Examining 15 Years Of League History In Five-Year Windows

Note: I updated this file with a corrected calculation for ERA+, which altered a few pitching and balance leaders (March 18, 2017).

The MMDA just completed its 15th season of play in its "online" era. This means we have comprehensive player, team and league data for every season from 2002 through 2016.

To celebrate this odd anniversary, I sliced the data into three five-years periods to see how things shook out. Which were the best regular-season teams from 2002 to 2006? Which teams dominated the playoffs from 2007 to 2011? Which players or teams established league records from 2012 to 2016?

Now we have the answers to these esoteric questions and more.

Granted, dividing the seasons into five-year buckets based on chronology is arbitrary. So at the end of this piece, I divide MMDA history into periods along lines that a historian might draw.

In the tables below PF stands for park factor. Pyth stands for Pythagorean record.

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I. Period One: 2002–2006

The best regular season managers from 2002 to 2006 as ranked by wins.

No	Manager	W	L	Pct	R/G	OPS+	RA/G	ERA+	Home	Road	PF	Pyth
1	Steven Tresca	470	340	.580	5.89	119	4.80	103	+23	+42	100	.589
2	John Tresca	451	359	.557	4.94	101	4.52	109	+21	+25	100	.537
3	James Bailey	450	360	.556	5.48	109	4.78	107	+30	+15	109	.561
4	Ray Ross	441	369	.544	4.62	94	4.13	115	+7	+29	93	.544
5	Mike Capriotti	440	370	.543	4.65	93	4.30	112	+26	+9	104	.538

Round One: Death Valley 4, Cape Cod 2

Game recaps from the Strat box scores. In this round one matchup, the No. 2 Death Valley Drivers (103-59) met the No. 7 Cape Cod Breakers (93-69).

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Game One
Drivers 6, Breakers 2

Starters: Colby Lewis @ Gerrit Cole

The Death Valley Drivers bested the Cape Cod Breakers by a 6 to 2 score at Drivers Stadium.

Gerrit Cole (1-0) had a solid outing for Death Valley. He went 6 innings surrendering 4 hits and 1 walk. Death Valley had 11 hits for the game and Cape Cod had 8.

Cole got help from Clay Buchholz who was credited with his 1st save. Colby Lewis (0-1) took the loss. He was touched for 8 hits and 2 walks in 5 1/3 innings.