The USPBL has completed its 43rd season. 

The 2022 USPBL Season marked "The Return to Normalcy".

After the shortened Covid 19 Season of 2021, the USPBL returned to their pre-2021 rules.

Rosters were returned to 40 players and the Rotation Draft returned to 7 rounds. The USPBL

continued playing with Strat's "Pre-2020" Rules. (Remember the USPBL season's are actually a

year ahead of Strat's as we used the 2021 Strat Cards for our 2022 Season). 

We Entered the season with one open team, but lost another at the start of the season.

Using surrogates in both the off-season and in-season, we got through the season with no problems.

At the end of the season, we did lose Team 11's manager, Bob Sarcewicz who had been with us for 23 seasons. Both of the previously open teams have been filled for the 2023 season, once again leaving

the USPBL with one open team. 

THE TRADES 

The Trade Season got off to a roaring start. Apparently the previous shortened MLB season without the

Minor Leagues left a lot of USPBL teams anxious to get into roster management again. With the trade season kicking off in Mid-July, there were 16 trades completed by the end of the month. Things did slow down in August and September, but there were still 25 trades completed by the end of the MLB season.

By the time Final Rosters were due near the end of March, there was a total of 93 trades.

The most active was Mark S (FMM3) who decided to refresh his team after 23 seasons, dealing Betts,

J Abreu, and a host of others among his 22 deals. A few other big names that changed teams were 

Justin Verlander, Walker Buehler, Andy Rutschman, and Starling Marte.

THE DRAFTS

The Money Draft went off as planned on DEC 4th, 2021. 

There were 74 winning bids which was up from the 72 of the previous Money Draft, and the 10 year average of 68. The split was 40 pitchers and 34 batters. The 74 included 22 uncarded players.

The highest bid was for Jonathan India who drew a huge 450K bid from Team 3. SP C Flexan was acquired for 300K from Team 12. While the patterns and strategies for the bids vary a lot, this one seemed to have some commonalities. Teams with higher amounts (400+) tended to bid big on their top 2 players.

But teams in the 200-400 range seemed lean towards two ideas. Either placing most of their money on their 1 top player, or spreading the whole shebang out evenly. But as always, these various strategies worked and didn't work with random results. 

The Rotation Draft took an interesting turn for the good. After the demise of the old AOL Messenger Group Chatroom which was used with success for decades, the USPBL had used Facebook Messenger for the past 2 years with mixed results. More difficult to use than the previous format, but fairly successful once we got going. For the 2022 Rotation Draft, Team 4's Rich hosted the proceedings via Zoom. Granted, most of the league's managers don't have cameras so we couldn't see all their draft day faces, but most of the league did participate via the Zoom chat. Overall the reviews for the format were quite favorable.

The first pick was 3B Patrick Wisdom, selected by WIS #10. 

The draft was completed in just over 3 hours, much quicker than the usual 4+ hours.

THE PLAYOFFS

 BRM 1, SRR 15, LSR 20, CLC 4, MIX 5, OTB 7, RVD 8 and WIS 10.

LSR defeats MIX    CLC defeats RVD  SRR defeats OTB  BRM defeats WIS

LSR defeats CLC         SRR defeats  BRM 

SRR defeats LSR

For SRR this was their 6th Championship.

A complete listing of all USPBL Champions appears on the  TEAM ID'S CHART "Wall of Champions". 

Thanks for another fun USPBL Season guys!

Jim Walsh  USPBL Commissioner 

The Beacon's USPBL 2022 Awards go to:

MVP Batters -  Bryce Harper (SRR 15)  Vlad Guerrero Jr. (CLC 4)

MVP Pitchers - Corbin Burnes (MIX 5)  Jacob DeGrom (SRR 15) 

Managers of the Year -  Rich Gillum (CLC 4)  Mike Carpenter (BRM 1)

USPBL 2022 ALL-STARS

The Beacon has once again selected their All-Star Teams for the 2022 Season.

The teams are comprised of 26 players. Each USPBL team has from 2-4 players among the all-Stars.

Selections are based primarily on the USPBL stats, with consideration some given to their Strat cards.

