Since it's the end of another decade for cricket , I thought why not reminisce about they great decade of cricket we had. I would focus on team India as it's the team of which I can claim to have followed the majority of the matches.
2011-12
The first year of the decade , Indian team was the No: 1 test side since 2009 , dominating at home and being extremely competitive abroad winning in NZ , Eng, drawing in SA and fighting well with Ponting's Australia down under all in a span of 3-4 years. To add cherry on top of that winning the World Cup meant this was the peak of Indian cricket and given where we were at the turn of the century it was one heck of an achievement to reach this position.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still pretty shit.
2012-13
As big as the highs were , who knew the lows were going to be just as deep. The no 1 test team team crashed and burned in incredible fashion and got white washed in two consecutive series in Eng and Aus , tons of legends had to retire and if that wasn't enough the nail to the coffin was hit by Sir Alistair Cook and his men when they beat India in their own fortress after 28 years when Panesar and Swann taught Indians how to bowl spin and I think at this point the stumps , bails , bat and ball basically anything to do with cricket should have been burnt and sent to England at that point. Funnily this series was my introduction to cricket as a 11 year old who despite being in india didn't know the name of a single cricketer other than Sachin Tendulkar.
Phew, Anyways the horror show ends here, or does it..? Though it doesn't feel like much now , but at that time when Pakistan was visiting for the first time after the terrorist attack and beat India in an odi series in India , it felt like a huge deal, I guess it was the series where we discovered Bhuvi, and during those days he used to swing like a banana albiet a bit slower, his wickets of the first balls on debut where fucking ridiculous. Regardless we did fine in ODi compared to our standards back then when we never used to win odi series in SENA , and Virat Kohli's thrashing in Hobart stands out even to this day , and to think that his 183 is still his highest after 43 fucking hundreds is a miracle.
Anyways the redemption in test cricket came when Australia visited India. We didn't know at the time , but in retrospect the worst Australian side I have ever seen play test cricket and poor bastards thought they could sneak a victory against this depleted indian side and they rightfully got demolished due their pathetic attitude towards homework and trust me Nathan Lyon back then was so bad that it felt like he was a club bowler , didn't know the dude would develop into the beast he is now. Luckily wade was shit then and now , the loud mouth's constant though.
That 4-0 victory over the fake team which tried to convince us that they were thev real Aussies is what I consider to be the beginning of our journey in becoming one of the best test teams in the world again, though is was not to happen any time soon , still this is where I can trace it all back , this is where Ashwin and Jadeja showed a glimpse of what they were going to do to the poor visiters for the rest of the decade , plus by this point Pujara and Rahane where abvious standouts in the middle order , along with Kohli, even Murli Vijay who a lot of people don't like , which goes over my head as he is unironically the best test opener for us this decade and yeah we were never able to find him a proper opening partner , and by the time he went completely shit , we had zero openers performing well for us in any conditions other than home.
Also who can forget Shikhar Dhawan's debut test century and Dhoni's double century.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still shit.
2013-2014
Now this was the year where we won our last ICC trophy of any kind, it's a shame they scrapped champions trophy after this year.Who knew Rohit Sharma's move to the opening spot would give us one of the finest batsmen in coloured clothing the world has ever seen. By that point even with his ridiculous talent™, it seemed like the final days of him getting anymore chances , if he had failed miserably there.
There was a great odi series against aus at home, Rohit scored the first of his three double hundreds, poor Ishant have away 30 runs off an over to end his loi career forever.
Faulkner was a good cricketer during this time who was supposed to achieve big things , he batted and bowled pretty well in this series.
Sachin played his last series , at the time it was quite a relief , and also very emotional , never seen a test match as jam packed as that in India , maybe the pink ball test against Bangladesh was close. Shami was the revelation of the series , and his reverse swing exploits in his debut match is still the best spell of reverse swing I have seen by any Indian this decade.
Now as the winner of champions trophy which basically means we where the champions among champions at a time when we ourself where the world champions , we went with all our super sayen power to tour South Africa.
This was my first away tour as a fan to any country let alone the land where Steyn breathes fire.
First odi of the match , SA comes wearing pink , I laugh and make a few cringey pink = girly jokes. My first introduction to Steyn on Live telly and bruh the talented Rohit Sharma didn't touch the ball for his first 30 deliveries. I dunno how one can miss so many consecutive edges, maybe the balls where too good to get an edge , in that match Virat scored a four of Steyn with a straight drive when Rohit was being treated as if he was a drunk no 11 , and to this day that reminds me of how Virat is a cut a above Rohit regardless of how many mental gymnastics the mentally challenged brohit fans do to claim otherwise. Anyways we lost 3-0 in that series as expected but during those days even ODIs felt like impossible to win in SA for us. Also de dock announced himself with three centuries in all the matches that series.
That test series was Kohli's first in SA and he had a lot to prove back in those days , and he did and iirc so did Pujara. The second test is what everyone would remember where SA almost chased down the world record total, god the bowling was pathetic then.
During this time an awkward young kid with an even more awkward bowling action bowled for MI on debut , and it didn't seems like much at the time , just that he was awkward.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still pretty shit.
2014- 15
Then we go to New Zealand and baz scores a triple century and makes us fuck off.
The t20 worldcup was pretty good for us we went into the finals , Sri Lanka bowled really good at the death, basically every ball was a wide yorker and this was the beginning of a long stretch of losing on the finals or semi-finals for us in the decade.
Now comes the groups first test series in England , I meant just in essence , dhoni and Ishant had played their before but still this was the India in transition, the first test was a draw all I remember is Murli Vijay had a great knock . The next match at lords is one of the most important matches for us this decade , before this I guess we hadn't won a test match in SENA countries since I guess 2008 when we won in NZ 1-0 , I mean come on , I guess we all should be glad things aren't that bad now and we do win atleast a test in most places we play and other teams have to, lots of the times , work there asses of to win against us in their own backyard. Now Rahane scored probably the Indian test century of the decade according to me , and also his favorite century as claimed by the man himself after his exploits in the Boxing Day test recently.
Now hear me out , Ishant got his career best figures in the second innings here , but this is still a time when he was pretty mediocre, and even though I don't want to take any credit away from him , a lot has to do with a collective brain fade from England while playing the short balls from Ishant. Anyways we won and it was a great day, sweet victory in SENA after a long time after two matches we led the series 1-0 , and tbh if we were Sri Lanka or Pakistan we would be going on home after avenging our home test series loss, but no the big boys have to play 5 test matches FFS, nothing much to say here Bhuvneshwar Kumar was our best batsman and bowler that series , we got fucked really fucking bad by Anderson and yeah 3-1.
But even more than that the series would be known as Virat Kohli's lowest point in his test career [ yet (๑•﹏•)]. The world found out that he is no Tendulkar and does have a severe flaw in his technique playing the out swinger. And to be honest we all know that to some extent he still has that flaw , unlike Williamson and Smith who basically have no major flaws in their technique. Yet I would say he is the second best test batsman of the generation after Smith.
Atleast back in the day England used to be a piss poor odi side who played like it was the 70s , and we won that series , but it was not sweet enough to compensate for the thrashing in tests.
Now next we move on to the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Aus, Dhoni called it quits as a test cricketer and Virat takes the helm ,it was basically a run fest, Virat and Smith both scored tons of runs , and we almost won a test in Adelaide , but it could have been worse given how Mitchell Johnson blew England away and South Africa too, but the pitches maybe weren't that conducive or he declined a bit or both , anyways it was basically chat shit get banged for him that series anyways. We lost 2-0 , but this was a series where we could say we played respectable cricket.
Note that Ishant Sharma was still quite shit.
2015 - 2016
We weren't in great form as an odi side around the time of the world cup as we lost a series pretty badly to Australia , who where eventually the champions , Starc was breathing fire back then.
But we won every match in the group stages , and finally lost to Australia in the semi-finals. Fuck Starc , he's too good. No problem we'll win in 2019.
Now in the test world we have had lots of back to back tough series , all the players where new , but by now lots of them where quite experienced and settled in the squad.
Now many people like to say that Indian wins in Sri Lanka shouldn't be counted as away wins and it's still the sub continent etc etc , but before 2015, the last and only time india beat Sri Lanka in Lanka was in the early nineties. Now during this time Sri Lanka was still a great team especially at home they still had Sangakara , Herath both at their best and on top of that they had Karunaratne , Thirimanne and Chandimal. Also remember the time when Angelo Mathews was one of the best test batsman in the world? Yeah he was the captain. The first test match went to them after a second innings collapse from India , that would be the last test Sri Lanka wins against India and they played 8 more tests after this. Anyways India came back triumphantly to win the next two tests to get only their second ever test series victory in the supposedly easy land Sri Lanka and this was to be the beginning of a very dominant period of test cricket for India after which, eventually they'd become the country with the second most number of months as world no 1 in test cricket after Australia since 2003 when the icc ranking begun.
This was the first series where Ishant Sharma started to show some improvement.
Next , South Africa visits India for a test series. Now South Africa has drawn their last two test series in India and I would even go on as far as to say they were even better than the legendary Australia when it came to test cricket in India. Virat Kohli at this time wanted to get really spin friendly wickets as according to him many teams around the world create green wickets and all to get home advantage , there was lots of complaining from faf , but any ways they got thumped 3-0 for the first time ever in India and that was the beginning of a very dominant home stretch.
One highlight was the blockathon from ABD -Amla and also twin centuries from Rahane in that test which where the only centuries in the whole series iirc.
Now India goes to west Indies and get a convincing test series victory, now WI us still a good test team at home , they have beaten good sides like England and Pakistan but they always fail to show up against India, so that's that.
Note than Ishant was still a bit shit.
2016-2017
Next New Zealand visits India , and get ravaged 3-0 with huge margins , India used to always be a dominant side at home , but this was starting to get scary, Ashwin and Jadeja were unplayable literally every match.
Next comes England , the winners of the last series between the two in India. Oh the revenge was cold and sweet , the way we destroyed them was something else , huge scores , losing after scoring almost 500 runs multiple times , triple hundreds , who can forget the hundred from jayant yadav. This was a massacre, and it was due since a long time.
Now as you know Kohli and Shastri were quite cocky by this time, so were the fans and I mean can you blame us? Australia came after a lot of preparation, fuckers where praising Ashwin as the Bradman of bowling to jinx him. The Pune test was a shock, this was before Steve Smith's redemption in the Ashes and as an Indian fan the only other time I really saw him scoring lots of runs it wasn't really tough conditions and on top of that it was at home. This Pune test changed that, I think I have seen the best test batsman of the generation , and maybe even for the next 30 years. Kohli went fishing for that series , and we were again in the backfoot after the first innings of the second test. But then as Ashwin had warned Aussies didn't get a considerable lead , and Ashwin had them for soup . The last test was again won by India to finish a well fought test series.
We all know what happened in the t20 world cup, we reached the semi , and WI thumped us. Who can forget the Ashwin no ball , atleast I mean maybe it's just an anomaly surely an Indian bowler can't bowl a no ball in another major icc knockout match right? Right?
Note that Ishant is very very slightly shit
2017-2018
Okay I have a confession to make. I may have lied about something , ok I admit there was a champions trophy in 2017. And yeah we got thumped so bad , that idk what to say, fairytale stuff for pakistan though , tbh I don't remember them beating us in any other match since 2013 , but probs to them they won the second most important match between us this decade , after the icc wc semi final.
Atleast after the champions trophy we decided to bring in Kuldeep and Chahal and with the rise of Bumrah and even Shami we started to actually become a good bowling side in one day internationals.
We started to not only win at home in loi but in SA , NZ , Aus and that too convincingly, the only loss I remember during this time was probably against the future worldcup champions England at their home , but then again they are probably the greatest odi side probably only second to the legendary Aussie side.
Now we tour Sri Lanka again and by this time Sri Lanka has detoriated quite a bit , they aren't their previous self and don't have Sanga , Herath and Mathew is not his former self. They get thumped 3-0 at home and it's probably our first overseas whitewash.
Next they tour us and we are arrogant enough to act as if this is practice for upcoming overseas tour and make green pitches and all. I remember the Delhi test with pollution and yeah two matches where drawn rather surprisingly still India won 1-0.
By this time you can see that Ishant is slowly improving and his performances are becoming much better.
Now India visits SA and this time India is an experienced side , they are still not a world class bowling line up , but that was going to change , and that happened here when Bumrah was given his test cap. There were lots of questions about this , people where saying that he cannot get swing or seam and his action was not meant for test cricket etc etc, anyways it didn't even take much time tbh , he was an instant success just like he was in loi and took decent amount of wickets every innings , India lost the first two test matches , but all those matches were close , popular consensus is that ABD was the diffrence , India won the last test match which was on a green mamba of a picth, and Bumrah takes his first fifier in the last test match and rest is history. It's too early , but still he is easily the best fast bowler India has ever had, greatest not yet solely due to the fact that some others have more years of service.
Note that Ishant is finally bowling as one of the best bowlers.
2018-2019
Now we go back to England , all eyes were on Kohli , I think he played one of his best innings that match playing with the tail to keep India in the game. Yeah India was in the game a lot of the times infact , yes the scoreline was 4-1 , but this series was well fought , still England were the better team , but India got one famous victory in Nottingham and yeah that's that.
Pretty disappointing , a similar result was predicted down under. Who knew Warner and Steve Smith had diffrent plans , they did their noble deed and we're kicked out of the sport for an year , and yeah this did play a part in giving India a huge advantage.
So yeah we visited down under and as we all know we thumped Australia , should have been 3-1 if not for the rain in Sydney , it was a historic series win , the bowling we faced was still the best in the world. Pujara played the series of his life , and Indian bowling was as good if not better.
In ODIs we are doing really well but still haven't found a good middle order. And yeah we never found that before the world cup.
Note that Ishant Sharma is one of the best bowlers in the world.
2019-2020
Back to back odi series against Australia , both win one of the series at the opposition's home , but we beat them in the WC. We again reach the semi finals and again just like last time lose in the semi's , at this point if we didn't have a decently stacked trophy cabinet we would be the chokers of the decade.
We visit west indies and I think I see Bumrah bowling the best he ever has , he was literally unplayable before getting a stress fracture , which gave real scares to all of us.
Next South Africa visits India again and if last time was a thumping , this time was a complete annihilation , even the pitches where pretty balanced and our pacer out bowled their pacers , tbh it wasn't even a contest , they looked like club cricketers , except faf, he was the lone warrior. 3-0 , but we all know SA is going through a crisis, so nothing surprising.
Bangladesh visit India for 2 tests and again if SA had one batsman doing well , Bangladesh had zero. The day-night test was the most fun test match in terms of crowd participation since Tendulkar's farewell series. But in terms of cricket it was completely one sided.
Note thatIshant is one of the best bowlers in the world
2020
By this time we have been the world no 1 test side for 4 consecutive years , and rightly so according to me , we haven't been world dominators or something , but we where still the best of the lot.
But the biggest disappointment atleast for me in the decade after the England series in 2012 , came when we toured NZ , yeah Ishant Sharma wasn't available , but the way we got rolled over in both the tests after making so much progress in all these years was very disappointing , but we can consider it of as only 2 off tests but still it was very disappointing.
On top of that being white washed in odi series was also pretty humiliating and one concern has to be the ineffectiveness of the odi bowling side recently. But one thing is the middle order is doing slightly better plus the world cup is in India , so bowling won't be that much of a problem I hope. It's still a long way.
We white wash them 5-0 is a T20 series with two of them in super overs and that was very satisfying.
Then Covid hits and the world goes into a frenzy.
We visit Australia again in 2 years , and start by very poorly losing the first two ODIs , the bowling looks problematic.
We redeem ourself in the t20s though and since the next two world cups are t20s I guess that's good that we are consistently winning.
And at the fag end of the decade we play the first test in Adelaide , we start well considering Ishant isn't available again , we get them quite cheaply getting a handy lead , at the end of day two we where thinking of scoring another 200 runs atleast to get a good enough lead to win the test match. In probably the worst session of cricket India has ever played in their 88 years of playing this game , we get all out for 36 , and rightly everyone starts prediction a 4-0 whitewash , I mean who wouldn't.
I guess one of the best test match victories for the country not just in this decade but in our entire history came as the last test match of the decade.. Coming back from an all time low , not having Kohli , Ishant , Bhuvi , Shami and Umesh getting injured mid game , with two debutants India makes a great comeback coming back from a historic low.
That's that, it has been a great decade , certainly India's best decade in terms of win rates and results and all and even icc trophies , not getting atleast one ICC trophy in the later end of the decade dampens the fun a bit , let's hope that changes in the future. The biggest thing to happen is certainly getting good fast bowlers in the second half of the decade.
Exciting times ahead , we probably have more talent coming through every year in domestic than ever before, especially in fast bowling , currently very excited for Kartik Tyagi , and also hope nagarkoti and Mavi don't get lost , Natrajan , Siraj , Saini are all good. As usual lots and lots of batting talent coming through, also a couple of exciting wicket keepers in Rishab and Ishan kishan and even Sanju , if Rahul can keep well , that's the best case scenario for the loi teams.
All through the decade IPL has evolved into a mature league and is only going strength to strength .
One thing which has detoriated a bit I feel is our fielding which was top notch for a long time from champions trophy 2013 untill recently. Lots of catches being dropped and there's no excuses for that.
I think in the first decade of the century we went from a average team to a good team , this decade after a blip early on , we have transitioned easily into a top 3 team irrespective of the format. Without a doubt the most successful decade for Indian cricket in terms of results , the 2000s died for this.
At the end I want to have a word for Ishant Sharma , for the majority of his career he was the most mediocre cricketer I have ever seen , he was statistically the worst fast bowler to play the number of tests he did with a bowling avg of about 38-40 , I don't think anyone except Ishant himself would have ever thought that he would be averaging around 17-18 accross the world over a 3 year span , and I for one never thought I would say that he is one of the best test bowlers in the world. It's one of the greatest cricket career redemptions ever and I for one respect the hell out of the dude. Being mediocre wasn't his fault , he was still the best the country had produced for a long time and that was probably more frustrating, that we had no choice. Regardless he has 3 tests to go to reach 100 tests and I think he is certainly among the Indian greats and without doubt a vital part of the greatest Indian bowling unit ever.

