In no previous save have I ever encountered the BNN predictions being so spot with such unwavering regularity. Not sure if this has been reworked for v23 or has something to do with my using static LTMs or a combination thereof, but they have rarely missed a beat from Day One.
This year they are particularly prescient. Firstly, the AL Central does go down to the wire with the Guardians getting home from the Tigers by a game as both have 100+ win seasons. While the NL West doesn't evolve into the three-way go they were expecting, the Rockies and Dodgers do finish tied at 86-76 and need a tiebreaker to be separated.
Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that the Phillies also finish with the same record, and it could have been even more so, with the Nats missing out on the party by a solitary game. As it is, two of the three will contest the NL WC once the West race is decided.
Which it is when the Dodgers win 12-7, leaving Colorado and Philly to duke it out in the WC game.
After all that, none of these teams make it past the second round as the M's win their second title in history from the AL WC2 slot, consigning the Mets to their third straight Series loss.
At the other end of the spectrum, my A's lose 110 games...
Awards
MVP- AL: Jose Fernandez (Mariners) [1]
- NL: Roy Campanella (Nationals) [1]
CYA- AL: Jose Fernandez (Mariners) [8] unanimous
- NL: Larry Jackson (Pirates) [1]
RoY- AL: Wes Schulmerich (Astros)
- NL: Matt Harvey (Giants)
Reliever- AL: Albert Stephens (Mariners) [1]
- NL: Hubert Glenn (Mets) [2] unanimous
Feats of Note- 6-hit Game: Oscar Charleston
- Cycle: Clarence Smith, Ken Phelps, Chuck Connors, Cory Sullivan, Josh Harrison
- No-Hitter: Jose Fernandez, John Candelaria
- 50+ HR: Darryl Strawberry (51), Matt Olson (51)
Milestones- 700 HR: Harmon Killebrew
- 600 HR: Matt Olson
- 500 HR: Max Muncy
- 3000 H: Kirby Puckett
- 1500 RBI: Charlie Keller
- 1500 R: Gavvy Cravath, Yoan Moncada
- 700 SB: Willie Wilson
- 250 W: Shane Bieber
New Season Records- Jose Fernandez: 318 K, 12.01 pWAR
Top 20s by WAR
Jose Fernandez puts together undoubtedly the greatest individual season in OFA history. CYA – his eighth – and MVP. 12 pWAR. No-hitter. Championship Ring.
Wes Schulmerich doesn't let the BNN side down, winning the AL RoY in a canter as well as the batting title with a 357 mark.
IRL,
Albert Stephens played just one season - 1948 - in the dying embers of the NeL. His OFA career has been a different story, as he has racked up over 200 saves in his six years in the league, culminating in his 1917 AL Reliever of the Year Award win.
Dionys Cesar was a pretty handy (more than 2000 career hits with 130 dingers) minor-leaguer who spent 1995 to 2015 bouncing around, never making it past AAA. Before this season, he had sort of replicated that in the OFA, playing for eight different clubs and handy at each without ever really standing out. He seems to have blossomed the past few years and 1917 is his best so far, with a 318/381/491 line, 16 HR and 5.7 bWAR. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see more of him on the leaderboards over the next few seasons.
Rube Dessau is another to have benefitted from DB errors, with his stint at Baltimore of the Eastern League in 1908-9 given MLB credit. He's certainly been making the most of it, amassing more than 20 pWAR in his first three OFA seasons. Let's see how he goes from here.