The 2072 Season in Review

When BLB’s 24 teams broke camp in April, the preseason computers liked Pawtucket to win the Ale, Wilmington to take the Lager, Washington to run the Stout, and Los Angeles to claim the Bock. By November, none of the four projected division winners were hoisting a banner in their own division, and the team nobody had picked for anything special in October was raising the Brewmasters Cup. It was the year of the Voodoo hex.

New Orleans was picked to finish third in the Lager at 88-74. Instead they won 96 games and took the division behind an offense that led all of baseball in runs scored, OPS, and isolated power. The Voodoo went on to win the Brewmasters Cup and spent October cursing every team that had ever gotten the better of them. Wilmington took the regular season series between the two clubs, 7-5, and still lost to New Orleans in seven games in the divisional round. Baltimore beat New Orleans 3-0 in the regular season, then got swept 4-0 in the Brewmasters Cup, in four games that were each decided by a single run, two of them in extra innings. It didn’t matter how a team had handled New Orleans all summer. It only mattered what happened once the games counted. Left fielder Noel Menes took home Brewmasters Cup MVP honors for New Orleans, and shortstop Isaac Paulk, the engine of the Voodoo lineup all postseason and a Designated Driver Award winner at his position, was named MVP of both the divisional round and the league championship series.

No team told a stranger story than Pittsburgh, who was projected for second in the Ale. Instead they won 101 games, the best record in baseball, running away with the division behind a lineup that led the Domestic League with 275 home runs, while Pawtucket collapsed from a projected 90 wins to a .500 finish. Pittsburgh had beaten Montreal 10-1 in the regular season, then lost to that same club in seven games in the divisional round. The Exports turned their entire franchise around after winning just 50 games last season, and put together a wild card sweep of Santo Domingo to get there, with closer Fred Rodda closing it out and taking home series MVP honors. He’d go on to win the Last Call Relief Award as the league’s top reliever, posting 45 saves, a 2.29 ERA, and 70 strikeouts in 70.2 innings, despite finishing second in saves to Wilmington’s Raine Johnston. Montreal’s win over Pittsburgh, with second baseman Jeffrey Lauer earning divisional series MVP, sent them to the Domestic League Championship Series, where New Orleans shut the door in five.

Wilmington had its own case to make. Preseason Lager favorites at 94-68, the club, which rebranded to the Wildcats once their season ended, reverting to their original franchise name and logo, finished 95-67, one game back of New Orleans, and pushed the eventual champions to seven games in the divisional round. Left fielder Corey Hughes had the best individual season in the Domestic League. He led all domestic hitters in on-base percentage (.405), slugging (.612), OPS (1.017), and WAR (7.3), and took home the Stout Slugger Award and a Designated Driver Award at left field. Shortstop Dominick Booth stole 77 bases to lead the league and won a Defense With Integrity Award at short. Neither was enough to get Wilmington past October.

The rest of the Domestic League’s individual honors were spread around. First baseman Edgar Pollert led the league with 49 home runs and 134 RBI for New Orleans, powering the offense that eventually won it all, though Hughes’ all-around excellence carried the Slugger vote. Starting pitcher Benedict Zacarias won the Pale Ale Pitcher Award for Pittsburgh on a league-best 3.03 ERA and .842 winning percentage, even with a three-way tie atop the wins column between Wilmington’s Eamon “Jaws” Hakki, New Orleans’ Landon Robinette, and Santo Domingo’s London Schroeder at 17 apiece. Robinette, just a rookie, posted the league’s best WHIP at 1.04 and finished second in Pale Ale Pitcher voting on his way to winning the Refreshing New Brew Award.

The Import side had its own reversal of fortune. Philadelphia was projected for a modest 84-78 and second in the Stout. The Freedom went 98-64, the best record in the Import League, leading in both OPS and ERA, and still got bounced in five games in the divisional round by a Baltimore club picked to finish fourth at 77-85 but quietly ran the stingiest pitching staff in baseball, walking fewer hitters than anyone, despite Philadelphia having taken the regular season series 8-4. Center fielder Aaren Hernandez was the divisional series MVP for that upset, and Baltimore kept rolling from there, beating Phoenix in six for the Import League pennant behind championship series MVP second baseman Landry Longstreth before running into New Orleans in the Cup.

