2010 by the Numbers

It’s been 131 days since the Bombers demolished the Walnuts to take home the Kurkjian Cup and cap off another great year. With 2010 in the books and pitchers/catchers reporting in only 11 days I thought I’d come out of hiding and see what the final stats from last season can tell us.

Thanks to Uustal saving the final 2010 stats on his computer I was able to sort the yearly numbers that each team’s starters produced over the 23 week regular season. All the teams were ranked 1 through 12 for each category, with 12 being the highest. A quick tally of the hitting/pitching totals show the following:

What do these numbers tell us? Well it does confirm that it sucks to be a Ballers or Pigeons fan right now. Judging by the Baller’s management Charlie Sheen esque Vegas exploits you’d think it’s 2004 and the team is fresh off a championship win. Unfortunately as Ballers fans will tell you it’s 7 years later and fan support/morale is at an all time low. Eamers team had a truly horrific 2010 season with the sticks, where they finished no higher than 4th in any category and finished 2nd to last in hitting overall. Believe it or not the pitching staff was actually worse in 2010. Comparing them to the category leaders you can see they had 34 less save’s, 17 more losses, and were the only team ERA over 4. If this offseason shows what happens in Ballyhooly when the teams losses than I can’t imagine what will happen when (if?) the team starts winning.

Things weren’t much better in Connecticut in 2010. The Pigeons dream team tandem of Sully and Conor joined forces for the year and watched the team suffer through its fourth straight losing season. The duo stuck to their “we’ll make no moves and see how it goes” strategy and seemed content holding on to their surplus of pitching. While Jamie Garcia spent his breakout season riding the bus in the Pigeons minor leagues the team spiraled to new lows in the hitting categories, where they finished dead last and mustered no more than 2 points in any category. Conor “Always Dealin” Hartnett proved to be the fall guy for the Pigeons 2010 troubles and resigned late Wednesday night. It’s too early to tell if things will change much considering the announcement was only the 2nd time anyone had heard from Conor since he was brought back, the first being when he rejoined.

Things couldn’t have been different in Binghamton in 2010. Going into the season the trio of Jose Bautista, Chris Young and Corey Hart would have drawn a collective yawn from the NKFBL. One season and 112 HR’s later I think they have people’s attention. In addition, a preseason trade with the Rampage of Pacman, Morales and Lackey for Youkilis, Uggla and Rios proved to be a steal and provided a boost to a mediocre offense. Even with improved hitters the Benders real strength proved to be pitching. The combination of 20 wins from Wainwright, 40 saves from Feliz and a breakout year from Latos helped the squad finish 2nd overall in pitching. If nothing else the Benders showed that the doormat Blind Dogs franchise of the past is long gone and that the squad should make some noise in the AL this season. Not even taking care of Tom Tom Jr. should be able to prevent this team from competing for the playoffs.

Staying in the AL, the light hitting Rampage were unable to muster up enough SB’s (6th worst) and runs (2nd worst) to support the epic “Master Plan” created by Jeff “Milky” Lester. Unfortunately for Lester and his Cubans the pitching numbers don’t look much better and it looks like the plan might be scrapped going forward. A new staff without Strasberg and Price should cause some regression and leave the Rampage with a pitching staff that looks a lot less intimidating. Look for the Cubans and Pearce to orchestrate an Egyptian style uproar if things go South and Lester refuses to even consider dealing Rampage lifer Miggy.

Back in the NL, the 2010 numbers show us that the Bombers deserved alot of the success they had last season (Queue Dennis Green “But they are who we thought they were!!!”). All Erik’s keepers put up big numbers and there’s really no reason to think that things will be different going forward since 11 of his 15 keepers are 27 or under (shaking head). The Bombers should stay good (and hated) for many years to come.

Overall the numbers from last season are just that – last season – and don’t really mean a whole lot going forward. Who could have looked at the final 2009 numbers and predicted that The Brad and the Brew Crew would go from 17 win runner up to 8th place? Similarly no stats would have been enough to convince the NKFBL that KOB could lead the biggest turnaround in NKFBL history and win 10 more games than the previous season. No one knows what the 2011 season will bring except that it is guaranteed to include nightly late night chat room posts by Tom Tom, numerous trades proposals marinating in Billy’s outbox and the Pigeons leading the league in fewest moves made.