Just getting this out of the way early … there was way too much offense this year. I blame myself. We picked 2001 as the base year for the game, and that seems to have resulted in an offensive boom.

In reality, MLB posted a .759 OPS in 2001 with an aggregate 264/335/427 slash line. The WBL slashed 261/336/506 for an .842 OPS. And therein lies the problem: the rest of the line is fine, the .080 increase in SLG is … a lot, and is responsible for about a .65 increase in runs per game (4.96 in historical 2001, 5.60 in the WBL Year 2).

This resulted in 2001 owning virtually every single season batting record: only Mike Trout‘s 131 singles in Year 1 survived the onslaught. Everything else came this season.

And, a couple of the marks eclipsed the MLB historical records:

Total Bases: 492, Ty Cobb (DET). Obliterates Babe Ruth‘s mark of 457 in 1921.
Doubles: 72, Ty Cobb (DET). Earl Webb had 67 in 1931.

And, of course, Ruth tied Barry Bonds‘ 2001 homerun record of 73.

So that’s not horrible: Ty Cobb had a stunning year, and I can’t be made at Cobb and Ruth peppering the record book (nor, honestly, at Josh Gibson‘s .400 average, a WBL record).

But I would like to see about 3/4 of a run per game to disappear …

And, of course, if we have record breaking frequencies of homeruns, someone has to be giving up all those taters. Thirteen hurlers gave up more than the MLB record 50 homeruns, with CC Sabathia (64) and Cole Hamels (63) being absolutely rocked throughout the season.

At the team level we had similar issues:

  • Kansas City’s 444 doubles are 20% more than the historical mark set by the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
  • And then there are homeruns: only 6 teams had fewer than the all time ream record of 307, shared by the 2019 Twins and the 2023 Braves.
  • In a bit of a shock, San Francisco’s 393 steals top the all time record of 347 by the 1922 New York Giants.
  • Unsurprisingly, 5 teams eclipsed the .872 OPS record of the 1927 New York Yankees.

These all had equivalents on the mound, where the all-time historical runs allowed and homeruns allowed records were shattered in the WBL this year.

Look, all of this is a little bit of nit-picking: the league was competitive, and I totally expect off the charts performances in a league peppered with all-time great players. But 18 players with 50+ homeruns is just too many, even if most of the names range from yeah, he did that to ok, in this league that’s plausible.

I mean the whole Ron Blomberg fiasco is still out there, but that will be the topic of another post …