Mediocre excellence!

On a team in an 80M theme league just completed, 2018 Patrick Corbin was my #3 starter. This is the second season in a row I've used him in this theme; last time out he exceeded expectations somewhat with a 16-10 record and 3.52 ERA.

His ERA was worse this season (3.91), but after starting out 2-2 he reeled off wins in 19 straight decisions to finish with a 21-2 record. No idea how, I wasn't using him in a special way to boost his stats or anything. No matter if he started or relieved, somehow we won. For example, in the final game of the season he came on in relief in a game we were trailing 10-0. He pitched two scoreless innings, we came back to win 11-10, and he notched win #21.

Believe It or Don't!

Casey goes perfecto in Fenway

https://www.whatifsports.com/slb/Boxscore.aspx?gid=35673322&pid=1&pbp=0&tf=12.95

Now Madden has one...this the season...

https://www.whatifsports.com/slb/Boxscore.aspx?gid=35745305&pid=1&pbp=0&tf=10

A tale of two teams...from the same league. The same division, actually.

Through 152 games:
Team A: 809 runs scored, 636 runs allowed, Exp. Pct: .612
Team B: 804 runs scored, 618 runs allowed, Exp. Pct: .622

This is a 1965 progressive with 16 teams in 4 divisions. No team in the league is bereft of PA or IP, so there are no fatigue shenanigans skewing those numbers. Teams A and B are, again, in the same division. No interleague play. Teams A and B face exactly the same opponents with exactly the same schedule.

Team A's record: 93-59.
Team B's record: 77-75, in THIRD place, 16 games behind.

I'll give you one guess which team is mine...

Believe it, or Don't!

A tale of luck and fatigue in the LCS: Team B is up 2 games to none, but has stated that they are in a bad spot fatigue-wise and don't know how they'll succeed. The schedule for the next 4 games looked as follows:

Game 3:
Team A: 1912 Walter Johnson pitching at 100%
Team B: 2018 Chris Sale pitching at 42%

Game 4:
Team A: 1981 Nolan Ryan pitching at 100%
Team B: 2016 Clayton Kershaw pitching at 40%

Game 5:
Team A: 1912 Walter Johnson pitching at 100%
Team B: 2015 Zach Greinke pitching at 41%

Game 6:
Team A: 1981 Nolan Ryan pitching at 100%
Team B: 1999 Pedro Martinez pitching at 35%

Team B, may have had the advantage in wins at this point, but with such tired starters, and no reliever above 46%, their chances seemed hopeless.

Johnson and Ryan pitched games 1 & 2 and gave up a combined 9 ER (15 total runs) against a high octane offense. The tired pitchers had ERAs of 11.25, 13.38, 9.67, and 7.64, respectively to this point in the playoffs, including 4 starts from them between 80-100%. The expectation was that Team A would win the next four games by scores around 13-15 to 6-8 for Team B.

As expected, in Game 3, Chris Sale gave up 14 ER over 7.2 IP, and in Game 4, Kershaw gave up just 8 runs in a CG. However, in Game 3, Walter Johnson and two 100% relievers combined to give up 42 runs (38 earned), while Ryan, in Game 4, gave up 25 runs through 3.2 IP, before the 100% bullpen allowed another 34 runs to come in.

Team B then went on to sweep in the World Series, though both teams were in similar boats fatigue-wise, so it wasn't as unbelievable as these two games.

Believe it, or Don't!

I am commissioner of a regressive league that started in 2008 and just completed the 1976 season. The career leader fin ERA (with a minimum of 500 innings pitched) isn't Pedro, Maddux, Rivera or anyone else you would guess. In fact, you couldn't guess this one with 1,000 guesses.

It's the great Tom Burgmeier, who has managed a 3.07 ERA over 533.33 innings, narrowly edging out J.R. Richard (3.09 ERA in 1393.67 innings).

Believe it, or don't!

I love poring over the career leader boards for progressives. One of my many hoped-for innovations for WIS is to have the stats be available in a real data base so that we can do much more complex searches with filters, limits, etc.

I was commissioner of the original NWP, which I believe is still running, from 1961-95. The career ERA leader as of '95 was - no surprise - Sandy Koufax. But the other names in the top ten included such non-luminaries as Frank Linzy (2nd, 2.88), Bob Locker (6th, 3.15), Mike Norris (10th, 3.20). Sitting in 4th place was a pitcher who posted a career ERA of 3.03, and was also the league's top performer in career OAV. He limited opposing hitters to a .209 average. It wasn't Gibson or Marichal or Seaver or Palmer or Drysdale or Carlton. No, it was the immortal Floyd Youmans.

Sometimes it's the guys you expect at the top of the leaderboards though. Like Nolan Ryan, who was the NWP's career leader in wins and strikeouts. Any guesses what his totals were in those categories?

I know the answer to that one as I'm in still in the NWP, and I can hardly believe it.

Speaking of NWP, is the immortal Ernie McAnally still the single season wins leader?

Yes, he is. I mentioned him in the very first post in this thread, nearly nine years ago now. Never heard of Ernie McAnally before I drafted him. After 49 seasons of play his 33-4 record in 1971 still represents the most wins in a single season in that prog—more than Ryan, Koufax, Seaver, Clemens, Maddux, etc., ever had.

Believe It or Don't!

I can tell the suspense is just killing everyone, so I will share the final totals of Nolan Ryan's NWP career:
G: 1103
GS: 946
CG: 130
SHO: 35
W: 447
L: 267
IP: 6495.2
H: 4966
R: 2476
ER: 2278
BB: 3456
K: 7072
OAV: .209
SLG: .299
ERA: 3.16

Posted by contrarian23 on 12/14/2020 1:56:00 PM (view original):
I can tell the suspense is just killing everyone, so I will share the final totals of Nolan Ryan's NWP career:
G: 1103
GS: 946
CG: 130
SHO: 35
W: 447
L: 267
IP: 6495.2
H: 4966
R: 2476
ER: 2278
BB: 3456
K: 7072
OAV: .209
SLG: .299
ERA: 3.16

Most importantly, though: How many no-hitters?

I wish I knew! This is another on my wish list...that we could search an entire season's worth of games for "notable events" like 3 HR, cycle, no-hitter, etc. I used to play APBA's computer game and that was one of my favorite features.

This run my Last 25 Yr Astros team went on in the postseason. 6 straight games where my team allowed exactly 1 run, bookended by shutouts. Then another shutout and 1-run game to finish it off

My team “Eat a W” goes 13-0 in a TOC where they meet my other team in the finals.



I COULD’VE thrown to secure my first ever 17-0 but decided against it and just let it play out...















They got swept.



Believe It or Don’t!

Posted by d_rock97 on 12/22/2020 2:58:00 PM (view original):
My team “Eat a W” goes 13-0 in a TOC where they meet my other team in the finals.



I COULD’VE thrown to secure my first ever 17-0 but decided against it and just let it play out...

They got swept.



Believe It or Don’t!

now that is cool.