Jordan Hildebert

Jordan Hildebert got alternated in the season 22 elections, and subsequently became one of the best baserunners that the ILB has ever seen. They ranked 6th in season 23 with 85 stolen bases, but that only paints part of the picture. Subtracting home runs, Jordan got on base 70 times that season, meaning that every time they got on base, you could expect them to steal 1.24 bases. I was also interested in looking at Jordan’s steal efficiency, or how many bases they stole that were able to be stolen (e.g. no runners in front of Jordan). According to my research, Jordan had opportunities to steal 162 bases in season 23, giving them a steal efficiently of 52.47%. Jordan also did this quickly, attempting a steal every 2.44 pitches, often times stealing multiple bases with 1 or 0 pitches thrown.

These numbers are impressive, but they are hindered by the fact that the alternation also tanked Jordan’s hitting stats. Their season 23 OPS of 0.236 was below the league average. If you were to give Jordan a league average OBP of 0.299 and assume the same number of home runs, Jordan would have had 100 steals. Give them their season 22 pre-alternation OBP of 0.325, and you could expect 125 steals. And if you were to give them the 0.348 OBP of season 23 stolen base leader Collins Melon, Jordan would be expected to have 135 stolen bases in total. Still shy of Melon’s 164 mark, but Jordan would have definitely turned more heads.

Sadly, Jordan got voicemail’d early in season 24, and we haven’t seen them since. But I know that they’re in the shadows training, waiting to show the world what a true base runner looks like. This is far from the only reason to vote Jordan Hildebert into the hall of fame; they became a staple power hitter for the Shoe Thieves after a crucial trade. But this is definitely a silly reason that I can support with cherry-picked stats, and those are my favorite reasons of all.

-Paradox

You may have heard about Jordan Hildebert, vexatious pitcher and blocker of consensus.  You’ve definitely heard about smol jorn, the funny purple alt. This is about neither of them. The middle of Jordan Hildebert’s oddball career is the least funny, but still worth remembering.

The Spies traded Jordan to the Shoe Thieves for Bennett Bluesky in S14, in the hopes that both players would be better off in each others’ positions—and it worked brilliantly. Jordan was always a slugger (when not at the Wlaffle House) but it was after some late S18 parties that their hitting really took off. At their peak in Season 20, they batted 0.354 (6th in the league) with an OPS of 1.051 (10th).

Unfortunately, Jordan was chomped near the end of S20. By the end of 22, they were well on the way back to their peak when they got hit by the Purple Alt hammer. You know the rest. While smol jorn will always have a place in our hearts, it’s too bad we didn’t get to see more of Jordan Hildebert, power hitter.

-tealdeer

Hiroto Wilcox

Hiroto Wilcox was, alongside Dunlap Figueroa, one half of the dynamic duo of the Tigers rotation, and a large part of why the team won 3 championships, made playoffs 13 times, and ended with a losing record from Season 1 to Season 16. They were a top 10 or top 15 pitcher for most of the Discipline Era, put up one of the best pitching performances ever in Season 12 (26-2 record, 1.34 ERA which is the 6th best all time if excluding Underhanded), and have the second most innings pitched of anyone not named Dunlap Figueroa. Across more than 5000 innings, Hiroto was 20 to 25% better than the average pitcher. Comparable names are Theodore Cervantes, Alexandria Rosales, and of course Dunlap Figueroa. This is as airtight a statistical case as it gets.

But Hiroto gave much more to the team than just fantastic pitching. Since Landry and Moody’s incinerations, Hiroto has been generally thought of as the team’s captain. They are one of, if not the, most beloved Tigers players, and are central to the team’s lore. Hiroto was the Tigers; think of whoever player on your team is the one that most represents them, that everyone knows and puts them in their art or fanfiction – that was Hiroto Wilcox for the majority of the Hades Tigers’ golden years.

-Dargo

Herring Winfield

Early in the Expansion Era, the Shoe Thieves hatched a scheme that can only be described as absurdly hubristic—a three-season plan we dubbed Operation Pitcher of Blood.

(Feel free to imagine the Mission: Impossible theme playing as you read along.)

1. Foreshadow Blood Hamburger and bring out our best shadow hitting prospect.
2. Foreshadow Tillman Henderson, sending Blood to the mound.
3. Shadow our worst batter and bring Tillman into the lineup where he can finally do us some good.

Almost nothing about this plan actually worked. But we got one good thing out of it, and that was Herring Winfield.

After an OK rookie season followed by an Infusion, Herring became the Thieves’ core contact hitter, complementing dinger-oriented Howell Franklin and Jordan Hildebert. I won’t pretend this propelled the Thieves to greatness or even goodness, but let’s see you try batting your way out of the omnishambles that was Expansion-Era Thieves pitching.

Herring peaked at the height of the Ruthlessness era, facing down pitches that flummoxed most batters and turning them into hits. Their best season was S16, when they were 9th in the league in BA (0.311), 11th in OBP (0.334), and 13th in OPS+ (168.2). Overall, Herring earned a solid career wRC+ of 121 and OPS+ of 122—and that’s without considering defense.

Although overshadowed by teammate Richardson “Every Glove Everywhere All at Once” Games, Herring would have been the best fielder on a lot of teams. They were able to make outs of what would normally have been hits given up by our alleged pitching staff. In Season 14, fresh from the Shadows, Herring was already 26th in the league in Outs Above Replacement and 23rd in OAR/1000. Clearly, a recruit with potential. After their infusion, they reached elite status: 11th in OAR and 9th in OAR/1000. We don’t have these stats after S15 but with 1.259-1.349 omni and 1.256-1.383 chase, it’s safe to assume Herring remained a top-tier fielder.

Alas for us, an unexpected trade in the Season 22 elections sent Herring to the Crabs. They were warmly welcomed into their new home, and put in another solid season in Baltimore. And then came Season 24.

The Breath Mints and Fridays were dead. The end of the world loomed. But the Blaseball gods still took the time to inflict smaller tragedies. As the Crabs’ leadoff hitter, Herring was targeted by Consumers fourteen times. By taking those hits, they protected OG Crab and ghost enthusiast Kennedy Loser from Redaction—but their heroism had a cost. Their soul diminished bite by bite until finally they were themselves Redacted on Day 22. But even as they were being systematically chomped into oblivion, they put up some of the best numbers of their career, batting 0.333 for those 22 games. Rest in Redaction, Herring; you went down swinging.

-tealdeer

The post Gonna Fly Now: Hall of Fame Week 26 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

The Narrative

Baby Doyle began their career as one of the weaker members of the legendary Season 1 Jazz Hands lineup.

During the early Discipline Jazz Hands dynasty, Baby played a supporting role to the elite batting talent in the Jazz Hands lineup. They were never the best batter on the team, but being out-batted by legends like Aldon Cashmoney and Nagomi McDaniel is understandable. However, a series of weather and election calamities in seasons 5-7 gutted the Jazz Hands, depriving us of all of our star power, and forcing us to begin our long, slow rebuild. This is when Baby Doyle’s story really gets interesting.

In Season 8, the Jazz Hands won the Precognition Blessing, the last blessing we would win until Season 18. Precognition targeted Baby twice, boosting their hitting by 40%, and instantly catapulting them into the league’s hitting elite. Baby’s OPS jumped from 0.751 in Season 8 to 0.969 (nice) in Season 9, making them easily the best hitter on the team. The era of Baby had begun. 

The Jazz Hands slowly built up a lineup that could support Baby, Infusing Collins Melon into an awe inspiring blob of stars, and bringing several other members of the lineup to above replacement value. However, Baby was still held back by their position – batting near the end of the Jazz Hands overly long lineup. Worse, Baby had few consistent hitters in front of them to slug in, and was followed in the Lineup by Collins Melon. Melon racked up RBI’s batting Baby, but Baby often blocked Melon from stealing their way around the bases, which held back team’s overall effectiveness. 

That all changed in Season 18, when the Jazz Hands broke their Blessing-less streak and won Grand Larceny. If Precognition had made Baby an effective individual batter, Grand Larceny finally made them part of an effective team. Sorting the lineup by Basethirst put Collins Melon at #2, and Baby Doyle at #3, creating the most dynamic and exciting batting pair in the entire ILB. Both would go on to play in the Exhibition Match, but unfortunately only Baby would return from it. After a weird and messy Season 24 (even by Season 24 standards) Baby was left standing as the last remaining OG Jazz Hand, the core of the Lineup, and one of the greatest batters of all time.

The Numbers

Alright, now for the crunchy stuff. Baby’s long career means they obviously have great counting stats – #3 in career Doubles (544), #5 in hits (2631), #7 in HRs (549) and #2 in RBI (1866.3). With the help of Collins Melon, Baby also set the single season RBI record in season 23 (307.6), and is #1 in both career Hits with Runners in Scoring Position (591), and in career Sac Flies (123). All that’s to be expected – but Baby’s rate stats are where things get exciting. 

Baby’s career OPS of 0.955 is the 15th best among players with 1000 or more Plate Appearances. However, it’s worth noting that Baby’s 9114 PA’s absolutely dwarf the PA’s of everyone above them in that list – Jaxon Buckley (8291) and Valentine Games (8011) are the only players who even come close. Baby achieved a consistent rate of excellence that is simply unparalleled

Graphing Career OPS vs PAs really highlights how exceptional Baby Doyle is in this regard. Every single player with a better OPS played much less Blaseball than them, and no one who’s played as much can touch their rate. The next best Career OPS among players with more than 9000 PAs is, funnily enough, Baby Triumphant, with a OPS that’s 50 points lower (0.902) across a comparably long career (9284 PAs). No one else with more than 9000 PAs has a career OPS above 0.900. 