Reason for this question is that after every loss or a bad day of test especially in recent times, talks of replacing him as captain with Rohit in ODI/T20 and now Rahane in tests start happening after literally one day and before anyone says "it's just a minority" no it's not, I literally hear this stuff everywhere from social media to real life, also in this reddit as if he's having Tendulkar run of bad captaincy and batting form.
So is Kohli a bad captain that is on the verge of being replaced? Comment your thoughts on that.
In my opinion, aside from T20 (even there I've mixed thoughts) I don't think so and I like Rohit more than Kohli. His stats as captain prove that's he doing better than previous captains while improving his own performance as well. So where does these talks come from?
Popular rhetoric's are, well Kohli has to face weaker teams compared to Ganguly and Dhoni who faced the 2000's greats. That's something I partially agree on, teams overall were definitely more better back in 2000's and early 2010's but the drop in form for the teams hasn't been that harsh and there's New Zealand that has gotten better than before.
Another one is, Kohli has the best Indian team at hand so he should be doing better. Mixed thoughts about this, he has best looking bowling attack but for ODI's he has the great top 3 in form of Dhawan, Rohit and himself but the middle order has been inconsistent compared to what Ganguly and Dhoni (until last years as captain) had and for tests batting was way better then compared to what it is now with Kohli and Pujara lifting most of the burden with help of bowlers. Well he has been doing better but it's not as good as what fans expect because the team is not 2000's Australia, that kinda team combination rarely happens.
For ODI's/T20's the sentiment slowly kept getting popular as India came close but didn't win ICC tournaments and 2019 loss along with this year of 2020 with NZ tour and now 36/9 has accelerated that. Kohli after great run hasn't been able to deliver a ICC tournament win that's true but it's not something that started with him, Dhoni also couldn't deliver WT20 2014 and WC 2014. So it's less about captaincy issue and more about India choking at knockout moments. Same in T20's, what happens in IPL with RCB isn't replicated with India but what happens in ODI's tournaments with India is replicated so using Kohli, Rohit comparison based on IPL there also feels unfair, MI and RCB are just two different caliber of teams.
And for tests, there was a bad NZ tour this year but guess what it's the NZ team that went on to become first NZ squad to get it No 1 rank in tests, so that was a formidable opponent and before 36/9 India had the advantage, it's just one day of bad batting from them and great bowling from Aus that led to that. Yes there was those SA and England tour in 2018 but they ran way closer than what results showed. Kohli's performance during the term he's been captain has also been better than when he is not, he has made sure to deliver under his own captaincy ICC Knockouts aside.
I'd agree for coaching, fielding or selection staff change but still not sure about changing captaincy atleast based on fan pressure. One thing is for sure, whoever will become long term captain (not Rahane, Rohit, people close to retire) after Kohli has big shoes to fill in.

When RCB management made bad auction decisions and let Rahul and Gayle go to KXIP, RCB's batting strength was duo of ABD and Kohli with bunch of inexperienced batsmen. Getting Kohli and ABD together meant winning the match for oppositions. A pattern started emerging where both of them got out frequently to release the pressure against spinners in the middle overs. They were equally bad against googlies in 2018 and 2019 season. Kohli averaged 6 against googlies with SR of 104.35 (4 dismissals). ABD fared worse with average of 5.2 at 83.87 SR (5 dismissals). Following are some matches where both of them got out together and team lost momentum -
IPL 2018 3rd Match - RCB vs KKR - RCB were cruising hard on 127 for 2 after 14.1 overs. ABD had just hit previous ball for a six but trying to slog another one, he hit the next one straight to fielder. Kohli followed him to pavilion next ball. This was first IPL match after both KL & Gayle left. RCB could only score 50 more runs in 5.3 overs and KKR chased the target with 7 balls left in batting paradise.
IPL 2018 35th Match - RCB vs CSK - RCB were 47 for 1 after 6 overs with Kohli struggling to middle the ball. Dhoni introduced Jadeja into the attack and Kohli fell first ball trying to pound on arm ball. ABD replaces him and faces two dot balls in the same over. Spin is introduced from the othe end and ABD gives a simple catch to Dhoni off Bhajji after failing to hit a reverse sweep. RCB could only reach 127 after 20 overs with the help of Tim Southee's 36 off 26 at the end. They never recovered from Kohli and AB's back to back dismissals. CSK won the match easily.
IPL 2018 39th Match - RCB vs SRH - RCB were 71/2 after 9 overs chasing 146. Target was looking easy at that stage but Rashid's latest over saw Kohli getting dropped in slips and ABD missing a wild swing. Sakib was re-introduced to capitalise on that and he delivered by sending Kohli off in same over. Part 1 of Job was done. Rashid unleashed back to back googlies (ABD's kryptonite) in next over and ABD was also taken care of. RCB needed 67 of 56 deliveries at that stage but they failed in a spectacular fashion (At one point they just needed 19 off 2 overs with 5 wickets in hand and 2 settled batsmen in the middle).
IPL 2019 14th Match - RCB vs RR - RCB were 48 for 0 after Powerplay. Leggie Gowtham was making sure Kohli doesn't rotate strike much and waste balls by denying Parthiv strike who was striking at nearly 170 in first 6 overs. When field opened, Kohli tried to jab first ball through point for single but he misread Gopal's googly. He got out very next ball (bowled), trying to play the googly through covers. ABD replaced him and Gopal bowled 3 more googlies. ABD wasn't able to read the ball so like a tailender in test match, he realised best form of defence is attack. Gopal came back with 3 more googlies in next over and mistimed the shot every single time and gave a simple return catch to bowler. When he got out, RCB were 71 for 2 after 8.3 overs. They only added 87 more runs in 69 balls and lost the match as expected.
IPL 2019 49th Match - RCB vs RR - It was just a 5 over run curtailed fixture. Kohli and ABD opened the innings and scored 23 runs in first over. Gopal was sent in to control the duo but Kohli had realised googly barrage was coming. He scored 12 off first 3 deliveries none of which were classic leg breaks. Kohli expected another googly but it was a classic leg break and he is caught near boundary. Gopal learned from his mistake and bowled leg break to ABD also as he gave a simple catch to Parag. Gopal completed his hat trick next ball. RCB scored 35 off first 9 deliveries and 27 off next 21 with 7 wickets lost. 62 was enough to make sure RCB wins but some teams had realised Kohli and ABD can be kept in check through quality spin bowling.
IPL 2020 6th Match - KXIP vs RCB - RCB were reeling in at 11 for 3 after 4 overs. ABD started attacking pacers from the start so KXIP brought in Bishnoi for 6th over. ABD attacked his bad length by smoking him for 3 fours in an over. KXIP didn't back down and brought in Murugan Ashwin from other end. Although he didn't get any wickets that over, he troubled both Finch and ABD with mix of leggies and googlies. Finch got out in Bishnoi's next over, failing to read his first googly of the day. Ashwin set up a trap for ABD by setting field for a googly and bowling leg spin. ABD survived first ball but got out next ball hitting the ball straight to sweeper cover. RCB's hopes ended with ABD and KXIP went back to pacers because leggies had done their job by deception.
Now coming to KXIP vs RCB return match where they sent ABD down the order at 6. That move was heavily criticised by everyone. In all the matches i mentioned when ABD and Kohli got out, only left handers i.e. Moeen and Parthiv showed any kind of intent to prevent a collapse. Kohli said, "We had a chat, a message from outside about left-right combination and we wanted to go with it because they had two leggies. Sometimes things don't come off. We're pretty happy with the decisions we took, but it didn't come off". It is clear their analyst did his research and figured ABD and Kohli batting together in the middle overs against quality spin is too big of a risk, more so because Ashwin and Bishnoi have very good googlies. Ashwin had already accounted for Finch's wicket with 13.3 overs left and spin duo was on. If ABD and Kohli were to get out together, team would've surely collapsed as they were playing without Gurkeerat and there were only 4 all rounders left.
Kohli said after KKR match,"The management have brought in a proper culture. We have a plan A, we have a plan B, and people are executing it that's why it's looking good". Sundar was sent in to prevent collapse first and then attack after getting set with Kohli looking for singles. When Sundar got out, they switched to Plan B as team had only reached 86 for 3 after 10.3 overs. Dube played the aggressive role against spinners but he struggles against Jordan's pace. What made matters worse is Kohli and ABD got out together once again (the whole reason this plan was made) to Shami, after seeing off leggies. Cameos from Morris and Udana took them to respectable total but it wasn't enough to stop KXIP. Gurkeerat was brought back next match to replace Dube as he instills more confidence to prevent a collpase.
It was a strategic move that failed and coped criticism for it but it wasn't without merit. Moreover, it wasn't Kohli's plan as his brand of cricket is based on intent, confidence and hardwork, not on stats analysis. It is a good thing Kohli is finally listening to his support staff by using stats based approach like MI but MI never saves Pollard from any type of bowler. ABD shouldn't be saved from any bowler either. Stats based approach works more during bowling anyways as RR's weird batting approach based on stats has already proven it does more harm than good. Hopefully they don't use any weird batting order to hide from out-of-practice Tahir and out-of-form Jadeja.

Alrighty, I've been doing this and posting here for the last few offseasons, so I figured I might as well give it a go this offseason and spark some conversation around these parts. As we collectively sweat out these election results amid a frustrating pandemic, I figure we could all use some spirited offseason conversation about our favorite team!
So, as pretty much anyone who has paid even a lick of attention to the events in baseball since the end of the World Series would know, things are...bleak around baseball right now. Pretty much every team will be looking for ways to cut back payroll, and we'll probably see a record number of non-tenders. I think a few teams will be opportunistic and add valuable deals to their payrolls (and unfortunately, I believe that the juggernaut Dodgers will be one of those teams), but the expectation is not that the Reds will be one of those teams -- at least in terms of adding to their (non-prorated) 2020 payroll. The Reds' non-prorated 2020 payroll was set to be $143M. Right now, accounting for arbitration projections, the Reds' current payroll obligations are set to be between $129M and about $136M. It's clear that, if the Reds really aren't going to add to their 2020 payroll number, the margins are pretty slim for adding talent.
However, given the talk around Trevor Bauer, which I believe to be more than mere lip service, I think we can read between the lines that -- while we shouldn't be expecting the Reds to go wild -- they may be more willing to push the margins than most would think. This also falls in line with Bob Castellini's tone over the past couple offseasons, where he basically has said that he wants to win, and he wants to win now. Despite the horrible revenue losses of 2020, I think he may be willing to take some risks.
That said, I think expectations should be reasonably limited. I would say that, at most, the Reds' payroll would rise to about the $145M range. Personally, I expect arb numbers to come in on the low side of expectations, so before accounting for any non-tenders, I'll put the hypothetical current payroll at $129M. That gives between $14M and $16M to spend in 2021 payroll as I currently have it set up. All this in mind, let's get to the moves.
Non-tenders:
The Reds, as it stands, have 9 players slated for arbitration -- Bradley, Casali, Castillo, Garrett, Goodwin, Lorenzen, Mahle, R. Stephenson, Winker. Personally, I don't necessarily see a non-tender in this bunch. Stephenson and Goodwin could both be legitimate candidates, but Stephenson is going to be making so little money (projected $600k) that there's no reason to non-tender him unless you think there's no hope for him to be in your MLB 'pen (I don't find that to be the case).
With Goodwin, the Reds just traded a legitimate (albeit unexciting) prospect for him, so it's obvious that they like him, and he's still rather cheap ($2.7M projected). I think he's a strong option to keep around as an extra OF, even with 2021 payroll restrictions.
Overall, I think most expect at least one non-tender, but I don't see one here. Let's move on.
Free Agent Acquisitions:

1. Sign SS Andrelton Simmons to a one year deal with $10M guaranteed, with a mutual option for a 2nd year.

• Details: 2021 salary of $8M, with a second year mutual option for $10M with a $2M buyout.
• Reasoning: The Reds obviously have a dire need at SS, but they also need to be cognizant of Jose Garcia's existence. Garcia was objectively abysmal this year with the bat (with his 3 wRC+ being the second worst among all hitters with at least 60 PAs), but that was to be expected given his jump in competition. There is still reason for extreme optimism, but it'll take some time (plus his glove looked legit). Thus, the Reds need a bridge on a short-term deal, but it needs to be a good bridge. Furthermore, defense is also a major issue on this team, so adding a great defender at SS should be of the utmost concern. Enter Andrelton Simmons. Simmons is one of the best defensive players in baseball history (not an exaggeration at all), and despite ankle injuries hobbling him over the past two seasons, the expectation is that he can still play elite defense going forward. However, those ankle injuries will drive down his demand in both years and money, which sucks for him but is perfect for the Reds. His bat is meh (probably about average), but his impact on team defense would be immense. Further, with the bat, he's a low strikeout guy. I don't mind strikeouts, but I also think it's worthwhile to have a guy or two in the lineup that you can trust to put the ball in play. Some may disagree, but I think that the Reds and Simmons are a perfect fit. They need to get this done, imo.
• Money remaining for 2021 payroll: $6-8M

1. Sign UTL Enrique Hernandez to a one year, $4M deal.

• Details: 2021 salary of $4M
• Reasoning: You may know this Dodger by a different name, but given my lack of ability to use accent marks, I can't type out his nickname (for obvious reasons). First, I want to address the deal. I would give him more than one year, but as a UTL guy, I think he'll be victimized by the cash-strapped nature of the offseason more than most. If he wants a longer deal, give it to him. But I imagine he'll want to be able to re-enter the market next year. As a player, Hernandez is legitimately capable of playing all 7 non-catchepitcher positions, and he's an elite defender at 2B, while also being a plus defender in the OF throughout his career. He, like Simmons, would greatly improve the team defense, which is the most underrated aspect of building a baseball team (look at the Rays and Cardinals, two good-to-great teams buoyed by elite defense). He would also give great flexibility, especially against LHP. He has a career 120 wRC+ against LHP. In my opinion, he can get spot starts all around the field, but he can be a regular starter against LHP. If I were running the team, I would run him out at 2B against LHP, and give either Moose or Votto the day off (either from the field if there is a DH or altogether if there is not). Regardless, he could be a great defensive replacement even when not starting, and he and Simmons could form an immaculate middle infield when starting together. No disrespect to Kyle Farmer, who would still have a place on the team, but Hernandez is a fantastic utility player. Also, by all accounts, he is an absolute glue guy in the locker room. I think the Reds really need to improve on the margins of their roster (bullpen depth and bench players), and Hernandez would be a great start.
• Money remaining: $2-4M

1. Sign LHP Justin Wilson to a two year, $6M deal with a club option for a third season

• Details: $2M in 2021, $3M in 2022, with a third year $4M option with a $1M buyout
• Reasoning: Amir Garrett is great, but the Reds NEED another LHP in the 'pen. Wilson has long been a good and steady LH reliever, but he has always been rather cheap, and he should be especially cheap this year as a non-closing reliever. Wilson has some walk issues, but they've never been ruinous for his run prevention, and he's a very steady strikeout artist. He also doesn't have real platoon splits throughout his career, so you don't really need to worry about him against RHH given the three-batter minimum. Wilson would be a fantastic fit. I wanted him two years ago (when he eventually signed a 2 year, $10M deal with the Mets), and I still want him now. Adding a LH reliever should be a priority, and Wilson is a great option there.
• Money remaining: $0-2M

1. Find a bargain bin SP on a MiLB deal or VERY cheap MLB deal

• Reasoning: I would love for the Reds to maintain a position of strength, but I really do think it's more important to upgrade at the other positions listed above, given the presence not only of Derek Johnson, but also Michael Lorenzen and Tejay Antone (as well as possible top prospect promotions during the year). That said, I want them to at least take a shot on a SP that they can give a chance to win a rotation spot or at least serve as valuable depth. I don't have a specific name chosen, but I do like two LHP that have struggled recently but have reason for optimism -- old friend Alex Wood and Gio Gonzalez. More on this later.
• Also, I would love to think that an injury-recovery flier like Corey Kluber could financially fit into this plan, but I don't feel comfortable projecting it at the moment. I would LOVE to see Kluber (if anywhere close to healthy) return to form under Derek Johnson, though.

