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pm129 · 02-15-2014, 06:29 AM

Belgian Baseball Championship

Ligue Walloon- Eastern Division Season 2014 Review

Bastogne Generals

Following the disappointment of a .400 record in the Championship’s inaugural season, Bastogne looked to leverage the 5th highest payroll into a winning campaign. Whilst the Generals did improve on 2013’s 36 wins, the 38-52 mark (and last in the LW East, again) cannot have been the improvement owner Henning Asseldonk was hoping for and, indeed, it is rumoured changes are afoot in the Generals’ front office. Attendance has grown for the Generals, however with an increase of 19% pushing them of the bottom of the attendance league, at least.

Bastogne adopted a Defence-First approach to this years’ campaign that they hope will form the bedrock of an ongoing process of improvement. From last in the LW for Defensive Efficiency in 2013, the Generals have climbed to 4th improving from last place, largely as a result of 4 players posting rankings above 1.000 inlcuding Brazilian free-agent Geraldo Torka and Leuven import Henk Ijenzdoorn. Unfortunately, the season also saw a decline in the Generals already replacement level offense seeing them slump into the LW’s last 2 for runs scored, OBP and home runs. The only offensive stat in which the Generals bucked the sorry trend was AVG, in which they managed the giddy heights of 6th in the LW with a mark of .250.

Player-wise it’s tough to pick the outstanding performers from the morass of the Generals season, their best pitcher was Jean Caron who had an W-L/ERA/WHIP record of 7-9/3.07/1.08 which would earn him a place at the top of most BBC rotations in a defence which mustered up an era of 4.17 and gave up 435 runs for 7th in the LW. With the bat, Harrie Breedveld ranked 5th in the LW for RBI with 64.

Bruxelles Red Devils

For the 2nd year running, the Red Devils ranked 2nd in the BBC for payroll and attendance. To continue the Rule of 2s, they also won the LW East for the 2nd year running. Their record saw them lose 5 more games than last year, for a record of 53-37, as well as a consistent output in their offensive stats with runs scored dropping from 452 to 443, remaining 2nd in the LW and AVG and OBP holding steady at .263/.341 vs .265/.339 in 2013.

Defensively, the team looked to build on the top ranked LW Defence of 2013, but saw their output slide a little. Runs against climbed from a league leading 314 to 390 and Starters ERA leapt from 3.21 in 2013 to 4.24 for 2014. A rough year for Peter Noussen seemed to encapsulate their problems on the mound. He saw a league leading Winning % of .929 drop to .500 with ERA spiking from 3.15 to 4.98.

Given the team still won the LW East, however, they must have been doing something right. A look at their bats reveals Kasper Arnouts as, once again, the pick of the litter. He ranked 5th in the LW for OBP with .413 and an OBPS of .921. He also led the team in AVG (.302) and posted a WAR of 3.1, which represented a decline on the previous years’ outstanding 4.3
The Red Devils will look to build on last season’s playoff campaign that saw them beaten in 6 by Tournai in the LW Championship Series.

Liege Bulls
The Bulls the subject of our “The Season in Detail” report earlier in the year, which showed them projecting a playoff place based on getting guys on base and batting them around in the face of poor pitching. In the final analysis Liege finished 47-43, 5 games back from the Wildcard spots. Whilst still disappointing, given the club’s size and financial strength, this represented an improvement of 7 wins (or roughly 8%) on the previous season .The club’s disappointing attendance figures were improved upon somewhat also with 8,387 fans coming through the Turnstiles of the Juplier stadium each night, compared to just over 7,000 in 2013.

