- The Houston Astros are your World Series champions coming back from 2-1 down in the series to win in six games over the Philadelphia Phillies. A real Cinderella story if you listen to baseball media.
- Yordan Alvarez hit the go-ahead home run in the sixth inning of Game 6. That not only helped Houston lift their second Commissioner's Trophy in six seasons, but made our final Home Run Hero designation of the season a successful one netting Ed a score of eight on the final day. It should be noted that Ed was in dead last when he took over his "account" and got all the way up to fourth.
- Alvarez was one of five Astros to be picked out on the evening. Only him and Jose Altuve (Matt) were repeats from last season. Martin Maldonado (Al) blanked while Altuve and Trey Mancini (Ryan) singled and Jeremy Pena (Colin) singled twice. These five pick outs put Houston on eight total for the season surpassing the seven Philadelphia had.
- That single from Mancini was obviously not enough for Ryan to unearth himself from a financial relegation grave despite Nate not having a selection for Game 6.
- Edmundo Sosa couldn't quite become the tying eighth picked out Phillie leaving on a whimper with a blank for both Lenny and Scott.
- Buddy had to put all his eggs in the Matt Vierling basket in Game 6. Even though both him and Pavli both picked the Phillies outfielder, his Home Run Hero usage could have potentially bridged the gap with a couple of home runs. Nevertheless it was not meant to be as Vierling was pinch hit for in the eighth inning without a hit to his name.
- That means that after all is said and done, Pavli is your 2022 MLB Pick One Challenge champion with a final haul of 405 total bases, 31 more than what took home first place last season! Congratulations are in order and thank you's are as well to all that participated! I hope to see you all back next season with some other games sprinkled in between!
Now that's we've seen the final scores, let's look a little bit into how we got there with some superlatives, retrospectives, and statistics. Firstly, let's check out the best of the best for 2022!
TOP SINGLE DAY SCORER WITH HOME RUN HERO (& WITHOUT)- Bo Bichette, Toronto Blue Jays The Home Run Hero provision served its purpose this season in providing ample opportunities for some ridiculous scorelines in the Pick One Challenge. None were crazier than what Bo Bichette did over a doubleheader with Baltimore on September 5th. He had three hits in each of the two legs of the twin bill, three singles in the first and three home runs in the second. Buddy used his Home Run Hero for the month of September to earn himself a score of 27 on the afternoon while Al "only" received 15 total bases for the two games in one day's work. The next highest organic score was 12 that came when New York's Anthony Rizzo hit three home runs for Buddy and Lenny on April 26th, also against the Orioles. |
REGULAR SEASON MVP- Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies Last year's NL MVP wasn't able to surpass Brendan Rodgers' mark of five top scores from last season, but he at least matched it in 2022. His best run of the season came in June when he had three top scores in twelve days. He didn't blank in any of his ten selections with his best efforts coming on 5/25 & 6/5 with six total base efforts. Seven players would earn the day's top score four times (Yordan Alvarez, Ty France, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber, Mike Trout, Christian Walker) |
POSTSEASON MVP- Yulieski Gurriel, Houston Astros He may have only netted five total bases in his three top score outings, but his three times at the top were the most of any player this postseason. Gurriel didn't have a top score before the playoffs yet got two in the ALCS and one in the World Series. Astros teammates Alex Bregman and Chas McCormick were the only other players to get more than one top score during fall baseball. |
TEAM OF THE YEAR- New York Yankees Houston getting 13 top scores in the postseason gave the Bronx Bombers a run for their money, but in the end the AL East champions pulled down the most top scores with 20. Conversely, the Rockies had the smallest representation on the Record Book part of the scoresheet with 2. CJ Cron got both of Colorado's top scores for the year. |