Trades:

1. Trade C Tucker Barnhart

• Reasoning: Look, I know some people won't like this idea, but the Reds have a surplus at catcher. While I think the Reds may be reluctant to mess with the good rapport their pitchers have with Barnhart, I also have some questions about his pitch framing and (less so) game-calling compared to Casali. He's obviously an elite defender in many regards, but he's not perfect. He also makes the most money of the Reds' catchers ($4M in 2021) and, given his defensive reputation, probably has the higher trade value between him and Casali. I also think Casali has an equivalent (if not better) rapport with the pitchers, and he's been productive and cheap. Either way, this is a spot where they can cut back spending a bit, and it is imperative to let Tyler Stephenson get some real playing time.
• I didn't pick a team or return package, but multiple teams that lose in the JT Realmuto sweepstakes will be looking for a catcher, and Barnhart could be in high demand. I wouldn't expect him to fetch a franchise-altering package, but the Reds could capitalize and get some legitimate value here. Keep your eyes on the Phillies and Mets here.
• Money remaining: $4-6M

Key Strategy Change:

1. Implement an Opener Strategy with Lorenzen/Miley, and possibly Antone/FA signing

• Reasoning: As the Rays have shown, teams can paradoxically maximize the impact of their lesser pitchers by limiting their innings pitched. Wade Miley is a fine pitcher to have at the back of your rotation, but he has long had struggles during his third time through the batting order (TTO). The Rays have also shown the value in messing with hitters' eyes by mixing up pitcher handedness and arm slots. If the Reds were to utilize the hard-throwing RHP Lorenzen as an opener and let him pitch the first TTO -- which would hopefully be 2-3 IP -- they could bring in the soft-tossing LHP Miley to handle the next two TTO -- hopefully 4-5 IP. This would not only mess with opposing hitters, but it also forces opposing managers' hands when it comes to crafting a lineup. Also, if you're worried about this limiting Lorenzen's usage as a true reliever, fret not. He could likely be available any time except for the day after he starts and the day before he starts (so at least 3/5 of the games), and he's a horse, so he might even be able to push it on those other days in emergencies. Instead of getting a 4.5 ERA from Wade Miley as the #4/5 starter, the Reds could hopefully get an ERA in the mid-3s from the Lorenzen-Miley amalgamation. Openers are the future of baseball, and I think it's time for the Reds to embrace it when it comes to their back-end SPs.
• As noted, I also think this could work with Antone and a bargain bin FA signing, for the same reasoning listed above. This plan would be the main impetus behind targeting guys like Wood and Gio instead of comparable RHPs.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the above moves, the Reds' roster would look as follows:
Lineup vs. RHP (assuming the DH is bargained-for and agreed to, which I believe it will be):

1. DH Jesse Winker
2. RF Nick Castellanos
3. 1B Joey Votto
4. 3B Eugenio Suarez
5. 2B Mike Moustakas
6. LF Shogo Akiyama
7. CF Nick Senzel
8. C Tyler Stephenson
9. SS Andrelton Simmons

Bench vs. RHP:
UTL Hernandez, UTL Farmer, OF Goodwin, C Casali
Lineup vs. LHP:

1. CF Nick Senzel
2. RF Nick Castellanos
3. 3B Eugenio Suarez
4. 1B Mike Moustakas
5. DH Joey Votto
6. 2B Enrique Hernandez
7. LF Shogo Akiyama/Brian Goodwin
8. C Curt Casali
9. SS Andrelton Simmons

Bench vs. LHP:
OF Winker, OF Akiyama/Goodwin, UTL Farmer, C Stephenson
Rotation:

1. RHP Sonny Gray
2. RHP Luis Castillo
3. RHP Tyler Mahle
4. RHP Michael Lorenzen (opener)/LHP Wade Miley (follower)
5. RHP Tejay Antone (maybe opener)/(maybe) LHP FA signing

Bullpen:

1. RHP Raisel Iglesias
2. RHP Archie Bradley
3. RHP Lucas Sims
4. LHP Amir Garrett
5. LHP Justin Wilson
6. RHP Michael Lorenzen
7. RHP Robert Stephenson
8. either RHP Tejay Antone if he's an opener or [option slot] if Antone is a full SP
9. *[option slot]

• the ninth slot is in the case that Antone is a full rotation member. The Reds would not carry nine relievers. Also, it's best to have a spot in the bullpen where the pitcher has a MiLB option, in case you need a fresh arm at any point. If Antone were an opener, I think Stephenson would lose his job to the almighty "option slot"

​
Sorry for the full-length manifesto, but I wanted to be thorough and explain myself, because I know this offseason will be frustrating and full of tension. There are plenty of ways to go about it, but this is what I would do if I were in charge. I think that's an NLC champion squad right there (especially given there's no way that the Reds repeat their historic BABIP bad luck).
Also, if anyone is gonna clamor for Didi Gregorius, I want to get out in front and say that his 2020 was almost certainly a mirage, and it gave me SERIOUS questions about his future. His defense is completely eroded (and, as I said, the Reds need a good defensive SS), and his exit velocity numbers this year were near the bottom of the league, meaning his offensive output was almost certainly not repeatable. I could forgive the Reds if they gave Didi a short deal, but logic and reason would caution against signing him at all. Just wanted to get out in front of that one given my expectation that Reds fans will love the idea of bringing Didi back home.

Before we dive in, if you want to participate in the annual Call Your Shot season predictions contest, you can find it here.
It's FINALLY coming! Welcome to the 2020 MLB Season! We are so glad you are here. Don't let the length of this post scare you, we just wanted to consolidate all the relevant information that people have questions about into one place to start the season off. This is your survival guide for the 2020 season, it should have all the pertinent information to answer most of your questions!
If you are a brand new fan I'd recommend going through most of it, if you're a veteran you'll know which sections you'll want to read by their headings. My goal here is that both new and returning fans can learn how to better enjoy the season and know what's going on on Baseball this year. Okay, take some time and read through what you want to read through below!
This is the fourth year of doing this. Every year I go through the previous years comments to find things that should be added or corrected for the next edition, so if you have any great resources or information that you think would be beneficial to add, please comment it below!
Sections:

• Introduction for new and renewed interest fans.
• Rule changes for 2020
• Finding a Team
• Knowing Where Different Teams Stand
• Baseball
• Your Team's Sub
• Twitter, Podcasts, and Other General News/Analysis Sources
• The Statistical Titans: Baseball Reference and Fangraphs
• Where to watch? Your TV and Streaming Guide
• MLB.tv
• MLB At Bat App
• How to watch baseball.
• Where to watch highlights and game recaps.
• TL;DR: Find a way to enjoy the game.

Introduction for new and renewed interest fans.

Baseball normally has a long season. I don't just mean that in terms of time between opening day and the World Series (which can be considered long as it is), but also the 162 games played in 183 days, 18-20 times against the same 4 teams each. It can be daunting, and many people lose interest by "the dog days" of June and July. This year things are going to be a little different. With only 60 games on the schedule (assuming we make it through without a major clubhouse covid outbreak that cancels games versus that team) every game is going to matter about 3x as much as one in a normal regular season. Tensions will be high, but we might not feel it because there won't be that much crowd noise. THAT SAID - they're still playing 60 games in 66 days, which means almost every day for the next two months isn't just packed with baseball, they're packed with YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS baseball, which while exciting after months without any American sports in the regular season (MLS - a tournament is not the regular season) can end up feeling overwhelming when you just finished watching a late game go into extras then wake up to realize there's an afternoon game on in six hours.
This guide is meant to help you if you wish to avoid being one of those who feels overwhelmed and loses interest a couple weeks after Opening Day.
First and foremost if you are a new fan or newly returning, you must remember one thing: you do not need to watch every game. Many football fans, and even some basketball and hockey fans, find this difficult, they're used to setting aside a few nights a week to watch their team, and they can watch all the games. Baseball isn't like that. For the next two months, your team will only have 6 days where they won't be playing a game. And some of the games they play will start as early as 9:20am (Pacific Time), others will end after 1am (Eastern Time). If you miss a game it's okay, odds are there's another one tomorrow. If you miss a week, no big deal, hell if you get busy for a few months and aren't able to watch you team, that's not an issue, because you can still follow your team.
Baseball is a game to be followed. In the old days it meant picking up the morning paper and checking the box scores. Now it means being able to have a final score texted/tweeted/messaged/emailed/what-evered to you the minute the game ends, or rolling over in bed when you can't sleep and grabbing your phone to check the West Coast scores. It means being able to check reddit in the morning to see any breaking news from across the league, or catch a story you missed. We live in a time where you can go to MLB.com and get a recap of every game from last night in less than 10 minutes. Honestly, baseball was made to be consumed, and the technology age makes it easier than ever, whether you want to spend hours every day pouring over stats and analysis, or 15 seconds to see how your team and their playoff rivals did today.
The rest of this guide is mostly dedicated to ways that you can help yourself follow your team, and if you have time follow the entirety of MLB.
Anyways, enough rambling, TL;DR Don't worry if you miss games, there'll be one tomorrow.

Rule Changes for 2020

For this season only (or so they say...):

• The NL will utilize the DH full time.
• In extra innings the person in the batting order immediately before the lead off hitter will start on second base.
• Games suspended due to rain will continue play at a later date rather than be washed out and restarted.
• Arguing within six feet of an umpire or participating in a fight will be met with heftier fines and suspensions this yaer.
• Pitchers will be allowed a wet rag to be brought out from the dugout in lieu of being able to lick their fingers for better grip.
• Each team has a 20 extra players in their "taxi squad" in addition to their active roster and 40-man roster.
• Active rosters will start at 30 players, then will be cut to 28 after two weeks, then 26 after four weeks.
• Spitting is not allowed.
• Non-social distanced celebrations are not allowed.

Permanent (as any rule change can be in baseball) rule changes for 2020 and beyond:

• Three batter minimum - pitcher entering the game must face a minimum of three batters unless they complete an inning.
• The MLB Active Roster is expanded from 25 players to 26 players.

Finding a Team

I always recommend following the local team since you'll have more access to news about them in the local media and should be able to get their radio broadcast, as well as TV broadcasts of them if you have cable/satellite/streaming, and depending on where you're at the occasional over the air game, but if you don't live by a team or don't want to follow the local team, or are just looking for a second team to follow, I wrote this in depth guide to picking a team that's the right fit for you.

Knowing Where Different Teams Stand

Every year ESPN, Sports Illustrated, FOX, NBS, and every other sports related site puts out their season previews. These are great for getting a basic rundown of what is going on with each team, and a simple google search will bring up a plethora of possible articles to read.
If what you really want is a fans perspective on what each team's expectations condensed into a few short comments, I'd highly recommend going through each teams day from our annual "Why will X team exceed expectations?" series. All the previous posts are linked in the Astros thread.

Baseball

Alright, so plugging baseball on baseball seems a bit redundant, but I think it's a good reminder that this is a great hub for all your MLB news throughout the season while still letting you see the occasional amazing college/minor league/foreign league performance.
During the season there are a number of features to keep you informed of all the goings on around baseball.
Every day of the season (and a portion of the offseason) we have General Discussion threads we call Around the Horn. These are great places to ask questions and discuss anything that you want to know about baseball but don't feel like it deserves it's own post. In the Around the Horn post you'll be able to see a full schedule of what is going on around Baseball every week.
Here are the weekly features:
Daily: Nightly Pick'Em - A six year running contest to pick the result of one game every day. Details can be found in this thread.
Monday: Power Rankings - A team of 30 fans from every team in baseball, led by masochist fearless leader kasutori_jack, releases their composite power rankings of the 30 teams. This leads to well thought out discussions and some in depth analysis, as well as salty fans crying about how their team is underrated (there may be more of the latter than the former, but it's still a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of how every team is doing).
Monday (Unofficial) - The last few years thekmanpwnudwn has posted a State of the Subreddits post that gives the top post from each team's subreddit from the last week. This is a great roundup post for staying up to date on what all the different team fandoms are feeling, and helps you catch any milestones you might have otherwise missed.
Tuesday: Weekly Awards - Led by lemcoe9 a different team of a fan from every team releases the results of their weekly (and monthly) voting for who the best position player and pitcher was since the last vote was taken. Once again, a great way to keep track of which players are on hot streaks, and who's dominating the league.
Wednesday: Wild Card Wednesday - Each week a new contest, trivia game, or just out of the box fun thread will be stickied! Got an idea? Let the mods know!
Thursdays: Division Discussions - We rotate between the Easts, Centrals, and Wests to do some more in depth talk about where the playoff races and teams stand. If you only have time for one baseball thread every week and want to keep up with the league, this is the thread to set aside time for.
Friday: Trash Talk/Compliment/Complaint - FRIDAYS ARE FUN DAYS, WE ROTATE BETWEEN TRASH TALK, COMPLIMENT, TRASH TALK, AND COMPLAIN THREADS! TRADITION STATES ALL COMMENTS BE IN ALL CAPS AND ENDING IN EXCLAMATION POINTS! WE ROTATE RATHER THAN HAVE A SET DAY FOR EACH ALL SEASON BECAUSE IT'S A LONG SEASON AND ANY ONE OF THE THREE THREADS CAN GET STALE FAST IF YOU DON'T LEAVE TIME FOR MORE AMMUNITION!
Saturday: Saturday is when we usually plug in occasional things that don't necessarily deserve weekly attention. Things like in depth stat discussions, memorobilia sharing, craft projects, etc.
Sunday: Game of the Week - Sunday is the one day a week where we get together as a subreddit to watch a baseball game together, since it's the one time every week where there's only one game going on and there's guaranteed to be a game. The Sunday Night Baseball game thread is usually posted a couple hours before the first pitch.
In addition the playoffs, and select premier match-ups (mostly at the very end of the season where there is a lot riding on a regular season game) we host game threads for all baseball users. These are neutral thread, for more info on less neutral ones skip to the next section. We may experiment with game threads in baseball for the MLB.tv Free Game of the Day this year.
In addition to all these features, it really is a great place to keep up with breaking news and highlights. It'll be posted here minutes after someone tweets it, and long before it's on MLB.com. Team beat writers get the stories first, and it's easier to check in here a couple times a day than follow every one of them. Plus there's something the kids are calling "dank memes" (but not too many, because us mods don't allow too much moisture to get into the servers).

Your Team's Subreddit (And other team subs as well)

The mods at baseball have one goal - help you have the best possible reddit baseball experience, and a LOT of that is helping you get connected to other fans of your team (which feels a little like a cop-out because it means less work for us if you're doing more on your team's sub, but your team's mods aren't complaining.)
One of the main draws of team subs (other than in depth discussion with like-fan-minded users, getting breaking news and analysis on your team, team-memes, and other reddit discussions that come up from a group of individuals who can agree on one thing) are game threads. At this time (to the best of my knowledge) every team sub hosts game threads for their team's games, and you can easily access them in the sidebar during the season by clicking on the team's logo in the schedule (we're working on getting that up to speed, MLB changed some parts of their RSS and background data and we've had to work around that to get our automated system back up). We like to keep the game threads in team subs for a few reasons, one of which is we want to support the team subs and send them relevant traffic when we can because they really do an amazing job, another is because with 15 games a day this place would look like crap if we had game threads for every game or let users post them as they please (we've tried it, it blots out news, discussion, and highlights and looks like crap, baseball doesn't have only a couple days set aside for games or focus on marquee match ups like many other sports, it's 2430 games played in 183 days and is better when it's spread out.)
Even if you're not a game thread person though, getting connected with a good team sub can make disappointing seasons more bearable, and great seasons more exciting, and I know plenty of users that said that their team's sub basically keeps them fans. Team subs are also a great place to get connected to...

Twitter, Podcasts, and other General News/Analysis Sources

Going to be honest here, I don't use twitter and I do not frequently read other people's blogs. I know many people do and enjoy it, and I believe the best way to find the people to follow/sites to visit that interest you the most are to hang around your team's sub and note which Tweets/Sites that are linked to that most often peak your interest. Your list of favorite baseball writers is going to be different than my favorite list, and finding the right twitter personalities, podcasts hosts, and bloggers can make game analysis more interesting for you even if your team is playing like crap and it's the middle of July.
Here are some common suggestions for some general baseball twitter accounts and podcasts to get you started, but like I said, find what you like and follow those:
Twitter

Account	Account	Account
@MLB	@Ken_Rosenthal	@Buster_ESPN
@jonmorosi	@mlbtraderumors	@MiLB
@JeffPassan	@MLBInjuryNews	@BNightengale
@keithlaw	@based_ball	@SamMillerBB
@jonahkeri	@BaseballAmerica	@brooksbaseball
@BenLindbergh	@ChrisCotillo	@mike_petriello
@MJ_Baumann	@FanRagSports	@TheAthleticMLB
@fangraphs	@baseballprospectus	@baseball_ref
@daynperry	@CBSSportsMLB	@CespedesBBQ
@GrantBrisbee	@JonHeyman	@cantpitch
@MLBRosterMoves	@darenw	@extrabaggs

Podcasts

Account	Account	Account
Effectively Wild	Baseball Tonight	The Ringer

The Statistical Titans: Baseball Reference and Fangraphs

Literally every day you will find a link or to BaseballReference.com or Fangraphs.com here, it's a given, and it's because these are the two most extensive free baseball databases that are easy to navigate. If you want to look up anything about baseball history, check Baseball Reference, if you want to look up how players stack up with non-proprietary advanced metrics or read an insightful blog post about why someone is overrated/underrated or overperforming/underperforming, check Fangraphs. With these two sites you have all the stats and figures you need to make a competent argument for basically anything you want with a little cherry picking.
A large part of the modern baseball world is statistics and you're going to find yourself getting more immersed in discussing the game if you can get a handle on all the terms getting thrown around. If you are brand new to baseball, take a little while to get to know the game before diving into these sites, but if you have a handle on the basics and are ready to know what this WAR everyone is talking about is, dive into the glossaries and find the statistics.
When you get the basics, creating your own analysis doesn't seem as daunting, and one of the reasons I love baseball is that I can deconstruct pretty much every play and find some meaning behind it. If you are like that and enjoy numbers, theoretical projections, and breaking things down into simple figures before reconstructing them into something long and beautiful, then learning the basics of sabrmetrics will make you a baseball fan for life. If, on the other hand, you just want to enjoy the game for the beautiful pastime that it is by watching, then we've got a little bit to go through...

