Let's draft 'em all -- all 940 played!

Congrats to the winners of the muddle in the middle!

jflatour99, MichaelGrammes, JMP1, and Terry101 earned spots in the inaugural playoff series for the Minors -- and that's 2 levels in a row for Terry101...

On average, the team stats were very similar to those of the Instructional League:
Avg team OPS: .738 (i) vs. .732 (m)
Avg team ERA: 4.22 (i) vs. 4.09 (m)

Individual star honors here in the middle were spread all around:

Justin Morneau - R & RBI (MVP)
Alfonso Soriano - HR & SLG
Chipper Jones - OPS
Denard Span - BA
Omar Infante - H

Jason Motte - Super RP (CYA)
Ryan Dempster - W
Jeff Karstens - ERA
Mat Latos - K*
Max Scherzer - K*

* Tied

Record of manager points earned upadated at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... web#gid=18

Terry101 is in the lead at the moment, as the only manager to have a W/L record > .500 in both the Instructional and Minor leagues.

939 down and 1 to go

Jonathan Sanchez (willmurr24) needs to get into a game!

Paging willmurr...

Sanchez played! All 940 players saw action this season. Outstanding!

Congrats to Dr.P on winning the Instructional title!

Points earned doc updated at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... web#gid=18

Congrats to the teams at the top!

jflatour99, and JMP1 are making playoff appearances for the 2nd straight level, while ghost and tpierce are up for the 1st time.

On average, team hitting was superior in this league, while pitching was relatively similar across them all:
Avg team OPS: .738 (i) vs. .732 (m) vs. .752 (M)
Avg team ERA: 4.22 (i) vs. 4.09 (m) vs. 4.17 (M)

As to the individual stars, even Miguel Cabrera would say that Mike Trout had an amazing season:

Mike Trout - BA, R, H, HR, SLG, OPS (MVP)
Albert Pujols - RBI
Joey Votto - OBP

Craig Kimbrel - SV (CYA)
Justin Verlander - W
Brandon Beachy - ERA
RA Dickey - K

Table of points earned updated at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... web#gid=18

Congrats to Terry101 for being the only manager to have better than a .500 W/L record in all 3 leagues.

And congrats to jflatour99 for being the overall points champion. Even though the playoffs are still going on in 2 leagues, nobody will be able to beat even his current point total!

So much for being concerned about having the next-to-last choice in picking a draft slot

Thanks to all of you for helping to refine the concept in this inaugural edition of the season-ending blowout. I think there was great competition in all 3 leagues and it was fun to learn about some players I've never noticed before.

As we wrap things up, I'd appreciate it if you could all jot down a couple of notes about things you'd do differently next time around, if you could. I'd like to make this an annual event, so ideas for improvement would be welcomed.

For example, I believe the sequence of draft slots should be shaken up a bit. This first time, it was in straight position order, C - IF - OF - P. I saw the downside of that when I took the last draft slot -- my Majors team had amazing pitching (only gave up 502 ER), but could not hit its way out of a paper bag!

Perhaps a more mixed-up sequence would allow for better balance, even in the slots chosen last? Maybe something like:
C
1B
SP
LF
2B
RP
CF
SS
Wild Card
RF
3B
Stadium

Any ideas?

Mixing it up, Nice idea !

In my mind, the worst spots are Stadium (no immediate improvement on your lineup), Wild Card (2 rounds and virtually nothing to help after) and RPs (no rarity there at all).

So I'd propose to distenciate those 3 the more we could.

C
1B
RP
LF
3B
SS
Wild Card
RF
2B
SP
CF
Stadium

Congrats to JMP1 on a wild card win for the title in the Majors and to jflatour99 for having the highest overall point total for the three leagues -- see final point data updated at:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... web#gid=18

Honorable mention goes to the other high-point champs:
JMP1
Ghost
Terry101

Thanks again to all who joined this crazy season-ending blowout. I'd like to make this an annual event and look forward to welcoming all of you back here again, next winter!