The raw OPS numbers are the most visually striking, but more advanced metrics like WOBA, OPS+, and WRC+ all tell the same story. Doyle is the best pure hitter among players with 9000 or more PAs, and it’s not remotely close. 

These numbers look even better when you realize how Baby built them. Most great hitters, even ones mainly known for their slugging, excel at drawing walks. Baby Doyle, on the other hand, clearly believed plate discipline was for cowards. They achieved only 279 walks across their career, among the worst walk counts of anyone in their PA range. 

Instead, Baby earned their way on base with their bat, using their career 0.306 Batting Average (15th overall, 1st among batters w/ >9k PAs) to achieve a career 0.319 On Base Percentage (49th overall, 4th among batters w/ >9k PAs). The rest of their OPS comes from their monstrous career 0.636 Slugging, yet another untouchable rate for players who’ve played as much as them (12th overall, 1st among batters w/ >9k PAs). This consistent excellence earned Baby a career WhAT of 80.7, the 9th best of any batter in Blaseball. 

Baby’s not just about career value though – their best seasons rank among the best of any hitter ever. They earned an OPS of 1.000 or greater in 10 seasons, a record matched only by Conner Haley, and exceeded only by Jaxon Buckley (who has 12 such seasons). If we use OPS+ to  normalize performance across different scoring environments, we see Baby is the proud owner of 6 of the 100 best OPS+ seasons of all time (among seasons with at least 200 PAs).

These are the 100 greatest individual hitting seasons in the history of Blaseball. Not only did Baby Doyle hit six of them over the course of their career – they hit five of them in a row. Baby’s season 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 hitting performances are all included in this list, as well as their excellent performance in Season 14. 

WRC+ tells a similar story, even though it values Baby’s slugging less than OPS+. Baby owns 5 of the top 100 WRC+ seasons with at least 200 PAs, excelling in a metric that highly values on base percentage even though they only walked on 1 in every 33 plate appearances.

I’d also note that Baby did this without meaningful support from Modifications. The Jazz Hands 9 season Blessing drought meant Baby played without the benefit of powerful team mods like Blood types, as well as powerful player mods like Spicy. They had Perk, but it only caused them to play slightly better in rare Coffee weather. Beyond that, their only Modification of note was 2x, which they only gained in the Season 22 Election. 2x certainly helped their RBI numbers, but did not help with any of the other stats I’ve cited here.

Finally, a somewhat speculative point about Defense. Recent research into the inner workings of The Sim has revealed the value that great defenders can contribute to their team, which makes Baby Doyle’s Hall of Fame case even stronger. Defense was Baby’s highest attribute category prior to receiving Precognition, with a natural 3.697 defense star rating that grew to 5.1 stars by the end of Expansion. Omniscience, the defense attribute that has been found to be generally the most valuable, was always Baby’s strength, growing from 0.872 at the beginning of their career to 1.231 by the end. 

This chart shows an estimate of the defensive impact players had from Seasons 12-15. While limited, it shows Baby was one of the top 20 defenders in the league during that time. From this, we can imply that they were likely at least an above average defender throughout their career, all while playing for a team that rarely if ever had an effective pitching rotation. This greatly bolsters their Hall of Fame case, especially since it means they were a valuable and impactful member of the early Discipline Jazz Hands dynasty, even though their hitting during that period rarely impressed.

the iNtangibles

In Jazz Hands lore, Baby Doyle is depicted as a human child, somewhere between infant and toddler age. How exactly a child is able to hit this well isn’t completely clear. Early on, we joked that “their short legs and lack of object permanence make them a slight liability on defense” only to later learn that they were an excellent defender. This line is still on their wiki though, because it’s funny. 

In between Eras, Baby played in the Coffee Cup, and won the tournament as a member of Inter Xpresso alongside fellow Hall of Famers Knight Triumphant, Commissioner Vapor, and Theodore Cervantes. Coffee Cup statistics are difficult to access, so I haven’t looked them up, but I’m sure Baby’s were excellent. Throughout the Expansion Era, Baby’s Perk modification helped them play even better in Coffee weather. The Jazz Hands always appreciated this, even if we did wonder if giving a child that much espresso was a good idea. 

During the Season 17 Earlsiesta, The Reader “gifted” Baby Doyle an Uncertain Necklace of Entanglement, which would cause Baby to be Alternated if they were ever sent Elsewhere. The season before, the Reader had drawn attention to Collins Melon by removing their Alternate modification, which caused the entire league to Notice the Jazz Hands had a 7 star Pitcher hiding in our Lineup. These two events caused many on the team to distrust The Reader for the remainder of the Era. 

The Jazz Hands spent the rest of Season 17 fearing we’d lose our best hitter. Baby had traditionally floated just below the noodle on the idol Board, but we campaigned to get them named an MVP that season to protect them from Flooding. Baby managed to dodge being sent elsewhere by Salmon Cannons in Season 18, and in that election the Jazz Hands used the newly created Item Move will to hand Baby a Careful Fireproof Necklace we thought would protect them from future calamities.

Halfway through the next season though, Baby threw that Necklace away for a basic Bat, which they wielded for most of the rest of the Expansion Era. 

That MVP title meant Baby was selected for the Exhibition Match, alongside Collins Melon. Melon was Vaulted during the match, but thankfully Baby avoided that fate. Afterwards, Baby was dropped into the Jazz Hands pitching rotation. Their pitching attributes were … not exactly competitive, and made even worse by Magnified. The whole team wanted Baby to be Faxed, and on Day 5, the Chicago Firefighters had a chance to do just that. 

Despite being Perked up by Coffee weather, Baby only managed to last 5.2 innings versus the Firefighters. During those innings, they achieved 1 Strikeout, and allowed 8 Hits for 12 Runs (which would have been 14 runs without Gita Sparrow’s Subtractor modification). 10 of those runs were Baby Triumphant RBIs – 4 from a sac fly in the 4th inning, and another 6 from a Wired Single in the 5th, which brought the score to 12-4 and triggered the Fax Machine. Doyle usually had the edge on Triumphant during the Expansion Era, but in one of their last interactions of the Era, Triumphant single handedly Faxed Doyle into the Shadows, to the delight of all those involved. 

The Jazz Hands built Night+ before we even knew what it did, and spent Season 24 begging for a Night Shift. When we finally got one though, it didn’t go as planned. Late in the season, a Night Shift attempted to swap Baby Doyle and Munivoi Rochester. The Jazz Hands were Rogue at that point though, so the Night Shift failed. Munavoi got a Night Shift boost, and used their one at bat to hit into a Double Play, but Baby remained in the lineup and was made permanently Unstable. We don’t quite know why this happened, but we’re very concerned about it. 

iN conclusioN

Baby Doyle sits at the apex of greatness and longevity. Every batter who has played as long as them is worse at batting, and every batter who is better than them at batting has played less. In my opinion, the only batters in the history of Blaseball who are unquestionably better than Baby  Doyle are Aldon Cashmoney, Conner Haley, Valentine Games, and Jaxon Buckley. All 4 hit substantially better than Baby over the course of their careers, and while those careers were shorter than Baby’s, all were over 7000 PAs.

Peak value also matters, and one could  reasonably argue that players like Nagomi McDaniel and Collins Melon had such high peaks they deserve to be considered better than Baby. Even then though, Baby Doyle remains unquestionably one of the greatest batters in the history of Blaseball, and the greatest Jazz Hand of all time. Many greats have passed through Breckenridge or given flasher performances there that caught the eye of the whole league, but no player has contributed more to the team’s (modest) success. Baby may never have been the face of the franchise, but they are the heart and soul of it, and are unquestionably worthy of induction into the Hall of Fame. 

The post The Case for Baby Doyle appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Introduction

Richardson Games is one of the most Blaseball players ever.  At one point in time, they had the highest natural star count for any stat.  There is a lot that you can say about them, and a lot of reasons that you should consider voting them into the Hall of Fame. 

But if you know me, you know there’s one thing that I’m obsessed with in Blaseball more than anything else.  More than Snyder Briggs, more than Simba Davis, more than Yeet Bright Day.  My Blaseball obsession… RGSOTS.

RGSOTS stands for “Richardson Games scores on the sacrifice.”  It was the text that would flash upon the screen whenever Richardson Games was on third base and reached home via tagging up after a ground out or fly out.  When I started watching Blaseball in Season 9, I noticed that it was something that happened fairly often, so I began to make a meme of it, and other Shoe Thief fans followed suit.  Soon, RGSOTS was known team-wide.  After the Grand Siesta, the wording of it changed to spite me, but the acronym stuck around.  At some point during the Grand Siesta, I started to keep a spreadsheet of all eligible situations and the outcomes of them.  

Does this matter?  No, not really.  Richardson gets to be on third base a lot because they’re fast, but whether or not they score in those situations is very rarely up to them and more up to the batter.  Will this argument help convince you to vote them into the hall of fame?  I hope so, but it’s more so a fun analysis than a serious statistical analysis.  But I’m going to share with you some of my favorite parts of this chart, because Richardson Games is on the ballot and I don’t get enough chances to share this spreadsheet around.  

For reference, the full spreadsheet can be found here.

