2018 All-Stars

SP: SCOTT KUJAWA RP: CRAIG SKINNER LF: KYLE TOMLINSON CF: RAY BROWN RF: DAVID CASTLE

SP: NICK BRADEN RP: TRAVIS STROJNY LF: CHANDLER PHILLIPS CF: MICHAEL GIGUERE RF: ZAC ADAMS

SCOTT KUJAWA  –  1.67 OA  –  46.0 IP STARTING PITCHER, WICKED ACES   ★ ★ ★ 1.04 ERA 0.78 WHIP 16.17 K/6 5.64 K/BB .092 BAA .126 BB%

NICK BRADEN  –  4.50 OA  –  66.0 IP STARTING PITCHER, SEE YAS   ★ 1.82 ERA 1.38 WHIP 10.82 K/6 3.40 K/BB .220 BAA .121 BB%

TRAVIS STROJNY  –  5.17 OA  –  59.0 IP RELIEF PITCHER, STINKY NUTS   ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.95 ERA 1.54 WHIP 14.75 K/6 2.96 K/BB .193 BAA .184 BB%

CRAIG SKINNER  –  5.83 OA  –  54.2 IP RELIEF PITCHER, EL DIABLOS   ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.96 ERA 1.70 WHIP 14.61 K/6 2.20 K/BB .169 BAA .235 BB%

Alternate Pitchers:  1. Stephen Farkas (OA: 3.33, IP: 35.0),  2. Mark Phillips (7.17 OA, 39.1 IP)   3. Michael Villarreal (7.33 OA, 47.2 IP),  4. Chris Paquin (8.17 OA, 67.0 IP)

CHANDLER PHILLIPS  –  1.20 OA  –  155 PA LEFT FIELD, EL DIABLOS   ★ ★ ★ ★ .363 AVG .490 OBP .839 SLG 7.29 AB/HR 3.16 PA/RBI

KYLE TOMLINSON  –  3.00 OA  –  165 PA LEFT FIELD, EL DIABLOS   ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ .331 AVG .473 OBP .631 SLG 10.83 AB/HR 3.75 PA/RBI

MICHAEL GIGUERE  –  5.20 OA  –  146 PA CENTER FIELD, ISLANDERS   ★ ★ .325 AVG .452 OBP .607 SLG 11.70 AB/HR 5.21 PA/RBI

RAY BROWN  –  5.60 OA  –  154 PA CENTER FIELD, KING FRIDAY   ★ ★ .289 AVG .442 OBP .719 SLG 8.07 AB/HR 4.53 PA/RBI

DAVID CASTLE  –  6.20 OA  –  156 PA RIGHT FIELD, KING FRIDAY   ★ ★ ★ ★ .321 AVG .423 OBP .573 SLG 11.91 AB/HR 4.46 PA/RBI

ZAC ADAMS  –  9.60 OA  –  160 PA RIGHT FIELD, KING FRIDAY   ★ ★ .293 AVG .450 OBP .528 SLG 15.38 AB/HR 6.40 PA/RBI

Alternate Hitters:  1. Stephen Werner (OA: 4.00, PA: 79),  2. Mark Brannan (10.40 OA, 145 PA)   3. Michael Villarreal (OA: 10.60, 116 PA),   4. Greg Brannan (10.20 OA, 78 PA)

The 2018 All-Star Game will be held on Saturday, September 15 as part of the For the Thrill Extravaganza. The All-Stars were chosen based off their overall average ranking among the entire league in key stats. For hitters this was AVG, OBP, SLG, AB/HR, and PA/RBI. For pitchers it was ERA, WHIP, K/6, K/BB, BAA, and BB%. Plate appearances was also factored into the final hitters decsion, as innings pitched was used in the deciding the final position pitchers. The selections include one first-time All-Star, three two-time All-Stars, one three-time All-Star, three four-time All-Stars, one five-time All-Star, and one six-time All-Star.

