The 2022 fantasy baseball season reached its conclusion on 5 October with champions being crowned in each of the three Fantasy Baseball UK league formats. Well done to Brian Matthews who won the FBUK League (standard game), Daniel Perrin who triumphed in FBUK LTD (limited trade game) and René Becker who finished top of FBUK Classic (salary cap game). There were also 14 division titles confirmed. Scroll down for the full wrap-up.
Latest forum poll
Prior to the start of the 2021 season, FBUK’s pitching scoring system was altered after consultation with fantasy team managers. After two seasons using the updated system, and following recent feedback from some managers, it is possible the scoring is now weighted too much towards hitters! A forum post has recently been started on the FBUK website to discuss this and includes a poll on possible adjustments for next season. Please log into the FBUK Forums if you would like to add your feedback – the post is pinned to the top of the ‘Dugout’ forum.
GO TO FORUM POST >
(You will need to log in or register on the FBUK Forums to access it)
Winners list
Here are the overall champions of each of the leagues as well as the division winners within each league format. Beside their points tallies is the gap (in red) between them and the second-placed team in that competition:
FBUK League Champion: hedley verityesque (Brian Matthews) – 12333 (+165)
South: Mookie the Cat (Richard Smalley) – 11189 (+86)
South East: Hakuna Moncada (Ed Jefferies) – 11400 (+406)
South West: Torquay Mariners (Chris Parkes) – 11279 (+40)
East: Pain in Yoenis (Daniel Perrin) – 11986 (+879)
West: Flux Capacitors (Stuart Burnett) – 12168 (+182)
Central: hedley verityesque (Brian Matthews) – 12333 (+832)
North: It’s Shohei Time (Simon Middleton) – 11475 (+328)
North East: Disposable Heroes (Glen Marsland) – 10930 (+246)
North West: Detroit Technos UK (David Crabtree) – 11326 (+25)
FBUK LTD Champion: YabbaDabBadoo (Daniel Perrin) – 9691 (+103)
LTD South: YabbaDabBadoo (Daniel Perrin) – 9691 (+103)
LTD North: No Trade Clause (John Borthwick) – 9483 (+392)
FBUK Classic Champion: Secret Agents (René Becker) – 11916 (+54)
Channel Conference: Dunedin Dingers (Matthew Sutton) – 11730 (+137)
Metro Conference: Secret Agents (René Becker) – 11916 (+54)
Mountain Conference: Highway 191 (Keith Jeffery) – 11570 (+564)
All the divisional and overall standings from the various leagues can be viewed in the Standings section of the website.
FBUK All-Star Team of the Season
Based on fantasy points accumulated over the entire 2022 season, here are the top performers at each position:
| Ps. | Player | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | JT Realmuto | PHI | 671 |
| 1B | Freddie Freeman | LAD | 902 |
| 2B | Marcus Semien | TEX | 792 |
| 3B | Manny Machado | SD | 811 |
| SS | Francisco Lindor | NYM | 816 |
| OF | Aaron Judge | NYY | 1112 |
| OF | Mookie Betts | LAD | 819 |
| OF | Kyle Tucker | HOU | 817 |
| UT | Pete Alonso | NYM | 891 |
| SP | Sandy Alcantara | MIA | 847 |
| RP | Emmanuel Clase | CLE | 483 |
It might not be much of a surprise to see that Aaron Judge was head and shoulders above all other hitters in terms of total fantasy points scored in 2022. The New York Yankees slugger set a new American League record for most home runs in a season, breaking the record held by Roger Maris since 1961. Along with 62 home runs, Judge also topped the American League with 131 RBI and ended the season with a .311 batting average. Judge just missed out on the American League Triple Crown (when a player leads the league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in) when Luis Arraez of the Minnesota Twins finished above him with a .316 BA.
Along with 22 home runs and 84 RBI, the Philadelphia Philles’ J.T. Realmuto brought rare stolen base threat to the catcher position, with 21 swipes.
Pete Alonso of the New York Mets tied with Aaron Judge in first place across the Majors in the RBI category (131) and clobbered 40 home runs.
On the pitching side, Miami Marlins’ ace Sandy Alcantara scored over 100 fantasy points more than the next best pitcher’s total and averaged 26 points per game. Alcantara was a stalwart in 2022, pitching 228.2 innings over 32 games and regularly going deep into games, including six complete games. He finished the season with a 2.28 ERA and 207 strikeouts.
In the closer spot, the Cleveland Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase recorded a league-high 42 saves, a 1.36 ERA and 77 strikeouts over 72.2 innings pitched.
Notes: Monthly points and position eligibility is based on Fantrax, where the salary cap league is run. Although the Fantrax and Yahoo leagues use the same scoring system, position eligibility might vary slightly for some MLB players. The Utility spot is the highest-scoring hitter who didn’t top a position category. Here, the Relief Pitcher spot is reserved for true relievers/closers rather than starting pitchers who happen to also be eligible at the RP spot.
Manager of the Month: September
Based on fantasy points accumulated between 1-30 September, Steve White’s No Sox was the highest-scoring team in the FBUK League during the final month of the season.
A recap of the previous Managers of the Month in 2022: Brian Matthews – hedley verityesque (April, August); Daniel Perrin – Pain in Yoenis (May); Gregor McIntosh – Brechin Red Sox (June); John Steele – beat gould&lengl (July).
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | No Sox (Steve White) | 2247 |
| 2 | Flux Capacitors (Stuart Burnett) | 2211 |
| 3 | HAFC – FTW (Stewart Hunter) | 2170 |
| 4 | The Rescue Party (Gareth Jones) | 2085 |
| 5 | MK Bombs (Allan Hopkins) | 2070 |
Fantasy League Standings (top): Final
In all three formats, fantasy teams are grouped into roughly regional divisions but they are also combined to give overall standings. Here is the overall Top 10 in each league at the conclusion of the season.