The Basics

So to start, let me explain the color coding.  There are 19 possible outcomes for a RGSOTS-E (Richardson Games scores on the sacrifice eligible) situation.  They can be broadly broken down into four categories: a score with no out, a score with an out (aka a sacrifice), no score with an out, and no score with no out.  The breakdown can be seen below:

As you can see here, if there is a RGSOTS-E situation, Richardson scores 64.3% of the time.  This shows that if they can get in these situations, they can really help contribute to their team winning.  Famously, the only run the Shoe Thieves scored on Season 9 Day X against The Shelled One’s PODS was a RGSOTS.

If we take a further look at the sections, we can see the breakdown a bit clearer.  The green section is almost always hits, broken down into singles, doubles, triples, and home runs.  Quadruples are technically possible in seasons and games with the fifth base, but it hasn’t happened as far as I’m aware.  In this category as well are the bases loaded walk, which forces Richardson Games home, and the ever exciting steal home, the only time Richardson gets to actively impact their ability to score.  

In yellow, we have the four categories of sacrifice.  Fly balls and ground balls are the most common.  If there is a player on first base, then two additional options are unlocked.  The fielders can throw out the player running to second for a Fielder’s Choice, or they can get both the runner at second and the hitter running to first for the extremely rare Grounded into a double play sacrifice.  This, of course, is only possible with 0 outs in the inning, as a double play with 1 out would end the inning.  

In red, you can see the seven results that lead to an out without Richardson Games scoring.  The most puzzling to me are always the Flyout and ground out without a score.  There must be reasons why Games isn’t able to score in these scenarios, but I haven’t been able to discern anything specific. Similarly are the Fielder’s Choice and GIDP without a score, though the latter can be explained if there is 1 out.  Then, the two most devastating outcomes, the strikeouts, swinging and looking.  These make up a majority of the outs without scores, because there’s no way that Richardson has a chance to even do anything.  The final possibility is when Richardson gets caught stealing home.  

The blue section is reserved for no score, no out.  The only time this ever happens is when a non-bases loaded walk occurs.  There are theoretically other possibilities, such as a Hit-by-pitch, but none have ever occurred.  

The two charts above represent all 832 RGSOTS-E situations from season 3 to season 24.  Seasons 1 and 2 are unavailable due to reblase not having recordings of games from those seasons.  This information can be broken down in a number of ways, and I’d like to go through a few of those now to point out some interesting trends.  Some of these matter, most of these don’t.

Seasons

First, the season breakdown.  This shows how many situations there are in each season.  There are a number of trends that you can immediately see from this graph.  First, you can see the result of Richardson Games getting the grappling hook item in the Season 4 Elections. From Seasons 5 through 11, the number of RGSOTS-E situations were always greater than the number in Season 3, thanks in large part to Richardson’s baserunning being maxed out due to the item. 

Additionally, there were 0 situations in both Seasons 19 and 20.  This is because of the infamous Reverb that occurred in Season 18, often called the Gameswap, where Richardson and Cornelius Games were swapped in Reverb weather, becoming a pitcher and batter respectively.  You cannot have a RGSOTS-E situation if Richardson is a pitcher, and they wouldn’t see the batters box again until Season 21.

Another interesting breakdown can be seen in the general results for each season.  You can see the rise in walks in Seasons 10 and 11, thanks to the Shoe Thieves gaining the Flinch mod, forcing them to take more pitches in general.  This also explains the decline in hits and sacrifices from the championship Season 9 to Season 10.  You also can identify the ruthlessness meta creepin’ in with the low amount of walks from Season 14 onwards (sans Season 16).  The high number of outs compared to sacrifices and hits from Seasons 14 to 17 also reflect this; though this chart doesn’t show the complete breakdown, the majority of the outs in these seasons are from strikeouts.

Batters

We’ll get back to things that matter in a bit, but I want to point out some less useful charts first.  Here’s a breakdown of who is actually at the plate during these situations:

Because the Charleston Shoe Thieves never experienced a Reverb for most of their history, the vast majority of these plate appearances are held by Velasquez Alstott and Simon Haley, the first and second hitters to bat after Richardson Games, respectively.  Stu Trololol represents the third player to bat after Richardson, and thus, the bases are usually loaded when she get a chance to bat in an RGSOTS-E situation. 

Lachlan Shelton was Feedbacked for Simon Haley in season 8, explaining his 4th place position on this chart.  But there are so many names on this list with only one or two situations.  What’s the reason for that?  Why, ghosts of course!  Later in the Expansion Era, Velasquez Alstott had their Flinch modification rerolled into Haunted, which occasionally had dead players take plate appearances instead of that player.  By my count, this happened 20 times over the course of Richardson’s career.  The only player to have at bats in RGSOTS-E situations while both alive and dead is Winnie McCall, who batted after Richardson when he was on the Millenials, and got one plate appearance in Season 17, after their incineration late in Season 16.

Vela is worth a slightly deeper look.  In Seasons 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 13, they appeared on either the sacrifice flies or sacrifice bunts leaderboard for the season.  For Season 13 in particular, they appeared on both leaderboards, taking the sole top spot for sac flies.  While hitting a sacrifice isn’t always seen as a great thing, especially when a hit is possible, I want to personally thank Vela for helping immensely with the creation of this meme.  Without their bat, RGSOTS and this spreadsheet might not exist.

Teams

There’s not a ton to say on the Teams front.  The Yellowstone Magic and Hawai’i Fridays top the list, having played in the same division as the Shoe Thieves for every season except the map-driven Season 24.  However, despite being an original team, there has never been an RGSOTS-E situation against the Hellmouth Sunbeams.  The short lived Carolina Queens have 12 situations in six games, and even the Oxford Paws have had one.  A large part of this has to do with the Shoe Thieves and Sunbeams just not playing each other often; they are in opposite divisions, after all.  Hopefully we’ll get to see Dickson on third against the sunbeams when Blaseball returns.

Pitchers

There have been a total of 164 pitchers that have ever faced a batter in an RGSOTS-E situation.  Of those 164, only 25 have been in ten or more situations.

There are few very interesting pitchers that we can take a short dive into.  Topping the list is Cory Twelve, responsible for 10% of all non-bases loaded walks all by themselves.

Another long time magic pitcher, and eventual teammate Inky Rutledge comes in at 2nd on this list, and has given up over 20% of all home runs in RGSOTS-E situations:

Nicholas Mora is the only pitcher on this list to have given up a complete cycle in RGSOTS-E situations:

Evelton McBlase is arguably the greatest pitcher in RGSOTS-E situations.  Their out-no-score rate is 50%, and they’ve never let a batter beat him without recording an out.

Defense

For the entire Discipline Era, fielders were not named for sacrifice plays, only on fly outs and ground outs without a score.  So we only have 19 players that were able to record an out in this era without Dickson scoring.  My initial desire to create this spreadsheet was to try and find a reason why RGSOTS happened so often.  Was it something with Vela’s hitting stats?  Richardson’s baserunning?  Or maybe the individual player’s or team’s defensive numbers? 

I ended up not looking into this as deeply as I would have liked; diving deep into the Forbidden Knowledge stats for each of these possibilities would have been a monumental task, and not long after, the Blaseball community was able to discover the purposes of most of the stats anyways.  But if you ever want to take the dive for yourself, the information is there.

Odd One Out

OK, so earlier I stated that there were 19 possibilities for what happens in an RGSOTS-E situation, but I only described 18.  That’s because there was one instance of an out recorded while the game blipped.  On Day 86 of Season 4, in the bottom of the 8th inning, Stu Trololol faced off against San Francisco Lovers pitcher Milo Brown with 0 outs and the bases loaded.  This was a not-uncommon occurrence in the early Discipline Era of Blaseball; the game lags, and a specific play is skipped, not shown on the Feed. 

Back then, I was doing all of this research manually by hand, going through each individual game.  When I was looking for the outcome of this particular situation, I encountered this blip.  This had only happened one other time in all 832 situations, but due to context clues, I figured out that that situation ended in a single.  There are any number of ways for an out to be recorded, so this out may forever remain a mystery.  Worry not, however, as Sebastian Woodman was able to draw a walk immediately after, sending Dickson home.

Clutch

Finally, we arrive at Hall of Fame consideration again.  While doing this research and analysis, I wanted to see how important these RGSOTS-E situations really were.  So I came up with some criteria for what could be considered a “clutch game.” The criteria for such a game are as follows:

• Any game where RG’s team won or lost by the number of runs equal to the number of RGSOTS-E situations in that game (unless RG scored in all situations and their team still lost, or if they didn’t score and they still won).
• Any game that went to extra innings in which there was an RGSOTSE situation before extra innings occurred.
• Any games with RGSOTSE situations in extra innings.
• If Sun 2 or Black Hole was activated, the situation will only be significant if the number of RGSOTE situations directly caused the activation.

Overall, this gave me about 139 games in which the number of RGSOTS-E situations really mattered and impacted the outcome of the game.  For the purpose of this section, walks without scores were ignored.  I’ve organized those games into a few categories:

38.8% of the time, successful scores in RGSOTS-E situations directly cause Richardson’s team to win.  In another 25.9% of situations, a score forced the game into extras.  That means in 64.7% of all clutch games, Richardson created a positive outcome by scoring in RGSOTS-E situations.  That translates to 90 entire games. 

Now, it’s unfair to say that Richardson is the only reason that these games went to extras or won, but it’s a significant number to consider, especially when compared to their career Wins above Tokyo (WhAT) of 39.796, which while impressive, isn’t among the elite batters in league history.

