November, 2025

2025 Playoffs Preview

This year's Tournament of Randomness is marked by the absense of many of the BDBL's usual blueblood franchises. We have grown used to seeing the likes of Los Altos, Florida, Akron and Chicago more years than not, but this season they are all missing having all chosen a rebuilding path at the exact same moment. Three of those teams won 100 games last season but only Florida ended up with a winning record at 82-78 in 2025. Even the defending champion Highland Freedom went from winning 96 games to losing nearly that same number.

Before we move on to celebrate the teams that did qualify for the playoffs, much like Glander did for me last year, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the season that the D.C. Memorials had, narrowly missing out on the Wilkie crown with a 96-64 record.

The Memorials jumped out to an early lead in the first chapter of the season, but then battled with Lake Norman and Niagara the rest of the way. At the All-Star Break, D.C. was only one game back of Lake Norman at 42-38. Then in the second half, the Memorials got hot and went 54-26, an amazing .675 clip, only to see the Labradors not only match that, but pull away over the final two chapters of the season. Adam Miner deserves some consideration for awards when voting starts.

Darien and Lake Norman were the #1 seeds in 2024, winning 106 and 108 games respectively and return this season as the top winners again at 109 and 107 in 2025. But everyone else are newcomers from last season. In the Eck League, Flagstaff and Las Vegas return after last appearing in 2021 while Cleveland last appeared in 2020 when they were in the Eck League. Speaking of the EL, Charlotte and Kansas return after missing out last season while Virginia last appeared in 2021.

A year ago, the Highland Freedom marched to the World Series losing just one game before having to face Akron in a series that went the distance in a thrilling Game 7. This year, they narrowly avoided losing 100 games. What a difference a year makes!

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	107-53	794	536	258	59-21	48-32	.791	.806	.785	3.14	.662	.675	.650
	99-61	743	590	153	43-37	56-24	.768	.809	.753	3.50	.665	.654	.675

To say the Kansas Law Dogs did an 180-degree turnaround would be an understatement, going from 104 losses to 107 wins, a 51-game improvement. That sort of feat is rare in MLB, but not so here in the BDBL. After the retooling in 2024, Chris Luhning help build out his roster with some key auction additions in Seth Lugo who went 16-8 in 35 GS with a 3.54 ERA and Christian Yelich who was to serve as basically half of leftfielder and exceled against righties as expected. The draft was something of a bust outside of landing Tyler Megill in the 3M round and was later flipped to Bear Country in the Dylan Cease trade (Cease went 9-4 with a 3.23 ERA in half a season for Kansas), which was the biggest in-season move.

All of this lead Kansas to their fifth Higuera Division title in seven seasons and 12th all-time. The did behind the strength of the BDBL's best run-prevention squad. The Law Dogs starters posted a 3.39 ERA, second in the BDBL, headed by Reynaldo Lopez (2.14 ERA in 139 IP), Luis Ortiz (2.47/98+) and Taj Bradley (2.82/92+). Throw in Lugo and Cease and Kansas had a formidable rotation. Add in a bullpen that also posted a BDBL second-best ERA of 2.72 behind Kirby Yates (37 saves and a 1.69 ERA), David Robertson (2.71 ERA with 30 holds) and trade acquistion Ryan Helsley (15 holds, 1.55 ERA, 2-for-17 inherited runners scored) and you can see that strength.

Then add in a lineup that held their own with the big boppers of Charlotte and Lake Norman in terms of many key hitting metrics like OPS and RC27 fronted by offseason trade additions Salvador Perez (30 HRs, 106 RBI, and 98.8 RC to lead the team) and Dansby Swanson (78.9 RC, 32 doubles). Top that off with a defense that led the league in fielding percentage and was second in double plays turned and you see how this team was able to lead their division wire-to-wire despite Virginia nipping on their heels in the first half.

Speaking of those Sovereigns, Tony Badger built a squad that saw them improve with 24 more victories than 2024 and were neck-and-neck with Kansas until an untimely 12-12 Chapter Four tanked any hopes for a division title. However, the Sovereigns were able to hold off D.C. and Niagara over the final half of the season to secure the Eck Wild Card.

