March, 2026

Chapter One Recap

Players of the Chapter

Last season, it felt like we traded off OL Hitter of the Chapter awards between three beasts. This year, we got some fresh blood in the form of Maarva's own Pete Crow-Armstrong. It's hard to pick someone who only was 11th in the OL in hits, but 17 of PCA's 30 hits were for extra bases leading to a OL high .701 OPS. Twelve of those hits left the ball park leading to 24 RBI, tied for tops in the OL as well. Throw in 75 total bases and it's hard to argue how impactful Crow-Armstrone was when he connected.

One could argue the same story holds for the Eck League as Aaron Judge seemed to dominate this spot for most of the season, but at least for Chapter 1, there really wasn't an easy pick for me. But I settled for South Philly's Kyle Schwarber. The DH had a triple-slash line of .290/.413/.770. That OPS was just .002 short of the BDBL lead, but 14 Schwarbombs, one behind Gulf Coast's duo Eugenio Suarez and Cal Raleigh, 21 walks, three shy of leader Aaron Judge, helped land Schwarber at the top of the RC leaderboard, which is usually a solid tie-breaker for me.

West Chester jumped to the top of the Glander Division and OL Pitcher of the Chapter Ben Brown was a big reason. The Blooms went 7-0 in Brown's seven starts, and he recorded a OL-best 5-0 record and 2.21 ERA despite not having great run support behind him (3.9 R/G). Brown was third with lowest OBP allowed and fourth in SLG allowed as well. I tried tomade a case for his rotation-mate Drew Rassmussen who had even better peripherals, but he only went 0-1 mainly because he rarely exceeded the five innings needed to record a victory and ended up with 10 less innings that Brown's 40.2 and that really kept me from picking him.

The EL PoC came down to two candidates for me: D.C.'s Paul Skenes and Chicago's Jake Pivetta. Pivetta finished with an EL-best 5-0 record which is always sexy, but he also finished second with a 1.95 ERA, second is batting average against, third in OBP, and first in SLG (.176/.248/.237) across 37 IP. But he also run support to the tune of 7.0 R/G, which likely inflated his record a bit. Skenes led the BDBL with a 1.49 ERA and was first in the EL in batting average and OBP and was fourth in SLG (.145/.209/.315). However, D.C. could only manage 3.0 R/G leading to 2-1 record in six starts and 36.1 IP. In the end, I picked the Black Sox, Pivetta.

Top Stories of the Chapter

Story #1: West Chester rebuild starts to Bloom

Tim Chubb took over the Great Lake Sphinx after the 2022 season and has gone through an extensive rebuild spanning three seasons of 100+ losses. But all of that work may finally be paying dividends. Although it's just one chapter, the Blooms jumped out the gate at 20-8, easily their best chapter ever, and have already built a five-game lead over Darien and Flagstaff in the Glander Division.

The biggest thing that is helping the Blooms build such a lead is their 18-0 record in games where they lead after seven innings. That certainly has them a bit over their Pythagorean skis a bit by about three games, but it happens and it happened. That big of a lead this early bodes well and will likely scare of any teams in the divison with thoughts on trying to hang.

The problem for the Glander Division is that the Blooms could be a juggernaut in the making. Between having a very strong farm system already, and leveraging their rebuilding to be able to focus on cheap talent to add a big bat like Manny Machado after trading for Bryce Harper in the offseason. After taking their beatings for so long, the Blooms are set to dish out some revenge across the league for seasons to come.

Story #2: A family affair in the Hrbek

The Gill clan racked up 39 victories in Chapter One to take the top two spots in the Hrbek and have already more or less eliminated the rest of the opposition. Myrtle Beach and the Gill boys hold a one-win margin their father in Chicago.

Both teams are built similiarly in the sense that they excel in not only scoring a lot of runs, but have the pitching to easily support that, creating run differentials of +61 and +58, tops in the BDBL by nearly 30 runs over the next closest team (Gulf Coast with +31).