Unfortunately, the rest of the pie is a bit more complicated to understand.  In orange, we have the “Would have prevented extras” category.  These represent games where there was at least one non-score in an RGSOTS-E situation, where if there had been a score, Richardson’s team would have won outright and extra innings would not have been required. 

This doesn’t mean that all of those games were losses, but it means that the games could have been decided without the need for any additional innings.  And in red, we have situations where the games were lost.  In successful scoring situations, Richardson’s runs could have been enough to force extras or even win these games, however in these games he was unable to make that happen.

Then we have the fun ones.  First up is the “Non-winning run in extra innings”.  There have only been five of these situations recorded, and most were slightly different.  The first was a sacrifice fly from Velasquez Alstott in the top of the tenth inning on Day 64 of Season 5, but the Shoe Thieves had already recorded the run they needed to win the game.  Just 11 games later, another Vela sacrifice in the top of the tenth, a bunt this time, was not enough to prevent the Dallas Steaks from shaming the Shoe Thieves in the bottom of the tenth off of a three-run August Mina triple. 

On Day 61 of Season 11, a Simon Haley homerun caused the difference, however Richardson’s run didn’t contribute to the winning difference.  Similarly on Day 39 of Season 12, a Velasquez Alstott sacrifice bunt occurred after the Pies had already been shamed.  And in Season 17, Richardson did score in the bottom of the 11th, but it was only enough to stay alive until the Georgias were shamed in the bottom of the 17th.  

Then we have the “Contributed to Sun 2 / Black Hole”.  These runs brought the Shoe Thieves’ total number of runs to 10 in Sun 2 or Black Hole weather, causing the activation.  This happened four times in total, with two Sun 2’s and two Black Holes.  There’s also an interesting 5th addition to this list, when on Season 17 Day 24, the Hades Tigers activated the Black Hole, eating ten of their runs and leaving them with a final score of 0.4.  However, Richardson’s score in the 1st was the Shoe Thieves only run, giving them the technical win on the day.

Finally, the “Non-score in extra innings” is pretty obvious; it details a situation in which there was an RGSOTS-E situation in extra innings, but where Richardson failed to score.  This has only ever happened four times: a Velasquez Alstott flyout in the bottom of the 10th inning on Season 14 Day 59, and back-to-back strikeouts from ghost Case Sports and Simon Haley in the bottom of the 10th on Season 17 Day 82. 

The Thieves would go on to win the former of these games and lose the latter, however it should be noted that in that latter game, a sacrifice bunt from ghost Hendricks Ragnel was the reason that the game went into extras in the first place.  Finally, on Season 23, day 49, Richardson Games hit a game-winning double in the 11th, making Conner Haley’s strikeout later in the inning irrelevant for the outcome of the game.

Conclusion

In the grand scheme of things, none of this really matters.  Richardson Games was a phenomenal player for many reasons.  Their baserunning and stealing was widely known, and they may be the player that proved that “defense is real” more than any other.  But despite all of the moments inside and out of the game, the one thing I will remember Richardson Games the most for is scoring on the sacrifice. 

I’m hoping that you will remember them too when it’s time to submit your ballot for the Hall of Fame.

The post Richardson Games Should Be in the Hall of Fame appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Yosh Carpenter’s story is one of what I can only describe as overwhelming resilience.

Yosh came out of the gate as one of the San Francisco Lovers’ best pitchers in the Discipline era. We are not, under any circumstances, known for our pitching, however Yosh always kept a notable success rate among their cohort.

Of 21 total seasons as a pitcher for both the Lovers and the Hawai’i Fridays, 16 of those seasons Carpenter earned a WHIP under 1.00, with stand out seasons (discounting an anomaly I will get to in a moment), being Seasons 6 and 7, the latter of which would see us in the playoffs finals.

Yosh’s consistent ERA throughout their time as a pitcher was 3.04, and they were a top 15 pitcher in Overhanded Career WhAT. The only other pitcher who has taken the mound of the Lovers in this group is, ironically enough, Gabriel Griffith.

Yosh sustained a significant career throughout era shifts, and spent their entire career both on the Lovers and Hawai’i Fridays, dedicated to the mound up until the absolute moment where they were needed in the lineup, to swap with legacy teammate Don Mitchell, in a play to prevent their vaulting.

If I’m being entirely honest here. I am not a stats guy. That’s not why I’m writing this article.

I want to tell a story.

If there is one thing you need to know about the San Francisco Lovers, it’s our seasoned history with Feedback, and sharing players with our friends in the Pacific.

While many of the Feedbacks we experienced were heart wrenching, I look no further than this season 13, day 79 Feedback for one of the best moments in Blaseball storytelling.

We can be realistic, this was a glitch. Yosh Carpenter took the mound against Gabriel Griffith, the inning began like any other.

Feedback struck.

Where we had come to painfully expect at this point to see Griffith standing in Yosh’s place, what we got instead was 17 more grueling innings of a Lovers staple pitcher refusing to leave the mound. Yosh completed all nine innings for both teams before the Veedback really hit, sending them to the Fridays where they would finish their career.

This would be the second of five Feedbacks we would have with the Fridays, and start a long line of what we’ve lovingly dubbed “the shipping of Theseus,” slowly but surely losing our original roster across the League.

I don’t tell this story out of sadness however, I truly do think that Yosh’s story is one of the most interesting things that has happened to us. It sets a precedent for the love of our roster, it would be the last time one of our most dominant original pitchers got to play with us but would lead to investing in standout Lovers pitchers like Sandford Garner, and newcomer Mindy Salad.

I think this glitch, a love letter to those moments in the game that just write themselves beautifully.

Whether it was Yosh’s performance, or this story that convinced you, I hope you consider Yosh Carpenter for your ballot.

Thanks.

The post Yosh Carpenter appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Scratch Deleuze

Scratch Deleuze is a fantastic Blaseball player. Scratch Deleuze is a fantastic opossum. Scratch Deleuze deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Scratch is the fulfillment of the promise that is the Ohio Worms. When the Worms arrived they looked to be horrible at playing Blaseball… and indeed, their first full season was historically losing. But the Worms had a special modification called “Bottom Dweller,” which boosts each player whenever the team finishes last place in its division. And that potential drove Worms fans into a frenzy.

Scratch was not the player most expected to skyrocket into stardom. That might have been Vessalius Sundae (who became an all-star), Augusta Chadwell (incinerated in their first season), or Huber Frumple (never played a game for the Worms). But with a measly 1.5 stars in batting, who would ever imagine Scratch would one day achieve greatness?

Well, us Worms used both of our braincells to dream, and now Scratch is a banger. They hit .380 in season 24 and sat near the league lead in slugging categories. Scratch is also a thieving genius. Frankly, I expect Scratch to steal at least one base every time she gets to the plate… unless they hit a homer, of course. That’s what 7.4 stars in Baserunning (7.8, if you count their item) will do for you!

As pointed out by Discord user deafhobbit, Scratch’s 52.8 WhAt compares favorably with the 53.9 WhAt of York Silk – and Scratch managed it in about 500 fewer plate appearances. It’s been improvement after improvement for Scratch ever since that first 1.5-star appearance, and the future is bright for our Worms legend.

Scratch is varyingly depicted as a team mom, teenage dirtbag, giant opossum carrying the team on their back, and tiny little possum resting on Ephraim Ladd’s shoulder. Scratch is always depicted as adorable. Let’s be real – it’s time to bring an opossum to the Hall of Fame.

-Patronus

Mcdowell Mason

Leader.

This one word summarises the long time captain of the LA Unlimited Tacos so well. Mcdowell, who had been with the tacos through their lows, whether it be the party time speed run or losing six players to the pods was also the most important player for their highs being a core member of the team for the season 13 and 14 internet league finals runs as well as the season 17 championship.

The other reason the word “leader” is most fitting for McD is because Mcdowell Mason is the league leader in career home runs, triples and total bases. Do you love the long ball? I know I do and there is no player who has provided the league with more long balls than Mcdowell Mason.

-DeeJay (@BlaseballACo)

Finn James

This week marks the second anniversary of Finn James’ pitching debut. Two years ago, Finn James began pitching for the Crabs, swapping places with beloathed pitcher Tillman Henderson in the Season 4 Election (paving the way for Henderson to later go up in flames and for fans to drag his corpse up and down the Idolboard in the name of Hall Star Science). It’s Season 5 and Finn’s rookie pitching season. The Crabs are about to top the Evil League with a regular season record of 65-34 and Finn James will lead the Crabs’ pitching staff in ERA and in pitcher wins. One week on in Season 6, Finn James will be top of the Crabs Rotation by ERA once again and the Crabs will take their first championship, stomping the entire League with a season record of 80-19. Vote for Finn because Finn James Wins Games.

–jiggit

Lou Roseheart

Lou Roseheart is one of the best players in the league in any position, and has been for most of their career.

Career stats:
2.53 career ERA, 7th lowest all time, and 3rd lowest among pitchers who never had underhanded.
.817 career OPS, with only 2 seasons below .740 OPS, seasons 3 and 9.
634 career stolen bases despite spending 5 and a half seasons as a pitcher (as well as being on a lineup that was never shorter than 9 players until the season 22 elections and longer than 9 players for over half of the Expansion Era).

