CCW 2026 Bold Predictions

CCW Insider Jorf Porsson’s 2026 Bold Predictions

After an eventful and historic offseason, the CCW regular season is slated to begin in less than a week. I, Jorf Porsson, master of hot takes and hoarder of sources, have had my finger on the pulse of everything taking place in the wiffle ball world, and now, I’m ready to make my shockingly bold predictions for the 2026 season. As the kids (Byron and Connor, namely) say - lock in, twin. 

The winner of the Slow Pitch Cup will get a boost of 4+ seeds in the postseason tournament.

First, some background to explain this prediction. This season, teams will have dedicated slow-pitch weekends, all culminating in the CCW Cup, where one team will walk away with slow-pitch supremacy. But, unlike in years past, this season’s slow-pitch cup winner will have lasting implications, as the winning team will automatically secure the postseason number 1 seeding, regardless of their overall record. This has the potential to supremely shake up the postseason picture. 

Last season, the 8 Balls won the slow-pitch cup, and also proved to be a strong fast-pitch team, ultimately advancing to the Dirtyard Classic championship game, and coming tantalizingly close to winning it. This year, however, looking at the rosters, I think the teams best suited to win in slow pitch may be a step or two behind in regular-season fast pitch, and vice versa.

So, I predict that the team winning the slow pitch cup will then finish with a regular season record that would land them in the bottom 3 seeds of the tournament, if they weren’t boosted by the slow pitch cup prize. They’ll get an automatic ticket to the double elimination round of the playoffs, when they otherwise would have had to fight their way past the sudden death round. I’m looking at the Outlaws or Ligers as the most likely teams to fulfill this prediction. 

We’ll get a first-time MVP Award Winner this year. 

This may be the boldest prediction in here, because we’re taking the field against Reid Werner, Will Smithey, Myc Witty, and Brendan Dudas - who are perennially the class of the league year over year. 

But, if there’s a year for another player to surprise, I think this is the one. First, with these guys’ involvement in BLW as well, there’s a chance they may not get to every game, shrinking their counting stats and volume of impact. With the league’s expansion to seven teams, as well, there’s more opportunity for the next tier of guys to have equally important roles on their teams.

So who’s most likely to unseat one of these previous award-winners? My money is on Aidan Palmer and Austin Alles.

Aidan’s been a top 5 pitcher in the league for the past 3 years now, and ought to be expected to repeat those results. All that’s stopping him from landing in the truly elite Witty/Werner/Smithey tier on the bump is limiting the slow-pitch opportunities. At the plate, Aidan quietly has one of the sweetest swings in the league, consistently making hard contact even against the best pitchers. He chases too much right now to make the most of the opportunities - but if he can rein in the approach, he can vault into the elite hitters in the league, too.

Alles’ picture is in some ways the inverse of Palmer’s - he’s a proven top hitter, and on the doorstep of reaching the pitching tier necessary to win an MVP. Alles already has a Yellow Slugger Award on his mantle, and no one would be surprised if he ends the year as a top 3 hitter again. On the mound, his stuff is effective enough to ascend to the upper echelon of pitchers, but he suffers from command problems too frequently to reach it, currently.  Just a couple more balls on the board per plate appearance, and Alles could challenge for the award, as well. 

There will be no bottom-feeder team this season.

Despite the generally strong parity in the league since 2022 - the first year that roster balance was a consideration - there has still historically been one team that couldn’t get out of the cellar. Last year’s Yakkers finished last with a -41 run differential. 2024’s 8 Balls suffered a 5-14 record (despite a positive run diff, strangely). And in ‘23, the ill-fated Swamp Dragons and Pork Pistols tallied only 4 wins each.

This season, though, I have a hard time seeing any team truly bottoming out. I think there will be an elite class that laps the bottom half of the league, but among the more middling teams, I think the final accounting will be pretty close. Werner’s two-way excellence should singlehandedly keep the 8 Balls from a disaster year, the Outlaws should slug enough to win some games even when their pitching underperforms, and the Gold Socks have a high enough floor with their core to keep them in games even when not firing on all cylinders. 

The Most Improved Player will be someone no one is talking about right now. 

This is by no means a shot at the players with the breakout buzz right now - namely, Connor Smith and Byron Young. I expect both to put together strong years, especially in comparison to what they’ve done in the league so far. In fact, sources tell me that Byron in particular was showing much improved velo on the mound and a swing with some pop at Spring Training - a development Myc Witty and the Hounds would surely welcome.

But, I’m taking the field on this award as well, which in past years has gone to more of an established player taking a leap to stardom, rather than a player going from forgettable to impactful. Last year, Alex Gurtcheff entered the year as a steady middle-of-the-order bat before jumping to leading the league in home runs and finishing second in Yellow Slugger voting. Years prior, winners included Aidan Palmer, Dalsen Murdock, and Holden Palmer, all fitting similar bills of players going from good to great. 

So, who from the field looks like a good bet to take the award this year? The nature of the Most Improved Player award is that it is hard to predict. If we expected the player to ascend, then maybe they don’t get the juice a player who surprised and opened eyes did. But I’ll mention a few names, nonetheless. Coby Taylor could follow in Gurtcheff’s shoes and go from a solid bat to an elite one, and a lot will be riding on his bat on this Hounds roster. Justin Swingler may end up being the most important player on the 8 Balls, and if he steps up, he could capture this award. Ian Garavalia, if he takes the number two starter job with the Outlaws and runs with it, would also have a case here.  

This year’s rookie class will be the deepest in recent history.

The last handful of seasons have produced rookies who are now impact CCW staples. In fact, if you built a team of the rookies of the year from 2020 on, you’d have a formidable roster consisting of Alec Buchman, Cade Luker, Austin Alles, Alec Berninger, Connor Young, and Brayden Scott. But with just a few exceptions, there wasn’t much depth behind winners in most of those seasons.

This year, with expansion to seven teams, there are more opportunities for rookies and role players to have an impact. With four new rookies on rosters after the draft, and the potential for more to join as free agents, I predict that we’ll see a deeper and more balanced rookie class than we’re used to seeing. That class is headlined by Jared Gray, who comes with a glowing referral from Scott and Laugel, and is expected to be a two-way player for the reigning champion Shorts. Max Lowry has the speed and athleticism to be a problem whenever he puts bat to ball for the Outlaws, and may as well have “Gurtcheff’s postseason pinch runner” written on his forehead. Myles Caudill and Adam Watson are another duo of young rookies with the potential to provide meaningful impact for their teams, as well. 

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What are your CCW predictions for 2026? With the season underway on Sunday, May 3, we’ll start to see which ones take shape very soon.  



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