So obvious caveats: this shouldn't be taken as any kind of definitive evaluation of these teams, it's clear from the few times I've been through adjusting various rule problems that there will be wide differences in outcomes. Injuries and AI decisions loom large, especially as the teams are fairly even. I'm thinking I'll actually run the Year 1 season a few more times to get a sense of what the overall sample looks like while also running a few more seasons of this league.
Regular Season Results
AL EAST:
1. Roma Legio X - 87-75.
Monster seasons by Jose Bautista (47 HR), Corey Dickerson (.312 20 HR) and Mike Carp (36 HR) made up for a subpar season from Kershaw (3.37 ERA). Pitching was decent overall (3.65 ERA) mostly because the bullpen was extremely good.
2. Nous Defions 80-82
ND was competitive with the Roma through August but fell apart following season ending surgery to Mike Trout. Breakout seasons from Shuck (.340), Hosmer and Rosario were done in by surprisingly poor performance from the rotation, especially Estrada (5.34 ERA), Cobb (4.80 ERA), and Archer (5.22 ERA).
3. Ben's Old Catchers 71-91
Injuries took most of Madison Bumgarner and Martin Perez' seasons and the rest of the rotation was mostly ineffective, posting the worst ERA in either league (4.95). The offense was merely average as McCutchen had a relatively down season for him.
4. Head Hunters 71-91
The Head Hunters lost Lee for most of the season and were hurt by Miguel Cabrera losing about 40 games worth of time, and overall the offense didn't perform that well with a .725 OPS. The bottom third of the order - Barney, Rollins and for some reason Gillespie got a lot of time - were terrible.
5. The Best Catch 66-96
TBC's young rotation performed badly, as Ross and Kazmir both got hurt and Hutchison, Morton and Chatwood all weren't very good. The team hit pretty well though and honestly it's a bit of a surprise to me they didn't do better looking at the individual stats. Maybe poor karma.
AL Central
1. Dylan Marsh 84-79
Derek Holland not going down with offseason knee surgery turned out to be key for Dylan Marsh, as he went 18-12 with a 2.90 ERA and led a pitching staff that posted the best ERA in the American League (3.42) with Cueto, Richards, Haren and De La Rosa all posting good seasons. The lineup was pretty good although didn't really have a clear clean up hitter.
2. Green Mountain Boys 83-80
GMB was hurt by depth problems - Brett Gardner lost 8 months to injury, and for some reason the AI response was to sign a replacement level 1B and put Moss in RF. Kuroda turned into a disaster, hurting the rotation. On the other hand, Dustin McGowan had a terrific season and the rest of the pitching staff was pretty good.
3. Concord Koch Grabbers 80-82
Pitching was a strength of the Koch Grabbers across the board - probably would have been even better if the AI had let Archie Bradley start the year in the rotation. The offense, however, was not good. Stanton got lost for most of the season and Bryant was a disaster in the cleanup spot (.209 with 13 HR). Paco Rodriguez had a breakout year.
4. Riverbottom Nightmare 76-86
The Nightmare got solid seasons from the middle of the order - Posey, Arcia, and Zimmerman - but for some reason the AI played Jeff Decker in left field and batted him sixth and he hit .190. Rotation was a problem - Sanchez was bad, Huff was a disaster, and Chen got hurt.
5. Irish Wolfhounds 74-88
The Wolfhounds ended up sort of average both offensively and defensively. Cargo didn't perform as you'd hope from a top pick, Trumbo and Brantley were bad and Dee Gordon as a leadoff hitter was probably not a great idea. Jacob Turner had a breakout season to lead the rotation, but the rest were all average.
AL West
1. Wonderbeards 90-72
Breakout seasons by Tavares, Ventura and Amarista and a monster year from Puig powered the Wonderbeards to the best OPS in baseball and the AL West crown. Ventrua, Eovaldi, Mejia and Walker all had good years in the rotation.
2. New Jersey Sox Fan 86-76 WC1
NJSF won the wildcard despite losing 7 consecutive games to end the season. A monster year by Votto and surprising seasons from guys like Detrich, Petit and Gonzalez were key.
3. Rich Garces Belly 86-76 WC2
Damn it, somehow Matt Harvey's injury didn't take and he had a good year for RGB. Well, I'm not reseting the whole thing after writing all this. You can feel free to discount his 2.8 WAR. RGB came out as a pretty good pitching team across the board with an offense that was good enough despite a poorer than expected season from Goldschmidt.
4. Danny Darwin 82-20
Ike Davis had a pretty good bounce back year and Adrian Beltre was awesome but the back end of the pitching staff fell apart, as Grimm, Harang and Milone all got shelled.
5. Mad Crappers 75-87
Mad Crappers lost Jose Fernandez for the season and the rotation was only pretty good after that, while the offense suffered from a lack of power, with only Adam Dun posting 20 HRs.
