Rod Caborn (yeah, you know him) sends us an end-of-year update of the Orlando APBA Association.
The Orlando APBA Association (OAPBA) has wrapped up its 29th season with Walt Taylor’s Whatevers winning their fifth championship in franchise history and his fourth title in OAPBA play. The Whats won the title by winning both the first and second halves, pre-empting a World Series in OAPBA .
In the first half, in a heated pennant chase, the Whatevers prevailed by one game over Dave Larson’s Taz Devils (21-19) and Marc Bostrom’s Road Warriors (21-19) and two games over Jonathan Stilwell’s defending champion Otters (20-20).
The Whats roared down the stretch in the second half, winning fourteen of their final 15 games to finish 25-15, a game ahead of Larson’s Devils (24-16), who swept the Whatevers in a season-ending final series. The Whats, however, had clinched the pennant with five games left.
The Whatevers relief corps was 20-12
MVP for the 2016 was shared by CF Mike Trout of the Otters and 3B Kyle Seager of the Whatevers. The Cy Young winner was the Beefers’ Cole Hamels and the Reliever of the Year was the Devils’ Wade Davis.
Otter 1b Freddie Freeman (.297, .383) won the batting title and led in OBP. The Otters Mike Trout led the league in homers with 22 while Devils 1b Paul Goldschmidt drove in 50 runs to lead OAPBA. See batting leaders here.
The leading winners were Taz Devil Clayton Kershaw (9-4, 3.46) and Road Warrior righty Jake Arrieta (9-5, 2.43). The Beefers Cole Hamels was tops in ERA at 2.10 and the Beefers Max Scherzer topped the league in strikeouts with 152. See league pitching leaders here.
OAPBA is a five-team league (two halves, 80 game schedule, MG, 30-man rosters with 28 active players and 25 active for each five-game series). The league has operated since 1988 and is based in Orlando.
Read the entire OAPBA Yearbook here
Congrats to Walt for a fantastic finish and another championship!