The starting rotation was the main strength for Virginia, posting a 3.36 ERA that was best in the league. Zach Wheeler notched 21 wins with a 2.58 ERA and two complete game shutouts. Luis Gil went 15-7 with a 3.25 ERA while Michael King posted a similar 3.16 ERA with a slightly worse record at 12-9. Really only Sac Gallen was something on a bust, coming over from Indy in the offseason and went 8-9 with a 4.07 ERA. That rotation also benefited from solid gloves behind them as Virginia posted the second-best fielding team in the league, behind the aforementioned Law Dogs.

The offense in Virgina was lead by three outstanding hitters in Brent Rooker (47 HRs, 147.4 RC, 107 RBI, 1.008 OPS), auction addition Anthony Santander (53 HRs, 124 RBI, 100.2 RC) and Eugenio Suarez (38 HRs, 85 HRs, .799) who came over right before the season started from Maarva's. But after that, the offense was remarkable, landing the Sovereigns in the second tier of offenses in the league.

These two teams surprisingly split their head-to-head games this season, considering Kansas went to Virginia in Chapter One and swept them. Another fun quirk is that Kansas lead the league along with Darien for best home reocrd at 59-21 while Virginia exceled on the road with a league best 56-24 mark. I slept on Kansas in my season preview, but I won't do it here.

Prediction: Kansas in six.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	109-51	946	677	269	59-21	50-30	.840	.881	.825	3.99	.723	.756	.692
	92-68	743	626	117	51-29	41-39	.742	.726	.748	3.57	.688	.732	.641

The class of the Ozzie League had an easier road to the playoffs this season as they led wire-to-wire to capture their third straight McGowan/Glander Division crown. That's fairly easy to do when you own the league's top offense that nearly scored 1,000 runs and almost 6 runs per game. Lee Scholtz claims his window is closing soon, but he won't be happy until he gets a World Series and he's got a real chance to do it, especially since the Akron didn't make the playoffs this year. The Ryche have taken the Blue Wave as victims in the last two playoffs, once in the OLDS and the other in the OLCS and both in six games.

The Darien offense was led by most of the usual suspects, but it was auction newcomers Joc Pederson and Jose Iglesias that helped things gel. Pederson posted a team-high 1.018 OPS (100+ points better than MLB) with 34 HRs and 93 RBI in just 469 PAs. Iglesias had a .914 OPS in half of a season primarily as shortstop. Yordan F'ing Alvarez did his thing with 42 HRs, 130 RBI and a .960 OPS. Cal Raliegh gave us a taste of what is to come as he launched 50 HRs despite striking out 185 times and drove in 132.

Pitching was just OK for the Blue Wave, placing slightly above league average overall. The starting pitching was really disappointing as Darien was forced to outslug their opponents for the most part, but trade addition Tanner Houck did go 12-1 in 16 starts with a 2.25 ERA that could be a needed weapon in the playoffs. After that, the next best starter was Logan Gilbert who did win 18 games but did so with a pedestrian 3.66 ERA. The bullpen was more effective as Andres Munoz and Jhoan Duran formed a powerful combo that had a combined ERA around 1.50 with Munoz getting 33 saves with seven holds while Duran had 24 holds and six saves. That bullpen helped Darien to 32-15 record in one-run games.

The Cleveland Rocks had a faily unscathed path to the playoffs, easily taking the Griffin Division as neither Bear Country or Los Altos could keep pace and folded quickly. It's only Cleveland's fourth trip to the postseason, the first after moving to the Ozzie League in 2023. Mike Stein didn't have to do a lot of roster manipulation outside of a little auction action and some solid draft picks.

The Rocks were probably driven by the pitching staff with had the OL's best ERA (3.57) and second-best runs allowed totals (626). Much of that success was built on their bullpen which posted a 2.80 ERA led closer Ryan Walker's 1.01 ERA and 33 saves in 71 IP. Jacob Junis added over 73 innings of 2.09 ball while Tyler Rogers and Hayden Wesnewski combined for about 140 innings with a low 3 ERA. The rotation had their best performances from Simeon Woods-Rochardson and Dean Kremer who posted sub-3.00 ERA in 24 and 23 starts respectively. The Rocks lone auction win came in the form of Eric Fedde who pitched a workhorse-like 184 IP, but had a 13-9 record with a 3.72 ERA.