Where to Watch? - Your TV and Streaming Guide

So a big part of baseball is, you know, actually being able to watch the games (though as I talk about at the end, it might not necessarily be the case for you, and that doesn't mean you can't enjoy baseball, skip down and see what I'm talking about in the final section).
First off, if you are looking for free games to watch, you are in luck! MLB.tv streams one game a day for free on MLB.com and Yahoo.com. These games are subject to local blackouts (details on those in the MLB.tv section) but are definitely worth watching if you're trying to see if you'll enjoy baseball, or just need a free baseball fix. Facebook is also streaming one game a week during the season for free. The other free games available are from May 18 to July 13 on Saturday night and Thursday nights in September when FOX airs games on their OTA affiliated networks. Believe it or not, TV antennas still work in most areas, and these games are free to watch. Some teams also broadcast select games on OTA networks in their region.
Okay, so now the more expensive stuff. If you have even the most basic cable package (or log in information) you probably have ESPN. ESPN airs games every Sunday Night as well as Wednesday Night and Opening Weekend. These games are also available on ESPN Go.
You also probably have a regional sports channel. This is where almost all of your local teams games will be aired. Here is a decent breakdown of every team and what network they are carried on.
TBS is also on even the most basic networks, they air games the final 13 Sundays of the regular season in the afternoon.
FS1 and FOX carry baseball games almost every Saturday of the season, and MLB Network carries games pretty much every day.
A list of currently scheduled national broadcasts is available here, not all games have been chosen so there will be more added to the list.
For all these networks (except for the Dodgers, Orioles, and Nationals regional networks) there are options to stream the games online provided you have cable login information for the channel. During the playoffs FS1, TBS, and MLB Network will carry most of the games, with ESPN carrying a wild card game and FOX carrying the World Series.
Now there are also streaming services that grant access to most of the previously mentioned channels:

• Sling TV Orange package gets you ESPN, ESPN 2, and TBS.
• Sling TV Blue package gets you FOX, FS1, FS2, TBS, and most regional sports networks.
• Youtube TV gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, TBS, MLB Network, and some regional sports networks.
• HULU Live gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, FS2, TBS, and your regional sports networks.
• Playstation Vue Access gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, FS2, and TBS.
• Playstation Vue Core adds MLB Network to the Access channels.
• Playstation Vue Sports Extra adds regional sports networks in addition to your other channels.
• AT&T TV Now Live a Little gets you FOX, ESPN, ESPN 2, FS1, and TBS and your regional sports networks.
• AT&T TV Now Just Right adds MLB Network to the Live a Little channels.
• AT&T TV Now Go Big adds FS2 to the Just Right channels.
• FUBO Premier gets you FOX, FS1, and your regional sports networks

Also, ESPN+ will carry select games pretty much daily throughout the season.

MLB.TV - the Ultimate Fan Investment

Alright, so a few things to cover with this, first of all YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LEGALLY STREAM IN MARKET GAMES IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES. MLB.tv uses your IP address to see where you are located, and if it pings back that you are in a team's home market it will not let you watch the game LIVE. Here is where you can find what games MLB.tv will black you out from. National broadcasts on ESPN, FOX, and TBS are also subject to blackouts within the United States (MLB Network games are not). Before you ask, yes there are less than legal ways to get around this (spoofing your IP address, subreddit dedicated to mlb streams, etc.), but I won't be talking about those in detail here. IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, YOU WILL HAVE NO BLACKOUTS.
Even if you are blacked out, you will be able to watch the game 90 minutes after it finishes, so if you work a late shift or stay up late it might be worth it for you anyways even if you only want to follow one team.
Military members and college students, don't forget to apply your 35% discount!
"But I don't want to watch EVERY out of market game, I just want to watch MY team!" Cool, for $25 less there's a single team option that will allow you to watch all your team's non-blacked out games! Personally, I'd pay the extra $25 for the opportunity to watch every Kershaw, Bumgarner, and Scherzer start, or put the Cubs on in the background while working on a Friday afternoon, but to each their own.
"But I don't want to commit for a full year!" That's okay, there's a monthly option as well in case you know there are months where you can't watch as much.
Some of the fun features of MLB.tv include the ability to watch four games at once and quickly swap your audio from one to another (seriously, I'm never on commercial break when I'm watching baseball, unless there's only one game on I'm able to watch it all, and in September that's huge) and condensed games. What are condensed games? They go through and cut out all the time between pitches and innings, meaning if you want to watch a whole game in less than a half hour (or are searching desperately for a play to make a .gif or streamable out of that for some reason isn't considered a highlight) it's really easy. If you're someone who really wants to get into the game but can't figure out how to grind through watching a full game, Condensed Games are great for keeping up with a team while you learn the little details between pitches that somehow make watching the catcher twiddle his fingers exciting for some fans.
Also, new this year, MLB has added some great baseball documentaries to your MLB.tv subscription, giving you access to more than just games for the first time.
In addition, there are two great resources to enhance your total immersion into baseball if there are multiple games going on. Please note for both of these you must already be logged into MLB.tv to make them work. The first, and most basic, is Brooks Baseball's MLB.TV Redzone. It will automatically take you to the highest leverage game going on, and will automatically shift you to another game between innings OR if another game enters a higher leverage situation. For a more personalized touch, The Baseball Guage has MLB.TV Game Changer which lets you customize your preferences so MLB.tv will always switch to the game that is most relevant to you. This is great if you play fantasy and want to keep up with your players, are waiting for someone to hit a milestone, or if you want to make sure your action is broken into to follow a no-hitter in progress.
It also gives you a free subscription to...

MLB AtBat - The Most Underrated Way to Stay Connected to Baseball

MLB AtBat is MLB's official application. It comes in two versions, the free version which has ads but is useful for keeping up to date with all the scores, and the paid version ($19.99 for the year of $2.99 monthly) which gives you access to ad-free content, Gameday on your mobile device, and (most valuable) access to every team's radio stream for every game during the season and postseason completely blackout free. If there's a day game, you can bet I'm listening to it at work, if I'm mowing the lawn on a Saturday I'm listening to a game, when I can't sleep at night, on comes a West Coast game. To get the paid version you must download the free version, then subscribe within the app, or log into an MLB account that has MLB.tv.
Baseball was made to be on the radio, it's a sport that is very easy to follow the action with the right announcer. At work (or school) it's great because you can half listen, and when the announcer gets excited you can instantly tune back in to hear what's going on. This is the most underrated way to stay connected to your team throughout the year. Before I could afford MLB.tv, this was the way to go, and it honestly makes me question every year whether getting the MLB.tv package is worth is when I can get 80% of the entertainment value from listening to the games (and every year I manage to forget to unsubscribe, for many reasons listed above).
Gameday on mobile is also a great feature, it lets you quickly check in on the action during brief recesses in meetings (or under the table during meetings), or breaks between classes (or under a desk in classes). This is honestly my primary means of keeping track of Twins games throughout the year. My wife thinks I'm crazy when I could just watch the game, but instead am nervously checking my phone every couple minutes. IF I WATCH I JINX THE TEAM, HONEY!

How to watch baseball?

So this is a question that we get from many new fans who are just trying to figure out what the hell is going on and why people find this game so fascinating. I'll get the elephant in the room out of the way, yes there are some "boring" parts of watching baseball on TV. The camera fans to a batter spitting and adjusting his gloves, the pitcher adjusts his crotch then licks his fingers, random shots of a bored looking manager, etc. When you are actually at the ballpark you can be watching where the catcher and fielders set up to try to predict the pitch that is coming (read The Hidden Language of Baseball by Paul Dickson for some great insight into how to interpret this), but on TV it's not usually the case. This is where I have some suggestions for new fans trying to get into it.
First off, if you are looking for just a relaxing day, embrace the slow pace with a beer and veg out on the couch while watching. It's meant to be slow and relaxing (until it gets tense and exciting, usually with runners on). Seriously, when was the last time you just sat and did nothing? Mid July afternoon games are a perfect way to reach that zen of half-consciousness, until something happens to get you sucked into the action.
Another option to stay engaged is keeping score. I find keeping score relaxing and looking back through a scorebook can be fun to see what you were doing a few years ago (except for that damn unfinished scorecard from 2015 where A-Rod hit the most predictable home run in Twins-Yankees history and I sent my scorecard flying to the other side of the room). As NPR once put it, keeping score is a knowledge making activity, and if you have the time and patience for it it is a great way to learn the game. There are a couple different guides to keeping score, and most scorebooks/cards will have a brief example of how to do so. If you have any questions, the Around the Horn thread is a great place to ask!
Gamethreads are another way to get together with other baseball fans and pass the time between pitches, especially in team subs you get to know the regulars and conversations start to wonder away from baseball at times throughout the game, and that's fine. Baseball is an excuse to enjoy a summer day.
For those that want to actually understand what is going on during that time, though, there are some options. Watching Baseball Smarter by Zack Hample (who despite his reputation on this subreddit knows some stuff and actually pops in from time to time to comment on different things) is a good starting place for new fans. Baseball for Dummies and The Complete Idiots Guide to Baseball are also good starting points for those willing to sit and read for a little bit.
For those who don't want to read a book, I guess I can touch on what I'm looking for between pitches. A big part of baseball is pitch selection, so scouting out a pitchers repertoire of pitches is a good starting point, BrooksBaseball.net has great cheat sheets on every pitcher in the game, and PitcherList.com has a visual example of each pitcher's pitches so you can see what you can be looking for. Anyways, I mention that because the whole reason the catcher is twiddling his fingers behind the plate is to go over with the pitcher what pitch is going to be thrown. What I'm watching for between pitches is where the catcher is setting up behind the plate and guessing which pitch is going to be thrown. A 2-0 and 3-1 count are known as hitters counts because the pitcher needs to throw a strike or risk walking the batter, when the count reaches either of those pay attention, because the hitters going to be looking for his perfect pitch and there's probably going to be some action on the field. 0-1, 0-2, and 1-2 are pitcher's counts, look for curveball, slider or other somewhat nasty pitch to be thrown to get the batter to swing at a bad pitch, or a fastball inside to catch them off guard. If you have any questions about this, go ahead and ask in an around the horn thread.

Where to watch highlights and game recaps.

There are many many places to see highlights and game recaps, this is not an exhaustive list, but is a good start.
For highlights, bigger highlights will often be posed here on baseball a few minutes after they occur, if you wish to post them please familiarize yourself with the subreddit rules. They also appear relatively quickly on MLB.com in each games Gameday area. For a pretty slick collection of highlights from across MLB, https://baseball.theate is a great place to exclusively watch highlights.
There are a few ways to get great game recaps. If you have MLB Network, every day Quick Pitch is an hour-long show that recaps every game from the previous day. It usually starts after MLB Tonight (about 10pm EDT) or whatever game MLB Network is showing finishes up, and runs until 10am EDT the next day. MLB.com also puts out recaps of every game by the next morning, usually a 2-5 minutes quick rundown of highlights that can be found on the game recap. It also puts out Fastcast videos on youtube and their website every morning which has a brief rundown of all the games from the previous day. Here's an example of a Fastcast from two seasons ago.
If you want one concise place to see most of these, efitz11 was amazing last season and posted video links to every game recap and fastcast in the daily Around the Horn thread. Here's an example. I am unsure if they plan to continue it this year, but it would be surely appreciated!

TL;DR Finding what you enjoy about the game.

When it boils down to it, baseball is about finding entertainment and enjoyment, and don't let anyone try to tell you how to enjoy baseball. If you want nothing to do with statistical analysis and just want to enjoy what's going on on the field, don't let anyone tell you you aren't enough of a fan, and if you want to dissect a player into their strengths and components using statcast and advanced metrics don't let anyone tell you you're reading into the game too much. You can follow one team, and only one team, or you can follow multiple teams, don't let anyone tell you you're not a true fan for wearing another team's gear or enjoying their games. You might enjoy bat flips and flamboyance, or reserved speedy home run trots. You might not even enjoy physically watching a game (especially not if your team isn't playing), but find yourself loving keeping track of your team through the season and tracking your players or maybe just the thrill of the standings race and scoreboard watching or maybe you just love all the numbers that get thrown around and arguing about their relevancy. That's okay, eventually I believe enjoyment of the game itself will come, but even if it doesn't, the long baseball season is still creating a place of enjoyment for you, and that's what matters. If you have any questions, once again, feel free to ask them in our daily Around the Horn thread, or below in the comments, or if you really want to feel free to PM with questions and I'd be happy to answer.
So watch games this week and join in the discussion here, you'll naturally find yourself gravitating towards certain players or teams and enjoying different aspects of the game. Baseball is a long season, find what you enjoy, stick to it, dwell on it, and enjoy it.
TL;DR for the TL;DR - Baseball is fun

It's a lot to read so I'll chop this into 2 parts.
Preshow: Bobby Lashley vs Riddle (United States)
At least if this match doesn't happen before then. You all know it's coming so why not. This loss won't hurt Riddle as much so it's no biggie.
And still the US Champ: Bobby Lashley

1) Street Profits vs Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura (Smackdown Tag)

I'll be honest. I was totally running out of ideas because I wanted to get some big names in the Rumble match. But let's pretend Cesaro and Nakamura finish feuding with Otis and Chad Gable. They move on and try and get the gold. This match isn't 3 minutes long like the one Nakamura had with Otis. On the other hand, I don't think anyone is tired of the Profits yet. Although they get no offense in against Cesaro and Nakamura for like the first 5-6 minutes, the Profits still get the smoke.
And still the Smackdown Tag Team Champs: The Street Profits

2) Sasha Banks vs Carmella (Smackdown Women)

Like the match before, it was hard to figure out who should enter the Royal Rumble so I wouldn't mind seeing this match again. Maybe it'll be their last and then Banks can go feud with someone else.
And still the Smackdown Women's Champion: Sasha Banks

3) Murphy & Dominik Mysterio vs King Corbin's new aides (Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler)

So it looks like Blake & Cutler have been forgotten. Good thing their gimmick changed after Ryker carelessly said some things on Twitter. Anyways, it's down to whoever needs this win the most and I believe that in order to be taken seriously again, Blake and Cutler need it more:
Winners: Blake & Cutler

