Backyard Baseball League Season 9 (Wheelie)

## Season 9

A wheel similar to the one used to divvy up fields and draft slots.

## **The Beginnings**

Keeping up with Season 8, the league was split into two leagues (conferences), each with three divisions of four teams. However, this season came with a twist. For the first time in BBL history, both the *2001* and *2003* versions of the game would be used. The American League used *Backyard Baseball 2001*, while the National League used *Backyard Baseball 2003.*

Another holdover from Season 8 was that batting power ups could only be used by a team's ninth round draft pick. (See Season 8 for more info).

A new procedure this season was the selection of field and draft slot. In the past, the orders for these selections was based on either experience or the performance from the previous season. In Season 9, the fields and draft slots were randomized by a wheel spinner. "The Wheel" would determine each player's field and draft slot, and the event was broadcast live on Twitch.

Some exciting breakthroughs this season occurred via modification of the game's **.(b)** file. First and foremost was the removal of defensive priorities and locks. When making a non-user team, the AI's logic tries to make the best team available by choosing a pitcher, catcher, shortstop, and first baseman, and putting pro players at their "locked" positions. For Season 9, and possibly the foreseeable future, the priorities and locks were removed, meaning coaches could set their AI defense in any order they wished. This changed draft strategy as well as the effectiveness of computer defenses. Another edit of the **.(b)** file removed random boosts and nerfs. Built-in boosts, such as the pink Maria Luna boost and the birthday boosts remained, but no more game's being ruined by an opponent boost or a nerf to one of your own players. The final addition from the modded .(b) file was a different array of home fields. This mostly changed the file order, but it also added Parks Dept. #2 as a home field, a field that is impossible for an opposing team to have in an unmodded file.

This season was colloquially called the "Wheelie" league, both because of the Wheel's heavy usage in the format and to honor Pete Wheeler.

This season was also the last with Yurya as commissioner, a position he held since founding the league in 2017.

## **Setting Up the Season**

The 24 coaches signed on to Season 9 were as follows:

\* Guy Smiley drafted the team and played one game but was dismissed as coach. Eventually, all Bombers game were just treated as forfeits. See the Bombers' Season 9 entry for more info.

\*\*aesnop drafted the team, but without the use of a computer, he had coaches MelloMathTeacher and JibboDaHibbo fill in for him.

## **The Draft**

The players were assigned in 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. The draft slots were determined by "The Wheel," as previously mentioned.

Because both the *2001* and *2003* versions of the game were used, some changes were made to the available pool of players. The draft pool was determined by players' names. If their name appeared in both games, they could only be drafted once. If they were drafted by an '01 team, their '01 version was used, which was also true for an '03 player. For example, Tonya Lesco is a clone of Jose Canseco in *2001* and a clone of Greg Vaughn in *2003.* Tonya was drafted by the Royals, playing in the *2001* American League, so she was a Canseco clone this season. Additionally, if a player changed names between the two games, both versions of them were available to be drafted. For example, Joan Mae, a character in *2001,* is analogous to Jennifer Goodfellow in *2003,* but since they have different names, they are considered different players, and both were drafted in Season 9.

The Wheel bestowed the #1 overall pick to coach PepsiBoyTTV of the Super-Duper Diamondbacks, who selected Henri Deschenes.

The most surprising pick was made by coach Guy Smiley of the Blue Bombers. He used his first round pick, #23 overall, to select Dante Robinson. After being assured by other league members that Dante would be available much later in the draft, Guy stuck to his guns and was adamant that he pick Dante.

The last pick of the draft was Jose Meisenheimer, picked by coach MartianMan of the Rockies.

## **The Season**

### Players of the Week

The Batter of the Week and the Pitcher of the Week awards returned for Season 9. They are given weekly to the in-game players who made the biggest impact at the plate and on the mound. The winners are as follows:

### Match of the Week

The Match of the Week, held on various league members' Twitch accounts, returned for Season 9. Both opponents record video of their games, send it to the MotW organizers, who then splice the videos together and provide commentary over them. This season, the MotW schedule was hand-crafted to allow every team a chance to be featured, with two weeks near the end of the season left open for now, so important games in the playoff picture could be shown.

### Final Standings

The standings are shown below. Teams in **bold** made the playoffs. Teams in *italics* accepted bids to the Consolation Tournament.

The Devil Rays were the Wild Card due to beating the Rangers during the regular season.

