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. 

Round One: Mohawk Valley 4, Elysian Fields 2

Game recaps from the Strat box scores. In this round one matchup, the No. 4 Elysian Fields Flying Dutchmen (94-68) met the No. 5 Mohawk Valley Lions (93-69).

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Game One
Dutchmen 4, Lions 0

Starters: David Price @ Jake Arrieta

Jake Arrieta came through with a solid 8 innings at Elysian Fields where the Elysian Fields Flying Dutchmen beat the Mohawk Valley Lions 4 to 0.

Arrieta (1-0) was indeed brilliant as he hand-cuffed the Mohawk Valley offense. He surrendered only 2 hits and 1 walk in 8 innings. Elysian Fields finished with 8 hits while Mohawk Valley ended up with 4.

Arrieta got help from Trevor Rosenthal who earned his 1st save. David Price (0-1) was the losing pitcher. He pitched 5 innings and surrendered 4 hits and 1 walk.

Final Power Ranking For 2016

The final poll for the 2016 season. Teams sorted by wins. Ties broken by run differential.

For the first time, OPS+ and ERA+ are adjusted for ballpark context.

RD stands for run differential and Pyth for Pythagorean winning percentage. BB% and SO/BB ratio do not include intentional walks.

Power Ranking 

No	Team	W	L	PCT	Division	R/G	OPS+	RA/G	ERA+	Pyth	RD
1	Goldenrod	108	54	.667	Central	4.62	124	3.12	119	.671	+243
2	Death Valley	103	59	.636	Atlantic	5.20	116	4.19	105	.597	+164
3	Spokane	99	63	.611	Pacific	3.75	93	3.13	131	.581	+100
4	Elysian Fields	94	68	.580	Pacific	4.89	116	4.23	99	.565	+106
5	Mohawk Valley	93	69	.574	Atlantic	4.75	117	3.74	105	.607	+164
	St. Louis	93	69	.574	Central	3.80	86	3.10	141	.591	+113
	Cape Cod	93	69	.574	Northeast	4.73	126	4.14	94	.560	+96
8	Miami	90	72	.556	Northeast	4.15	96	3.99	106	.517	+25
9	Lake County	88	74	.543	Central	4.40	110	4.14	102	.528	+43
10	Brooklyn	82	80	.506	Pacific	3.97	91	4.04	105	.492	–11
11	Wilmington	79	83	.488	Atlantic	4.45	105	4.32	94	.513	+21
12	Fighting Irish	77	85	.475	Northeast	4.27	98	4.59	101	.467	–52
13	Rosehill	75	87	.463	Central	4.12	92	4.14	104	.499	–2
14	Northwest	74	88	.457	Pacific	3.71	82	4.10	107	.454	–64
15	West Side	73	89	.451	Northeast	4.59	98	5.32	87	.434	–118
16	Rochester	72	90	.444	Atlantic	3.79	94	4.07	100	.467	–46
17	Northeast	70	92	.432	Northeast	3.97	96	4.68	89	.426	–115
18	California	68	94	.420	Pacific	3.74	95	4.37	93	.430	–102
19	Sudbury	51	111	.315	Atlantic	3.83	91	5.12	83	.371	–210
20	Little Rock	38	124	.235	Central	3.43	75	5.62	78	.290	–355

Ballpark-Adjusted Team Statistics For 2016

Note: I updated this file with a corrected calculation for ERA+ (March 18, 2017).

We have a complete record of game-by-game line scores for the 2016 season, and that enables me to compute comprehensive park factors for all teams.

The point of this exercise is to (1) highlight the ways in which various parks affect run scoring, and (2) to create Baseball-Reference-style index metrics, specifically OPS+ and ERA+.

Please see this page to learn more about how the calculations are made. Teams are sorted here in descending order of park factor, where 100 is average.