I had predicted Chicago to win this race at the end of all of this, but regardless these two teams are primed from postseason appearances and could meet up in an epic ELCS, if things hold, but as we all know, things rarely happen as they should in the Tournament of Randomness.

All of that adds up to a four-game lead for the Law Dogs over Virginia who was picked to win this division both by myself and the league vote. 16-12 puts the Sovereigns in a tie for the EL Wild Card, which is still solid, but it'll be interesting if the Law Dogs can keep Virginia in their rearview mirror.

Story #3: Ravenswood rebound?

After two years of rebuilding and bemoaning their plight by Brian Potrafka, the Infidels of Ravenswood jumped out to a 17-11 record, taking top spot in the Benes after one chapter.

Since winning OL Wild Cards in 2022 and 2023, the Infidels have averaged 100.5 losses. I really thought this team would struggle and really the strength of this team, the pitching sort of has. Nate Eovaldi sat out, presumably to save his usage for the last four chapters or so where we could be started nearly every game. But Walker Buehler and Charlie Morton were bad in their 10 starts and Kevin Gausman wasn't much to write home about in his seven starts either. If it wasn't for Noah Cameron (4-0, 2.75 ERA) and Reese Olson (1-0, 1.93), this team might be in trouble. The bullpen has had it bright spots as well, featuring four arms with ERAs of 2.38 or less, but those four guys also racked up five blown save situations and the full bullpen blew nine overall.

It's been the bats that have carried them, which I also didn't expect. Zach Neto is off to a great start with six homers and 11 doubles to post an .868 OPS at short. Max Muncy (.957 OPS) has overperformed while Issac Parades (.815) is right on target, but since both bats came into the season with lower usage due to injuries, they are already chewing through their usage enough that they'll have to be rationed down the line. Josh Bell (.790) and Liam Hicks (.791) have been nice finds that have paid dividends so far.

These performances haven't really tempered by initials thoughts on the team in general, but it is refreshing to see this team defy expectations to date. It'll be interesting to see if they add to the team to try and keep this momentum or while Las Vegas and Akron catch them from behind?

Story #4: Los Altos: Rinse and repeat

The veteran owners in this league have seen this story so many times, we know the script at heart. Jeff Paulson dominates for 4-5 seasons, takes a year off to rebuild and then heads right back out to dominate. 75 wins in 2025, albeight good enough for second place in the Griffin last year, was another clear case of this pattern as the Undertakers have jumped out to a 19-19 start.

But looking back at the last five seasons, the Undertakers have had only one spectacular year (113 wins and a title in 2023) and one other so-so year of high 80 wins that results in a divison crown.

A rotation by committee saw Los Altos used nine different pitchers to start at least one game in Chapter One, but it was Garrett Crochet (4-1, 2.37 ERA) and Kris Bubic (4-0 in 4 GS, 2.33) that front that committee well. Closer Brad Keller allowed a lone unearned run in his 9 1/3 innings over 12 appearances, but went 1-0 with nine saves.

Kody Clemens clubbed eight homers in just 61 plate appearances (1.163 OPS) while Kyle Seager added six longballs to go with 14 walks (1.029) to pace the offense.

With Maarva's becoming an ownerless franchise and Cleveland and Bear Country getting off to 11-win starts, the Undertakers are well placed to cruise to the postseason, barring any crazy run of bad luck. I'll be curious to see if they try to add to help plug holes to be able to get on the same level as West Chester or not in the Ozzie.

Story #5: Tight Eck League races

After highlighting the great starts over the Hrbek, the other two divisions of the Eck are really closely bunched.

Only four games seperate first-place Gulf Coast from last-place Jacksonville in the Higueria while it's only two games spanning the Wilkie between D.C. and Niagara. And all of the teams are hovering around .500.

Who will break out of these closely packed groups to take a lead and try to challenge those Hrbek frontrunners?