FBUK League
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | hedley verityesque | 12333 |
| 2 | Flux Capacitors | 12168 |
| 3 | The Rescue Party | 11986 |
| – | Pain in Yoenis | 11986 |
| 5 | AZ Doublebacks | 11501 |
| 6 | It’s Shohei Time | 11475 |
| 7 | Hakuna Moncada | 11400 |
| 8 | beat gould&lengl | 11385 |
| 9 | Detroit Technos UK | 11326 |
| 10 | Clash City Royals | 11301 |
Five years after doing the double by winning the main game and $5m side game in 2017, Brian Matthews was again an FBUK champion as his team hedley verityesque finished top of the combined standings in the FBUK League. Brian was in or around first place for most of the season, busily conducting almost 500 roster transactions in the process, which is more than twice the number of roster moves made by the next busiest manager in the league.
His most constant challenger through the season proved to be Pain in Yoenis, managed by Daniel Perrin. Once Pain and a number of other chasers hit the IP limit during September, Stuart Burnett’s Flux Capacitors emerged with the best chance to unseat the leader. Flux Capacitors powered up the league standings with spare resource to play with in the games played (GP) and innings pitched (IP) limits but a points deficit of around 250 points to make up going into the final week of the season. A good return on the final use of pitching contributed to hedley verityesque bagging 134 points on Monday as the team went into the IP limit (taking advantage of the loophole where, on the day a fantasy team exceeds its IP limit, all the pitching points earned that day will still count). This helped put the gap beyond Flux Capacitors’ efforts to close it in the remaining two days of the season. For the second consecutive year, Flux Capacitors finished runner-up overall while also winning the West division.
Elsewhere among the regional divisions, Daniel Perrin earned his second East division title and Glen Marsland’s Disposable Team did the same in FBUK North.
The South, South West and North West had the closest title races in the final week or so of the season. Starting the final day in the South, Mookie the Cat held a 101-point lead over MK Bombs and both teams were still under the IP limit, which explains why most the of the available free agent pitchers scheduled to start that day were snapped up by one or other of those teams!
Starting the penultimate day of the season, only 26 points separated the top three in the North West. By the end of that day, Clash City Royals, in first place, and Shane Warnes Flipper, in third, had maxed out the IP limit and most of their position players’ GP limits. In second place and 54 points behind the Royals, Detroit Technos UK had hit the GP limit in all but the catcher’s position but three solid starts and a save from the pitching side of the roster on the final day helped Technos jump into first place to take the division title.
In the South West, Dorset Bombers and the reigning division champion, Cobra K, were separated by just 20 points in first and second, respectively, beginning the penultimate day. That night, Torquay Mariners rode the wave of a full compliment of seven pitchers on the mound to go from third to first after scoring 155 points in total. With all three teams over the IP limit for the final round of games, the Mariners held on for the title.
FBUK LTD
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | YabbaDabBaddoo | 9691 |
| 2 | Candles Bat Breakers | 9588 |
| 3 | No Trade Clause | 9483 |
| 4 | Jose Abreu’s Bombers | 9230 |
| 5 | Gallo’s Humour | 9160 |
| 6 | 2 Limited | 9151 |
| 7 | Welly BJ’s | 9103 |
| 8 | Atlantic Crossing | 9091 |
| 9 | Masters of Merriment | 9070 |
| 10 | John’s Jokers | 9012 |
Although he missed out on the overall championship in the standard game, Daniel Perrin’s team in the limited trade game, YabbaDabBaddoo, won the South division and the overall competition, having been top of the combined standings for most of the season. In second place – and a South division rival – Richard Hayward’s Candles Bat Breakers kept on the leader’s tail all season and briefly went top in early September but were not able to close the gap of around 100 points again once YabbaDabBaddoo retook first place.
LTD North was won by John Borthwick’s No Trade Clause, who was back-to-back champion of the limited trade game in 2016 and 2017.
FBUK Classic
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Secret Agents | 11916 |
| 2 | Bleacher Creatures | 11862 |
| 3 | Dunedin Dingers | 11730 |
| 4 | Beat Gould and Lengl | 11697 |
| 5 | MK Bombs | 11593 |
| 6 | Highway 191 | 11570 |
| 7 | Year of the Cub | 11490 |
| 8 | RBI or Rump? | 11221 |
| 9 | Boys of Summer | 11219 |
| 10 | Ted&Yaz&Manny&Me | 11035 |
Heading into the final week of the salary cap game, FBUK Classic was three-horse race between René Becker’s Secret Agents in first place, Beat Gould & Lengl (John Steele) and Bleacher Creatures (Wayne Mason). Of the three, the early season leader Bleacher Creatures had held back the most GP / IP allowance but now had to try to overturn a 150-point gap behind the leader.
By Monday (3 Oct), only 43 points separated the three. Bleacher Creatures had moved into second place and Beat Gould & Lengl in third had reached the IP limit. Both Bleacher Creatures and Secret Agents were poised on 1396 IP, each knowing the next time they threw pitchers they would need to make the most of it as it would take them over the 1400 IP limit. While Secret Agents played the pitching card first, on Monday night, Bleacher Creatures had lined up the bulk of its pitching to take the mound for the big push on the final day, Wednesday. On this occasion, banking the points earlier proved beneficial to Secret Agents, re-opening the 150-point lead over Bleacher Creatures with two days to go. The chasing team was then somewhat undone on the final day by changes to the scheduled starters (as some pitchers were rested or given an abbreviated outing by their MLB team) plus at least one poor outing on the mound by one of the pitchers that did start.
The closer
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Thanks for playing, and see you next season!
Fantasy Baseball UK