Cleveland's offense was only so-so, placing squarely in the middle of the pack across the league. The one area the Rocks always seem to have in speed and the audacity to use it any time as they racked up 223 stolen bases in 286 attempts (78% success rate). Jarren Duran amassed 200 hits and led the Rocks with 111 runs scored, popping 21 homers and 49 doubles, and posting an .879 OPS and throw in 45 stolen bases to boot. Wilyer Abreu exceed expectation en route to .906 OPS in just over half of a seasons work. The Rocks did one big move, sending Spencer Strider to Highland in exchange for Justin Turner and Masataka Yoshida at the deadline, but they didn't do alot although I guess Turner played as expected at third.

These two teams split their season series at 4-4 with each team taking three road wins while three at home. I think the pitching is a wash between these two teams, so it falls to the offense and I think Darien's advantage there is too much in a seven-game series for Cleveland to overcome.

Prediction: Darien in five.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	102-58	847	571	276	56-24	46-34	.800	.785	.806	3.32	.662	.625	.686
	99-61	841	634	207	52-28	47-33	.806	.834	.796	3.73	.697	.685	.705

In preseason polling, Lake Norman took 11 of 14 votes to win the Wilkie. In my Preseason Preview, I also picked the Labradors to not only win the division, but likely the whole thing, so it's fair to say expectations were high for the Labs. So naturally, they posted a 13-15 record in the opening chapter, good for third place, four games back. At the All-Star break, the Labs had managed to make up enough group to lead the D.C. Memorials by a game. But it wouldn't be until the end of Chapter Five when the Labs would create enough space to breathe and managed to take the divison by six games, the smallest margin in the league.

The Labs were active early in the trade market, making moves to land eventual 17-game winner Cristopher Sanchez as well as Blake Snell who went 11-4 in 20 starts with a 3.18 ERA. Then later in the season, they pounced on Los Altos's fire sale, landing Emmanuel Clase who would wind up with 30 saves in 41 appearances with a 1.11 ERA. Those moves were compounded with a focus on pitching in the auction as Lake Norman added Raisel Iglesias and Yu Darvish. Iglesias was especially strong, posting a 1.30 ERA over 76 IP joining Clase and Griffin Jax with low-1 ERAs in the bullpen which was a clear strength for the Labradors.

Add that pitching to an offense who went toe-to-toe with their playoff opponent Charlotte as the best in the league that was not named Darien. Gunnar Henderson fronted that lineup, posting a team-high .941 OPS with 37 bombs, 119 runs and 103 RBI. Henderson played a lot of SS, but he dabbled a bit as am unrated second baseman just so Elly De La Cruz could see some time as short and not get rusty at DH. De La Cruz was effective, smalling 23 homers and stealing 24 bases while posting a .902 OPS. Max Muncy came over from Jacksonville and hit righties well (.963 vs. RHP) at DH as well.

What do you do if you are the Charlotte Mustangs and are going into the offseason with Juan Soto and Julio Rodriguez? Naturally, you trade for Francisco Lindor and then two weeks later, you land Aaron Judge. To say expectations were high in Lake Norman, you had to think they were equally high if not higher for the Mustangs.

And those expectations were met as Judge is likely your Eck League MVP with 64 homers, over 100 extra-base hits, 141 RBI and a 1.218 OPS. Soto added 41 long balls and scored 146 times and drove in 104. Lindor had 33 homers,scored 123 times and also topped 100 RBI. Only JRod really disappointed as he couldn't really matchup his MLB numbers which were also bad for him in a down year. That all lead to an offense that rivaled Lake Norman as mentioned earlier.

How the Mustangs won 99 games with a pitching staff that posted a 3.73 ERA, second worst among playoff teams, is beyond me. Ronel Blanco and David Peterson were real disappointments compared to their MLB numbers, each having ERAs around 1.50 higher than their real numbers. Ryan Feltner and Gavin Stone outperformed their real numbers to try and buoy those efforts. The Mustang bullpen combined for a 3.04 ERA which is not something to write home about, but the core of Kevin Kelly (1.80 ERA), Porter Hodge (2.14), Bryan Hoeing (1.76) and Cole Sands (1.99) were excellent and will help win games. In fact, that bullpen is likely the reason for Charlotte being 13-6 in games that were tied after seven innings.

Charlotte won the season series, 5-3, which included a series sweep at Lake Norman that was decided by just seven runs. On paper, both teams have outstanding offense and Lake Norman appears to have the pitching edge. But I have feeling this is the one series that may go against chalk, so I'm going against my preseason pick in this one.

