Let's go on with the pre-season story :
Something I forgot to mention, is that with the expansion, the number of games will now be of 140 instead of 120. I wanted to say it in a prior pre-season story as an announcement from the commissioner but I totally forgot lol.
Since two teams have been added, I will now focus on one more team each team every pre-season, so that I cover half of the team every season ! To be more precise, I will always include the two teams that participated in last season Linga Baseball Series. And for each franchise, at least one key player (or a promising prospect) will also be highlighted. I will try to not mention the same players every season to have a broader grasp of the league. Even though some players could deserved to be mentioned every preseason.
The
Freros won last season as a surprise contender. Now, the other franchise will know who they will be facing. 1981 best reliever
David Pace had his best season with a
1.31 ERA,
30 SV and
2.7 WAR in
75.2 IP.
After three back-to-back-to-back LBS appearances, the
Sea Stars had affirm themselves as THE team of the early 80's. Their roster is full of already confirmed superstars but the next one might be
Carlos Garica. The left fielder played his second season last year at 22 and achieved a line of
.261/.321/.394 with
1.5 WAR.
The Nang Nius are now the team with the longest drought in the league. Their last title dated from 1965. Worse, the reason of this is that their neighbors and biggest rivals, the Freros ended their drought last season. Last year, we assisted to the revival of
Yoshio Kubota. The japanese pitcher had a dream rookie season in 1977 as he was awarded the Silver Glover before missing most of 1978 & 1979 and the entire 1980 seasons on multiple injuries. But in 1981, he managed to do even better than 1977. He had an ERA of
2.68,
326 K (league high),
0.86 WHIP (also league high) and
4.9 WAR. Let's hope his body problems are past him now.
Surely the
Diamonds had more suffer from free agency this year than any other team, it is unknown what their front office want to do in the next seasons. They lost not less than 4 important players : Kim, Karppinen, Leake and Au. The young starter
Everton Smith, 21, will try to assume his new status of leader, after an impressive campaign in 1981. An ERA of
2.99,
135 K,
4.8 WAR and a
12-8 record.
The
Lingalie City Baseball franchise seem to enter the second phase of their rebuilding plan, as they acquired Yoshikawa but also Jackman and Soo-Yeon Kim. Kim has won both Sapphire and Ruby awards in the last three seasons. Former 2nd pick of the 1979 Draft, LF
Marty Delgado was one of the few tiny satisfaction of the team horrible season. His batting line was
.246/.326/.392 and
2.2 WAR.
The fallen greatest team, the
Black & Yellows simply don't want spend too much time rebuilding. That is the reason why they acquired
Osmo Karppinen, the Finnish 1B superstar. With the Diamonds last year, he achieved a stellar line of
.335/.397/.508, 6.2 WAR.
Moon Division
Fiercly disputed this season, the Expendables won the division 3 years after their last division title. The second team to access the play-offs is the Nang Nius. At 3rd with only 6 games behing the Nang Nius, Lingalie City Baseball made a surprising season. For their first season ever, the Lingalia Green Goblins managed to finish 4th, ahead of the deceiving Freros and Maple Leaves.
Sun Division
The best record of the 1982 season were holded by the Sea Stars with only 6 wins away from having won 100 games. Behind, the Silver Eagles made their return in postseason after only 1 year. The Diamonds were behind. The new franchise Tattoed Sharks tied with the Black&Yellows for the 4th place. The Jade Tigers finished with the worst record in the league and will pick first in next season draft.
For the third time in a row, the Sea Stars faced the Nang Nius in the first semi-final Series for two victories. But this season, the outcome was different, as the Nang Nius accessed the LBS for the 12th time, 7 years after the last one. They faced the Expendables, which was able to dispose of the Silver Eagles for their first opposition in playoffs. Theses two franchise had never played each other in the LBS. As in regular season, the Expendables dominated the Nang Nius and won their third title !
A glance of the players behind this title :
Carl Leeson was picked first this year. He is a pitcher and will join the Tattoed Sharks organization. They chose first because of their status of new franchise (the Green Goblins were the second to choose due to a random selection).
Who were the best player this year ?
Carlos Ramos, the manager of the Sea Stars was named manager of the year for the second time, after he led his team to be the best team in regular season.