Backyard Baseball League Season 6

## Season 6

Screenshot of the final score from the World Series Champion Indians' Game 5

## **The Beginnings**

With the conclusion of the two-part Season 5, it was decided that the league format should return to one big league for all willing participants playing under the same rule set. One notable change, in order to make matchups more even, the 24 coaches were divided by experience in the BBL. The veterans and more experienced players were placed in the American League, also called the "Backyard League", while the newcomers and other most-recent BBL coaches were placed in the National League, also called the "Frontyard League".

This season was also colloquially named the "jorge" league, to keep up with the Lulu and Paste themes from Season 5.

## **Setting Up the Season**

The 24 coaches signed on to Season 6 were as follows:

The coaches were divided by skill level, with the BBL veterans taking up the "Backyard League" while the newcomers and less-experienced players were in the Frontyard League. The two leagues would share the draft pool of 265 players, but they would only play regular season games within their own league.

## **The Draft**

The two leagues combined for a 24-team, 9-round draft. The format is known as a "scattered snake" draft, where each team gets one pick per round, but the order of each round is different in order to make each team's total draft positioning relatively even.

Coach Jarod Johnson of the Expos stunned the league when he selected Angela Delvecchio with the first overall pick in the draft. Others around the league claimed he could have waited until the 9th round to draft her, but he defended his pick by saying, "she's a good pitcher".

The last pick of the draft was Angelique Harding of the Astros, who turned out to be a useful pitcher herself.

## **The Season**

The season started off with a bang, as coach aesnop and the Monsters put up the season's first "Safety Net," a maximum score of 50 in a win over the Diamondbacks. This ended up being the season's only Safety Net, and aesnop ended up resigning midway through the first half of the season.

Another notable game that took place during this season was the Week 12 game between the Pirates and Indians.

Some coaching changes took place during the season. BootyHunter took over as coach of the Monsters when aesnop resigned. Ozzman was a midseason replacement for GSchlim of the Tigers. The Cubs had the most turmoil, as EclipsedShadow replaced MarcoMcGwire but Vissery soon replaced EclipsedShadow after just one game.

At the end of the season, the final standings were as follows:

The Devil Rays won the NL West on a division record tiebreaker over the Expos. The Mariners won a play-in game against the Bombers to claim the NL Wild Card slot.

The stats were well-kept throughout the season. The league leaders are listed below: (**Bold** indicates league record)

\* - Jay Green's stats were only kept for 11 games.

\*\* - ERA and WHIP require a minimum of 28 innings pitched

## **The Playoffs**

The division winners all made the playoffs, as well as the best remaining record in each league. The 1 seed would have home field advantage against the Wild Card, while the 2 seed would have home field advantage against the 3 seed. However, if the Wild Card and the 1 seed were from the same division, the 1 and 2 seeds switched matchups.

### **ALDS**

(1) Indians beat (WC) Red Sox, 2-0

(2) A's beat (3) Blue Jays, 2-0.

### **NLDS**

(1) Astros beat (3) Devil Rays, 2-0.

(2) Angels beat (WC) Mariners, 2-1.

### **ALCS**

The (1) Indians swept the (2) A's two games to none to advance to the World Series. The recordings of each game were broadcast simultaneously on Discord, hosted by JibboDaHibbo

### **NLCS**

The (1) Astros beat the (2) Angels in a three game series, 2-1, to advance to the World Series. Each game was won by the home team.

### **World Series - (1) Indians vs. (1) Astros**

The Season 6 World Series was a back-and-forth affair, as the teams alternated wins until the Indians won game 5 to clinch the World Series victory. This was coach crazyei8hts' first World Series title in three tries and six seasons of play.

Game 2 was streamed live by the Indians. Games 3 and 4 were broadcast simultaneously and hosted by jlund24. Game 5 was broadcast on Twitch and co-hosted by jlund24 and TheRealSisu.

### **Consolation Bracket**

All non-playoff teams were invited to play in a double elimination consolation bracket. 12 out of 16 teams accepted the invite, and the consolation bracket was won by coach shrewsbury91 and the Cardinals. They lost a game to the Pirates, but made their way through the loser's bracket and beat the Pirates in two straight games to win the bracket.

## **League Awards**

After the season, all coaches were eligible to vote on three awards for the league: "The Jocinda" (modeled after the MLB MVP), the "Ace Wilson Award" (modeled after the Cy Young Award), and the "Goldie Glove" (modeled after the Gold Glove).

* **The Jocinda** was won by Cheryl Reynolds of the Indians. She led the league in home runs with 22, and was the main offensive threat of the World Series champion, with 44 RBIs, 40 runs scored, and an OPS of 2.665.
* **The Ace Wilson Award** was won by Mr. Clanky of the Cardinals. He set a league record with 127 strikeouts, pitched every inning (at 88 innings, this is more than 6 innings per game and is a league record as well), and recorded a 0.93 WHIP with a 1.09 ERA.
* **The Goldie Glove** was won by Ichiro of the Wombats. He won the Goldie Glove for the second consecutive season, both times as a catcher that was notoriously tough to steal on.

## **Aftermath**

Season 7 had a quick turnaround, with signups being published immediately after the conclusion of the final World Series game. 16 coaches from season 6 returned for another shot at glory.