Prediction: Charlotte in seven.

Team	W-L	RS	RA	DIFF	Home	Road	OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR	ERA	Opp OPS	OPS vL	OPS vR
	98-62	740	651	89	53-27	45-35	.748	.755	.746	3.72	.694	.698	.690
	95-65	795	620	175	54-26	41-39	.748	.719	.763	3.65	.708	.719	.697

Much like the other Ozzie races, the Las Vegas Flamingos cruised to a Benes title from the get go. One of the main reasons for that was a $47 million investment in the auction on starters Sonny Gray and Tyler Anderson who fronted the Vegas rotation, making a combined 61 starts and went 30-11 with a total ERA around 3.40. The Flamingos aren't traditionally among active trade teams and held to form by not making any offseason moves, but they did make some additions to the offense in season, adding Jose Miranda to play third at the midway point and Ernie Clement and Jorge Soler a chapter earlier and all three performed in Las Vegas pink.

To go with that rotation combo of Gray and Anderson, the Flamingos also have Lance Lynn who went 13-3 with a 3.16 ERA to make a formidable playoff rotation. The bullpen wouldn't be considered overpowering in any stretch, posting a 3.36 ERA and holding teams to a .686 OPS. Without a pure shutdown close, Vegas did go the committee route as they racked up 53 saves with no one pitching getting more than 11 as 10 different pitchers notched at least one save. Michael McGreevy (0.36 ERA) and Sean Reid-Foley (1.93) each led the team with 11, but were also limited to 25 innings of less in the regular season and that will pose problems in the playoffs as thye usage would be very limited if they even make the roster.

Offensively, Pete Alonso paved the way for the Flamingos with 44 HRs and 122 RBI with an .891 OPS. But after that, there may not be alot to fear. Josh Naylor did hit 31 HRs, but had an on-base percentage of .289. Randal Grichuk posted an outstanding .955 OPS in 299 PAs but will be limited to mostly hitting against lefties in this series. Overall, the .748 team OPS was good for third in the Ozzie, but when you look at the stacked offenses of the Eck League, that would be just above league-average over there.

The Flagstaff Peaks had the infamy in 2024 of being the best team to not make the playoffs, winning 103 games and losing the wild card by a game. This team took a step backwards as several hitters regressed including franchise players Corbin Carroll and Mookie Betts, but they still managed to win 95 games and also cruised to the playoffs as the wild card.

Betts suffered through some injuries with the Dodgers, so his usage was limited and his production down a bit from his usual norms, but he did end up leading the Peaks in most offensive categories, hitting 25 homers and drove in 93 with an OPS of .910. Carroll's slump was a huge hit to the lineup, but his speed still played as he had 17 triples and 60 stolen bases to go along with 20 homers and a disappointing .736 OPS. With such a lesser offense than last season, it seemed weird to trade away Jose Ramirez who would have easily been the Peaks best hitter had he stayed, but the decision to get quantity in a full-time first baseman in Michael Busch and a platoon-heavy second baseman in Jake Cronenworth and Romy Gonzalez and to save some money was paramount to building this squad.

Flagstaff's strength was definitely on the throwing side of things as their team ERA fell just short of Cleveland for the OL best mark at 3.65. The starting rotation wasn't flashy but had six players post ERAs between 3.35 and 3.95 for at least consistent production that could turn games over to a solid bullpen. That relief corps was headed thanks to an auction bid for Joe Jimenez who was made closer and notched 41 saves with a 1.97 ERA. Throw in solid seasons from lefties Josh Hader (3.18 ERA) and Aroldis Chapman (2.86) and the Peaks were an BDBL-best 79-3 when leading after seven and bought the offense time to rally from being tie or down after seven frames 16 times.

Las Vegas won the head-to-head matchup, 5-3, with six of those games being decided by three runs or less. These teams are even on paper for the most part. I think my pitching is slightly better in a short series and while my offense lacks the bopper of an Alonso, all season they have managed to score runs when they needed to to enough times to win 95 games. This series will go seven and it's hard for me to bet against myself but head thinks Vegas will win. So I'll pick with my heart.

Prediction: Flagstaff in seven.

Remaining predictions:

• Charlotte over Kansas in seven.
• Darien over Flagstaff in six.
• Charlotte over Darien in seven.