For the Thrill is a throwback to our glory days: a tournament with random bats and odd rules to liven things up and bring out the fun in the game. Teams can consist of 3-4 people, and you can play with whomever you like. No caps, no drafts, no waivers. Get your squad together and let's have some fun!

We'll announce the final tournament format once we know the number of teams, and more details to come on the fun bats (i.e. racket, wacky noodle, Louisville chugger, cricket club, etc) and random shenanigans as we get closer to the event. One more significant departure from our normal rules is that For the Thrill will feature the proposed no baserunning rules [read through it here]. It's the perfect environment to introduce the idea and get players a feel for the style of play.

2018 Handies: Most Improved Player

The Most Improved Player in WSEM for the 2018 season is Michael Villarreal of the Wicked Aces. Vill saw significant gains on both sides of the ball. There was big improvement in his production numbers with the bat, leading to career highs in H, HR, AVG and SLG. On the mound he was able to retool his arm into that of a capable starter, pitching in 8 games (tied for the Aces team high) and eating up a career high 47.2 IP (also, an Aces team high). Nothing super flashy, but solid performances accounting for 3 wins helping his squad outpace King Friday in the standings.

Unlike the other Handies deciding on the MIP wasn't an easy call. Ray Brown was nearly neck and neck with Villarreal, seeing similar improvements on both sides of the ball. The two traded AVG and OBP - Vill boosting his AVG, Brown bumping up his OBP - while both increased SLG and cut down on their AB/HR. The boosted AVG impresses more than OBP, but the bigger advantage to Villarreal is the average percentage improvement across the offensive array. Villarreal's average improvement was 33.2% compared to 7.2% for Brown on the hitting side of things. Similar story on the mound. Brown reduced his ERA much more, but Villarreal countered with better reduction in WHIP. The percentage drop in BAA amounts to essentially a wash, and while both slid slightly in K/6, Villarreal more than doubling his K/BB rate is the stand out stat there. Overall on the pitching side Villareal average improvement was 63.3%; Brown's was 35.9%. The winner had to be one of these two who improved in both facets of the game, and when all was said and done: advantage Vill.

There were other names with notable boosts to their game worth mentioning. Starting with two arms that seemingly came out of nowhere: Nick Braden and Mark Phillips. Mark's pitching numbers improved on average by 85.5%; Nick's boosted by 36.5% on average overall. Outstanding seasons on the mound for both. However, both players regressed in the batters box, eliminating them from contention. Just the opposite, Craig Skinner had a great year with the bat resulting in a huge bump for his AVG, OBP, and SLG. Craig's pitching numbers went the wrong direction, though, taking his name off the board. The final player given serious consideration was Zac Adams. Zadams was the favorite to win this for much of the year. His stats slid a bit over the last third of the season, although, his overall improvement with the bat still averaged 37.2%. Ultimately, the late skid along with only being a bat left Zac out of the final discussion.

MICHAEL VILLARREAL
YEAR	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	BAA
2018	.315	.457	.500	18.40	6.82	5.03	1.83	8.8	2.6	.298
2017	.247	.532	.365	28.33	4.96	12.28	3.64	9.2	1.2	.443
% change	127.5%	85.9%	137.0%	64.9%	137.5%	40.9%	50.3%	95.5%	214.0%	67.2%
	Improved statistic from 2017 to 2018

RAY BROWN
YEAR	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	BAA
2018	.289	.442	.719	8.07	4.53	2.00	1.75	11.3	1.7	.174
2017	.291	.410	.701	9.07	3.47	6.75	2.38	11.7	1.5	.265
% change	99.3%	107.8%	102.6%	88.9%	130.7%	29.6%	73.5%	96.6%	112.4%	65.7%
	Improved statistic from 2017 to 2018

CRAIG SKINNER
YEAR	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	BAA
2018	.316	.437	.521	39.00	10.92	2.96	1.70	14.6	2.2	.169
2017	.143	.365	.254	31.50	9.44	1.43	1.11	15.2	3.4	.108
% change	221.0%	119.7%	205.1%	123.8%	115.7%	207.0%	153.2%	95.9%	64.6%	155.5%
	Improved statistic from 2017 to 2018