The All-Star League file has been made and anyone wishing to have this may request it.

ROBINSON LEAGUE ALL-STARS                             MUSIAL LEAGUE ALL-STARS

C - JT Ralmuto (GGM) Wison Contreras (CLC)      Buster Posey (BRM)  Yasmani Grandal (SRR)        

1B - Matt Olson (RVD) Max Muncy (VAV)                Freddie Freeman (OTB)  Trey Mancini (SCM)       

2B - Marcus Semien (MIX) Tommy Edmond (CHC)  Jake Cronenworth (OPZ)  Jonathan India (FMM)

3B - Rafael Devers (FWK)  Manny Machado (VAV)  Nolan Arenado (OTB)  Eduardo Escobar (MIR)  

3B - Jose Ramirez (GGM) 

SS - TreaTurner (CLC)  Dansby Swanson (CHC)     Carlos Correa (BRM)  Brandon Crawford (WDW)

SS -                                                                           Tim Anderson (SCM)

OF - Juan Soto (BCB)  Tyler O'Neil (CHC)               Bryce Harper ( SRR)  Hunter Renfroe (WIS)    

OF - Myles Straw (SAS)  Kyle Tucker (GGM            Teoscar Hernandez (SSB0  Bryan Reynolds (OTB)

OF -  Kris Bryant (MIX)                                             Michael Brantley (MIR)

DH/UT - Ty France (SAS) Bo Bichette (VAV)           JD Martinez (WDW)  Nelson Cruz (FMM)

DH/UT -  Vlad Guerrero Jr. (CLC)                       

P     Corbin Burnes (MIX)  Max Scherzer (LSR)        Jacob DeGrom (SRR)  Zack Wheeler  (SRR)

      Blake Treinen (SAS)   Emmanuel Clase (LSR)   Brandon Woodruff (WIS) Austin Gomber (WDW)

      Scott Barlow (MIX) Michael Fullmer (RVD)         Josh Hader (WIS)  Ryan Tepera (SSB)

       Carlos Rondon (CLC)                                        Craig Kimbrel (BRM)  Noe Ramirez (MIR) 

(Submitted by Mike Carpenter of Team 1 BRM)

After two subpar years, Blue Ridge was back in the playoffs and squeezed the #1 seed in the M-League with a 111-55 record. The Menace beat defending Champion Dairymen in the 6 games in the first round, but were eliminated by the Rockets in 6 games in the M-League Championship series. 

Carlos Correa was the offense MVP with a .370 on base percentage, 27 homers, and a team high 110 run whie playing SS with a 1 E12 rating.

Aaron Judge led the team with 40 home runs and 104 RBI but hit just .240. We'll be expecting more next season. Luis Robert was limited to 300 ABs this year, but boasted a 1.261 OPS while playing superb defense in CF. Buster Posey had an .890 OPS in his final season. His retirement leaves a huge hole behind the plate. Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Votto belted 35 & 34 homers respectively and each drove in 86 runs.

Gerritt Cole earned the team's pitcher of the year award going 16-8 with a 3.62 ERA and a USPBL high 313 strikeouts. Dylan Cease had a breakout campaign as the team's #2 starter, posting a 16-9 record, 3.93 ERA

and 228 strikeouts. Underrated Ranger Suarez joined Cole and Cease as a 16 game winner despite just 12 starts. He had just 4 losses and 2.93 ERA with 4 saves. Ian Anderson was a disappointment with a 6.31 ERA

and just 8 wins in 24 starts. Good Citizen Trevor Bauer went 11-2 with a 3.38 ERA.

Craig Kimbel was 4th in the USPBL with 30 saves and had a 2.21 ERA with 86 K's in 53 innings.

BRM stole just 33 bases on the year,  only one team (SSB) swiped less. Often the key to success was defense with six 1 ranges on the field, and the Menace led the league with an .826 X-percentage in the field with the next best team (OTB)  at .800

Beacon Note - This was Mike Carpenter's 22nd USPBL Season and is a 3X USPBL Champion.

This is from Au Sable Point in Upper Michigan overlooking Lake Superior.

USPBL STATS -MORE USPBL HISTORY