3x League Champion: LeBronto Blue James

What more is there to say about the back-to-back-to-back HumBabe Dynasty Champion? The LeBronto Blue James have firmly established themselves as the first Dynasty Franchise of this 16-team League and their secret to success stills seems to be exactly that – a secret. Apart from the Jose Ramirez / Bryce Harper duo at the core, the Blue James don’t necessarily jump off the page in terms of talent. This season, their difference makers ended up being Free Agent acquisitions like Josh Naylor and Oscar Gonzales – players rostered by numerous HumBabe teams throughout the season, but LeBronto somehow always has the right guys rostered at the right time.

Josh Naylor put up a Championship MVP type performance, 74 points scored, which surpassed his Orlando counterpart – Paul Goldschmidt, by a whopping 50 points. Goldschmidt finished the season as the fourth best player overall with 797.5 points, 5.28 per game – no small feat to best that guy. The only LeBronto performance better than Naylor’s came from the likely source, Jose Ramirez – 82 points from 61 AB, 17 H, 10 R, 1 HR, 14 RBI, and 4 SB. While they couldn’t beat the Splitter’s strength, Pitching, the Blue James’ 571 Hitting Points gave them a 211.5 point advantage in the category and ultimately won them another crown.

Congratulations are in order to this General Manager – although other League GM’s may be getting tired of this same result year-after-year, there’s no denying how impressive the feat is. This practically gives them bragging rights until someone else can manage three titles in a row.

3x League Runner-Up: Orlando Splitters

Well… stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Orlando Splitters were a force to be reckoned with all season long… until the Championship, again. The season’s overall Points Scored Leaderboard, including Playoffs, shows the Splitters in first with 12,539pts, followed by LeBronto with 11,702pts and Pablo with 11,528pts. Turns out those three teams finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd, just not in that order. The Splitter’s 837 point margin over the course of the full season was unfortunately front-loaded and left them 169 points short in the Championship Match-Up with LeBronto.

The Superstars of the Splitters Franchise, sputtered mightily at the finish – Juan Soto put up 49.5pts in the ‘Ship, Xander Bogaerts had 31.5pts and Paul Goldschmidt produced just 24.5pts. While the pitching held their own (Brandon Woodruff – 84.5pts, Corbin Burnes – 70pts, Michael Lorenzen – 57.5pts, Gerrit Cole – 55.92pts, Kevin Gausman – 50.92pts, etc.), the Splitters needed a lot more out of their bats. The in-season hitter acquisitions made by the Front Office really fell flat – DJ LeMahieu (5.5pts), Nick Castellanos (13pts) and Kris Bryant (0pts) were all injured for at least a portion of the Championship, and when they did play, they left a lot to be desired. To make it even worse, the pieces that Orlando dealt for those three bats performed much better during the final weeks of the season – Randy Arozarena (52.5pts), Jonathan India (33.5pts) and Willy Adames (33.5pts) … ouch.

But with it all said and done, even undoing those transactions wouldn’t have been enough to crown the Splitters – and that is a much easier pill for this General Manager to swallow going into the offseason, rather than having one bad move cost them it all. Orlando went all out for the 2022 Season, it’ll be interesting to see if they’ve got another gear come 2023 and if / when they’ll claim their first HumBabe Dynasty Championship.

To be continued…