4) Women's Royal Rumble Match

I totally randomized this one so I had a bit of fun with it (except spots #1, #29 and #30)
Anyways let's get to it
#1: Nia Jax is the first entrant. She cuts a shitty promo about how the reason that everyone hates her so much is that they secretly wishes they were in her shoes, lists a couple achievements and just basically gloats. Then all of a sudden it turns dark. Then Retribution's theme hits.
#2: Reckoning is the next entrant. In the first 45 seconds, Reckoning is going ham and giving Nia some fight. Ultimately, Nia fights back even stronger and manages to hit a Samoan Drop on Reckoning, but neither woman gets eliminated yet as the fans count down the next entrant.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#3: Liv Morgan is the next entrant. As she would, she temporarily teams up with Reckoning to tire out Nia Jax (because who wouldn't; she's a 272lb monster). However, after 53 seconds, Morgan tries to go for Reckoning but fails to eliminate her. No elimiations yet as we count down or next entrant.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#4: Peyton Royce
Despite having been separated from her bestie, Royce still has her eyes on the prize and the money on her mind (you know, the spot at Wrestlemania). After showcasing her talent on both Reckoning and Jax, Royce turns her attention to Morgan and gives her a dirty look. She knows that both her and her partner are the reason the Iiconics are no more. Royce goes apeshit on Morgan but instead of trying to eliminate her, she just beats her down. You'll see why that was a big mistake when entrant 5 gets here.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#5: Ruby Riott
Looks like Liv's got some backup. You mess with Morgan, then you mess with Riott. She wastes little time going after Royce. Morgan gets up and helps her once again friend beat down Royce. And lo and behold, Riott and Morgan work together to finally eliminate Peyton Royce.
(Peyton Royce is out with 0 eliminations)
Both women know it's far from over so they go after the biggest threat: Nia Jax. As Ruby and Liv attack the Samoan, she just has a facial expression that says "Really?". Then she tosses both Ruby and Liv around the ring. Reckoning is starting to get up as we count down entrant number 6
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#6: GIRL KILL IT SHE A MONSTER! It looks like Chelsea Green has recovered and she's ready to rumble.
She goes after Reckoning and then gets it from The Riott Squad, only for Jax to take out all 4 women with a wowing crossbody. No eliminations this time but who's gonna be the 7th entrant?
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#7: Uh oh. It's future HOF, Mickie James.
Someone's getting eliminated now. Right off the bat, she dropkicks Jax. Morgan is up again but immediately runs into a Mick Kick. Riott is up but James also has a Mick Kick for her too. Reckoning gets up but runs in to a Mi...wait. Reckoning ducks. Smart Girl. Reckoning squares off with James and both women give each other a hell of a fight. Green is up and dive kicks James. However, it doesn't take too long for Reckoning to get hold of her. She hits a Sole Food on Green (akin to Mia Yim) and gets rid of her.
(Chelsea Green is out with 0 eliminations)
A great performance from Reckoning but it's not over yet. She's got Nia Jax, both women of the Riott Squad, Mickie James and entrant number 8 is on their way.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#8: And here we have our first NXT entrant: Toni Storm
Last year's Royal Rumble didn't go according to plan. Can she get the gold this time. Toni Storm takes out everyone except Nia Jax, who's going to take a lot of work. Jax hits a Samoan Drop on Storm as the Riott Squad are up again. They're gonna wish they stayed down now. After Samoan Dropping Riott, she tosses her out the ring and eliminates her. Furious, Morgan punches and kicks Jax but only to join her friend outside the ring.
(Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan are both out with 1 elimination each)
So far we've got: Nia Jax, Toni Storm, Reckoning & Mickie James. And now, we're about to welcome entrant number nine.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#9: Lacey Evans
She's got a couple nasties to take care of. A Women's Right to Jax and another one to Storm. Oh, and she didn't forget about Reckoning. However, just as she's about to hit Mickie James, her fist is caught and she gets suplexed by the 41 year old. She's clearly still got it. No eliminations here but can entrant number 10 change that? We're about to find out.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#10: DING DONG! Hello? It's the so called role model, Bayley.
Despite not being the Smackdown Women's Champion amymore, she's ready to rumble. Bayley gives just about everyone some fight, especially Reckoning who almost eliminated her until the "Role Model" set an example by sticking her thumb in her eye (No DQs in a Royal Rumble Match), blinding her long enough to eliminate her.
(Reckoning is eliminated with 1 elimination)
So it's Bayley, Nia Jax, Mickie James, Toni Storm and Lacey Evans. Who will entrant number 11 be?
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#11: Kacy Catanzaro
The little ninja from NXT is looking for a big win in her career. Despite displaying great feats of athelticism against Bayley and Evans, Storm manages to beat her down as we welcome entrant number #12.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#12: Kayden Carter
Kacy's not alone. She's got her BFF entering the rumble now. Just as Storm is about to eliminate Catanzaro, Carter saves her, carrying the little ninja on her shoulders. Both women enter the rumble and wear down Toni before moving onto James. Their time in the ring doesn't last long after Jax sends them flying over the rope
(Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter both out with no eliminations)
The fans are going crazy, counting down entrant number 13
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#13: Dana Brooke
Dana's looking to flex at Wrestlemania. However, she may have flexed a bit too hard as James hits her with a Mick Kick, before crushing her dreams of a Wrestlemania match.
(Dana Brooke is out with 0 elimination)
James and Storm are having each other, whilst Bayley and Evans are going after Nia Jax. The fans are awaiting our next entrant.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#14: Ember Moon
Taking the #14 spot is Ember Moon and she wipes out James, Evans and Bayley, before turning her attention to Toni Storm. Moon hasn't forgotten about the time that Storm turned on her before NXT: Wargames (2020). Both women give each other a hell of a fight but ultimately, Moon gets her sweet revenge on Storm
(Toni Storm is out with 0 eliminations)
What a great performance from the women in the Royal Rumble, especially the ones that are still in the match: Nia Jax, Lacey Evans, Mickie James, Bayley & Ember Moon. We're reaching our halfway point as our fans get ready to welcome entrant number 15
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#15: "....wait why's it gone dark again?" ALEXA BLISS' THEME HITS!
The goddess isn't looking too happy. After an icy stare towards all the women, she smiles ear to ear, waves and skips around the ring. Lacey Evans just stares at Bliss and wonders what the hell is up with that nasty. Uh oh Lacey! With the Sassy Southern Belle distracted, Nia Jax scores another elimination.
(Lacey Evans is out with 0 eliminations)
And now Bliss enters the ring, still skipping around. Everyone else is looking at her like "WTF?" Bayley is the first to go for her but Alexa Bliss dodges. Ember tries her hand but also misses, with Alexa Bliss posing. While this weirdness is going on, we're about to welcome the 16th entrance
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#16: WOOOOOO! It's the queen herself, Charlotte Flair
After her absence since the June 22nd episode of Raw, she's ready to piss off all the smarks again. Charlotte Flair manages to catch Alexa Bliss and beat her senseless. Bliss is fake crying again, while the others are looking at Flair like she's a monster. Seconds later, everyone is ganging up on Flair. Flair fights back and manages to send a fellow horsewoman back to the locker room
(Bayley is out with 1 elimination)
The Queen isn't finished yet. She turns her attention to Nia Jax, the woman who injured her arm 7 months ago. Both women go after each other and after seconds of fighting oustide the ring.....Charlotte Flair gets her own back.
(Nia Jax is eliminated with 5 eliminations)
So now we got Charlotte Flair, Mickie James and Ember Moon. Alexa Bliss, for some reason, decided to leave the ring and skip out of the rumble. The fans are counting down entrant number 17. Who will it be?
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#17: It's Dakota Kai! Another NXT veteran.
Despite surviving Charlotte and Mickie, she runs into Ember Moon, a famliar face from Wargames. Moon manages to score another elimination as we await the 18th entrant
(Dakota Kai out with 0 eliminations)
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#18: Raquel Gonzalez.
Ember's in for it now. You've got a problem with Kai, then you've got one with Gonzalez as well. Gonzalez wastes little time tossing Ember around before hitting her with a Tequila Shot and sending her back to the locker room
(Ember Moon out with 2 eliminations)
Oh and she didn't forget about Mickie either. Tequila shot to James and she goes over the ropes
(Mickie James out with 1 elimination)
Now The Queen is having a stare off with the 6 foot Raquel Gonzalez with the fans chanting "This is awesome!". Meanwhile, entrant 19 is about to make her entrance.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#19: THIS IS MY BRUTALITY! You're not dreaming. You're seeing the nightmare, Rhea Ripley!
Now Rhea is in the ring with both of her sworn enemies: Raquel from NXT and Flair from Wrestlemania 36. The three proceed to beat down each other to a pulp. With all 3 women down, we're getting ready to welcome entrant number twenty
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#20: Who pulled the Queen of Spades card? The 2 time NXT champ, Shayna Baszler is our next participant.
Baszler enters the ring and hits everything in sight. As she is about to take a step on Ripley's right arm, Charlotte catches Baszler with a spear. Gonzalez is up and attempts to eliminate both women but fails. Charlotte is outside the ring but since she didn't go over the ropes, she has not yet been eliminated. The fans prepare to welcome the next entrant.
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#21: AWAWOOOOOOOOO! Shotzi Blackheart pulls up in the sexiest looking tank possible. Shotzi gives both Rhea and Raquel a hell of a fight, even hitting a Diving Senton on Rhea. Baszler approaches Blackheart and the two have a go at each other. Meanwhile, it's time to find out who the next entrant is
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#22: Tamina
The Samoan veteran is back in the rumble for the 4th time in a row, but she's looking to secure a WM title match. She superkicks Baszler and Gonzalez into the next 90 seconds (don't ask me how) but unfortunately falls short to Rhea Ripley
(Tamina out with 0 eliminations)
Charlotte is back in the ring and goes after Shotzi but fails to eliminate her. The queen lets the frustration get to her and Ripley catches the Flair in a riptide before getting a little payback for last year's WM.
(Charlotte Flair is out with 2 eliminations)
So now, we've got 4 NXT icons in the ring: Rhea Ripley, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi Blackheart and Raquel Gonzalez. We're counting down the 23rd entrant now
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#23: "Mandy....."
Looks like God's greatest creation wants in on the Rumble. She hits a Goddess fall on Ripley before hitting another one on Blackheart. However, the Goddess won't be seeing gold as Raquel Gonzales scores an elimination against her
(Mandy Rose out with 0 eliminations)
Meanwhile, Shotzi is tossed over the ropes by Baszler, but she hasn't hit the floor yet. The Queen of Spades catches Shotzi in a Kirifuda Clutch. Blackheart passes out and Shayna lets go, dumping her lifeless body on the floor, as we await entrant number 24
(Shotzi Blackhart is eliminated with 0 elinimations)
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#24: Nikki Cross
With Alexa Bliss no longer by her side, Cross shifts her attention to winning the Rumble. Oh, and speaking of Alexa Bliss, she decided to skip back into the ring, infuriating Cross. Bliss waves to Cross but she's not buying it. Cross immediately eliminates Bliss. Despite having a brief look of sadness on her face, Bliss smiles, shrugs and skips away.
(Alexa Bliss eliminated with 0 eliminations)
Nikki Cross is distracted and Baszler takes advantage by catching her in a Kirifuda Clutch. But the Queen of Spades isn't safe either. Rhea Ripley from behind eliminates both women.
(Nikki Cross & Shayna Baszler eliminated with 1 elimination each)
Rhea and Raquel, the only 2 women in the ring proceed to face off whilst the next entrant is about to to be welcomed in:
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#25: I'M ON MY OWN! AGAINST THE WALL! It's Bianca Belair: The Strong-EST, the Fast-EST, the- Tough-EST, the Best-EST!
After an unforgettable performance in the 2020 Royal Rumble, the EST is looking to secure a title match at WM37. She hits a KOD on Rhea and then another on Raquel. She beats down both women, showing the women's division what she's all about. Perhaps entrant number 26 can whoop her?
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#26: Billie Kay.
And she has something to say
"You gotta be joking me! Why am I entered in number 26? I deserve better, mate! Look at my resume"
Billie Kay enters the ring and gloats about her achievements
"Are you done?" Bianca mouths to Kay
Kay goes for Shades of Kay but misses and Bianca Belair catches her in a suplex before eliminating her
(Billie Kay eliminated with 0 eliminations)
Meanwhile, Ripley and Gonzalez gang up on Belair, but she's just too tough to eliminate. It's time to welcome participant number 27
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#27: Natalya, the self proclaimed B.O.A.T.
Can Natalya do the Hart Dynasty proud again? The Canadian veteran enters the ring and hits a Sharpshooter on Rhea, before being stopped by Belair with a hair whip. After a KOD, the EST intercepts Natalya's dreams of a WM title match
(Natalya eliminated with 0 eliminations)
And now, Rhea, Raquel and Bianca are about to be joined by entrant number 28 in
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#28: Santana Garrett
....Ok, I guess. Unfortunately, she doesn't last very long in the ring, thanks to Belair
(Santana Garrett out with 0 eliminatons)
Rhea hits a Riptide on Bianca Belair before Gonzalez takes the Nightmare Down with a Tequila shot. Gonzalez sends Bianca out the ring but thankfully, the EST hasn't been eliminated yet as she didn't go over the ropes. She only cares about eliminating Rhea at the moment. The two beasts have a hell of a fight...only for both women to eliminate each other!
(Rhea Ripley out with 4 eliminations)
(Raquel Gonzales out with 3)
With Bianca still outside the ring, yet to be eliminated, we await entrant number 29
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#29:The Ravishing Lana
Upon entering the ring, Lana has a shocked look on her face. Despite entering at 29, she then believes that she is entrant #30 and that she has won the Royal Rumble by default and begins celebrating. However, she didn't realise that Bianca wasn't actually eliminated and Lana feels stupid. Bianca is quick to hit a KOD on Lana before eliminating her. Unlike her though, Bianca knows that there is only one more participant left and she'll be here in
3....2.....1.....BUZZZZZZZZZZ
#30...
It's gone dark for the third time tonight. Who could possible be the last entrant.....
​
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH!
NO FRICKIN' WAY! SHE'S BACK
BECKY LYNCH!
After relinquishing the Raw Women's Title back in May due to pregnancy, The Man has finally returned!
This could be Bianca's toughest test in her career, but she's ready for it.
After a whole minute of staring each other, the two begin to spar and wrestle, with the Thunderdome absolutely losing their minds
Becky showcases her talent, showing that's there's no ring rust on her
Bianca showcases her talent, showing that it's time her opponent passed the torch on.
After minutes of intense combat, despite Becky getting most of the offense in, Bianca escapes a "Dis-Arm-Her", hits a KOD and sends The Man over the Ropes
(Becky Lynch is out with no eliminations)
Women's Royal Rumble 2021 Winner: Bianca Belair
After the match, Becky enters the ring and shares a handshake and hug with the EST and possible future champion at WM.

