a 4-3 record, 1.43 ERA, and 35 saves in 37 chances. Preview: Matt Kemp's injury will hurt (only 403 AB's), and Cory Luebke was lost to Tommy John surgery, but Buster Posey's MVP season and Chipper Jones last hurrah should put West Allis in the hunt.
MMM. The Maulers lost 96 games, and it's not hard to see why: they had a .242 BA and .306 OBP, both league lows, scored only 595 runs, and their top starter finished with an 11-9 record; the only other pitcher with double-digit wins had 10. The Maulers may have been more competitive than at first glance: they finished 41-43 for the months of April, May, and August, and 25-53 the other three months. What the hell? Despite their offensive woes, Maui hit 6 grand slams; only Littleton, with 7, had more. Preview: David Wright's resurgence, Giancarlo Stanton's continued growth, the emergence of Aaron Hill, plus some good draft picks for pitching could make Maui competitive, but they're probably still a year away. One thing they have to do is decide whether they want to pay Ryan Howard $20 million for 260 AB's of 14 homers and a .219/.295/.423 line.
BOW. After winning 90 games in 2011, the Bay Sox lost 99 this past season. The hitting wasn't the problem; Bowie finishing 11th in RS, but it finished 12th the season before. The pitching was another story, with the team ERA going from 2.72, best by nearly 40 points, to 3.86, 9th in the league. The starting pitching was thin after Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, but the lineup was even thinner; only two players, Michael Bourn and Jason Bartlett, had more than 400 AB's. What the hell? If anything, the bullpen was even worse. Sean Burnett led the team with six -- count'em, six -- saves, and the team had only 18 (out of 34 chances) for the season. Preview: Halladay and Lee had off years, and nobody had a good one. Some good drafting and a lot of luck will be needed to make this team competitive in the next two years. Part of the problem is continuity; team will be on its fifth manager in five years.
Ruth Division
MON. The Pool Sharks completed one of the most amazing transitions in league history, going from 54-108 in 2011 to 93-69. Run scoring improved somewhat, from 10th to 7th, but the big improvement was in run prevention: Montreal tied for a league-best .781 X-out %, up from 7th the year before, helping the team allow the third fewest runs, with Zach Greinke (13-9, 2.52), Brandon Beachy (13-3, 2.91), Ian Kennedy (18-11, 3.17), and Matt Scherzer (14-9, 3.54) providing one of the most formidable rotations in the league. If there was a weakness, it was the bullpen: although Craig Kimbrel performed spectacularly, going 42-46 in saves with a 1.42 ERA, there was a problem getting the ball to him, as evidenced by the bullpen's 4.18 ERA; only Richmond's was worse. Factoid. In 15 games against Virginia Beach, Adrian Gonzalez hit .406/.486/.969, for a 1.455 OPS. Preview: The lineup's thin after Gonzalez, Beachy threw only 81 innings before undergoing Tommy John surgery, and Kennedy regressed. But Montreal's taking a flyer on Kris Medlen (keeping him on the roster, despite only 2 IP) paid off big time, and Aroldis Chapman turned into a monster, so Montreal should be in the thick of it again.
TEX. After starting the season 19-29, the Armadillos played 30 games over .500 the rest of the way. This,despite relatively bad luck: nobody overperformed, and numerous players performed much worse than expected. Texas scored the second-most runs in the league, despite off-years by Prince Fielder (.151 points off his real-life OPS), Hunter Pence (-.145), and Ryan Braun (-.126). Huroki Kuroda (15-9, 2.68) and Madison Bumgarner (15-7, 2.81) did the heavy lifting on the mound, but Mat Latos (.87 above his real-life ERA), Tommy Hanson (1.21 above), and Heath Bell (23 saves, 3.93 ERA v. 45, 2.44) fell short. Factoid. Texas got at least 20 HR's out of every spot in the batting order except the 7th, where it got 5. Preview: Fielder will cost over $30 million next season, and Bell's collapse will require some patching of the bullpen, but Texas is too deep to run into much trouble. Braun's not going to have another off-year for them, and he's got to be the one of the biggest bargains in the league: he had a .987 OPS in 2012 with a salary of less than $7.4 million.