### Stats

The stats were well kept throughout the season. The league leaders are listed below:

\*indicates a 9th round pick, eligible to use power ups

\*\*(ERA and WHIP are minimum 28 innings pitched)

## **The Playoffs**

### Structure

Each division winner earns a playoff berth, as well as the best-performing non-division-winner, the wild card, in each league. If the top overall seed and the wild card are from the same division, then the #1 team plays the #3 team in the first round.

### Participants

The bracket was as follows:

* American League
	+ #1. Royals (12-2) vs. WC Devil Rays (9-5)
		- The Royals earned the 1 seed over the Cubs due to beating them head-to-head in Week 4.
	+ #2. Cubs (12-2) vs. #3. Braves (10-4)
* National League
	+ #1. Monsters (11-3) vs. #3. Giants (8-6)
		- The Monsters played the #3 seeded Giants because the Wild Card Twins came from the same division.
	+ #2. Diamondbacks (9-5) vs. WC Twins (9-5)

### First Round

* The Royals were slightly worried about the Devil Rays and their menacing defense, and it showed in Game 1, as they only recorded a +3, their worst game of the season. However, the Devil Rays lost to the AI, so Game 1 went to the Royals. The Royals figured out their offense, recording a +32 in Game 2 and easily sweeping the Devil Rays.
* The Cubs and Braves matched up in a coaching rematch from the first round last season. This was the only series in the entire playoffs that wasn't a sweep, as the Braves took Game 2 to tie up the series. However, the Cubs offense proved to be too much, as they won Game 3 17-10 to move onto the next round.
* The Monsters and Giants had one of the weirdest endings to a series that the BBL has ever seen. With the Monsters up 1 game to 0, the Giants had an inaccurate file and accidentally played an away game when they were supposed to play a home game. Luckily, the field they played on was The Paveway, which is almost identical to the field they were supposed to play on, Cement Gardens. To further complicate things, both teams scored a +1, with no home team multiplier. The Monsters won 2-1 while the Giants won 4-3, so the Monsters were awarded the win due to allowing fewer runs to the AI.
* A battle of two big offenses had a clear winner, as the Diamondbacks outhit the Twins in two straight games. The D'Backs advanced easily after winning 12-3 and 23-9.

### Second Round

* The ALCS may have been more exciting than the actual potential World Series, as two of the highest powered offenses clashed: the Royals and Cubs. The Royals won the regular season matchup, but it was the Cubs who emerged victorious, winning in two games by scores of 26-11 and 26-16.
* The NLCS was a battle of strength vs. strength: the potent offense of the Diamondbacks led by the upstart young rookie against the stalwart defense of the Monsters led by the aged veteran and founder of the league. Defense wins championships, and that rung true in this case as the Monsters won two games by the scores of 12-7 and 27-20.

### World Series

* The World Series was an intriguing matchup between the defending champion leading the Cubs against the league founder who reached the league's biggest stage for the first time with the Monsters. The matchup on paper was a bit more exciting, as the Cubs cruised to a three game sweep with scores of 15-7, 9-8, and 16-11.

### Consolation Bracket

All non-playoff teams were invited to play in the consolation bracket. With 8 willing participants, four from each league, the teams matched up in a double elimination format. The Orioles were the victors of the Consolation Tournament, losing zero games while every other team lost twice.

## **League Awards**

The league awards were voted on by a panel of volunteer coaches.

* **MVP:** The MVP award for best player was awarded to Lindsy Felgate of the Melonheads. Lindsy was a dark horse candidate until the end of the season. She made an exclamation point on her MVP campaign in Week 12, when she went 10/11 with 2 doubles, a triple, 6 home runs, 19 RBIs, and 9 runs scored. Overall, she batted 0.787 with 20 home runs, 54 RBIs, and 37 runs scored. While the Royals had several players with arguably better stats, the voters believed that Lindsy was more valuable to her team than any of the Royals players were to the Royals.
* **Ace Wilson:** The Ace Wilson award for best pitcher was awarded to Christina Beattie of the Angels. Christina was a workhorse, pitching 82 1/3 innings with a 1.17 ERA, and leading the league with 111 strikeouts.
* **Goldie Glove:** The Goldie Glove award for best fielder was given to Derek Jeter of the Monsters. Jeter played shortstop and was the cornerstone of a team that had one of the toughest defenses in recent memory. Derek Jeter also was a co-winner of the Goldie Glove when he was on the Monsters in Season 1.

## **Aftermath**

Ultimately, the wheel method was slightly criticized as a method to select fields and draft slots, but the draft was a fun time. Season 9 was the first season in which a coach won his second championship, let alone his second in a row. Motivation to dethrone Emery increased for Season 10.