Baltimore’s season had already produced one headline before any of that. At the All-Star break, starting pitcher Jannero Peter was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. A seventh-round pick in the 2045 draft, Peter became one of the great late-round development stories in league history, spending 16 of his 20 seasons as Baltimore’s cornerstone starter. His career totals, an 82.9 WAR, 4,428 strikeouts, 251 wins, and a 3.50 ERA across 3,852 innings, are the resume of a franchise anchor. Those strikeouts rank second all-time, trailing only Charlie Spence. His resume also includes two no-hitters, back-to-back Pale Ale Pitcher Awards in 2053 (1.96 ERA) and 2054 (1.92 ERA), ten All-Star selections, two Defense With Integrity Awards, and a Brewmasters Cup ring in 2058. A rough final stretch in Maine did little to dent a peak that ran from 2051 through 2062.

Back on the field, the rest of the Stout and Bock races played out with less drama than Baltimore's year had, though the Bock's final two playoff spots came down to the wire. Washington was picked to win the Stout at 92-70 and came close, finishing 93-69 for second, sweeping Batavia in the wild card behind series MVP first baseman Nathan Hume before falling to Phoenix in five in the divisional round. Phoenix was projected for fourth in the Bock; the Roadrunners won it outright at 97-65, powered by a lineup that led the Import League in home runs and the arm of starting pitcher Franklin Pennell, whose 18 wins and 6.2 WAR both led every pitcher in the Import League. Behind Phoenix, Batavia grabbed the league's last playoff spot at 81-81, while Denver and Windy City each missed by a single game at 80-82. Denver's miss stung the most: a plus-85 run differential that should have produced a playoff team in most years, but the Bulls finished nine wins under their Pythagorean expected record instead.

When it was all said and done Pennell finished second in Pale Ale Pitcher voting, because Philadelphia's Tarik Williams was, again, simply better. Williams repeated as the award winner and somehow topped his own historic 2071 season, going 15-2 while posting a 2.53 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP, and a .218 opponents' average, all league bests. Reliever Erich Mosqueda of Washington won the Last Call Relief Award with a strong year that saw him go 4-3 with a 1.70 ERA in 69 innings.

Seattle, the defending Brewmasters Cup champion, was picked for 87-75 and a return trip to the postseason. They got there at 82-80, but lost the wild card in four games to Baltimore despite having taken the regular season series. Right fielder Billy Heil was as good as ever, leading the Import League in batting average (.334) and slugging (.617) and picking up both Defense With Integrity and Designated Driver honors at his position, but finished second in Stout Slugger voting to Batavia’s Joseph Stevens, whose 1.009 OPS, league-leading 5.8 WAR, and matching pair of Defense With Integrity and Designated Driver awards at first base made him the Import League’s best all-around hitter in a breakout year. The other end of the Bock was rough. Los Angeles, the preseason favorite at 94-68, collapsed to 74-88, fifth place. California, picked for 75-87, finished 58-104, the worst record in baseball. The one bright spot was first baseman Barrett Sherrill, who won the Refreshing New Brew Award as the Import League’s top rookie, batting .305 over 133 games, adding 27 home runs, 63 RBI, 81 runs scored, 31 walks, and a .358 on-base percentage.

The farm system rankings closed the book on the year with one more reminder that regular-season success and long-term health don’t always travel together. California topped the annual system rankings despite the big league club’s last-place finish, the product of a massive midseason fire sale that restocked the farm with picks and prospects, followed by Maine and Pawtucket. Montreal, fresh off its run to the Domestic League Championship Series, checked in fourth, anchored by catcher Braedin “Gunner” Kim, the top-ranked prospect in the league. Philadelphia, the winningest team in the Import League, ranked dead last in the sport with no farm system points to show for it. Baltimore, the Import League champion, wasn’t much better off at 23rd. New Orleans, for all its October magic, sat 16th.

The Keg is empty once again. See you in 2073.