No	Team	Home R/G	Road R/G	Park Factor	Multiplier
1	Little Rock	9.68	8.43	115	1.074
2	Fighting Irish	9.46	8.27	114	1.072
3	Death Valley	9.99	8.78	114	1.069
4	Rosehill	8.74	7.78	112	1.062
5	St. Louis	7.25	6.57	110	1.052
6	West Side	10.36	9.47	109	1.047
7	Northwest	8.15	7.48	109	1.045
8	Miami	8.48	7.80	109	1.044
9	Brooklyn	8.28	7.73	107	1.036
10	Sudbury	9.16	8.74	105	1.024
11	Lake County	8.63	8.44	102	1.011
12	Northeast	8.53	8.77	97	0.987
13	Wilmingotn	8.59	8.95	96	0.980
14	Rochester	7.59	8.14	93	0.967
15	Elysian Fields	8.79	9.46	93	0.965
	Spokane	6.63	7.12	93	0.965
17	California	7.74	8.48	91	0.956
18	Mohawk Valley	7.77	9.22	84	0.921
19	Cape Cod	7.85	9.88	80	0.898
20	Goldenrod	6.65	8.81	75	0.877

Little Rock played as the most hitter-friendly park in the league with a factor of 115. This means that Scorpions home games featured 15 percent more runs than Scorpions in road games. At the other end of the spectrum, Goldenrod played in a park featuring a factor of 75, meaning that Gators home games saw 25 percent fewer runs than Gators road games.

2016 Wrap: Award Winners & League Leaders

A recap collecting important—or at least interesting—tidbits from the just-concluded 2016 season.

Postseason Awards

Here are the MMDA end-of-season award winners, as selected by the Strat-O-Matic game engine. The wins above replacement (WAR) metric is generated by the game engine, too, and though it exists in every computer version of the game I own, I just noticed it for the first time this year.

MVP
Player	Team	AB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	BB	SO	SB	OBP	SLG	WAR
C.Kershaw	Crows	See Cy Young Award table below
B.Harper	Dutchmen	556	31	0	44	119	.324	117	128	5	.443	.617	9.6
A.McCutchen	Lions	617	32	8	28	82	.246	100	152	8	.365	.460	7.6
M.Trout	Dodgers	592	28	9	37	93	.285	66	177	2	.366	.551	8.5
J.Votto	N'hawks	558	25	4	29	83	.276	136	133	3	.421	.491	6.4

Elysian Fields right fielder Bryce Harper, the top position player in MVP balloting, led the MMDA in home runs (44), RBIs (119), on-base percentage (.443) slugging percentage (.617) and runs scored (119). He narrowly lost the batting title to Rochester's Christian Yelich, who out-hit him by a count of .327 to .324. Harper also walked 117 times, which ranked second in the league only to Lake County's Joey Votto and his 136 free passes.

CY YOUNG
Pitchers	Team	W	L	ERA	GS	SV	IP	H	BB	SO	HR	H9	BB9	SO9	WAR
C.Kershaw	Crows	22	4	1.94	32	0	251	157	61	315	14	5.6	2.2	11.3	10.8
J.deGrom	Maulers	21	4	2.38	31	0	185	131	49	201	15	6.4	2.4	9.8	6.7
D.Keuchel	Gators	19	6	2.48	36	0	254	192	65	228	20	6.8	2.3	8.1	8.4
J.Lackey	Gators	23	8	2.92	37	0	240	225	54	167	16	8.4	2.0	6.3	6.2
Z.Greinke	Crows	17	6	1.51	31	0	244	162	55	209	13	6.0	2.0	7.7	12.4

Spokane lefthander Clayton Kershaw led the MMDA in strikeouts (315), winning percentage (.846) and shutouts (eight), but he cemented his Cy Young and MVP candidacy by finishing runner-up in five other important categories: wins (22), ERA (1.94), innings (251), strikeout rate per nine innings (11.31) and opponent average (.176).

Power Ranking After Block Four

An attempt to rank the league's best teams for the 2016 season. Teams sorted by run differential, then wins.

This installment finds us 108 games into the season, with two blocks and 54 games remaining.

Note that OPS+ and ERA+ are not adjusted for ballpark context during the season.

RD stands for run differential and Pyth for Pythagorean winning percentage. Pace is projected win total based on current winning percentage. BB% and SO/BB ratio do not include intentional walks.

