ALHFA -- SMB3 -- Ten More Years!

Just because we need to make sure that Custer Custards' victory wasn't a fluke, I have decided to simulate a season with the same exact teams 10 more times. Same rules and settings will apply; 162 nine-inning games, followed by the top four teams playing best-of-seven series for the title.

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Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

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Team's best finishes in those next 10 seasons:

1. Wood Chips -- Champions (4)
2. Throwin' Skubals -- Champions (3)
3. Mikey's WARmongers -- Champions (2)
4. Custer Custards -- Champions (1)
5. The Athens Process -- Runner-up (3)
6.  Brown Water Trash -- Semi-finals (2)
7.  Bichette'$ Creek -- Semi-finals (1)
8.  Humble Bregman -- Semi-finals (1)
9. Big Cats -- Semi-finals (1)
10. Home Run Homer -- Seventh (2)

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Most MVP performances in those next 10 seasons:

1. Gerrit Cole (3)
2. Chris Sale (2)
3. Shohei Ohtani (2)
4. Nelson Cruz (1)
5. Hyun-Jin Ryu (1)
6. Zach Greinke (1)

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In short, Custer Custards' victory in the first AL Home Field Advantage Super Mega Baseball 3 Simulated 2021 Season was NOT a fluke.

ALHFA -- SMB3 -- Team Stats

I know y'all are curious as to how each of your players did in this season, so allow me to screenshot and share the stats for every player in the league.

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Comerica Park Division

The Athens Process

Custer Custards

Home Run Homer

Humble Bregman

Wood Chips

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Tiger Stadium Division

Bichette'$ Creek

Big Cats

Brown Water Trash

Mikey's WARmongers

Throwin' Skubals

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Don Kelly appears 14 times as an offensive player on a team's roster. 

• Custer Custards' had a Don Kelly swat three home runs, batted .263, drive in 28 runs and scored 28 times in 69 games played. 
• Throwin' Skubals' Don Kelly also hit three home runs, but but batted only .205 with 16 RBIs. 
• Wood Chips had a Don Kelly hit two home runs, batted .204 and drove in 10 runs. He and Custer Custards' Don Kelly each attempted to steal a base, but were both thrown out.

Don Kelly appears seven times as a pitcher on a team's roster.

• Humble Bregman's Don Kelly started 40 games, going 3-12 with 76 strikeouts. He had a 5.80 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP.
• Brown Water Trash had a Don Kelly start 40 games as well, but went 1-21 with only 57 strikeouts. His ERA was 9.98, with a WHIP of 2.02.
• Big Cats had a Don Kelly make 91 relief appearances and had four saves and 71 strikeouts. In 114 innings pitched, his ERA was 5.21, and his WHIP was 1.50.
• Home Run Homer also had a Don Kelly with four saves, but in 80 relief appearances. In 100.2 innings pitched, he had 58 strikeouts, with an ERA of 5.99 and a WHIP of 1.55. 
• The Don Kelly with the best ERA came from Brown Water Trash's bullpen, finishing at 4.00 in a whopping 164.1 innings. He also led all Don Kellys with 91 strikeouts.

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Only a handful of players can be given the Iron Man title for starting all 162 games: Wander Franco, Jose Abreu, DJ Lamahieu, and Nelson Cruz(!). Tim Anderson and Eloy Jiminez each played 161 games, and Nick Madrigal played 160 games. 

David Fletcher was hit by a pitch 11 times, and Manuel Margot and Niko Goodrum were each hit by 10 pitches. Shane Bieber hit 13 batters, and Dallas Keuchel, Dylan Bundy, and Zach Greinke each hit 12 batters.

Teoscar Hernandez had seven triples, and Tim Anderson, Byron Buxton, and Randy Arozarena each had six triples. 

Most errors by an everyday player? Wander Franco, who had 27 errors at shortstop. Shortstop was a tough position throughout the league, as the next most errors came from Xander Bogaerts and Niko Goodrum, each with 21. 

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Those are just a couple fun things that I noticed. I can't wait until the end of our season and we can compare real life stats with what happened here.

ALHFA -- SMB3 -- Playoffs!

What a long and grinding season it has been, right? Five full days of excitement, drama, intrigue! 

As you may recall, our top four teams from the regular season advanced to the playoffs, where they would battle it out in a best-of-seven series, before we pit the top two teams against each other to crown our champion.

But first, our bracket.

On the left, No. 2 Mikey's WARmongers vs. No. 3 Humble Bregman. The WARmongers roll out a well-balanced rotation, but it may have a difficult time against flamethrowers like Shohei Ohtani, Gerrit Cole, Dallas Keuchel, and... Don Kelly?

On the right, No.1 Custer Custard vs. No. 4 Wood Chips. Custer Custards will rely on their starting pitchers, as two of them (Mike Minor and Matthew Boyd) finished in the top 10 for wins. However, Wood Chips have a reliable, and possibly the best, bullpen in the league with Ryan Pressly, Nick Anderson and Liam Hendricks.

