Final Season 8 FWA Update
Including FWA Positional All-Team Roster
The regular season of Season 8 has reached it's thrilling conclusion, and here are some equally thrilling awards to preserve that feeling of fun in your hearts!
Starting with the Players of the Week for Week 18:
Joey Meneses and Yu Darvish teamed up to sweep the awards this week for Waikiki, and help propel the Whale Sharks into their first playoff appearance! Legendary performances in the biggest moment of the season.
Particular mention goes to Judge, Verlander, and Goldschmidt. Another 3 players whose performance kept their team's seasons alive. Jose Abreu tried really hard to do the same, but unfortunately the rest of his team wasn't feeling it.
Make your MVP and CY votes correctly by deciding entirely based on this chart and nothing else.
Maybe don't use this chart for awards voting.
Fun Diff lived up to the name, ending as the most closely contested division all season long and somehow sneaking 3 teams into the playoffs.
The battle for IWGP ended with a bit of a whimper, but 2 teams made the dance.
TK won their division on game 3 of the season, but are they paper champions? They earned the #1 seed in the playoffs, but also played in the weakest division in the league. Only the Kaiju earned a playoff spot from the NL West.
A collapse in Denver made the division race interesting, even giving the Shoebills a chance to sneak ahead of Denver in the last week. But in the end, what appeared to be one of the stronger divisions all season ended with only 2 teams making the playoffs.
And now for the real FWA fans, buried at the end of the weekly update, is the Season 8 1st and 2nd Team FWA All-League players! Presented with no graphics and no fan-fare!
Season 8 FWA All-Team
Here are the critera:
In order to qualify for a position, that player must have averaged at least .5 x-ch per week at the position (9 or more total), except in the case of second base and short stop, where they needed at least 2 plays per week (36 or more total). For the designated hitter position, they had to accrue less than 1 x-ch per week at any position. Finally, for the Utility position, they had to accrue at least 1 play per week at any position, while also fielding more than 1 position.
Does that make sense? No? Too bad, here we go.
Catcher - 1st Team
Willson Contreras - Kampala Shoebill Storks - 1.38 FWA
.251/.365/.522, 15 HR, 26 XBH, .931 wF% + 22.2% CS rate
Catcher - 2nd Team
Alejandro Kirk - Dallas Drillers - .70 FWA
.278/.365/.391, 8 HR, 13 XBH, .879 wF% + 13.0% CS rate
1st Base - 1st Team
Christian Walker - Dallas Drillers - 2.75 FWA
.326/.389/.648, 25 HR, 38 XBH, .917 wF%
1st Base - 2nd Team
Paul Goldschmidt - Philadelphia Phantoms - 2.48
.318/.411/.543, 14 HR, 32 XBH, .940 wF%
2nd Base - 1st Team
Jose Altuve - Shanghai Wu Xia - 1.99 FWA
.315/.386/.574, 16 HR, 43 XBH, .741 wF%
2nd Base - 2nd Team
Luis Guillorme - Hamburg Honeybees - 1.22 FWa
.322/.393/.368, 0 HR, 11 XBH, .990 wF%
3rd Base - 1st Team
Matt Carpenter - West Virginia Black Bears - 1.33 FWA
.260/.391/.633, 18 HR, 25 XBH, .526 wF%
3rd Base - 2nd Team
Rafael Devers - Tokyo Kaiju - .80 FWA
.308/.346/.512, 11 HR, 37 XBH, .797 wF%
Short Stop - 1st Team
Dansby Swanson - Nasvhille Gators - 2.24 FWA
.295/.351/.494, 12 HR, 30 XBH, .974 wF%
Short Stop - 2nd Team
Trea Turner - West Virginia Black Bears - 2.03 FWA
.330/.376/.531, 10 HR, 41 XBH, .840 wF%
Left Field - 1st Team
Stone Garrett - Kampala Shoebill Storks - 1.83 FWA
.351/.392/.727, 14 HR, 30 XBH, .667 wF%
Left Field - 2nd Team
Taylor Ward - Chicago Cyclones - .93 FWA
.285/.357/.542, 14 HR, 27 XBH, .697 wF%
Center Field - 1st Team
Starling Marte - Prince Edward Island Mussels - 2.03 FWA
.342/.377/.563, 10 HR, 25 XBH, 17 SB, .890 wF%
Center Field - 2nd Team
Cedric Mullins - Denver Zephyr - 1.35 FWA
.291/.351/.493, 9 HR, 24 XBH, 14 SB, .883 wF%
Right Field - 1st Team
Juan Soto - Tokyo Kaiju - 2.64 FWA
.255/.426/.523, 15 HR, 33 XBH, .742 wF%
Right Field - 2nd Team
Aaron Judge - Waikiki Whale Sharks - 2.14 FWA
.258/.363/.593, 27 HR, 38 XBH, 1.000 wF%
Designated Hitter - 1st Team
Yordan Alvarez - Prince Edward Island Mussels - 2.95 FWA
.339/.448/.619, 20 HR, 31 XBH
Designated Hitter - 2nd Team
Eloy Jimenez - West Virginia Black Bears - 1.38 FWA
.314/.391/.564, 12 HR, 26 XBH
Utility - 1st Team
Drew Waters - Denver Zephyr - 2.02 FWA
.304/.416/.641, 16 HR, 27 XBH, played LF, CF, & RF
Utility - 2nd Team
Gavin Lux - Prince Edward Island Mussels - 1.15 FWA
.308/.383/.502, 6 HR, 24 XBH, played 2B, SS, and LF
Starting Pitchers - 1st Team
Justin Verlander - Philadelphia Phantoms - 3.44
7-5, 2.31 ERA, 105.3 IP, 1.12 WHIP, 114 SO
Luis Castillo - Tokyo Kaiju - 3.23
9-2, 2.36 ERA, 95.3 IP, .98 WHIP, 103 SO
Spencer Strider - Kampala Shoebill Storks - 3.08
8-5, 2.74 ERA, 98.7 IP, 1.08 WHIP, 133 SO
Starting Pitchers - 2nd Team
Logan Webb - Denver Zephyr - 2.22
4-4, 3.08 ERA, 90.7 IP, 1.21 WHIP, 77 SO
Shohei Ohtani - Nashville Gators - 2.60 (total war, some from DHing)
5-3, 3.20 ERA, 76 IP, .91 WHIP, 81 SO
Carlos Rodon - Big Sky Snow Geese - 2.04
4-6, 2.96 ERA, 73 IP, 1.12 WHIP, 90 SO
Relief Pitchers - 1st Team
AJ Minter - Denver Zephyr - 1.80
15 SV, 1 HD, 1.57 ERA, .93 WHIP, 34.3 IP
Collin McHugh - Prince Edward Island Mussels - 1.78
2 SV, 7 HD, .83 ERA, .80 WHIP, 32.7 IP
Jovani Moran - Kampala Shoebill Storks - 1.67
1 SV, 6 HD, 2.58 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 52.3 IP
Relief Pitchers - 2nd Team
Brad Boxberger - Shanghai Wu Xia - 1.53
1 SV, 9 HD, 1.54 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 35 IP
Ryan Pressly - Prince Edward Islands Mussels - 1.52
14 SV, 1 HD, .71 ERA, .95 WHIP, 25.3 IP
Jordan Romano - Waikiki Whale Sharks - 1.39
8 SV, 8 HD, 2.36 ERA, .84 WHIP, 34.3 IP