MO-Wiffians
Another regular season is in the books. Awards have been finalized and the playoffs are set. My team, the Mojo, had a solid season, and we are excited to be back in the FGM Logistics playoffs. We also had a very hard fought year to get there, so I began to break something down for my team so they could see how difficult of a road it was for us and how proud they should be, that we made it to the playoffs for a chance at a title.
Then I decided, why not share with everyone? My team knows about it already, but now that awards are finalized, why not let everyone else see it for fun? So, here is a breakdown of all 8 teams and their strength of schedule throughout the 2022 MO-Wiff regular season.
This research was done by ranking all pitchers in the mowiff season from an average of multiple voters, based on statistics and overall knowledge of league situations. Then, each game on everyone’s schedule was assigned a difficulty rating based on the pitchers and the amount of innings they threw against them. Below is the list in short version, then I decided to do more breakdown for each team as well for funsies.
This article was written and released after awards were already decided upon and are not to be taken seriously to the point of discrediting any one person’s amazing season. Mainly this article was written for my team to see that we have had the most difficult schedule and are battle tested, and after research, it proved correct.
Hardest to Easiest Regular Season Schedule:
1. Mojo
2. Mambas
3. Bombers
4. Archers
5. Pilots
6. Empire
7. Thunderbirds
8. Melonheads
Now for a breakdown of each team starting with the easiest (higher rating number) and ending with the hardest (lower rating number):
Melonheads (10-7 Record, 2nd Place in Division, Playoffs Clinched)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 207
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 9/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 2 Games
Amount of times facing Jordan: 1.25 Games
Most difficult pitchers never faced: Sam Skibbe, Rory Renk, and Brett Spencer
Ah the Melonheads. Kicking us off in this ranking and I think everyone, including the Melonheads saw this coming. They were one of two teams with a rating over 200 and have two pitchers in their rotation that sit in the top 12 of pitchers in the league. Only team in the league to face off against Doug and Greg, but also one of only three teams that had to face Cam for two full games.
Thunderbirds (13-4 Record, 1st Place in Division, Playoff Bye Clinched)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 201
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 6/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 1 Game
Amount of times facing Jordan: 1 Game
Most difficult pitchers never faced: Sam Skibbe and Jackson Crosley
Thunderbirds had some off weeks with some teams, but mainly their rating is so high because they are one of a few teams with two pitchers in the top 10, so they never had to face their own people. Only facing Jordan and Cam once each for sure helps, and down the stretch, they had some easier games after already clinching a playoff spot early.
Empire (4-13 Record, 3rd Place in Division, Playoffs Clinched)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 188
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 8/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 2 Innings
Amount of times facing Jordan: 0
Most difficult pitcher never faced: Jordan Smith
The fact that they never faced Jordan and only had two innings of Cam should say everything right there. They did face off against almost every other pitcher though, which is something notable. But with only four wins, the rankings don’t do much other than being fun to compare and look at. Just one pitcher in the top 10 as they look to ride his arm in the playoffs.
Pilots (2-15 Record, 4th Place in Division, Missed Playoffs)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 164
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 10/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 1 Game
Amount of times facing Jordan: 1 Game
Most difficult pitcher never faced: Jackson Crosley
Middle of the road in these rankings for this team, who had a tough draw all year long. This was due to having no pitcher in the top 10 this year, which made it difficult, but that evened out with having some teams throw off thinking they could steal one from this franchise without throwing an ace. Two wins on the year shows, this offseason, pitching will be a high priority for captain, Adam North.
Archers (12-5 Record, 1st Place in Division, Playoff Bye Clinched)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 162
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 9/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 2 games
Amount of times facing Jordan: ON ROSTER
Most difficult pitchers never faced: Spencer Bogad and Jimmy Nelson
Archers were another team with two top 10 pitchers in 2022, including awards finalist across the board and 4x player of the week, Jordan Smith. They coasted through the season with great pitching and timely offense that only got stronger as the season progressed. They are poised to make a championship run, and when firing on all cylinders, might be the toughest team to beat.
Bombers (12-5 Record, 2nd Place in Division, Playoffs Clinched)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 147
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 11/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: ON ROSTER
Amount of times facing Jordan: 2 Games
Most difficult pitchers never faced: Jimmy Nelson and Jon Willenbrink
When you have Cam Smith pitching the most innings in the league, your team is going to be in the playoffs. Despite being their only top 10 pitcher in the league, they rode his arm to a 10-3 record, besting or tying five teams in the league, all on his own. Nick Bone had two huge wins on the mound, keeping them in the top seed hunt until the very end. This team hung tough all year long, and their easiest difficulty game didn’t come until the very last week.
Mambas (6-11 Record, 4th Place in Division, Playoffs Missed)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 136
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 13/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 1.5 games
Amount of times facing Jordan: 1.67 games
Most difficult pitchers never faced: Brett Spencer, Jason Worstenholm, and Josh Richardson
This was a tough luck season for the Mambas. If you haven’t figured it out by now, one entire division finished 1-4 on this list, and the other division finished 5-8. Mambas were picked to be the number one overall team in the preseason rankings and they finished outside of the playoffs looking in. They not only had 13/17 games against Top 10 pitching, they had nine of those against Top 5 pitching! All of this while having two top 10 pitchers on their own roster! All you can say is, stinks to be a Mamba in 2022, a season of asking, “What could’ve been?”
Mojo (9-8 Record, 3rd Place in Division, Playoffs Clinched)
Overall Difficulty Rating: 134
Top 10 Pitchers Faced: 12/17 Games
Amount of times facing Cam: 3 Games
Amount of times facing Jordan: 2 Games
Most difficult pitchers never faced: Jackson Crosley and Nick Bone
The Mojo and Mambas were in a league of their own when it came to strength of schedule and the Mojo squeaked out the top spot. They faced off against a Top 10 pitcher in 12/17 games and were the only team to see Cam 3 times. 5 of their games were against the top 2 pitchers in the league in 2022 and only one of their own pitchers was in the top 10. An impressive battle throughout the season for this franchise considering they went 0-4 without their top 10 pitcher in attendance for those four games and still had a 3 game buffer to make playoffs. Their easiest week came against the Pilots without Brett, but Adam and Hicks pitched the best they had all season in those two games.
Overall, this was fun to look at and break down for each team. Also, it is incredible to see the talent in this league rise each and every year. The hitting and pitching have gotten so much better in just one year and it is exciting to see where the league will be next year and beyond. Good luck to all the playoff teams in the coming weeks and I can’t wait to see the final results of the very difficult awards presentation that the captains have in front of them.
For fun, here are my top three picks for the 2022 awards:
MVP: Jordan Smith, Cam Smith, Jason Worstenholm
CY Wiffle: Cam Smith, Jordan Smith, Tony Cochran
Silver Slugger: Jason Worstenholm, Ryan O’Rear, Rory Renk
Platinum Hands: Sam Skibbe, Cam Smith, Cole Layton
Rookie of the Year: Tony Cochran, Ryan O’Rear, Rory Renk