To be in a "pitching era," we didn't see a lot of impact on pitching records last season. While scoring was up slightly from Season 35, Seasons 34-36 remain the lowest-scoring 3-season span in Hobbs history.
In such a low-scoring environment, I would've expected a bunch of new entries into the Top 5's in the qualitative categories. But the only one was Vic Merced's .184 BA Against, good for a tie for 3rd all-time.
We did have a couple of noteworthy counting-stat performances.
With a pretty decent age 40 (and final) season, Louis Wilson took over the career #1 spot in both innings pitched (4255) and strikeouts (3412). Hall of Fame credentials?
And, although I'm quick to add that wins don't mean much the way Sam Stock is used (except maybe that he plays on a good team), he did up the single-season wins mark to 42. A better indicator of his effectiveness is the fairly sizable leads he has as the career leader in all the qualitative stats. And he did pick up Cy Young #5 (in 7 seasons played), so he's actually on pace to match Itou's "major award" mark and maybe even break it given the longer careers of pitchers. Unlikely, though, given that I'm not likely to stick around through the end of Stock's career, and it's not likely other owners would use Stock the way I have.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Season 36 Recap Part 2 - Itou's Hitting Records Assault
Jin-Chi Itou's remarkable age-34 season (.330/50/122) continued his crazy-re-writing of the record books and solidified his still-building legacy as the best hitter in Hobbs history (and possibly the best hitter any of us has ever seen in HBD). Among the milestones set or added to last season:
*** Won his 11th MVP (in 16 seasons played). This one has to be totally unassailable. You have to be incredibly good AND incredibly lucky to win more than 3 MVP's...I think Itou has won it every year he should have won it plus a couple that were at least challengeable (Hasegawa's Season 32, 35 and 36 come to mind).
Nor will any pitchers approach 11 Cy Youngs. Jair Gonzalez was the most dominant pitcher imaginable over his career, and he only got to 8 CY's.
And I don't think Sam Stock will maintain his current pace of CY's (5 in 7 seasons played).
*** Finished last season with 816 career home runs, passing up Jimmie Segui (808) on the all-time list. Segui slammed his 800+ over 21 seasons (more hitter-friendly seasons at that), while Itou has done it in 16 and is still cranking. Special credit to Segui: he played his entire career in the immensely hitter-difficult San Diego.
*** At an age when most (even good hitters) are seeing their career qualitative stats drop, Itou actually increased his career-leading numbers in ISO, OPS and Slugging %.
At 1811 runs scored, he's at 5th all-time, and 1st is just a matter of a couple more full seasons (Segui leads at 1949). The RBI record is a little tougher - Segui has a 230-RBI lead on Itou starting this year (2406 to 2176), but is there any doubt Itou has a couple more 100-RBI seasons left, plus 2-3 more of 50-80?
*** Won his 11th MVP (in 16 seasons played). This one has to be totally unassailable. You have to be incredibly good AND incredibly lucky to win more than 3 MVP's...I think Itou has won it every year he should have won it plus a couple that were at least challengeable (Hasegawa's Season 32, 35 and 36 come to mind).
Nor will any pitchers approach 11 Cy Youngs. Jair Gonzalez was the most dominant pitcher imaginable over his career, and he only got to 8 CY's.
And I don't think Sam Stock will maintain his current pace of CY's (5 in 7 seasons played).
*** Finished last season with 816 career home runs, passing up Jimmie Segui (808) on the all-time list. Segui slammed his 800+ over 21 seasons (more hitter-friendly seasons at that), while Itou has done it in 16 and is still cranking. Special credit to Segui: he played his entire career in the immensely hitter-difficult San Diego.
*** At an age when most (even good hitters) are seeing their career qualitative stats drop, Itou actually increased his career-leading numbers in ISO, OPS and Slugging %.
At 1811 runs scored, he's at 5th all-time, and 1st is just a matter of a couple more full seasons (Segui leads at 1949). The RBI record is a little tougher - Segui has a 230-RBI lead on Itou starting this year (2406 to 2176), but is there any doubt Itou has a couple more 100-RBI seasons left, plus 2-3 more of 50-80?
Season 36 Recap, Part 1 - Playoffs and Breakthrough teams
Recent Hobbs playoff history has been dominated by 4 "mini-dynasties" that won back-to-back championships: the NL Scranton Express (today's New York Lincoln Giants) in Seasons 27-28, Season 29 and 30's Las Vegas Desperados (today's DesperaDOS), the Huntington Fire Blitz (now the D.C. Senators) of Season 32-33, and the New Orleans/Mexico City AL franchise of Seasons 34-35.
Only the Diablos Rojos made it back to the Series for a try at the hat trick, but their dreams were convincingly dashed in 6 by the resurgent young New Orleans Steam squad.
Hats off to boconner22 on his first World Series win! What's really remarkable about the building of the Steam is it only took 1 year of rebuilding (after boconner's 1st 3 500-ish seasons) to produce a contender.
Other teams moved into the "up-and-coming" ranks with big improvements in Season 36:
Montreal improved by 31 wins to 95
Pittsburgh improved by 23 wins to 95
Trenton improved by 21 wins to 94
Honolulu improved by 19 wins to 98
Wichita improved by 12 wins to 82
Looks like a lot of new teams gunning for playoff spots this year!
Only the Diablos Rojos made it back to the Series for a try at the hat trick, but their dreams were convincingly dashed in 6 by the resurgent young New Orleans Steam squad.
Hats off to boconner22 on his first World Series win! What's really remarkable about the building of the Steam is it only took 1 year of rebuilding (after boconner's 1st 3 500-ish seasons) to produce a contender.
Other teams moved into the "up-and-coming" ranks with big improvements in Season 36:
Montreal improved by 31 wins to 95
Pittsburgh improved by 23 wins to 95
Trenton improved by 21 wins to 94
Honolulu improved by 19 wins to 98
Wichita improved by 12 wins to 82
Looks like a lot of new teams gunning for playoff spots this year!
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