WES. Probably one of the most unbalanced teams in league history. Boy, could they pitch: Tim Lincecum, Mike Leake, and Jair Jurrjens provided an excellent front of the rotation, and the bullpen was simply spectacular: a 2.56 ERA, 70 points below the next lowest team, five relievers with ERA's under 2.00, J.J. Putz establishing a league record with 50 saves... Boy, couldn't they hit: a league-low 592 runs, with only 3 players in double figures for homers. Best indication of the woeful nature of the offense is that the catchers, in 572 AB's, combined to go .180/.265/.279. Factoid. In road games, Livan Hernandez went 2-4, with an 11.48 ERA and a 2.41 WHIP. Factoid #2: Westpark went 24-6 in August, best one-month record in league history, and 65-67 the other five months. Preview: With the collapse of Jurrjens and Lincecum, and no improvement among any of the non-pitchers, Westpark's looking at a 90-loss season.
VBO. The Oddsox backed into the playoffs with an 83-79 record, doing it the way they have for the last five seasons: on the strength of their pitching. They hit 103 HR's, the fewest of any team besides Bowie, and no regular (400+ AB's) had even a .270 BA. But Brett Myers put a 17-10 record on the board, Rickey Nolasco and R.A. Dickey chimed in with 15-8 and 14-8 respectively, and Brian Wilson picked up 28 saves in 31 chances. A sterling defense, anchored by Jimmy Rollins, helped: VBO's .774 X-out % lagged only behind Castaic and Montreal, both with .781. Factoid. Jonathan Sanchez was one lefty who beat the Strat curse, giving up only 5.9 H/9, 1.2 fewer than he did in real life. And despite a 4L balance, righties hit only .182 against him, 36 points less than lefties managed. Preview: Dickey had a great season, but Myers is now a reliever for the White Sox, Wilson's season was lost to injury, and nobody stepped up offensively. Virginia Beach is going to have to scramble for a playoff spot again next year.
MAR. The Bones Demons led the league with a .273 BA, but a better indication of their offense is that, despite playing a hitter's park, they were outscored by six other teams and outhomered by seven. Other than Miguel Cabrera and his .955 OPS (still 80 points below real life), the story was the same: decent batting averages (nobody hit below .245), but no real production. Bad luck was a problem, too, as indicated by Dan Haren's 12-17 record, despite a 3.12 ERA. Factoid. Haren must really enjoy home cooking; he went 9-5 with a 2.42 ERA at Chase Field, but the on the road he was 3-12, 3.82. Preview: Haren's been the mainstay of the starting staff for years, but gained more than a run in ERA in 2012. Shaun Marcum was limited to 124 innings this past season, and Tim Hudson is getting long in the tooth. Angel Bastardo, who went 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA and 27 saves in 30 chances, and was supposed to shore up a weak bullpen -- Marriottsville's relievers allowed 35% of inherited runners to score, worst in the league -- finished 2012 with a 4.33 ERA. Cabrera had another monster season, but he'll cost $28 million, and he was about the only one who did; Troy Tulowitski's injury (only 181 AB's), and the decline or collapse of players like Orlando Hudson, Marlon Byrd, and Nyjer Morgan puts Marriottsville in a definite rebuilding mode.
RAZ. Playing in Coors Stadium pretty much dictated Richmond's strategy: bludgeon the opposing team's pitchers more than the opposing team bludgeoned Richmond's. The Razz led the league in runs scored every year since the league was founded, and has never finished better than 11th in team ERA. Only half that formula worked this season: the Razz finished 5th in RS, while their team ERA was half a run worse than anybody else's. Besides Corey Hart (.349/.415/.563), nobody had a standout offensive year, and the pitching problems were exemplified by Daniel Hudson, who went 5-18 with a 6.37 ERA, compared to 17-13, 3.49 in real life. Factoid. Clayton Kershaw actually pitched better in Coors than on the road: 12-4, 2.68 versus 5-7, 2.77. Preview. It remains to be seen if Hanley Ramirez' move out of Florida to the Dodgers can revive what once looked like a Hall of Fame career, but with Hudson's injury (45 IP), Anibal Sanchez' move to the AL, and the continued decline of Dan Uggla, Richmond will need its low draft picks to get back to a competitive state. The biggest offseason decision they'll have to make is whether to move out of Coors.
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