NL East
1. SoxFan58 87-75
Terrisus was ahead for most of the season but must have collapsed near the end. SoxFan got breakout seasons from Alex Gordon (4.8 WAR) and Mike Olt (3.3 WAR) while Darvish, Fister, Wilson and Doubront were all solid in the rotation and the bullpen was excellent as well.
2. Terrisus 81-81
Not sure what happened to Terrisus in September but I think it might have something to do with an injury to Verlander. Terrisus actually was about even with SoxFan defensively and was quite a bit better offensively, so there may have been some karma problems. The rotation was solid across the board and the lineup was solid, although Mauer had a mediocre season for him (2.4 WAR) and the offense suffered from lack of strength - no player had a better WAR than 3.0.
3. El Tigre Chino 80-82
The rotation came out sort of average, as the AI stupidly put Snydergaard in the bullpen (where he was excellent) and Workman and Lincecum were below average. Offensively neither Bruce nor Hanley were as good as you'd think, but Gose, Martin and Sano took steps forward.
4. Keninten 79-83
Keninten appears to have the best fielding team in the league, although it's hard to read OOTP's fielding stats. It certainly seemed to help his rotation, as Johnson, Nicaiso, and Bettis all had good years. The problem was offense, as Fowler, Bourjos and Gyorko all struggled at the top of the lineup and only one player had over 20 HRs.
5. StabMastaArson 66-96
Lots of things went wrong for StabMastaArson this year. Boegarts was awful, David Murphy was maybe the worst player in the league (-1.3 WAR), Peralta was awful, somehow Derek Norris found himself hitting third in the lineup. The rotation was average at best, with Billingsley, Masterson and Parker all posting below average seasons.
NL Central
1. Scrote Squad 96-66
Scrote Squad had a good offensive year, posting an OPS near the top of the league behind a well balanced offense and breakout / bounceback campaigns from Pederson, Logan Morrison and Wil Myers. Luebke, Odorizzi and Hughes were all solid in the rotation and the bullpen was excellent.
2. Bored Viewer 91-71 WC
Bored Viewer managed to secure the top Wild Card spot despite not having a very good rotation at all, with Hamels having a disaster year with a 5.55 ERA. Freeman, Aybar, Butler and Utley all had terrific years to lead the offense while the bullpen was extremely good across the board.
3. Logglobo Vlandignorf 85-77
Pretty good team both offensively and defensively, Rendon had a breakout year with 5.8 WAR and Iwakuma was among the best in the league. OOTP got Tanaka wrong though, he was mediocre.
4. BigMike 82-80
This team seems like it was done in by some highly questionable AI decisions - for example, starting Slade Heathcott and especially batting him leadoff, while Khris Davis hit 28 HR in the 7 spot. This was a very good lineup with power spread throughout - only Heathcott managed less than 14 HR. The rotation was fairly bad - McAllister, Phelps and Teheren all were mediocre.
5. Tax Man 75-87
Tax Man's team was killed by terrible seasons from Chris Davis (.9 WAR) and Chris Carter (-.6 WAR) which left the middle of the Tax Man lineup pretty bad. The rotation was average, but not as good seasons as you'd expect from Cingrani and Price hurt the team.
NL West
1. Why Not Grebeck 98-64
The best regular season record goes to Why Not Grebeck, who rode an incredible rotation top 3 of Strasburg (8 WAR!), Beachy (6.4 WAR), and, ahem, Taylor Jordan (5.3 WAR) to the NL West crown. A strong team defense may have helped. Overall WNG had a 2.87 team ERA. The lineup was OK, although Springer did not do that well in his rookie year and Choo and Headley took steps backwards.
2. Kramerica Industries 91-71 WC2
Kramerica takes the other wild card spot with solid seasons from their rotation of Greinke, Liriano and Samadijzjzja and a major breakout season from Anthony Rizzo. Middle of the order was strong with Wright and Jones putting up good years.
3. Leskanic's Thread 80-82
Leskanic had a pretty good offense, with Profar breaking out with a 4.4 WAR season and Joyce breaking out with a 5.4 WAR. He was hurt by a terrible year from Pedroia (2.4 WAR) though and his pitching wasn't that great - Cashner, Quintana, Ramirez and Bundy all were sort of average.
4. Kenny Fing Powers 77-85
5. Shadynastys 73-89
I'll post more on these two teams later tonight, then run the post-season.
Best teams by OPS:
Wonderbeards .769
Bored Viewer .765
Nous Defions .761
Scrote Squad .760
Kenny Fing Powers .760
Best teams by ERA:
Why Not Grebeck 2.87
Dylan Marsh 3.46
Scrote Squad 3.54
Concord Koch Grabbers 3.55
Shadynastys 3.56