The “In Detail” piece projected that Liege would produce 450 runs, but in actuality the team only managed 381, offensive production dipping steeply after Ian Leurink’s trade to Gent. OBP dropped off to 3.18 from 3.45 at 60 games played, as a result of this trade too. The main thesis of the piece was that good offence from the Generals masked a terrible pitching squad and the Leurink inspired decline that saw the team miss the playoffs from a seemingly strong position has borne this out.
In Detail projected that the Bulls would surrender in excess of 450 runs, give up 117 long bombs and strike out 605 batters, for the full 90 games we can see figures of 435, 99 and 600. Now the first of these two are a marked improvement on 2013 with the strikeout figure significantly lower. Perhaps, combined with a 4th in the league DEF rating, there is hope for a balanced side in Liege yet.

Player-wise, the undoubted bright sport for the Bulls was Laurent Bernard, 2nd in the LW for AVG (.337) and Gray Wirenga, who’s 96 strikeouts accounted for 16% of the Bulls season total.

Seraing Macrales

For the 2nd year running, Seraing managed to qualify for the playoffs via the wildcard, finishing 2nd in the LW East behind Brussels. The distinction this year was that they managed to win 7 more games for a 52-38 finish and lose out to the Red Devils by only 1 game, rather than the 12/12 of 2013. The Macrales also improved their attendance by about 700 per home game to around the 11,800 mark meaning Crelan Field was 94% full on the season.
The driver for this improvement on a strong debut season was defense. The team ranked first in the LW for Runs Against, Starters ERA and Defensive Efficiency (370,3.63,.720). Whilst Seraing’s bats were a bit player in their success, ranking 7th in AVG and dead last in the LW in OBP, they did manage 2nd in the Home Run charts with a total of 122. In short, a ticket to Crelan Field guarantees a great pitching performance and a home run.

The outstanding performer for the Macrales was, as last year, Antoine Meunier, the LW’s outstanding pitcher this year. His line read 13-2/1.83/0.88 and putting up a 6.1 WAR season. Meunier won the Triple Crown in the LW for 2014 leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts with 187 in 142.1 IP, including 2 games where he struck out 15 batters against Tournai and Bastogne.

Below are the final standings in the LW East for 2014... Join us next time when we look back on the LW West’s season!

