The glory. The prestige. The endless parade of 0-for-4's.
Yes, it's back. J.P. Arencibia may have retired, but the Arencibia Classic hasn't. Newly christened as The Arencibia Memorial Classic in honour of our fallen Top 10 catcher, the league you love to loathe is back and grounding into double plays at an alarming rate. No amount of HitFX data can save the batted ball profile of this collection of horrible wretches; we're talking about the very worst of the worst (who somehow manage to keep paying jobs).
Of course, you probably know the deal by now. This is the anti-league. Good is bad, bad is great. This is a roto points league where you get rewarded for futility and punished for on-field excellence. And boys, this year, an unreported shoulder injury is going to extend your hitless streak by an extra golden sombrero, because The Arencibia Memorial Classic is expanding membership by 2 whole teams full of god-awful slap-hitters and junkballers.
Automatic renewal has been sent to the 14 managers from last season, but we are accepting applications for 2 new owners in addition, bringing the total up to 16. If there is significant interest, we could expand further (but this is unlikely). There are usually a couple dropouts from year to year, so we may recruit more than 2 new owners by the time all is said and done.
For reference, last season's most valuable hitter and pitcher were Alcides Escobar (338 pts) and James Shields (a record-shattering 472 pts), respectively. Mike Trout was good for -95 pts and Kershaw came in at -85 pts, while Mookie Betts was the least ownable hitter at -128 pts.
Who's in? Who's out?