Here’s the seasonal leaderboards that Lou Roseheart has been on:

Season 5
#9 Doubles Hit
#2 Hits with Runners in Scoring Position
Tied #2 Triples Hit with Nagomi McDaniel

Season 7
Tied #7 Triples Hit with Conner Haley and Justice Spoon

Season 8
#10 Stolen Bases

Season 16
#5 lowest ERA
#5 HR/9
Four way tie at #6 Walk Percentage of 0.001 with Elvis Figueroa, Sixpack Dogwalker, and Tiana Takahashi
Tied at #8 Walks/9 with Elvis Figueroa

Season 19
#2 Lowest ERA
#5 Hits/9
#2 HR/9
#7 Strike Percentage
#8 Strikeouts/9
#8 Walks/9

Season 20
#8 Slugging Percentage
Tied #6 Stolen Bases with Paula Turnip
Tied #3 Walk Percentage with Coolname Galvanic and Jolene Willowtree
#5 Strikeouts/Walks

Season 21
#5 Stolen Bases Tied
#6 Triples with Engine Eberhardt, Kathy Mathews, Mcdowell Mason, and Rivers Clembons

Season 23
#7 Stolen Bases
#7 Triples

Season 24
Tied #8 Triples with Joshua Watson

Vote for a player who can do it all. Vote for Lou Roseheart for Hall of Fame.

-LaserMessiah (@ChiBlaseball)

Dunlap Figueroa

Dunlap Figueroa is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. There’s a lot I could say about them: how they were one half of the Dunlap-Hiroto duo that gave the Tigers 16 straight winning seasons, both being top pitchers for pretty much day 1 up until S20 for Hiroto and S22 for Dunlap, when they were both alted with disastrous consequences. Talk about Dunlap’s ridiculous S21, Dunlap’s single Underhanded season and the nadir of their career, when put up one of the best Underhanded seasons ever, one of very few to rival Michelle Sportman’s, carrying a completely battered Tigers team on their and Dudley Mueller’s back all the way to finals. I could also talk about their ridiculous all time counting stats (#1 in innings pitched, #1 in strikeouts, #1 in wins, #2 in quality starts, #9 in shutouts). Or, about many of their absolutely bonkers moments, like when they pitched for both teams at the same time in Season 14 following a Feedback with NaN, or when they entered the Semi-Centennial with the Fourth Base and a dream to stop the end of the world. But I’ll just say this.

Dunlap Figueroa has pitched over 5000 innings. They have a 76 career ERA-, meaning they were 25% better than league average during all of them. The only players with more than 2500 IPs and a better ERA- are Winnie Hess, Elvis Figueroa, Burke Gonzales, Gabriel Griffith, Qais Dogwalker, Wyatt Pothos, Yosh Carpenter, Theodore Cervantes, Yummy Elliott, Alexandria Rosales. All of them are, or are hopefully going to be, Hall Of Famers – and Dunlap is right there with them, with double the playing time. But let’s exclude Dunlap’s alternation, and take only their career from when they were generated to when they were Alternated. The only player with more IPs and better era- than S4-S21 Dunlap is Winnie Hess, generally agreed to be the greatest pitcher of all time. If Dunlap had died in S22 instead of being Alternated, Winnie would be their only comparison.

-Dargo4

Basilio Mason

Basilio Mason does not like blaseball. This is a wild sentence for a player who had not missed a game until being reverbed to the rotation in season 18 and has not missed a game since returning to the lineup in that season’s election.

Even when elsewhere, Basilio only stayed for a game, returning with the lost shell containing Basilio Fig to the team. This is the player who has played the most blaseball and eventually, got great at it.

The steady progress from being one of the worst players on the worst team in the league, to being the Tacos best hitter in Season 24. This consistent growth has led to BMase being a top 50 hitter of all time by WhAT and only behind Nagomi Nava in career walks.

Consistent growth and patience.

-DeeJay (@BlaseballACo)

Sosa Hayes

Last week Sosa Hayes gained 16% of the vote share. That’s incredible!!!! It also means they only need 5% more of the vote (~10 more people than last week) to keep them on the ballot for their final week (where the underline will give them another HUGE BOOST)! Here’s a reminder of all the reasons Sosa deserves a spot on your ballot:

1. With a BsR of 116.4, Sosa Hayes is the 9th best baserunner of all time.

2. Sosa is one of the best 2 way player of ALL TIME, being 1 of 11 with more than 2000 plate appearances/batter faced to have an ERA- less than 100 and a OBS+ of over 100!!!! This puts Sosa up there with Castillo Turner, Burke Gonzales, and new nominee Lou Roseheart.

3. Sosa pitched incredibly well with very little stars, especially in season 11 where they with 0.97 pitching stars pitched 1-2 stars better than expected! This helps them become an above average pitcher (as seen by ERA- less than 100 and a career FIP+ of 121). This is despite maxing out at just 2.9 pitching stars during their pitching time.

4. Sosa was one of the best batters of the late expansion era with OPS+ of 140 and SLG+ of 134, with 2 top 10% seasons.

5. Sosa’s season 23 was the 10th best season by BsR EVER, at 29.9. This means Sosa’s best baserunning season was better than Beck Whitney’s, Richardson Games’, Rigby Friedrich’s, Forrest Best’s, and Hewitt Best’s (and also all the ppl on the ballot rn)

6. Sosa killed hype train, is the only player to have to stat caps effect their visible stars, feedbacked for Soibhan Chark twice, and has 3 selves batted in.

I know the ballots stacked right now but even the most popular strategies leave a few slots open. PLEASE throw a vote to Sosa Hayes, I think they deserve a spot in the hall and if we all believe it we can get them in.

-AKAFishy

FRYDEHHM

Here’s a humble suggestion for your ballot. Include all of these players. Yes, all of them:

Finn James
Richardson Games
York Silk
Dunlap Figueroa
Elvis Figueroa
Howell Franklin
Henry Marshallow
McDowell Mason

Or, FRYDEHHM. for short. Time to fry these eggs.

Yes, that only leaves you with 2 free spots. Yes, this is a lot. But this is the most stacked HoF ballot ever, and I truly believe this is the best way to induct as many players as possible. Some players left out are better than some players on the list, and some players left out are more well known than players on the list, but those picked have a specific combination of performance and notoriety and are at a much higher risk of falling off than anyone at 5%. Finally, all of them have considerable team support, which has historically been a great indicator of who has an easier time getting in: Finn from the Crabs, Games and Howell from the Thieves, Henry and Elvis from the Pies, Dunlap from the Tigers, Mason from the Tacos, York from…well, basically the entire league.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s plenty of other deserving players. The idea is simply to vote for the players most likely to make it in, and thus induct as many of them as we can. You may feel bad about leaving someone off your ballot, but if this works, you will be able to vote for them next week.

-Dargo4

Peanut Bong

-DeeJay (@BlaseballACo)

The post Stacked Ballot: Hall of Fame Week 23 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

James Mora

If you’ve heard of James Mora, you probably already know why you are or aren’t voting for them. For those that haven’t, this blurb is for you.

On the field: James started out as a pitcher for the Fridays, and stayed there for several seasons. As a pitcher, they relied on defense but were never bad, especially by Discipline standards. When James feedbacked to the magic for Jaylen Hotdogfingers, their arrival was celebrated as an improvement over former slot occupant Yeong-ho Garcia.

Once the Move will was introduced, getting Mora onto the lineup became a major priority for the Magic. And once James got on the lineup (after a few failed attempts, like giving Chorby Short Homebody instead), they were without question the best batter on the team and remained thus until their untimely vaulting.

Jimmy was only the best hitting idol for about a season due to a dramatically ensmallened lineup, but their batting had a strong peak that didn’t overly rely on O No like other Magic batters (ie Bevan Wise) and consistent output for the rest of their time in the lineup.

External narrative: For the Fridays, Mora was a Discipline Era staple, one of their better pitchers during a time when the Fridays, like most of Wild Low, struggled to keep up with only sparse blessings to rely upon. During the Expansion Era, the Fridays were subject to significant roster changes, and losing James was a significant blow to them as an original pitcher who was often lored as in a relationship with fellow pitcher Stevenson Heat.

For the Magic, James represented an end to the chaos Jaylen would wreak within their rotation, a beloved player who was both a good prospect and fit in well with the chill vibes of Yellowstone.

Following the storm of redactions, Mora became a symbol of the Magic’s ability to keep up with the league during peak ruthlessness meta in spite of a seriously damaged lineup. Unfortunately, the tiny supply of batters on the team meant Mora became an instant idol sensation, dooming him to eventual vaulting off of momentum alone.

James, thus, is famous most often as an amusing what-if, when he dropped the force field meant to shield him from vaulting (although it could have instead caused a superposition) and when a secondary scheme to give him the Fifth Base didn’t trigger during that season’s election.

Conclusion: While James Mora might not be the best player on the ballot, or one who spent the majority of their time in the right place, their cultural and gameplay impact is significant, and they’re still a very impressive player. Anyone who dreaded matchups against the Magic from seasons 17 through 21 has Mora to thank for many, many of the runs they racked up.

-Beatrice

Jenkins Good

The Most Nominatively Determined Player

Jenkins Good is as borderline of a case as you can get here. 3.77 ERA and .954 WHIP overall. Acceptable numbers, if not inspiring. “Borderline” might actually be a slight bit of homerism on my part. But I love Jenkins, so I’m gonna try.

Jenkins Good sits upon the career Wins list, at #9. Now I’m the first to admit that wins aren’t the best measure of success. But, in order to pile up wins over a career and beat everyone but 8 players in the entire league, you have to be pretty good right? Gotta stick around a while and consistently win games.