Nate Matthews' Penthouse, The Fanciest Hotel in New York, New York City
December 31st, 2020, 11:57PM EST
Song: Coffin Nails by MF DOOM
"Only three minutes until this godforsaken year is over," mumbles Conor Cassidy from the corner of the expansive living room of Nate Matthews' hotel. Meanwhile, 92ColdScorpio are finishing up a game of pool, laughing as the TV channel flips over to coverage of Times Square. "It's been a good year for us, huh?" asks Ape as they rack the balls for the next game, STEEZ handing Ape a twenty for the win. "For sure, man. Fuck, after that game, we're right back to dead even." They both chuckle as they finish off their drinks, wondering aloud how both could be so evenly matched. "Wavelength, bro," explains Ape. "Hey, the countdown's starting. Think there's some room over by Conor." They wander over, the rest of Cosa Nostra huddling next to them as the room starts to scream their way out of 2020.
"TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Everyone pops the champagne, as Ape nudges STEEZ. "I think I'mma go. I just said goodbye to Nate. Wanna come with? Think we could ring in New Year's in a more... crazy, stupid way. It's what we do best." STEEZ nods, giving a glance at the host to say he's leaving. "Yo, y'know what I'm feeling like? I wanna watch Juice," says Ape. "No fuckin way!" exclaims STEEZ, "that shit's like, my favourite movie. We gotta watch that shit together." Ape grins. "Then some 90s All Japan?" STEEZ nods. "You know it, homie." They bump fists and head for the door, when they're bumped past by Conor Cassidy, also on his way out of the party. Ape and STEEZ exchange looks, both shrugging. "Yo, Conor, I know you don't drink, but you wanna tag along with us? We're splitting too," says STEEZ. Conor thinks a moment, before saying a simple "okay" and throwing his blazer back on to brave the New York cold.
STEEZ follows after him, his formal wear for the occasion starkly contrasting with his Timberlands. Ape has the same sort of idea, running out into the snow with a tuxedo and a pair of worn down sneakers, only to nearly fall over on the slush-coated pavement outside Nate's place. Conor looks back at the two friends, laughing as they slip and slide in their suits, drunkenly howling with laughter, until STEEZ has a bright idea. "I wanna get out of this weather. You guys wanna go bowling? I haven't been bowling in fuckin forever." Ape and Conor nod sure, and soon enough, they find themselves at the only alley open for New Year's, a 24/7/365 joint with all its lanes open. They stumble in from the icy night, the attendant telling them to go to Lane 4.
​
New York 24/7 Bowling, Lane 4, New York City
January 1st, 2021, 1:10AM EST
Song: Wii Bowling Theme by Nintendo
The guys order a few rounds for their lane, as well as a comically large water for Conor. They get joking back and forth, Conor loosening up as he gets talking to his old friend in Ape and old rival in STEEZ. As the trash talk starts up during a pretty evenly matched game, Conor asks how STEEZ and Ape are feeling about 2021. STEEZ starts off, talking up his faith that it's gonna be Cosa Nostra's year, no offense to PHOENIX, and that they're going to hold all the gold, main event BTE III, show Atlas Rogue who's boss, the works. Ape has another sip of his drink as he readies for his turn, and says that he never would've seen himself starting 2021 here if he'd been asked where he'd be a year ago. A year ago, he was healthy and entering his second year in upper management, but things change, so who's he to say how 2021 is gonna go? He asks Conor how he's feeling about it, and Conor shrugs, saying he's going to try and do justice to the TV Title and prove himself.
Ape is up a point as they all go into the final frames, and it's STEEZ going first. He picks the ball up and tries to dribble it, only for it to land with a hearty THUD on the wooden floor. There's a shout for him to not damage the flooring from behind them, and STEEZ looks dejected, sulking that he can't dribble it before winding up and connecting with a penalty kick, the ball arcing through the air for a strike. He celebrates as Conor goes up to bat, throwing his ball into the air and landing a picture-perfect superkick, the ball soaring straight into the set of pins for a strike of his own. Ape needs a strike to win, and he lines himself up before shouting out "PERSONA!" jetting the bowling ball like a quarterback straight into the pins, earning himself a strike and the narrow win.
The guys go back to the counter to pay, and Ape at this point is too out of it to even speak straight, as is STEEZ. Conor pays the bill, but the clerk says that was the best frame of bowling she's ever seen, and it warranted a reward. Conor watches with baited breath as she presents Ape with a live chicken, that looks confused by its predicament. "Keep it as a pet or something," she says, giggling as she wanders off to clean the bowling shoes. STEEZ dubs the chicken "Nugget," and the three all leave the bowling alley, in search of a new adventure. It's not long, though, until Ape has another idea. "This night has been... awesome, guys. What if, like... we made it last longer? We could have a party that goes for -hic- a long ass time if we went to like... YOOOOOO! Let's go to Tokyo!"
​
JFK International Airport Departures and Security, New York City
January 1st, 2021, 3:50AM EST
Song: Jet Airliner by Steve Miller Band
It's the departure gate of JFK, surprisingly busy for the first few hours of the year. Nugget has already managed to run away as STEEZ and Ape are waved into security, with no bags to speak of. "When are you returning?" asks the swamped security guard of the two of them. Ape looks behind him to see Conor already going through, mouthing at them to hurry up. "I dunno," says STEEZ, "prolly like a day." The agent looks at them, confused. "You're going to Japan... for a day." Ape nods. "Yeah. Our flight leaves soon, can we, like... go?" The guard groans. "No. Stay here, we need to conduct some searches." As the guard is turned away, STEEZ mimes to Conor to catch, before throwing him a knife from inside his jacket. "Bitch, what were you gonna do if Conor wasn't through already?" whispers Ape, as the guard turns back around and asks for their passports. STEEZ shrugs, and the guys present their documents before the agent begrudgingly waves them through the metal detector.
As they walk to their gate, STEEZ starts rambling. "See, dude, this is how easy it is to do this kinda shit. Like, no fuckin wonder, if I wanted to bring a bomb..." he gets a sharp glance from a security agent, who points him out. STEEZ starts to walk quicker, until Conor says "what KIND of plant balm?" Security instantly relaxes, and Conor slips STEEZ his blade back before they all start the boarding process, chuckling about their own stupidity trying to get through security. "TO TOKYO!!!!!" they all yell. A "NINETY! TWO! COLD!" is busted out by STEEZ and Ape. They all burst out laughing as the other passengers are clearly unhappy with the present company, and they begin to settle in for the fourteen hour flight to Japan.
​
Haneda Airport Arrivals, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 10:06AM JST
Song: GAS GAS GAS by Manuel
Blinding morning light floods into the eyes of all three travellers as they exit the airport terminal, Ape's car left ready and waiting in the parking lot. After fourteen hours of playing Poker with each other on the headrest TVs, STEEZ, Ape and Conor are taken aback by the bustling civilization, and the Cosa Nostra members insist Conor drives, as their headaches are too bad. Conor settles into the driver's seat of the Mazda, revving the gas pedal before leaving the parking lot, dropping onto the signature Shuto Expressway.
Conor coasts the open road as other cars whiz by, checking out the midnight purple street racing delight that houses the FBE stars. He notes that they've been together for going on 24 hours, the party having started at 9PM EST, meaning that in just under an hour they would have been up for a whole day. STEEZ and Ape are paying little attention, giggling and yelling "NINETY! TWO! COLD!" out the windows at oncoming drivers. Conor suggests that there's a song they could listen to to celebrate, but it's only played at a very certain location in a well-known district of the city.
Suddenly, the pondering session is halted by a horn blaring into all three's eardrums, as a Toyota Panda Trueno AE86 comes bursting up behind them, clearly taking offense to the debauchery of Ape and STEEZ. The driver rolls down his window, and STEEZ flips him off, only for the driver to stare down Conor. "You and me. Race." Conor smiles, and Ape moans "don't kill my car..." before a blast of smoke kicks up from the rear tires. Both cars blast off the line, bobbing and weaving through traffic as the speedometer creeps ever higher.
The rest of the traffic becomes a blur as the cars go faster and faster, Ape shrieking "DON'T KILL MY CAR!!!" as Conor gets a look of intense concentration across his face. He grins, before flicking open a switch with "Do NOT touch - fun button" in Ape's handwriting scrawled across it in tape. He hits the button beneath it, and a burst of nitrous explodes out of the tailpipe, launching the car at unprecedented speeds ahead of the Panda. Ape looks behind them, but it's STEEZ who yells out first "THEY'RE GAINING!" Conor checks the mirror and sees that the Toyota is indeed catching up, and they take an exit on the highway with their opponents in fast pursuit.
Onto the hustling and bustling narrow streets of Tokyo, they're quickly approaching their destination, with the passengers in the other car seemingly raring for a fight. "Yo, STEEZ, I got an idea," says Ape. Conor turns his head to ask what the plan is, but Ape tells him to keep his eyes on the road as Ape tells STEEZ to take out his knife. They roll down the rear window, and, as the Toyota starts to level out, Ape shrieks "NOW!" STEEZ whips his blade out of the open window, nesting it in the front right tire of the Trueno, which promptly loses control, crashing into a very familiar looking archway. "We're here," says Conor, "and right on time."
​
Heroine Karaoke Bar, Kamurocho, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 11:00AM JST
Song: 24 Hour Cinderella by Hidenari Ugaki
"Well, boys, here it is. It's time. Check your clocks... yep," says Conor, preparing his comrades. "Exactly 24 hours in three... two... one." Suddenly, the music kicks in, and all three tear away their formal party attire to reveal pink and silver jumpsuits. Rollerblades appear on their feet as if by magic, the bar fading away in their minds to create an incredible stage bespoke for the performance of a lifetime. Conor and Ape put on orange and yellow headbands, feathers protruding from their hair as STEEZ equips himself with a matching durag. They burst into an incredibly choreographed performance, all three reciting the lyrics off by heart as a sea of backup dancers and skaters appear behind them.
SU NAO NI I LOVE YOU!
TODOKE YO U
KITTO YOU LOVE ME!
TSUTAWARU SA
KI MI NI NI A U GA RA SU NO
KUTSUWO SAGA SO U
FUTARI DE STEP AND GO!
I TSU MA DE MO
SHIN YA 12 JI WO
SU GI TATTE
KI MI WA BO
KU NO ITO SHI I
24 JI KAN
The guys all ready their vocal cords, dropping their knees and spreading their arms for one last incredible line. Stars burst out from behind them as neon lights focus their energy on the greatest performance in the history of the known universe, patrons applauding as the magnificent spectacle ends on one last note...
"CINDERELLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAA.... HEY! HEY! HEY!"
Cheers and applause erupt from the boundlessly energetic crowd that's formed, and all three take bows as they magically reappear in their original garb - Ape's grey tuxedo, STEEZ's Timbs and suit, and Conor's striped collared shirt and blazer. They take their bows, and quickly exit the bar into the busy streets of Kamurocho, still buzzing off the electricity of their latest adventure.
​
East Taihei Boulevard, Kamurocho, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 11:09 JST
Song: Fatal Conflict by Hidenori Shoji
Smiling and breaking into little dances, all three walk down Taihei Boulevard, joking about how crazy the last 24 hours have been. None of them are the least bit tired, the events of the day keeping them alert, when all of a sudden STEEZ is blindsided by a punch to the back of the head. He stays upright and turns around to see five men, all in identical poses, brandishing baseball bats and grinning. Quickly, Conor and Ape turn to face them as the eight foes are encircled by a tremendous crowd, all of whom are chanting as the five attackers step towards the FBE competitors. Conor, Ape and STEEZ stare them down before once again tearing the upper halves of their suits away, ready for battle, glowing yellow auras emanating from their skin. They scan their surroundings as their attackers charge, and Ape roars as he spots a bicycle rack, filled to the brim. All three rush over, heaving bicycles free, and get to work smashing their foes within an inch of their lives with excessive flair.
Ape blasts a thug with the bicycle into a knee strike by STEEZ, before Conor connects with a Ryu ga Gotoku, the thug exploding into a brilliant cloud of money as he falls to the ground, defeated. The other four remain unrelenting, swinging their bats but unable to deal any damage. Ape halts a swing dead in its tracks with his forearms, only for STEEZ to pick up the discarded bat from their fallen foe and obliterate Thug Number Two. Ape heaves another bicycle up, beating down a third thug until the bicycle tears itself apart. Now just a wheel, Ape smashes the spokes down on their head, forming a donut around them, before connecting with a MYRIAD TRUTHS! STEEZ hits a RZArector on the fourth guy as vast swaths of yen rain down from the sky, and finally, all three of PRIDE's very own heave up brand new bikes, sandwiching the fifth thug between them. He collapses to the pavement, but he's still somehow in the fight, until a woman walks into the circle of doom, in stilettos and with a whip, and stomps on Thug Number Five's nads to end the encounter. 92Conor appear, once more, with fully intact outfits, exchanging compliments on their form as they wander off.
The three friends keep walking down the street, coming across a poster stapled to a message board outside a public bathroom for a wrestling event later that very afternoon. Dubbed the final "Road To Tokyo Dome" show, it featured a stacked main event of Master Wato vs DOUKI, and the three knew they had to be part of such an incredible show. "It's always been my dream to compete with them..." says Conor, and Ape nods. They get the details and hop in a cab to the venue, the show set to start in just an hour and a half.
​
Nippon Budokan Hall, Chiyoda City, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 12:23PM JST
Song: Whassup Dawg? by Jado and Gedo
All three arrive at the venue in one piece, and head straight in the doors, sneaking past security. Ape tells Conor and STEEZ to act natural as they head down the stairs, past row by row of filled seats, approaching the stage area. There's a match already underway by the time they go past ringside, and they keep walking to the backstage area, where they're met by a towering security guard. He asks for ID and backstage passes, and STEEZ looks around for potential witnesses before promptly headbutting him, hiding him behind a curtain. They scour the area for locker rooms or something, even the Gorilla position to try and insert themselves into the match. However, they soon find their marks - Jado and Gedo. Jado and Gedo run up, not recognizing the three, and Conor, STEEZ and Ape ask to be involved in the main event of the evening. Jado shakes his head, reluctant, but Gedo asks who Conor and Ape think they are barging into the backstage area like this, only to be met by the only response possible - "FUCKYOU! WE ARE JADOH&GEDOH!"
Taken aback by the raw charisma of Ape and Conor, they say they can take part in the main event of the evening, as long as it's a tag team match. Ape will team with Master Wato, and Conor with DOUKI. Conor and Ape promptly tear away their suits once more, revealing full ring attires - Ape's identical to Master Wato's, and Conor's identical to DOUKI's. They both smile, and ask what STEEZ will be doing. STEEZ shrugs and looks around, spotting a man in a wheelchair. "I know exactly what I'll be doing," he says, before wandering off.
​
Nippon Budokan Hall - Backstage at Road to Tokyo Dome, Chiyoda City, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 3:45PM JST
Song: Master Wato Theme by NJPW
It's main event time, and Team Wato is out first to a remarkable ovation from the Japanese fans. From the balconies, impromptu banners for the Wato and DOUKI doppelgangers in Ape and Conor are draped, billowing in the air. Team DOUKi is out next, again to a thunderous reception, with DOUKI and Wato starting things off. The crowd instantly goes mild, with Conor and Ape pounding the apron to try and get the crowd invested in the action going on inside the ring. DOUKI connects with an Irish Whip to send Wato into the corner, and lands a high knee, only for Conor to tag himself in to the glee of the crowd. Conor immediately goes on the attack, hurling Wato to the outside and connecting with an Inochi No Uta on the Grandmaster.
He throws Wato through the guardrail, laying a beating on him as Red Shoes begins the count. By fifteen, he's stopped as he looks up the ramp to see STEEZ himself... wheeling down the ramp in his new wheelchair. He has his leg up in a cast, and a blanket draped over himself, but he's wearing a referee's shirt. He says he's no co-referee with Red Shoes, and instructs the legendary NJPW official to stop counting and let Conor and Wato duke it out. "Yo, and make Ape and DOUKI legal, too." Red Shoes obliges, and in rushes DOUKI to an ALL OUT ATTACK BY APE! Ape now disposes of DOUKI to the outside, the cameras having trouble keeping track of the action. Conor and Wato are now on the balcony, when Conor suddenly has a drink splashed in his face by a fan. He bounces Wato's head off the railing and stares the fan down. "Who are you?" The fan responds defiantly "SAMU DAVISU!" He's then promptly grabbed by his receding hairline and thrown over the balcony to the floor below, swiftly followed by Wato, and both are then quickly taken out with a Sandbag Drop from the balcony, much to the glee of the bloodthirsty crowd.
It's a tornado tag now as Ape rolls DOUKI back in, and Conor does Wato. Ape starts beating DOUKI down with a chair, Conor doing nothing to stop him as the crowd is absolutely over the moon with joy at the sight of their two new heroes joining forces to take out the planned main eventers. Ape raises the chair above his head, when Red Shoes finally pulls it away. Ape looks on in horror, and Red Shoes starts cussing both Conor and Ape out. But then...
​
Nippon Budokan Hall - Road to Tokyo Dome Main Event, Chiyoda City, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 4:02PM JST
Song: Wolfpac Theme by WCW
STEEZ STANDS UP! HE WAS FAKING IT ALL ALONG! STEEZ, now wearing BIG SEXY gear, rises up to a thunderous pop, folding his wheelchair and TAKING OUT RED SHOES! DOUKI and Wato are struggling to their feet as STEEZ steals Red Shoes' signature footwear, putting it on himself, before FLIPPING OFF WATO AND DOUKI! JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB ON WATO, AND ONE ON DOUKI! Ape and Conor with simultaneous covers... ONE! TWO! THREE! IT'S OVER! STEEZ raises Conor and Ape's hands, the two now having usurped the roles of Master Wato and DOUKi from the originals as the crowd weep with happiness.
Following the show, all three end up on the street outside the arena, the sun starting to set after taking forty minutes to give extended English speeches to the Japanese crowds. They're all back in their original suits, STEEZ now porting Red Shoes, having been through one hell of an extended party. they walk down the path that leads to the venue, going all the way back to the main historic gate that welcomes fans.
​
Tayasumon Gate, Chiyoda City, Tokyo
January 2nd, 2021, 5:00PM JST
Song: Kiss From a Rose by Seal
"What a day..." muses Ape, as all three look out over the sunset. "Yeah, I guess it was just one, technically, huh?" asks STEEZ. "Indeed," confirms Conor, "and if we leave from Tokyo, it'll end up being the same time in New York when we land as it is in Tokyo when we take off." STEEZ comments that that's wild, and all three sit down on a bench. "This has been a lot of fun. Thanks, guys. Missed getting to screw around with the crew like this, it's a lot of why I came back," says Ape, a wide smile on his face. "What you talking about, bro? We do shit like this all the time, don't get all melodramatic on me," says STEEZ, speaking of the legendary Cosa Nostra parties that have unfolded in the past. "Yeah, but this felt different. One for the history books." ponders Ape, only to be cut off by Conor. "Not a fuckin word of this. We're in different factions, this was a one time deal." 92ColdScorpio nod their heads. "Yeah, we know, man. Maybe in another universe, we'd be running shit, just the three of us. Imagine the wacky shit we'd be able to get up to." All three share a laugh at STEEZ's comment, their imaginations running wild.
"Anyways," says Conor, "I should probably get going back home. Carnage Tour starts soon, neither of us should be competing tired." STEEZ is jolted alive. "Oh fuck, you right. I got that tourney to worry about, damn." Ape looks a little downtrodden, and STEEZ asks what's up. "You know how it is, man. All these good ass times, can't have enough of em. I just wanna get in the ring." STEEZ nods, and says "well, shit ain't happening, but that ain't no bad thing. We have times like these on the horizon forever, bro, competing or not." Ape smiles, and nods at Conor. "Thanks for tagging along." Conor chuckles. "It was fun. If you do come back... hit me up." Ape gives him a wink, and then turns to STEEZ. "I think we got one more request for Conor, don't we?" STEEZ nods. "We do indeed. Conor, you know the drill." They all lock eyes, and Conor agrees. "Fine. just this once, on three. One, two, three."
"NINETY!" screams Ape.
"TWO!" follows STEEZ.
"CONOR!" ends their guest, the three sharing a knowing glance.
"I'll see you guys around," says Cassidy, before heading off into the sunset. Ape and STEEZ give one last look, before heading the opposite direction together, cracking jokes and howling with laughter. "Happy New Year, bro," says Ape. "Yeah. 2021 is finna rock," says STEEZ.
​
Happy New Year, FBE!
- The folks behind PRIDE

Delhi Capitals is the only team, which can boast of 4 Indian national team players in their top order and still have Ajinkya Rahane warming the benches. Surprisingly, Marcus Stoinis is playing the finisher role well, which he could not do last year for RCB. Rishabh Pant has not yet had standout innings and not striking the ball as effortlessly as he does, but expect him to come good. If the pitches slow down in the later half, it will be interesting to see how their batsmen react, since they like the ball coming onto the bat.
As they have 4 Indian batsmen at the top, they can field two quality international quicks in Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje. Their spin department looks good with the inclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin this year. If pitches slow down in UAE in the second half of the IPL, Sandeep Lamichhane can come in place of either Rabada or Nortje.
Ricky Ponting is one of the most brilliant coaching minds at the IPL. When he took over Delhi in 2018, they were in disarray. Although Delhi did not do well in 2018, their Pre-auction transfer and Auction buy strategies after that have been excellent.
Mumbai Indians, the most successful team of the IPL, keep faith in their core set of players year after year. All of their top 5 batsmen scored 50+ this season. They are getting 190+ scores effortlessly, even on the bigger Abu Dhabi and Dubai grounds. Usually, Kieron Pollard gains form in the second half of the IPL, but this time he has been in terrific touch from the start. He is even bowling for them after many years. It looked like the teams figured out Hardik Pandya's hitting zones and kept him relatively quiet in the last two games. But, he is a brilliant cricketer, so expect him to become better. If Hardik starts bowling, it will add more balance to the MI squad.
The only concern for them will be their spin department. They formed this team keeping Wankhede stadium in mind, which helps the pace bowlers. Mumbai traditionally used spin defensively to choke the oppositions in the middle and attack with pace in the powerplay and at the death. They are playing Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya, but they are struggling against left handlers. Everybody expected them to get a spinner as the replacement for Lasith Malinga, but they went for another quick in James Pattinson, but he has been brilliant too. Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult and James Pattinson are providing them great starts and masking their spin inadequacy. The only match their quicks did not take an early wicket in the powerplay, against RCB, they struggled and conceded 201 runs. It will be interesting to see how they progress if the pitches favor spin in the second half.
Pacers are ruling this IPL till now. Delhi Capitals with Kagiso Rabada - Anrich Nortje in their ranks and Mumbai Indians with pace bowling riches in Jasprit Bumrah - Trent Boult - James Pattinson, are at the top of the table deservedly. These two teams face-off in Abu Dhabi tomorrow (11 October 2020). We were served some hot delicious thrillers, along with 2 Super overs for dessert, in the first ten days of this IPL. However, we have witnessed so many cold one-sided affairs after that. I hope it will be a cracking contest tomorrow.