HOME RUN HEROES- Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros & Aaron Judge, New York Yankees The Home Run Hero chip was introduced for 2022 as a rubber banding mechanism to give players lagging behind a chance to vault themselves back into the swing of things with a couple mighty swings of the bat. It didn't exactly do that but nevertheless this potentially one-and-done provision made for some really outlandish scores, some of which have already been bantered about. But while most of the Home Run Hero designations were met with anger and frustration, two men provided their backers with enough joy to almost make up for it. Yordan Alvarez and Aaron Judge both triggered the chip three times apiece over the course of the 2022 campaign. Below is a brief rundown of how everybody else that had the chip used on them did. Spoiler alert: It is a substantial amount of zeroes. |
Atlanta Braves- Michael Harris II 0-for-2, Matt Olson 0-for-1, Austin Riley 0-for-3
Baltimore Orioles- Ryan Mountcastle 0-for-1
Boston Red Sox- Rafael Devers 0-for-1
Chicago White Sox- Luis Robert 0-for-1
Cleveland Guardians- Steven Kwan 0-for-1, Jose Ramirez 0-for-3
Colorado Rockies- CJ Cron 0-for-1
Detroit Tigers- Austin Meadows 0-for-1
Houston Astros- Yordan Alvarez 3-for-7, Alex Bregman 0-for-1, Christian Vazquez 0-for-1
Los Angeles Angels- Shohei Ohtani 0-for-2, Mike Trout 1-for-2
Los Angeles Dodgers- Mookie Betts 0-for-1, Freddie Freeman 1-for-2
Milwaukee Brewers- Andrew McCutchen 0-for-1, Rowdy Tellez 0-for-1
Minnesota Twins- Byron Buxton 1-for-2
New York Mets- Pete Alonso 0-for-3, Starling Marte 0-for-1
New York Yankees- Josh Donaldson 0-for-1, Aaron Judge 3-for-5, Anthony Rizzo 0-for-2, Giancarlo Stanton 1-for-1
Oakland Athletics- Dermis Garcia 0-for-1
Philadelphia Phillies- Nick Castellanos 0-for-1, Bryce Harper 0-for-3, JT Realmuto 0-for-1, Kyle Schwarber 1-for-2, Bryson Stott 0-for-1, Matt Vierling 0-for-1
Pittsburgh Pirates- Ke'Bryan Hayes 0-for-1, Bryan Reynolds 1-for-1
San Diego Padres- Jake Cronenworth 0-for-1
Seattle Mariners- Julio Rodriguez 0-for-1, Eugenio Suarez 0-for-1
St. Louis Cardinals- Nolan Arenado 1-for-2, Paul Goldschmidt 1-for-2, Albert Pujols 0-for-1
Texas Rangers- Marcus Semien 0-for-1
Toronto Blue Jays- Bo Bichette 1-for-1, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1-for-3
Washington Nationals- Juan Soto 1-for-2
TEAMS WITH NO HOME RUN HERO SELECTIONS- Cubs, Reds, Royals, Marlins, Giants, Rays
Atlanta Braves (1)- Ronald Acuna Jr. (10/15)
Chicago Cubs (1)- Ian Happ (9/11)
Chicago White Sox (2)- Jose Abreu (9/17), Andrew Vaughn (9/22)
Cleveland Guardians (2)- Jose Ramirez (9/6), Amed Rosario (9/17)
Colorado Rockies (1)- CJ Cron (9/4)
Houston Astros (8)- Jose Altuve* (11/5), Yordan Alvarez* (11/5), Alex Bregman* (11/3), Martin Maldonado (11/5), Trey Mancini (11/5), Chas McCormick (11/3), Jeremy Pena (11/5), Kyle Tucker (11/1)
Kansas City Royals (1)- Bobby Witt Jr. (9/6)
Los Angeles Angels (2)- Shohei Ohtani* (9/19), Mike Trout (9/27)
Milwaukee Brewers (1)- Willy Adames (10/3)
New York Yankees (3)- Josh Donaldson (10/23), Aaron Judge (10/17), Giancarlo Stanton (10/16)
Philadelphia Phillies (7)- Alec Bohm (10/29), Nick Castellanos* (11/1), Bryce Harper (9/30), Rhys Hoskins (9/30), JT Realmuto (10/11), Kyle Schwarber* (8/20), Jean Segura* (10/21)
San Diego Padres (5)- Josh Bell (10/22), Trent Grisham (10/23), Manny Machado (10/23), Jurickson Profar (10/21), Juan Soto* (10/9)
San Francisco Giants (1)- Joc Pederson* (9/29)
Seattle Mariners (2)- Ty France (8/6), Eugenio Suarez (8/24)
St. Louis Cardinals (1)- Nolan Arenado (8/23)
Texas Rangers (2)- Corey Seager (9/21), Marcus Semien (10/4)
Toronto Blue Jays (1)- Bo Bichette (9/13)
TEAMS WITH NO PICKED OUT PLAYERS- Orioles, Red Sox, Reds, Tigers, Dodgers, Marlins, Twins, Mets, Athletics, Pirates, Rays, Nationals
Elvis Andrus- Athletics, White Sox / Harrison Bader- Cardinals, Yankees / Josh Bell- Nationals, Padres
Andrew Benintendi- Royals, Yankees / JD Davis- Mets, Giants / Brandon Drury- Reds, Padres
Joey Gallo- Yankees, Dodgers / Trey Mancini- Orioles, Astros / Brandon Marsh- Angels, Phillies
Whit Merrifield- Royals, Blue Jays / Tyler Naquin- Reds, Mets / David Peralta- Diamondbacks, Rays
Tommy Pham- Reds, Red Sox / Franmil Reyes- Guardians, Cubs / Emmanuel Rivera- Royals, Diamondbacks
Darin Ruf- Giants, Mets / Edmundo Sosa- Cardinals, Phillies / Juan Soto- Nationals, Padres
Christian Vazquez- Red Sox, Astros / Dan Vogelbach- Pirates, Mets / Luke Voit- Padres, Nationals
If you've made it this far, I want to thank you for perusing these recaps for all the many, many weeks of the Major League Baseball season. I'm always looking for new players and recommendations as to how to tweak and improve this little analog contest I oh so enjoy running. Until Spring Training 2023, I bid you adieu. There will certainly be more Pick One Challenges across many sports in the interim so keep your eyes peeled to the site and follow the Facebook and Twitter if you are so inclined!
Image Credits: Player Photos (Baseball Reference), BLANK (Chikara Pro), Yankees Logo (Wikipedia)