02-15-2014, 06:29 AM	#17
pm129 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 24	Belgian Baseball Championship Ligue Walloon- Eastern Division Season 2014 Review Bastogne Generals Following the disappointment of a .400 record in the Championship’s inaugural season, Bastogne looked to leverage the 5th highest payroll into a winning campaign. Whilst the Generals did improve on 2013’s 36 wins, the 38-52 mark (and last in the LW East, again) cannot have been the improvement owner Henning Asseldonk was hoping for and, indeed, it is rumoured changes are afoot in the Generals’ front office. Attendance has grown for the Generals, however with an increase of 19% pushing them of the bottom of the attendance league, at least. Bastogne adopted a Defence-First approach to this years’ campaign that they hope will form the bedrock of an ongoing process of improvement. From last in the LW for Defensive Efficiency in 2013, the Generals have climbed to 4th improving from last place, largely as a result of 4 players posting rankings above 1.000 inlcuding Brazilian free-agent Geraldo Torka and Leuven import Henk Ijenzdoorn. Unfortunately, the season also saw a decline in the Generals already replacement level offense seeing them slump into the LW’s last 2 for runs scored, OBP and home runs. The only offensive stat in which the Generals bucked the sorry trend was AVG, in which they managed the giddy heights of 6th in the LW with a mark of .250. Player-wise it’s tough to pick the outstanding performers from the morass of the Generals season, their best pitcher was Jean Caron who had an W-L/ERA/WHIP record of 7-9/3.07/1.08 which would earn him a place at the top of most BBC rotations in a defence which mustered up an era of 4.17 and gave up 435 runs for 7th in the LW. With the bat, Harrie Breedveld ranked 5th in the LW for RBI with 64. Bruxelles Red Devils For the 2nd year running, the Red Devils ranked 2nd in the BBC for payroll and attendance. To continue the Rule of 2s, they also won the LW East for the 2nd year running. Their record saw them lose 5 more games than last year, for a record of 53-37, as well as a consistent output in their offensive stats with runs scored dropping from 452 to 443, remaining 2nd in the LW and AVG and OBP holding steady at .263/.341 vs .265/.339 in 2013. Defensively, the team looked to build on the top ranked LW Defence of 2013, but saw their output slide a little. Runs against climbed from a league leading 314 to 390 and Starters ERA leapt from 3.21 in 2013 to 4.24 for 2014. A rough year for Peter Noussen seemed to encapsulate their problems on the mound. He saw a league leading Winning % of .929 drop to .500 with ERA spiking from 3.15 to 4.98. Given the team still won the LW East, however, they must have been doing something right. A look at their bats reveals Kasper Arnouts as, once again, the pick of the litter. He ranked 5th in the LW for OBP with .413 and an OBPS of .921. He also led the team in AVG (.302) and posted a WAR of 3.1, which represented a decline on the previous years’ outstanding 4.3 The Red Devils will look to build on last season’s playoff campaign that saw them beaten in 6 by Tournai in the LW Championship Series. Liege Bulls The Bulls the subject of our “The Season in Detail” report earlier in the year, which showed them projecting a playoff place based on getting guys on base and batting them around in the face of poor pitching. In the final analysis Liege finished 47-43, 5 games back from the Wildcard spots. Whilst still disappointing, given the club’s size and financial strength, this represented an improvement of 7 wins (or roughly 8%) on the previous season .The club’s disappointing attendance figures were improved upon somewhat also with 8,387 fans coming through the Turnstiles of the Juplier stadium each night, compared to just over 7,000 in 2013. The “In Detail” piece projected that Liege would produce 450 runs, but in actuality the team only managed 381, offensive production dipping steeply after Ian Leurink’s trade to Gent. OBP dropped off to 3.18 from 3.45 at 60 games played, as a result of this trade too. The main thesis of the piece was that good offence from the Generals masked a terrible pitching squad and the Leurink inspired decline that saw the team miss the playoffs from a seemingly strong position has borne this out. In Detail projected that the Bulls would surrender in excess of 450 runs, give up 117 long bombs and strike out 605 batters, for the full 90 games we can see figures of 435, 99 and 600. Now the first of these two are a marked improvement on 2013 with the strikeout figure significantly lower. Perhaps, combined with a 4th in the league DEF rating, there is hope for a balanced side in Liege yet. Player-wise, the undoubted bright sport for the Bulls was Laurent Bernard, 2nd in the LW for AVG (.337) and Gray Wirenga, who’s 96 strikeouts accounted for 16% of the Bulls season total. Seraing Macrales For the 2nd year running, Seraing managed to qualify for the playoffs via the wildcard, finishing 2nd in the LW East behind Brussels. The distinction this year was that they managed to win 7 more games for a 52-38 finish and lose out to the Red Devils by only 1 game, rather than the 12/12 of 2013. The Macrales also improved their attendance by about 700 per home game to around the 11,800 mark meaning Crelan Field was 94% full on the season. The driver for this improvement on a strong debut season was defense. The team ranked first in the LW for Runs Against, Starters ERA and Defensive Efficiency (370,3.63,.720). Whilst Seraing’s bats were a bit player in their success, ranking 7th in AVG and dead last in the LW in OBP, they did manage 2nd in the Home Run charts with a total of 122. In short, a ticket to Crelan Field guarantees a great pitching performance and a home run. The outstanding performer for the Macrales was, as last year, Antoine Meunier, the LW’s outstanding pitcher this year. His line read 13-2/1.83/0.88 and putting up a 6.1 WAR season. Meunier won the Triple Crown in the LW for 2014 leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts with 187 in 142.1 IP, including 2 games where he struck out 15 batters against Tournai and Bastogne. Below are the final standings in the LW East for 2014... Join us next time when we look back on the LW West’s season! Last edited by pm129; 02-15-2014 at 10:01 AM.