ZAC ADAMS
YEAR	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	-	-	-	-	-
2018	.293	.450	.528	15.38	6.40
2017	.167	.386	.357	16.80	6.00
% change	175.5%	116.6%	147.9%	91.5%	106.7%
	Improved statistic from 2017 to 2018

MARK PHILLIPS
YEAR	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	BAA
2018	.200	.348	.331	24.17	9.89	5.80	1.73	6.3	3.7	.328
2017	.313	.448	.504	16.43	3.92	21.76	4.79	5.6	1.1	.568
% change	63.9%	77.7%	65.7%	147.1%	252.3%	26.7%	36.1%	110.9%	337.2%	57.7%
	Improved statistic from 2017 to 2018

NICK BRADEN
YEAR	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	BAA
2018	.216	.368	.353	23.20	9.00	1.82	1.38	10.8	3.4	.220
2017	.253	.485	.604	9.10	4.71	3.60	2.00	8.4	3.5	.348
% change	85.4%	75.9%	58.4%	255.0%	190.9%	50.6%	69.0%	128.8%	97.1%	63.4%
	Improved statistic from 2017 to 2018

2018 Handies: Clown Shu

The Clownshoes were the strongest pitching team in our earliest tournaments dating to the last decade. Legend tells they had a rotation of two interchangeable arms that threw twice as hard as anybody else's ace, and would routinely offer a 4 out inning to opposing lineups just to rack up more Ks. Most opponents would turn down this offer. When it came time to give our pitching award a name in 2011 it was impossible to distinguish one Clownshoe pitcher from the other; they were a two-headed beast. While naming a wiffle pitching award "Cy Young" is stupid (the man never played wiffleball), its two syllable first-name-last-name combo carries a certain gravitas. Thus, Clown Shu was born; the honor to be bestowed upon the best pitcher in WSEM every season.

The 2018 Clown Shu is Scott Kujawa of the Wicked Aces. It's Scott's second time winning the Shu; making him only the second player to win it multiple times. In a fashion similar to our Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player the Clown Shu also dominated the top of the leaderboard. Kujawa posted the number-one ERA, WHIP, K/6, K/BB, and K% - many of those by a large margin. The only argument against Scott's claim to the Clown Shu was his innings pitched. While some pitchers did have 10-20 more innings than the White Asian, at 46 IP he still had more than 150% of the minimum requirement (30 IP). Contrast this with Farkas, who did see his stock hurt at only 35 IP. Nick Braden was the main beneficiary of that and, after a career season the mound, found himself positioned as the first runner up. Nick's overall average ranking came out to 4.7; Kujawa's was 1.6. Had the gap been much closer inning differential could have become a factor, but not in the face of a full three-point spread. Kujo pitched more than his fair share of innings and dominated in almost all of them. Through-and-through that's the Clown Shu.

PITCHING	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	K%	BAA	BB%	OA Rk
Scott Kujawa	46.0	1.04	0.78	16.17	5.64	.713	.092	.126	1.6
Stephen Farkas	35.0	2.06	1.20	15.09	4.19	.599	.167	.143	3.1
Nick Braden	66.0	1.82	1.38	10.82	3.40	.412	.220	.121	4.7
Travis Strojny	59.0	2.95	1.54	14.75	2.96	.543	.193	.184	4.9
Craig Skinner	54.2	2.96	1.70	14.49	2.20	.516	.168	.235	5.7
Chandler Phillips	46.0	3.26	1.98	15.52	1.45	.520	.061	.358	6.4
Ray Brown	60.0	2.00	1.75	11.30	1.69	.396	.174	.235	6.4
Michael Villarreal	47.2	5.03	1.83	8.77	2.56	.302	.298	.118	7.6
Mark Phillips	39.1	5.80	1.73	6.29	3.73	.222	.329	.060	7.7
Chris Paquin	67.0	4.21	1.85	8.42	2.04	.290	.281	.142	8.4
David Castle	65.0	5.08	2.34	9.78	1.06	.307	.212	.290	9.3

