2021 Autopsy Report

A few random thoughts about the biggest bullshit season we've ever played.

•  We outscored our opponents by 111 runs. Only three other teams in the BDBL accomplished that feat. All three are in the playoffs. The team with the best record in the Ozzie League, Las Vegas, outscored their opponents by only 74 runs (as of press time.) Joplin, with eight games remaining, has outscored their opponents by only 56.
• Our theme all season was "We Can't Hit Worth Shit." In the end, we finished with a team batting line of .244/.309/.418. All three of those categories are below the league average.
• On the plus side, Rafael Devers finally came around in the second half after an abysmal first half. He finished at .264/.323/.497 with 32 homers, which is close enough to his .292/.344/.530 (33 HR) disk line.
• Devers finished with 29 errors and a .919 fielding percentage. As a team, we made 124 errors, which is two more than the next-highest total in the BDBL. Our .979 fielding percentage ranks dead-last in the BDBL.
• Our pitching staff posted a 2.44 ERA in Chapter One, and a 3.87 ERA the rest of the way. It turned out that the weird anomaly wasn't our second chapter struggles, but the first chapter over-performance.
• Max Scherzer (14-10, 2.79 ERA in 190 IP, 268 K) and Stephen Strasburg (15-12, 2.96 ERA in 201 IP, 280 K) both deserve consideration for the Cy Young award. Has there ever been a franchise in BDBL history with two pitchers earning Cy Young votes on a team that didn't make the postseason? I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'd be shocked if that has ever happened before.
• We had trouble beating some horrible teams this year. We went just 8-8 against Darien, 9-7 against North Carolina, 6-6 against Ravenswood, and 6-6 against Lake Norman. That's just one game over .500 against the four worst teams (by record) in the Ozzie League.
• We also couldn't beat good teams. We went 7-9 against our division rivals in Joplin, 4-8 against Allentown, and 4-8 against Los Altos. The only first-place team we managed to beat were the Vegas Flamingos (8-4).
• We were a sub-.500 team on the road. If you could blame our offensive performance (or lack thereof) on our pitcher-friendly ballpark factors, then what explains this?
• We blew -- get this -- FOURTEEN leads after the seventh inning. This was the highest total in the league (one more than Allentown.) We also blew nine games when tied after seven. And we went an abysmal 22-27 in one-run games.
• Given the above, you would assume that our bullpen was atrocious. Yet, Sean Doolittle (1.64 ERA in 38+ IP), Brandon Workman (1.91 in 42+), and Alex Colome (2.52 in 64+) were all solid. Ten different pitchers blew saves for us this year, but our 25 total blown saves ranks just fourth. The first-place Miners blew 26 saves -- so far.

Put it all together. We outscored our opponents by a massive number of runs. We hit a little below league-average. We had two Cy Young-worthy starting pitchers, and a bullpen with several decent arms. So...how the hell did we suck so badly?

The best explanation I have is: bad luck and bad timing. We played extremely poorly in clutch situations all year -- as borne out by the numbers I shared last chapter. When we needed hits, we didn't get them. When we needed to prevent hits, we didn't.

I may never understand exactly what went wrong this season. All I know is that I'm glad it's over.