A notable fact is that Jenkins Good did not get a single positive pitching statistical boost from season 2 elections until season 18, Day 68, when Jenkins picked up a Weird Arm Cannon. They did not get a single party, shadow boost, blessing, decree, will or item that bumped their stats an iota until well into Season 18, stuck at 3.05 pitching stars. During this period, Jenkins Good compiled 41 WhAT, the most gained without statistical changes in Blaseball.

And now my favorite Jenkins story. During season 23, Jenkins Good struggled a lot, notching an ERA of 6.31, finally paying for their lack of growth. In the s23 playoffs, however, they summoned a vintage Jenkins Good game – a pitcher’s duel with the Garages’ Arturo Huerta that ended in a 1-0 shutout to put the Talkers up 2-0 on the series. If you’ll recall, the season 23 Talkers had 9 pitchers of widely varying quality and a ridiculously cracked lineup. Jenkins Good was completely washed at this point, but they had one more game left in them, and pitched a gorgeous one.

Here’s the thing – I only just now realized how special that game is. Maude (Moderation) has a tendency to, uh, lie about the margin of victory. What looks like a 4-3 game was actually 8-3, etc. You get it. Anyways, Talkers fans have largely been desensitized to close games.

However, this shutout was actually a 1-0 game. The Talkers bats were unusually quiet in this iconic playoffs performance that normally completes a legacy and caps a hell of a career, but few Talkers fans fully appreciate the necessity and audacity of the performance even now.

And really, that’s Jenkins Good in a nutshell. They’re an excellent pitcher who toiled in the rotation under the shadow of PolkaDot Patterson and Greer Lott, never getting the credit or the spotlight. It’s time to give them their due. Vote Jenkins Good for the Hall of Fame.

-Cora

Fitzgerald Blackburn

Fitzgerald Blackburn has been on the Houston Spies since Season 3, Day 76, stepping in as an incineration replacement for Agent Miki Santana. Haven’t heard of them? Of course you haven’t, they’re a spy. Despite being noticed by SIBR for their Seed & Hot Dog viability in S19, they, as any good spy should, narrowly avoided gaining any Ego. Being this good took time, though. Blackburn has been the lead off hitter for the Spies for many of their 8.4k plate appearances (except for that one season on the Lovers), and has managed to keep up with the star increase of the league and the Wild Low despite the Spies’ policy on not partying. Blackburn has had the longest contiguous reign as ILB Pope (highest divinity in the league, from S7D95 to S14D01), and was chosen as the third lineup player for the Americano Water Works – one of the best Americano drinkers at the end of the Discipline Era. They’ve had two batting seasons in the top 10%, with their highest wrc+ hitting 171 in S16 (and a career average of 117). Their career WHaT sits at 38.9 – in the top 15% of the league. This [description redacted] is a vital part of the Spies lineup, and their multiple consumer attacks in the S20 Overbracket had a noticeable effect on the overall performance of the team.

It’s their last week, and your last chance to bet on Blackburn.

-agent kit

Rigby Friedrich

Rigby Friedrich was the greatest Expansion Era player by performance metrics.

They batted from S21 to S23: their career clocks at a fantastic 160 OPS+, meaning they were 60% better at getting on base than the league average. That ranks 12th all time, above such names as Alston Cerveza, Jacob Haynes, Commissioner Vapor, Fish Summer, Baby Doyle. When you account for what they actually did on base, their production is incredible: thanks to how good of a base stealer and base runner they were, they rank fifth all time in career WhAT_PA, meaning they generated an absurd amount of value for each plate appearance. On a rate basis, having Rigby in your lineup was worth more than having Jaxon, Nagomi, or Conner.

As a pitcher, they were also fantastic: career 67 era-, meaning they were 33% better than league average. Their career regular ERA of 2.76 is the 10th best in league history when counting Underhanded pitchers; if we invert the home run values of those, and rank all pitchers by overhanded ERA, it jumps to an outstanding 6th, ahead of Gabriel Griffith, Jaylen Hotdogfingers, Burke Gonzales, Elvis Figueroa.

They were a legendary player on both sides of the plate, and are likely to be the only Georgias lifer to be inducted. Vote for them.

-Dargo4

Sosa Hayes

With a BsR of 116.4, Sosa Hayes is the 9th best baserunner of all time. But how did this normal human adult reach this peak? Let’s start at the beginning.

Sosa Hayes started their Blaseball career on the Mexico City Wild Wings, a team well known for being bad except for that one season where they won the entire league. They quickly became beloved by the fans as well as by the sim, becoming the only player to gain stars due to the introduction of stat caps (they gained 0.5 stars when their patheticism was reduced to 0.990 at the start of season 2). Despite their maxed path, Sosa managed to hit when and how it counted, sporting an average OBP+ of 109 and an SLG+ of 101. During their time batting before season 10, Sosa had a BsR of 21.2, and it was looking up as they feedbacked to the Houston Spies.

The Spies were then hit with, by stars, the worst full team reverb to have occurred as of the end of the Expansion Era. Sosa’s 1.48 pitching stars were put to the test. And they did exactly what the Spies needed: they became a slightly above average pitcher (average ERAAA of 0.078). Beyond just being a winning pitcher over their 9 pitching seasons, Sosa also netted an average ERA+ of 106, FIP+ of 123, and WHIP+ of 106.

As Sosa’s stats increased, the Spies shifted them to hitting. From season 19 to season 24, Sosa batted for the Spies, the Atlantis Georgias, the Miami Dale, the Georgias again, and the Spies again. Sosa was an incredible batter during this period, with an average OPS+ of 140 and SLG+ of 134. In fact, all of those + stats are above 100, making it too hard to list. For peaks, 2 of these seasons were in the top 10% of batters by WhAT, and Sosa’s season 23 was the 10th best season by BsR EVER, at 29.9. As this list includes Don Mitchell 3 times, Collins Melon 4 times, and HOF snubs Mindy Kugel and Engine Eberhardt, this means Sosa’s best baserunning season was better than Beck Whitney’s, Richardson Games’, Rigby Friedrich’s, Forrest Best’s, and Hewitt Best’s. This is also when Sosa stole home and killed Hype Train.

Sosa represents a true success story: a player who came from just around average, managed well in a position they were worse in, and came back to become a phenomenal player with 47 WhAT, 2 rings for 2 teams, and the 9th best baserunning score of all time. Vote Sosa Hayes for Hall of Fame!

-AKAFishy

The post Double Down: Hall of Fame Week 21 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Sosa Hayes

Top 3 reasons to vote for normal human adult Sosa Hayes for Hall of Fame:

1. Played for 4 teams in all eras of Blaseball and had success with each (ring with the wings, underring with the Dale, star Georgias batter and star spies batter and pitcher)
2. Amazing basestealer during the late expansion era, getting up to 130 bases stolen in one season!
3. KILLED HYPE TRAIN

Come back next week for more reasons to vote for Sosa Hayes!

-AKAFishy

Fitzgerald Blackburn

Fitzgerald Blackburn has been on the Houston Spies since Season 3, Day 76. stepping in as an incineration replacement. Haven’t heard of them? That’s because they’re doing a good job. Despite being noticed by SIBR for their Seed&Hot Dog viability in S19, they, as any good spy should, narrowly avoided gaining any Ego. Being this good took time, though. Blackburn has been the lead off hitter for the Spies for many of their 8.4k plate appearances (except for that one season on the Lovers), and it’s plain to see why. Blackburn has had the longest contiguous reign as ILB Pope (highest divinity in the league, S7D95 to S14D01), and was chosen as the third lineup player for the Americano Water Works. They’ve had two batting seasons in the top 10%, with their highest WRC+ hitting 171 in S16 (and a career average of 117). Their career WHaT sits at 38.9 – in the top 15% of the league.

Always bet on Blackburn.

-agent kit

Logan Horseman

Logan Horseman is likely to be the best batter you’ve never heard of. They had a great if understated career in the DE, being a consistently great (20% or so better than league average by OPS+) batter. But in the Expansion Era, they put up some of the best seasons ever: from S12 to their death in S19 they had a 0.96 OPS, which in context means they were about twice as good as the average batter (188 OPS+). Specifically, just before being incinerated, they put up a 1.23 OPS and a 0.399 batting average in s18, one of the best batting performances of all time. Their peak is up there with the best of them, with your Aldon or Conner, but they played on the Dale and died just before league-wide offense would explode in S19 due to sim adjustments. If the purpose of the Hall is to showcase underrated players, Logan Horseman is a fantastic pick.

-Dargo4

The post Visions of Greatness: Hall of Fame Week 20 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Lars Taylor

According to all known laws of blaseball, there is no way a Lars Taylor should be able to pitch. Their stars are too few to get the ball all the way to the batter.
The Lars, of course, pitches anyway, because Lars doesn’t care what the meta thinks is impossible.
Sun, stars. Sun, stars.
Sun, stars. Sun, stars.
Ooh, stars and Sun!
Let’s shake it up a little.
Lars! The Hall is ready!

– Panda

Workman Gloom

Workman Gloom died in Season 7. They were incinerated after being made unstable by one of Jaylen’s beanballs, just as they stepped up to bat. Gloom’s life ended then, but their plate appearance didn’t: they hit a home run in the next few pitches. Hard to think of a more spectacular ending to the career of ONE OF THE GREATEST BLASEBALL BATTERS OF ALL TIME.