2018 Handies: Most Valuable Player

The 2018 WSEM Most Valuable Player is Chandler Phillips from the El Diablos. We could have tried to be cute and play the "he had a strong lineup around him and another bat was more valuable to their team" card, but, no. Chandler dominated the batting leaderboards: first place in every significant offensive production statistic except on base percentage, in which he was second among qualifying players. The result of all that was an overall average rank of 1.1 among all the bats in the league. Chandler won the triple crown, and could have won a couple quadruple crowns if there were such things. In a season that reintroduced yellow bats for the majority of games most hitters saw some regression. Chandler, on the other hand, posted career highs in H, 2B, RBI, AVG, and SLG. The MVP award is all about offense in WSEM; no need to overthink it. The numbers put up by CJ made this another easy decision.

PLAYER	PA	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI	OA Rk
Chandler Phillips	155	45	17	49	.363	.490	.839	7.29	3.16	1.1
Kyle Tomlinson	165	43	12	44	.331	.473	.631	10.83	3.75	2.8
Ray Brown	154	35	15	34	.289	.442	.719	8.07	4.53	3.9
David Castle	156	42	11	35	.321	.423	.573	11.91	4.46	4.4
Stephen Werner	79	18	4	15	.360	.595	.660	12.50	5.27	4.5
Michael Giguere	146	38	10	28	.325	.452	.607	11.70	5.21	4.6

2018 Handies: Rookie of the Year

The 2018 WSEM Rookie of the Year is Charles Alongi from the Islanders. Charles led his rookie class in every offensive stat category that matters. He was the only rookie to bat over .200 (.275 AVG - more than double the next guy), to slug over .400 (.505 SLG), and to get on base more than 40% of the time (.445 OBP). It's a wide gap, and on top of all that Alongi's 6 HR were more than the rest of the rookies hit combined. A solid first season and one that made for a quick decision when it came to naming Rookie of the Year.

It wasn't close, but Alongi's closest (sic) competition came from Islanders teammate Tom Zeller. TZ Top started pitching in the second half of the season; he threw 27 innings and posted a 2.89 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, and 4-1 record in 6 games. Good numbers, but too small a sample size for serious consideration. Had Tom pitched from the day one we may have seen a tighter race and had more to deliberate.

HITTING	PA	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB/HR	PA/RBI
Charles Alongi	119	25	6	15	.275	.445	.505	15.17	7.93
Tom Zeller	92	8	1	11	.125	.391	.188	64.00	8.36
Jordan Power	121	11	1	11	.116	.306	.158	95.00	11.00
Andrew Moore	55	6	3	4	.130	.273	.326	15.33	13.75
Blake Sell	53	3	0	1	.070	.245	.070	N/A	53.00
PITCHING	IP	K	BB	W	ERA	WHIP	K/6	K/BB	BAA
Tom Zeller	27.0	42	6	4	2.89	1.48	9.33	7.00	.296
Jordan Power	26.0	18	32	2	4.62	2.35	4.15	0.56	.271
Andrew Moore	8.2	23	25	0	9.69	3.35	16.83	0.92	.140

Championship Series, 8/11 - Wicked Aces vs Islanders

REGULAR SEASON HITTING .240 .385 .434 17.2 7.1 AVG OBP SLG AB/HR PA/RBI H2H SEASON SERIES HITTING .227 .358 .409 17.6 6.6 AVG OBP SLG AB/HR PA/RBI	REGULAR SEASON HITTING .263 .438 .465 17.9 6.3 AVG OBP SLG AB/HR PA/RBI H2H SEASON SERIES HITTING .361 .525 .625 12.0 4.7 AVG OBP SLG AB/HR PA/RBI
GAME 1
0 LP: Werner 1 WP: Kujawa RBI: G. Brannan
GAME 2
4 WP: LaDouceur 3 LP: Farkas HR: Linebrink