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Sadly, I don't know how to create much more drama, so we just have to jump straight to the semi-final results.

Holy moly! Humble Bregman and Mikey's WARmongers went a full seven games, before Humble Bregman won the final match with a score of 7-2. After going up 2-0, Humble Bregman then dropped its next three games, including allowing a series-high nine runs in the game that Don Kelly started. Game six was close, where Humble Bregman won by one run, then saw the offense come alive to take game seven, and advance to the finals.

Custer Custards appeared to dominate the series against Wood Chips, shooting out to a quick 3-0 lead. It would not be a sweep, as Wood Chips took game four behind first-half MVP leader Sean Manaea. But Custer Custards proved that with good pitching and OK defense, they could hold Wood Chips' offense at bay to advance.

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The two teams with the two best records in the regular season now face each other in the championship series, with Custer Custards taking home field advantage against Humble Bregman.

Humble Bregman brings a five-star rotation and a five-star bullpen, with solid contact hitters at the plate. On paper, Humble Bregman may appear to be the better team, but the records indicate that Custer Custards are not to be trifled with.

How will this play out?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Your champions of the AL Home Field Advantage Super Mega Baseball 3 Simulated 2021 Season are Custer Custards! Falling behind 2-1 to start the series, but edging out the last three games by no more than two runs in each contest. 

Take a quick look at our playoff leaders.

Since we all know that a player from the losing team cannot win MVP (see 2006 Sean Casey), it has been determined that Lance Lynn will be crowned the postseason MVP. Not to mention a superb relief performance from Gregory Soto, who gave up zero earned runs, struck out 10 in nine innings, and completed six saves.

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Wow, what a ride! We want to congratulate not only our champion, Custer Custards, but all of our teams, their managers, and their players, for a successful season. Scout's honor, this was the first and only run through a season with these teams, and this is how it played out. I'm sure some of your were surprised with some of the outcomes, but you have to admit it was fun. 

But I can't help but wonder, if we ran this simulation again, what would happen...?

ALHFA -- SMB3 -- Second Half of Season (Player Post)

After the first half of the season, we had two pitchers leading in the MVP race. Did they stay that way? Or did the top two hitters explode offensively to battle for the title?

Before we find out who won the MVP award, we will look at our leaders in all statistical categories.

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Just like last time, we will start with our offensive leaders.

Again, only two batters league-wide finished batting .300 or better, Jose Abreu and Carlos Correa. After batting in a league-leading 60 RBIs in the first half, Abreu added only 43 more to fall to third most after Jose Ramirez (122) and Nelson Cruz (106). Ramirez took over as the home run leader with 41, with Abreu and Cruz tied at 35 each.

Kevin Kiermaier lost his top spot for on base percentage, and we see that Abreu and Ramirez would take the top two spots in OBP, SLG, and OPS. Abreu also led in total hits, tying Correa at 187; 75 of those hits were extra bases. 

Thankfully, Abreu didn't have to do it alone, as he had some help on Humble Bregman, allowing Abreu to score a league-best 106 runs. Bo Bichette (102) and Xander Bogaerts (100) followed Abreu in total runs scored. Byron Buxton was best on the base paths, stealing 48 bases. 

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Whereas hitting showed consistency, there were a few shakeups on the mound.

Domingo German shot to the top in wins, finishing with 17. A five-way tie for second at 16 wins had Andrew Heaney, Jake Diekman, Shohei Ohtani, Mike Minor, and Matthew Boyd. Gerrit Cole pulled away ever so slightly to lead in strikeouts with 249. Chris Sale was second (246), followed by Ohtani (234) and James Paxton (231). 

Taylor Rogers added another 25 saves to his total, finishing with a league-best 50 saves. Relief pitchers had a strong second half, taking the lead in multiple categories away from starters. Ryan Pressly was the top hurler in ERA (2.56), WHIP (0.98), and opponent batting average (.205). Pressly's teammate Nick Anderson was second in ERA and WHIP, but knew the strike zone like the back of his hand to lead in BB/9 (1.81) and K/BB ratio (4.51). 

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Our leading candidate for MVP at the halfway point was Sean Manaea, but where did he end up?

Not on the list.

Instead, the battle between Joses took the spotlight, but it was Jose Ramirez that came out with the MVP award. It was extremely tight, as both players led many categories, but what the video game says is more important put Ramirez on top.

The Cy Young went to Gerrit Cole, who also finished third in MVP voting. Cole dominated batters not only with his 249 strikeouts, but with his 9.35 K/9, 2.14 BB/9, and 4.37 K/BB. 

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Do not worry, there will be a bonus post that will cover all stats for all players on all teams, so if you are really interested in how well your squad's Don Kelly(s) did, just wait a little bit longer.