I’ll say it again, in all caps: WORKMAN GLOOM IS ONE OF THE GREATEST BATTERS OF ALL TIME.

I’m erring on the side of caution and assuming the audience simply isn’t familiar with them: they died in Season 7, after all, and only had an appearance in the Hall Stars’ exhibition game after that. Besides, if you know Gloom, chances are you’re voting for them.

Workman Gloom is, seventeen seasons after their death, still 1st in career BA, 3rd in career OPS, 9th in career slugging. They also fare well by advanced statistics: 6th in wRC+, 3rd in OPS+. By whatever metric you choose, Workman was an incredibly good batter cut down in their prime: if they hadn’t died, we’d likely be talking of them the same way we talk of Nagomi McDaniels, Jessica Telephone, York Silk, Conner Haley, Aldon Cashmoney.

Workman is one of the greatest what-ifs in Blaseball, one of the finest hitters the splort has ever seen, their death a fantastic example of how Blaseball is able to create utterly iconic moments. Few batters are more deserving of the Hall Of Fame than them.

-Dargo

Chorby Short

Chorby Short is one of very few players who can claim to be the protagonist of Blaseball’s Expansion Era. What hasn’t Chorby Short done? They stalled the game with a ridiculous number of foul balls at the very start of Expansion, were one of the first to become Redacted, suffered the brunt of Wills chaos by becoming unstable through a mysterious edge case at the end of an improbable exchange, pitched a perfect game while their opponent allowed zero runs in nine innings as a celebration of early Expansion’s pitching heavy environment, and were then repeatedly bounced across the league according the whims of fans and fate.

Across all that, they were a top batter at the start of the Expansion Era and a top pitcher by the end of it — they absolutely have a statistical case. They, alongside their namesake Chorby Soul and Parker, were the Jaylen of the Expansion Era, a lightning rod for the era’s marquee mechanics.

In the Discipline Era, Chorby was a rather contentious and pretty mediocre, if not outright bad, Garages shadow later traded to the Magic in their first real Blessings win. In the Expansion Era, their story became one of wildest and most intriguing in all of Blaseball. There’s something for everyone, here: outstanding statistical feats, an extremely Blaseball storyline and lore, plenty of iconic moments. How can you not vote for Chorby Short?

-Dargo

The post Sittin’ Pretty: Hall of Fame Week 19 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Rigby Friedrich

Georgias good, Georgias bad, Georgias good forever, Georgias bad forever. It’s the circle of life for the average Atlantis fan. And yet for most our career, the Georgias have been a middling team, brought down by a spectacularly bad pitcher or brought up by a spectacularly good pitcher or batter.

Every season, that player is Rigby Friedrich.

For pitchers who’ve pitched at least 100 games, Rigby Friedrich has the 9th most WhAT per inning pitched, a hair below Burke and Elvis and above Qais, Jolene, and PDP. They are 6th in Career Overhanded ERA, above Burke, Gabriel Griffiths, Jolene and Jaylen. 2 perfect games, including on Day 1 of their second ever season. No Underhanded, no defense. Just their laser focus towards being the best pitcher Wild High has ever seen.

How did they do it? Rigby achieved their dominance over the pitching leaderboards by just never missing a step. Over 2408 innings, Rigby Friedrich has posted an ERA of 2.74 over seasons 13 to 21, only posting an ERA above 3 when they spent a third of the season Underperforming and returned to the mound better than their previous season. Of their 262 games, 42 were shutouts. 2nd in Career Hits Allowed over 9 innings. 12th in career Strikeouts per 9 innings.

They did take a short siesta from pitching, sure. Doing what? Oh, just batting the 15th highest WHAT season on a regular Lineup, slotting neatly with peak Aldon, Don and Melon. It was a short but fruitful career, leaving them with 5th highest WhAT/PA with over 1k PAs. A true two way player.

Vote Rigby. They’re coming for you.

Mera

Eugenia Garbage

Throughout the roster chaos that gripped the Moist Talkers during the Expansion Era, one of the fixtures that didn’t budge until the Semi-Centennial was Eugenia Garbage. On the team’s Lineup since Season 1 (save for 15 minutes of being a Shoe Thief), Eugenia was a powerhouse from the very beginning, being one of the strongest hitters on the team in Season 3, the pinnacle of the team’s ability in Season 14, and capping off their incredible career with strong performances in Seasons 19 and 20.

The one word that can sum up Eugenia is consistency. Over their 23 seasons batting, Eugenia ranks 14th for career plate appearances, and has an outstanding 136 wRC+ / 134 OPS+, showing that not only did they play a lot, they played very well. In fact, Eugenia has never had a single season in which their OPS+ dropped below 100. In other words? They have always been better than the league average, reaching their absolute peak in Season 14.

After picking up the High Pressure modification for the team, Eugenia began to soar from the leadoff position. Another counting stat in their favour is that of hits – Eugenia ranks 4th for all time, and given that the Talkers needed to have players on base to activate their mod, Eugenia set them up to succeed. Over Season 14, Eugenia achieved a ludicrous OPS+ of 236, with a combination of .376 OBP and .702 SLG.

The aforementioned consistency bleeds over into both their own and the team’s success, with Eugenia being one of five players to claim all three championship rings that the Moist Talkers earned during the Expansion Era. In that Season 14 run, they didn’t miss a beat in converting their regular season power into the postseason, posting a 0.500 BA/RISP, helping ensure that any runner that got on base could get home. That, and maintaining the pressure to give those batting after them a boost!

Vote for Eugenia Garbage!

Quinn

Lars Taylor

Lars Taylor is a very recognizable, iconic player. Lars cemented the Sunbeams identity as “the team with bad pitching,” outshining the work of players like Miguel James, Jayden Wright, and Sigmund Castillo. Even people who have praised the noted strikeout artist (and fellow member on the ballot) Sandoval Crossing have not considered there to be a good Sunbeams pitcher, and while part of this is the Sunbeams legendarily awful defense throughout their entire history as a team, certainly deliberately avoiding anything that might improve the teams pitching— solely to maintain Lars’ 0 or 1 star status! – is a notable factor in this reputation.

On top of this, nobody who is worse than Lars has pitched nearly as long, earning Lars the 2nd lowest total WhAT of any pitcher. Going off WhAT_IP, the closest player to Lars is Agan Harrison, whose 289 games is still quite a ways behind Lars’ 336. Most players who were worse have 80 or less games, frequently shadowed and never seen again- Sunbeams investment in Lars as a pitcher continued even after being shadowed. The player was so iconic that, following their Night Shift back into active play during season 24- rejoining the active roster on a Scattered team that had already seen numerous roster changes including several first-time appearances- Lars was immediately recognized.

But Lars isn’t solely noteworthy for poor performance, as they were inarguably the defining pitcher of the season 11 postseason. Pitching the 1st and 6th games against the Tigers for the Wild League Championship, it is indisputable Lars took the two most valuable games of the series and came out of them with wins. Once again handed the ball in the decisive 5th game of the Sunbeams-Garages finals, Lars repeated their game 6 performance against the Tigers- holding the opposing team to only 5 runs while a dominant Sunbeams offense ran wild. Very, very few players have defined a postseason so strongly as Lars has.

And of course, who can forget Season 14? This season single-handedly dethroned Lars from being the lowest WhAT pitcher in history. A nigh-unprecedented improvement, inspired by a cup of coffee, saw a player who had zero other positive WhAT seasons rack up 4.2 WhAT, a very respectable number. PolkaDot Patterson. Winnie Hess. Gerund Pantheocide. Betsy Trombone. Alexandria Rosales. Just a few of the excellent pitchers who saw themselves outperformed in this season by Lars Taylor, who immediately returned to normal performance from season 15 onwards.

Lars is a reminder for us to stay humble as we attempt to understand this game, that any player can break out and be a star. That at the end of the day, we play with dice, and while we can predict their results we can never do so perfectly. A reminder that the odds can be defied, a players quality is not destiny, and above all: that the only star you need is the Sun.

-Slugger Sins

Wyatt Glover

Glover is doing their best, a refrain from those early Los Angeles Taco seasons. As the worst pitcher on a notoriously bad team, an attempt to improve was made through the use of exploratory surgeries in the season 3 election:

• Wyatt’s pitching was randomized from ½ to ½.
• Wyatt’s pitching was randomized from ½ to ½.
• Wyatt’s pitching was randomized from ½ to 0

The surgeries made them worse. This was an astronomically low chance event and here it happened. Season 4 leads to one of the worst individual pitching performances of the discipline era, bottom 5 in ERA+, and then a reprieve. Wyatt Glover moves to the Tacos lineup through a full team reverb allowing them to shine briefly before moving to Yellowstone in exchange for Halexandrey Walton through feedback. While not replicating their horrid pitching season, Glover was still a below average hitter, and towards the end of their career they achieved the rare (less than fifty occurrences) negative OPS+ season.

But this is not why this name is familiar to you. Wyatt Glover is a known name because they are a Credit to the Team. With a five time payout for pendants, they were one of the more profitable players in all of blaseball, coupled with becoming a very dense attractor, Wyatt Glover became the perfect idol board manipulator outside of Chorby Soul and Chorby Soul’s Soul wielders. Through the manipulation of Glover’s idol board position, some players were saved from being vaulted through the expansion era, a fate Glover faced themself.

Wyatt Glover is not statistically great, but Wyatt Glover is doing their best, and is a credit to the team.