\**This is my 2020 sim of a 50-team modern league with all MLB and MiLB players assigned to their home state team. The next entry (May sim results) will be posted next Monday, June 1st**\**
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Previous Entries

1. Part I (Settings, Rules, Team Intros, Quickstart File)
   
2. Part II (Preseason Predictions)
   

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Notable Performances in April
Before we go team by team, here are some notable individual performances in April:
· Eric Haase (MI), Jedd Gyorko (WV), JaCoby Jones (OK), and Austin Meadows (GA) all had 3-HR games
· Rob Johnson (MT), Cody Bellinger (AZ), Brandon Nimmo (WY), and Trent Grishm (TX) all hit for the cycle
· Ben Revere (KY) had a seven-hit game vs Illinois … 7 other players had 6-hit games
· Alex Bregman (NM) and Denard Span (VA) each had hitting streaks of 21 games
· We had three no-hitters: Chris Stratton (MS vs DE), Gerrit Cole (CA vs AL), Robbie Ray (TN vs VT)
· Walker Buehler (KY) had a league-high 18 strikeouts vs Alaska
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You can view the full standings through April here.
You can view the power rankings through April here.
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Now, let’s take a deeper look at how the teams did in April! (Note: I toyed with the idea of doing them in standings order but decided to stick with alphabetical so people could more easily find specific states they wanted to read!) Also, if you want to know about any specific players, games, stats, etc. feel free to let me know and I will answer them!
Alabama-Missouri League
Alabama Alabamians (20-7, 6th)
3 of Alabama’s 7 losses were at California, with others coming vs Massachusetts, at Arizona, vs Iowa and vs Arizona. (They actually lost four in a row at one point, as the Iowa loss came right after the sweep vs California.)
Phillip Ervin is tied for 3rd in the league with 9 homers. Tim Anderson also has 9 dingers to go along with a .311 AVG. Corey Kluber has unsurprisingly been their best starter, going 4-1 with a 2.28 ERA. Casey Mize, meanwhile, has an ugly 6.47 ERA in six starts. Craig Kimbrel hasn’t allowed a run in 11.1 innings as closer.
Alaska Alaskans (1-24, 24th)
Projected to win 9 games this season, Alaska is going to need to pick up the pace. Their only win came in the “Battle of the Lefthand Corner of U.S. Maps In Schools” at Hawaii on April 21.
.184 team AVG is the 2nd worst in the league behind Arkansas and their 10 HR is tied for the lowest. 14 Jonny Homzas make up the offense, and the left field one leads regulars with a .264 AVG. The first base Homza leads the team with 4 HR. Third base Homza is hitting just .102.
11.57 team ERA is 2nd worst in the league ahead of Maine. Tony Barnette clones make up the rotation, and while one has a 3.09 ERA, the others all have ERAs ranging from 6.00 to 12.00. There are six Daniel Schlereths in the bullpen and all have ERAs over 16.00.
Arizona Arizonans (19-6, 5th)
Arizona lost its season opener 5-3 vs Arkansas, 3-2 at Minnesota a few days later, and subsequently lost back-to-back games to both California and Alabama. One of the losses to Alabama was 7-6 in 16 innings thanks to a walkoff homer by some dude named Drew Avans (33 overall).
Scott Kingery (.418) and Eric Sogard (.415) hold the top two spots in the league in hitting, while Sogard is on-basing .510—good for second place behind Aaron Judge. Cody Bellinger has gotten off to a “slow” start with a .311 AVG and 7 HR.
41-overall starter Kyle Lobstein is pitching out of his mind, going 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA (4th in league). 40-overall Dylan File (who?) ranks 3rd in the league in K/BB behind deGrom and Scherzer.
Arkansas Arkansans (7-21, 22nd)
7-21 may not seem like a lucky record, but that’s 4 wins over their Pythagorean W-L. They had separate losing streaks of 7 and 8 games, though they did have good wins vs Arizona, Alabama and Georgia.
Hitting a league-worst .179 with 10 HR as a team. Luke Bandy “leads” the team with a .233 AVG, while Torii Hunter Jr. and Grant Koch are the only hitters with multiple HR. Starting pitching has been mediocre to bad, ranging from Drew Smyly (4.54 ERA) to Barrett Astin (9.67) ERA. Setup men Ty Tice and Hunter Wood, as well as closer Tyler Zuber, are all pitching well though.
California Californians (21-4, 3rd)
The heavy preseason favorite to win it all, California struggled slightly more than expected out of the game and sits in third place after a month. Their losses have come vs Indiana, at Arizona, at Illinois and vs Florida, with all coming by 4 runs or fewer. Their biggest win as a 31-1 shellacking at Iowa on April 9—one of six games they scored 20+ runs.
The team’s 1.016 team OPS leads the league. Christian Yelich (.400) and Nolan Arenado (.385) rank near the top of the league in hitting, while Freddie Freeman, Aaron Judge and Joc Pederson are all tied for third in the league with 9 homers each. Freeman is tied with Georgia’s Austin Meadows with a league-leading 38 RBI. Judge leads the league with a .514 OBP. Every starter is hitting at least .320 except Matt Chapman (.229)—it’s almost like he wants Justin Turner or Mike Moustakas to come up from AAA and take his job!
The team is holding opposing hitters to a .186 AVG—best in the league. Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg each have five wins, but neither ranks in the top 8 in league ERA (yet). Cole does lead in strikeouts (72), while fellow starter Lucas Giolito leads the league in K/9 with 16.7.
Colorado Coloradans (16-9, 9th)
Colorado began the season losing 4 of 5 and 5 of 11, but they’ve rebounded nicely to a 16-9 record in April. They had a weird schedule glitch with 4 off days from April 26-29, but it helped them be well-rested as they closed out the month with a 14-5 win vs Hawaii.
David Bote has been the best hitter with a .374 AVG and 6 HR, with Chase Headley not far off at .360. Starter David Peterson is 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA, while closer Taylor Rogers has 5 saves and hasn’t allowed an earned run yet.
Connecticut Connecticuters (16-9, 10th)
Catcher PJ Higgins leads the team with a .358 AVG, while AJ Pollock is batting .309 with 5 HR. (Basically, all the guys with initials are doing well. Some guy named LJ Mazzilli is hitting .302.) George Springer (65 overall) needs to get it together, as he’s hitting just .213.
Aaron Civale is 3-2 with a rotation-best 2.32 ERA, while Troy Scribner has a 7.27 ERA in five stats. Closer Matt Barnes has 7 saves and hasn’t been scored upon. Matt Harvey has a 3.43 ERA in 21 innings out of the bullpen.
Delaware Delawareans (10-15, 16th)
Aside from a 5-game win streak in the middle of the month, it’s been a very rough April for the Fightin’ Bidens. Their biggest win came on April 16 with a 22-1 shellacking vs Alaska. In said win, the Paul Goldschmdit clones combined to knock in 11 runs with 3 homers.
Both Goldschmidts have 5 homers this season, though the DH is hitting .372 and the other is hitting .290. One of the three Joey Wendle clones is currently on an 18-game hit streak. One Chad Kuhl has a 2.63 bullpen ERA and another Chad Kuhl has a 6.14 ERA. (More like Chad UN-Kuhl, am I right?)
Florida Floridians (23-5, 4th)
Florida is playing strong, as expected, but they’ve had a couple of bad losses. Two of their five were to California (to be expected), but the other three were to teams currently below .500—Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Kansas.
Tied with GA in team homers (58). Howie Kendrick ranks 5th in the league with a .392 AVG and with with a 1.6 WAR, while leading in hits (47) and runs (38). Anthony Rizzo ranks 4th with a 1.179 OPS and JD Martinez ranks 7th with 30 RBI. Veteran Andrew McCutchen is batting just .260 but leads the league with 27 walks.
Lead the league with 372 strikeouts as a pitching staff. Lance McCullers Jr. leads the league with a 0.89 ERA. Jacob deGrom has started of well also, going 5-1 with a 1.97 ERA and leading the league in innings pitched (45.2).
Georgia Georgians (25-3, 1st)
The projected third-place team in the preseason, my home state is off to a great start and leading the league after a month. They won their first 11 games before losing 9-4 against Colorado thanks to the bullpen allowing five runs in the 9th inning. They also lost 8-6 at Kentucky and 5-3 at Arkansas.
Tied with FL in team homers (58) while leading the league in AVG (.338). Austin Meadows and Matt Olson hold the top two spots in the league in homers with 13 and 12, respectively. Olson also leads the league in total bases (92), SLG (.780), OPS (1.240), WAR (1.8), WPA (1.90).
Their 2.56 team ERA leads the league. Starters Zack Wheeler and Brad Keller rank in the top 8 in ERA (1.77 and 1.80, respectively) and both have 5 wins. Surprisingly, fellow starter Reggie McClain (46 overall) is 4-0 with a 2.00 ERA and a league-best 0.67 WHIP. He’s also the only player in the league with two shutouts. Closer Will Smith’s 8 saves are tied for the league lead.
Hawaii Hawaiians (10-18, 18th)
Hawaii swept Idaho in three games to start the season but promptly lost their next seven games. They won back-to-back games only twice more in April.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa leads the team with a .340 average, but Kolten Won unsurprisingly has been the best hitter with a .311 AVG an 6 HR. Jacob Hannemann is hitting .281 with 5 HR, and Kurt Suzuki is hitting .278.
Rico Garcia has a 2.59 ERA and Jordan Yamamoto a 3.97 ERA in six starts, but they’re the only starters with ERAs under 7.00. Closer Kirby Yates hasn’t allowed a run this season and has a bonkers 19.7 K/9.
Idaho Idahoans (5-23, 23rd)
Idao can only get wins vs teams with M on the road, with their five wins coming at Massachusetts, at Minnesota (x2), and at Maine (x2). They started the season 0-10.
An Alex Guerrero clone holds the distinction of the worst average in the league (min. 100 PA) at .097. Of the seven Jackson Cluff clones in the starting lineup, one is hitting .308, another is hitting .291, and the other five are hitting under .200.
Damon Jones clones lead the rotation with ERAs of 3.54 and 4.62, while Zach Penrod is the worst at 0-6 wit ha 14.06 ERA. Closer James Hoyt has a 2.70 ERA, but his setup man James Hoyt has a 9.00 ERA.
Illinois Illinoisans (24-4, 2nd)
Illinois lost it’s first game of the season—an 8-7 heartbreaker to Kentucky in 13 innings—but went on to reel of 18 straight wins. They then lost two straight (both to California) and suffered their worst loss to close out the month—13-2 vs Arizona.
Mike Tauchman leads the team with a .381 average, while Mark Payton has knocked in team-best 33 runs. Collin McHugh and Mike Foltynewicz both have 5 wins, but McHugh is the real standout with a 1.43 ERA (5th in league) and 2.0 WAR (leads league).
Indiana Indianans (10-15, 15th)
Projected to finish 7th in the league with a 96-61 record, Indiana has been one of the unluckier teams this season with a current Pythagorean win differential of minus-6—worst in the CWBL. They started the season 10-5 before dropping 10 straight to close out the month.
Indiana’s struggles are certainly not on Michael Brosseau, however, as he’s hit .336 with 9 homers and 34 RBI. Kevin Kiermaier is hitting .296 with 4 HR and 7 steals. Pitching-wise, Lance Lynn has a 2.86 ERA but the rest of the starters have struggled—Jeff Samardzija (3.90), Sean Manaea (4.76), Kyle Gibson (5.59), Clayton Richard (6.00).
Iowa Iowans (7-18, 21st)
After winning 5 of their first 6 thanks to series against Kansas and Maine, the Iowans went just 2-18 the rest of the way. They had two separate 9-game losing streaks but won their final game of the month vs Idaho.
Dom Thompson-Williams has been their best hitter with a .286 AVG, 7 HR, and 23 RBI. Scott Schebler has 5 HR.
11.03 team ERA is 3rd worst in the league. AJ Puk is 1-3 with a 3.65 ERA, but the bottom three starters are a combined 0-11 with ERAs ranging from 13.00 to 21.00. (Though it doesn’t help when the team has no real catcher.) Closer Tony Watson is unscored upon and is the only reliever with an ERA under 7.00.
Kansas Kansans (9-19, 19th)
Kansas swept Idaho from April 20-22 but never won consecutive games otherwise in April. They dropped 10 straight from April 6 to 16, but they broke the streak with a surprising 4-3 victory over Jacob deGrom and Florida.
Jacob Stallings and Connor Kaiser are hitting .329 and .322, respectively, but are the only regulars above .250. Bubba Starling is hitting a disappointing .158. Joey Wentz (3.09 ERA) and John Means (3.29) are pitching well, though the same cannot be said for Blake Treinen, who has a 5.09 ERA as a starter.
Kentucky Kentuckians (13-15, 12th)
Kentucky was projected to finish exactly .500 this season and they’re just behind pace through April. They lost 5 of their first 6 and only swept two series in the month (vs Idaho and Arkansas).
Ben Revere leads the team with a .353 AVG, but JT Riddle has actually been their most valuable offensive player with a .324 AVG, 25 RBI, 1.0 WAR, and league-high 13 doubles. Will Smith (.333 AVG, 3 HR) and Adam Duvall (.296 AVG, 5 HR) are also playing well.
Ace Walker Buehler is slightly underperforming with a 3-0 record and 3.03 ERA, but he is third in the league in strikeouts behind Cole and deGrom. #5 starter Lincoln Henzman (21 OVR) has a dismal 1-4 record and 9.28 ERA.
Louisiana Louisianans (20-8, 8th)
Louisiana lost two each vs Kentucky, at Massachusetts, and vs Minnesota, with their other losses coming at Colorado and California. Their biggest win was a 20-0 victory over Maine on April 28.
Third baseman Ryan Schimpf leads the league in strikeouts (54), so that’s something! Cole Freeman is batting .342 and is 7/8 in steals, while Austin Nola has been the best overall hitter with a .325 AVG and 7 HR.
41-overall starter Jacob Waguespack has a crazy 1.07 ERA, good for 3rd in the league. Aaron Nola 4-1 with a 2.86 ERA, ranking third in WAR (1.8) behind McHugh and deGrom.
Maine Mainers (1-27, 25th)
The projected worst team in the league, Maine lived “up” to their reputation in April. Their only win was a 7-5 victory vs Idaho on April 24.
Ryan McKenna clones hold the top 5 spots on the team in AVG (ranging between .278 and .229). Of the six Treyjn Fletcher clones, the second base starter has the worst WAR (1.9) in baseball.
16.44 team ERA, easily worst in the league. Of the 12 Cody Laweryson pitcher clones, the closer has a 3.60 ERA but the others all have ERAs between 9.31 and 29.53. One of them is the only pitcher in the league with six losses, and they hold the “top” three spots in the league for walks.
Maryland Marylanders (11-14, 14th)
Maryland was up and down all month, winning consecutive games only 4 times in April. They lost 4 of 5 to begin the season and 5 of 6 to close out the month.
Somehow, 31-overall catcher Alex Murphy is 3rd in the league with a .402 AVG and tied for 3rd with 11 doubles. Jake Fraley is hitting .306 with 4 HR and 21 RBI. Josh Hader is performing well as a starter despite closer-level stamina, going 2-1 with a 1.86 ERA in 4 starts. The same cannot be said for Cody Morris, who is 0-4 with an 18.51 ERA.
Massachusetts Massachusettsans (13-15, 13th)
Projected to go 84-73, Massachusetts is underperforming so far in 2020. They started the year 3-8 and didn’t win back-to-back games until April 12 and 14.
Patrick Mazeika leads the team in hitting (.303) while Chris Shaw has 7 homers and a .270 AVG. Ace Sean Newcomb has just a 1-2 record to show for his 1.82 ERA, and the rest of the rotation isn’t helping much as three other starters have ERAs over 6.00.
Michigan Michiganders (9-19, 20th)
Michigan won back-to-back games just 3 times all month—at Maryland, vs Delaware, and vs Arkansas. Jon Berti is hitting .308 on the season and leads the league with 4 triples. Eric Haase is hitting .292 with a team-high 6 HR. “Ace” Matt Shoemaker is just 1-5 with a 4.62 ERA, while the other four starters have ERAs in the 5.00 range. Closer James Bourque has just one save and a 12.10 ERA.
Minnesota Minnesotans (11-17, 17th)
Minnesota rebounded after a 4-15 start, winning 7 of 9 to close out the month.
Outfielder Roman Collins is the only offensive player with a WAR above 0.1, hitting .315 with 5 HR and 22 RBI. Sean “Gates Of” Hjelle has been the best starter, going 2-1 with a 2.73 ERA. Nick Anderson and Brad Hand have been strong as expected in the bullpen, each having a 1.64 ERA.
Mississippi Mississippians (20-8, 7th)
Mississippi has had some respectable losses (vs Missouri, vs Colorado) but some truly baffling ones, including when they lost 3 straight to Minnesota then another to Kansas. They also lost their season opener to Delaware. They finished strong though, with a 34-1 win over Maine to close out April.
Brian Dozier has been the best hitter with a .333 AVG and 7 HR. Corey Dickerson, Mitch Moreland, and Hunter Renfroe are all hitting above .300 and have 20+ RBI as well. Dickerson leads the league with 4 sac flies but I don’t know if that puts him in the MVP conversation yet. Billy Hamilton has scored 24 runs and swiped 7 bags.
Stater Justin Steele ranks 2nd in the league with a 0.92 ERA and leads with a .130 OPP AVG. Ace Brandon Woodruff has just been OK, going 2-1 with a 3.72 ERA. Closer Jonathan Holder has 8 saves to tie for the league lead.
Missouri Missourians (15-13, 11th)
Missouri finished April just about .500, though they did finish strong with 8 straight wins after previously losing 5 straight (3 to GA, 2 to CT).