Power Ranking 

No	Team	W	L	PCT	Division	R/G	OPS+	RA/G	ERA+	Pyth	Pace	RD
1	Death Valley	70	38	.648	Atlantic	5.16	124	4.30	95	.582	105	+93
2	Goldenrod	69	39	.639	Central	4.49	105	2.98	140	.677	104	+163
3	St. Louis	67	41	.620	Central	3.81	91	2.87	144	.626	101	+102
4	Elysian Fields	64	44	.593	Pacific	5.15	113	4.35	101	.575	96	+86
5	Spokane	61	47	.565	Pacific	3.88	91	3.41	123	.558	92	+51
6	Miami	61	47	.565	Northeast	4.31	103	4.07	100	.525	92	+25
7	Mohawk Valley	60	48	.556	Atlantic	4.35	104	3.62	118	.583	90	+79
8	Cape Cod	60	48	.556	Northeast	4.48	107	4.00	107	.551	90	+52
9	Brooklyn	58	50	.537	Pacific	4.25	103	4.09	100	.517	87	+17
10	Lake County	55	53	.509	Central	4.14	105	4.34	96	.478	83	–22
11	Rosehill	53	55	.491	Central	4.11	99	4.05	100	.507	80	+7
12	Fighting Irish	53	55	.491	Northeast	4.23	105	4.30	99	.493	80	–7
13	Northwest	52	56	.481	Pacific	3.94	87	4.12	102	.479	78	–20
14	Northeast	51	57	.472	Northeast	3.96	95	4.42	95	.451	77	–49
15	Wilmington	50	58	.463	Atlantic	4.36	104	4.40	95	.496	75	–4
16	Rochester	48	60	.444	Atlantic	3.52	89	3.82	110	.462	72	–33
17	California	43	65	.398	Pacific	3.78	93	4.54	94	.418	65	–82
18	West Side	40	68	.370	Northeast	4.40	102	5.55	78	.397	60	–124
19	Sudbury	38	70	.352	Atlantic	3.85	95	4.81	85	.401	57	–103
20	Little Rock	27	81	.250	Central	3.57	83	5.71	72	.300	41	–231

Power Ranking After Block Two

An attempt to rank the league's best teams for the 2016 season. Teams sorted by run differential, then wins.

Note that this is not the official tie-breaking method for playoff seeding or draft order. Also, OPS+ and ERA+ are not adjusted for ballpark context during the season.

RD stands for run differential and Pyth for Pythagorean winning percentage. BB% and SO/BB ratio do not include intentional walks.

Power Ranking 

No	Team	W	L	PCT	Division	R/G	OPS+	RA/G	ERA+	Pyth	RD
1	Goldenrod	36	18	.667	Central	4.61	108	2.96	146	.692	+89
2	Spokane	36	18	.667	Pacific	3.89	89	2.81	151	.644	+58
3	St. Louis	35	19	.648	Central	4.13	100	2.74	145	.679	+75
4	Death Valley	34	20	.630	Atlantic	5.24	126	4.63	89	.556	+33
5	Lake County	32	22	.593	Central	4.50	108	4.26	100	.525	+13
6	Elysian Fields	31	23	.574	Pacific	5.13	110	4.50	96	.560	+34
7	Miami	31	23	.574	Northeast	4.33	102	4.13	99	.522	+11
8	Cape Cod	30	24	.556	Northeast	4.31	106	3.89	108	.547	+23
9	Brooklyn	29	25	.537	Pacific	4.15	97	4.17	99	.498	–1
10	Mohawk Valley	27	27	.500	Atlantic	4.48	102	4.15	107	.535	+18
11	Rochester	26	28	.481	Atlantic	3.19	81	3.39	124	.472	–11
12	Fighting	25	29	.463	Northeast	4.11	109	4.37	96	.472	–14
13	Northeast	24	30	.444	Northeast	3.93	90	4.72	86	.416	–43
14	Wilmington	23	31	.426	Atlantic	4.13	98	4.69	89	.443	–30
15	Northwest	23	31	.426	Pacific	3.41	79	4.06	105	.421	–35
16	Rosehill	22	32	.407	Central	3.98	98	4.20	97	.475	–12
17	California	22	32	.407	Pacific	4.17	103	4.67	93	.448	–27
18	West Side	22	32	.407	Northeast	4.28	99	5.33	82	.400	–57
19	Sudbury	19	35	.352	Atlantic	4.13	99	4.85	82	.427	–39
20	Little Rock	13	41	.241	Central	3.76	94	5.33	76	.345	–85