–DeeJay

The post Seeing Stars: Hall of Fame Week 18 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.

Sexton Wheerer

Sexton Wheerer is the most pitcher. No, I am not missing a word there. Sexton is the most pitcher having been the lone taco pitcher unshelled after the Snackrifice, and then Pitching Machine’s profitability shelled them as well. Sexton pitched every game of Season 9 and then every game of Season 10 only to get support from Peanut Bong and then Yummy Elliott in S11-14 until switching to hitting for the rest of his career.

Despite not pitching since Season 14. Sexton is on top of many a counting stat leaderboard.

Sexton is 1st in career:

• hits allowed
• losses
• innings pitched
• earned runs allowed

Top 3 in career:

• home runs allowed
• innings pitched

Are these good stats? Shrug.

It is undeniable that Sexton Wheerer is the most pitcher.

– DeeJay

Sixpack Dogwalker

…doesn’t really have a stats case for the Hall in the slightest. HOWEVER. Have you considered. Let’s go through a short history of Sixpack Dogwalker.

Born out of the incineration of Thomas England, only to be catastrophically un-born two games later and then replace Thomas wholly and completely due to being saved by the wielder of the Microphone (Wyatt Mason), received a custom bat and custom pregame ritual because of it, became a Receiver a few seasons later, only ever Feedback swapped once despite being Flickering and playing in other Feedback games, played against Wyatt Mason X in Feedback twice right after the Wyatts were pulled through the rift, got echo tagged zero times despite that, continued Receiving mods from the Echoes as their numbers dwindled, Received Debt and beaned the other remaining Receiver with it, became the last remaining Receiver when that other Receiver (having been wimdied out of being Alternated) was incinerated the next season, got traded for Dot, wound up back on the same team as York Silk, pitched kinda badly, got placed in the shadows, was on the team at the same time as a replica York, and THEN we later learned that if you Alternate a Receiver it retrieves a Static player, replacing the Receiver wholly and completely.

Basically, they’re doing GREAT, and if you’ve got space on the ballot and you’re planning to send them out of the world the same way they came into it you might as well honour them for her sacrifice.
-Aquelon#3835

Also, Let Raf.

Thanks.

-Aquelon#3835

Gabriel “GG” Griffith.

Steaks, Fridays, Lovers, Tigers, Firefighters.

While GG has been around since the beginning of the ILB, they proved one of the true powerhouse pitchers of the Expansion Era. They managed a career ERA of 2.76, multiple shutouts per season, and a well-earned reputation as a strikeout artist even after the Ruthlessness nerf. Gabe ranks 4th in Hits/9, 3rd in Shutouts, and 9th in Strikeouts and Strikeouts/9. Also, 12th in career WhAT at 79.3.

As a batter, Gabe is no slouch either. Across 4 seasons, they had 1718 plate appearances and managed a respectable .28 BA, but a fairly impressive .95 OPS and an offensive WhAT of a respectable 16.3. They blasted triples into the outfield regularly and had two of those four seasons end with 36 homers.

But enough about stats, what has GG done? Well, in season 21 Gabe ate some delicious Soul Food, becoming second only to Chorby Soul in terms of sheer Soul, then got flipped Negative in Season 22 and became The Angel Gabriel, keeping Chicago afloat and out of reach of the ever-encroaching Consumers.

GG never managed to become plot-relevant in the style of Jaylen Hotdogfingers or PolkaDot Patterson, never achieved the same sort of acclaim as York Silk or Winnie Hess, but instead kept their beak to the grindstone and put up season after season of consistently great blaseball. Just don’t remind them that they have fewer rings than Mags Banananana.

–Jesse

Conrad Twelve

–Stara

Mags Banananana

Now I know what you’re thinking. Mags? Banananana? Aren’t they the bad pitcher who likes minions? There’s no way I’m voting for them. No way. Count me out.

I understand what you’re saying. And to be honest? I agree! Mags Banananana is bad at Blaseball, and if you’re voting based on the numbies on Blaseball Reference then you might as well skip this whole blurb, because there’s no way I can change your mind. Go on. Scroll to GG and go AWOOGA at their big numbers, or small numbers, or whatever numbers are good for a humanoid bird who somehow plays Blaseball.

…

Have they left yet? Yes? Alright. Okay.

Now that the nerds are gone, we can talk about Mags’ REAL strengths: what they represent as a player.

Mags is the luckiest player in Blaseball. They have won two rings with a team that literally had the opposite of the perfect roster and the Tokyo Lift. They are living the dream, helping the less fortunate, working as hard as they can every day to push their team to the top so she can make everyone else’s day just a little bit better. Mags is a pariah, a saint, the most generous person in Blaseball. They are Roamin’, they are towin’ two rings behind them wherever they go, but above all, they are kind.

They are also a freak of nature. I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors by now about their many girlfriends, despite being (or arguably due to being), and I quote, a ‘lifelong minion fan’. Mags has Stacy’s Mom’d more players than Tillman Henderson, leading to a phenomenon that Mags fans (colloquially known as ‘Magsters’) have dubbed the ‘Mags Theoretical Polycule’. Surprisingly, many older fans are praising Mags for being so candid and honest about their romantic life. When asked to comment, Mags simply winked at the reporter and recited their phone number to the camera.

At the end of the day, Mags represents the Average Joe tuning into Blaseball every day at the end of a long hard day of work, hoping for a win. Mags is a person whom life has grabbed by the denim overalls and thrown several times across the world. By all accounts, they should not have had a career as interesting as they have. They have witnessed two incinerations, one Shelling, and was personally responsible for Nullifying the Tokyo Lift, the team she loved the most. And yet they have persevered, picked themself up, and kept playing.

We can all learn a thing or two from Mags. An old dog CAN learn new tricks, and hopefully that old dog can find herself in the big Hall of Fame in the sky, surrounded by friends, family, and of course, the Mags Theoretical Polycule.

– Al

Burke Gonzales

Burke Gonzales is an original Mexico City Wild Wing who spent 18 seasons in the Rotation and a further 7 in the Lineup (with one season being split between the two due to fax machine/voicemail shenanigans). Burke is undisputedly the best pitcher in Wings history, and is 15th all time WhAT, 30th all time WhAT_IP, 31st all time ERA+, and 18th all time FIP+ (all minimum 1000 IP), all done without the benefit of Underhanded.

Burke was also remarkably consistent; of their 18 seasons with over 1000 PA, they had a below average ERA exactly once (Season 4), and if you account for the shambolic demonstration of “fielding” the Wings often produced, that Season 4 result drifts back above average.

I think we can all agree that those numbers are outstanding, and should cause you to vote for Burke. But, dear reader, I have a confession to make. Those aren’t Burke Gonzales’ pitching numbers. Those are Rafael Davids’ pitching numbers (see here). Please vote for Raf.

Burke’s pitching numbers? 5th all time WhAT, 7th all time WhAT_IP, 7th all time ERA+, and 2nd all time FIP+ (all minimum 1000 IP). Combined with his batting numbers, Burke has over 100 WhAT, and 11 of Burke’s 18 pitching seasons were in the top 10% of WhAT for that season. The only season during the ruthless pitching of the early Expansion Era that Burke did not have a top 10 ERA was the one he spent batting. Burke is legitimately one of the best pitchers Blaseball has ever seen, but don’t just take my word for it; people who haven’t consumed dangerous levels of Wild Wings Blaseball agree, from TUN’s Gloated series to the fine folks over at the Blaseball Analytics Co.

Y’all did a good job inducting Burke last week. You wouldn’t want him to be lonely. So, in his last week on the ballot, I implore you; Let Raf (into the Hall of Fame).

– Spludge

Mindy Kugel

It’s easy to get lost in the over-competent morass of Mechanics’ pitching. When you’re all high ruth 5+ star expansion era exclusives, it can be hard for individuals to really shine.

Mindy Kugel formed part of ‘Pitch Perfect’, the S16 rotation that took the team to their first non-wildcard playoffs appearance (didn’t go great). An original Worm, traded to the Garages for Pitching Machine, who then Feedbacked for Jaylen Hotdogfingers to the Mechanics, Mindy was saved from 2 star lineup obscurity by being set up to take advantage of some solid natural pitching talent.

And they did good! Strikeout meta treated them well, though they did briefly reverb into a mech-typical batting career during S17 and the championship winning S18. Back on the mound S19 for arguably their worst pitching season, but clearly Mindy didn’t think much of a post strikeout world as they promptly picked up an Underhanded item in S20 and drove the team to their second ring.

Mindy remained an Underhanded superstar even after being alternated until S23 when they eventually faxed and immediately voicemailed onto the lineup. Never one to be daunted, they decided to tear up the basepaths (using the thus far neglected Blaserunning element of their Underhanded shoes). Mindy easily counteracted Magnified Subtractor Adelaide Judochop and became a bastion of a secretly rather impressive end-of-era lineup.

So what does Mindy have to say, after this tumultuous career? The 4th lowest career ERA certainly speaks volumes, though they are beaten out by the other Underhanded pitcher named Mindy. If you squint, lie, and cheat by ignoring the pre-alt batting season, they do have over 100 OPS+ and ERA+ (sadly they don’t quite make 100 OPS+ with S17/18 on the table).

Mindy Kugel is a player who took advantage of trends, of mods, of funny coincidences. And clearly it worked.

–Nix

The post Legends of Awesome: Hall of Fame Week 17 appeared first on Blaseball News Network.