In case you missed it, the current season has been released on APBA GO. I know some cards and dice APBA fans wait until the cards come out (which will be in January) and others will spring for the $20 just to see what the upcoming cards will look like.
Being in a league, I fall in the latter category.
I’ve only had a chance to review the cards for a day or two. But a few things stand out.
Hit numbers are down
Not too surprisingly, there are not a lot of hit numbers to go around. Our league’s group text was pretty much in consensus… “offense is down”. By my count, only three players with 100 at-bats or more will have a 55-7. Fortunately, one of them is on my Thunderchickens, Vladimir Guerrero.
Don’t take that to mean there aren’t some fun power numbers though. Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and others have some pretty remarkable cards. A total of nine with 100+ at-bats have five extra base numbers. You will most likely see them on Monster Mondays starting tomorrow.
APBA loves their 2B-9s
As we have seen in recent years, there are lots of 2B-9 second basemen. Like my friend Dennis says, the card makers hand them out “like candy”. Don’t get him started.
I count a total of 14.
On the other hand, I don’t see any SS-10 or 3B-6. Not saying there should be, just making an observation.
Grade A cards
There are seven grade A starters in the 2024 set. Five are not too surprising, Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Zack Wheeler, Paul Skenes and Reynoldo Lopez.
Trevor Williams and Rhett Lowder also earned the top grade despite limited playing time.
One lone bright spot… Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase looks to be the only A&B* hurler in the whole 2024 set. He can add a YZ on to the end of that, too.
I’ll continue to peruse the set on APBA GO and find anything of interest. I am working on finishing up the Pitching Grade Challenge 7 results and contacting the winner so stay tuned.
Is it possible that there are fewer 7s partially because there are more 10s and 11s?
I haven’t looked at the complete stats but by most accounts, SBs are up this year. I don’t think it evens out in any way but that may be a partial explanation. It seems the players on my rosters (I’m in two leagues) have more 10s and 11s. I know it is a different year but as an example, for the 2023 MLB season, Freddie Freeman hit .331 and did not have a 7 on 55. He did however have an 11 on 15.
Hi Pat,
That’s a good point. It’s certainly true for players on my team.
That said, APBA seems to relying a lot on asterisks for steals. Elly has just one 11 and so does Ohtani.