Luke Voit ranks 6th in the league with a .387 AVG to go along with six homers. Logan Morrison and Monte Harrison are tied for the team lead in home runs with seven each. Ace Max Scherzer has had some tough luck so far, going 2-3 despite a 2.13 ERA. Also with a 2-3 record is Jake Arrieta, but that might be considered lucky for him given his 7.18 ERA in six starts.
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Montana-Wyoming League
Montana Montanans
Montana is unsurprisingly terrible, with their two wins coming against Vermont (32-21 and 34-32). They are riding a league-worst 18-game losing streak.
This roster is a mess, as all the Rob Johnson clones I put on offense are being sorted as pitchers. Who cares. This team is terrible. ERAs range from 8.38 to 31.91.
Nebraska Nebraskans (8-20, 20th)
Nebraska had a 4-game win streak from April 9-12, including a sweep of Vermont that featured scores of 29-23, 42-17, and 43-37. (Poor Vermont—don’t you hate when you score 37 and lose?) But that streak wasn’t an indication of things to come for Nebraska, who won just 2 of their last 16 to end April.
Top hitters for Nebraska include Jakson Reetz (.377, 6 HR), clone Alex Gordon (.369, 5 HR), clone Alec Bohm (.339, 6 HR), and other Alec Bohm (.321, 3 HR). Matt Eardensohm has the “best” starters ERA at 9.00. Pat Venditte is the only pitcher on the team with an ERA under 7.00.
Nevada Nevadans (19-9, 8th)1
Nevada had won 10 of 11 late in April before dropping 3 of their last 4, including an embarrassing loss to New Hampshire to close out the month.
Kris Bryant is mashing with a .383 AVG, 6 HR, and 48 RBI (2nd in league). Joey Gallo “only” has 9 HR to go along with a .346 AVG. Every starter is hitting at least .290 except…Bryce Harper, who has posted a .262 AVG, 6 HR, and 25 RBI. Brandon Snyder is hitting .294 but is tied for the league high with 47 strikeouts.
Ace Tyler Anderson is 4-1 with a 2.94 ERA, while Mickey Jannis (3.13) and Tyler Wagner (3.38) have done well also. Less so are starters Aaron Blair (9.14) and Joe Wieland (9.59).
New Hampshire New Hampshirites (8-17, 19th)
New Hampshire didn’t win back-to-back games outside of a 4-game win streak from April 21-24. Grant Lavigne clone leads the team with a .413 AVG, while Mickey Gasper clone leads with 4 HR and 21 RBI. Two Kevin McGowan clones have ERAs under 6.00, and all six Will Gaddis clones have ERAs between 6.05 and 14.79.
New Jersey New Jeseyans (16-9, 9th)
New Jersey has a Pythagorean win differential of minus-6, tied for the worst in the CWBL. A 3-game sweep to North Carolina killed their momentum late in the month, though they did have four off days to recover from it and crushed Wyoming 17-2 to close things out.
Jason Heyward (.377 AVG, 8 HR, 27 RBI) is showing Mike Trout (.371 AVG, 2 HR, 21 RBI) who the real superstar of New Jersey is. The pitching has been great, as the rotation has three guys with under a 3.00 ERA, led by Charlie Morton (4-0 with a 2.06). The highest ERA by a reliever is 2.89, while four of them have sub-2.00 ERAs. Team ERA of 2.43 leads the league.
New Mexico New Mexicans (12-16, 16th)
New Mexico won 5 straight from April 14-18, but otherwise had a pretty rough month. They lost the next 6 and 8 of their final 11 in April.
Two Alex Bregmans are giving it their all for New Mexico, with one of them hitting .510 (highest in the CWBL) with 14 doubles, 9 HR and 39 RBI. The other Bregman is hitting .380 with 10 HR and 34 runs. Mitch Garver clones are also doing well with 13 combined HR. Unfortunately, no other hitter is breaking .240 right now.
Starters ERAs range from bad (Trevor Rogers clone at 5.74) to horrendous (Cam Baird at 14.50). Closer Ken Giles has a 2.19 ERA and 6 saves, but he’s not getting much help from clone Ken Giles as setup man (6.89 ERA).
New York New Yorkers (17-8, 7th)
Projected as the 4th place team this season, New York has been a bit unlucky with a Pythagorean win differential of -5. They had an up and down (and up again) month, winning 8 of 9 to start, then losing 7 of 10 before winning their last 6.
Lead the league with a .347 team AVG. Tim Locastro is actually leading the team with a .426 AVG but has surprisingly only stolen two bases. Jesse Winker is hitting .415 and on-basing .552 with 6 HR, while Harrison Bader leads the team in WAR at 1.9. Tom Murphy has 11 homers (tied 3rd in league).
Ace Patrick Corbin has really struggled out of the game, posting a 6.49 ERA despite a 3-1 record. The other four starters have ERAs in the 3’s. Closer Dellin Betances has a 9.72 ERA despite his 5 saves and 19.4 K/9.
North Carolina North Carolinians (20-5, 1st)
Projected as the 6th team in the league this season, North Carolina is performing above expectations right now as the league leader. They’ve won 14 straight, having not lost since April 11 at Pennsylvania.
Mac Williamson is 5th in the league with a .427 AVG and tied for 6th with 10 HR. Brian Goodwin is hitting .402, while veterans Ryan Zimmerman (.373 AVG, 5 HR), Cameron Maybin (.372 AVG, 5 HR), and Brandon Phillips (.347 AVG, 10 doubles) are proving they’ve still got it. The Seager brothers are actually underperforming right now, with Kyle hitting .316 and Corey hitting .307.
NC has three starters in the top 8 in league ERA—Mackenzie Gore (1.61), Alex Wood (1.70), and Chris Archer (2.25). Wood leads the league in WAR (1.9) and is the only pitcher with multiple shutouts. Madison Bumgarner leads the team with 5 wins despite a 3.92 ERA. Closer Kodi Whitley leads the league with 7 saves despite a 6.75 ERA.
North Dakota North Dakotans (8-20, 21st)
Currently the best Dakota team, North Dakota won 4 straight to start the season but lost 12 straight to end April. Of the 14 Andy Youngs on offense, shortstop Young has the best AVG (.360), right field Young has the more HR (11) and RBI (36), and first base Young has the highest WAR (0.9). Ace Matt Strahm has the best ERA at 6.59. Every other pitcher on the roster has an ERA between 6.84 and 24.55. (Also, can I just say that I love how the AI thinks one Ben Strahm clone needs a 105-pitch limit and the other Ben Strahm clone needs no limit? Guess he’s a super clone.)
Ohio Ohioans (18-7, 5th)
Ohio lost 3 of 4 to start the season, but rebounded nicely and closed out the month winning 10 of their last 11.
Adam Eaton leads the team with a .386 AVG and 0.7 WAR. Evan White has a .326 AVG and 6 HR, while Andrew Benintendi (.286), Scooter Gennett (.286), and Travis Shaw (.284) are all doing alright. Kyle Schwarber, who rates as the team’s best player, has 6 homers but is hitting just .237.
Despite being the #5 starter, JT Brubaker leads the team with a 1.85 ERA. Matt Wisler (3.67) and Brent Suter (3.82) have also done well, though Chris Bassitt (7.03) has struggled. Bullpen has been strong as five relievers have an ERA under 3.00.
Oklahoma Oklahomans (15-13, 13th)
Oklahoma has a Pythagorean win differential of minus-4 and struggled toward the end of the month, losing 5 straight (3 to VA, 2 to TN).
Veteran Matt Kemp leads the team with a .337 AVG, 10 HR, and 33 RBI. JT Realmuto leads in WAR (1.4) and is hitting .323 with 8 HR and 30 RBI. Matt Reynolds (.330 AVG), Ryan Vilade (.324, 5 HR), and Brian Anderson (.320, 8 HR) are also hitting well.
The rotation has been hit and miss, from the good (Andrew Heaney 3.38 ERA, Garrett Richards 3.57) to the bad (Jon Gray 5.74, Michael Fulmer 6.11, Dallas Keuchel 6.51). The bullpen has been strong with five players at 3.00 ERA or lower.
Oregon Oregonians (15-13, 14th)
Oregon has done pretty well for a team projected to finish under .500 before the season began. They won 6 of 7 to begin the season but went 5-12 in the 17 games after. However, they did win 4 straight to close out the month.
Jed Lowrie, unsurprisingly, has been the team’s best hitter with a .348 AVG and 7 HR. Brandon Drury isn’t far behind with a .322 AVG and team-high 28 RBI. Youngster Adley Rutschman is holding his own with a .317 AVG and 4 homers.
Anthony Shew “leads” the rotation with a 4.54 ERA, but he does have a shiny 5-1 record to show for it. Three starters have ERAs above 7.00, worst of all Andrew Moore at 10.97.
Pennsylvania Pennsylvanians (19-6, 4th)
Another team outperforming their preseason prediction (9th in the league), Pennsylvania won its first 6 games before losing 3 of 4. They then rattled off 8 straight wins but went 4-3 to close out the month.
Ian Happ ranks 4th in the league with a .434 AVG and 2.1 WAR to go along with 9 homers. Nolan Jones (.411 AVG, 6 HR) and Christian Walker (.387 AVG, 5 HR) are also crushing the ball. Two-way player Bendan McKay is hitting .306 with 4 HR on offense and is 5-0 with a 3.19 ERA as a starter.
Rhode Island Rhode Islanders (12-17, 17th)
Full disclosure: When I simmed to Opening Day and the preseason predictions came out, it turns out I’d forgotten to fill Rhode Island’s roster with clones. That causes their projected record to be worst in the league (4-152). Turns out, once I fixed their roster, they’re somewhat better and have already tripled that projected win total. They lost 7 of 8 early on but did manage some wins in high-scoring affairs such as 37-13 (vs WY), 21-18 (vs UT), 29-9 (at VT), and 24-12 (at VT). That 37-run win included an 18-run 8th inning!
The hitters I expected to do well—Chris Iannetta clones—actually have some of the lowest averages on the team (.287 and .269). Most hitters are above .300, led by Nick Zammarelli III clones (.353 AVG, 4 HR & .338 AVG, 5 HR).
Pitching has really been an issue for Rhode Island, with a clone of Thomas Pannone (3-1, 3.75) the only starter with an ERA above 6.00. The bullpen is even worse, as CJ Dandeneau “leads” the team with a 5.85 ERA and all other relievers range from 10.90 to 24.08.
South Carolina South Carolinians (16-12, 12th)
Four wins behind their Pythagorean record, South Carolina had some trouble both early an late in the month. They lost 5 of 7 at one point early and three straight on both April 20-22 and April 28-30.
Justin Smoak has been a monster (Smoak Monster, for all you LOST fans), hitting .420 with 9 homers and 38 RBI. Whit Merrifield (.398), Bret Gardner (.345), and Andy Burns (.337) are also hitting wall.
Three starters have ERAs in the 3’s, led by Jordan Lyles (3-2, 3.03) and Asher “Normal Spelling” Wojciechowski (2-1, 3.10). Zack Godley has been notably worse, going 2-3 with a 7.62 ERA. Setup men Carl Edwards Jr. and Emilio Pagan, plus closer Chad Green, have combined for a 1.69 ERA in 32 innings.
South Dakota South Dakotans (6-19, 22nd)
Easily one of the top two Dakota teams, they didn’t win consecutive games until taking two straight from Wisconsin on April 23-24. Unfortunately, they couldn’t complete the sweep and lost the final game 38-35. (Still an impressive game after being down 21-2 after two innings!)
Left fielder Adam Law, who wasn’t even good enough to be cloned, is leading the team with a .352 AVG and 27 runs. One Dusty Coleman clone is hitting .328, while another leads the team with 7 HR and 21 RBI. Sam Wolff clone actually has a 3.05 ERA—slightly higher than fellow starter Tyler Mitzel’s 34.50 ERA. Bullpen ERAs range from 5.28 to 14.54.
Tennessee Tennesseans (22-6, 3rd)
Unless your state begins with an N or O, good luck beating Tennessee. Their six losses have come against North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada (x2), and Oklahoma. They’ve also been a bit unlucky with a Pythagorean win differential of minus-4.
Austin Riley has been a stud with a .407 AVG and 9 HR. Corban Joseph (.402), Tony Kemp (.388), Nick Senzel (.341 AVG, 6 HR), and Caleb Joseph (.337) are all hitting well. Surprisingly, despite the team’s strong performance, their best player—Mookie Betts—is hitting just .275 (lowest of any regular), so there’s some upside here.
Mike Minor and Dakota Hudson hold the top two spots in ERA—0.24 and 1.41, respectively. Minor has been unbelievable, leading the league in WHIP and OPP AVG while allowing one run (a solo HR to NJ’s Todd Frazier) in 37.1 IP. Robbie Ray has also been great, going 5-0 with a 2.51 ERA. He leads the league with 71 strikeouts and joins Alex Wood as the only pitcher in the league with multiple complete games.
Texas Texans (18-7, 6th)
The favorite to win the league in the preseason, Texas is off to a slow start in sixth place, though their Pythagorean win differential is minus-4. Their seven losses include two each to Ohio and New York, with the others coming at Oklahoma, vs South Carolina, and at Wisconsin.
Their 76 HR as a team lead the league. Max Muncy is in the early MVP conversation right now with a .422 AVG (7th in the league), 13 HR (2nd), 49 RBI (1st), 1.388 OPS (3rd), and 2.3 WAR (2nd). Trevor Story is hitting .368 with 10 homers, while Josh Bell is hitting .367 with 9 HR and is tied for the league lead in triples (3). Nobody on the team is hitting below .290.
The rotation isn’t pitching an elite level yet, with Noah Syndergaard (3.66 ERA), Clayton Kershaw (4.99), Jameson Taillon (5.93), Chris Paddack (3.34), and Michael Wacha (8.37). Setup man Jordan Hick leads the bullpen with a 1.42 ERA and 17.1 K/9.
Utah Utahns (9-19, 18th)
After winning 5 straight early in the season, Utah won only 4 more games after April 9th. They have the lowest team AVG in the league at .255. Clone Brennon Lund lead the team with a .338 AVG, though Dallas Carroll and Payton Henry have a team-high 4 HRs each and Henry leads in WAR (0.4). Ace Brady Lail is 0-3 with a 5.87 ERA and only one reliever (Tanner Banks, 2.01 ERA) has an ERA under 7.00.
Vermont Vermonters (4-24, 24th)
Vermont has really struggled, with separate losing streaks of 7, 8, and 8 games. In an incredible win vs Montana on April 8, they were down 34-22 entering the 9th inning before scoring 17 in the final frame to secure a 39-34 victory. Now that’s clutch.
Now this is the team with 14 unretired Daric Bartons, and it’s going pretty well for them. All the starting Bartons are hitting between .309 and .441. First base and DH Bartons have 7 homers each. Pitching is a problem though, as Theo McDowell and Rayne Supple clones have ERAs ranging from 12.35 to 45.00. The pitching is so overworked that 7 Daric Bartons have even pitched…but not well. Team ERA of 25.80 is easily worst in the league.
Virginia Virginians (22-6, 2nd)
Just like North Carolina, Virginia is outperforming their preseason prediction and sitting in second place despite a Pythagorean win differential of minus-3. They actually lost the first two games of the season (at NJ) but would put together separate 8- and 9-game win streaks in April.
Andrew Knizner ranks 2nd in the league with a .446 AVG, while Justin Bour is 6th in the league with 10 HR despite a .233 AVG. Brandon Lower is hitting .370 and has 44 RBI—third most in the league. Denard Span (who I probably should’ve put on Maryland) is hitting .417 with 7 HR and is third in the league in hits.
Ace Justin Verlander has been great, going 3-1 with a 1.93 ERA and ranking 2nd in the league with a 1.9 WAR. Fellow starters Alec Bettinger, Daniel Lynch, and Tim Melville are a combined 11-0.
Washington Washingtonians (17-11, 10th)
Projected to finish 3rd this season, Washington is behind pace but has a Pythagorean win differential of minus-5. They started off 2-5, then won 13 of 14 before losing 5 of their last 7.
Jake Lamb is hitting .417 on the season while tied for 3rd in homers (11) and 3rd in WAR (2.2). Also hitting well are Michael Brantley (.407), Michael Conforto (.366), and Reese McGuire (.337).
Blake Snell is a strong 4-2 with a 2.92 ERA, but Austin Voth has actually been the best starter (5-0, 2.32). Matthew Boy is solid (3-1, 3.08) while Jon Lester has struggled (2-3, 4.66).
West Virginia West Virginians (14-14, 15th)
Projected to lose 104 games, sitting at .500 is pretty solid for West Virginia. One of their wins was a 26-22 victory over Wyoming that saw them score 10 runs in the final two innings. They lost 5 of 6 late in the month until winning their final four games.
Three Jedd Gyorko clones are leading the West Virginians, with the apparently well-rested DHing Gyorko leading the way with a .400 AVG, 15 HR, 42 RBI, and 34 runs. His 15 HR are two more than anyone in the CWBL.
Three Jordan Montgomery clones have ERAs in the 4’s, while Michael Grove clone starters have put up ERAs of 9.70 and 11.78. David Carpenter has a 6.97 ERA as closer and a 5.40 and 5.93 as the two setup men.
Wisconsin Wisconsinites (15-10, 11th)
Wisconsin started the season 3-6 but didn’t lose consecutive games for the remainder of the month.
Gavin Lux has unsurprisingly been the star here, batting .352 with 5 homers. Daulton Varsho’s at .339 and 6 homers, while Jarred Kelenic is at .327 with 5 HR and a team-high 24 RBI. Two-way player Jared Walsh has 5 HR but is hitting just .198.
It’s been rough pitching for the Wisconsinites, as Evan Kruczynski is the only start with an ERA under 5.00. Ace Jordan Zimmermann has yet to earn a win, going 0-2 with a 6.46 ERA in six starts. Closer Ben Heller is unscored upon in nine appearances and has a 17.0 K/9.
Wyoming Wyomingites (4-24, 23rd)
There isn’t much good to say about Wyoming, whose four hard-fought wins were by scores of 16-10 (at RI), 18-17 (vs WV), 32-18 (vs NH), and 38-35 (at SD).
All seven Brandon Nimmo clones are hitting .286 or better, with left field Brandon Nimmo raking the most (.352 AVG, 10 HR, 36 RBI). Pitching is…a problem, as 12 unretired Jeremy Horst clones have ERAs ranging from 8.18 to 58.91 (that’s 72 earned runs in 11 innings).