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Most Valuable Boston Flower: Could it be Jenkins Ingram? Jenkins is not the most talented batter, despite being at the head of the Boston Flowers lineup. Jenkins is not the best defender, despite attempting to field 485 of the 2,508 balls fielded by the team. However, that earnestness to be the one to call out, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” sets them apart from the rest of the line-up.

Let’s start with the facts, brought by the teams at SIBR and Blaseball.

Jenkins Ingram joined the Boston Flowers as a S1 Shadow. In seasons 22 and 23, Jenkins batted and pitched. Their BA and ERA weren’t great. Then, after the Fall, in Season N1, Jenkins Ingram was found to be the first batter in the Boston Flowers lineup. 

Let’s start with the first Season of Boston Flowers Fielding.
Jenkins is obviously fielding a lot of plays. As the player standing at third base, Ingram is in prime territory for grabbing hit balls on the left side of infield as well as nearby.

In the league as a whole: 15,122 hits went to the left, 11,350 hits went to center, and 10,024 hits went right.  Jenkins fielded 170 plays in the Infield, 97 Left Field, 44 Right Field, 48 Center.

Their Reach of 0.893 and Magnet of 0.102 combine together to give the Flowers a dominant defender that they’re fervently wishing would stay in the Infield. (Jenkins was about 75% successful at getting outs in the Infield, versus 59% successful at getting outs in the Outfield.)

Competing against Ramirez Winters of the Baltimore Crabs for best defender at third base, Jenkins’ 485 defensive plays are comparable to Ramirez’s 451. Ramirez boasted a 0.928 Magnet attribute, which perhaps provides them with their 81% out success rate overall. Ramirez’s 0.753 Reach left them wanting in some areas however: In Deep Left Field Ramirez would only show up 5 times and allow 3 hits, whereas Jenkins made it 9 times and allowed 1 hit. (Ramirez is 83% successful at getting outs in the Infield, versus 77% successful in the outfield.) It should be noted that the Crab’s Outfield has 5 defenders, vs the Boston Flowers 4, both of which could impact how often they each choose to go for a ball there, especially considering the utter lack of a Deep Center Field defender for the Flowers. 

On to Batting!
Jenkins’ experience batting in 388 at bats (AB) brought only a 0.211 batting average (BA) lags behind Zack Sanders’ 0.298 BA. (That’s right, Flowers fans, the leader in triples Zack Sanders didn’t clear a 0.300 BA; let’s hope that the bats bloom in Season N2 after that Team Boost!) Jenkins improving as a batter could prove very useful: they are one of six full switch hitters in the ILB, and the only non-right-handed batter in the Flowers Line-Up. If the placement of hits matters, this means Jenkins is equally likely to hit to the left or right fields (and almost as likely to hit to center). Sadly, it looks like all of Chaotic Good has right fielders aplenty, so this advantage may not often come up. It could matter in a match-up against the Yellowstone Magic however, as they have fewer players there and are likely to be one of the top defending teams in Blaseball this upcoming season. 

As the fourth best batter for making successful hits, Jenkins trails behind Zack Sanders, Zelda Highway, and Duha Kamara. Similarly, Jenkins at 18 walks for the season is behind Jessica Telephone at 23, Duha Kamara at 21, and Skylar Khan at 20, while tied with Daniel Mendoza.

Ingram is leading the team in a few areas however! With 45 singles, Jenkins is only closely matched by Duha at 42 Singles, as the rest of the team are all sub 30 in the stat. Now, the rest of the Boston Flowers have as many (Skylar Khan) or more (the other 6 Flowers) doubles so that might not mean much. But that doesn’t stop Jenkins in being tied for most RBI on the team at 38 with Zelda Highway. The tie for most home runs certainly doesn’t hurt either! (Tied at 8 with Duha.) 

Anyways, thanks for reading this far. It turns out that, according on Astrology, Zelda Highway is the best player by overall stars in Blaseball. All the above about Jenkins Ingram is true, but it looks like Zelda Highway is either good at, great at, or decent at everything but Stuff. A former Tokyo Lift Shadow player, Zelda fell onto the Flowers and brought with a level of star power we haven’t seen on the Flowers since Nagomi Mcdaniel or the original Jaylen Hotdogfingers. But this time, Zelda is doing the thing she should be doing: Batting! 

In 314 AB, Zelda got 91 hits, struck out 59 times and had 8 walks. 49 doubles (22nd overall in Doubles),  13 Triples (tied for 9th overall). At 0.28981 BA, Zelda trails behind Zack Sanders in most categories, but also 72 fewer at bats than Zack. They had the same amount of home runs, and Zelda hit one more single. Zelda is tied for most RBI, and is also in the traditional Jacob Haynes position on the line-up: last batter. And this is despite Zelda following Skylar, Kelvin, and Dervin!

Zelda fielded the second most hit balls at 347 (where-as Zack only fielded 188) and only allowed 67 hits. At 280 outs, she sits at 80.69% of her fielding plays resulting in outs, and that is while being the Boston Flowers Back Flanker. As one of eight Back Flankers in the league, how does she rate? 

  • 1. Zelda Highway of the Boston Flowers at 80.69% Plays with Outs (PwO)
  • 2. Deion Gamage of the Seattle Garages at 79.17% PwO
  • 3. Chambers Kennedy of the Core Mechanics at 78.96% PwO
  • 4. Wanda Schenn of the San Francisco Lovers at 78.90% PwO
  • 5. Mindy Kugel of the Kansas City Breath Mints at 77.93% PwO
  • 6. Sigmund Castillo of the Broken Ridge Jazz Hands at 75% PwO
  • 7. Donia Bailey of the LA Unlimited Tacos 70.27% PwO
  • 8. Soojin Gloom of the LA Unlimited Tacos at 66.95% (PwO)

She’s the best Back Flanker in the ILB, before the Team Boost. After the Team Boost, she is now the first among the Stars. (Tiera Wigdoubt, the best batter pulled from the Horizon? 96th on overall stars.) I hesitate to have one of our own estimated, but here’s the truth: Zelda Highway is the Boston Flower to watch bloom this upcoming season!

Barswanian

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