Jaiden Hardaway wins the AL batting crown for the 4th straight season but his days as the good Khris Davis are over as he didn't hit .364 for the fourth consecutive year. He also led in WAR for the 4th straight year (41.8 total in that stretch) and led in OPS, narrowing beating out Danny Ayala, who won the MLB HR & RBI crowns. Nate Thompson led MLB in wins and pitcher WAR, was second in the AL to teammate Josh Carsello in strikeouts, and finished 3rd in the AL in ERA. And Kikuo Kawase ended up tied with Texas's Jeff Lavender for the AL saves lead with 40.
The final team stats:
Pretty much great in everything except steals (we didn't steal much but we were still the best baserunning team), pitcher walks (kind of wild bunch this year, trading out Ortega and Schultz for Carsello and some others), and as always, defense (but with 80-rated SS Dorian Gonzalez starting in the postseason we should be better there). Outplayed our Pythagorean by 6 games but that's splitting hairs.
Final hitting stats:
Amazingly we only used 16 position players the entire season, thanks to some very good injury luck (except for Jeff Baez). These guys raked all year with Jim Gebers a very pleasant surprise in a utility role. Dayle Jenkins did tail off in the second half of the season some, but that was about it.
Final pitching stats:
Nothing to complain about here either, the big 4 starters were all outstanding, and the Kawase/Golunski combo at the end of games is MLB's best, nearly a combined 6 WAR between them. Willie Bertone was a revelation after a rough first year with us, while Tim Siqueiros took a step back with 28 walks in 43 innings.
Playoff roster notes: Kevin Kerstetter is making it over Alfredo Vega, and he'll pitch in long relief. Vega and Mike Thomas are the two guys we had active in September that are being left off. I thought long and hard about dropping Jeff Hayes as well since he had a miserable second half (14 for 91 with 3 HR and 34 whiffs) but I didn't see any alternatives that exciting (I could have gone with Daniel Malone) and neither Hayes nor anyone else I'd roster instead of him is likely to see much, if any, action anyway.